Wednesday

Wow was it ever another HOT day here in what usually is the cool mountains. The temps reached 86 which is cooler than yesterday at 93, yikes it was cooler in Seminole at 73 around 4 PM than here at that time. Sure was great to see that some rain finally gave our garden and yard a drink as its been a couple weeks since any fell there; and here well I had to water the gardens after our hike to the top this evening.

The morning was much the usual as I rolled out around 6 AM, did my quiet time and finish up the leftover buckwheat cakes before heading over to Ms. Helen's for some work. I wanted to get an early start as the day was fore casted to be in the 90's again. I started sawing up several tree limbs when all of a sudden my chain froze so I had to give up after about 15 minutes. I could not see what was causing the chain not to move. After getting back to the cabin and in the cool of the basement after lunch I found the problem. The guides on the end of the saw blade were frozen because of dirt and sawdust buildup so after cleaning them out with a knife and lubricating them with some WD 40 the chain ran smoothly around the blade, so I will tackle the trees again tomorrow.

After giving up on the chainsaw I headed to her garage to shorten a workbench so she could get a freezer in her garage. That was a bigger than expected job as it was put together to last forever. After cleaning up the mess and hauling the wood pieces out to her lower shed I headed out to the driveway to put up her deer crossing sign to one of her power poles. Well I was finished at her place about 11:30 and was soaked with sweat as it felt like Florida.

I finally cooled off in the basement and now the chainsaw working again, so I headed out to the back property to fell a couple lodge pole pines for new fencing around my lower garden. Wow was it ever hot and humid so I would from time to time sneak into the basement to cool off.

Joe and Helen came for supper as Nancy had fixed much of what we were eating ahead of time so as not to heat up the kitchen anymore than necessary. She made a delicious potato salad, 1/2 runner beans, fried ham and cantaloupe with an egg custard pie for dessert.(I once again refrained from the dessert, although this was a tough choice to by pass). Supper was excellent and we all had seconds. After Joe and Helen left we cleaned up and got ready to head out for our daily hike to the top with temps still close to 80 degrees. We stopped at Norm's and I helped him move a heater down to his lower storage shed and bring a fan back up for his living area. He seems to be suffering more from his severe leg wounds because of his blood poisoning and today at the VA. they had to due another skin graft and scrape the old wound with out any anesthesia. Yikes he looked wiped out and could barely walk. After leaving Norm's we headed back down the mountain so I could drag the hose out and give all my garden beds a good drink. Last week we were over watered but today with all this heat the plants really needed a drink, LATER Here are a few pics from this week end with sister Dee and daughter Kelly and Bonnie Lu(the dog)