Trees

I'm inside for a break..  Do you ever have a day where you can't get anything done, no matter how you try???   A day where you've been busy all day, but accomplished nothing!!!  A neighbor brought me an armload of cuttings off her yellow knockout rose bushes!!!  I've been outside trimming cuttings and filling pots!!  Another neighbor saw me and stopped to talk, and another stopped to show me a painting.  It is a beautiful, beautiful day though.  A day that is going by way too fast!!!

Here I am in the hot driveway using the wheelbarrow to pot up plants...While my lovely new potting area up at the greenhouse sits catching dust!! :) It's hard to break old habits!!

That armload of cuttings made 30 pots.  :)  Now if these will just grow...Poppy brought home this old metal cart.  The tongue is broken off but I tied a rope on front and it's perfect for hauling stuff around.  Not pretty, but it works!!

Jewel and the chicks have been in the new lot 3 days and Jewel has done nothing but pace back and forth wanting out.  Do you think she's telling me these chicks are old enough to be on their on?  This morning I opened the door and let them out...

Trouble is...when it starts getting dark and all the other chickens go in the chicken house and  fly up on the roost!  Well, I have no idea what these four will do.  Jewel will probably leave her chicks and get on the roost with the others, and I'll be out with a net, in a panic trying to catch the babies!!!

I got a couple of pictures to show you how the yard looks with some of the trees gone.  It may take clearing out 11 more to really see a difference...

There is now a lot more sun here in the back.  The stump you see in the center was a tall pine. Several trees were cut behind where I am standing taking this picture, which lets more sun in.

This opening to the pond used to be blocked with ugly cedar limbs and a dead pine.  I love trees but so glad to be rid of a few!!!

One thing I have wanted ever since we built this house is a swing on a big tree limb.  The kind of swing made using 2 ropes and a piece of wood for the seat.  When trees are too close together like ours, the limbs can't grow out long and strong.  Oh, one of my favorite poems is, "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Oh my,  I've gone on long enough.  Thank you if you've managed to stay this long!! :)

Love,
Henny Penny

Moths

Looks like it's my year to see pretty moths...Anyone know what this is??  My book says Pyralid moth, but what I see on line for pyralid moth looks different.  I worry over butterflies and moths because their wings are so delicate.  Trying to move them to a safer place, I usually wind up doing more harm than good.  I guess they are where they are for a reason...so I'm leaving them alone!!!

We had an exciting weekend!!! My  wonderful son-in-law loaded the chainsaw, drove down from Virginia, and cut 11 trees from our yard.   A dream come true for me!!!  Andee and my granddaughter came too.   Andee and I pulled away limbs and stacked wood...with Andee doing most of the pulling and stacking.  They both worked really hard and we appreciate it so much!!!  Poppy cranked up his chainsaw and helped too.

There are still a dozen or more trees we want cut from the yard, and we will still be surrounded by trees!!!

Jewel's baby chicks are about grown.  In fact, they have outgrown their pen so we've moved them.  These chicks sure favor their dad, especially the two in front.  The other on looks more like her mom.

Looks like two young roosters and one hen...

 I appreciate your looking in...Even on this pitiful post.  I'll be back soon :)

Love, 
Henny Penny 

Around the yard

Has it really been 7 days since my last post?? 

The Peonies were in bloom this week but they didn't last very long.  We have had wind, thunderstorms, hard rain, high humidity, and hot sticky days, off and on this entire week.  Peonies have such long stems and large blooms, they flop over and break pretty easily.  I need to work on this flower bed.  The Obedient plants have about taken over.  I just feel overwhelmed when I look at this big job and find something else to work on!!

I like the Obedient plants but they will take over!!!  These plants bloom in late September and early October.  The blooms are hot pink and pretty!!!

As far as the vegetable garden this year...well I just don't know what to do!!!  The plants start off looking good and begin to grow.  Then they start to look sick.  Could it be the unusual weather this year??  The many cold days we had in early spring???  We have had a little frost twice this month (May)!!!  I've heard a few others in this area say their gardens are not doing good!!  These are the pitiful looking cabbage and kale plants I showed you in an earlier post...Would you just look at the bug holes in the bean plants!!!  It's just not a healthy looking garden!!!  The empty spots are where plants have died!!!  And the wattle fence...These pole beans are more holes than leaves.  How will they ever climb the fence???  Today is too windy, but if it's calm tomorrow, I plan to dust everything in the garden with food grade  Diatomaceous earth.  We will see if it helps!!
 

I can't believe I am posting pictures of this awful looking garden...

On a happier note...the sweetest little black hen, (the real Henny Penny that the sky almost fell on that dreadful night), posed for the camera earlier...

Then came the others...thinking there was scratch involved...

All last winter 3 Dill plants grew in pots in the little greenhouse.  These plants are still growing and are so tall, if I back up far enough to get the whole plant in the picture it looks little and insignificant....This is just the top of one of the dill plants...

"Baby goats," though I fed the chickens and didn't give them anything....

I've kept you long enough...but this is the dark, scary, grapevine covered path that goes by the chicken lot into the forest..... :)  Just kidding!!!

Thank you for looking in..

Love 
Henny Penny

Mowing

UPS delivered my brand new, taxi cab yellow, push lawn mower late yesterday!!!  Too late to start mowing, but boy, I have done some mowing today!!!  This is the first time this year the yard has been mowed.  I actually mowed the wheels off the old push mower.  Poppy mows around the pond and up the road to the garden on his riding mower.   He likes to sit while he's mowing, and mow only in wide open spaces where he doesn't have to hit the brake, back up, or go around anything!!!  That little Cub Cadet looks like it's running about 20 to 25 miles an hour!! He finishes his mowing before I can get my mower cranked!!!  Because it's "my landscaping," I get to mow in, out, and around all this stuff in the yard!!!  Here's my new mower (before I run over something and tear it up)!!  :)  And a look at the grass and weeds!!

I've been worrying about something I posted a few days ago.  I was complaining about the tomato plants dying in our tiny little garden.  Six tomato plants!!!  It took me all of 15 minutes to plant more!!  Actually,  I have nothing to complain about.  I am very thankful that I'm still able to work outside and have a garden.  I need to spend a day helping a real farmer set out hundreds and hundreds of plants!!!

Here it is Friday morning!! I never got back to finish this post yesterday.   I got a cute picture of Dumper.  He likes to sleep under this table... 

   Better get busy.  Times a wasting!!!

Love,
Henny Penny

A cool morning

Poppy's day off was yesterday, so today is my Monday!!  It's cool this morning.  In fact, we may have had a little frost last night.  I'm afraid to look at the garden.  This has been an unusual spring.  Six of the eight tomato plants I put in the garden have died.  The only other time I remember losing tomato plants was because of cut worms.  I am about ready to lock the garden gate and be done with it!!!

Have you ever totally, totally lost your sense of style.. Not that I've ever had any style!!!  What I like and want, I can't afford!!!  My closet looks like the grand opening at a local thrift store!!!  I have spent the entire morning cleaning out my closet.  I just called Poppy and ask him to bring home every empty box he can get his hands on.  I may have to hire Waste Industries to come and haul this stuff off.  Not really! :) I plan to have a major yard sale and take all this money I'm going to make :) and buy one special outfit.  That's my plan!!!!

I tried yesterday to get a good picture of this pink boutonniere rose bush.  It was planted up at the house but grew so out of control, I had to cut it down and move it.  It now grows on a dead cedar tree at the pond.   This climbing rose grows really big and needs lots of support.  The tiny pink rose buds are beautiful.

A hen party...

Thank you for looking in.  I'm getting out of this closet for a while!!! :)

Love,
Henny Penny

Missing mama

My Mother is always in my heart and on my mind and especially so with tomorrow being Mother's Day.  I mention her often in my posts.  A day never passes that I don't think about mama and miss her.  It seems like yesterday that she was living in her little home a couple of hours from here.  Sometimes I would leave work on Friday and drive to mama's for the weekend.  She would be so excited that I was coming.  She would be standing in the door of the little screened-in front porch watching for me. 

  I think a lot about mama holding my hand when I was young.  For some reason, my sweetest memory is when we were riding in the car.  My sister, my brother, and me in the back seat.  Daddy driving, of course, and mama up front.  Mama road with her arm across the back of the seat.  I only had to put my hand on hers and she would squeeze my hand and hold it.  Mama didn't have to say a word.  Her touch said everything.

I am a lot like my Mother, as I should be.  Growing up, I wanted to be with her all the time.  I'll tell you a secret...One Sunday, mama and daddy were going to see some of daddy's family.  About a two hour drive away.  I was 13 years old.  Mama asked if I wanted to go with them and I said no.   Well, they were barely out of sight when I realized mama was gone for the day.  I missed her!!  Why didn't I go with her??  I cried until they got home...which was all day!!!

I think at some point Lynn posted this picture on her blog but here it is again.  Mama holding me, and my sister standing beside her.

I love these quotes ...

           "I shall never forget my Mother, for it was she who
            planted and nurtured the first seeds of good within me"
                                                 Immanuel Kant

              "Mothers hold their children's hands for the early
                years, but their hearts forever."
                                                Ancient Saying

               "There is an enduring tenderness in the love of 
                  a mother"
                                                  Washington Irving 


Yesterday was busy!  Busy outside and I also had to do some shopping.  Glad I had the camera with me...I pass this old place when I go in to town...

The flowers are so pretty this spring...

I caught big boy crowing...

Don't know if I should even post this...So thank you if you've managed to stay this long!
 
Wishing you a happy Mother's Day!!!

Love,
Henny Penny

Me and nut trees

While posting yesterday, the sun came out!!  It sure did!!  Thinking about my list of things to be done outside, I left the computer immediately!!   The day turned out to be beautiful!!  I just don't know about planning my life around what the weather people say!! Poppy says he just might fill out an application to be a weather man!! :)

All that excitement over the almond trees...well I was pulling weeds from some blackberry plants I had in pots and thought, what is this big weed???  I pulled it up and there was a black walnut on the roots...no kidding!!!  I have no idea where a black walnut came from...

What is it with me and nut trees...nuts maybe???  Back when Mama was still living alone in her home, I was pulling weeds in her flower bed and pulled up two "weeds" with pecans attached...I brought these home and planted them on the hill above the pond.  This was probably 14 years ago.  These pecan trees have been slow slow growing and I'm wondering if I will ever see a pecan.  That was back when everything I planted died.  I spent 15 years killing plants before I ever got anything to grow!!!  I learned the hard way, you can't stick a plant in a hole in clay and expect it to grow.  I've pushed many a wheelbarrow load of rich soil, old straw, and stuff from the chicken house and dumped it into the yard...Sometimes you've got to change the color of the soil if you want anything to grow.

I added a little side shelf to the potting bench.  By the way, I am enjoying using this place to work!!  The bare ground around needs something.  Maybe pinestraw, until the grass or moss takes over??

I'm really wound up this morning.  Better get busy.  Thank you for looking in..

Love,
Henny Penny

We need a little sun

This weather!!!  We're going into week three of cool, cloudy, wet, windy, weather.  Our trusted weatherman says it will be next Wednesday before we might see a break in this weather pattern.

Last Friday the clouds got thin enough for a tiny bit of sun to shine through.   We all hurried out to see what it felt like!!!  This lizard stretched out in a little patch of sunshine just inside the garden gate.  He rolled his eyes up like "you can just step over, I'm not moving"!!  Lynn, is this an "Eastern Fence Lizard"??

A couple of summers ago several plants "volunteered" (as mama used to say) and came up in the compost bin.  I pulled one and there was an almond attached.  Almond trees were growing!!!  I put all these little trees in pots.  Never would I have believed it...but there are almonds on the trees this year!!!  I was telling a former county extension agent about the trees and he said these would probably never grow almonds because of our North Carolina weather.  Look...

Looks like little peaches.  I've given away all the trees but 3 and these are still in pots.  Not enough room in this yard for another tree.   I keep searching for a place though...

Jewel's baby chicks are growing.  I suppose they would be teenagers now...It's hard to get a good picture.  They won't be still long enough...

The elderly duck couple didn't mind posing for the camera...

Mr. Duck

Mrs. Duck

Everything in the garden, except the okra, has come up.  Nothing is growing good because of this cold cloudy weather. The plants need sun.  Hope to have some garden pictures soon.

Thank you if you have managed to stay this long...

Caught Big Bird fishing

and the plastic owl standing guard

Couldn't put the camera down this morning..

Love,
Henny Penny

How Bickett got his name

You know Bickett, (Mr. B) (the cat that bites) (the cat I love)!!!

One Sunday morning in November 2005, I was on my way to church.  Coming up to the busiest intersection in town, I spotted this tiny kitten lying flat in the middle of the road.  At first I wasn't sure if the kitten was dead or injured.  I was afraid to look!!  There was van approaching the intersection.  I stopped the car, turned on the flashers and  jumped out..  Again, I was afraid to look!!  I reached down and picked him up.  His tiny claws were so gripping the pavement, I had to pull him lose.  He seemed to be okay.  How in the world did such a young kitten get in the middle of the road?? 

I went on to church that morning.  I stopped at a station and got a box to put him in, and a small carton of milk.  I gave him some of the milk, cuddled him up in my sweater, and left him in the box.  When I came out an hour later he was still sleeping.

All this happened on Bickett Boulevard!!!

Bickett has had lots of medical problems.  He also bites if you pet him and linger too long!! :)  He will even bite me, and I rescued him!!!  Our vet, Dr. Davis, said that Bickett's problems probably came from being taken away from his mother too soon, and being mistreated.  Like maybe being thrown out a car window???  Bickett has really gotten more gentle and sweeter, now that he is older.  I just love this cat!!

I didn't mean to go on and on....

Thank you looking at my blog.

Love,
Henny Penny
(thanks Jen)