Well the temps have certainly changed back to what we are accustom to here in the mountains of North Carolina. It was a high of 72 today with a low in the low 60's and the day was just magnificent with some high clouds until the afternoon which gave way to bright sunshine. Our morning was the usual with waking up around 6:30, having a spot of tea while doing my quiet time then I finished off the last 2 leftover buckwheat pancakes with Amish butter and honey.
Nancy mentioned that bugs were eating the leaves off her cone flowers so I mixed up some Malathion insecticide and sprayed all of the flower beds before we headed out for our morning hike. After the hike I mixed up some weed and grass killer and sprayed the unwanted grass in the driveway and around the fire circle. We had a couple bean burritos for lunch and then we got ready to make a double batch of black raspberry jelly. Wow is that a messy and use every pan in your cabinets chore. Nancy and I have this down to a system as we've been making jelly every summer.
After the jelly making chore I transplanted some Zinnia's into larger pots and got them ready to add some color to the porches and deck and then painted the back porch screen door before we got ready for supper which also turned out to be Mexican. Yeow we love taco salad especially when we have a lot of our own home grown ingredients. We headed out to the back road after supper and made it to the top of the steep trail but decided afterwards to visit our neighbors out near the mailbox as we hadn't retrieved our mail for the day. We met several more neighbors who were out an about on 4-wheelers and golf carts in this beautiful evening weather. Nancy actually complained she was cold while riding in the golf cart.
Well its certainly been a busy day with lots of busy chores and fantastic temps, it now is into the low 60's and will quite possibly go lower tonight into the 50's. Should be great sleeping tonight and speaking of sleeping I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open. LATER
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday
Well it was another warm morning with temps in the middle 60's but the humidity had left so even though it reached the low 80's it was really quite pleasant. After our usual routine of quiet times and an outside check for deer and slug damage I microwaved a couple leftover buckwheat cakes for breakfast while Nancy had her bowl of oatmeal with blueberries. We had made arrangements to head to Virginia and pick black raspberries so we got ready to do that and then decided while we were near Galax to go ahead and shop for Amy and Tylers visit this Friday. The farm we picked berries at is just absolutely beautiful and is for sale for about 1/2 million or so as the husband passed away last year and its just to much for the wife to care for. This place was built by the husband as he was a general contractor and its top of the line with just gorgeous views, gardens and overall great landscaping with several acres and another guest house on the property, oh well.
After picking berries we headed to Walmart for some shopping and stocked up on grand baby goodies and groceries. The kids will be here on Friday and will stay for about a week. We hope to head to Winchester, Va. on Monday for a couple days to see my family and to introduce our grand babies to them.
We got back around 1:30 and had a salad for lunch then we headed out for our first hike of the day around 2:30. Afterwards we did a couple loads of laundry and I headed down to give neighbor Gerald a hand before doing a little garden work. We decided to go visit Grant and Shirley another neighbor who is up for a week at their cabin. We made plans to play Sequence on Thursday night with the group so it looks like about 10 players, should be a raucous time.
Nancy fixed a great penne pasta with butter, garlic, fresh oregano and basil to go with grilled salmon smothered in fresh dill and I sauteed fresh Swiss chard(out of my garden) with garlic in olive oil. YUMMM, what a supper!!! I hand watered the garden after supper until it was time for our second hike of the day around 7 PM. Wow was it ever beautiful and visibility on top was great. We could see Pilot Mountain and the area towards Mt.Airy. It was a great hike and the evening shadows were evident when we got back to the cabin so we cranked up the golf cart and took a ride over to visit with another neighbor we hadn't seen for a couple weeks. It turned out to be a great day seeing folks we hadn't seen in awhile, seeing some unbelievably beautiful country and eating good. LATER
After picking berries we headed to Walmart for some shopping and stocked up on grand baby goodies and groceries. The kids will be here on Friday and will stay for about a week. We hope to head to Winchester, Va. on Monday for a couple days to see my family and to introduce our grand babies to them.
We got back around 1:30 and had a salad for lunch then we headed out for our first hike of the day around 2:30. Afterwards we did a couple loads of laundry and I headed down to give neighbor Gerald a hand before doing a little garden work. We decided to go visit Grant and Shirley another neighbor who is up for a week at their cabin. We made plans to play Sequence on Thursday night with the group so it looks like about 10 players, should be a raucous time.
Nancy fixed a great penne pasta with butter, garlic, fresh oregano and basil to go with grilled salmon smothered in fresh dill and I sauteed fresh Swiss chard(out of my garden) with garlic in olive oil. YUMMM, what a supper!!! I hand watered the garden after supper until it was time for our second hike of the day around 7 PM. Wow was it ever beautiful and visibility on top was great. We could see Pilot Mountain and the area towards Mt.Airy. It was a great hike and the evening shadows were evident when we got back to the cabin so we cranked up the golf cart and took a ride over to visit with another neighbor we hadn't seen for a couple weeks. It turned out to be a great day seeing folks we hadn't seen in awhile, seeing some unbelievably beautiful country and eating good. LATER
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday
Well at 6:30 I rolled over and looked at the clock and said to myself"sleep in" but the body said get up. I thought when you retire you could just stay in bed as long as you want to, but no I have to get up even though I skipped a whole nights sleep on Saturday night. After my spot of tea and my quiet time I slipped out to check on the gardens while Nancy did her quiet time as well. We decided last night to use up the 2 over ripe bananas in the buckwheat cake mix for breakfast. My were they ever good and they held us to nearly 1 PM before we had a lite lunch.
I sprayed the flower beds with an insecticide as some little brown bug was eating the cone flowers then fertilized all the veggie plants before we headed off on what would be our only hike of the day due to a good steady rain that started just as we walked out toward the back trail after supper tonight. It sure cooled us down once again from the mid 80's to the high 60's in about an hour. After our hike we changed clothes and headed to Sparta to the library, grocery store and veggie stand and post office to retrieve 9 days of mail. We got back around 1 PM and had a lite lunch of home grown sliced cucumbers and the last of the pork roast we brought with us that Nancy had ground up for sandwiches.
The temps were starting to rise once again to the mid 80's but with the strong breeze it was tolerable so I cranked up the weed whacker and edged the whole property. I finally finished around 4:30 so really walking up and down the yards I more than got my exercise in for the day. I picked some fresh kale, a cucumber, beet greens, a yellow pepper, a couple green onions and some basil for the garden salad Nancy put together along with a couple grille marinated chicken breasts, white rice covered with sauteed yellow squash and onion and a dash of soy sauce. Yumm good eatin'. Tomorrow we are heading over to Va. to pick black raspberries for jam at a friends berry patch then afterwards we'll head on to Galax for some goodies from Walmart. Hopefully the rain will hold off in the morning long enough to pick berries.
Well the weather forecast starting Wednesday is for highs only in the 70's and low's in the 50's. Now that is mountain weather and what we are use to here. This high 80's and high humidity is what we have in Florida, plus the garden likes the lower temps. Any how its been a good day with lots of little things accomplished besides edging. Did I mention the Japanese beetles are here on my roses and wine berry bushes and I picked off at least a hundred or more today. Nite nite beetle, oh by the way here is a good way to pick beetles so they don't get away when you try picking them from whatever. Take a used plastic butter container and put about 1/2 inch of water in it then put the container below the limb the beetle is on and tap the limb and the beetles will fall into the container with the water. The water keeps them from flying away so they will cluster into balls of 5 to 6 which makes its easy to lift them out of the water and lay them on a flat something before squashing them with your shoe.
Well will close for now as this soft rain on the tin roof is making me very sleepy, LATER
I sprayed the flower beds with an insecticide as some little brown bug was eating the cone flowers then fertilized all the veggie plants before we headed off on what would be our only hike of the day due to a good steady rain that started just as we walked out toward the back trail after supper tonight. It sure cooled us down once again from the mid 80's to the high 60's in about an hour. After our hike we changed clothes and headed to Sparta to the library, grocery store and veggie stand and post office to retrieve 9 days of mail. We got back around 1 PM and had a lite lunch of home grown sliced cucumbers and the last of the pork roast we brought with us that Nancy had ground up for sandwiches.
The temps were starting to rise once again to the mid 80's but with the strong breeze it was tolerable so I cranked up the weed whacker and edged the whole property. I finally finished around 4:30 so really walking up and down the yards I more than got my exercise in for the day. I picked some fresh kale, a cucumber, beet greens, a yellow pepper, a couple green onions and some basil for the garden salad Nancy put together along with a couple grille marinated chicken breasts, white rice covered with sauteed yellow squash and onion and a dash of soy sauce. Yumm good eatin'. Tomorrow we are heading over to Va. to pick black raspberries for jam at a friends berry patch then afterwards we'll head on to Galax for some goodies from Walmart. Hopefully the rain will hold off in the morning long enough to pick berries.
Well the weather forecast starting Wednesday is for highs only in the 70's and low's in the 50's. Now that is mountain weather and what we are use to here. This high 80's and high humidity is what we have in Florida, plus the garden likes the lower temps. Any how its been a good day with lots of little things accomplished besides edging. Did I mention the Japanese beetles are here on my roses and wine berry bushes and I picked off at least a hundred or more today. Nite nite beetle, oh by the way here is a good way to pick beetles so they don't get away when you try picking them from whatever. Take a used plastic butter container and put about 1/2 inch of water in it then put the container below the limb the beetle is on and tap the limb and the beetles will fall into the container with the water. The water keeps them from flying away so they will cluster into balls of 5 to 6 which makes its easy to lift them out of the water and lay them on a flat something before squashing them with your shoe.
Well will close for now as this soft rain on the tin roof is making me very sleepy, LATER
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Saturday and Sunday
Well Saturday was once again another scorcher in Florida and after rolling out around 6:30 and taking a few quiet moments to reflect, give thanks and to give lip service to those who I know needed some extra special care. Nancy made a couple fried egg sandwiches with pickle, lettuce, onion and tomato on toast with mayo. Yumm is that ever good eatin'. We initially were going to the beach but when its nearly 90 at 9 o'clock we decided we had to much to do to get ready to head back to the cabin on Sunday morning, so that's what we did; clean house, vacuum, do laundry and pack. I did manage to finish a read in between all that until Tyler came around 2 PM to wax his car under my big oak. I helped him and with the 2 of us it only took an hour or so and we even did my truck with the liquid wax you put in the wash water. Wow was it ever hot and we both were wet with sweat. The heat index was over a 100.
Nancy had I had everything packed except for some little stuff so we got cleaned up and headed over to Amy and Tyler's for dinner. She had a meat loaf cooking with baked potato's, black eyed peas and corn along with a Caesar's salad. She getting to be quite the cook. We had not only a great meal but a couple hours to play and love up on Ava and Samuel before heading home. Incidentally the Ray's won Saturday night but I just learned they lost Sundays match up with the Diamondbacks.
Speaking of Sunday we got on the road around 4:30AM for the trip back to the cabin. It was 89 when we left and so humid it kept me in a constant sweat while loading the truck.The trip was wonderful with little traffic until we reached Charlotte where temp was 100 degrees, Yikes that's even hotter than Florida. When we pulled in around 3 PM the temp on the back porch was 86, Yeow that really hot for here. Everything looked good as our "mountain mom" came by a couple times and watered some of the potted flowers. I picked a couple cukes and the 'maters plants are loaded with golf ball size 'maters. The Zucchini plant has a few small little squashes. That poison I put out for the slugs worked as I saw no new damage since we left 9 days ago. The wine berries are just about to burst forth and the bushes are loaded. I then hand watered until it was time to eat.
After a quick supper of a frozen pizza and a salad we headed out for a hike to the top, although we made the top we shorten the distance as it was beginning to rumble down off the mountain and we didn't want to get caught in one of these electrical storms. Anyhow it was still around 80 when it finally started to rain at 8:30 and it has drastically cooled the temp's off as well as cut the humidity out. What a beautiful soft rain and while we had about an inch while we were gone everything was dry and in need of this good drink with no fireworks.
Well I'm starting to get my second wind now that its cooled off so I'll talk at ya tomorrow. Later.
Nancy had I had everything packed except for some little stuff so we got cleaned up and headed over to Amy and Tyler's for dinner. She had a meat loaf cooking with baked potato's, black eyed peas and corn along with a Caesar's salad. She getting to be quite the cook. We had not only a great meal but a couple hours to play and love up on Ava and Samuel before heading home. Incidentally the Ray's won Saturday night but I just learned they lost Sundays match up with the Diamondbacks.
Speaking of Sunday we got on the road around 4:30AM for the trip back to the cabin. It was 89 when we left and so humid it kept me in a constant sweat while loading the truck.The trip was wonderful with little traffic until we reached Charlotte where temp was 100 degrees, Yikes that's even hotter than Florida. When we pulled in around 3 PM the temp on the back porch was 86, Yeow that really hot for here. Everything looked good as our "mountain mom" came by a couple times and watered some of the potted flowers. I picked a couple cukes and the 'maters plants are loaded with golf ball size 'maters. The Zucchini plant has a few small little squashes. That poison I put out for the slugs worked as I saw no new damage since we left 9 days ago. The wine berries are just about to burst forth and the bushes are loaded. I then hand watered until it was time to eat.
After a quick supper of a frozen pizza and a salad we headed out for a hike to the top, although we made the top we shorten the distance as it was beginning to rumble down off the mountain and we didn't want to get caught in one of these electrical storms. Anyhow it was still around 80 when it finally started to rain at 8:30 and it has drastically cooled the temp's off as well as cut the humidity out. What a beautiful soft rain and while we had about an inch while we were gone everything was dry and in need of this good drink with no fireworks.
Well I'm starting to get my second wind now that its cooled off so I'll talk at ya tomorrow. Later.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Picture of Nancy and Samuel
This was taken on Wednesday and I just got Tyler to show me how to down load it from another person's pic's.Friday, June 25, 2010
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