Tuesday Morning

Well Monday started out just beautiful with cool temps down into the low 60's with bright blue skies and plenty of sunshine until the late evening when it clouded over and a terrific storm came into the area with strong winds, lightning, thunder and rain. At least the rain wasn't a gully washer here but in some areas it did cause some major flooding in the Va. areas. It started raining again this morning as I awakened to start this day and it looks as if this could be around for awhile. We are heading to Galax for some shopping and a ear lowering for me which is just perfect since we would be limited to the indoors.

After my usual few quiet moments and routines I headed out to check on the gardens while Nancy made us a mountain breakfast of buckwheat cakes, sausage patties and cackleberries. Yeow, did that ever fit the bill as we had eaten very lite on Sunday evening with just snacks. I loaded up the berry pickings containers, put on long breeches and long sleeved shirt along with boots and a straw hat gathered up the fishing poles and worms and we headed out around 10 for our "mountain mom's" field and pond. Well we picked another gallon or so of wild blackberries in a couple hours then headed down to the pond to fish for another couple hours. It was going on 2 o'clock when we headed back to the cabin with enough fresh bass to feed the three of us for supper with some leftovers. Brother Joe(Helen's) declined as he wasn't up to heading out to eat with us. Well, Nancy was the big fisherman of the day with a nice bass that was at least 2-3 pounds. It got hung up in the reeds and broke her line but since it was worn out I managed to wade in and grab him by the bucket mouth saving Nancy's big catch of the day. It was a real beauty.  It made 6 nice pieces when I cleaned the 6 bass we brought home. Yikes that was some fine eatin' to go along with yellow rice and my garden cucumbers in a salad with onions, vinegar and sugar. Delicious is all I can say as I fried the fish outside on the grill dipped in egg and breaded with corn flake crumbs.

Well, after Helen left for her cabin the skies clouded up and the storm rolled in. We wanted to work up some of the blackberries we picked from yesterday for jelly and then a cobbler. Nancy washed them in the sink while I pulverized them with the blender then extracted the seeds and then we put the juice in a container for jelly making tomorrow. We need to pick up Surgel, sugar and lids as well as yeast and extra sugar for my wine making with the rest of the berries. I think we have enough picked to make about 2-3 gallons as I need about 5 pounds of berries per gallon of liquid or must which after a couple months should make some fine table wine.

After the storm passed and we were able plug back in the TV and laptop we settled into the Fox News channel and then eventually a Lee Child book for me after a hot shower until I was reading the inside of my eye lids, LATER  Here are a few pics from the past couple days.