Author: Gracie Latrelle

My Georgia grandma has made this simple mac & cheese recipe for generations. Out of all of her mac & cheese recipes, I have to say that this recipe has been one of my personal favorite recipes of her’s and it is super simple to make!

Ingredients:
1 Cup of Elbow Pasta

1 1/2 Cup of Milk (If mixure is still too thick for your preference add more milk).\

4oz of Velveeta Cheese

2 Tablespoon of Flour

3 Tablespoon of Salted Butter

Cooking Directions:

Bring about 2 Cups of water on the stove to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add two teaspoons of salt into the boiling water and add the pasta.

Stir the pasta into the salted water and let the mixture boil to your preferred package’s cooking time.

Once the elbow pasta is cooked, take a strainer and strain the water out of the pasta.

Add your milk, butter, flour, salt and pepper back into the kettle.

Cook this mixture until it thickens and becomes bubbly then add your cheese (be sure to cube your cheese for faster cooking time).

Take your pasta that you just drained and place it back into the cheese mixture and mix well.

Place the mac and cheese mixture into a oven safe dish and cook on 350 in the oven until the top of the mac and cheese becomes golden brown.

I hope that you guys enjoy my Georgia grandmother’s simple mac & cheese. When we see this was being served as a snack or meal, a smile truly ran across each of our little faces.

Baby birds are hatching inside of their nests all around us right now.

“Fledglings,” are baby birds that fly out of their nests and are beginning to learn how to be an adult bird with mom and dad assisting when help is needed. They are beginning their new life outside of the nest!

So how do you tell whether or not a baby bird is of need of assistance or if it has just fledged the nest? Here are a few ways that you can tell the difference! (Remember if you think that the bird needs human intervention call The Georgia Department of Natural Resources they will tell you what to do next.)

One of the easiest ways to tell if a bird has just fledged the nest is by its feathers! Nestlings normally often have bare skin exposed or are only covered in fuzzy down while fledglings are most of the well feathered and are hopping around on the ground while trying to fly.

You may think that this sounds dangerous for the baby bird to learn how to fly but don’t worry as mom nor dad take their sights off of their baby during this time.

Another way that is easy to tell the difference between a fledgling and a nestling is a nestling has wing feathers that look very similar to tubes. This is because the feathers have not broke through their protective sheaths yet. Fledglings have short tail and wing feathers.

I hope that these tips were helpful! Happy birding everyone!

The Tipton Place was previously a part of a 640-acre land parcel which was obtained by William “Fighting Billy” Tipton under the Tennessee Land Grant in the 1820’s.

William’s land later covered most of the valley floor of Cades Cove through other land grants and while he never lived inside of the cove, he was the first recorded legal landowner.

William sold his land to his friends and family members including his grandson who built the two-story cabin which can still be seen today. The cabin was built in the 1870’s.

Hamp Tipton’s daughters Lucy and Lizzie lived inside of the cove until they reached adulthood and were schoolteachers.

In 1878, the home was rented to James McCaulley, and he built his own homestead that included a blacksmith shop and a carpentry shop.

In 1895, Hamp Tipton passed away and his estate was sold to Reverend William H. Oliver. The Oliver family remained on the homestead until Cades Cove was purchased by the National Park Service.

Cades Cove is home to lots of incredible sights from the scenery to the wildlife all the way to the historic cabins and homeplaces. One of many cabins that visitors can visit while driving through is John Olivers Cabin which is the first cabin and homeplace on the loop.

The exhibit was made possible by a grant from the company Aurora Foods, which are the makers of Log Cabin Syrup.

John Oliver’s Cabin is one of the oldest cabins in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The exact year that the cabin was built is unknown, but it was built in the early 1820’s.

The Oliver’s were some of the first Euro-Americans to settle inside Cades Cove. The John and Lucretia Oliver arrived in Cades Cove in 1818.

The cabin was built with surprisingly no nails or pegs but instead was built with the help of gravity. The Oliver’s used notched corners to make the cabin stand upright. This helped to weatherproof the cabin since they could place chinking materials between the cabin’s wooden slats. Each of the cabin’s 3,000 shakes (wooden shingles) were made by hand and the doors to the cabin were built small to help conserve the heat and to minimize having to cut the structural logs.

Members of the Oliver family lived here in the Cove for centuries until the land was sold to the government for the National Park.

To this day millions of visitors of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and visitors of Cades Cove can truly appreciate and admire the hard work that John and the Olivers put into this cabin and the next time you put that delicious Log Cabin Syrup on your pancakes be sure to remember their generosity for giving their grant for John Oliver’s Cabin!

With us welcoming the year 2025 in the great state of Tennessee it is safe to say the Spring is on its way and so are the hummingbirds!

You will see more hummingbirds during the mid-Summer when baby hummingbirds begin to fledge and during the Fall when they are preparing to migrate back South for the Winter. It is still very important though to welcome our feather friends back with some fresh sweet nectar this Spring!

So when will our feathered friends arrive back to the volunteer state? Tennessee should welcome its earliest arrivals by late March. However, even though they are returning this early you may not see them right away. It may take around two more weeks for you to see the first hummingbird.

The migrating hummingbirds will continue to return and travel through the state of Tennessee until around mid-May.

From early May to July, the hummingbirds will be busy raising their young. Ruby-Throated Hummingbird pairs may reuse their nest from last year’s breeding season or build a new nest.

Female hummingbirds will begin to lay their eggs in the first of May through the second half of the month.

By the end of May, hummingbird nests will be filled with darling baby hummingbirds!

The babies will remain in the nest until they are around 2 weeks old. Then they will begin to appear outside of the nest by mid-June.

During the nesting season you may see less activity from the hummingbirds but do not fear as they are just truly too busy with their young to visit the feeder. However, always keep your feeders stocked during this time because the hummingbirds depend on this nectar to care for their young.

In 1995, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service downlisted the Bald Eagle to threatened and in 1999 proposed the species to be taken of the Endangered Species List. In 2007 the Bald Eagle was officially removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species.

However, in Georgia, Bald Eagles are still considered to be a threatened species through the Georgia Endangered Wildlife Act but are making record nesting comebacks each year! In 2007, Georgia only had 100 occupied nesting sites in the entire state. Now that number has doubled to over 200 hundred occupied nests in the state and over 227 Eaglets hatched and fledged just last year!

DNR (The Department of Wildlife Resources) monitors each nest by helicopter at least twice a year to check up on the Eagles and make sure that the nests are healthy and active. They use binoculars to get a close sight on the nest without having to get too close or disturb its occupants. They visit the nests once in the month of January to determine occupancy and again in March and April to check on the Eaglets.

Bald Eagles are protected by The Bald and Golden Eagle Act so any interference of their nest, eggs or feathers can and will result in jail time and a fine up to $100,000 and up to $200,000 for organizations.

It is extremely important to alert your local Department of Wildlife Resources if you spot a Bald Eagles nest not only for research purposes but to also protect the nest and its occupants as each nest is truly important on the survival of the species.

Here is some of the common southern phrases that you will only hear here in the South. I hope you enjoy! Comment your favorite southern phrase!

“She has her nose so high up in the air she could drown in a rainstorm!”

“That man is just too big for his britches!”

“Her pants were so tight I could see her religion!”

“He’s pitching a hissy fit!”

“She’s stuck up higher than a light pole”

“Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!”

“Bless your heart!” For reference can be used sarcastically or truthfully.

“Just hold your horses!”

“He thinks the sun comes up just to here him crow!”

“Quit Being Ugly!” Another words “Quit being so mean!”

“She’s pitching a hissy fit!”

“He’s three sheets to the wind!”

“She’s madder than an ole wet hen!”

“He’s as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine!”

“If you don’t hush I am gonna tan your hide!”

“She’s sweatin’ like a floosie in church!”

“I am bleedin’ like a stuck pig!”

“As the crows fly!”

“That dog won’t hunt.”

“Just hush!”

“He could eat corn through a picket fence!”

“I reckon so.”

“He is drunk as Cooter Brown.”

“Were living in high cotton!”

“That picture is cattywampus”

“Over yonder there is a hill.”

“It’s blowin’ up a storm.”

“That doesn’t make a hill of beans difference.”

“Good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise”

“It is raining cats and dogs out there.”

“I am full as a tick.”

“Gimme some sugar.”

“I am about to fly off of the handle.”

“Well that is the pot calling the kettle black.”

“Aren’t you precious?!”

“I am worn slap out.”