Thursday

Well the day turned out to be another scorcher with high temps and a blazing sun and once again a dry evening; could we ever use a shower just to cool things off. I hand watered the gardens this evening but so far they seem to be holding up or should I say still green and producing. I picked a couple cukes today and noticed a few more cherry tomato's had started to turn a light shade of pink. The spoonies are still producing but not nearly as fast as they need to be, as a dozen of them in your salad is like a bucket of sand at the beach.

After our quiet times and a bowl of cereal with peaches, blue berries and a banana I head over to Helen's(mountain mom) to assist with Lowes delivering her upright freezer. Well Lowes was fast and they were gone by the time I got there just before 9AM so I headed over to Joe's to see if I could figure out why his phone which is on the same jack as his DSL will not work. The phone works on the jack in the next bedroom but will not work where it use to; as lightening struck the electrical receptacle but it still works but not the phone jack, anyhow that was a fruitless try but we eliminated the possibility the phone was no good. I can't for the life of me understand the phone line for the DSL works on the same jack but not the phone, we even changed the filter as well but to no avail, Oh well!!!

I headed home and we had a lite lunch before taking off on our hike to the top, wow was it ever starting to heat and fast. After the hike I starting a fire in the fire pit while Nancy filled a pot with raw peanuts, salt and water. I boiled those babies for about 4-5 hours and my oh my were they ever good eatin', so much so we had them for supper. We did manage a salad also but the main course was boiled salted peanuts. While they were cooking I headed down to neighbor Gerald's as he and the family arrived from Raleigh, wow was it ever hot down there as well with temps over a 100. I helped him move a pallet of slate rocks that will be used to finish the block walls of his cabin. We loaded several loads in the back of the golf cart and carted them down to the lower area behind the cabin, what a work horse that machine is as he was initially carrying them by hand. Luckily we were in the shade but it still was downright hot.

After the rock job was over I headed down to the basement where I continued to work on fabricating a handle for the White Mountain Ice Cream maker that I borrowed from our mountain mom. I found an old wrench with a box end that fits the nut that goes on the drive for the maker. I then took a hack saw and sawed off the open end of the tool then drilled a hole that allowed me to insert the old handle and spindle into the tool. I then crimped the handle to the tool using an 1800's anvil(my great- grandfather used during the Civil War) and now I need neighbor Gerald to arc weld the nut to the inside of the tool. Actually this crank and handle will be much stronger than the original cast handle that came with the maker; and it looks pretty good as well. If I remember I will post a photo. Well that kept me busy for a couple hours as that forged steel was hard and besides I was using all hand tools.

It was still in the 80's as supper time came so we ate light and never heated up the kitchen besides it was too hot to really enjoy a big meal. After supper I headed down to basement and strained my blackberry must and placed the liquid into (2) 1 gallon jugs where it will cook(ferment )for about 6 months. Well not much else is going on except in the morning while its still some what cool, I will help neighbor Gerald to place some large rocks(ric rack)into the drainage ditches along our private road that washes heavily when we have these down pours. He has a tractor with a front end bucket which will make it nice in the movement of these rocks from a central location to various areas along the roadway. LATER These 2 pictures are of a salad we had with Nasterium flowers which are delicious and the blue pot of raw peanuts on the fire.