Friday

Well the day started out with the usual wake up from my internal alarm clock at 6:30 but forced myself to stay in bed until 7. After my "spot of tea"I did my few quiet moments before having a bowl of oatmeal with a peach and a banana, then headed down to the basement for some stretching, leg lifts and push-ups. Afterwards I headed out to the gardens to check on the slug and beetle damage.The rest of the okra is just about gone so I will forgo that veggie for now and may replant it at a later date. I dusted my beans and kale with Sevin dust as I hate to use pesticides but I had to do something to stop these voracious eaters.

After hand watering I then cleaned out the old rain barrel and took some bleach to clean the mildew off the outside before deciding to paint it an off white color, wow did that ever class up, all I need now is some rain to fill it and boy do we ever need a shower or two. We decided to take our first hike of the day around 10 and when we got back we headed into Sparta. We had some trash that needed to go to the dump so after dropping that off we headed for the library and picked up a couple reads as well as a book you listen to on CD. That should help with the next trip. We then headed to Brown's restaurant after deciding Subway had just to large a line, there we had a good chef's salad and the service was quick. We next stopped at Lowes grocery, Dollar General and Hawk's produce before heading home. It was 82 in Sparta and luckily it seemed a little cooler out on the ridge at least in the shade. I moved some Zinnias up into larger pots and will put them in the ground next week.

Carson Todd came by for a visit and then neighbor Gerald came by to say he would be up the rest of the week with some buddies. Nancy and I sat down in the cool basement for awhile before getting ready to head to Helen's for supper. The day is really turning out to be a cooker but the basement is a nice 60 degrees, Ahhh!!!

We headed over to Helen's and she had her new grille on and ready for the marinated London broil as well as a baked spud, fresh salad and rolls. Supper was awesome and she made some deviled eggs to boot with a fresh strawberry pie for dessert, great eatin', thanks to our mountain mom, Helen. We had to walk around and look at the flowers before we could eat the dessert. After leaving Helen's we took a long walk on top but were nearly forced back because of thunder rumblings in the distance. We never got a drop. I fixed up the wet bar once again for my slug motel and hope these slimies go for a drunken swim later tonight.

Well its been a busy day with lots of good eatin' and its still quite warm and humid as I make this post. Hopefully we will get a shower to cool things off tonight, LATER.