Author Archives: Kristy Johnson

For the Birds

People

A local avian sanctuary is spreading its wings

Feathered Friends Forever Rescue and Refuge in Harlem, which provides permanent and temporary housing for tropical birds, is expanding to add new attractions to its 14-acre property.

The expansion of the refuge, which acquired 3.86 adjacent acres last year, will cover about 6 acres. New amenities will include a veterinary center, six horseshoe pits, a petting zoo, a 286-foot zipline, six tiny houses and a wildlife campground.

“For years, we had only parrots. Once people had seen the parrots, there was no reason for them to come back,” says Ronald Johnson, chief executive officer.

Work is underway on the horseshoe pits and a new house with a pond for Mr. T, the 100-pound resident tortoise. “It will look like Fort Apache and be called Fort Tortouga,” Johnson says.

The refuge also is developing blueprints for the vet center and applying for grants. In the meantime, a temporary building has been brought in to serve as a veterinary center until the permanent facility is up and running.

Plans for the tiny houses include using them to provide accommodations for volunteers from across the country and veterinary technician trainees.

Keeping a Promise

Of course, the most important residents at Feathered Friends Forever, a state-licensed animal shelter and nonprofit organization, are the birds.

The refuge currently has about 200 birds from 46 states, but it has found permanent homes for more than 1,000 birds through the years.

“We do a lot of small bird adoptions. Now, 95% are big birds,” says Johnson.

The facility has housed parakeets, lovebirds, cockatiels and finches. Its big birds include Indian ringnecks, African greys, cockatoos, amazons and macaws.

Johnson has had a love of birds since he was a teenager.

“When I was in high school, I worked in a pet store. I got two birds in the 1960s, and I’ve loved them ever since,” he says. “They all have individual personalities. People don’t give them credit for being as smart as they actually are.”

When he entered the U.S. Marine Corps in 1967, Johnson had to find a new home for his green-wing macaw and Moluccan cockatoo. Although he successfully rehomed the birds, the experience left a lasting impression on him.

“I made a promise that somehow, someday, I would make it up to every bird that needed a home,” he says.

Johnson and his wife, Tammy, founded Feathered Friends Forever in 1997, and the number of birds at the small operation quickly soared from five to 85 rescues.

Services include adoption, relinquish capabilities, temporary boarding, permanent placement and wellness checks for birds. The refuge also cares for all deployed active duty/activated national guard military personnel’s parrots free of charge with proper documentation.

In addition, Feathered Friends Forever recently became affiliated with Parrots for Patriots, a nonprofit organization in Vancouver, Washington. The program connects parrots that need a forever home with veterans who need a friend for life.

The facility also has started to work with military personnel who are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. Animal companions like parrots can be a source of joy and wellness for people with PTSD.

Around the Refuge

In the sanctuary portion of the refuge, 12 outdoor aviaries let birds “fly and be free birds” and live as they would in the wild – in a flock. Each of newly designed aviaries features automatic feeders, an in-flight pond, a misting system and infrared heaters.

Measuring 18 feet in width, 42 feet in length and 22 feet in height, the new macaw flight contains a full rain system, including thunder, lightning and rain; clay chew walls and individual ponds for bathing and drinking.

“Each particular bird has its own little quirks,” says Johnson. “A parrot is a 3-year-old for the next 50 years. A parrot can change its mind with the bat of an eyelash.”

However, parrots and other birds are highly intelligent, and they can learn to understand and mirror basic language skills. They also display “human-like” behaviors and have specific needs that a human companion can fulfill.

Because birds can be so unpredictable, Johnson says it takes years to understand their behavior.

“You can tell if something is wrong by their body or eye movement,” he says.

Other telltale signs of a problem include feather plucking, changes in attitude or appetite, flaring their tails and screeching or screaming.

The companion birds are not the only living beings at the facility, however. They are joined by other creatures on the endangered or threatened lists.

The 8-foot-by-10-foot, climate- and humidity-controlled honeybee house has the capacity to hold 16 individual hives. Developed by the University of Georgia and the Georgia Department of Agriculture, it was created to study the effects of climate on honeybees in a controlled environment. Honeybees are vital for stable, healthy food supplies, and Johnson says this is the only climate-controlled honeybee house in the world.

Feathered Friends Forever also features a butterfly garden and a certified monarch habitat as well as a reptile house that is home to spiders, snakes and lizards.

Nonstop Activity

Other activities at the facility include cornhole, a gold and rock mining area, birthday parties, educational classes, weekday tours for groups by appointment, adoption fairs twice a year and open house fundraising events.

The facility also has a cantina, a newly remodeled welcome center and an educational center called Birds on the Brink.

“It’s a full science lab. We offer it for school tours during the week, and if we have the personnel, it’s open on weekends,” says Johnson.

Birds on the Brink offers an accredited science class as well as an augmented reality and virtual reality classroom, where rainforest animals and minerals come to life, and hologram technology. The educational programs, which support the Georgia Standards of Excellence and offer an immersive, multi-sensory experience, can be tailored to students in grades K through 12.

Feathered Friends Forever, which has an all-volunteer staff, is open 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Johnson says the facility has averaged 60 – 70 visitors a day since recently putting up a new billboard.

For more information, visit featheredfriendsforever.org.

Baked Parmesan Stacked Potatoes

Appetizers and Snacks

8-10 Yukon Gold potatoes
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1/2 to 1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
Salt and pepper
Fresh dill, chives or parsley, chopped
Freshly grated Parmesan for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter 12 muffin cups; set aside. Cut potatoes into thin slices about 1/16 inch thick (a mandoline slicer is helpful). Place slices in a large bowl. Add melted butter, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, thyme, salt and pepper. Toss to coat evenly. Layer slices in prepared muffin cups. Bake 45-55 minutes or until edges and tops are golden brown and centers are tender. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes. Use a spoon to help release potato stacks from muffin pan. Season with more salt and pepper, if desired. Garnish with grated parmesan cheese and fresh herbs. Serve while hot and crispy. Makes 4-6 servings.

Well-Oiled Machine

People

Photography by Sally Kolar

Restoring vintage Farmall tractors keeps a Lincolnton man 92 years young
It doesn’t matter if he is at sea, in the air or on land. As long as he is working with his hands, Lincolnton resident Buddy Hawes, 92, is a happy man.

He served as a diesel engine mechanic in the U.S. Navy from 1948-52. He got his pilot’s license in the mid-1950s, and he raced motorcycles for 10 years in his younger days.

Hawes and his ride even landed in Street Chopper magazine one year after a photographer spotted him with his motorcycle during Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida.

He reaps his biggest rewards, however, by restoring vintage red Farmall tractors at the Lincolnton property where he grew up. Farmall is a model name for a brand of tractors manufactured by McCormick-Deering, which later became International Harvester. The general purpose tractors had their origins in row-crop tractors.

“I just like to take nothing and make something out of it,” Hawes says. “I’m a workaholic. I figured if somebody else can do it, I can, too.”

Steady Work
Hawes lived in Belvedere. South Carolina for 40 years and worked as a welder at Federal Paper for 32 of those years before retiring at age 62.

He and his wife, who passed away in November, moved back to Lincolnton to take care of his ailing parents in 1987. They finished their house in 1991 on the property where he was raised.

The house isn’t the only structure on the 114-acre property, though. In the mid-1980s Hawes built a 50-foot-by-40-foot shed where he restores the tractors (and motorcycles), and he has about 30 to 40 tractors in various stages of disrepair that require his attention.

Of course, he also needed some place to keep his finished tractors, so two years ago at age 90 he built a 40-foot-by-80-foot shed where he displays the fruits of his labors.

He poured the concrete floor, and a sign that reads “Buddy’s Tractors” hangs from the ceiling just inside the door. About 20 restored tractors are lined up as neatly as a row of crops on either side of the structure, and an identifying plaque accompanies each tractor.

There’s the “Daddy Ralph,” which was “the first tractor I ever saw when I was five years old,” Hawes says. He worked hard to add this one to his collection. Originally, he tried to buy it from its owner, Rob Bentley, but he wouldn’t sell. Neither would his wife after he passed away. Ultimately, Bentley’s brother, Ralph, willed it to Hawes because he knew no one else was more deserving of the tractor.

Hawes has a 1929 Farmall “Regular,” which is credited with being the first successful mass-produced row-crop tractor. For most of its product life, the tractor was marketed as the “Farmall,” but “Regular” was added to the name after production of the F-20 and F-30 models followed it.

His oldest tractor is a 1924 model, and his 1939 model is the first tractor that he ever used as a 10-year-old. “When my dad bought that tractor, we got rid of the mule,” Hawes says.

He prefers the all-purpose Farmalls, which were manufactured from the 1920s to the 1970s, to other tractors for a simple reason. Farmall was the brand that the local dealership carried, says Hawes.

He didn’t have to be as persistent to get all of his tractors as he had to be to get his hands on the Daddy Ralph, though. Some were easy to acquire; others required extra effort.

“People had them stored in their yards or sitting in the woods,” says Hawes. “I had to use a chainsaw to get to some of them.”

He uses a trailer to transport them to his property, where he also has a vegetable garden and a pond.

“When I was able, I worked on them every day for 12 to 16 hours a day,” says Hawes. “I would get started and work until midnight.”

Now, however, he works on his tractors “only” four or five hours a day. He puts about 200 manhours into the restoration of each tractor, and he has finished one in as little as three months. Hawes says the costs run about $3,000 per tractor.

To restore the machines, Hawes completely dismantles them, sandblasts them, reassembles them and finishes them with a coat of polyurethane paint.

Farmall tractors originally were painted blue-gray (but the wheels usually were red) until the color of the entire tractor was changed to its distinctive “Farmall” red in mid-1936. At one time there were 1,200 different tractor manufacturers in the United States, Hawes says, and companies started painting their tractors brighter colors for branding purposes.

Most of the tractors have hand cranks, but Hawes says manufacturers began adding starters to them in 1940.

Good Company
Hawes understandably takes great pride in his work, and the tractors in the display shed are in good company. They are joined by other farm machinery that he has restored as well as nostalgic artifacts that have special meaning to him.

The machines include a 1902 Mietz & Weiss hit-and-miss miss hot bulb engine and a Le Roi Tractair, a tractor and air compressor combination. Just about every piece of equipment has a history, but the story behind the Le Roi restoration might be Hawes’ favorite one.

When he was restoring it, he couldn’t find the rings he needed to fit around the pistons because he didn’t have the parts number.

“No one wants to help you if you don’t have the number,” says Hawes.

Well, almost no one. He knew the size of the rings he needed, so, undeterred, he called Hastings Manufacturing Company, a replacement piston ring manufacturer in Michigan, to try to get the parts.

“I talked to two people, and they finally switched me to someone in the engineering department,” he recalls. “She asked me to wait while she looked it up, and then she said, ‘Is that for a Le Roi compressor?’ I’ll never forget her name. It was Lisa Townsend.”

He keeps smaller mementoes in his shed as well. For instance, a toolbox that hangs on a wall in the shed is not just any toolbox. It was Hawes’ first toolbox, which he built himself at age 14, and it still has the original implements such as a saw, a hammer, a brace and bit, a hatchet and a hacksaw, carefully stored inside.

Always a stickler for details, he even painted likenesses of the tools in the box so he knows where they belong, and more importantly, so he “knows what’s missing.” On the inside of the door, he wrote “Made by Buddy Hawes 1944.”

Parked by the toolbox is a refurbished bicycle that his son, Al, used as a boy to deliver the Aiken Standard on his newspaper route. Naturally, Hawes painted the bike red and added “Farmall” to it.

Other vestiges from the past include an old cookstove that he restored, a retro wooden wall telephone, an antique cash register from his father-in-law’s store, Farmall signs and an old gas pump.

Photography by Sally Kolar

And then there’s the customized casket that rests on the back of a bright green mule-drawn cart in the back of the shed.

Hawes got the cart from his friend and local aerobatic pilot, Gary Ward, and restored it as well. He remade the seat and the framework, except for the wheels. The cart had belonged to Ward’s grandfather, George Ward, so the elder Ward’s name is painted on the side.

Of course, there’s a yarn behind that casket as well. Hawes traded 35 boiler tubes to a local undertaker for it several years ago. He spent a week transforming the casket to his liking, painting it – what else? bright Farmall red – and adding Farmall decals to it.

“My wife raised hell when I got that casket,” Hawes says. “But everybody needs one.”

At the rate he’s going, however, he isn’t going to need it any time soon. After all, he still has parts from those 30 or 40 tractors, waiting to be put back together better than ever.

By Betsy Gilliland

Living Right

People

Outdoor recreation, job growth, affordable housing and quality of life — according to Money magazine, Martinez means all of these things. The magazine has ranked Martinez as one of its 50 Best Places to Live in 2021-22.

Ranked 21st on the list, Martinez is in the top five for economic growth opportunity among the 1,200-plus places the magazine considered for its list this year.

Of the 50 places that made the cut, it’s number six for job growth over the last five years. Martinez also tied for the third-lowest unemployment rate of any city on the list at just 3% in June, far below the 5.9% the country saw as a whole.

In addition, the magazine recognized the community’s abundance of outdoor amenities such as Savannah Rapids Park, hiking and biking trails and Reed Creek Nature Park & Interpretive Center.

Beef Stew Pumpkin Bowl

Entrees

1 medium pumpkin
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
3 white potatoes, peeled and diced
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
2-4 cups beef broth
Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large stock pot, brown beef in olive oil over high heat, until seared on all sides. Remove from pot and set aside. In same pot, add onion, carrots, celery and bell pepper; sauté about 10 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add white potatoes, sweet potatoes and beef broth to preferred consistency. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and add browned beef. Cover and simmer 1 hour.

Meanwhile, cut top off pumpkin and discard. Scoop out seeds and stringy membrane. Brush inside with olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place shell in shallow pan and add stew. Cover with parchment and bake about an hour or until pumpkin meat is tender. Ladle out stew, scooping out some pumpkin with each spoonful. Makes 4-6 servings.

Pumpkin Perfect

Appetizers and Snacks

It’s that time of year again when pumpkins become the centerpiece of many fall dishes and decorations or find themselves carved into scary jack-o’-lanterns.

Here are five tips to help you pick out the best pumpkins in the patch:

1. Look for pumpkins with rich orange color and a dry, attached stem. A green stem means the pumpkin is freshly harvested.

2. Knock on the pumpkin. It should sound hollow when ripe.

3. Choose a firm, heavy pumpkin. It will have more meat and a sweeter flavor than a lighter pumpkin.

4. Reject any pumpkins with blemishes such as white mildew, brown stains or wormholes.

5. When planning to cook pumpkins for pies or other dishes, pick small, heavy pumpkins called pie pumpkins or sugar pumpkins. They have more pulp than larger varieties.

If you choose to eat your pumpkin and not just carve it, you’re in for a tasty — and healthy — treat. Pumpkins are packed with vitamin A, calcium, potassium, phosphorous and vitamin C. They also have no cholesterol, are a good source of fiber and contain only traces of fat and sodium.

Roast some seeds, and you’ve just added vitamins B and E to the mix:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Salted water for boiling
1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon salt

Boil seeds in salted water for 20 minutes to clean and flavor them. Blot dry and spread on a cookie sheet overnight to dry. Toss in a bowl with the melted butter, olive oil and salt. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake 30 minutes at 300 degrees, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.

Crispy Honey BBQ Wings

Food

18 chicken wings
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1⁄2 teaspoon chili powder
1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper
Cooking spray
Sauce:
1 cup barbecue sauce
1⁄2 cup honey
2 tablespoons hot sauce
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray generously with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix together flour, salt, garlic powder, chili powder and black pepper. Wash, dry and dip wings into flour mixture until coated. Place wings in a single layer on sheet and bake 35-40 minutes, turning once. While baking, make sauce by slowly simmering sauce ingredients over low heat. When wings are done, carefully dip in sauce and place back in oven 5 minutes more or until sauce is bubbling. Serve hot, at room temperature or cold. Makes 18 wings.

Women’s Work

People

Whether they’re taking care of crops or animals, women are making their mark in farming.

Maybe it’s the nurturing nature of the business. Maybe it’s the close relationship that women have with culinary prep. Maybe it’s the desire to know the source of their food. Maybe it dates back to our country’s agricultural roots. Maybe it’s all of the above and then some, but farming is a field that seems to attract females.

According to Rebecca van Loenen, executive director of Augusta Locally Grown, an online farmers market, 74% of the organization’s growers are female. She attributes that to several factors.

“The spouse usually has a fulltime job outside of the home, and the wife is left at home to manage the farm,” she says. “Many of them are veterans, so these women want to do something therapeutic. Because they have other sources of income, it lets them pursue something they love.”

While some of the growers were born into farming families, others have fallen into it by chance.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘I bought a plant at the store, and before I knew it, I bought a farm,’” van Loenen says. “There is a nurturing quality to farming. It makes you want to take care of something.”

Half of the farmers affiliated with Augusta Locally Grown, which always has been led by women, are veterans as well.

The female farmers have plenty of help, often from their husbands or children, but how much they get often depends on whether or not their spouse is retired. While men help with the heavy lifting, says van Loenen, the women are in charge of the day-to-day farm operations such as tilling soil, pulling weeds or doing paperwork.

She says one of the main challenges for female farmers is that farm equipment typically is built for a 6-foot man rather than a 5-foot-1-inch woman.

Tink’s Grassfed Beef

The 5-foot-2-inch Etwenda “Tink” Wade, one of the original founders of Augusta Locally Grown, has been a farmer all her life.

A fourth-generation cattle woman whose great-grandfather started raising cattle on a central Florida farm in the 1800s, she helped launch the nonprofit Augusta Locally Grown in 2008 in a Grovetown front yard. She and her husband, Tim, bought their 230-acre Washington, Georgia farm, Lucky 7w, in 1995, and her business, Tink’s Grassfed Beef, grew from it.

“We were raising hogs, but I have always raised grass-fed cattle,” says Wade. “I’m from Florida originally, and that’s how it’s done there.”

After she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1993, she started researching ways to improve her health. “Grass-fed beef was part of that,” says Wade, who hasn’t taken any medications for MS in 15 years. “I eat healthy, take care of myself and listen to my body.”

He husband works for Ericsson, and he travels often for his job. Their three adult children helped out when they were growing up, and they still lend a hand as needed.

“Farming is hard. There are ups and downs. You can make a plan, but it’s not going to work the way you thought it out,” says Wade. “I’m a woman in a man’s world. But once the people in my county saw that I was doing what I said I was going to do, and people were buying my products, I was accepted then. I don’t do this for a hobby.”

In addition to Black Angus and Red Angus cattle, Wade has free-range pigs and chickens. They only sell the chickens eggs, however. She also has apple, plum and pear trees; scuppernong and muscadine vines; and any flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Some years she plants a vegetable garden as well.

“Women can do anything.,” Wade says. “All you have to do is put your mind to it.”

Brown’s Place Farm

Lynn Brown and her husband, W.B., who have been farming for 20 to 30 years, own the certified organic Brown’s Place Farm in Grovetown.

“You have to grow your food organically,” she says. “You can’t use any synthetic fertilizers.”

Her husband is a retired veteran, and she worked on a military installation. They moved often because of his military career, but they always had a garden wherever they lived.

“My grandmother was a farmer, and my husband’s father was a farmer, so we have it instilled in us,” Brown says. “You would have thought that after being raised on a farm, we wouldn’t want anything to do with it.”

The Browns farm 1.25 of their 20 acres, where they grow tomatoes; spaghetti and butternut squash; cucumbers; mustard and turnip greens; peas; Japanese and Nadia eggplant; jalapeno, banana, giant macaroni, lantern and bell peppers; purple and white Russian kale; and microgreens. They only use material that has been approved by International Certification Services in the production of their vegetables.

“It’s healthier for you. You don’t have to worry about chemicals,” Brown says. “You know what you’re growing. You have to follow USDA guidelines, but you’re helping everyone as well as yourself. Organic food cooks quicker and tastes better.”

She takes care of the microgreens, certifications and paperwork, while her husband plants and grows the vegetables. “When you have your husband by your side, it’s not that bad,” says Brown.

The Browns, who became part of Augusta Locally Grown in 2016, have three high tunnels, where they can grow products year-round, and about 20 goats.

“I like to see things grow,” she says. “I like to put seeds in the dirt and watch them grow. We have great results in the end.”

Shooting Star Acres Farmstead and Rescue

First-generation farmer Alicia Weiss, a retired U.S. Navy veteran, and her husband, Hunter, a Navy reservist who is based at Fort Gordon, moved to Grovetown from Pennsylvania in 2017. They fell in love with the area but soon realized they wanted more space for their family of four.

In 2019, they bought the 4-acre Shooting Star Acres Farmstead and Rescue in Dearing so she could pursue her dream of living as self-sustainably as possible.

“I started with containers on our back porch where we grew our first carrots,” says Weiss. “It’s all me, and whenever I can rope my family into it.”

She grows eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, corn, sweet potatoes, salad greens, carrots, beets, radishes and wildflowers that attract pollinators, and she sells her products in CSA (community-supported agriculture) boxes to customers that pay a one-time fee each season.

“I’m trying to close the gap so people know where their food comes from and trying to reduce travel time so food doesn’t lose its nutrients,” says Weiss.

She also has about 200 rescue farm animals including goats, pigs, ducks, geese, guinea hens, quails and chickens. On October 9, she is holding her first event at Shooting Star Acres, a farm-to-table dinner to raise funds to expand the animal rescue operation.

In addition, the former high school rodeo queen and 4-H Club member tries to take at least one class per year to benefit the farm or the animal rescue.

The self-described “farm-her” says her best friends and her mentor are fellow female farmers.

“We’ve been told for so long that we can’t do hard things,” she says. “It was such a manly thing to do to work on a farm. Women want to nurture. We want to make sure our families are taken care of properly. What better way to do that than to grow food in our backyard?”

White Hills Farm

Former Evans residents Amy and Patrick Sutter also were looking for more space when they made the “life-changing” decision to buy the 28-acre White Hills Farm in Dearing four years ago.

“We wanted a couple of acres, and I wanted a big backyard garden,” she says. “The farm came available, and we made the jump off the deep end.”

The lavender farm has eight large garden beds, where they also grow tomatoes and herbs such as rosemary, oregano, dill, parsley and basil.

She plants most of the lavender and herbs, and in the fall, she conducts workshops for visitors. She also dries all of the lavender and herbs and uses them to make other products, which are sold in the onsite gift shop.

Her husband runs the equipment. “He likes to say that he just does what I tell him to do,” she says.

The property is open every Friday and Saturday for self-guided tours, and groups can make appointments to visit at other times. An herbal activity is included in the group tours. Three or four times a year, the farm holds all-day yoga retreats on Saturdays as well.

Sutter enjoys having guests, who come from across the country, at the farm, and she feels a kinship with other female farmers.

“Augusta Locally Grown promotes camaraderie. We get to know each other and support each other,” she says. “We learn from each other, get confidence from each other and feel inspired to try new things.”

While Sutter says being outside makes her feel centered and peaceful, farming – and fickle Mother Nature – still present challenges.

“Sometimes I literally cry and have real blood, sweat and tears,” she says. “But I learn something new every day. I learn a lot by trial and error. If you don’t know it, then you YouTube it.”

Southern Swiss Dairy

It’s only fitting that fourth-generation farmer Ginny Franks and her husband, Jimmy, originally a beef farmer from south Georgia, met when they were working together on a Winder, Georgia farm.

In 1991 they bought their own Franks Farm, a 979-acre Waynesboro property where they operate Southern Swiss Dairy. They have about 175 cows, mostly Brown Swiss and a few Holsteins, and in 2010 they opened an onsite bottling facility to gain more control over their pricing.

The husband and wife team share responsibilities for the farm equally. “For us, it works great because we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” she says.

She is the purchasing coordinator and bookkeeper for the farm. She also tends to the cows and makes butter and ice cream.

“I’m just drawn to working with animals,” says Wade, who showed cattle when she was growing up. “I try to improve the herd generation after generation.”

As the head of trucking for the bottling plant, her husband spends a lot of time on the road. Their customers include schools and universities, coffee shops, restaurants and ice cream shops in Augusta, Atlanta and Savannah. They sell at farmers’ markets, and they have been part of Augusta Locally Grown since 2010.

In addition to the dairy operation, the couple grows corn, soybeans, oats, ryegrass, wheat, sorghum and hay. They also sell beef cut from their farm-raised steers.

Farming is full of hardships such as a 2013 tornado that hit Southern Swiss Dairy, flattening some of its buildings and injuring or killing some of the cows. However, Franks says being a female farmer never has phased her.

“It depends on your own determination and what you want to make out of it,” she says. “Nothing has held me back.”

Her father also supported and encouraged her. “He had more confidence in me than I had in myself,” says Franks, who has a master’s degree in embryology. “I never thought about doing anything else.”

Local Support

Despite the physical strength the job often requires, the female farmers generally agree that marketing is the toughest part of the business for them.

“Once you grow the product, you have to have somebody to buy it,” Brown says.

While female farmers compete with each other for customers, says van Loenen, they generally don’t sell the same products. In fact, she says, they often buy each other’s goods and swap food preservation tips with one another.

People often don’t realize that a local farm is a small business, van Loenen says, and when they shop online, they don’t always know that a female is leading the business. The ability to sell a product and have a business also depends on support from the local community.

“People want to know where their food comes from,” van Loenen says. “In Columbia County, people come from all different countries or parts of the United States. They value the person involved, and they like the agri-tourism component. They also want their kids to embrace an appreciation of where their food comes from.”

She says more women and minorities are getting involved in farming, and she encourages backyard gardeners to become part of the local agricultural community as well.

“We would love to help you get started,” van Loenen says.

By Leigh Howard

Road Warriors

People

Photos courtesy of John Robert Herzberg

Two Martinez residents have been revving up donations with cross-country road trips to fight ALS.

Even though he is half his age, 29-year-old Martinez resident John Robert Herzberg has always enjoyed doing things with his cousin and godfather, Mark Lang, 58, of Jupiter, Florida.

“He’s my best friend. He’s my mentor. We’ve always been super close,” says Herzberg. “He got me into doing things like kayaking, boating and body surfing at the beach. We played golf nonstop.”

Now, however, Lang can do none of those things. He was diagnosed with ALS in 2017 at age 55.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a progressive nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of muscle control. ALS also is called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the New York Yankees first baseman who was diagnosed with it.

Typically, onset of the disease is gradual, and initial symptoms vary in different people. They can begin in the muscles that control speech and swallowing or in the hands, arms, legs or feet.

However, all ALS patients experience progressive muscle weakness and paralysis, ultimately losing the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe. The mean survival time for ALS patients is three to five years, and there is no cure for the disease.

Lang’s first symptom was weakness in his hand, which he initially thought was caused by a pinched nerve. Within 18 months, he had lost the ability to walk or speak. “He’s in the late stages now,” Herzberg says. “He can only speak using his eyes.”

According to the Georgia Chapter of the ALS Association, at least 16,000 people are estimated to have the disease at any given time and a little more than 5,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. (That’s 15 new cases a day.)

Most people who develop ALS are between the ages of 40 and 70, with an average age of 55 at the time of diagnosis. Someone is diagnosed with the disease and someone loses their battle with it every 90 minutes.

“Right now, all we can do is just help make ALS patients comfortable and help them have the best quality of life possible in the time they have left,” says Brandy Quarles, the Augusta University ALS Clinic research operations coordinator. “Our ultimate goal is to find treatment.”

On the Road

To do his part, Herzberg wanted to find a way to raise money and bring awareness to the rare disease. So, armed with a rented van, a tripod and a sense of adventure, he and his girlfriend, Bethany Marshall of Martinez, went on a two-week, cross-country road trip from Martinez to San Diego and back last October.

“I wanted to do something crazy to get people’s attention,” says Herzberg, who studies design and media production at Augusta Tech. “We wanted to do something out of the ordinary. It took a year of planning and saving.”

Herzberg and Marshall stopped in places such as New Orleans, the Grand Canyon and Memphis to visit Graceland, which, much to his surprise, turned out to be Herzberg’s favorite stop. While most of the places they visited were planned, they made some spontaneous stops as well. They made detours to Las Vegas and to Albuquerque, New Mexico so Herzberg, a diehard “Breaking Bad” fan, could see where the TV show was filmed.

On the return trip home, they also had to stop in Oklahoma City after the van’s transmission blew out. They rented a car to get back to Georgia.

Driving eight to 10 hours each day, they stopped often to set up the tripod to take photographs at the various sites they visited. Herzberg posted the images on his Facebook and Instagram pages, @DriveAwayALS, to bring awareness to the cause, and welcome signs were a favorite spot for photo ops. He declared himself an unofficial resident of each state they visited, but the cowboy hat he bought at a Texas gas station became a frequent prop in the pictures.

While they were on the road, donors made contributions through a link on his social media platforms. In their travels they met other people whose families have been affected by ALS, and some of them donated money as well.

“People are very warm-hearted. Once they saw the ALS sticker on the side of the van, they wanted to know what we were doing,” says Herzberg. “A lot of people on Instagram would randomly contribute, too.”

The goal was to raise $5,000 at $1 per mile in the Drive Away ALS campaign, and he surpassed that goal.

“People from all over the world have reached out to me wanting to contribute or travel with us,” Herzberg says.

For instance, he says two girls from Norway contacted him a couple of weeks after their trip to say they were inspired by him to sail across the Atlantic Ocean to raise money for ALS.

“It makes me ecstatic that a local person is taking the initiative to raise funds and raise awareness about ALS,” says Quarles. “Supporting ALS patients is important. These families are going through a lot. ALS doesn’t affect the mind. Our patients still want the same things they always did. It’s important that people participate and help the ALS community.”

More Work to Do

Herzberg has not stopped raising money for ALS. The couple hit the road again this past summer, traveling 2,000 miles to Niagara Falls and back. Along the way, they stopped in Pittsburgh on June 2 for Major League Baseball’s inaugural Lou Gehrig Day to watch the Pirates take on Lang’s favorite team, the Miami Marlins.

Gehrig lost his battle with the disease June 2, 1941 almost two years after he was diagnosed with ALS on his 36th birthday. The annual, league-wide event will be a time to honor and celebrate Gehrig’s legacy as well as to raise awareness and funds to fight the disease.

Herzberg and his team, Drive Away ALS, also will participate in the ALS Association’s Walk to Defeat ALS (walktodefeatals.org) at Georgia State Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday, September 25.

Herzberg and Marshall have visited more than 20 states since October, and they plan to schedule another fundraising trip to South Dakota. And he still finds time to visit Lang in Florida every couple of months and keep him up-to-date on the Drive Away ALS fundraising efforts.

“Mark loves it,” Herzberg says. “If the tables were turned, he would have done the same thing for me.”

By Sarah James

Hawaiian Chicken Fried Rice

Food

2 pineapples
3 cups cooked rice
5 slices bacon, cooked
3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Cut pineapples in half from top to bottom. Cut pulp out and dice, using 1-2 cups for this recipe (save the rest for snacks, smoothies or other recipes). Cook rice according to package directions. While rice is cooking, crumble cooked bacon and set aside. Cut chicken into small pieces. In a large skillet, heat 2 teaspoons olive oil over medium high heat. Add chicken and sauté 4-5 minutes until browned and cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Remove to plate and cover to reabsorb juices.

Wipe pan with a paper towel. Add remaining teaspoon of oil and heat over medium high. Add onion and cook 3-5 minutes until softened. Stir in red bell pepper, diced pineapple and crumbled bacon; cook 2-3 minutes. Stir in rice and cooked chicken. Add soy sauce and sesame oil; gently stir until combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if desired. Serve warm in scooped-out pineapple halves. Makes 4 servings.

Local Talent

People

Photography by Sally Kolar

Fans of the supernatural can look forward to a new movie featuring a homegrown cast and crew.
Filming recently wrapped up in Columbia and Richmond counties for Applewood, an indie horror-based thriller that will be released in late 2021 or early 2022.

“Almost all of our talent and crew are locally based,” says production supervisor Nik Wilets of Augusta. “We have a crew of about 50 people, and 35 to 40 of them are local.”

The film also was written by local resident Amy Rhinehart Bailey and Rob Hollocks, a British director, producer and screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles. In addition, the film’s three lead actors, Kate Dailey, Susan Willis and Nathan Rothwell, live in the area.

“The film is a labor of love for these people,” Wilets says. “I think small teams usually make the best products. There’s a certain esprit de corps with a small team.”

The horror-based thriller, based on a story by local writer Zach King, is about “a woman who buys a house and remnants of the past come back to her,” says Wilets.

Some scenes were shot in a Columbia County neighborhood and a local ATV park. However, Wilets says the Clay House on Milledge Road in Augusta will be one of the most recognizable locations in the film. “We show the Clay House in decay, and in flashbacks, in its heyday,” he says.

While Georgia has become a leading destination in the world for filming, Wilets says Columbia and Richmond counties are becoming more popular among filmmakers.

“Atlanta has become a little overused, and this area offers a bit of originality. There’s a lot of diversity here,” he says.

Wilets believes the film will resonate with audiences. “I hope they have some thrills and scares. There’s also a lot of takeaways about loss and redemption,” he says. “I hope they enjoy a good story.”

By Todd Beck

Open-Door Policy

People

Photos courtesy of the Columbia County Board of Education

Meet Columbia County’s new school superintendent.
Eagle Scout. Outdoorsman. College athlete. Educator. High school coach. Administrator. Farmer. Yes, farmer.

Dr. Steven Flynt, the Columbia County School District’s new superintendent, says the best thing he ever learned in life is to be open to trying new things – even if he doesn’t know much about them.

“It’s probably uncomfortable for anybody to try something new,” says Flynt. “As you continue to get older, you need to look for areas where you can grow and learn.”

He has been growing, learning and making the most of opportunities his entire life. Flynt, who previously served as associate superintendent for the Gwinnett County Public Schools, began his latest venture in the spring when he assumed his new position in Columbia County. Building on the encouragement and guidance he has received from his mentors in education, he’s ready to pay forward the experience he has gained throughout his career.

However, he says, “You have to be your own person. You have to be yourself.”

Real-World Connections
From the time the DeKalb County native entered a neighborhood kindergarten to the day he earned a doctorate of education in educational leadership from the University of Georgia, he has been surrounded by strong leaders.

Yet, when Flynt was a high school student, he began to notice a disconnect between the material he was learning in the classroom and its application in the real world.

“The connection of how it would help me in life was difficult to see at the time,” he says.

As a result, he gravitated toward hands-on science classes such as biology, chemistry and physics as well as industrial arts programs.

“These classes have a natural connection with the real world experience,” he says. “They were more exciting because I got to do labs and participate in activities to connect what I was learning to how I would use it later.”

And that realization motivated him to pursue a career in education. “I struggled to connect between the curriculum and the material, and I thought I could do a better job with that,” he says.

He earned an associate of arts degree from Young Harris College, where he played soccer for two years. Continuing his college soccer career at Lees-McRae College, he was awarded a B.S. in biology from the Banner Elk, North Carolina school.

While he was enrolled at Young Harris, he was a student teacher at a high school – an experience that presented a couple of challenges. His students were practically his own age, and at that time, many schools were built with an open concept with no walls between classrooms. Not one of the best innovations in education, he says, but it didn’t derail his career plans.

After graduating from college, he earned a master’s degree in science education from Piedmont College. He and his wife, Kristin, whom he met when they were working at Stone Mountain Park one summer, went through the program together. An elementary school teacher, she also played college soccer at Emory University and coached high school soccer.

Flynt began his career as an educator when he took a job teaching biology and physical science at Miller Grove Junior High School in DeKalb County in 1993.

“My first year of teaching, I had a very good experience in DeKalb County. I never looked back,” he says.

A year later Flynt, who also coached soccer and swimming when he was a teacher, started teaching high school science before being promoted to assistant principal and principal positions.

“I had taught for close to 10 years. The high school had grown a good bit, and we were on the verge of expanding and growing extremely larger,” says Flynt. “I was asked to take a leadership role, and the principals encouraged me to do that. I moved into administration at my school, and I had a good first experience. I was able to do different jobs. When you have that kind of growth, you get to do a lot of things.”

He moved into his first administrative post for the Gwinnett County schools in 2008, climbing up the ranks to the position of associate superintendent in 2016. During his 13-year tenure as a Gwinnett County school administrator, he helped open 35 schools in a system that gained 8,000 to 9,000 students a year.

Perfect Timing
Although he had multiple opportunities for career growth within the Gwinnett County school system, Flynt started thinking about pursuing a superintendent’s position a couple of years ago.

“This was the only superintendent’s position I applied for. I applied for it because I knew of the work that had gone on in Columbia County, and I knew about the region itself,” he says. “The timing of the opening fit very well.”

Between his coaching duties and the high school lacrosse careers of the two oldest of his three daughters, Jessica and Emily, he was familiar with Columbia County through athletics. He and his family had traveled here to compete against the school district’s sports teams.

While this is his first full academic year in the position, he officially started his new job on April 1. He eased into the post by coming to the district three days each in February and March to attend budget meetings and to meet school principals and administrators.

“You learn a lot about an organization when you see where the money is spent,” says Flynt. “The first couple of weeks were devoted to relationships, and I will keep focusing on building relationships both internally in the district and externally in the community.”

His immediate focus includes studying data, identifying areas to work with individuals, learning about what has happened in the past and looking at growth and facility needs.

“Facility needs are something that every school system needs whether they’re growing or not,” he says.

Getting back on track after the coronavirus pandemic is a priority as well.

“During the global pandemic and learning from home, and then coming back to in-person school, we’ve seen the importance of our teachers and that in-person connection. Students achieve more when they have that close relationship with individual teachers,” says Flynt. “It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t perfect in any district, but we were able to adjust pretty quickly. We saw how dynamic we could be.”

However, there still is work to do to recover from the last 17 months by striking the right balance between students’ needs.

“I think it’s incumbent on us to continue to find the things we need to learn from this,” says Flynt. “Some students were OK, and it was more challenging for others. Sometimes you have to provide remedial education, but you also have to provide some acceleration.”

He believes the similarities between the Columbia County and Gwinnett County school systems will serve him well.

“Any time you’re coming from the outside, you have a different perspective. I was in Gwinnett County when we grew extremely fast, and there has been a lot of growth in Columbia County and the region. All of the opportunities here remind me of Gwinnett,” Flynt says. “We always need to look for what we can improve on. I think we’re poised to make the changes necessary, but not move too quickly.”

Change of Scenery
When he’s not on the job, he enjoys the outdoors. In fact, the Flynt family lived on a Gwinnett County farm from 1995 until about two years ago.

“We’ve always lived on acreage,” says Flynt. “We enjoyed the animals and the land. You learn a lot when you work around animals. We had goats, donkeys and horses. We built fences and barns. All of us learned how to drive a tractor.”

They gave up farm life after their two older daughters went to college, where they still play lacrosse. “We didn’t have as much help then,” he says.

The Flynts and their youngest daughter, Sarah, a freshman at Lakeside High School, have settled in Evans, and the superintendent is enjoying getting to know his new community.

“I knew this was a great place, but it has been reinforced time and time again. I feel fortunate to be here,” he says. “I’m looking forward to being part of the community, not just an employee of the school district. I have an open-door policy, and I hope people will reach out to me.”

By Betsy Gilliland

Frozen Tropical Fruit Salad

Desserts

10 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup mayo
1 teaspoon coconut extract
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 cup heavy cream, whipped until stiff peaks form
3/4 cup coconut
1/2 cup pistachios
1 1/2 cups pineapple chunks
2 bananas, chopped or sliced
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, mayo, coconut extract and powdered sugar until smooth. Fold in whipped cream. Add coconut, pistachios, pineapple, bananas and strawberries. Stir gently and pour into baking dish. Cover and freeze 24 hours. Thaw 10-15 minutes before slicing into squares and serving. Makes 10 servings.

Star-Spangled Fun

Independence Day Fireworks & Festivities

July 1
Fort Gordon’s Independence Day Celebration
Barton FieldFort Gordon’s annual celebration that includes a kiddie carnival, food and craft vendors, fireworks show and live music. Bring blankets and chairs, but no pets, tents or coolers. 5-11 p.m. Admission is free. Food and beverage tickets also are available for presale at the MWR Directorate Office (Building 28320, Lane Avenue). Guests 16 and older must present a photo ID at Fort Gordon’s entrance gate. Masks must be worn for all unvaccinated attendees. (706) 791-8878, fortgordon.com

July 2
Freedom Blast
Thomson-McDuffie Government Center Grounds
The Thomson-McDuffie Chamber of Commerce and the City of Thomson bring Independence Day fun with a picnic on the lawn, food from local restaurants, music and fireworks. 7-9:45 p.m. Fireworks begin at 9:30 p.m. Bring lawn seating. Coolers are allowed, but no alcohol. Admission is free. (706) 597-1000, thomsonmcduffiechamber.com

Clarks Hill Lake 4th of July Fireworks
Raysville Marina
Friends of Clarks Hill Lake present a fireworks show for boaters and onlookers from shore. Best viewing areas on land are from Amity Recreation Area and Raysville Marina. Free. 9 p.m. Bring seating and picnics.

July 3
Grovetown Fourth of July Barbecue
Liberty Park Community Center
The City of Grovetown’s community-wide picnic will be a drive-through this year with free barbecue plates. Plates include barbecue, two sides and a roll. 11 a.m. (706) 860-7691, cityofgrovetown.com

July 4
Boom in the Park
Evans Towne Center Park
Bring chairs and blankets to Columbia County’s annual Independence Day celebration. Event includes live music by Whiskey Run, food trucks and fireworks. 5-10 p.m. Fireworks begin at dusk. Admission is free. No glass or alcohol is allowed. (706) 868-3484.

Independence Day Celebration
Augusta Commons
Downtown Augusta’s Independence Day Celebration features live entertainment, arts and crafts vendors, food vendors, patriotic merchandise. 5-9:30 p.m. Fireworks begin at dusk. Bring blankets and chairs but no coolers or pets. Free admission. (706) 821-1754, augustaga.gov

July 10
Independence Day Celebration Fireworks and Boat Parade
Plum Branch Yacht Club
Celebrate Independence Day with a patriotic boat parade, food, games, entertainment and fireworks over the lake. The boat parade kicks things off at noon and festivities continue until 10 p.m. Barbecue plates will be sold for $14 each at the Pavilion at Plum Branch Yacht Club from noon to 4 p.m., and the Lakeside Grill will be open until 10 p.m. Fireworks begin at dark. For more details, contact the McCormick County Chamber of Commerce at (864) 852-2835, the Plum Branch Yacht Club at (864) 443-3000 or the Lakeside Grill at (864) 443-3004. mccormickscchamber.org, plumbranch.com

Tropical Allure

Garden Scene

Dreaming of turning your yard into a personal paradise? Several palms native to Georgia thrive here with minimal care.

There are few sounds in nature as beguiling as the rustle of palm fronds in an ocean breeze, and no other tree sets us dreaming of faraway places quite like the palm.

No tree looks more exotic. Cypress trees may look as timeless and banyan trees may look as tropical, but palm trees look timeless, tropical, and exotically mysterious.

It’s impossible to imagine the Caribbean, the South Pacific or any respectable oasis without palm trees in the picture. If they could talk, palms could probably tell us plenty about dinosaurs and what the Garden of Eden was really like. Palms have seen it all.

Today, homeowners, businesses and golf courses alike feature this tropical icon in their landscapes. Look closer though, and you will usually discover that many of these local palms are not tropical at all but are actually native to Georgia.

Four authentic palms native to the Peach State are the Needle Palm, the Dwarf Palmetto, the Saw Palmetto and the Sabal Palmetto. All are cold hardy, and the Needle Palm is considered the hardiest palm tree in the world.

The advantage all native palms have in common is that they are cold hardy and can handle temperatures below freezing and still recover quickly. The best time to transplant most palms is in spring or summer, when soil temperatures are warmer. Keep in mind that most palms do better in sandy soil — clay holds water and does not warm as quickly.

Sabal Palmetto
The most popular native palm here is the Sabal Palmetto, also called a Cabbage Palm, and you may recognize it as the official state tree of South Carolina and Florida. This hardy palm tree stays green year-round and matures to a height of about forty feet. It is topped with fan-shaped palm fronds that can grow up to five feet long. While they do not have traditional growth rings, it is believed they can live 200 to 300 years.

Sabal Palmetto is easy to transplant, easy to grow and easy to maintain. It grows best in well-drained soils that can be sandy, loamy or clay, but needs lots of sun — it cannot grow in the shade. For tree health (and to keep pests from nesting in the tree), trim the dead palm fronds annually.

Dwarf Palmetto
The fan-shaped Dwarf Palmetto, a shrub-size palm, can live to be more than 400 years old. This smaller relative of the Sabal Palmetto provides a nice anchor in the garden, especially small spaces.

Able to grow in nearly any type of soil, from sand to clay, Dwarf Palmetto tolerates a variety of conditions and is fairly easy to maintain. It has an underground trunk and likes its head in the sun and its feet near the water. Water regularly for its first two years in the ground to allow it to get established. You can expect it to reach a height between two and seven feet with a spread between three and five feet. Prune browning palm fronds to keep the palm healthy.

Needle Palm
The slow-growing Needle Palm is an attractive, low-maintenance, pest-free palm that is easy to grow in just about any landscape. Though it rarely stands higher than eight feet (usually around four to six feet), it is a nearly trunkless palm, almost always appearing as a shrub. It gets its name from the sharp needles on its crown that protect the interior of the plant.

The Needle Palm will grow in both sunny and shady locations but thrives best if given some shade in the afternoon. It loves regular waterings at first but is very drought tolerant once established. Needle Palm stays green year-round and can take temperatures as low as minus ten degrees.

Saw Palmetto
The shrubby Saw Palmetto provides a lush, tropical touch to landscapes and works well as a privacy hedge, foundation planting or backdrop for mixed borders. It usually grows five to ten feet tall and spreads four to ten feet wide. Though typically green, a silver form of this palm is highly prized. Slow-growing and low-maintenance (occasional pruning of dead fronds is all this plant needs), Saw Palmetto is a sun-loving palm but will grow in almost any light. Water regularly after planting until established. Then it will be drought tolerant.

Saw Palmetto is difficult to move once established, however, so be sure to pick the right spot for planting — away from walkways, driveways, play areas, or anywhere the saw-like teeth along the stems might cause harm.

A Popular Non-Native
One major contender on the local palm scene — the Sago Palm — is not native and actually not even a palm. It’s a Cycad, a species that has been around for millions of years and has more in common with ferns than with palms. It’s easy to understand its popularity, though. With a big branching trunk and dark olive leaves that are three to four feet long, it’s very easy to grow.

In fact, with a look that is straight from an oasis, the Sago Palm is so luxuriant and palm-like that it’s become one of the area’s leading landscaping plants. Native to southern Japan, it is cold hardy, usually free from pests and prefers a sunny location with sandy soil and good drainage.