I slept in with one ear listening for GG, Nancy's mom to awakened and then assist down our steep stairs. She insisted she was fine to sleep upstairs so we didn't quarrel about that as I love our bed with the flannel sheets. After my usual routines of a few quiet moments and the posting of this ramble from the day before's events I headed out on the porch to fry up a couple batches of bacon on the grill's burner. Wow does that accessory ever save your house from the splatter and smell inside the cabin, although I love the smell of bacon in the crisp cool morning air. Nancy had buckwheat cakes baking on the stove and fried dippy eggs ready for everyone to have a "mountain breakfast". I like my eggs on top of my cakes which is slathered with real Amish butter and raw honey so as to not lose any of the yoke to the plate but only on the cake, Yeow was that ever some fine eatin' and lasted me all day except for half a ham sandwich around 1:30 when I got back from scooping up horse manure at Kimberly's.
Kimberly is getting over a back operation and Eddie of course is still in the VA Hospital in Salisbury and she still has several horses of which they continue to mess up their stalls. So I thought I would do my good deed for the day and muck out her stables as well as bag the manure for my garden. It didn't take long for me to work up a sweat and soon I was shedding my long sleeve shirt. I had the back of the truck completely loaded with feed bags of manure which helps to keep the bed liner clean. It was after 1'ish before I left the stables and barn for the cabin. It had really warmed up to 65 degrees so it was time to shed the long britches and shirt.
After a quick half a sandwich I loaded up the golf cart with the now empty rain barrel and a trash can and headed out to the backwoods yard to gather up a couple loads of the leaves I had blown into the gully. I then took the riding mower and pulverized the leaves and then took the leaf blower and blew them onto the lower garden. After covering the garden with leaves I then spread several large bags of manure on top of the leaves and then took a bale of old hay that wasn't fit for the horses to eat and spread that on top of the whole garden. That should help with holding the leaves and manure as well as compost down to good food for my worms and that should make for building some good soil for my vegetables next summer. I need to repeat this process for the raised beds in the back yard and for the upper garden which still has some beets, Swiss chard and kale growing along with Zinnias. I will take some of those plants back with me to Florida and replant them in my winter garden.
Well it was after 4 when I finished and decided to read for an hour on the deck in the warm sunshine. I finally heard from the gals who were wanting me to start the marinated chicken breasts on the grill around 6'ish but they were delayed so it would be closer to 7'ish before they headed up the mountain. I made up some venison burgers for me slathered with fresh Rosemary and Thyme and put them on the grill with the chicken. Give me venison any day over fowl. Nancy cooked up a pot of yellow rice along with black beans and we had fajitas loaded with fresh jalapeños from the garden with a little fruit of the vine while the rice cooked. What a feast!
After the cleanup the gals settled in the show"fixer upper" and was still watching it when I decided to shower and then retire to the bedroom for some reading. I watched a little of the Cubs losing to the Mets on the Mac but decided since I had no "irons in fire" that I would read about who won today, LATER
Here are a few pics from Nancy's trip to Old Salem with her mother, sister and niece
