June 7

Yesterday was a busy day. It's been very hot here. I had so much recycling, I had to take the truck to the Redd Up Campaign. On the way, I ethanoled it up. After dropping off my recycling at the Redd Up Campaign, I did my tofu run at the food coop and just got some of my usual products I get there. However, I had promised Kimberly a Cherokee Purple tomato plant. The place was stocked to the rafters with heirloom tomatoes, but I was determined to sift through them until I was sure there were no Cherokee tomatoes. Well, finally, I did find a row of Cherokee Purple tomatoes under black tomatoes. Kimberly was thrilled with it and has planted it. I'm excited because all my gourmet potatoes have sprouted up into plants. I invested eight dollars on two bags of baby purple, yellow fingerling, and red fingerling gourmet potatoes, and I will save a lot of money on the number of potatoes I will get out of this from my garden. I will start planting Yukon Gold, but this will go on for some time because they are winter potatoes.

I picked up several free publications at the food coop. There is a group called Venture Outdoors. They arrange all kinds of outdoor events. They have a huge assortment of hikes. I've already done some of these hikes. You can pay regular price for a hike or you can join the group and get a reduced price. I saw one thing I am very interested in. Every year, they have the opportunity to hike the entire 70 miles of the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail with a group. You have to be available for 7 total days (spread out over a few months) to do the whole trail. The shortest hike is about 6 miles and the longest about 13. This is something I would be interested in doing some year when I have a lot of extra time and energy during the spring and summer. I have already hiked many portions of the trail between Route 30 and over past Route 31 toward Seven Springs. I have been to the second highest point on the trail a number of times, which is over 2900 feet. The highest point is 2950 at Seven Springs. The highest up I've been over in that area is 2930 at Bald Knob which is not on the trail but is very close to it.