Wednesday Morning

Well 2 absolutely gorgeous days in a row with deep blue skies and brilliant sunshine. It did reach the 80 degree mark but I can always find some shade or the cool basement when it gets too hot. The water is still running down off the top of the mountain into our nearly always dry gulch. The back road that borders our property has finally been drained of most of the standing water. The garden is still quite wet but I was able to loosen up some of the soil around the roots of the plants that are left so some air can get to them. I did transplant some lettuce and Swiss chard seedling I have been growing in pots. The slugs are still in abundance and I put a dozen or so away for good with my thumb nail and then dusted the cabbages and beans with some Sevin dust.

The morning started around 7 with the birds singing and the sound of dew dripping from the dormer onto the tin roof. It was around 60 and just a perfect temperature wise way to start the day. After our quiet times and a lite breakfast with fresh picked wine berries and a peach in a bowl of cereal I headed out to check on the gardens. Once more I picked Japanese Beetles in a bowl of water and gathered 50-60 on my first pass of the gardens. I made many passes during the day and put a hurting on their masses. They will eat any and everything and they have such a voracious appetite. I headed down to check on the neighbors chickens as he is in Raleigh for the week. Still no eggs.

We took off around 11 on our hike for the day to the top. It seems to be several degrees warmer on top than down in our little corner and that's because of the sun taking so long to get straight overhead. We are nestled down in the tall trees so the mornings stay quite nice. Now after lunch when the sun is overhead it warms up considerably with the afternoon and evening sun; but it is so nice to see the sun. The flower gardens are responding to the sun as well with some many new flower heads and its just beautiful to gaze at their beauty.

I headed out to the backwoods yard to rake away a corner section of concentrated moss. I was in the shade so it made for good working conditions but I still had a wet shirt. I worked on that until after 4 when I decided to take a break on the back porch and read until supper time. We had a deer tenderloin(back strap) marinating in Italian dressing just waiting for me to pop it on the grille and Nancy cooked some fresh carrots with nutmeg and some kind of flavored rice. Yeow was that ever delicious.

After the cleanup we picked wine berries as they are coming in fast so we froze a nice bag for cobblers and hopefully enough to eventually make jam.  I would even like to make a gallon of the stuff they are named after but we will see how they are producing as it takes quite a few. We then took a long extended golf cart ride to the mailbox then to the top of the mountain. Wow it's so much easier riding up the mountain than hiking but not nearly as good for you. We visited with the Browning and learned their company(son and 3 grandsons) are leaving for Ohio in the morning. It will be quiet around there for a day or so; and on the way back down we stopped and visited with Carl Hudson and his grand daughter who were on the 4-wheeler. She(grand daughter who looks to be around 13-15) is flying back home
to Colorado tomorrow. The mountain will just be us local folks for awhile until the next round of visitors.

I tuned into the All Star game which as Nancy stated was rather boring so she flipped channels while I showered then I watched an inning or so while she was in the shower. I headed for the sack and read about 15 minutes when I no longer could hold my eyes. The strangest sound woke us up around 3 AM when it sounded like a couple house cats were having a contest on who could create the weirdest noise. We know of no house cats here in the mountain so maybe it was a bobcat or even a mountain lion. Did I mention a black bear was seen on top a couple weeks ago right where we hike everyday, LATER     Nancy had to use up some cookie dough so I had to help her dispose of them as well!!!