What could be more country than an old fashioned tin roof on a house??? With all the heavy rain we had this past spring, the roof over our small front porch had started to leak. It was driving Poppy crazy!!! We didn't replace all the shingles on the house, but we do now have a tin roof over the porch. Can't wait for the next big rain. I love the sound of rain on a tin roof...I want to sit in the swing and listen...as long as there is no lightening with the rain!!! :)
I've simply got to clean and wax that old cupboard and table on the porch. I bought Murphy Oil Soap and Johnson's paste wax, but other stuff to do keeps coming up. In an earlier post, I talked about my cousin Pat and her husband giving me this beautiful old cupboard. The cupboard was build by a doctor back in the Civil War days. I also mentioned that Pat is my first and second cousin...her mother and my mother were sisters. Her dad and my dad were first cousins. The old cupboard again...
Anyway, Pat is a registered nurse...a retired registered nurse! A beautiful retired registered nurse!! Remember when nurses wore all white and those little white nurse's caps? I loved that pure clean look. This is Pat in her white...Isn't she pretty...
Growing up, our families were very close. Almost every summer we traveled together to Folly Beach, South Carolina for two happy, fun filled weeks. Even though Pat and I are the same age, she and my sister Shelby were closer. But, I loved her too !!! I was too busy playing dolls, while they were a little more interested in boys and grown up things!!! I remember one summer, back in the 1950's when Shelby and Pat were spending a week together. They embroidered names and stuff all over their matching, long, men's type, white shirts. It was super cool!!! They wrote boys names, names of friends, and cute sayings all over their shirts and then embroidered them in different colors. All that was done by hand too!!! No machine embroidery!!! I remember Pat had embroidered, "stop, look, and listen, but don't touch" on a chest pocket and they thought that was so funny!!! Gosh!! Then we all had to grow up...and apart. Sad how time flies.
This is Aunt Agathel, Pat's mom...(probably in the 1940's)
This is my mom...(also 1940's)
Back to cousin Pat...she is also an artist. You may have noticed this painting of "Bickett", our sweet, biting cat. The picture hangs on the wall in our little dining area...well Pat painted this picture!!! She surely did! Bickett was younger at the time, and curled up between the arm of the sofa and a pillow...
Suppose I've gone on enough. Thank you for looking at my blog.
Love,
Henny Penny
I wanted to write a nice long post today but thanks to the MSG in the salad dressing last night...well I have been like a zombie all day today because of no sleep!!! Such an idiot, I knew better!!! For me, swallowing MSG is like swallowing a handful of "No Doze" pills!
Mr. B said he didn't feel much like himself either...and would just stay out of my way...can you blame him??
Mr. B and Dumper waiting for Poppy...
This day is going by way too fast!!! I somehow managed to get the house work done and put a pot of beef stew on to simmer for supper...hope I remembered to put in the beef!! :)
The okra needs to be cut and the beans picked. Maybe tomorrow. Right now I want to make a few whole wheat biscuits to go with the stew. If you love biscuits like I do, but worry because biscuits are so fattening...you need to try these. Seriously!!! Low calorie, low fat, and actually healthy.
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup wheat germ..............mix all this together
1/4 cup plain, non fat yogurt
1 cup + 2 Tbsp 1% milk............stir together and add to dry
ingredients. Mix well and let stand for five minutes. Drop on
bread pan that has been sprayed with pam. Makes six
biscuits. Bake 12 to 15 min. in preheated 425 degree oven.
These are good if cooked crisp and brown but not so good
if burned around the edges :)
Thank you for stopping by. Hope to return soon with something interesting to talk about!!!
Love,
Henny Penny
Do any of you ever want to just pack up and move away? Not even say good bye to friends and neighbors...just sorta disappear and start over!!! Is that normal thinking??
I may have inherited some of this thinking from my daddy's side of the family. Daddy had seven brothers and two sisters...You may remember, mama had seven sisters and two brothers. Anyway, one of daddy's brothers was known for just disappearing...one never knew where he might show up, or when he might come strolling back in at home. Daddy used to tell us about when they were boys, working in the field. Occasionally, they would hear a train whistle blow in the distance...well this one brother would leave his hoe in the field, take off running and catch that train. He would be gone for weeks at a time!!
There was another story I remember about this rambling brother. We were living down in Summerville, South Carolina when my uncle showed up at our house. He wanted mama and daddy to take him home, to Grandma's house...way up near Sanford, North Carolina. The story goes, we did pack up and make that trip to take him home, probably a 4 hour drive. I can't remember whether or not we spent the night at grandma's, but when we got back home to Summerville, this same uncle was sitting on our front porch waiting for us.
I seriously have a touch of this "urge to ramble" in my blood. Funny, the definition of "ramble" is, to move aimlessly from place to place. Guess at my age I had better stay put. Right now, packing up and moving to the mountains sounds mighty good!!! :)
My mood probably has something to do with this time of the year. The yard is an ugly mess and it's hot and humid outside. Just after cutting all those trees, we went through that long rainy period and couldn't work outside. Those same trees are still on the ground!! To add to the problems, in late July and August we are infested with those tiny, tiny ticks...I mean millions of the tiny biting, blood sucking creatures. You won't know you've walked into these ticks until you start stinging and itching...look down and your socks are crawling with these things. I have had as many as fifty bites at once. It takes a magnifying glass to see that these truly are ticks!!! At this point, I welcome our first frost!!!
On at happier note, there was another unusual bird at the pond this morning. Of course it was some type of water bird. The ducks were interested and swam out for a better look. This bird has a long pointed beak and red on the back of it's head and neck...sorry I couldn't get a better picture. Having a pond in the back yard is fun and attracts lots of wildlife.
Not much of a post!!! Thank you if you've stayed this long. I am truly thankful that we have this little home and yard and most of all, our health. I will try to hang on...and just hope that I don't hear a train whistle blowing out there somewhere!!!
Love,
Henny Penny
Chicken update...
Were you expecting to hear about those tiny pieces of colorful gum that we all used to love!!! Actually, this is an update on the chickens, especially Jewel's chicks that were hatched in late February, and our six new Araucana chicks. As it turns out, two of Jewel's chicks were roosters...the spitting image of their dad, "big boy"!!! I really hate that too because, well, you just can't keep that many roosters!! We already have "big boy", "clyde", and little popeye". I get so attached to these animals. Knowing it had to be done, I began looking for a good home. Since the three were inseparable, I decided all would go to a new home together. An ad posted in our monthly "Agriculture Review" by a couple who run a "no kill" facility stated they would take all unwanted animals. But, would they want roosters??? I called, and sure enough, they said "yes". This is supposed to be a learning farm for children, teaching them how to care for animals, which is a good thing...so I let them go. Even though these chicks were sent to the best place I could find, I still worry and feel sad, like I betrayed them. Animals have feelings and need to be cared for...I did not want them killed by someone's dog, or turning up on somebody's table for Sunday dinner!!!
As for the Araucana chickens....they're healthy, happy, and growing. Thankfully, all these are hens!!! I'm excited about seeing the first colored eggs and will post pictures. Araucana hens are supposed to be good layers!!! Araucanas also are people friendly, and have great personalities. Feeling safe and at home here now, I can let them out to free range with the other chickens. It's funny, when I open the chicken house door, these six actually fly out the door over the heads of the older chickens!!! Just this morning the six of them were was chasing a squirrel!!!
The "baby goats"...my 4 year old baby goats are fine too...
My little chicken notes for today...That reminds me...When Poppy and I were dating, he and a friend were going out deep-sea fishing. I fried some chicken for them to take along. Inside the bag of fried chicken I also put a little note saying "I love you".. Poppy said around lunch time when he opened the bag, he pulled out the little folded piece of paper and his friend laughed and said, "what's that, a little chicken note"? I didn't mean to embarrass him!!!
Thank you for stopping by. Hope to be back soon.
Love,
Henny Penny
Funny how all my best and favorite memories are from the 1950's. That was such a great decade to grow up in?? For sure, times were more wholesome then. In the early 1950's, when I was 10, 11, 12 years old, it was safe to walk almost anywhere, alone. We walked to the theater downtown and back home...even after dark. That's what my best friend Becky and I did most every Saturday. We only needed a quarter. That would pay for the movie, as many times as we wanted to sit through it, and also buy popcorn and a drink. Most Saturdays my brother Jackie was there too because a Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Whip Wilson, Lash Larue, or Red Rider movie would be playing. Speaking of Roy Rogers; Jackie had a Roy Rogers outfit and I, a Dale Evans; guns, holsters, hats and all. None of the other neighborhood children could call to be Roy or Dale!!! Jackie was Roy, I was Dale, period!!! One particular Saturday I so vividly remember, Cinderella was playing. Becky and I were at the theater when it opened...we loved the movie so much...we sat through it several times, not realizing the hours that had passed, not realizing the sun was going down. We walked out of the movie theater just in time to see Daddy driving past, searching the streets, worried to death. I didn't get to go anywhere the following Saturday!!!
We walked everywhere...the skating rink, movie theater, Lee's Dime Store to spend our allowance, the gym to see basketball games. I didn't like basketball games but tagged along with my older sister and her boyfriend "Garland". Daddy said I could. Of course, I had to walk several steps behind them so they could hold hands...I remember not watching the game at all, but pulled little lint balls off the many many different colored sweaters piled on the bleachers. I had a good size lint ball made by the end of the game so I flattened it and stuck it on some girl's back. I thought it would be funny when someone told her she had lint on her back!!! That was probably the meanest thing I ever did...except for the time I threw a rock and broke my sister's glasses. That was an accident though. I was trying to mail a paper doll dress to her. I wrapped the dress around a rock and sent it airmail...the dress fell to the ground and the rock continued on...
Oh, there were sidewalks everywhere. We lived at the top of a hill and loved to roller skate. Our skates were the kind that fit over our shoes and tightened with a key. Many a time have I rolled down the sidewalk past our house, gaining such speed that by the time I got to the corner it was impossible to stop or to round the corner. Nothing to do but go airborne and out into the street...talk about skinned knees. That's probably why I have knee problems now!!! :) Good thing there were not many cars on the streets back then. Our house was next to a ball park with a tall wooden fence that separated our yard from the park...Several breaks in the fence made it possible to climb through...Such was the case here...with my red dungarees, black and white saddle oxfords, and bobby sox...I must have rolled my hair the night before!!! :)
I remember getting our first television set. A cabinet that sat on the floor with a small, kind of rounded screen, black and white!! TV shows were clean back then...I Love Lucy, The Ed Sullivan Show, Jackie Gleason, all the variety shows; Dean Martin, Perry Como, Red Skelton, The show with the bubbles...oh, Lawrence Welk!! Of course, the best was The Mickey Mouse Club that started coming on after school. Later on, when I was about 13 year old, it was American Bandstand!!!
I remember all of us, as a family, watching TV for a while at night. Mama, bless her heart, would let us put a coke or pepsi in the freezer compartment until it would almost freeze. We would have popcorn and our frozen drink in the bottle while watching TV. Once in a while one of us would forget about our bottle in the freezer and it would freeze and explode...Oops!!!
Daddy was big in textiles, a manager of Robbins Mills...yep, the same mill where "John Edwards" parents worked. This was daddy arriving for work one morning...
Mama stayed home, put 3 meals a day on the table, kept the house spotless, and cared for us children. Late afternoon, before Daddy got home from work, we had to get a bath and put on clean clothes...then we could have a small coke. We had to stay clean until daddy got home and we had eaten supper. In the summertime we could then go back outside and play until dark. We really played too..."Ain't no boogers out tonight" was our favorite game, or catching lightening bugs in a jar. Jackie and I asked mama one night if we could sleep outside and use the jar of lightening bugs for our light. I'm sure she said okay!!!
This is Jackie, and me, ready for school...
Daddy was in New York on business quite often. I can still picture the tan colored Samsonite suitcase he carried. When daddy got home and opened that suitcase, we knew there would be a special gift for each of us. That's where my Saucy Walker doll and Tiny Tears doll came from. Daddy brought jewelry to mama. The beautiful rhinestone bracelets and necklaces that were so fashionable at the time. He brought us unusual books and once brought me a set of play silverware in a wooden case, just like mama's. Wish I knew which airline he was flying on during that time. I recall saying once, "when I grow up I want to be an airline stewardess". On one of his flights, Daddy asked a stewardess if she would write to me and she did. I was very proud of that letter.
Mama and Daddy...
Shelby and me...I know I was an aggravation to her...Those hair styles!!!
Jackie, used to say he wanted to be an army man...
In 1954, when I was 12 years old, my baby brother Randall was born. We were all crazy about Randall....
If I could choose a time in my life to go back to...it would be, without question...the 1950's
Love,
Henny Penny
It is the same every year...just as soon as July 4th is past...I start looking forward to November!!! Seriously!!! In February I start getting excited about gardening, flowers, mowing grass, baby animals, warm air, sunshine!!! In July, I don't even want to see the yard and all that needs to be done. I have created too many monsters!!! The humidity is 98%, the temperature in the 90's, and the grass and weeds (more weeds than grass) are knee high and wet from the previous night's thunderstorm. There is a bird bath in the middle of the front flower garden, (with all the obedient plants) that I can no longer find, and I'm afraid to look for it. I might step on a snake!!! And the little wattle fence, the one I was so proud to show off!!! Now a mass of vines...
Over do"!! That's me!! The beans are planted too close together and with my knees that don't work so good any more...well I can't step high enough to keep my toes from going under the bean vines. Here's my plan for next year...A taller, wider, longer wattle fence, the length of two rows, with half-runners instead of pole beans. Right now there are both growing together!!! I think the half-runners would climb the fence. I could finally look forward to picking beans without all that bending over, looking under vines. Yep! That's my plan...sparsely planted!!!
The okra is doing good. We cut enough to fry for supper a few nights ago. Okra blooms are pretty...
Last week when Poppy was on vacation and we were doing all that running around...I convinced him we needed to walk through a thrift store while waiting for his truck. Immediately, I spotted this chair and just had to have it, knowing I have nothing green in the house!!! We hauled it home and of course, it doesn't fit in anywhere. Right now it is taking up space in my sewing room while I decide what to do. I love the fabric...
I have been looking for a very small, comfortable chair for the sewing room. What was I thinking??? (Poppy would say, "you weren't thinking")! I hear that a lot!!
There was something kind of special about this old picture against this chair fabric. "Daddy and me"...
Oh my, thank you for looking in.
Love,
Henny Penny
We all know about Lynn's "standing and staring" club, of which I am a major member!!! I have spent most of today standing and staring, shuffling and moving stuff around, arranging and rearranging!!! I have made a drastic change in my tiny little dining area and can't decide if I like the new look or hate it. Your thoughts will be most appreciated...
Before: I really do like the warm, soft, cozy look of curtains...
After: I also like the light shinning through and the openness of the roll-up bamboo shades...
For sure, more dusting will be required. Nothing shows up dust like the sun!! Why did I start all this??? Seems like Poppy just left for work and here it is 3:00. Have a feeling the curtains will be going back up as I am just drawn to the cozy feel...HELP!!!
Thankfully, there is something started for supper. I picked beans yesterday and snapped them last night...a dutch oven full. Corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, and some cornbread to go with the beans may be it for tonight!!!
Deviled tomatoes and cornbread...well you just can't beat it. All these tomatoes are getting ripe at the same time!!! Here's how mama used to make deviled tomatoes: (I don't have exact measurements)
In a cast iron frying pan, cut up and stew 5 or 6 (?) tomatoes. Season with 1 to 2 Tbls. of fat back grease. Add small pod of hot pepper, cut up. Simmer until it thickens a little. Very good over cornbread or rice. Mama used to fry the best cornbread patties...thin and crispy and lacy looking around the edges...
Best get going. I still have some outside things to do and it is now 3:35!!! Thanks for the help!! :)
Love,
Henny
"Normalcy"!! That's right! Poppy went back to work this morning and I fell back into my daily routine...my little "order of things to be done"!!! Sorry I stayed away so long.
The purple coneflowers are blooming. None of the blooms are as pretty as usual because of the heavy rains. Doesn't seem to bother the butterflies!!
Phlox are beginning to open too. The full week of sun and no rain, we are supposed to get this week should help all the plants...
Little Fiona Ling Ling...taking a break from the big ducks. Wish I knew where she came from. How she got to our pond. Some wild animal would surely kill a duckling wandering out alone. No one close by has a pond or ducks...She could have arrived here the same way "big boy" did...Dropped off while no one was looking!!!
Funny how flowers show up too...In the midst of all these "obedient plants"...an orange "gladiola" and pink "phlox"...
No reason at all for this next one..."big boy" leading one of his hens...:)
Not much of a post here! Again, I am sorry I stayed away so long. I've got to get back into the swing of things!!! I'll let you know if I get sun burned this week...with all the rain gone!!! Thank you for stopping by.
Love,
Henny Penny
Poppy's vacation started yesterday...9 days off work!!! We have been listing things we want get done around here, like finishing up the mess in the back yard. There are still several downed trees to be cut into firewood and the limbs and brush hauled away. We had also planned to paint the back porch floor (and the front porch floor, if there is enough paint), and all that trim around the screened-in back porch. So, we wake up this morning to a thunder storm and pouring rain!!! The 7-day forecast...thunderstorms and rain, every day!!!
This is Tuesday night already!!! This post was started yesterday. I'm sorry. My schedule is up-side-down with Poppy here all day. We had another thunderstorm with a hard rain. It is too humid and hot to do all those big jobs on our list. We did a little shopping today; picked up some chicken feed, etc....We probably don't make enough selling the few eggs that we sell to pay for the feed these big girls eat. Must keep reminding myself of the fun I'm having!!
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Little Fiona Ling Ling is still here, and feeling more at home. If she turns out to be a "he", we will have to drop the "Fiona" and use "Ling Ling"...don't you think?
Speaking of rain...does it seem to you like we have more hard, flooding rains now, than we used to?? Growing up, I remember rainy days. Days that the rain was slow and steady. Mama would let us go outside and walk in mud puddles and play in the rain. Seems now there is more danger, in everything!!!
A few months back a heavy downpour filled our pond to over flowing and covered our pier...in about 30 minutes. Now that is a hard rain!!!
Remember hurricane Fran that hit North Carolina in 1996? Well that was the same year we built this pond, and in the same month, September!! The pond was finished and we were told that it would probably take one year for it to fill, since there is no natural spring, and we were relying on rain water. Poppy and I bought the materials and build the pier ourselves. We completed the pier the day before "Fran" hit. We didn't get any sleep the night of Fran!!! We sat in the living room in the dark with a portable radio and no electricity. We sat quietly listening to the crazy wild winds and beating rain. Occasionally, we would hear the cracking of a tree falling. Then there were bumps and cracks, sounds of sticks, limbs and green pine cones hitting the house. It was a long, eerie night, listening and trying to imagine how everything would look when daylight came. It was like Fran was traveling with the night and was gone when the sun came up. Never will I forget that smell of chewed up green leaves, green limbs, and pine needles that totally covered the property....ankle deep. And the pond!!! The pond was full and running over the spillway with red muddy water. Not one inch of our newly built pier was visible! It was totally under water! We were without electricity for several days and the weather was extremely hot and humid. Fortunately, there was no damage to the house!!
Okay, here it is Wednesday!!! I've been with Poppy again...getting dual exhaust put on his truck!! Thank you for looking in. Hope to return soon...a little more interesting!! :)
Love,
Henny Penny
Hope you all had a happy 4th of July!!! Around here it was like any other day. We didn't grill out, or have friends or family over, we didn't go to the beach or cut a big watermelon, we didn't watch a parade, or even go watch the fireworks!! Later in the evening we did hear the distant boom of some fireworks. I walked out on the porch but couldn't see anything. Late afternoon Poppy said, "this doesn't seem like the 4th of July". Well, course not, out here in the woods!! We need to put forth a little effort to feel the 4th!! He did ask if I wanted to go somewhere to see fireworks and I said,"not really", I enjoy watching the celebration on PBS. Well, it just so happened that Neil Diamond was singing when Poppy turned on PBS...his response, "I'm not sitting here listening to Neil Diamond all night"!!! What's wrong with Neil Diamond?? Now if had been ZZ Top, Mick Jagger, or Bob Segar...oh well!!! I do love July 4th, I love this country, and all things patriotic!!! When my son-in-law was stationed at Seymore-Johnson AFB, we were invited to come on base for a July 4th celebration and fireworks...oh my...talk about feeling patriotic...I loved every minute!!! Okay, didn't mean to get carried away.
Little Fiona Ling Ling (I know you're smiling) is still with us and hanging with the other ducks. She tries so hard!! It is cute to watch her run, keeping a few steps ahead of the big ducks. She doesn't completely trust them yet and keeps her distance. She likes my bucket of feed so she is trusting me more. That makes me happy.
After all my complaining about the garden, (the squash bugs, wet ground, etc.) we are getting some really good tomatoes. Not only are these tomatoes big, these are sweet and delicious. Last year our tomatoes were very tart.
On the menu for tonight...Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches...
Better get busy. At 7:45 this morning I had finished what needed to be done inside, and was headed outside with my work basket. All the recent rainy days put me behind. The yard has been a mess with sticks, limbs, overgrown mint, and flowers beaten down by the rain. This has been my fun break for the day.
Thank you, if you managed to stay this long... :) Hope to be back soon.
Love,
Henny Penny
Wish I could say this beautiful barn belongs to us, but I can't!! Our little house is about the size of the lean-to on the back of this barn!! Poppy is off work today and had some errands to run, so I went along with him. We made a wrong turn out on a country road and drove past this farm. What a beautiful place!!
Thankfully, the baby duck is still with us. She seems determined to fit in and be accepted by these older ducks. Muscovies are territorial, and since ours have been here for over 10 years, well I've worried that the old male might kill her. On the other hand, the old female seems to want to protect the baby.
Thank you for helping me with some names. I like "Fiona" and I like "Ling Ling". She is such a brave little thing. Hopefully, it will all work out.
This hummingbird moth (hope I am right about this) was going from flower to flower...
I got quite a scare late this afternoon. We had another thunderstorm with a washing rain, which added to the muddy mess in the chicken lot. When the sun came out, I let the chickens out to free range, including those six new chickens. Usually the first time out of the pen, chickens are cautious and afraid to go far. But not these, they made a bee-line for the dark wet woods. I called and threw out feed, but these chicks were free and on the move. I had left supper cooking on the stove so I had to run back inside. Hoping the chickens were smart enough to come back. Besides, when I walked toward them they went farther away. Poppy said, "before we eat, let's go try to find those chickens and get them back in the yard" The chicks were no where to be seen. I felt like crying, but, thought I would look again inside the chicken house. To my surprise, there sat everyone of those chickens...on their roost!!!
Oops!! I started this post yesterday. So far, no rain today. It is hot and very humid!!!
Happy 4th of July!!!
Love,
Henny Penny
As far as day to day life goes, here is what touches my heart and makes me happy. A very hungry young duck showed up on the pond this morning. I noticed it swimming as hard as it's little webbed feet could paddle, right behind our old female duck. It's like it was saying, "mama, wait, is that you?" The duck looks about half grown...
Thinking I'll probably never see this little duck again, I took pictures to show Poppy. Sure enough, it left the pond. Later, on my way to the chicken lot, I met this baby duck waddling toward me. I poured a pile of scratch feed on the ground and backed up a bit. I probably could have stood there. The duck was so hungry. She ate all she could hold along with some old Roy dry dog food. Do you think she will be ours??
I don't think this is a muscovy duck. The coloring and the bill look different, and it has no sign of red on it's face...it almost has the look of a goose. I'm thinking of names...if anyone has any suggestions!
I was back for another visit with my sister yesterday. We had late afternoon plans that, guess what, got rained out!! We were almost to our destination when we began getting flash flood warnings. Immediately, the streets became flooded and I mean like 2 inches of rain fell in about 30 minutes. We drove in the center lane and through the flooded streets and made our way out and back onto the interstate...toward home!!! I've been worried this morning about a tree falling on the house. The ground is so wet. I should have named my blog "worry wart lane"!! That sounds more like me!!!
Before the storm, we took a quick walk to the garden...in the big boots again...:)
That is one huge citron melon vine growing behind where Shelby is standing. It goes on and on, and this is just 1 plant. I'm sure there will soon be a pot of citron and sugar on the stove for making preserves.
Small citron melon...
Cows cooling in the shade...
Thank you for stopping by. Hope to return soon!
Love,
Henny Penny
I've simply got to clean and wax that old cupboard and table on the porch. I bought Murphy Oil Soap and Johnson's paste wax, but other stuff to do keeps coming up. In an earlier post, I talked about my cousin Pat and her husband giving me this beautiful old cupboard. The cupboard was build by a doctor back in the Civil War days. I also mentioned that Pat is my first and second cousin...her mother and my mother were sisters. Her dad and my dad were first cousins. The old cupboard again...
