The high today is only going to be 55 and it's supposed to rain all.day.long. Of course, this is also the first weekend the Leslie Beach Club pool is open for business. I had hoped to go swimming, but I am sitting here next to a window open just a crack and freezing half to death.
Michael and I went to Home Depot yesterday and got bags of mushroom compost and dirt to put in the side bed. I didn't move any of my seedlings over there yet, though. I figured they might drown in the 3-4 inches of rain we're supposed to get this weekend! Hopefully the water will settle all the new dirt and compost into the bed, though. I composted out there some this past winter, too, and I've seen worms in the dirt, which is a great sign.
Obviously I am descended from farming folks.
FAMILY HISTORY
I have always been fascinated by history, and I was quite excited to do a little research yesterday and learn that my grandfather R.E. Butler came from a distinguished South Carolina family that included Matthew Calbraith Butler. He lost a foot during the Civil War but still had a distinguished legal career and served three terms in the United States Senate.
I need to do some more research and figure out the exact link between R.E. Butler and these SC folks.
My grandfather Robert E. Butler was the son of William Thomas [Tom] Butler, and the family business was the Butler Marble and Granite Company. My great uncle B.A. Butler moved to South Carolina and started his own Marble Company in 1908.
My cousin Steve posted this, which is quite cool:
"This is a statue of Prof. W.M. Grier, past president of Erskine College in Due West, SC. This monument was created by the Butler Marble and Granite Company at a cost of $1,500 and unveiled on June 8, 1903. These photos were sent by Mr. Cliff Smith at Erskine--- just today!"
Another statue made of Butler marble is in Covington Georgia, in the center of town, and I was less than 100 feet from it a couple of years ago and didn't even know the history of it:
Steve posted this: The
July 20, 1905 edition of the Marietta Daily Journal reported "The
Butler Marble and Granite Company has just received an order for a large
and handsome monument from the Jefferson Lamar Camp, No. 305, Confederate Veterans to be erected at Covington, GA"...and here it is!
About ten years ago, I went to a house in Marietta that had been owned by my great grandfather, and had just been sold to a business. It was not in great shape inside but was obviously being renovated. There were marble pieces everywhere in the house, and marble paths outside. It was pretty eerie to be there where my family had lived, decades before.
I took a lot of photos and sent copies to my cousin Lisa, who was doing a lot of family research at that time.
It fascinates me.
My great great grandmother, [wearing glasses] and some of her children.
