TEA PARTIES, POTTY CHAIRS, POOH (the bear), HUNDRED ACRE WOODS, and LIQUOR STILLS

You'll never guess what this post is about. Ahhh, I believe the title gave the answer away.  Quite the haphazard variety of topics, eh?

Here's how they all fit together:

 

We packed up our little Pooh lover and took her to the wilds of Troup County on Saturday evening.  

Once we had a good night's sleep and shook off the driving dust and brain cobwebs, our dainty little tea partier wanted to practice her genteel sipping skills and table manners... (only one tea cup was sacrificed in the process! hopefully, Gabba Gabba can glue it back together.)

 

 

And after all the "tea" (orange juice), this is where the potty chair comes in... 

Gabba Gabba has an antique potty chair (complete with porcelain chamber pot), that is just Evie's size. Although the vintage 100-year-old handmade wooden potty chair is not nearly as fashionable as the breathtaking "Cushy for My Tushy" portable plastic potty chair that Momma Peach purchased at Babies R'Us, the antique potty chair serves the same purpose.

There's no telling how many little tushies have graced
this porcelain throne in the last 100 years.
We hope only the good 'Potty Karma' from
the previous generations of toddlers is passed to Evie.
(hahaha... get it? "Passing" Karma?... okay, never mind.)

After the Pooh party, the tea party, and the potty party, we decided to take a walk in the woods.  

Evie's great-great grandparents' land is in a beautiful area of West Georgia that luckily hasn't been touched much by developers.  It's our very own Hundred Acre Woods we can play in -  just like Pooh does!

All right, Uncle Battle... where's the tree with the honey pot?

 
The forest has a small serpentine-like stream that trickles its way through the woods and makes for fun play areas, waterfalls, and provides lots of pebble throwing opportunities.

This Hundred Acre wood has quite the history to it. 

Grandaddy likes to say that our ancestors were "Chemical Engineers"... but in reality, many of them were good old fashioned "spirit makers" (yup, this is where the liquor part of this blog post come into play):

Law officers destroying a moonshine still in Gordon County, GA 1922.
I can only imagine the scene was much the same in these Troup County woods.

Inspecting the giant hole in the ground,
where a liquor still used to be "many moons ago."

"Spirits of the forest" take on a whole new meaning!

 Our little forest sprite with a big forest goblin:

  

Evie stomps the still!

The Happy Couple in front of their next money-making scheme: Moonshine!  
(Ha! Obviously not. Everyone knows Dadda
will brew his own beer, but stays
away from making the hard stuff.)

A few hours later, after we had returned to the safe confines of the Yankee & Peach household in 'burbs of Atlanta, we get a text message from Grandaddy and Gabba Gabba with this picture:

Yup, that bad boy was probably watching us
while we were traipsing around in the woods all morning.

I guess I should have added "Bobcats" to the title of this blog post to be completely accurate, but I was really running out of room. 

Those are some tasty looking people.
It's a Bobcat Buffet!

Editor's Note: We weren't in danger of the bobcat. There was a greater chance of one of us falling in an old liquor still hole and getting hurt than being attacked by the bobcat. However, bobcats are a menace to livestock (ie. the goats and mini horses that are often kept on property). 

2nd Editor's Note:  For those of you who are hunters, the bobcat and fox season in Georgia is 12/1/10 to 2/28/11.  So it was totally legal! Now, if we can just persuade Grandaddy to save the pelt for us, we think Evie would love a new area rug for her room.

3rd Editor's Note: If you'd like your own shiny new liquor still, they can be purchased on Amazon.com. But if you'd prefer the old-fashioned (and frugal) way to make your own moonshine, just follow this guy's directions.

(Whew!) Final Editor's Note: You  might want to check with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives before buying or selling any moonshine in the state of Georgia (or any state for that matter).
But nobody says you can't make some and enjoy it yourself!