Well it was great visiting Woodstock, Va. and the sisters for a couple of days in the hot and dry Shenandoah Valley. The corn and other crops are about burned up with most of the gardens dried up that we saw during our visit. The temps were more like Florida with highs near a hundred degrees for while we were there. A 90 was cool for them for a high, oh well. We had a fun time playing cards until late at night and the gals were the winners over all. We have become addicted to this game called "hand and foot" and despite loving most card games we never ventured from this game, oh well. It does take some time to play but it does require some thinking and of course some luck.
We made a couple of stops on our way out at the butcher shop for some bacon in vacuum packs which we will break up and freeze and then to see an old friend whom I've known since she was but a toddler. She now runs the civil war museum on I-81 in New Market next to the battle field. She blessed us with 4 pints of her family's home made apple butter which they make yearly in October. She looked great and is still working but divorced. She lost her parents and sister years ago and has one son who is out on his own and just turned 30.
We stopped in Salem, Va. for a potty break and for fuel at 3.67 a gallon. It's really high in cost the further north you get as the price is still at 3.49 in Galax. We decided to not stop on the way through Galax as we have to go there later over the weekend as we are having guests next week, but did stop for some hot dog buns at a local store. It was right at 2'ish when we got back on the mountain and unloaded then had a couple of dogs with some sliced tomato's and chips.
I headed out afterwards to hand water the potted flower pots that were dry and wilting then hand watered the cucumbers and harvested several with a couple as large as small water melons. After the heat lessened we both headed out to harvest blue berries which are still producing as well as half runner beans and several ripe tomato's and large green peppers. The sun flowers have really developed and are beautiful. The grass is high so I will tackle it today with weed whacking first and then mowing. We could some rain here as well. We fixed a small frozen pizza for supper as we ate the dogs late and weren't really that hungry. I settled into the Ray's game until it went into extra innings as they blew a 5 run lead over the Red Sox's, LATER
