Friday

Well the day started a little earlier than the last week as we rolled out about 7:30. Yea, I know that's late but better than 8:30. Anyhow it was about 10 degrees warmer this AM than the past couple days and even reached 75 today for a high. After our quiet times and a couple brown eggs for breakfast I headed out to check on the gardens. Once again the deer have left us alone. I wonder if the smell of Marigolds may be having some effect. I have them planted everywhere in the garden and they are loaded with flowers. Never before have I had so many. I probably brought 50 small seedlings with me from Florida last May when we came up and now they are huge with 30 and 40 blooms per plant. Hopefully that is the reason.

My upper thighs were a little sluggish this morning and Nancy wasn't feeling all that great either so we skipped the morning hike and I took one after supper alone. Norman, my senior friend on top gets me a dozen free range brown eggs weekly so I walked up to his place to pick up the eggs after supper. I worked on my fertilizer spreader as the shaft broke on Tuesday while sowing grass seed with lime. I took it apart and found the little plastic shaft that causes the spreader wheel to revolve while moving had broken into. I took a bolt and ran through the plastic shaft. Works good as new so far. After fixing the spreader I loaded up the grubbing hoe, shovel and rake and headed down below the front yard to dig topsoil for the yard. I dug about 10 golf cart loads and spread it by hand in some of the lower areas. As the day wore on it got warmer and warmer until I had a wet shirt. I dug up 2 maple trees about 15 feet in height each and transplanted them to the lower edge of the side yard.Hopefully they will help hold the yard that I filled in with topsoil. I stayed with this project until about 4 PM.

Nancy suggested I head out on the golf cart to check the mail. I took the pitchfork to clear up some of the debris that had accumulated from the last logger who used our road and left it a mess. Meanwhile I ran into Sandy and John also on their golf cart from up on top of the mountain. Next I saw Donna Hudson who I hadn't seen since last year. She and husband Carl have been on the go all summer plus they have a house near Myrtle Beach, S.C.Well I spent about an hour clearing limbs and rocks from the road. When I got back Nancy was working on supper. The aroma of tortilla soup drifted from the kitchen and soon had my appetite whetted. This is an excellent soup made with chicken breasts cubed, carrots, jalapeno peppers, garlic, onion, celery, chicken broth and diced tomato's. It's served with cheese on top, sour cream(optional) and tortilla chips. It has cumin, lemon pepper, chili powder as part of the seasoning. YUMM!!!

After supper I hand watered the gardens again as it has been 5 days since we have had any measurable rain.The garden is still producing so it needs a drink, daily. Well I burned the trash accumulated from the past several days so Nancy played in the fire while I watered. Well I didn't have as an exciting day as the past couple days;but it was a great day for being outside. LATER.