Well Monday was a busy day as I managed to get a few small jobs completed as well as fight off a swarm of nasty bees that are building a paper hive on the outside of the bump out dormer. We noticed the start of this paper hive from the back yard. Luckily it's on the second story so while they really don't come in contact with us on a daily basis I still did the idea of them building on the cabin. I will go into more detail later as I haven't been back upstairs checking on the action I took after dark last night.
Well the day started with me once again awake around 6'ish and so I rolled out to the stillness of the morning while Nancy slept in. It was a little warmer this AM with temps in the middle 60's which still is rather nice compared to what Florida is experiencing with 80's at day break and now 3 weeks of rainfall that has left much of the area where we live with street flooding. After my usual mundane morning routines and then a few quiet moments in thanksgiving and lifting up those I know and love in my thoughts to the LORD and then prayers for healing and comfort to those we know who are in need of some divine intervention I posted this ramble. I heard Nancy awakening around 8'ish and so the day began with my calling our "mountain mom" Helen on the phone and then we get our daily morning calls from Amy and GG.
After a lite breakfast I took an extension pole and opened the upstairs bathroom window and gave the paper bee hive a swat which aroused a multitude of these swarming and angry bee's which resemble yellow jackets. Yikes were they ever trying their best to attack me and a couple did manage to get in the window before I got it closed; but I quickly dispatched them with the swatter. They were swarming like this for hours and I swatted them again a couple time during the day hoping I would drive them away to some other location. I found an old fogger in the basement that was several years old but still intact so I taped it to a pole and after dark I held the fogger over the nest and let it spray.( I need to check the area later this morning).
We headed out for our daily hike just before lunch and saw no one on the mountain. It was starting to heat up on top and it felt good to get back into the shaded back road and woods on the way down the mountain. We had a garden salad for lunch which was awesome and loaded down with fresh cucumbers. These are sweetest cukes I've ever eaten and no burping either. After lunch I loaded up the golf cart with some tools and headed up into the backwoods to gather rocks for my garden boundary. Seems some of the logs I use to border the lower garden is starting to rot away and disintegrate so since I have a plethora of rocks I decided to make a permanent border with them. I hauled three 500 pound or more loads and stacked them around the border while working up a good sweat despite being mostly in the shade.
I noticed when I burned the huge brush pile that along side of it was some very nice mulch from the past couple years as the rains and run off from the mountain has washed down into the gully and the brush pile stopped this debris and silt from completely washing away. Well I hauled several loads of this black composted dirt and loaded up the garlic patch and the lower gardens as I get ready for next years planting season. This material will make it so much easier to turn over the soil as I till by hand with a shovel and it will as well add lots of nutrients to the soil. That kept me busy until quitting at 4 o'clock. I headed into the cool 50 degree basement to wash off the sweat and change clothes.
We sat on the porches and read until it was time for supper. Neighbor Gerald blessed us with some ground venison he harvested from our woods last Fall and wow was that ever delicious, especially as we knew our gardens had contributed to the awesome taste and flavor of the meat. We patted the meat into hamburger type steaks and I grilled them with a little thyme and rosemary and they melted in your mouth along with tater tots and a salad. Yikes was that ever some fine eatin' and I will say it again I would never eat beef or red meat again if I could replace it with venison. I was thinking if my suppliers(Andy, Caleb and Gerald) run out this year I may have to resort to harvesting them myself since I have them already on my property. It's been years since I was around the killing or harvesting of animals but I could learn to butcher again, especially since I have an unlimited supply of them eating from my gardens, oh well!!
We took off after supper and the cleanup on the golf cart to the mailbox and then made a visit with Shirley and her mom. She filled us in on the big wedding reception she hosted at their beautiful cabin where we go creekin's which is on the way in to our cabin. We stayed until nearly dark before heading back to the cabin. Son in law, Tyler called and he walked me through some of the issues my laptop was presenting and as of right now we are back in business with all of our apps working properly. I do think this laptop is on the way out and hopefully it will last until we get back for the winter. We haven't put any pic on lately as Picasa was not working properly since the computer crashed last week when we got back from the Creeper Trail. Well after fogging the bees I headed for the shower and was soon in the horizontal position reading until it was lights out for me at 10:30, LATER
