Friday Morning

Well Thursday turned out to be gorgeous after a foggy start from another 1/2 inch of rain during the early morning hours. The grass stayed wet until the early afternoon when we finally got some much needed sunshine. It was so wet out instead of taking a hike up the mountain we hiked out to the mailbox which is close to a good 2 mile walk. There are a couple steep pulls which had the sweat popping out on my brow.

The morning started with a 6:30 wake up and get up after hitting the sack around 10 the night before. Up and down this yard plus the hike wears you out come night fall. I'm surprised I'm not worn thin but the good eatin' is maintaining the spare tire, Oh well!!! After my quiet time and the posting of this ramble we decided on a mountain breakfast of sausage patties, fried taters and eggs with toast and homemade strawberry freezer jam we have carried from here to Florida and back, Yeow!! No wonder I'm keeping this spare tire.

We headed to the mailbox around 10'ish and noticed that Grant and Shirley were up for the day. Grant had already mowed as he came up the night before and had gone off to acquire some parts for a leaky commode at Blevins. We visited with Shirley and the grand kids for awhile then headed on out to get the mail and the weekly newspaper. We noticed a large snapping turtle along side the road and it looked as if it had been run over slightly. There was some blood on the shell but it was still alive so I put it into the ditch which had cold water. That sort of revived the critter. Grant saw it before it was hit and noticed it trying to lay eggs in the mud by the shoulder before it was hit. There were 2 or 3 trucks that came in our road all within minutes of each other so we aren't sure which one struck the turtle.

We headed home and had a lite lunch before heading to the back road with the push mower and weed eater on the golf cart. The back road had grass a foot tall and when its well your feet get soaked as we traverse to the top on our daily hike. That kept us busy as we mowed a couple tenths of a mile. We also clipped  low hanging branches that slap us while in the golf cart. We headed on back down and the sun was delightful with temps in the middle 70's. I piddled around in the back yard picking up sticks and then managed to reach over the fence in the upper garden with a hoe to get the ground ready for some lettuce seedling that are about big enough to transplant. I want at least 4 leaves before I set them out so that could be this week end if the weather stays somewhat dry and warm.

We noticed on our ride back down the mountain the old Ray Todd residence has really been fixed up. Several of the out buildings are gone, the block work around the cabin had been covered in stone as well as the steps have been replaced. The well house is covered in stone with a roof. The place looks great and its been cleaned up of much of the trash left laying around. There is a new back porch and deck as well as guttering. It really is looking good and from what I understand a steal as it was a foreclosure.

Well after a lite supper of chicken salad on lettuce we headed out to wonder around in the yard. Nancy notice some little black beetle was making holes in her flowers so I mixed up a batch of insecticide and sprayed all of the flower beds while she pulled weeds. The soaking rain has made it easy to weed the beds as the roots come right out whereas when this clay dries out its hard as concrete. I burned household trash and once again picked up several buckets of small twigs and pine cones from the yards. This rain had really caused the grass to look good and fill in. I want to give it another coat of lime next week.

I tuned into the Rays vs the Yankees and we were winning big when I decided to call it a night around 10:30. I wasn't as tired tonight as we didn't work all that hard for the day so we read until after 11. I started a new book by Grisham THE TESTAMENT. The  first couple chapters are very intriguing, LATER