Wednesday

Well hallelujah no rain for the day or evening despite rain clouds and overcast skies for part of the day. Tuesday evening looked so much like rain with dark ominous clouds that we were just waiting for the down pour at any moment. Anyhow the temps have moderated back into the low 70's for most of the day after a chilly start in the high 50's.

We started the day around 7'ish with our usual routine of hot coffee and tea then a few moments to give thanks, reflect and lift up those who we know who need some special considerations. I then made this daily post for posterity sakes and for the few who like my ramble. Afterwards I checked in with our "mountain mom" by phone to make sure she hadn't washed off the mountain and was still kickin'. She is down right tired along with all of us of this wet weather we've had this summer. The fore cast for today, Wednesday is for more rain but maybe it will by pass us as it did on Tuesday.

I finished up the two leftover blueberry cakes with a banana in the batter for breakfast with a little honey on top in place of syrup, yeow was that ever delicious. After eating I headed out to check on the gardens and still found some rain runoff trickling down below in what is normally our dry gully. I noticed the regular potato vines were starting to turn black so I figured there was a possibility they were going to rot in the ground. Well it was messy but I dug the few hills that I planted last November and I was surprised none had rotted. I probably found between 4-6 pounds of the red and russet spuds and several of them were of a nice size. These grew from small potatoes leftover from the harvest of a year before and I put them in the ground when we left last Nov. I heard tales where my great grandfather planted his potatoes every fall. Everyone one thought he was a little batty; but he was the first to have potato plants in the spring when the ground warmed up and now I know those tales were true.

My gum boots where just a muddy mess from the wet ground so we headed for the mailbox on the golf cart and then stopped off at the creek where I waded around washing my boots. We love our gum boots as they save your regular boots and shoes from the wet and mud. We took off on our daily hike to the top of the mountain and stopped and visited with Joe and Zeke. We headed on back down to a lite lunch as once again the subject of food and in particular the grass fed local beef from Galax, Va. came up. We were going to try the ones we bought last week for supper. Well we were thoroughly disappointed in the tenderness and even the flavor in the New York strip and rib eye. There was very little flavor despite the grilling spices for the $16 a pound meat and very chewy. The meat was not nearly as good as the meat we bought with our Delicious Ribbon Gifts through Amway which was less than half the cost.  I'm glad we tried the local beef and satisfied our curiosity and now we know there are no bells on this meat; we have two more steaks which I think we will marinate and grill for fajitas at a later date, oh well.

The rest of the day was doing piddling chores and we even sat on the porch and deck reading for an hour or so before grilling those tough steaks for supper. I snapped and stringed some 1/2 runner beans the Dalton's blessed us with and shared some with neighbor Gerald, to go along with the steaks and a sweet tater. I sure hope my sweet taters make as this one was superb with a little butter and nutmeg, yeow!!! Well I put a hurting on some beetles and slugs and then tried to loosen up the mud around what plants are still surviving in the lower garden. The sugar peas are doing great all of a sudden and I picked a couple handfuls and they are loaded with blooms. The cukes have succumbed to the wet ground in the lower garden but one plant in the upper patch is still hanging there with lots of blooms and a few nubbins.

After supper I burned trash and then marveled at the flowers as they have just loved this wet weather. This is the year for wild flowers and butterfly's. I have never seen so many different varieties and some are bigger than my hand in size. They love our sunflowers which have added some color to the upper garden area. These are multi-headed with as many as 8 heads on a single stalk and to think they were volunteers in the garden when I arrived in June. I managed to save 4 of the plants and plant them around the fence.

Well that's about it for a Tuesday as we are excited about another day without any rainfall, today is supposed to bring us the wet stuff once again and the skies definitely look that way as well. Here's to keeping your feet dry another day, LATER   Nancy was out with her camera so we will indulge her ability to capture the moment!!!