Friday

Well the day started with a 7:30 wake up. After our quiet times we had a breakfast of fried left over parsley potato's, a couple fried eggs and I had a sliced tomato with mine and a couple jalapeno peppers. It was close to 9:30 before we ever ate so I passed on lunch except for a red delicious apple around 2 PM. I ventured out after eating and discovered we had our first deer damage this summer. It seems a large deer; as per the size of its hoof print in my garden ate about half of my beet greens but other than that I noticed no other deer damage. Something must have scared it off or because there was nothing else worth eating as the garden is rather anemic.

I did plant my dried garlic bulbs or the flower that forms on the garlic plant. Seems I have several green shoots coming up in the garlic patch so I decided to go ahead and plant the patch. Today was another hot and muggy day but by the evening it seems a much drier air has permeated the area and by the weekend its supposed to really turn Fall like with cool mornings in the 40's, yikes!!!! After that planting I started a couple geranium cutting hoping at least a couple with survive and get big enough to take back to Florida in Nov. The 4 tomato cuttings perished due to all the wet weather so I will try again with seeds in a couple weeks to get a couple large enough to take back for my winter garden.

I then got out the weed whacker and edged all the yards and gardens; wow did I ever work up a good sweat. We decided to go to the post office in Glade Valley and mail a box of birthday goodies for grandson Gabe on his second birthday. Afterwards we headed down the parkway to check on a picturesque site for Fall pictures around a small pond. The leaves were all still green and no real sign they were beginning to change despite some large trees on the way to Galax that have started to change.

After getting back we headed out on a daily hike to the top of the mountain. Its becoming much easier as we make the climb to the top without stopping for a rest. There was haze down off the mountain which made seeing Pilot Mountain almost impossible. We stopped off at Jetta's as she picked up a dozen free range brown eggs for us. Her garden is really producing peppers and green beans but most everything else is declining. We headed on home and I got out the riding mower and did the yards. That took me right up to 5o'clock before finishing.

Nancy had green beans cooking and had made a nice salad while I shucked a half dozen ears of corn from the corn patch. We still have an empty cage which is nice and now with all of the rain and beautiful sunshine today I hope the young ears will fill out and give us another couple weeks of fresh corn. Yikes is that ever good eatin'. After supper I did the clean up then settled in to watch the Fox News after catching the last 2 game of Serena Williams winning a quarter final match at the U.S.Open 6-1, 6-2. Yikes she looks unstoppable and hopefully will continue her winning ways.

We heard from our "mountain mom" Helen as she is on vacation in Colorado with her sisters and brother. She said they were having a fun time seeing different parts of the country and isn't expected to be home until next Wed. or Thurs. We learned our son Bobby and Jill are on their way to Atlanta for an Amway Conference as Jill is into the company and is quite the expert with the Artistry makeup and skin care program. LATER