Keep your fingers crossed for me...There is a lady in Henderson who has two female Aylesbury ducks for sale on Craigs List. If she doesn't sell them today then I am going to buy them tomorrow.
Here is a picture she posted of one of her ducks...
Our lonely Muscovy duck needs a friend. Another breed of duck will be a good change and the Aylesbury duck actually "quacks"! Won't that be fun! There will be NO nesting under the shed!
Most of the time ducks are safe when they have access to a pond...which we have. They can swim away from danger. Our old Muscovy duck pair lived near the pond for ten years.
You know we have a teeny tiny garden...one Eggplant grows there. Well I am totally proud of that Eggplant. Here's why...
Poppy and I have eaten two and yesterday I picked these two big ones. Did I mention how many years I have tried to grow Eggplant? Well it has been a bunch! Mama used to say, I can't stand an old Eggplant" and that's probably why I don't remember ever eating one until I married Poppy. His Mother cooked Eggplant by slicing them into thin round slices, soaking the slices in salt water, then dipping the slices in a batter and frying in oil.
I've never talked about Poppy's Mother. She passed away a few years ago. She was a very sweet person. I love these two old pictures...she was beautiful too...
And speaking of Poppy...
Folks I am still scrubbing, cleaning, and wielding a paint brush...now it's the front porch floor...
And next, that scratched up door and frame.
Well what a mix of stuff I've posted here. Sure hope you will decide to come back. Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny
More sad news from here at Henny Penny Lane. Nellie, the brave little duck who fought with the Rat Snake a week or so ago. She was not so lucky the next time. Nellie is the darker duck...
When I realized it had been a few days since Nellie had come out from under the shed to eat, I immediately got a bad feeling. To see under this shed I have to practically lay down on the ground with a spotlight...very close quarters here, and low to the ground. It didn't look good. There was no movement only feathers and I didn't see Nellie's sweet little face looking back at me. When Poppy got home he pulled her body and empty torn up nest from under the shed. Sure wish we had caught the snake that did this.
What a summer this has been. If this pace keeps up we soon won't have any animals. Immediately added to my list of things to do...block in bottom of shed. No more ducks under this shed!
On to something else...Poppy and I just could not look at that orangy-colored trim on the back screened-in porch any longer so we painted it dark walnut to match the newly painted windows...
Before...
After...
Reckon we will ever get things like we want them around here? Trouble with painting is...a newly painted surface makes everything around look old and in need of paint too. The more we do the more we see that needs doing!
Someone asked recently how Dumperoo got his name. Well, one morning Poppy carried a load of trash to the nearest solid waste convenience center. He pulled his truck up to the dumpster, opened the door and as he started to get out heard this tiny little meow. He looked down and this Grey Tabby kitten looked up at poppy and meowed again. Who could resist? Not even Poppy, who is not a cat lover. Poppy named him "Dumpster Kimball", but we call him Woo Woo or Dumperoo.
Are you talking about me...
Funny how you can sit down at the computer for just a minute and all of a sudden two hours have passed. Better get busy again. Thanks for visiting.
Love,
Henny
Oh my gosh! I've got the 1950's on my mind! Anybody got a time machine? I want to to back.
Three a.m. this morning I'm staring at the ceiling thinking about home and Mama and Daddy. Remembering Daddy in his suit and that dress hat he always wore. That heavy tan Samsonite suitcase he traveled with all packed and ready for a trip to New York.
This picture was taken while on one of his business trips. Daddy is on the left. I suppose it wasn't all business all the time. Well they had to eat dinner somewhere. Were these two, cigarette girls or waitresses...
And wonder if this little souvenir tucked away in that suitcase of Daddy's caused a big disagreement back at home. After all, Mama had dealt with us kids all week!
Once, Mama flew to New York with Daddy. I would guess it was about 1953. Mama was afraid of things like flying, and dogs, and thunder, (sound familiar)? I simply cannot imagine my Mother crawling into an airplane. A big snow storm hit the east coast on their return trip home. Their plane could not land at Raleigh Durham but had to travel on to Atlanta which meant another flight back to North Carolina. Panic and fear! There was no shortage of talk about this incident. Not for many months to come...
It makes me happy that Mama and Daddy were able to take this trip together. It was after Christmas. They were in New York City, Times Square, for the New Year's celebration.
Mama came home with some beautiful things. Daddy let her shop at Macy's and Bloomingdale's and she bought the most beautiful red party dress I had ever seen. It looked like this one from "VintageFrocksofFancy", a shop on Etsy.
And to make the dress even more perfect a gorgeous rhinestone necklace and a wide rhinestone bracelet...a lot like this one from "Patwatty", another Etsy shop...I vividly remember the bracelet. Mama let me wear it with my red evening gown. The gown made especially for my piano recital. That would be the recital where I did not hit one right key and the piano teacher motioned for me to leave the piano and come off stage. :[
Wow! Mama must have looked stunning. They partied at the Copacabana Nightclub. Sammy Davis Jr. was entertaining that night. I remember the nightclub being the Copacabana because I really liked saying the word "Copacabana"...what a neat word.
I rack my brain trying to remember every detail of growing up in the 1950's with Mama and Daddy, my sister and my two brothers. I want to remember every detail.
Better get busy. Poppy went back to work this morning.
Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny
With Poppy on vacation there's not a lot of time to get on the computer. I half way cleaned the house and vacuumed this morning while Poppy fished. Still no ten pound Bass but we did have fried fish for supper...
Even had help with the cooking. He is better at frying fish than I am...
We are trying to finish all the painting around the house this week. We did get three windows painted...a dark walnut color. Hope to have a picture or two. Painting is work! And the more you paint the more you see that needs to be painted.
Sorry, I have Eli pictures again. Looks like he and Weetie just might become buddies yet...
Weetie says yes, if he will stop trying to carry me around in his mouth...and hog the couch...
It's hard to resist taking pictures of Eli. He is such a big sweet baby.
Harvested from the teeny tiny garden today...
That's all for today. Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny
Eli continues to make us happy and keep us busy. He is crazy about his teddy bear...
This morning Poppy took a break and tried to catch that ten pound Bass he thinks may be hiding in the pond. No luck this time! He did catch six small Bass before running out of minnows. That's him across the pond...
And sitting for a spell...
Poppy continues to bait the traps every night trying to catch the predator responsible for murdering Popeye and his little family. No luck here either. Although the guilty weasel needs to be hung, we do use one of those 'hav-a-heart' animal traps. Never do I want to see any animal suffer, not even a snake.
I've had a total of three lovely flowers bloom in the yard this summer. Three! And all three were a surprise. I vaguely remember buying a pink lily bulb several years ago. Darned if it didn't take a long time coming up...
And not too far from the lily, one Gladiola. Surely I didn't buy one Gladiola bulb. Don't these come in packs of several?
Both have brightened my days lately. So next year I plan to buy lots of these bulbs and have a flower garden full of these wonderful blooms.
Oh and the third flower...remember this volunteer...
And finally, an Eggplant grew! After all these years of trying, an Eggplant grew! We ate one for supper last night and actually have more growing...
A boring post maybe but at least no more sad news, for today anyway. Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny
Dear friends,
Things can always be worse. I am truly thankful for all that we have. However! I am at my witt's end. The dictionary says the meaning of "my witt's end" is "the natural ability to perceive and understand" and folks that's it, that hit the nail on the head! I don't understand any more!
I'll back up a few days to explain. Remember the excitement of the little Bantam Hen Olive hatching the one egg...and we named her baby Sweet Pea, and the proud little papa, Popeye.
This tragedy began unfolding last Tuesday morning when I found Olive lying on the ground dead. Then Popeye took over the raising of Sweet Pea, literally taking the baby chick under his wing. For two nights Popeye flew up into the raggedy old nest and waited while I lifted Sweet Pea up to him and the two of them snuggled up together for the night.
Early yesterday morning I found Sweet Pea dead on the ground. Sadly, I buried the baby next to his mama, Olive.
Last night at the edge of dark Poppy and I both, at different times, checked on Popeye. He was alone in the pen now. We found him safe, back in his usual spot on the roost which is about five feet off the ground. Here's the kicker...this morning I found little Popeye on the ground dead.
But wait...the day gets worse. On the verge of tears, my day ruined, another little grave to dig and I hear this loud pitiful crying of a tiny kitten. I yelled for Poppy. We begin looking and found the kitten between two large tree roots in our front yard. Poppy picked it up. It was tiny and looked to be about five weeks old. One of the kitten's eyes was completely closed and the other eye half closed and filled with mucus. I got a warm wet cloth and wiped the kitten eyes then put him in a box. All I had to give him was a little half and half, which probably wasn't the best thing for him.
Friends, the last time I cried, really cried, was when my Mother died. I wept today. I could not control the tears. I cried over everything that's happened this week and went ahead and cried about things that happened weeks ago, and I cried about things that might happen tomorrow.
When finally I had cried about everything worth crying about, I pulled myself together. We had to find a home for this kitten. A big part of my tears were shed because Poppy said that we absolutely could not keep this kitten..and this kitten needed me so badly!
There's a couple living down the path, probably a mile or so from our place. Just recently they stopped to tell me they had lost their beloved cat who was twenty years old. They were planning to adopt another cat, one that needs a home. So Poppy took the kitten and down the path he drove to their place...all it took was one look. Thank goodness there are still some kind good-hearted people in this world. The kitten now has a home with Kristine and Robert. They plan to take the baby to Petsmart tomorrow to see the vet.
We have since learned from another neighbor that last Thursday someone dumped a mama cat with young kittens out on our road. By the time he and his wife saw the kittens they were scattered. They caught and kept one kitten, the mother cat disappeared and they found another kitten dead. We will never know how one survived and made it to our yard.
Part of the tears that I cried today were for all the abused, mistreated, and unloved animals out there. How could anybody in this world drop a mother cat with her tiny, innocent, watery-eyed baby kittens out on a dirt road to suffer and die. All I can do is hope that, as my sister Shelby says, people who do these things get what they deserve one day.
As for Popeye's little family...we are trying desperately to find out what killed them. Poppy has set a trap for a weasel and also a rat trap. It is strange that Popeye and Olive have lived in the lot for nearly two years with nothing bothering them. Then Sweet Pea comes along and within a week's time they are all dead. I have wondered about the feed, the medicated chick starter feed that I bought for Sweet Pea. I plan to call the company tomorrow and ask it there have been any complaints or problems with it. Things like this happen.
Thank you for listening again. Gosh, what a week!
Love,
Henny
My nervous post from yesterday. :)
A few grape tomatoes ripening...
Two posts in one day...must be my nerves! The animals and I just made it through a thunderstorm...alone! A thunderstorm with a severe warning attached! But we did okay and I'm thankful for the rain that fell on the dry wilted little garden.
The garden did produce enough green beans for me to can nineteen quarts. That will certainly get Poppy and me through the winter.
Remember the peach tree in the pot. The one that I swore was an almond tree...the one that I never got around to planting? Well it has a peach or two ready to pick. As soon as fall gets here I plan to get this poor thing in the ground.
The pond early this morning looking dark and clear. It gets like this in July...
Poppy will be on vacation all next week. We have lots planned to do like finishing up all the painting, cleaning out the shop, cleaning out the file cabinet, yuk! Having a yard sale is on the list too. Sounds like a great relaxing vacation. Poppy does plan to do some fishing . There should be a ten pound Bass out there waiting to be caught...the pond was stocked in 1996. We'll see.
I love when dark water reflects the sky and trees. We got about two inches of rain with this thunderstorm that just rolled through...which did this to the pond...
This comes from living on a dirt road. The little country path that I love so much turns into a muddy mess and heads down hill straight for the pond.
Gosh! If you want time to fly, sit down at the computer. It's time for Poppy!
Thank you again for visiting. I love having you friends to talk to.
Love,
Henny
