Desk

After a long search for a desk, I finally found the perfect one at our Goodwill in Brunswick. The desk was in pretty bad shape but seemed solid and cost me only $35. After sanding layers of old primer and paint, a new life was put onto the desk and I'm happy with what it became.

Day 1: The desk was brought home in pretty bad shape. Paint was chipped, holes were present where the former hardware had been, and there was a layer of raised glue on the top.

The first step was sanding. I started as low as the store would sell and then finished with about 220 grit. Layer after layer of old paint and glue began to chip away to a beautiful wood that was present beneath.

After sanding the entire desk, I caulked the holes that were left by the former hardware. The spots were then sanded to make way for the upcoming coat of primer.

The Sales Associate from Lowe's talked me into getting Zinsser's Bulls Eye Primer. I had already picked out a color at this point and she was able to add it to the primer for me. That way, if I didn't like it, it was an easy fix. I loved it and chose to stick with the color when it came around to buying the paint. I planned to put the desk in front of a window and really didn't want it to be too glossy. I chose a Valspar paint with a Matte Finish and added the Eddie Bauer color of "Oyster" to the mix. I only bought a quart and it turned out to be the perfect amount for the desk. I applied a few coats and touched up a few spots that needed a little more attention. I then let the desk sit and dry for a couple of days. I wanted some sort of way to protect the paint and was talked into buying a can of polyeurathane. Having never used it and reading many horror stories, I decided to try it out on the inside shelf of the desk. Like many online said, it dried yellow and was far from the finish I was looking for. I decided to take my chances with the paint and never applied anything over it.

Living on the coast, I have tried to find ways of using nautical items without being tacky or looking like a rented beach house. I had seen this done before, loved the idea, and decided to try it out on my own project. I went to West Marine and bought two different size boat cleats along with the hardware for around $20. I put the larger cleat on the pull out drawer and the two smaller sized ones on the cabinet doors. The cleats looked awesome on the desk and it turned out better than I had imagined.

The last step I took was getting a piece of glass custom made for the top. I went to local glass shop, Pane in the Glass, and told them the dimensions of what I wanted. Within a couple of days, it was ready to be picked up. The glass was perfect and made the desk look even greater. I had planned to put old maps or pictures under the glass but after seeing how great it looked with nothing under it, I plan to leave it exactly like it is.

 

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Garden

Today I was finally able to pick the first vegetables out of my garden. Though only three small cherry tomatoes, it is still awesome to see things begin to be ready.

 

Driftwood

Over the past two years, I've been collecting driftwood and doing nothing with it. A neighbor gave me half of an old minnow catcher and I decided to put to use and fill it with driftwood.

Half of the Minnow Catcher

Some small pieces of driftwood

 

Southern Soul

Southern Soul is one of my favorite places to eat here on Saint Simons. The BBQ is incredible and it's the only place that serves Nehi.

Quote on the Counter

Nehi Peach

Yard Sale

Still on the hunt for desk, I went to two yard sales in my neighborhood this morning. The only thing I brought home was this awesome wood box for bucks. The only change that will be made is to take the terrible knob off the top.

Night Kayak

After living on the water for a year and a half, I finally went out and did some night kayaking. With a full moon and an exceptionally high tide, I paddled over to the Cloister and then back up the Blackbanks River.

Sunset over St. Simons

 

Garden Labels

Now that my garden is finished and everything is growing, I wanted a way to remember what each plant was. I know what it will bear will make it obvious but between now and then, I needed a way to keep me informed. Each plant came with the little plastic info card but I think those are tacky and with the amount of wind we usually have, they weren't going to last long in the ground.

I saw on another blog where someone had used items such as spoons, wine corks, and even small chalk boards. The spoons were also tacky, I don't drink so the wine corks were a problem, and the chalk boards didn't seem like a good idea because when I watered the garden, it seems like the chalk would rinse right off.

I finally found another blog that came up with a perfect way and one that was exactly what I needed. They used the paint stirring stick that you can get from just about anywhere that sells paint. I set out to Lowe's and was given a handful without even buying paint. I was still a few short and decided to give Home Depot a try on another trip to Brunswick. Once I had the amount I needed, I used some old green spray paint to give these some color and cover up the logos on them. Each side needed a few coats because the wood absorbed the first few. Next came the task of putting the labels on them. I decided to use the end opposite of the handle and used a white marker that I bought at Michael's. This seems to be permanent and looks like it will hold up throughout the Summer.

When the marker dried, I went ahead and put them in the ground. When doing this, I realized I had misspelled Cantaloupe but at this point it was the least of my worries! Because of the length of the stirring stick and the heighth of the garden, these can be put at any level you want them.

Because I went with green, they blend in with the garden and do not take away from the plants. This is exactly what I wanted and it was basically free and can be used over and over each year.

And FYI, the stirring sticks from Home Depot seemed to work a bit better and took a few less coats of paint!

Raised Bed Garden

After last years failed attempt at growing anything, I was determined this year to make it work. A few weeks ago I built at raised 8x4 garden and filled it with plants a few days later. Two weeks in the ground, the plants are getting taller and even small tomatoes are beginning to appear. Here is what I did to build the raised bed.

Items Needed:

Six 2x8 Boards

Two 4x4 Posts

Drill

Pack of Outside Rust-Proof Nails

Hammer

Roll of 24" Chicken Wire

I went to Lowe's to get the wood - buying six 2x6 and two 4x4 posts. I had two of the 2x8 cut in half and both 4x4 posts cut in half. The smaller 2x8 served as the ends and the original 8 foot boards were both sides. I placed the 4' posts in each corner and screwed all sides into the boards. While others have cut off the posts so that they are flush with the top, I am using the posts to hold up the chicken wire.

Once completed, I moved it to the place where it was going to go. I picked this place because it was out of the way and would receive the most sunlight throughout the day. The garden bed needs to rest flat on the ground so I had to dig out some ground underneath one end of it.

While nothing was growing in this spot before, I wanted to put something down to keep out any weeds and anything else unwanted that may begin to grow. I simply laid down newspaper in a few layers and was sure to have some of it going up the side so that nothing could grow around it.

Now was the dreaded task of filling this thing up with dirt. I went back to Lowe's and bought ten bags of Top Soil and ten bags of Compost and this completely filled up the raised bed.

Once it was filled, I gave it a good mixing and begin to plant all of the plants. Being on the marsh, it is constantly windy and I didn't want to take any chances with seeds. Everything I bought was already a small plant, many coming in the peat pots that they can be planted in.

I planted over twenty plants so many are closer than they are suppose to be. In a few months I will find out if this was a good decision or not. Here are the plants I went with:

Red Bell Pepper

Green Bell Pepper

Silver Queen Corn

Egg Plant

Squash

Watermelon

Cantaloupe

Cucumbers

Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

Mr. Stripey Tomatoes

Solar Fire Tomatoes

Homestead Tomatoes

Super Sweet 100 Tomatoes

Lemon Boy Tomatoes

Once all these were in the ground, I went ahead and put the Chicken Wire around the garden. I put a nail on the outside of each of the four posts on the top and bottom. Because of the shape of Chicken Wire, it can be attached to these nails and it holds is perfectly. I pulled the wire as tight as I could so that it didn't droop and stood up straight. I also put a single nail on the inside of the garden about halfway down on each side. I attached the bottom of the wire on this nail so that the wire couldn't be pushed or pulled in either direction. So far this is working great and keeping the animals out.

Once this was up, I gave it a good soaking and let it begin to grow!

Trip to the Farm

This past weekend I was finally able to get off of Saint Simons and spend some time at our family farm in Tattnall County, Georgia. Getting out of the car, I was greeted with the smell of honeysuckle and this seemed to set the mood for the rest of my time there. Saturday morning was an early one that began with a trip to the Goat Sale. I hadn't been to one of these since I was 7 or 8 with my Papa Brown. It's basically a Farmers Market sorta idea but based around animals. Chickens, Ducks, and of course, Goats, were just a few of the animals for sale. We spent the rest of the day fishing and on the way home I swung through Claxton to spend some time with my grandparents. I had put in a request for Chili even though it was 80 degrees and Mombie's is the best in the world. This trip was a quick one, but one I'm happy I took. Living full time at the beach is incredible but sometimes even we need to get away!

Here are some pictures I took -

The Goat Sale in Lyons, Georgia

Vidalia Onions

Pecan Tree on the Farm

 

Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island is one of my favorite things about living on the Georgia Coast. Though it is only about an hour down the road, it's a world away. I have made the trip multiple times and it isn't getting old. Cumberland's history and beauty is unlike any other place and is what continues to draw people back over and over.

Its history dates back hundreds of years to the Spanish who set up a fort on the south end of the island. Years later the island was home to several plantations who planted rice and the famed "sea island" cotton. It's most famous residents came many years after the Civil War and were a family with a small fortune - the Carnegie's.

Thomas and Lucy Carnegie built Dungeness as their southern home and getaway to avoid the harsh Pittsburgh winters. They settled on Cumberland because Lucy had gone to boarding school as a child in Fernandina Beach, Florida and also because they were not accepted into the Jekyll Island Club. The Jekyll Island Club considered them "new money" because they had earned their wealth. Dungeness was a mammoth structure and its ruins are all that remains today. It burned in 1959 and was believed to be set fire by a poacher.

Scattered over the island are other "cottages" that Lucy built for her children. A few of these still remain such as Plum Orchard and Greyfield. Plum Orchard is a beautiful structure on the north end about 8 miles north of Dungeness. It is a part of the National Park System and I'm not sure what its current use is. Greyfield, on the other hand, is the only home that has remained in the Carnegie family through the years. It is now run as a Bed and Breakfast and is the only lodging on the island besides the primitive camping offered by the NPS. More information can on the Greyfield Inn can be found here - Greyfield Inn.

Cumberland Island is also famous for the wild horses that roam the island. The horses are remnants of the old Carnegie stables that were left behind when the family fled the island. They have learned to live off the land and I have seen then every time I've been around Dungeness. While they're beautiful to look at and weirdly odd that they are able to survive, they come with a price. There are two sides of the debate on the horses - those who think they should be left alone and those who want them removed. One side presents that the horses are eating the marsh grass and therefore leading to erosion of parts of the island. These argue that the horses should be rounded up and removed from the island. The other side says that they are simply doing what they need to survive and have become a huge attraction to the island, bringing in visitors and their money. I see both sides but think the horses should stay because they're apart of its heritage and are pretty cool.

Cumberland was put on the map in the 90's when JFK Jr. was married on the north end at the First African Baptist Church. The only way the church and the rest of the north end can be reached is by car or an extremely long bike ride on a dirt road. Up until recently, neither of these were possible to day trippers but the NPS is now offering motorized tours of the north end and its attractions. The wedding was top secret and put together by JFK Jr. friend and Cumberland Island resident, Gogo Ferguson. Gogo is a descendant of the Carnegie family and makes jewelry from the island using animal bones that she finds. She has a store here on Saint Simons in Redfern Village. More information can be found here - Gogo Jewelry.

I recently took a friend of mine who was visiting down in January. We took the early ferry from St. Mary's and got off at the Dungeness Dock. The NPS offers a small tour of the historic district and it lasted a little over and hour. This told of its history through the years and is a great introduction to your day on the island. The tour ends at the Dungeness ruins and you have the rest of the day to explore the island on your on. We took this time to have lunch on the beach and walk the islands many trails. While on one that snaked through the Live Oak forest on the Cumberland River, we were able to see Navy submarines coming and going from nearby King's Bay Navy Base. Our trip to the island ended by catching the last ferry of the day back to the mainland.

Cumberland Island National Seashore

If you're interesting in reading more about Cumberland, there are two book that I recommend. The first is Palindrome by Stuart Woods. While the book is fiction, the places are all real and does a great job of putting you on the island. The other book is called Strong Women, Wild Horses by Charles Seabrook. This is about Gogo Ferguson and another island resident who see the island in two different likes.