Friday

Well the day started out quite wet with tons of fog. We haven't seen the sunshine since Wednesday and we are starting to mildew. I noticed when we came back from Galax this morning the fungi had really started to take over the back yard. They had popped up every where.There is a tree on top that within 2 days has some of the most beautiful fungi I have ever seen. Hopefully I can get a picture. This red in color fungi is growing up the side of an old oak tree.

The trip to Galax was uneventful even if visibility was about 2 car lengths most of the way into town. We made the appointment on time and by 10 AM we were on our way to Wal-Mart to catch up on some shopping. The fog somewhat lifted in Galax and the rain stopped. After gassing up we headed home to once again see heavy fog and a light rain on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We made it back to the cabin around noon and decided since the rain stopped momentarily we would try to get a hike in before lunch. The hike was uneventful but the woods were soaking wet. After getting back to the cabin we had a frozen pizza for lunch.

After lunch the rain held off long enough for me to pick beans. I noticed most of the new lettuce and mustard greens I transplanted on Tuesday were just washed away or drowned. Oh well such is the life of a farmer(gardener). After picking beans I just chilled and read until it was time to help prepare supper.

We decided we wanted Taco salad for supper as we had tons of fresh tomato's, lettuce, jalapeno peppers and cukes for the topping. Man was that good eatin'. You take flour tortilla's smeared with refried beans, add ground beef, chopped onions, cukes, tomato's, lettuce, jalapeno peppers(optional)tomato's then add a couple spoons of sour cream and then sprinkle some Taco Bell sauce on top. I like the HOT; Nancy likes the MILD. I even use a little Tabasco sauce, also.

Well we are chillin' tonight. LATER

Thursday

Wow has it ever been a rainy and foggy day. The closest it came to stop raining was for about and hour when it just drizzled. I went off the porch once during that drizzle to take a couple pictures of the cabin so you could see what we have looked at all day. After our quiet times this morning Nancy made her famous buckwheat pancakes with a banana and blueberries in the batter. Man was that good eatin' especially with a couple fried brown eggs on top. The rest of the morning was spent on the computer for Nancy and I spent a couple hours in the basement cleaning up my work bench and sweeping the floor.

We decided around 1 PM to finish the left over soup from last night. There was just enough for a bowl each. Man did that ever go with the damp overcast day outside. After lunch I vacuumed the upstairs and talked Nancy into heading down to the basement where we hit the pickle ball back and forth for about a 1/2 hour. At least we got the respiration's up several time by bending over chasing the ball around. Nancy quickly bored with this effort to exercise. I made several trips up and down the stairs for some exercise.

I spent the next couple hours reading and waiting for the rain to let up so I could go outside and play, actually I just wanted to take a hike, but no the rain never stopped. Around 5:30 we decided to get supper ready so Nancy oven fried some chicken thighs, boiled up some macaroni and added milk and butter and sauteed some garden fresh yellow squash with onions and olive oil. That is a tasty dish. I had a garden salad as well. Nancy cooked so I cleaned up the kitchen while she played on Face Book. We sat around hoping for a let up on the wet weather but it remained foggy and wet.

I started watching Miami beating Georgia Tech when the new season for Survivor came on; so I was through with foot ball now that she has the channel changer. They have a real character on the yellow team named Russell.

Well its off to Galax, Va in the early hours for a 9:30 doctors appointment for Nancy then to Wal-Mart. Exciting day lined up don't ya think. This type of weather is the only draw back about living in the woods. It's not safe to be on the roads because of the heavy fog and rain so if there is no really need to be out its best to stay home. Cabin fever is real. Here are a few pics I took when the rain let up enough to venture outside. I posted them on Face Book as well. LATER

Wednesday

We were awaken to a light rain falling on the tin roof so we turned over and went back to sleep until 8:30. Yikes!! I can't believe we slept in that late, but it did feel good. After our quiet times and a lite breakfast(nearly 10 AM) we decided to go to Sparta and pick up a few things. First we stopped by the Dollar General then headed over to the book store to browse. We picked up 6 books by authors like; Grisham, Ludlum, Robbins, Fuller, Wick and 2 non fiction books titled BLUE LIKE JAZZ and THE AIRMEN WHO WOULD NOT DIE. I paid a total of 6 bucks for these books today and starting Fri. & Sat. everything is half price off of these prices. Now that is a bargain no matter where you go.

We stopped at Lowes and picked up some goodies to finish the fixin's for a pot of vegetable beef soup. Most everything in the soup was home grown except for the carrots, celery and Lima beans. Nancy used our tomato's, potato's, green beans, parsley, kale and beet greens. Yumm was that ever a good soup and good for you. She also made a batch of chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal added for dessert. After supper we took a bowl over to our"mountain mom"as well as some cookies and a few books for her to read.

After getting back from Sparta around 1 PM I decided it would be an excellent time to burn some brush piles out in the back yard near the woods. What a job that turned out to be as the brush was damp so I had to continuously feed the fire by hand to get it to burn. I finally got the job done after about 4 hours of using a pitchfork. By the time supper was ready I was hot, sweaty and smelled like a burnt log. Man did that soup ever taste good and I ate too much once again.

Nancy felt a little better today so she managed to get a hike in to the top of the mountain while I burned. We have to go to Galax on Friday for another doctors appointment(female stuff). We had to cancel our trip to Virginia this weekend but hope to reschedule before we head back to Florida for the winter. Nancy took a few pics of the first changing of the leaves, me burning and our back trail that goes nearly straight up through the woods to the top of the mountain. Check out the fall Daisy's in the red pump picture as they are just starting to bloom.LATER

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