Down South

It's well into 2018 and catching up is overdue. I have spent the past several months in coastal Georgia slowly developing and building Memory Trail, an outdoor exhibit chronicling the voyage of the slave ship Wanderer through the lives of enslaved survivors. Due to current affairs the interpretation has become more difficult to balance. There is still much to be done but I am excited and hopeful. It has become a challenge I feel strongly about in many ways.

Southeastern Georgia, like Northeast Florida, where I spent the most years in a single area, is not immune to cold winters. Its relative for sure, but not uncommon to be well under freezing conditions for stretches during the Southern winter. Working outside has been nippy especially since we start at 6:30. But it's right on the water and the great marshes of Glenn stretch as far as you can see. So its pull on the insulated coveralls, grab the thermos and have fun until the late afternoon bourbon is poured.

I was home for three weeks over the holidays enjoying the extended family that converged on our small Virginia home. Plans were set to move Annie to Deltaville to get new sails fitted and made but the cold weather cancelled it. It looks like another month will go by but I'm hell bent to get her back on a close haul by spring.

Beginnings of interactive on the bench

Job site

Looking south

One of the ceramic path markers

setting poles for African hut

Hut ready for stucco

thatching

building farm shed in the shop

farm shed on site

from a series of watercolors I am working on to tell story

threading stainless rod

Beginning of interactive

Deburring graphic panel brackets

Carving pestle used for hulling rice on plantations

Intracoastal Waterway out the front window where I'm staying

Remnants of Hurricane Irma

My mobile 'shop'