Friday

Well as you can tell I'm writing this post on Saturday morning after an exciting day on Friday. The morning started with heavy fog at times rolling in through the trees and hills. I actually slept in until nearly 8 AM as the stillness and the cool damp air made for great a snug sleep, yikes I can't do this everyday as I really love the early morning hours, oh well! After my quiet time and a hot mug of green tea I ate a bowl of oatmeal(boring) but spiced it up with some cinnamon, a fresh peach and a banana.

I checked on the gardens then headed out to the top as the fog made for a perfect morning to pick blueberries and to clean out some of the under growth of briar's and bushes that choke out the berry bushes at Ms. Helen's patch. Now this isn't our mountain mom but another lady who lives on top of the mountain, anyhow the fog kept the bugs from bothering me as I picked about a pint of berries and worked for about an hour before heading back down the mountain. I was on the golf cart so I picked up a load of large rocks that were in the road and deposited them in my rock pile at the lower yard. We had a lite shower but the gardens still needed some water so I hand watered until Nancy was ready for our daily hike to the top. We headed out with a jar of blackberry jelly for Norman and Ms. Helen. We never saw Norman but left in on his door and Ms. Helen was very appreciative. She said she had her quota of blue berries and the rest were mine to pick as I saw fit. We usually eat our fill and then freeze a quart or so depending on the berries.

After the hike we had our first large home grown tomato on a sandwich with onion, lettuce and mayo all from our garden. Wow was that ever tasty, yikes that's the best eatin' ever and good fer ya as well!! We knew we would be eatin early in the evening so we ate lite. Speaking of eatin' early we, that is Nancy, our mountain mom, Ms. Helen and her older brother Joe all headed out to the Scotsville area of Allegheny County which is about 10-15 miles west of Sparta for some fabulous barbecue at the Motley Place. Ms. Helen and I had 1/2 rack of ribs with sweet taters and fried okra and Nancy did the 1/2 chicken and Joe the pulled pork plate, Yikes was that ever good and we brought enough leftovers home for lunch on Saturday. Thanks to Ms Helen for the treat. We got place to her place with plenty of time to walk around her beautiful place inspecting the fruit trees, flowers and her crop of pines that were planted after she had her place clear cutted a few years ago. She loves to mow between her trees and keeps her place looking great as well as does her brother Joe who just lives over the next ridge. They are both so healthy and full of life at their ripe ages and you never hear a complaint from either. We just so much enjoy their company and have fun doing little odd jobs for her.

After we left her place we headed home and on the way in the road we saw our neighbor Dwayna walking out carrying a sack, so we inquired and she was on the verge of tears once again as her husband didn't come home on their anniversary. She was on foot with the intent of walking 5-6 miles up the parkway to a friends house so we gave her a ride, now this going on 8 PM and bears have been seen in the area recently. After dropping her off we ventured down another road we had never travelled before and came out next to one of my pickle ball friends(Ted Smith's) house. They saw us and waved so we stopped and he showed us his new 5th wheel home. Wow these home on wheels are amazing, anyhow we made it back just before dark and the fog was once again starting to settle in.

Nancy was on the computer and I got involved in the Yankees vs the Red Sox and the Yank's pulled it off and the Ray's won as well. Our son-in-law Tyler took grand daughter Ava to the Ray's game and sent us some pictures via mobile phone; she is growing up so fast. We haven't seen her or Samuel since May. LATER Nancy uploaded some pictures so I'm not sure what they are!!!