Saturday Morning

Well Friday turned to be the nicest weather day so far this year at the cabin. It was in the high 50's to start the day and may have reached the high 70's. The sun was rather warm but as soon as you got into some shade it was awesome. We decided early in the morning we would go to Sparta for some errands after our mid morning hike.

The day started around a 6:30 wake up and after my usual cup of green tea, a few quiet minutes and a smoothie for breakfast I ventured down to check on the gardens for any critter damage. Everything looked good and the peas and beans grew another couple of inches overnight as well as did the 'mater plants. They have really greened up and are now blossoming The one's that had fruit set are now ripening and look pretty in the garden. I'm hoping today to maybe set out some of the lettuce seedlings into the ground.

Nancy put in a couple loads of laundry and they were drying on the clothesline outside and all this before 10 AM. We decided that was a good time to get our hike in for the day so we set off to the top. Once again it looked lonely there as we saw no one about. We headed on back down and changed clothes and got ready to head to Sparta. We first stopped at the library for a couple of reads then headed to the Mustard Seed diner for some lunch. We saw and sat with Stacy Adams and Mechelle Dalton who were just finishing up. Stacy is the assistant states attorney and Mechelle is a parole and probation officer for the county. We shared some stories and laughs before they had to go back to work. I had the broccoli and cheese soup and half a grilled panini sandwich of cheese, bacon and tomato, yeow delicious!!! Nancy opted for the same except she wanted the pasta salad instead of the soup.

We next headed to the coffee shop just up the street where one of my pickle ball converts and his wife run a small shop. His dad is our family doctor in the mountains and also played a little pickle ball with us from time to time as well.They just opened this shop and specialize is all kinds of coffee, homemade breads, wine and wine tasting and soon will be serving lunch sandwiches. We ordered 3 different kinds of loaf breads for next weeks company and I will pick them up next Friday when I come to town for a kayaking trip on the New River with Stacy's husband Don who is the county manager. We will chaperon a group of youngsters on their outing adventure on the river.

Well after a couple stops at different grocery stores and a vegetable stand we were loaded down for another week of fine eatin' and entertaining. We are having a large group here on Saturday evening for burgers, dogs, baked beans, cole slaw and desserts. I think we are planning on about 15 for this cook out and then to teach them a new game afterwards. Well we got back out to the cabin around 2:30 and then I got ready to mow the yards which took me about 2 plus hours. Thankfully I now do it with a riding lawn mower thanks to my baby sister Dee and husband Mike who gave me their practically new mower which was too small for their large yard in Woodstock , Virginia. I thank them silently every time I start to mow this couple acres on this hill. There is a trick to mowing on a hill as well and it takes some know how which I have mastered after many trial and errors.

It was nearly 5 PM when I finished and I wanted to go look at an aerator for the yard that Joe had abandoned due to its malfunctioning. I wanted to see if I could repair it and after checking it out its beyond repair so that looks like my next purchase at Lowes. I have lots of moss in the backwoods yards and I think its because the soil is so compacted as it's not wet or damp. It does get some sunlight but when I cleared it several years ago I didn't go deep enough in getting rid of the top layer. I do have some grass but despite extra liming it's still not grassy enough for me so I think aerating will help tremendously in getting rid of the moss.

I grilled some Salmon steaks and along with some new potatoes and Brussel sprouts we had us a good feed. I loaded the Salmon with fresh dill, lemon pepper and garlic salt, Yeow was that ever good eatin'. I added fresh parsley to the taters and garnished them with fresh thyme and a hot cayenne pepper. Can't get any better than that; of course Nancy isn't into my hot peppers but they sure wake up the taste buds. Well after visiting Joe about the aerator we stopped and visited with our "mountain mom" Helen for an hour or so. She has so many rabbits at her place. She keeps catching and releasing them while trying to catch a rogue ground hog that is annoying her. He hasn't been back for a few days so she is tired of catching the rabbits and now hasn't set the trap for a couple days. We had a good visit and the tomato plant I gave her and set out from my Florida seedlings is blooming as well.

After a hot shower I read for a few minutes and then it was lights out for me by 10 with Nancy soon to follow. I did watch a little of the college baseball world series until I started falling asleep on the couch, LATER