Tuesday

It was another beautiful morning with just a few more clouds than yesterday. The temps were in the low 60's and the steady drip of dew onto the roof top from the dormer was evident. There was such stillness in the air. The forecast is for rain and cooler temps up and throughout the weekend. After our quiet times, Nancy mixed up some buckwheat pancake batter with a banana and fresh blueberries. Wow, that was great eatin' especially with a fried brown egg on top. I smothered mine with Amish butter and honey for a change.

After breakfast Nancy got a load of laundry on the line and I worked in the garden pulling weeds. I weeded my garlic bed and finished removing old tomato plants that have died and are no longer producing. We were ready for our morning hike and headed up the mountain. We made it all the way to the top without any rest stops. The top is pretty much a "ghost town" except for one household. Joe is redoing his porch and deck by stripping and re-staining. I think that is such a waste with pressure treated wood, Oh well it does look good for one season then it begins to peel and crack.

After our hike we had a ham sandwich with tomato, lettuce, onion and mayo on toast. I mentioned to Nancy I like buying the smoked whole ham and slicing it your self better than buying sliced ham from the deli; its about 1/5 of the cost, plus you know what your eating. This smoked ham was $1.27 a pound and deli ham is at least 6-7 bucks a pound and I think it is pressed meat. Oh well!!!

After lunch I planted some frilly ferns around the lower border of the the wooded back yard, dug up and planted volunteer wine berry plants below the lower garden, and then dug fresh potato's from my spud patch for supper. I had 3 that were at least 1/2 a pound each plus lots of regular size taters. Man are they ever good tasting. Nancy rolled these spuds in olive oil after slicing them lengthwise several times like large french fries. She then chopped parsley and rosemary and dipped the spuds in olive oil and coated the spuds in the fresh herbs and baked them in the oven while baking chicken thighs. That along with a fresh garden salad all of which I grew was delicious. We love eatin' what we grow and if we lived here year round we would grow our own chickens and have our own fresh meat and eggs.

We took off to get the mail on the golf cart and stopped to watch a logger who is clearing nearly 40 acres near our area. Wow what a mess they can make out of a pristine piece of mountain land. It usually takes around 7-10 years to hide all the destruction they do while logging a mountain side. The afternoon was about gone by the time we got back to the cabin as rain clouds moved in. I managed to spread some lime on the new grass I sowed a couple weeks ago as we are expecting rain and clouds for the next few days. That should be good for the grass and with the changing of the leaves.

Well I cleaned up the dishes as Nancy cooked and by 7:15 it is already showing signs of darkness. It's now 8 PM and pitch black outside. I miss being able to be outside until 9:30. Looks like we will not be taking our side trip this weekend to my home town in Winchester. Hopefully we can get up that way later on this month. Nancy took a few pics while I was liming the back yard. Check out the spider on a cone flower, the lack of Shasta Daisy's and the garden without plants, also the neatly manicured yard.LATER

Monday

WOW is all I can say about this beautiful late summer day. The morning started out with our quiet times and such stillness its so hard to describe. The only sound was the dew dripping from the dormer roof onto the main roof of the cabin. The sunlight streaming through the tree tops indicated the possibility of another beautiful day. I don't think the temp got over 75 all day.

I fried up a couple of brown eggs with sliced tomato's and a jalapeno pepper on the side with a couple pieces of toast covered with Amish Butter and black raspberry jam. That is just what I needed to get the engine running and it didn't stop all day until a little after 6 this evening when I got home from mowing Ray's yard. We slowed for about 10 minutes around 1 PM to eat a couple sliced 'maters and cukes with a few chips and crackers.

After breakfast I worked in the upper garden taking out the sugar pea vines and stakes as well spading and turning over a major portion of the patch so I could transplant some mustard green and lettuce seedlings.I then moved up some other Romaine Lettuce seedling into pots for transplanting later.Nancy decided she was ready to take her daily hike. It was just another perfect day for hiking. Temps maybe in the high 60's with just a breath of air moving the leaves. We stopped and visited with Norm as I carried a couple empty egg carton back to him so he could reload them with free range brown eggs at 2 bucks a dozen. Several of these eggs looked like they could be double yokes.

After we got back I cranked up the weed eater and did the whole yard. After about an hour and a half of edging I was ready to mow the front and back yards. Man do I love that riding mower. It was around 4:30 when I finished, according to Nancy and headed over to do Ray's yard. I got back around 6 which surprised me as I had no idea what the time was. Nancy had supper ready and then I realized I was hungry. She had made a small casserole for us when she made the large one for the fish fry on Saturday. The potato casserole was perfect with fried smoked ham and green beans from the garden.

Speaking of the garden a couple deer got in there either Saturday or Sunday night. Not sure which day as I noticed the hoof prints there this morning. They didn't eat much maybe a few beans and vines but I noticed that at least 2 different deer visited the garden. That was the first time this year. I consider myself lucky compared to last year when they devoured everything a couple times. I think they needed some green veggies to go with the corn and apples neighbor, Gerald placed out in the woods for them this weekend. I hope he gets a couple this year, Mmmm deer sausage.

After supper I burned a couple days of trash and by 7:45 it was starting to get dark. Yikes summer is quickly leaving us as next week is the first day of Fall. LATER

Sunday

Well one could not imagine such a nice day as this one was.We started out with a 7 AM wake up to cool temps in the 50's and such stillness in the air. There was the sound of dew dripping from the roof. After our quiet times and a cup of hot green tea we made ourselves a breakfast of Cheerios, banana and blue berries. We got ready to head out to Cornerstone for worship. I slipped down to neighbor Gerald's to say goodbye and send a bag of fresh green beans and tomato's home with him to Raleigh. We don't get to see Jodi and Gabe much now that school and baseball practice has started but hope to see them for the neighbor weenie roast at the Heglar's the first Saturday in October.We need to whup up on the girls in spades, again Gerald.

Worship was very interesting and the music was great. The message was about being patience but I about lost it today with the play of my football teams. Yikes, the Panthers looked awful and the score with Bucs vs Cowboys indicated its going to be a long season. After church we stopped in town an dropped a couple movies off and headed home for one of my favorite meals. I grilled a salmon fillet smothered in garlic, lemon pepper and dill. We also fixed some fresh green beans, yellow rice and sliced tomato's. Wow was that ever good eatin.'

I switched back and forth between the Falcon vs the Dolphins game and it was not a good day for any of the Florida teams. The Saints and Falcons have a shot at a winning season if they continue play as they did today. I hate to give up so quickly but things don't look promising for the Bucs or Panthers.Oh well and they make so much money!!!

Pickle ball at the Roaring Gap Club was a very good workout. Craig and Le Ann came with their new paddles and played quite well for only their third time. Ted is getting so much better with his game as well. I hope they continue to play after we head back to Florida in November. Well will close for now. LATER

Saturday

Wow the morning started out with the alarm waking us up at 6 AM as we had to be in Sparta at the fair grounds by 8:30. After our quiet times and a lite breakfast we headed out. I had been asked to MC the annual 4-H Horse Show and Nancy was asked to assist with giving out the awards. The morning was just beautiful with bright blue skies and cool temp of 56 when we left the cabin.

We started the show around 9 Am and finished up about 2 PM. We had such a great time and met some super nice folks plus Nancy got to be around her favorite animal, the horse. There were 12 classes the kids were judged in and 1 class for the adult plus a costume class. Some of the Cloverbuds were as young as 4 years old. This is a great family affair. We had a very nice judge who took the time to instruct the younger kids on proper showmanship. Nancy and I had a great time and could think of no better way to spend a Saturday.

After getting back to the cabin around 3 we just chilled or I did watching a little college football while Nancy put together a potato casserole for the fish fry at the Woodie's River House. We got there around 6 and already the temps were dropping and by 8 I had to put on a long sleeve shirt. The food was plentiful and the catfish was very good. I would guess there were 50 plus people there including the superior court judge Mr. Doughton and his wife.

Our little fishing buddy Caleb Dalton brought his fishing pole and caught a 2+ lb Brooke Trout from the bank while we were waiting to eat. He sure was a beauty and it was hard to put him back in the river but we did. Well tomorrow is church day at Cornerstone.

I will include a few pics from the horse show. LATER

Friday

Well the day started out with bright sunshine and cool temp's of 50 degrees. After our quiet times Nancy whipped up a banana in the buckwheat pancake batter and baked up some of the best eatin' pancakes you will ever have melt in your mouth, and they are so nutritious for you as well. We had a couple strips of bacon to go with cakes which I slathered with Amish Butter and honey. YUMMM!!!

After breakfast I got a couple loads of laundry out on the clothes line. What a fresh smell to your clothes that dry in the clean mountain air. We had to go Galax, Va. today and wanted to leave by noon as Nancy had a 2 PM appointment. We decided it would be best to get our shopping done beforehand. We had to fill one of her prescriptions and have found that once again Wal-Mart is the least expensive for the same medicine. After Nancy's appointment we headed to Subway for a cold cut sub with the works. That is a healthy lunch and reasonable in cost. After a few more stops we finally got back to the cabin around 4 PM. We decided to take a good long hike before eating supper. The air had just a touch of fall and once again we noticed several trees were starting to change colors and many were already losing their leaves.

We stopped and spoke with neighbor Gerald as he is getting ready to bow hunt in the AM for those 4 legged deer. The season opens early tomorrow. Saturday is going to be a busy day for us as we are going to help with the horse show in Sparta then head out to the Little River for a fish fry later in the evening. The Woodie's hold a couple get together's a year where lots of the local people plus family bring covered dishes and they deep fry usually flounder.They have a beautiful summer house on the Little River with an open outside area under roof with a fire place for parties,etc.

Well our hike took us down our drive then up the back road and across the top of the mountain and down the other side. It was about a 1/2 mile further than our usual hike and it felt so good to get the heart rate going along with a burn in the legs. On top we spoke with our old friend Norman for just a few minutes and he warned us to watch out for rattle snakes. It seems some one reported seeing one recently. We have been coming to this area since 1992 and have yet to see a live one. We see lots of big black snakes(which we like) and a couple dead copper heads(the deader the better) but never a rattler. Oh well!!!

I can't believe it dark at 8 PM where did the summer go? I can't believe its been 8 years since those gutless creeps murdered so many innocent folks. I hope they are enjoying their 40 virgins in Hell. LATER.

Thursday

Well what a wet day and its still raining as I write this post. The rain let up a little around 2PM which allowed me to ride the golf cart out to the mailbox. It was one of those days that after our quiet times we spent the day on the Internet or watching the U.S.Open. The most exciting thing for the morning was the omelet Nancy made using brown free range eggs, fresh onions, peppers and tomato's. Yikes was that ever good eatin' for breakfast.

Around 4 PM the rain let up enough for us to get our daily hike to the top of the mountain. Wow was that ever good to get out of the cabin. We saw no one else out taking advantage of the break in the rain. I believe we must have had 3-4 inches of rain in the past 24 hours. I did get to watch some good tennis and a foreign film with sub titles called Vagabond. It was kind of depressing.

Nancy made a one dish supper using up some leftover cooked macaroni with fresh garden grown; green peppers, onions, garlic, tomato's, oregano, basil, parsley and chopped chicken apple brat's topped with Parmesan cheese. I added a chopped fresh jalapeno pepper to mine. A fresh garden grown salad with 5 kinds of lettuce, cucumber and tomato topped off supper.The dish kind of reminded me of beef-a-roni with a tomato sauce.

Well hopefully tomorrow we will see the sun. That reminds me that the St.Pete Times newspaper use to give away the next day's paper for free if the sun didn't shine during the whole day. Well that's what happened here, today. Tomorrow we are off to Galax for some shopping and then on Saturday I've been asked to MC the annual 4 H Horse in Sparta. Yeow that will be a first for me but should be fun. Well will go as its half time with the Titans and Steelers tied at 7. Its a good game much better than I anticipated on the Titans part. LATER

Wednesday

Well the day started out around 7:30 and as I checked outside for the appearance of any deer I noticed lots of ground fog. After our quiet times Nancy heated up the griddle and made buckwheat pancakes with a banana in the batter along with some smoked bacon. I smothered my cakes with Amish Butter and homemade black raspberry jam. YUMMM!!!

After breakfast I noticed the fog was lifting so we got ready to head out for our hike of the day. The woods were still wet from last evening rain. We climbed to the top with out any rest stops and was greeted by bright warm sunshine. Nancy had on long pants, shirt and another long sleeve shirt. The temp was 58 when we headed out. By the time we walked along the mountain ridge she had shed the long sleeve shirt. We noticed lots of leaves on the ground from the rain of last night and the maples were starting to turn a light color.We aren't sure what that means as its too early for color, and then again maybe it means we are going to have an early cold winter.

When we got back from the hike we decided since we had a large late breakfast we would skip lunch and have an early supper as I was playing pickle ball at 5 PM. I changed out a leaky pipe under the sink, fix a dresser door in the upstairs bathroom and then strained my scuppernong must and added more sugar. All of a sudden it became overcast and started to rain. At times we had a steady downpour and lasted until about 4:30. I really thought it was going to rain out our pickle ball play.

Nancy made a great Zucchini Pie for dinner to go along with a fresh garden salad. We ate supper around 4 and was it ever a good pie with fresh home grown Zucchini's, peppers and tomato's on top.

I picked up Ted Smith and we headed to Roaring Gap to meet with John and Rick. We played for about 2 1/2 hours with each of us taking turns with different pardners. All toll we played 11 sets of doubles and Ted and I played 2 sets of singles. Great workout plus the game is so much fun. I got back to the cabin just as darkness was setting in. Nancy had wondered around outside taking a few flower pics, mushrooms and just some fun pics. Well will close for now, LATER.