Well Friday was pretty much a rain free day for a change and believe me we needed to go a day without a gully washer. There were lots of rain clouds around and except for a couple sprinkles at different times we stayed relatively dry. The humidity has increased as well as the heat. These past couple of days have been the only real summer this year. We took off around 5'ish to the Mount Airy stockyards for the monthly horse sale. We hooked up with the Mechelle, Caleb, Kaithlyn and Curtis as they are buyers and sellers in the horse business. Mechelle bought a beautiful gray mare. If we were here year round I would have liked to own and ride this horse.
We started the day on Friday with a 7'ish roll out. This get up time is now becoming the norm for me whereas 6'ish was the norm just a few short months ago. Nancy has become a bad influence on me with sleeping in. She of course is up until midnight reading whereas I'm reading the back of my eye lids around 11'ish. We did some cackleberries for breakfast with a sliced tomato and a hot jalapeno pepper to accompany mine. Yeow, talking about waking up your taste buds that was one hot pepper and that meal held us to around 1:30 when we decided to eat our big meal of the day which sufficed us for the rest of the evening except for a handful of mixed nuts. Just maybe we can work on dropping a pound or two with just less eating.
We took off on our daily hike to the top of the mountain where we stopped and chatted with Dean Todd who is more or less looking after Norman. It seems his family has little concern for him as they rarely come around and take any interest in Norm's welfare. Norm has been having some very rough days and nights so along with Joe Browning they are spending the nights and days with him and taking care of many of his basic needs. I don't expect Norm to be with us much longer as his health has deteriated to where he is unable to control his bodily functions and to where he can barely walk. It's such a shame his family will not take charge and see that he gets the necessary help he so desperately needs in these final days. What great neighbors Dean, Joe and Jetta are to look after Norm in the ways they do to make his life a little better.
I fired up the lawnmower when we came down from the mountains and managed to mow the yards except for the backwoods yard along with weed whacking the perimeters. That kept me busy until it was time to eat a late lunch or an early supper. We piddled around in the yards and gardens until it was time to get ready for our trip to the horse sale. It's about 30 miles down off the mountain to the horse sale on a winding twisty 2 lane road. Nancy gets a little green every time we headed down that way as the switch backs never cease until your down in the flat lands and then the roller coaster hills and dips has her on edge. The trip is adventure itself before you ever get to the horse sale.
We saw some beautiful livestock; huge bulls, horses, donkeys and some mini's that are no bigger than a dog.
Well that was about it as we got back to the cabin some where after 10'ish. It was hot shower time to wash off the stockyard smells, dirt and grime. We were right down in the pens with many of these animals so naturally the smells permeated your clothes. I grew up with this ambiance on the farm and I'm amazed Nancy loves this venue as she is Mr. Clean all the time around the house but she puts on her jeans and cowboy boots and gets down with her bad self when it comes to horses and the stockyard, LATER
