Well Monday turned out to be a very nice day after a chilly start with temps down into the middle 40's. There was plenty of sunshine and the breeze kept it a long pants and long sleeve day except for when I was working in the direct sunshine sawing up some trees and stumps at our "mountain moms" place.
The morning started much the usual with a 7'ish roll out to start the day. We did our routine which started with hot drinks, our quiet times and then Nancy baked some biscuits with sausage patties and egg for breakfast, Yeow was that ever tasty and held us except for a salad for lunch around 1 PM. I piddled around the gardens and yards until it was time for our daily hike to the top.
The deer once again ate off the Swiss chard as well as had a midnight snack of sweet tater vines. So far the vines continue to grow and show no signs of dying. The chicken wire has preserved the beets and they continue to grow despite being munched on several times. One of the collard plants has been removed to the compost pile as it rotted off at ground level. The other plant that looked so bad never sent out any roots from the ball of the plant for some reason and it to maybe headed for the compost pile.
We saw several folks on top of the mountain as we hiked. Mike and Nancy were up sealing their logs on their cabin and we saw the Cline's as well for the second time this summer. Sandy seemed to be doing much better and of course Ann was her old self as she was weeding in her flower gardens. They were planning on spending the night for a change which was a good sign for Sandy's recovery. We headed on across the top and saw no one else as the Browning's were all inside including Zeke. We headed on back down to the cabin and while the air was still chilled there were signs of it warming up. Nancy hung a load of laundry then we settled into a nice fresh salad complete with garlic bread. After lunch we headed out on the golf cart to Helen's as we wanted her to return a couple library books the next time she is in Sparta for us and I wanted to do some chainsaw work for her.
The huge fields next door to her were being harvested for their pumpkins. There were 6 large tractors with wagons and lots of Mexican workers who were loading some of the thousands of pumpkins. That was quite an operation and throughout the county there are several acres of pumpkins ready to be harvested and sent off to stores throughout the nation.
We headed home as the air started to chill down around 3 PM. We stopped and visited with Gerald for a few and to let him know we were leaving for about 10 days or so on Wednesday morning early for Florida. We hope to be back for another month around the first week in Oct.or so before closing up for the winter the first week in Nov. We have been having some winter like mornings for Florida already, yet the temps in Florida are still rather warm at 85 daily and with lots of rain.
I will be away from this ramble for a day or so as we travel 700 + miles back to Seminole on Wednesday. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers for safe travel as we head back for several birthday celebrations, family dinners and getting my garden ready for planting. I plan on getting a little pickle ball play in as well with the gang from Seminole Rec. I need to work on reducing this spare tire around my middle.
I tuned into the Rays vs the Orioles yesterday afternoon and the Rays came from behind and in the bottom of the 9th won it. There is still a chance they may make the post season playoffs after all, LATER
