Well Friday was another busy day with lots of outside work in the gardens and yards and then again in the basement as we get ready to have the Triplett grands here in about 10 days. We want to get the bunk beds in the basement made up before they arrive which is a chore bringing the mattresses down from up stairs to the basement, so I will get Steve before he leaves tomorrow to help with that chore today.
I started the day with my usual well before 6 rollout to my routines that begin with some quiet time to honor my lord, Jesus, give thanks for another day and to lift up several by name. All seem to be holding with this post. I headed our around 7:30 to meet Steve at his place which is down our driveway and up the back road and we hiked to the top of the mountain. The views were a little better but still lots of haze off the mountain. We saw no one as we hiked across the road and then down the back side through the woods and came out at our cabin all in about 30 minutes or so. I'm really looking forward to doing it daily now that Steve and I have our mountain legs, but he will be leaving on Sunday morning. I know it will be another confrontation with Nancy to do this alone but I will do it. I now have the hand walkie talkie working so she can check on me and see or hear if I'm accosted by a bear or mountain lion which she is afraid of, oh well.
I did harvest a nice mess of lettuce when I got back from my hike and cleaned and then spun it dry and broke it up into the fresh salad bowl and have a couple of bags for sandwiches as well. I have radishes almost ready to harvest as well and the yellow squash is maturing and will be ready to harvest in a couple days. I trimmed off all of the suckers and lower limbs on the tomato and pepper plants as this is supposed to improve their growth and out put with fruit. I transplanted the last of my leafy green seedlings which were kale and Swiss chard into the upper patch and now have the garden totally sowed. I was hoping the sweet taters or tubers would send out slips for planting but that doesn't look good for this years planting as its still some what dormant despite some roots. That was my first ever attempt to try and grow them and now next year I will know what to do and when to start them growing slips for planting, oh well.
I did manage to hand rake some of the large loose piles of gravel that make it difficult getting up the driveway and that was my first chore of the morning while it was cool and that made for a good sweat. Neighbor Gerald who is recouping in Winston with his knee replacement offered me to use his tractor when needed, but for this small chore the rake worked much better. I noticed on my walk around the yards these deer overnight ate down the lilies around the well house and the sun flowers. I decided to spray the ones still standing with some insecticide in hopes to deter them from their almost daily overnight eating, oh well. I'm eating them tonight with burgers which are so delicious which our neighbor Gerald blesses us with yearly with his hunting on our land. They eat my good flowers and gardens which make them even tastier on the grill.
It got rather warm here in the evening and with the oven on Nancy wanted the a/c on and we kept it on over night, but its back in the 60's this morning and I turned it off upon rising for the day. Steve came for a supper of chicken fajitas, dried pinto and October beans as well as cornbread and sauteed peppers and onions. Nancy picked another mess of black raspberries for a cobbler but we were so full we decided to try the cobbler tonight with our deer burgers, LATER
