Tuesday Morning

Well we finally got our wish for some rain as the skies opened up after lunch and we got a gully washer with a tree topper as well. Luckily no trees fell around the cabin but several dead limbs did litter the back woods yards. The wind came through like a twister for a few seconds blowing rain up and under the ridge cap on the roof and we got a few drops of water in the upstairs bathroom. Most of that fell into the commode with only a few drops onto the floor, Yikes was that ever a storm. We had no lightning and just a few thunder booms in the distant but the rain fell at 3 inches in less than an hour.

Monday morning started out much the usual with our routines; I was awake at 6:15 and Nancy rolled out somewhere after 8'ish. After my quiet moments to give thanks and lift up those who need some divine intervention I finished the last of the fresh fruit bowl that had blueberries, cantaloupe, melons, kiwi, strawberries, grapes and some wine berries for breakfast then headed outside to check on the gardens.

Once more the morning glories were glorious with their "heavenly blue" colors and the vine has just about reached the pinnacle of the arbor. It's the first time any plant has ever grown on the arbor and to have such a beautiful one has been well worth the wait. The sugar peas are just loaded with their white blossoms and we soon should be eating them raw in salads as well as in stir fries. I noticed the specially squash plants has a couple fruit set and the 2 plants down in the lower garden have a sweet delicious smell to their huge orange blossoms. The half runner green beans are getting close to be ready to pick and of course I'm giving away cucumbers. No ripening of the tomatoes as of yet but maybe with all this rain they will start to turn. The lettuces are so beautiful as is the other greens and I'm picking lots of jalapeno as well as bell peppers. This organic trace mineral supplement that I used this year is the real difference. It come from a dried up seabed somewhere in the west and its loaded with major and minor trace elements and minerals. The website is: organiclivingforall.com and you can order the supplement. A quart of this has lasted through my Florida garden and now this garden here in the mountains and I still have a little left. You use a teaspoon to a gallon of water. At 12 bucks a quart its well worth and the difference is unbelievable.

We took off to the top of the mountain just before lunch time after hanging a couple loads of laundry. It was partly cloudy and the hike was very comfortable as we made our way up the steep incline to the top. The far off views were obstructed by the haze. We saw no one on top until we got to the Browning's. We stopped and chatted a few and Jetta mentioned she had Nancy's quilt finished with the repairs so we made a date to come up later on the golf cart. It was back down the mountain to a lunch of leftovers deli meats, bakery bread and potato chips. At least we ate some raw cucumbers dipped in ranch dressing. All of those were nice and fattening but we find them difficult to pass up after company leaves. All were very tasty and maybe one more lunch before they are gone and we can work on reducing our spare tires once again, oh well!!!

Well the storm hit as we were finishing lunch and we both got soaked taking down the nearly dried clothes from the line. It was worth getting wet for some rain and we put them in the drier and we were shedding our wet clothes for some dry ones when when the big twister came through causing us to close the windows even from the top. The rain was sideways and a river was running down the driveway. After the storm I loaded up the golf cart with tools and headed down the drive to smooth out the gullies and ruts by hand. That kept me busy for a couple hours as the sun came out and the humidity went to nearly 100% after the rain. It didn't take long to have a solid wet shirt from the sweat.

I almost forgot to mention that I started harvesting my garlic on Sunday afternoon. I wanted to show Dee and Mike how the stuff grew. I will bring them some so they can start their own patch as well. The stalks some as high as 2 feet had dried up and when they began producing a beautiful purple head I cut them off and dried them. The head contains small seed like bulbs that can be used to make pesto or whatever and can be replanted. When they grow they will produce a small solid bulb much like the dried onion sets. These will eventually produced the garlic bulb with individual kernels and they are to be planted sometime around Oct or at least that's when I plant mine here at the cabin. I will enclose a photo of the three stages. They require no care.

Well Jetta did a beautiful job on repairing the sun damage to the upper portion of our comforter/quilt. She matched the fabric very closely and then quilted some of the areas as well. She is a master seamstress as well an artist with her creations in paint as well as fabric. She is very reasonable as well as generous with her talents. We were thrilled she won

the blue ribbon for her entry in the quilt show in Sparta last week as it was just an awesome display of her talent and sewing ability. Well we headed home just as the sun was setting and the rain really perked up the grasses as well as the flowers. My garden took a beating in the bean and squash departments but I'm sure they will recover with a little sunshine. At times the raindrops were so big and bouncing off the deck I thought it was hail and there might have been some mixed in as well. It sure beat my "bird egg's" down from the poles as well as blew over the squash and a few tomato plants. The Ray's finally won a game over the Tigers and are still somewhere around 500 ball, LATER