Tuesday

Well I finally had a good nights sleep after being awake most of Sunday night due to too much caffeine, anyhow I slept in until 7+ before rolling out for the day. After my cup of hot green tea and quiet time I fried up a couple cackle berries and microwaved a bowl of instant grits and then combined the two with a little hot sauce and called it breakfasy, Yeow was that ever tasty and it held me until lunch.

I headed out to check on the gardens and the rain gauge which had nearly another inch from Monday and combined with the 3/10ths from the Sunday. The yards and gardens love this weather as the temps nearly reached 80 by afternoon despite a few clouds and fog on the mountain tops. I cut down 2 large holly trees that had been shading my lower garden then worked them up and hauled them down the hill onto a brush pile which I will burn on a wet day later this Fall. I fired up the golf cart and loaded the spreader with a couple sacks of pelitized lime onto it and headed out to the back woods yard to give it a good liming. The moss is so bad in that area because of the shade trees which keep it just right for the growing of moss and heavy coats of lime is the only solution. It was close to 11 by the time I finished this project so we decided to head to the top of the mountain for our daily hike.

We only stopped to rest one time on the trail before reaching the back road, then headed on up by snake rock to the top of the mountain and rested at Fred and Brenda's place before continuing on across the top. We still haven't seen the Fullers since we've been back as they also own a place just north of us in Florida on the west coast. We learned that Helen is on her way back to the mountain after her cruise to Alaska and that she is somewhat under the weather. We never saw anyone else except for Zeke who is Joe and Jettas's friendly dog. Zeke decided he wanted to go with us on our hike and lead the way down to the back trail that goes to our place then he turned around and headed on back towards home.

We got back and it was after 12 so we decided to have one of our favorite lunches; sardines, onions, mustard on a saltine cracker. Yikes is that ever dewisheous and we devoured 3 cans( I eat the bones as well) between the 2 of us and I even had a couple saltines with peanut butter and sliced onion on top. I know it sounds weird but believe me peanut butter and sliced Vadalia onion go together. After lunch I headed out to trim and shape up the 2 large blue spruce trees in the front yard. After that project we decided to ride out to the mailbox and on the way I decided to clip low hanging limbs along the roadway. That took us about an hour and on the way back to the cabin we decided to ride to the top of the mountain. The sun was out in its fullness and it was downright hot on top but the view was awesome as well; the buildings in downtown Winston-Salem were visible.

After cleaning up the tree clipping I headed onto the porch to rest out of the sun before settling in to read before Joe and Helen arrived. We wanted to try the new restaurant called Nikola located in the High Meadows area. Our friend Kallie Dalton works there so we decided to give it a try and we were pleasantly surprised with the food. Nancy and I tried the salmon and chicken picota and the others had steak and veal. The prices are a little high for the area but comparable to a Bonefish Grille. The salad and home made dressings as well as the bread were exceptionally good. I would go back again. They have live music on Tuesday and on Saturday night. The duo was a guitar and a bongo player and both had great voices. It was nearly 8 PM before we left the restaurant.

The rain stayed away today and the warm sunshine is expected again for tomorrow. The night time temp's are going down into the high 50's or low 60's again tonight and are wonderful for sleeping, LATER