Hardman Farm State Historic Site will be open for Victorian Christmas on Friday and Saturday nights, beginning December 4th. The annual event features the Mansion at West End decorated in period holiday decor, tours led by docents dressed in period-1870s clothing, live music, and twinkling candle lights.
Every room in the Mansion at West End features a Victorian-decorated Christmas tree. (Hardman Farm State Historic Site/Facebook)
The historic site has had to change its schedule drastically this year in response to COVID-19 restrictions. In fact, the large community events usually held there have had to be canceled this year. But, Clint Joiner, Assistant Manager of the historic site, explains, “As we were planning this event, canceling was not an option. It’s been a tough year for everyone, not just Hardman Farm. Our goal is to give the community a spirit of optimism. We want to give people a reason to smile, have fun, and celebrate the holidays with us.” Joiner adds, “We’re really looking forward to closing out 2020 on a high note. This will be a great opportunity for folks to come out and just enjoy the season.”
Participants begin their tour with a ride down a section of the Unicoi Pike in a hay-filled wagon. At the mansion, holiday-dressed docents will give a room by room tour of the home and its decorations. The mansion has been decorated with Christmas trees in every room that have been provided by community groups.
All tour participants will be given a token to use to vote for their favorite decorated tree after the tour. The community group that decorated the winning Christmas tree will receive a $50 gift card from the Friends of Hardman Farm.
Hardman Farm docents and local musicians appear in 1870s holiday dress. (Hardman Farm State Historic Site/Facebook)
Because of COVID-19, special requirements are in place. Tickets must be purchased in advance and are available in 30-minute intervals. The size of each tour is limited. Following CDC requirements of social distancing and wearing masks is encouraged.
Tickets are available for Friday and Saturday nights for December 4-5, December 11-12, and December 18-19 between 4 pm and 7 pm. Ticket costs are: $12 per adult and $7 per youth (ages 6-17). Children under six are free.
Hardman Farm State Historic Site is located at 143 Highway 17 in Sautee, Georgia, at the intersection of Highways 17 and 75, one mile south of Helen. The entrance to the parking area is off Highway 17 and is free. Participants are encouraged to bring a flashlight to use in returning to their vehicles after the event.
Santa can be seen at Hardman Farm as well. (Hardman Farm State Historic Site/Facebook)
Downtown Ellijay during Georgia's first snow of 2020. (photo courtesy Joshua Chastain)
North Georgians are getting their first true taste of winter this week with sub-freezing temperatures and even some snow.
A light dusting of snow fell across the higher elevations of Georgia Monday afternoon and overnight. The snow stopped falling before dawn but with temperatures in the 20s, a light dusting lingered in more mountainous terrain.
Several counties in extreme northern Georgia closed schools or moved classes online including Chattooga, Dawson, Fannin, Gilmer, Pickens, Towns, and Union. Elsewhere, North Georgians are feeling the effects of bitter cold.
Highs this week will be in the low 40s and 50s. Overnight lows will be in the mid-20s and 30s.
President Donald Trump has criticized Gov. Brian Kemp in the wake of his defeat in a state he won by 5 points four years ago. In July Kemp greeted the president at the Atlanta airport and received a friendly chuck on the shoulder. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
The governor’s office is pushing back on President Donald Trump’s calls for Gov. Brian Kemp to use his “emergency powers” to force a review of absentee ballot signatures.
Trump, who narrowly lost to President-elect Joe Biden in Georgia, has freely voiced his displeasure with the governor, particularly in the wake of his defeat in a state he won by 5 points four years ago. The president said Sunday on Fox News that he was “embarrassed” he endorsed Kemp in 2018, saying the GOP governor has “done nothing” as the president’s false claims of widespread voter fraud have failed to gain traction.
“Why won’t Governor @BrianKempGA, the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes,” Trump tweeted Monday morning.
Kemp’s office shut down the president’s public call for an intervention.
“Georgia law prohibits the Governor from interfering in elections,” Kemp’s spokesman Cody Hall said in a statement Monday. “The Secretary of State, who is an elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that cannot be overridden by executive order.”
Hall said the governor continues to follow the law and encourage Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is also a Republican, to “take reasonable steps – including a sample audit of signatures – to restore trust and address serious issues that have been raised.”
Another high-ranking Republican state official, House Speaker David Ralston, has also called on Raffensperger to verify the signatures for absentee ballots. He re-upped that call Monday.
“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and we must use all available tools to protect the integrity of the vote,” Ralston said in a statement, adding that such a review should be done ahead of the Jan. 5 runoffs.
Ralston indicated that he would be willing to find money in the state budget to fund the initiative, should Raffensperger request the resources.
State election officials – who are in the middle of a third count of the ballots cast in the presidential election – have cited a lack of specific claims that would warrant such an undertaking.
Absentee ballot signatures are verified when they are processed by local election officials. The ballots are then separated from the envelopes to ensure anonymity for the voter, so it would not be possible to tie ballots back to the envelopes they arrived in.
“I believe that it’s a little out of our situation to then say we’re going to go with no specific evidence or explanation to go in and start pulling random ballots out to look at,” Gabriel Sterling, voting systems implementation manager, said at an earlier press conference. “Who pays for this, what’s the protocols around this? Is it the GBI, is it our office, is it the people who already did this doing it again?
“We can’t really see a legal path makes any sense because if you open up investigations on generalized grievance without any evidence that leaves it open for somebody else in the future to do the exact same thing.”
Sterling said the Secretary of State’s Office is investigating a specific claim coming out of Gwinnett County, where a local elections board member reported there being more absentee ballots than ballot envelopes.
Georgia Recorder reporter Stanley Dunlap contributed to this report. This article appears in partnership with Georgia Recorder.
Governor Brian Kemp signed executive orders Monday extending the state’s Public Health State of Emergency through January 8 and extending current COVID-19 restrictions through December 15.
The order extending restrictions also includes changes that allow nurses and pharmacists to administer the pending COVID-19 vaccine. Once a vaccine is publicly available, nurses and pharmacists in Georgia may administer it in drive-thru settings. Kemp’s order also permits any nurse or pharmacist to observe patients for the requisite 15-minute window after receiving the vaccine.
Both executive orders signed today take effect at 12 a.m. on Tuesday, December 1.
Kemp’s move comes as COVID cases in Georgia are surging and public health officials brace for an even higher holiday surge following Thanksgiving.
Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday that as COVID-19 vaccine doses begin to be distributed, Georgia’s long-term care facilities should be among the first in line to get them.
Kemp said that if federal approval of vaccines come as expected, the shots should begin arriving the second or third week of December.
The governor, speaking to a roundtable of industry leaders, added that 95 percent of nursing homes here have joined a partnership with CVS and Walgreens for on-site vaccination services for the homes’ residents.
Experts have proposed giving the vaccine to health workers first. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group established by the Atlanta-based CDC, is expected to meet Tuesday to recommend whom to vaccinate and when.
National Guardsmen cleaning a Mitchell County nursing home after a COVID outbreak.
National long-term care groups urged Monday that residents and staffers of their facilities be given top priority for distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Government reports correctly identified all long-term care residents and staff for priority distribution of COVID-19 vaccines,’’ said the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, LeadingAge, Argentum and the American Seniors Housing Association in a joint statement. “It is critical that policymakers at all levels maintain that position as these products come online and are delivered across the country.’’
“Vulnerable older adults and the frontline workers who protect them deserve the full support of the public health sector,’’ the statement said. “Ensuring residents and staff in all long-term care and senior living settings are among the first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine will help limit the spread of this deadly virus and prevent further tragedies.’’
Some 30 million to 40 million doses may be available to be distributed by the end of the year, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an Emory University infectious disease expert. He said he expects wide vaccine distribution to the public to come next summer.
COVID vaccine development has been “an unprecedented success,’’ del Rio told reporters Monday.
Vulnerability in long-term care
Residents of Georgia nursing homes and other long-term facilities have accounted for about one-third of Georgia’s COVID-19 deaths.
National Guard members disinfect a room at a Terrell County nursing home after a COVID-19 outbreak. Photo credit: Georgia Army National Guard
That’s a lower percentage than other states are reporting, but the Georgia numbers don’t include staffers at these facilities. Nationally, residents and staff members of long-term care facilities make up about 40 percent of COVID-19 fatalities, according to a recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
COVID-19 had claimed the lives of more than 100,000 long-term care facility residents and staffers as of the last week in November, the Kaiser Foundation said.
“COVID has struck the long-term care industry harder than any other industry, and I know the toll, both physically and mentally on your caregivers, staff, and residents has been tremendous,’’ Kemp said in prepared remarks.
Filling staff positions has been a huge challenge for nursing homes, industry leaders told Kemp on Monday.
“We lost a lot of staff,’’ said Mark Todd, president and CEO of Americus-based Magnolia Manor, which operates several facilities. Many staff have been afraid of getting infected by the virus. “There’s a fatigue with our staff right now. People have worked extra shifts.’’
More than 9,400 staffers at nursing homes, assisted living facilities and large personal care homes in Georgia have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic.
The AJC recently reported that Georgia ranked 43rd nationally for average hands-on care staffing at its nursing homes during the second quarter of 2020, according to a new report by the Long Term Care Community Coalition. The state ranked even lower — 48th — for hands-on RN staffing, according to the report.
Research conducted in California found that nursing homes that weren’t staffed with the recommended numbers of nurses were more likely to have COVID-19 outbreaks, Charlene Harrington, one of the nation’s top experts on long-term care, told the AJC’s Carrie Teegardin.
An 18-year-old Clarkesville boy is in jail accused of child sex abuse. John Michael Lumpkin faces four counts in connection with alleged incidents dating back to 2016.
The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation after Powerhouse for Kids contacted them about disclosures of the alleged abuse. According to the incident report, Lumpkin knew the alleged victim.
Habersham deputies arrested Lumpkin on November 27, 2020. They charged him with two counts of aggravated child molestation and two counts of aggravated sodomy. A judge denied him bond. As of November 30, Lumpkin remained in the Habersham County jail awaiting his first court appearance.
Town officials considered moving Mount Airy's Christmas Celebration indoors to City Hall, but were concerned people would still be left standing in the cold due to COVID-19 restrictions. (file photo)
The Town of Mount Airy has canceled its community Christmas celebration this year due to concerns over frigid weather and COVID.
Habersham County is expected to experience some of its coldest temperatures of the year this week as a winter storm sweeps eastward from the Great Lakes. Temperatures will drop into the 20s tonight through Wednesday and are expected to be still hovering near freezing on Thursday when the town’s celebration was scheduled.
Mount Airy officials considered moving the outdoor celebration indoors to City Hall, but organizers say people would still have been left out in the cold. “We can only have so many people inside due to state [COVID-19] restrictions,” explains City Manager Tim Jarrell.
Last year well over 120 people attended Christmas in Mount Airy, which typically includes lighting the town Christmas tree, caroling, and visits with Santa.
“We would just hate to see somebody with their 6-year-old waiting to see Santa out in the cold,” Jarrell says. “It was a very difficult decision for the mayor and council to make, but in the end, it was the best way we felt we could take care of our citizens.”
This is the third communitywide event Mount Airy has had to cancel this year due to COVID. The town also canceled its Cities Day celebration and Fall Festival.
Other Christmas events in Habersham County are still scheduled to occur this week, including the county Christmas parade Tuesday in Clarkesville.
For an updated list of holiday happenings, see Now Habersham’s event calendar.
From top left, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Rev. Ralph Warnock, Jon Ossoff, and Sen. David Perdue. (Photos by Georgia Recorder)
Georgia is taking center stage in the American political theater, closing out a year that began with Iowans basking in their familiar role as the focus of intense media saturation and front porch candidate campaign pitches.
Georgia doesn’t typically dominate the national political spotlight, since the GOP has a long statewide win streak that makes results predictable and the timing of its elections tend to water down the stakes in the grand scheme.
But Georgia is seizing the political junkie’s attention the way the Iowa caucuses did last February, with the unusual alignment of two U.S. Senate seats on the ballot Jan. 5 and potential Democratic control of the federal government at stake.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang moved to Iowa ahead of the caucuses and the “Yang gang” is now campaigning door to door in Georgia for the duration. Celebrities are courting the state’s voters, with an all-star virtual rock show Dec. 3. President Donald Trump is set to hold a rally Dec. 5, so you’d best reserve your rental car now if you need one that weekend. And rest assured, out-of-state reporters will parachute in to profile Georgians in a way that will cause people who live here to shake their heads.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent in television advertisements alone between the various campaigns, and experts predict the crush of political and entertainment celebrities arriving in Georgia will only grow in coming weeks, even with limitations on gatherings aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19.
“I think it’s going to get crazy,” Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University, said about the next month in Georgia politics.
Georgia law says candidates must secure 50% of votes, so the professor said the state is used to having runoffs, but certainly not ones that attract this much attention. Neither Republican candidates U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler or Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock managed to secure 50% of votes in November and the runoffs.
The runoffs provide fresh evidence to determine if Georgia is truly flipping to blue. If Ossoff and Warnock secure both of Georgia’s senate seats, the upper chamber’s balance of power will be tied at 50-50. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be able to cast tie-breaking votes.
Abramowitz said he wouldn’t be surprised if former President Barack Obama, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and perhaps even Biden make appearances throughout the state to rally Democrats ahead of the runoff.
For Republicans, it’s a bit more complicated.
Both Loeffler and Perdue have demanded fellow Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger resign for unspecified failures in his handling of the Nov. 3 election that assigned Georgia’s 16 electoral votes to Biden. (A recount is underway that is not expected to change the outcome, another echo of the Iowa campaign.) The president and members of congress have lodged baseless claims the election was stolen. And Trump has aimed his Twitter anger at Kemp, making the usual GOP unity rallies unexpectedly awkward.
Abramowitz says the key for Republicans will be igniting the base of Trump supporters without stirring up more opposition. Vice President Mike Pence toed this line during a bus tour from Canton to Gainesville on Nov. 20, the same day that Republican Raffensperger certified Biden as the winner of Georgia’s presidential election, the first Democrat to pull that off since 1992.
Taking the stage at campaign rallies to ignite Trump’s base could prove to be a high-wire act for the GOP senators as the feud among Republicans simmers. Loeffler and Perdue both reached runoffs in an election the president now claims was rife with fraud. Now some Trump loyalists are calling for a boycott of the two senate races.
Of course, one big difference between campaigning in Iowa last winter and pitching to Georgia voters this December is the presence of the virus, although the Democrats are embracing the new virtual style more than their GOP counterparts. The Republican senators are campaigning in packed sports bars where their supporters are largely maskless.
Meanwhile, Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight organization is hosting a Rock the Runoff Virtual Concert Dec. 3 so supporters can watch the show from the safety of a digital screen. Announced for the fundraiser are out-of-state hip-hop stars John Legend and Common, as well as the Georgia grown Indigo Girls. The performances follow a string of celebrity endorsements and virtual events, including an appearance this month by Abrams during an Instagram Live rap battle between Atlanta’s Gucci Mane and Jeezy for the Versuz series.
Despite the high-profile shift to digital campaigning, Abramowitz said he expects traditional voter mobilization efforts are still likely the most effective. For the next month, campaigns will likely heavily rely on phone banking and postcards, although there might be a limited amount of door knocking, too. Georgians can also expect an avalanche of political advertisements. The New York Times reports $231 million had gone towards television ads as of last week, an amount that has “surpassed the spending in the entire primary and general Senate elections combined.”
One staple of Iowa media coverage you probably won’t see much of in Georgia during the next month is the news feature on the quaint local restaurant or report from the watering hole where political reporters wind down.
Brian Maloof, the owner of Manuel’s Tavern, typically a popular media and political hangout in Atlanta, has set up tables outside as he’s adapted to greatly reduced indoor seating capacity.
In pre-COVID times, Midtown Atlanta’s Manuel’s Tavern would be packed for key moments in Georgia’s twin U.S. Senate runoffs. The weekend after Thanksgiving management hired a sign spinner to let passersby know the nearly vacant beer hall was open. (John McCosh/Georgia Recorder)
Maloof said Manuel’s will likely see an influx of people on the night of Jan. 5 in anticipation of election night results. Due to COVID, the restaurant only allowed one-third of customers to fill its inside dining rooms, but about 200 people watched election results come in on the big screen from the parking lot on Nov. 3 when the temperature was about 60 degrees. It was the restaurant’s busiest night since March when COVID-19 forced businesses to shut down. Comparatively, Maloof says thousands of people packed the parking lot for the 2016 presidential election.
Even with COVID-restrictions limiting in-person gathering, though, Maloof says the significance of the runoffs will no doubt draw viewers to his TV screens one more time in an election season like no other.
“The balance of power for the United States is going to hinge on what happens in the state of Georgia,” Maloof said. “The whole world is watching.”
Habersham EMC officials say a tree is responsible for a string of overnight power outages that affected more than a thousand of its members.
The outages first occurred late Sunday night in the Batesville and Sautee areas of northern Habersham and White counties. A few dozen other outages were reported early Monday in Rabun County.
In some cases, members went without electricity for several hours as crews worked to isolate the problem and restore service.
HEMC crews fully restored service before dawn Monday.
Wild hog memes have been circulating to laughs on social media lately, but there’s nothing funny about the damage they can do.
Feral swine are reported to live in all of Georgia’s 159 counties, likely only trailing the massive feral swine populations in Texas and Florida. The Georgia Association of Conservation Districts calls feral swine “one of the greatest invasive species challenges facing Georgia.”
Crop damage from feral swine (photo by Tyler Campbell, USDA)
State conservation officials estimate that last year alone feral swine caused $150 million in damage to Georgia’s agricultural crops and natural resources.
The Upper Chattahoochee River Soil and Water Conservation District offers feral swine trapping services for residents of Habersham, White, Lumpkin, Dawson, and Forsyth counties. Since March, the area SWCD has captured 46 hogs. Over 1,600 have been captured statewide.
The Upper Chattahoochee River SWCD board would like to see more people participate in the program to help cut down on the feral swine population.
Landowners and farmers who are experiencing problems with wild hogs should contact their local Hog Control Custodians. In Northeast Georgia, call Nathan Turner at (770) 654-9686.
This map depicts in pink the Conservation Districts that currently have hog trapping programs. (Source: GACD)
Pictured from right to left: Mike Bramlett, Madi Nix, and Randy Haney
Help spread the howliday cheer this year (and get on Santa’s nice list!)
The Habersham Humane Society and Habersham County Animal Care & Control are joining forces to provide low-cost spay and neuter to our community. You can help by donating to their GA Gives Day fundraiser on Tuesday, December 1.
Visit https://www.gagives.org/story/U0tvnf to donate. Also, visit Now Habersham’s Facebook page hourly from 1-5 p.m. on December 1st as HCACC Director Madi Nix gives away donated gifts to top donors.
Then, on Saturday, Dec. 5, bring your pets to the Habersham Animal Shelter for a Drive-Thru Rabies Clinic and photo with the Grinch.
Already got your rabies shots? Then get a shot of you with your pets during the shelter’s “Howliday” photo fundraiser.
All proceeds will benefit the shelter. Photo sessions are limited. Call 478-216-8464 for an appointment.
The Pileated Woodpecker is striking in its coloring and top notch. (Photo by Craig Taylor)
Last Sunday, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise. The sun glimmered off the tree limbs that had lost their leaves. The evergreens’ color vibrantly stuck out among the bare trees, bringing life to the scene. The whole picture was gorgeous and I thanked God that we get to live in such a place of beauty. I’m grateful.
On the way to church, a Belted Kingfisher flew directly in front of our car. I’ve only seen one on one other occasion, and never in Clarkesville, so that was a wonderful surprise.
The Belted Kingfisher is not always easy to see, much less photograph. (Photo by Craig Taylor)
Then, we saw a Pileated Woodpecker, a stunningly beautiful bird that I haven’t seen often. I thanked God that those birds showed up in such a way so we couldn’t miss seeing them. They were both extraordinary in that moment. I was grateful to be there at those specific and special moments in time.
The Pileated Woodpecker is usually seen deep in the woods, drumming on dead trees. (Photo by Craig Taylor)
The year 2020 has been a bust for so many reasons. Our parents are not able to do the things they’ve enjoyed. Their lives have become limited and often disappointing. Our kids haven’t been to our house since last Christmas. We feel the loss of getting with our family on special occasions. But we’re all healthy. We have the ability to be together virtually. I’m grateful that we’re safe and that the bonds of our family are made stronger through absence.
I don’t want what I’ve lost this year to prevent me seeing what I have. So, here’s my list of what I’m most grateful this year.
I’m grateful for our families, and for how I’ve seen God strengthen those relationships during this time.
I’m grateful that we were able to be present in June when our six-year-old granddaughter was baptized in a swimming pool after she made her profession of faith. She wasn’t willing to wait for COVID to be over before she did that.
I’m grateful to be part of a church family who loves each other and our community well. I’m grateful that God has led us to this place at this time and made our lives better for it.
I’m grateful for friends, both old and new, who have made life in the pandemic tolerable. Life is better with friends–either in person or virtually or through texts or social media.
I’m grateful that God opened the door this year for me to join the Now Habersham staff and for the challenges He places before me as a writer. And I’m so grateful for the skills of Craig Taylor, our friend who shares his knowledge, expertise, and photos with Bob and me as new birders and with this column. I couldn’t do what I do in Confessions of a Rookie Birder if Craig didn’t have a personal library of photos he’s taken over the years that he’s willing to share.
Above all, I’m grateful because I know that God is sovereign–He is greater than coronavirus and greater than any struggles the virus has created. He is greater than everything. And like the evergreens that haven’t changed even as all the trees around them do, God is constant and unchanging. His presence is with us as surely as the evergreens keep their color year-round. What an amazing gift to us that is.
I’m grateful for so much. What are you grateful for this year?
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