Monday

Well this has been a busy day that started around 6:30 this morning when I rolled out. After my quiet time and a bowl of cereal with a peach, banana, wine berries and blue berries I got ready to head over to Helen's too work on her shop door. I checked it out on Friday and determined the anchor board for the chain assembly had pulled away from the frame causing the door to hang up when opening and closing. I aligned it up and tried to drive the large spikes back into the frame but finally put some large screws into the anchor board, that seemed to work and the door moves smoothly once again. On the way out her driveway I noticed what at first I thought was a black snake curled up but on closer inspection I determined it was a pile of bear scat(poop) that resembled a large pile of black berry seeds. She has tons of wild black berries and her neighbor Odell Wright saw a black bear just across the field from her on Saturday evening checking out his grapes. Yikes a bear in the 'hood.

After getting back from Helen's we got ready for our daily hike to the top of the mountain. It was another warm day with high humidity and as we crossed over onto the front road the heat was becoming intense, sort of like a typical Florida day in the summer. I was wringing wet with sweat by the time we got home and I could feel my tummy growling so we made a tuna salad with lots of fresh lettuce, cukes, olives, pickles and herbs. I headed out to rotor-till my garlic patch after lunch and then spread some compost on top as I'm getting ready to sow garlic seeds for next years crop. I probably harvested 20-30 garlic bulbs and have them drying under the back porch. I then rotor-tilled the weedy areas in the lower garden before a sudden thunder storm ran me into the basement and shed. While waiting on the rain I took off the riding mower blades and sharpened them, then changed the oil in the mower as well.

I next worked on changing the regulator on my gas grille as its been making a loud noise while cooking. I had to change out the side burner valve as well which required some country boy engineering but it worked and now I'm back into the grilling business. The rain finally let up so I started to weed whack the yards and got about 2/3 Rd's complete when Nancy called me for supper. I headed into the lower garden on the way in an cut a small head of cabbage which she cooked in the microwave, wow was that ever tasty and so mild. While waiting to eat I spoke with Paw Paw in D.C. and he sounded good except for his desire to get back home or at least back to W.Va. Glad to hear he's coming along as it was 2 weeks today he had triple by-pass. We also had some fresh new potato's with parsley and sliced tomato's to go along with the cabbage. Yeow was that ever a great meal and no meat for a change.

After supper I finished weed whacking including all the trees in the back woods yard; the skies by now have started to clear with some blue overhead and the humidity seemed to have disappeared also,so we headed out on another walk. This time we stayed in the road down to the creek at The Heglars then walked back, wow it was another good workout. When we got back I decided it was time to burn trash so I got a fire going and burned two large bags plus picked up sticks and limbs from the back woods yard. I finally headed in around 9 PM and hit the shower.

It's been a busy but fun day and tomorrow is starting to look like it might be busy as well. The rain cooled things off and helped the garden. I picked 2 really nice size Zucchini's; perfect for a pie later this week. LATER