Raking and Recipes

You are not going to believe this, but all has been quiet here on Henny Penny Lane for a few day! Three days now without rain. Imagine that! We've had sunshine too, and no more trees falling. 

Friday I raked leaves for four straight hours. On Saturday, I raked leaves for three hours.  Today we have wind! What is it about raking leaves that makes the wind blow? I was trying to get a picture of the Flag blowing in the wind. What a beautiful day this has been!

Would you just look at Smokey. Is he not the cutest thing?

It's always good to see green again after all this brown. I at least made a dent in the leaves. 

Just a word about our Thanksgiving. It was a nice day, but quiet. We missed having Lynn and Andee and their families.

Poppy waiting for dinner.. He is such a big help in the kitchen... :) 

I also have two recipes to share...

Sweet Potato Casserole:

  3 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
  1 cup evaporated milk
  1 cup sugar
  1 stick butter, melted
  2 eggs, beaten
  2 tsp. vanilla
Beat, pour into 2 quart greased dish.

  Topping:
  1 cup brown sugar
  1/4 cup butter
  1/3 cup flour
  1/2 cup chopped pecans
Mix until crumbly. Spread over potato mixture. Bake 30 to 40 min. 350

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Broccoli Casserole:

  Cook (2) 10 oz. packages frozen chopped 
    broccoli, drain
  Add 1/2 stick butter & 8 oz. Velveeta cheese
  Mix well and pour into baking dish.

  Topping:

  Melt 1/2 stick butter. Add 1/2 pack Ritz 
    crackers, crushed. Mix well and spread 
    over broccoli. Bake 20 min. 350

Both casseroles are really good. Too good! 

Thank you for stopping by. Tootles! :)

Love,
Henny

All the guineas survived!

As they say around here," if it ain't one thing, it's another"! As soon as the rain let up enough yesterday, I got a bucket of feed and went out to check on the animals. Eli went inside the goat's lot. I was only going to be a minute. Was I ever wrong! I could not believe my eyes. A tall pine tree had fallen straight through the middle of the guinea's pen...

All the babies were wet and cold, some had gotten out. Good grief! After catching those on the outside, I searched around and found another tarp in the shop. Even with the wind fighting me, I managed to throw the tarp across one corner of the crushed pen. I then tied it to the fence in several places. I'm telling you what, when I saw this tangled mess I did not know what to do first...what with the rain and the wind!

Hopefully, they can live in this corner until I get the other pen ready. I am surprised that the mother guinea and all the babies survived. Even the heat lamp is still burning in the corner.

But wait, that's not all. All this time taking care of the guineas, Eli had been running and playing in the mud and rain! Oh my gosh!

Don't know why I thought he deserved a treat. Maybe for not getting any dirtier than he did. :(  Pardon my muddy sleeve and arm and cold red fingers.

For Eli, it was all fun and games. I was exhausted!!! 

All I could do was bring out a bucket of warm soapy water and a rag, then put

his blankets in the washer.

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving  day. I should be posting about Thanksgiving food and stuff but will try to do that tomorrow. Just had to share the story about the tree falling. 

Thank you for visiting!

Love,
Henny

A wet soggy day before Thanksgiving

Henny Penny here...

reporting that everything is up and running again at Henny Penny Lane. We have running water, inside and outside. That's right. It is raining cats and dogs outside, or as mama used to say, "it is simply pouring"! By the way, have I mentioned that we have leaves that need to be raked? :)

Back to the water situation...it was close to noon before the well digging, pump repair service people got here on Monday.  Of course, it was no small problem. The pump in the well had to be replaced and also the pressure switch on the tank under the house. The old well cover fell apart when it was lifted off the well and I couldn't be happier about that...

I hate those old miniature wishing wells that don't look real. Poppy says he is having someone build us another. I spoke up right quick and said well tell him to build it square and use wide boards and build a top with an overhang and a tin roof and a roller for hanging the old well bucket. If it doesn't look authentic, I don't want it! I can't wait to light a fire under this pile of stuff.

Remember way back before everybody had inside plumbing how folks kept a bucket of freshly drawn well water with a dipper nearby? I borrowed this picture from the neatest blog that I happened upon,  babs-upstairsdownstairs.blogspot.com. I plan to visit her again and read more...

I especially remember drinking water from a well bucket and dipper when we would visit my Aunt Macy and Uncle Vester. They kept a bucket of fresh well water on a shelf on their front porch and the dipper hung from a nail nearby. There was also a pan...one kinda like this...

for washing up and there was also a towel hung from another nail. Those truly were the good times. Oh well, moving on to more modern times.

A moth flew in when the door was opened this morning. Bickett and Dumper Roo went crazy...

The moth lit on the sofa. See the black spot down near the floor. Bickett doesn't see it...

Oh this rain! The pond is running over again and the pier is completely under water. Guess it's just as well that we have no family coming for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Yep, just Poppy and me. Still, I plan to bake a turkey, have dressing, broccoli casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, collards, and rolls. Poppy said since it is just the two of us, let's have only our favorite dishes. No need making mashed potatoes and gravy, or green beans and corn. We have those things enough anyway. So, I will wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for stopping by.

Love,
Henny

A crazy Sunday and now Monday

Once again we have leaves covering the ground. Leaves as far as the eye can see.

When I have nothing else to talk about, there is always the weather. The heat is off and the back door is standing open this morning. There is so much I need to do outside. A few good weather days would be nice...

Eli gave me a scare yesterday. He is fine, but let me say this...there will be no more big ten dollar bones brought into this house. After a call to Quail Ridge Animal Hospital in Raleigh, I made a trip in to town to buy a bottle of Miralax. A ten dollar bottle of Miralax just for a one, half a teaspoon dose. Thankfully, no emergency visit was necessary!

I settled down after Eli scared me half to death only to realize that we have no running water in the house. Why does everything wait until Sunday to happen? Nobody comes out to do work like that on the weekend. Especially not on a Sunday. We get our water from a well. Something probably gone haywire with the pump.

So then this morning I find this little fellow. He somehow got outside the safety of the pen and spent the night alone in the cold, dark, and rain. I found him this morning, very cold and lifeless. I have him in my lap wrapped in a warm tee shirt as I type.  

I'm thinking he will be okay once he warms up. It surprises me that nothing caught him during the night.

So this is my Monday morning...waiting for the well drilling, pump repair people to get here while carrying around a cold baby guinea wrapped in warm cloths in one hand and doing what little I can with the other. The house is a mess and the dish pan is running over with dishes from supper last night. 

The baby has warmed up. The microwave is perfect for warming blankets. I mixed a little start n' grow with warm water and actually got the baby to swallow a drop or two from the tip of a spoon...

Guess I had better get busy. Thank you for visiting.

Love,
Henny

No Lint Balls here!

I was up and down that ladder dusting, sneezing, and washing bottles almost all day Thursday. Can't help but feel proud. Look at the shine on this side of the room...

Up on that ladder it was easy to see the dust and cobwebs on everything! I took down all the curtains and put them in the washer. There was sunshine and a breeze. Perfect for drying...

Would you just look at the difference! I can't let it get this bad again. Poppy, on his way to the woods, suggested we box up all this stuff and sell it when we have a yard sale.

I'm telling you! Time flies! Yesterday was spent buying groceries, picking up prescriptions and feed for the animals. I also stopped by Lowes and bought five more T-posts for my fence building project. Today was spent building Bun Bun a bigger house. So, there has been no time to read my favorite blogs and no time to reply to the nice comments on my last post. We simply need more hours in the day.

Just have to post one more picture of Eli and Smokey with their faces nearly touching...

Better get off this computer. Thank you for visiting.

Love,
Henny

Dusting and Sweetie Pie

Is this not typical? I drug the ladder to the center of the living room and started that dreaded job of dusting...beginning with the ceiling fan. I'm way up there, one step from the top with my dust rag, and hear that retching sound of a cat throwing up. "Bickett"! "Not on the carpet"! 

I'm careful on ladders these days. Getting down is slow. Bickett has always been one of those cats! I got that mess cleaned up, then back to the ceiling fan, and on to the TV cabinet.

Tomorrow hopefully I will start on that darn bottle collection. Up and down that ladder with a handful of glass bottles! I want this living room clean before Christmas!

Eli is such a sweetie pie. So gentle...

Keeping  little Smokey warm these cold days...

He still loves that teddy bear...

It was a cold 19 degrees here this morning! It's way too early for weather such as this. I had lots of Fall jobs planned...peach trees, and a fig tree to get into the ground before the weather got cold.  A donkey fence to finish! :)

Thank you for visiting.

Love, 
Henny

Old Jars and Grandma's House

Remember the citron melon that had grown half inside and half outside the garden fence? With a long sharp kitchen knife I sliced it off the fence...

When I walked inside with more melons, Poppy said to me, "I will be glad when the citron melons are all gone!  Now what are you fixing to do"?   "Make preserves, why? Why would it bother you that I want to make more preserves", said I.  "Oh, it doesn't bother me. I just wondered why you would want to make more preserves",  said Poppy. So, I made more preserves. We have these conversations a lot. :[

Oh, every time I look up I see the dust and cobwebs on these old jars and bottles...

I've brought the ladder inside but keep putting off this big job of dusting. Collections are fun but not when it comes times to dust! I dare not show you the entire collection...well maybe a small picture at the bottom.

These old blue canning jars remind me of Grandma Comer. I distinctly remember seeing her open a jar of pickled beets and I remember blackberries canned in jars like these. 

This is my Grandma and Grandpa Comer. Grandpa died ten days before I was born. 

My Niece Vicki lives near my grandparents old home place. Since we were in Robbins last week and having lunch with Vicki, she suggested we drive by. How sad to see the house and barn so run down. Still very beautiful to me...

The house was beautifully built...hard to explain, but a covered porch was across the back of the house, which went across a center section where there were bedrooms, then turned and extended across the front of the kitchen. The kitchen is the roof section you can see in the back. Like a box with one side cut out.

Some of the small out buildings...

The barn. The paved road used to be a dirt path separating the house from the barn. If I were fortunate enough to own this place, I would live here. 

Okay, enough for today! As mama used to say, "I have simply got to get busy"! Thank you for visiting.

Love,
Henny Penny

It is Poppy's turn to dust!

Visiting Shellymac Farm

Can you believe how fast the days go by? Can you believe this weather? Can you believe these cold temperatures so early in the season? We had snow flurries last week...and woke up on Saturday morning to a cold 23 degrees! I need to check on Shelby and Jimmy. They were at the farmer's market again in that 23 degrees! And, if all that isn't enough, we could have thunderstorms later today!

Speaking of Shelby and Jimmy...after our trip to Robbins last week, I spent the night at their house and drove home the following day. Shelby wanted me to see their new calves. So, when they went out early to feed up, I trudged along with them...

I love these fuzzy weeds that grow along their path...

Anyway, as much as I wanted to go in and see the babies up close, my instinct told me to stay just outside the gate and watch. If ever a cow would come running toward me, without a doubt I would panic, scream, and cause a stampede. Being run over by a cow is another fear of mine...

Daddy used to brag on Shelby, that she was not afraid of the devil. He was proud of that fact. Wonder if it had anything to with mama and me being so terribly afraid of everything. Daddy used to tell people that Shelby had read the entire set of encyclopedias. When recently I asked her if that was true, she said, nah. She probably has read the entire set.

The calves were in a group playing.

This one baby had gotten over in the hay ring. Jimmy shooed him out to be sure he wasn't hung in there.

With those cows fed, we walked to the other pasture...The pasture with a bull inside. But wait. We walked past the pig pen. I had to stop and see the little pigs...

So, here we are where the bull lives with a few of his cows. Me, waiting just outside the gate, planning which direction I would run, just in case something unforeseen happened. You never know! Why, our niece Vicki, who we met for lunch while we were in Robbins...was telling us how she had gone out to the pasture with a pan of cut up apples to feed to the cows and when their bull "Jimmy" saw her, he came running and charged at the fence. That bull does not like Vicki, and she loves that bull. Vicki said she gave the apples to the cows and didn't give any to Jimmy for being so bad. :)

The bull was eating alone over to the left. That cow was probably thinking, "and he can just stay alone too"! 

Need to get busy. Here it is Monday. Poppy has gone back to work after another nine day vacation. The TV is shut off and cooling down. Oh, Poppy did see a good size buck late Saturday, right at the edge of dark. As Poppy put it, "I may regret it, but I let him walk". Poppy does have a kind heart. The deer have struggled what with that disease killing off so many of them.

Thank you for visiting.

Love, 
Henny Penny