Thursday Morning with rain dripping off the roof

Well this wet weather has continued through out the day and night once again. It's mainly a light rain, heavy mist and fog but still we haven't seen the sunshine since last Friday except for a moment or two on Saturday. We have definitely decided we just might as well set in the truck on the way back to Florida on Saturday as to set in the cabin in N.C. to wait and leave on Sunday which was our original plans, oh well. I hate to think a little wet weather would cause us to leave these mountains a day early but we are starting to rust and mildew and get cabin fever. We were talking with our friends the Carlan's yesterday as they came for a late lunch and then spent the afternoon until early evening about how short our time was here this summer. We were gone exactly a month when we were out west and then a couple weeks in Florida before coming back for the last month or so. We had two trips to northern Virginia as well over a couple weekends.

We started the day very much the unusual as we worked up a couple beautiful venison hams freshly killed on Monday evening and kept on ice. Neighbor Gerald blessed us with them and the meat was so fresh and lean. I cut it off the bone then sliced up several packages of steaks to be chicken fried which is our favorite way to eat venison and then hand ground up several packs for burgers, chili's and tacos. If I could get this meat regularly I would never eat beef again, it's that good, even Nancy concurs. I think proper dressing the killed animal and keeping it on ice or cold until worked up and then frozen is the key. I know our "mountain buddy" Caleb and his dad, Andy do a magnificent job as meat they bless us with is always so fresh and delicious when thawed. That chore kept us busy for the next couple hours.

We ate a late breakfast and then started on the house cleaning and food preparation for our friends Sam and Marcia who live in the oldest log cabin in Elk Creek, Va. It's huge and absolutely furnished beautiful on a small knoll over looking that area with the mountains in the distant. The look out their window reminds me of the Shenandoah Valley with the mountains surrounding their relatively flat landscape. The valley area is probably a couple miles wide as you travel up Rt 21 north of Independence. We dined on Zuppa soup, a salad Marcia prepared and crusty bread with a new chocolate dessert served later in the afternoon with vanilla ice cream. Everything was delicious and around 4'ish the rain stopped briefly so we took off up the back trial to the top of the mountain for a much needed hike. About half way up the heavy mist settled in once again but we had completed the difficult part so we headed back down the slippery woods trail.

I gave Sam some "lighter knot" or "fat wood" as some call it for fire starting this winter. They have a fire place and only use it when it really gets cold. I dug him a few white pine seedling that just grow almost out of control in my woods as well as a mess of Swiss chard, a vegetable they have never eaten before. Mine seems to love this soil here and the ice and frost hasn't effected it either thus far. I will try to take some back for my winter garden along with beets, kale, parsley, thyme and a jalapeno pepper plant that will eventually die from the cold. It was great to spend some time with them and they are lovers of the LORD as well. Well it was pitch black at 6:30 when they headed for home and the lite rain and fog once again had settled in.

We spoke with our "mountain mom" Helen and learned she had suffered a bug overnight and wasn't feeling well. We decided to cancel her and her brother Joe's supper plan for Thursday night as she sounded hoarse and we certainly didn't want to take her bug back to Florida with us. We will have to make up that supper date first thing next June. Well day light is here in the mountains and once more the fog and wet weather seems to be the theme so far for this morning, LATER