Wednesday

Well I woke up after 7 AM this morning for a change, actually felt good to sleep in except I was dreaming about taking a seminar for motorcycle riding; I know that was a dream as I've investigated my share of m/c fatalities over the 30 years I spent with the patrol. It sure was nice to wake up and realize this was just a night mare. After my quiet and of bowl of cereal with; banana, wine berries and blue berries. Yikes did that ever taste good but not nearly as tasty as the French toast of yesterday.

I headed to the basement to put some long pants and boots on as I was heading to Ms. Helen's place on our mountain top. We have an agreement that I will give her half the blue berries I pick from her patch. I also volunteered to clean the briar's and trash bushes out as well. I picked about a quart of berries but spent the next hour or so in the hot sun cleaning, clipping and hauling the trash down from the patch. The briar's are a real problem as they are the kind which just reaches out and grabs you. When I left the patch my shirt was soaking wet and even my socks were damp from the sweat, yikes was it ever HOT and on top of that the mosquitoes, gnats and deer flies loved to buzz your eyes and ears.

I changed clothes to some shorts and a dry shirt before we took off on our hike for the day and decided we would stay off the front road as the heat was really building and beside there is no shade. We stopped at Joe and Jetta's and sat a spell as Joe told us about the bee's nest above his garage door. Last evening when we walked I noticed they were Yellow Jacket Bee's but he didn't think so, well long story short a couple of them popped him today so he took my advice and destroyed the nest. Those are mean and nasty insects and I have no fondness for them and now he believes me. I took him a spoon tomato which was good for a chuckle and a head of cabbage from my garden.

We came back and I cut lettuce and Nancy made an awesome lunch of homemade bread with mayo, sliced tomato, sliced onion and lettuce, WOW that is the best ever sandwich. We just chilled after lunch as the heat was up into the low 80's again, this has been the hottest summer so far and for such a long time. We took it easy and read until it was time to get ready to head out with Helen and Joe to Galax to do some shopping and have supper at a home cooking restaurant called Flossie's. The meal was good and reasonably priced. Afterwards we headed to Lowes and then to Wal-Mart before heading home. The evening had slipped away and it was going on 8 o'clock by the time we headed in the drive. It was still 90 degrees when we left Galax; but the temp had dropped down to a pleasant 77 when we started up the drive. I watered the upper garden and I'm going to add some Epsom salt to the tomato's and peppers to see if that will help with production.

Just an up date on Paw Paw as I spoke with him around lunch time. He was waiting to be transferred back to the Martinsburg, W.Va. Veterans Hospital. Hopefully that went through for him, and as well as for those who live close to there. LATER