Tuesday

Well the morning started out with temp's in the high 50's and bright sunshine streaming through the tree tops. After our quiet times and a lite breakfast of Cheerios and banana we got ready to head over to our "mountain moms" place to help paint her work shed. Her brother Joe also came to help with the job. I did all the ladder work and under the eves while Nancy, Joe and Helen did the ground work and trim. I must say a few people not to mention any names Helen; had painted themselves up real nice as well.We had it half done by lunch time and finish the total job by 3:30. It was a fun day and Joe and Helen who are in their 80's worked right along with Nancy and I. We were tired by the time we got home so much so we just popped a couple frozen pizzas in the oven for supper.

After supper we got a nice soft rain which kept us indoors until dark. I just sat around on the couch watching the U.S. Open Tennis and Nancy played on Face Book. Not much else happened today and we really had fun doing our good deed for the day.We will have no trouble sleeping tonight. LATER

Sunday on Monday-LABOR DAY

To all who still LABOR please continue as I need for you to pay your social security as I am now collecting it. THANK YOU ALL. I paid it for 48 years + and not one person ever Thanked me so I want to start a "grateful for those who LABOR and pay."

Sunday was such a super day which started out with our quiet times, lite breakfast of Cheerios and a banana before getting ready to head out to Cornerstone for worship. Pastor B as he refers to himself had awesome message and super music that reflected our praise and worship for CHRIST JESUS. There were 10 going to be baptized after the service in a creek the old fashion way at a beautiful setting in the mountains. One never knows when your plans will change due to different situations as I altered my plans after the service.

Friends of ours had some hay in the field that needed to be put in the barn before rain ruined it, so with a farming background I volunteered to help knowing that rain would ruin the hay. We all had worshipped earlier but knew that wet bales would rot if left in the field. I was treated to some of the best smoked ribs I have ever eaten while waiting to head down the mountain to haul hay hay. Man, Andy knows how to fix those baby backs for sure. We met up with Gerald and Kay at a beautiful piece of bottom land with 350 + square bales of hay. The bales were tight and the hay was some of the best I ever helped put up. It actually was a fun job and everyone pitched in making the afternoon a great one. Anytime!! I reminisced about all the hayfield's I had been in during my growing days as a young farmer. There were lots of laughs and stories that made the job go fast. Thanks for letting me be a part.

Meanwhile, Nancy, Mechelle and Kallie went to the creek for the baptizing while the rest of were in the hayfield. Nancy later went to the funeral home too support the family of Peggy Woody who had just lost her grandfather on Friday. On her way back she picked me up at the Daltons so we could get home and get supper ready for their gang as we were playing Sequence after eating. We had a supper of grilled dogs, baked beans, macaroni salad, sliced 'maters and 2 desserts Mechelle made from The Pioneer Woman website;Key Lime Pie and Ice Creame Sundae Pie. The eatin' was great and I think to satisfying as we(men) lost our competitive edge. The gals put a whupping on us at 7-1. Next time no hayfield and no food for at least 2 days, well maybe an hour before playing and definitely no desserts. We need to be hungry!!

It was another great day and I had no trouble falling asleep until 7:30 this morning. Not sure whats in store for the day but the day started out after our quiet times of fried brown free range eggs, smoked bacon, sliced 'maters with jalapeno's and toast smothered in Amish Butter and homemade black raspberry jam, now that's a country breakfast.

Here are a few of our church friends who were baptized yesterday at the creek.LATER

Saturday on Sunday Morning

The morning started out with me up and getting that pork butt in the smoker at 7 AM. I had it stoked full of Hickory wood and nuts. I keep it smoking until around 5 PM when the bone just pulled out of the meat. After getting that going we did our quiet times and had cereal with banana & blue berries for breakfast. The sun was shining with blue skies and a heavy dew. Yeow I just love these mountain mornings with temps in the 50's. We were having the ole' gang over for a get together around 6:30. Nancy was cleaning the cabin and I was doing a little garden and yard work. We finally got our hike in to the top around 10AM and met up with several week enders. They all were going to or doing their cook outs as well. We had a good hike and got back to the cabin just in time for lunch which was the left over tortilla soup from Friday night. Man is that good eatin' and good fer' ya'.

I loaded the smoker up again with another batch of Hickory wood and nuts. We got a call from up on top that heavy smoke could be seen down below our way and right away I surmised they could see my smoker smoke; but no way was my smoke that heavy. Any way to make a short story long the neighbor who just had his timber cut had started to burn the piled up brush and it got away from him.So he did the right thing and called the fire department. I understood several units responded and sprayed down the area as well as a bulldozer had to be used to keep the fire from a nearby wooded area. Yikes that is close to being catastrophic for us land owners with homes.

I managed to sneak in a little U.S.Open Tennis and saw this young American 17 year old Melanie Oldin upset for champion Maria Sharipova in 3 sets. GREAT PLAY!!! I also saw a little of BYU upset #3 Oklahoma,wow what a day for college football. My Rays fell flat again after leading big in the early innings. I think you might as well stick a fork in them as they are done for this year. Oh well they are a Cinderella Team and it was great last year they went and nearly won the whole thing.

In between smokers and sports I managed to fertilize my non producing blue berry bushes, repot 3 inpatients plants that had become root bound and separate some mustard seedlings. I love fresh mustard greens and only hope these make before heading to Florida in November. We got a short shower for about 1/2 an hour which settled the dust and hopefully helped in damping the area out by the woods fire. I can just see a fire like the ones the California folks are experiencing.

Our guest began arriving and we chowed down on; potato salad, Cole slaw, deviled eggs, tomato pie, sliced tomato's, green beans and of course pulled pork. Nancy's gotta be the "ugliest cake she has ever made" but tastes the same, chocolate with chocolate icing was the dessert. Great evening with the guys pulling out a come from behind win at 5- 4 in Sequence, again. We decided to call it a night around 9:30.

Today, Sunday should be a great day again as we will worship corporately(a bunch of people gathered) at Cornerstone and then head over to a small creek where we hold our dunking(baptizing) in the cold water. We are then expecting company once again this evening for a weenie roast and then more Sequence with the Dalton Gang. Should be a another fun day. I think we are free so far on Monday.
Well better close as its near time to get ready to head out to church. We were glad to hear Amt, Ty and Ava made it safely to Kansas for their week long vacation with Ty's family. Hey to all there!!! LATER

Friday

Well the day started a little earlier than the last week as we rolled out about 7:30. Yea, I know that's late but better than 8:30. Anyhow it was about 10 degrees warmer this AM than the past couple days and even reached 75 today for a high. After our quiet times and a couple brown eggs for breakfast I headed out to check on the gardens. Once again the deer have left us alone. I wonder if the smell of Marigolds may be having some effect. I have them planted everywhere in the garden and they are loaded with flowers. Never before have I had so many. I probably brought 50 small seedlings with me from Florida last May when we came up and now they are huge with 30 and 40 blooms per plant. Hopefully that is the reason.

My upper thighs were a little sluggish this morning and Nancy wasn't feeling all that great either so we skipped the morning hike and I took one after supper alone. Norman, my senior friend on top gets me a dozen free range brown eggs weekly so I walked up to his place to pick up the eggs after supper. I worked on my fertilizer spreader as the shaft broke on Tuesday while sowing grass seed with lime. I took it apart and found the little plastic shaft that causes the spreader wheel to revolve while moving had broken into. I took a bolt and ran through the plastic shaft. Works good as new so far. After fixing the spreader I loaded up the grubbing hoe, shovel and rake and headed down below the front yard to dig topsoil for the yard. I dug about 10 golf cart loads and spread it by hand in some of the lower areas. As the day wore on it got warmer and warmer until I had a wet shirt. I dug up 2 maple trees about 15 feet in height each and transplanted them to the lower edge of the side yard.Hopefully they will help hold the yard that I filled in with topsoil. I stayed with this project until about 4 PM.

Nancy suggested I head out on the golf cart to check the mail. I took the pitchfork to clear up some of the debris that had accumulated from the last logger who used our road and left it a mess. Meanwhile I ran into Sandy and John also on their golf cart from up on top of the mountain. Next I saw Donna Hudson who I hadn't seen since last year. She and husband Carl have been on the go all summer plus they have a house near Myrtle Beach, S.C.Well I spent about an hour clearing limbs and rocks from the road. When I got back Nancy was working on supper. The aroma of tortilla soup drifted from the kitchen and soon had my appetite whetted. This is an excellent soup made with chicken breasts cubed, carrots, jalapeno peppers, garlic, onion, celery, chicken broth and diced tomato's. It's served with cheese on top, sour cream(optional) and tortilla chips. It has cumin, lemon pepper, chili powder as part of the seasoning. YUMM!!!

After supper I hand watered the gardens again as it has been 5 days since we have had any measurable rain.The garden is still producing so it needs a drink, daily. Well I burned the trash accumulated from the past several days so Nancy played in the fire while I watered. Well I didn't have as an exciting day as the past couple days;but it was a great day for being outside. LATER.

Well the day started out with cool temps down into the 40's(wow this is winter in Florida)and bright sunshine with deep blue skies. After our quiet time Nancy and I had Cherrios with banana and blueberries. I know that sounds good and believe me it was but not the best choice for what we had in mind; mountain biking. We headed out from home around 10:30 and arrived at the New River Trail in Galax at 11:15. Nancy had on long pants, sweat shirt and a tee shirt underneath. Me, I had my usual shorts and Tee shirt. The temperature had risen to the middle 60's but was just absolutely beautiful.

 We headed out with just water bottles and pedalled hard for the first couple miles. We went through a 1100 foot tunnel with a bend which was kind of spooky as you had no idea if there was bear or whatever taking a nap or waiting to pounce on unsuspected bikers.Anyhow we did good for the first couple of miles as we got use to the bikes. We crossed a wooden trestle bridge over the New River. There were a couple of bikers stopped on the bridge admiring several large fish swimming about 50 feet below. We continued on and took the right turn towards Byllesby Dam. According to the park map it was about 3 miles up the river. We stopped a couple places to take pics and to take a water breaks. I had started to sweat even though in the shaded areas the temps were cool.

 Finally we reached the hydro electric plant that was built in 1913 and still produces electricity to the local area. We looked around and took a few pic before deciding we had better not go any further as we had to retrace our paths. I could feel the lack of calories we needed to continue pedaling at this steady pace. The roadway or path we were on was made of crushed cinders and small rocks with some areas of packed dirt. It was basically level to look at but required constant pedaling. I suddenly felt the need for something to eat. We made our first mistake by not bringing something to replenish the calories we were expending. Our thighs and legs were screaming at the constant pedaling. I never would have believed a 10 + mile bike ride could be so demanding. We both were never so glad to finally get back to the truck around 1:45. That was a good ride of 2 1/2 hours. Next time we will plan better with snacks or a big breakfast. The atmosphere was so  beautiful and we are looking forward to a ride on a different section of the trail. This trail meanders through the mountains for 58 miles. It was an old railroad track that followed the New River and serviced small towns in the area.

After leaving the trail we headed for Subway to replenish the carbs we had expended on this ride. Wow was that ever a good lunch. After getting our legs back I headed to Lowes to pick up a few things and Nancy did our weekly grocery shopping. I gased up before heading back to Wal-Mart to retrieve her and then we headed for a local barbershop to have my ears lowered. By the time we got back to the cabin it was going on 5 PM.

The day was just absolutely gorgeous. Nancy sauted a couple yellow squash along with some new potato's, sliced tomato's and salmon patties for dinner. Everything was home grown except the salmon. After supper I hand watered the gardens and some of the new grass thats been up just a couple days. Even though its cool at nights we could still use a little shower or two. Well will close for now. LATER  

Wednesday

Well it was a cool one this AM with temps right around the 50 degree mark. The sun was shining and that made for a beautiful morning. After our quiet times I fried up a couple brown eggs, sliced a tomato, heated up a leftover biscuit and smothered it with Amish butter and black raspberry jam.

After breakfast I did a quick look around with the gardens and then added syrupy sugar water and yeast to my muscadine must.It smells just like the scuppernong wine you buy in the store. Well we headed out for our morning walk to the top of the mountain. Nancy had on a sweat shirt and long pants when we headed out. The temp was just right for hiking.When we got back a little after noon I heated up a little of the leftover cream chicken over a biscuit. YUMM was that ever good.

I headed out with the chainsaw, sledge hammer and  wedges once again.I had about 8 large chunks that needed splitting. Afterwards I decided to dig out the stump. Well that was a bigger bite than I had expected. I had dug out a small stump earlier and had good results but this was a little more than I anticipated. I finally got out the drill and drilled several holes all around the stump hoping this will speed up decay.

Nancy was fixing a dinner she saw on The Pioneer Woman website called baked lemon pasta. It was very tasty and complimented the Mahi Mahi we had along with it. YUMMM!!! I think this dish will become one of our fav's. After eating I headed out to help deliver the last of the split wood to Ray's wood house as well as some tomato's for our many neighbors. I took a bag to Ray and Audine's , Pam and Nub's and Tim and Dewayna. After stacking the last of the wood we decided to take another walk up to the top.It was really starting to cool off and was down in the 50's when we got back to the cabin. The day is slowing fading away and what a beautiful day it was. Its just after 8 and already starting to really get dark.Well tomorrow I think we are going to try the New River Trail once again on our mountain bikes. LATER

Tuesday

Well the morning was a cool one with a temp of 49 on top of the mountain. When we checked at 8:30 it was 54 on the back porch. It sure feels like fall has suddenly dropped in. While there was lots of sunshine to start the day it became cloudy with dark rain looking clouds all day.

After our quiet times we both ate Cherrios with fruit for breakfast. After eating, I pitted 4 pounds of muscadine grapes also know as Fox and Scuppernong grapes. Well it was time for our morning hike so we headed for the top of the mountain. Every one including Nancy were bundled up in long pants and long sleeve shirts. This weather is perfect for outside work especially since the cold kept all the biting insects away. When we got back from our hike we had a salad then I warmed up the chainsaw.

There was a hugh oak tree that died last year in the back yard so it was time to saw it down and then work it up for firewood for our neighbor Ray. I spent the next 4 hours sawing, splitting and hauling the split wood over to Rays and stack in his wood house. Nancy helped me haul and stack 4 loads before she became burned out,no pun intended. I continued to saw, split and pile up the wood to be hauled another day. My muscles are aching as it takes different muscles to swing that 15 pound slege into steel wedges.Pickle ball is so much easier but I really love the physical work of running a chain saw.

Nancy called to me around 4:30 that it was time to quit and get ready for supper. She made chicken and dumplings with brocolli and peas and home grown mashed potato's. That was an awesome comfort food dinner and dessert was a couple biscuits with butter and raspberry jam. After eating we just sat for awhile relishing that superb taste. I washed and she dried so it didn't take too long to clean up. We then just walked around outside looking at the flowers, gardens and just looking at what we had accomplished today.It started getting dark so I headed to the basement to sharpen the chain saw as I had more sawing to do to finish that tree another day and to eventually take the stump out.

Well I can hardly keep my eyes open as I write this post as that slege hammer whupped me. LATER