Poppy and Patty

Dear friends,

I've been waiting for it to get cold enough to light a fire in the fireplace...

and Sunday was that day. The warmth from  the fire was just what we needed. Like my Daddy used to say, "just enough to knock the chill out of the air".

Not sure if it was the smoke coming from the chimney or the smell of a wood fire that brought Poppy down from his tree. It's deer season, again!

Because of my "deleted" post some of you didn't meet "Patty" the hen. You know, cousin Patty paid for two of our new hens. She is always doing kind things like that so I figured the special hen in the bunch should be named after her...

and here's the little flock of red hens who stay close by Patty. 

The new hens tell me they want to fit in and get along with the old hens, but the old hens are ill and hateful. They peck really hard too.

A peek into the dirty old hen house. Remember, this little house is 30 years old and chickens are really messy...

I fixed up this end of the house just for the new hens since the old hens gather and roost at the opposite end. Hopefully both groups will work things out among themselves, soon!

Caught Miss Ducky looking at me through the weeds at the edge of the pond...

She is a sweetie pie and alone now and has the whole pond to herself. I want more ducks but Poppy says no! No more muscovy! He says once the muscovy ducks are gone, maybe mallards or wood ducks will nest around the pond and we will see baby wild ducks. 

Speaking of Poppy!

Caught him coming down the tree. Must have been the fire in the fireplace. :) Last week it was black powder, this week started regular gun season. Now until January 1st. I dread it!

Kind of strange to see him sitting in a tree just outside the front door. From this tree he can look out over the cut-over. What a shame the entire hundred acres of woods where Poppy hunted is now gone. 

Poppy does have another spot to hunt, down in the woods near the creek on our neighbor's property. That's a good thing!! 

So glad you stopped by! Hope to see you again soon.

Love,

Henny

The crackling and popping of the fire made all of us sleepy...

Explaining, once again

My dear blogging friends,

I fully expected to log in and find all my followers and friends had gone, but here you are, and a new follower too. Thank you! I do the dumbest things. 

For those of you who looked at my last post expecting to see me in a Model T, well, here I am...

in the blue bonnet. The deleted post was about my neighbors, Ann and Kristine, and me too, being vendors at a farm show and swap meet just down the road. It was held in a wide open field; several acres. In the pictures, neither of us were wearing a mask. I worried that we looked careless and unconcerned about the virus. Could not get the thought out of my head so I marched in here and hit "delete". I'm sorry. 

The old fashioned bonnets were a big hit. Not sure how well the bonnet goes with a 1957 MG...

Neighbors, Fred and Ann

Yesterday, looking out my little sewing room window...

The strong North wind blew across the cut-over bringing in much cooler temperatures and lots of rain. A day for staying inside.

The farm show did inspire me to get back in the sewing room. I've cut out a few aprons, thanks to Ann, who has made it her mission to drum up business for me. She wore that bonnet to the hairdresser's one day this week.

been a while since I've rummaged through fabric pieces in the sewing room closet... 

 Oh, a little gift from Andee...

and for no special occassion. Those are the best kinds of gifts.

Had a hard time finding a place to hang it. As mama used to say, "there's not room to lay a pin down around here". It did fit here, where I'll see it often. 

Our new hens are healthy and happy. We just love their sweet personalities. So different from our old flock, that has a little of that "game" blood. Still love them too...but tired of their pecking and picking fights. :) I'll take pictures soon.

Saying goodbye for now and hope to be back soon. Thank you for putting up with me. I'll be around to visit and catch up.

Love,

Henny

Dumperoo

 

 

  

OCTOBER!

Dear friends,

My goodness! Fall has started off as busy as last spring did.

I finally made my way into the teeny tiny garden, with the help of a machete, and have cleaned up everthing except the zinnias and marigolds. I'll get a picture tomorrow.

Oh, tomorrow tomorrow! Today is the tomorrow I was talking about but there has been no time for going to the garden. But...

we did take a little trip to Franklinton to pick up the new hens. My plan was to buy three but when we got there Poppy said let's get five. 

my plan also was to buy the red hens that lay good and lay the dark brown eggs. Then I fell in love with these beautiful large black hens, but these sell for twenty five dollars each. 

Guess what! The man said, "I'm going to let you have one of the black hens for the same price as the red hens". And so he did!

We have been so fortunate in meeting the nicest folks through Craigslist. The man also asked if we like pears. His trees were loaded in big delicious pears. He sent us home with an armload.

I do love the month of October.  The acorns are falling and so are the hickory nuts and I love picking them up.  I've picked a few wild scuppernong grapes and also picked up a few wild persimmons from off the ground.

and most of all, October makes me want to bring out the rich fall colors... 

But the dirt and dust of summer had to be cleaned off the old cupboard and front porch before putting out anything that might draw a little attention...

So I fixed another bucket of hot soapy water and went to work scrubbing the teeny tiny front porch. Wish the glare wasn't so bad on the sunflower poster. :(

I had gathered a big handful of goldenrods when we walked Eli and Weetie. The goldenrods are like the big healthy weeds that have taken over the hundred acres; extra large and extra beautiful and growing thick along the dirt path.

and speaking of those weeds...even though the white fuzzy seed pods have been annoying, the hundred acres of weeds is actually pretty...

and this was my favorite weed picture. Oh, Willie, you are right! This weed is Groundsel. Oh my gosh! I just read that one Groundsel plant can produce as many as one million seeds in a season! We may have to move away!

Back to my decorating, such as it is...

I found this old table cover at a thrift store recently...

The gold color doesn't show well in the picture. Anyhow, that's it for my little bit of fall decorating. :.

Oh, I was kidding about using a machete in the garden. And,  in that first picture, those little pink flowers grow around the pond. Another pretty weed.

And, would you look at the different size print in this post!!! I certainly didn't mean for it to look this way!

Thank you for visiting, if you're still here. I don't feel like this post is fit to publish, but, here goes!

Love,

Henny

  

What now!

Oh dear! I've just deleted my last post and can't find a way to restore it. Don't know how I manage do these things!! 😕

Smokey keeps watch over the cut-over from the top of the car. I tried to tip-toe past....

but he heard me....

by the way, let me tell you about that cut-over...

Instead of the hundred acres of trees that once grew there we now have a hundred acres of weeds...

Tall fuzzy weeds! Strange weeds! Weeds higher than my head!

and for at least a month now we have watched what looks like snow blowing through the yard. It is unbelievable! Look at this little cedar tree...

simply covered in white fuzz! Looks cold and icy, doesn't it?  I have searched for the name of this weed and can't find it.  Willie, would you have any idea? Here's a close-up...

These fuzzy things are everywhere! There's a layer floating on the pond, and it's stuck in all the spiderwebs, it's in Eli's hair, and in my hair. Have even had it in my eyes.

Okay, you know what I hate most about the new blogger? The size of the print changes, all by itself! Drives me crazy! 

I spent three days last week cleaning the goat barn, the chicken house, and the bunny lot.

So the two white bunnies now have nice clean pens with wire on the bottom...no more digging. I added dirt, then soft clean hay...

Monday morning I discovered the bunny on the right had dug a huge tunnel and was in the  pen with the bunny on the left. That would have been fine except these two rabbits fight. 

Strange, they don't like each other. Before they came here, they were kept in a very small cage with hardly room to turn around. Now, with their own space, they hardly speak to each other. :) 

Oh, I've been meaning to show you...

this is a full view of the bunny pen. They have plenty of protection from the rain. This was back in 2016 when Bun Bun was my only bunny. The pen is now sectioned off into four lots and that huge dog house is out of there. I love my bunny rabbits!

Okay, I've got to show you this spider...

This guy had a web that went from a low growing bush, all the way up into a tall tree...

kinda makes me shiver...

and see the fuzzy seed pod in his web?

might as well show you this too...speaking of making me shiver...

My first time ever, seeing one of these. It's an Eastern hog-nose, or spreading adder snake. It was short and fat with such a weird shaped head. Thankfully, this was not in our yard. We were with friends at their home about ten miles from here. 

Guess I've driven you all away with this, so I will end here. Hope you will come back...love to have you visit any time! :)

Love,

Henny

 

Babies!

Hey Friends,

Here it is going on two weeks since my last post! Where do the days go anyhow?

Oh my goodness, have I ever got something special to show you... 

This adorable baby boy is Kendall, our new great grandson. Isn't he simply adorable! Kendall was born July 15th to our beautiful grandaughter Michaela and her fiance, Jacob. 

and since the day he came into this world, I must have said a hundred times, "he is so adorable"!

Been wanting to show you Kendall but didn't want to post pictures without his mommy's approval, so when Michaela said, "Grandma, post all the pictures you want to", Well, I was tickled to death. But I'll try not to post too many tonight. 

And in other baby news...The early part of last week I released the baby dove. Little did I know how tightly that baby bird had attached itself to my heart. My heart has actually ached for him...

So, here's what happened. I sat the young dove on top of a post just outside the kitchen window where we feed the birds. Most days there are three or four doves, along with dozens of other birds, that visit and eat there.

When the little dove realized he was free, he flew up into the trees, then he came back and lit on the ground and ate birdseed with the others. When the others flew, so did he. When night time came, I worried, but he was right back in the yard the next morning.

So he made it through two days and two nights on his own, or was he on his own? Suddenly there were eleven doves in the yard, all around the baby. They didn't chase him away or bother him, but seemed concerned about him. 

Then late in the day on the third day, I watched out the kitchen window as the birds began leaving the yard, just before dark. I noticed that one dove stayed. She sat perfectly still watching the baby dove, almost like she was talking to him. I couldn't believe my eyes when the baby dove walked up to her and when they were within inches of each other, she flew and he flew with her, out across the cut-over. I haven't seen either one of them again, or at least haven't recognized either of them.

I have been at the point of tears every day since, but Poppy says I am worrying for no reason, that the baby dove is safe, and with his mother now.  I am trying hard to believe that. Do you think Poppy is right?

Trying to keep my mind off the baby dove I began scrubbing the back porch...

Who knew a baby bird could make such a mess. It took me a good four hours scrubbing the furniture and mopping the porch floor, but that's okay.

The dappled sunlight on the clean porch lifted my spirits, but didn't take the pain from my heart.

and while I'm at it, I might as well show you the whole porch...

this old cabinet, where egg cartons are stored, needs a coat of paint.

and along the wall above the wood pile hang antique bridles, bits, and other things I don't have names for. :)

sure looking forward some cold winter days and watching this wood burn in the fireplace. Is there anything cozier than sitting in front of a fire on a cold night.

So this is my post, such as it is. It's too long and way too much to read, so thank you for listening. Hope to be back soon and hope you will come back too. And now I have a lot of blog reading and catching up to do. 

Love,
Henny