TORR moves to the Brockholes Nature Reserve

Well TORR has moved 6.7 miles from his resting spot "at the other end of the ditch" to his new temporary spot at Brockholes series 5.  That puts his total travel miles up to 4,028.6 miles to date. Brockholes is a nature reserve located just outside of Lancashire, England.  It looks like another fabulous place to enjoy the scenery.  Brockholes Nature Reserve was reopened to the public in 2011.  It has one of England's only floating villages.  Check out the link to read more about it.

Again if you are not familiar with Geocaching it is the largest treasure hunt in the world.  A great way for your family to add adventure to you travels or to get out of the house and enjoy the spring weather.  It really is a pretty cool thing to do.

If you want an easy one to start with, stop by our office we have our own "OLD RED"  just waiting for you.  Once you find old red stop in for a cold beverage or just to say hi.  We love to hear about all your Geocaching adventures. 

If you are looking to buy a home please come by Mountain Aire Realty we would love to help you find  your own treasure here in the mountains.

Circle of Excellence Awards Luncheon

Mountain Aire Realty would like to congratulate the following agents for their achievements through the 2012 sales year.   Kirbi Smith for her achievement in reaching the Lifetime Award for the Circle of Excellence.  To Cindy Ryals and Brian Wilder for their Bronze level Circle of Excellence Award.  And lastly and most deserving  Donna Mousa was awarded the Gold level Circle of Excellence and in addition the top producer for Gilmer County.

Mountain Aire Realty is proud to have such a decorated crew working for them.  While we are small in numbers we are big in sales.

Stop by the office and talk to anyone of our agents for any of your real estate needs or go to our website to view the most current listings.

TORR is in the ditch

Well I just received word that our Geo tracker TORR has a new temporary (lets hope it is a short visit) home.  TORR has moved some 37 miles to the other end of the ditch.  This geocache is located in the NW England, Great Britain.  Looks like a great place to take a rest from the road. 

We have really enjoyed our geocaching adventure.  If you are not familiar with Geocaching, please go to their website and learn all about it.  If you want to have a good starter cache check out our "old red" or if you like stop by our office and we would love to talk to you about anything from geocaching to buying your perfect mountain home. 

Brian

GEOCACHING: Torr goes to Europe

Well we have exciting news about our Geotracker TORR.  He has found his way to the NW corner of the United Kingdom (click this link to see where he is).  He has now traveled over 3,983 miles.  Here are some more photos of the area and the folks that brought Torr Photos.  Thanks Billy Bones Chest for this awesome adventure.  We can't wait to see where he ends up next.

For those of you not familiar with Geocaching.  Please visit the geocaching website to learn all about the adventure.  Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.  The best part it is free and a great time for family and friends to explore new worlds.

Stay tuned for Torr's next adventure.  Not bad in 3 short months to have gone from Ellijay, GA to the UK.

If you are in the Ellijay area please stop by Mountain Aire Realty and we would be glad to help you get on your Geocaching adventure.

GEOCACHING UPDATE!

Torr is on the move.  Our geotrackable has started his adventure and is now about 15 miles from it's home.  It is in Blue Ridge, GA.  See if you can be the next to find him and continue his journey.  We hope to get many more updates on Torr's travels.

Since we started our geocache we have had 18 tracked finds.  That is really exciting.  We have received really great comments and have really enjoyed folks coming in and telling us stories of their cache adventures.  So if you are looking for something to do.  Log on to geocaching.com and get our coordinates.  Stop buy, take some goodies, see what others have left and stop in and let us know about your adventures.

If your looking for homes in the area please visit our website to find your treasure.

GEOCACHING What a Find!

You say you want an adventure but don't know where to start?  Have you heard about GEOCACHING?  I never had until a friend told me about it (thanks Judy!).   Well basically it is a worldwide treasure hunt.  People (and even you) can hide something anywhere you want post it on the geochaching website and then others try to find it using GPS coordinates (have a smart phone will travel).  They can range from very easy to quit difficult hunts.  Once you have done your best "Balboa adventure" and found the geocache, enter your results on the website.  Then it's off on your next adventure.  It is amazing how many of these hidden gems are just around the corner in your own neighborhood.  You can take day, weekend trips or even whole vacations around these.  It is a great way to explore areas in a whole new way and see things that you may never have seen before. 

While you are searching for you geocache why not let us search for your own mountain treasure or just go to the Mountain Aire Realty website and start your own house hunting adventure.  Stop by our office for some refreshment and let us know how your geocaching is going.   Come up and enjoy your geocache adventure here in Ellijay.  Checkout our video of some of the local scenes in our area.

561 Worley Crossroads

Check out our new listing in Jasper, GA 30143.

Take a look at the video and if you want more information contact us at mountianaire@ellijay.com or call us at 706 276-1122.

My Animoto Video

Holiday Wishes

We here at Mountain Aire Realty are very greatful for all of our customers and clients. We would like to take the time and say a heartwarm thankyou to each and every one of them. We wish the best of the holiday season to all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What are all those bugs????

I was sitting at my desk yesterday and looked out the window. There were all kinds of bugs flying around the yard and all over the back porch. Amazed, I told Brian to look out his window at all the bugs. We thought we were getting taken over by locusts! At first I thought it was carpenter bees flying around. I decided to go catch one of the bugs to see what it was. When I stepped on the porch, a bug flew by my head and I heard a constant buzz. I caught one of these bugs and found that it had a very colorful green back to it. I discovered then it was a June bug!

June Bugs are known in this area to be a trouble maker for gardeners. They fly into many things including windows and sides of houses during their flights because they fly so fast and are clumsy. They like to be out during days eating vegetables and fruit. After their busy flights during the day they return to their home in the ground. They also lay their eggs in the ground about 2 to 5 inches below the soil surface.

So next time you look out your window in the summer and see many bugs flying around, you can determine if they are June bugs!

Creek Front Cabin with awesome front yard

This property is very special. With lots of frontage on Fightingtown Creek, great for trout fishing, tubing, kayaking or just plain old cooling off in. A large front yard for entertaining, playing games and even room for a garden spot. Lots of decks overlook the yard and creek. Relax and enjoy the sounds of nature. The cabin has 3 bedrooms/2 baths and has been professionally decorated. Large windows in the living room offer great views of the back hill. Perfect for deer watching. This property has a great rental history check out VRBO if you are interested in renting this property for the weekend or longer. A great way to "test drive" before you buy. If you would like more information or pictures please go to our website. You can also watch a video on Utube.

Brian

Is It a Log Cabin?

The answer is "Probably not". Many folks who come up to our area to find a vacation or a full time home tell me that they are looking for a log cabin. Up here there are log cabins and then there are "log sided" cabins. There's a world of difference between them. A true log or full log cabin is constructed with whole logs of different shapes, D-Logs, C-Logs, and full round Logs and more. It has no framing in the outside walls and because of this, they are far more complicated to build construction wise.
The most common "log" cabin up here is a "log-sided" cabin. It is a frame built home with log siding as the exterior covering. A log sided home requires the same staining up keep as a true log home does.
What difference does it make? It depends on what you want. A true log home typically will be more expensive because of the logs and the construction complexities. You will need to research and decide what is best for you. Please call me at Mountain Aire and I'll be happy to discuss it with you.
OK, so how do you tell what you are looking at? Look at the corners. If the corner of the house is flat and straight on both sides, it's log sided. If the logs stick out on both sides as in the photos, it's a true log home. It is possible to fake full log corners but it is almost never done as it is not worth the expense.

WHAT IS THAT FUNNY LOOKING BOX? QR CODES

Ever see those funny looking boxes that look like bar scanners? Wondering what they are? Well they are called "QR" codes and you use with your smart phone. Some phones have a QR code reader built in if not you can always download a app for reading them (check your phone app world). When you use the QR code app, all you do is take of picture of the QR code and it automatically takes you to a website/video or what ever else the code they wanted you see. They are great for getting more information about products you are shopping for or ways for Realtors promoting their houses for sale as well, so you will see more and more QR codes on real estate advertising. You can make your own QR codes and add them to emails, show pictures, videos or other items that you have uploaded to a website such as www.YouTube.com or www.snapfish.com.

Go ahead try the two codes I have included and see what happens. I hope this has help answer your question as to what those funny looking boxes are. Don't be afraid to use them. They provide a world of knowledge (cyberworld that is).

Looking for homes in the North Georgia Mountains, go to our website and have a look for what is new in the market.

Brian

GARDEN SHOP OPENS IN BIG RED BARN

After four months of hard work The Mountain Ridge Garden Shop has opened, just in time for Spring,Summer. After four years, Penny Trentman and Sue Johnson moved there shop from South Main Street to the red barn at First and River Street in Ellijay. The space is much larger so they can expand there gardning product lines as business grows. Educational classes will be conducted on a variety of related subjects. Call or stop by for more information.

Lightening-how far away is it?

Well I am sitting here at work on a raining lightening filled morning. I big bolt of lightening lit up the morning sky and then a little while later the rumbling of thunder came waifing through. That got me to thinking "I wonder how far away that was?". Well I racked my brain and could not remember do you count to 3, 5 or 7 to figure out the distance and you know, I could not remember. So I went to Wikihow and found the following:
http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-the-Distance-from-Lightning
There method is to count the time from when you first see the lightening to when you first hear the thunder. Take that time and divide by 5. That should give you the rough estimate of how far the lightning is away. So for example if you see the lightening and then count 10 seconds before hearing the thunder that would put it about 2 miles away. Now if I can just remember the 5 I should be good to tell the distance.
I then got to wondering what should you do to avoid getting struck by lightning. Again I went to Widihow and found the following:
http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Getting-Hit-by-Lightning. Well I hope this has been interesting and helpful. I'm getting under my desk now as the storm is really kicking up. If you want to look at Real Estate I would not suggest driving around today, how about just going to our Mountain Aire Realty website, staying indoors and enjoying the warm dry confines of you house. See you on a sunnier day.

Brian

2010 NE GA Board of Realtors Awards Banquet

The NE GA Board of Realtors held their 21st Annual Awards Banquet Friday February 25, 2011. The highlight of the evening was Donna Mousa brought home three separate awards: Top Produce for entire Board, Top Producer for Glimmer County and Platinum Circle Of Excellence Award. In addition, Mountain Aire Realty also took home more hardware when Kirbi Smith and Scottie Flynn each where recognized with Bronze Circle of Excellence award plaques. We here are Mountain Aire Realty are so thrilled to have these three award winners as apart of our team. It goes to show that even though we are a small office people wise, we can produce amazing numbers. We invite everyone to stop by for a cup of coffee and talk to any of our agents with any of your real estate needs.