Thursday

Well Wednesday ended with a storm that came through around 7 PM that was a gully washers and then again around 9 that had tornado written all over it. The wind blew rain up and under the porches both front and back. I don't remember that happening before and the lightning and thunder was ferocious. The day started with nice clear skies and it really became our first real hot day at around 84 on the back porch around 1 PM. The humidity was high as well so I had no trouble with keeping a wet shirt as I wondered around the yards doing little piddly jobs.

After a 7 AM roll out I did a few quiet moments, posted my ramble then had a bowl of cereal with fruit before heading out to check on the gardens. I found more slugs down on the cabbages despite the Sevin dust so it was back to the old fool proof method of the thumb nail. I know it sounds nasty especially against a slug but they don't bite or sting, just leave a gooey, sticky film on your fingers. I fed the new seedlings despite the ground still being rather wet with some Miracle Grow. I also mixed up a batch for the established plants as the rain had leeched most of the nutrients the last couple weeks. Miracle Grow is like a blood transfusion to anemic plants.

It was back to harvesting Japanese beetles and I found once again tons of them and was able to capture most of them in a bowl of water. They have a tricky escape method and very good eyesight. As soon as you come near they either drop quickly to the ground or fly off. The bowl with a little water in it captures them when they fall below into the water which cause them to congregate into a ball of beetles. Makes it easy to dispose of them when they are all together with just the boot on a hard surface, oh well.

I warmed up the golf cart and loaded it with my ax, hoe and a few other tools and headed for the backwoods yards where I found lots of roots that had been exposed from all this rain and wash out. That was a job cutting and digging them out and it wasn't long until I was soaking with sweat. Now swinging that ax will give you a workout. I leveled several areas which made for bumpy mowing. I found several rocks that were showing through the ground and managed to dig them out as well. Some where so big I could barely manage to handle them so that required digging and hauling dirt to fill in the holes. Needless to say when Nancy decided it was time for a hike to the top of the mountain I was relieved to do so. The hike was much easier than what I was doing.

We saw only Norm outside on top as we hiked and he seemed in good spirits and looked good as well. He is still having leg issues as he has some wounds that will just not heal. He goes back to the VA today. Joe and Jetta were gone as they met with their son and grandsons for breakfast in Hillsville. The family was heading back to Cleveland. We headed on down off the mountain and then I piddle around with her window frame scrapping the paint off the panes that I painted and then I will antique it so she can display some of her photo's in the 6 panes.

We had a light lunch of salad and then like bad dogs we ate chocolate chip with pecans cookies for lunch. If we could just stay away from desserts and breads I'm sure with all the exercise going up and down this yard we could lose some of this spare tire. The skies clouded up and immediately dropped the temperature 10 degrees so while it was overcast with no imminent threat of rain we picked wine berries and probably picked a good quart or so that seem to ripen every couple hours. I headed out into the backwoods yard area where several volunteer wine berry bushes had grown up. I dug up 3 that were looking good and potted them for a friend; she will trade me some red raspberry bushes. I just need to find a place to plant them as the wine berry bushes spread so quickly and I have to continually cut them back or they will take over. The areas I have then planted are great and I'm thrilled they take over but the birds plant them all over the yard with their droppings.

Well around 4:30 it was time for a glass of vino and a slight rest before starting supper when we heard a car door drive up. Ray and Audean stopped by for a visit after getting back from the doctor in Elkin. Ray is not well with his legs, ears and diabetes and he can barely get around. They have him on 37 pills a day for all kinds of ailments as now he has to have tubes put in his ears due to equilibrium issues. His legs and feet hurt him so bad as well. They stayed until nearly 6:30 when we could hear thunder in the distance. We quickly made supper before the storm hit and while the lights flickered we never lost power. We unplugged everything and could hear the lightning arrestor in the basement on the breaker box zing a couple times. The strikes were close and the rain poured down. The driveway looked like a river in just moments. There goes the second seeding of new grass seeds down the drive as well as the new seedlings in the garden, Oh well.

There wasn't much to do after the storm passed so I hit the showers and then the bed with a book and by 10 PM I was out, LATER