Just finished spreading those two truck loads of pine straw in the goat's lot.
Now I don't know how a goat feels about walking on a bed of pine needles, but it looks to me like it would feel mighty good. Pine straw looks warm and cozy. This summer when the temperatures are in the high 90's I may feel different about all this brown.
Still working on the lay of the land out here...
One of these days we may be looking uphill instead of downhill, when we look out the kitchen window. :)
Chickadees, the little acrobats, don't mind telling you to hurry and move on. This one and a few others fussed at me the entire time...
Cardinals too were waiting for me to go away...
and even a Mockingbird tried to shoo me away...
It drives me crazy that all the wooden posts in the yard have turned green. That ugly green. Must be the shade and moisture. Wonder if I could scrub everything with a stiff brush and Clorox water. Now that's a job to add to my "to do" list. Good gosh!
There's plenty of help around here. All you have to do is slow down for a minute...
Guess this will be a "brown post". Speaking of brown, I've just made myself a cup of hot cocoa to help me feel warm again. The temperature was 33 when I went outside to work. Wasn't long before my heavy coat was unbuttoned. Then I had to come out of that heavy coat...down to my sweater and long sleeved tee shirt. Hauling that last load of straw, I was downright warm. In the house now, I feel chilled to the bone.
Once again it's about time for Poppy. Need to be thinking of something for supper.
Sure is good to have you to talk to. Thank you for stopping by.
Love,
Henny
Dear Friends,
I have about fifteen minutes here before Poppy gets home. This is his late night...works til 7:00. Supper is ready and waiting.
It has been twelve hours since my feet hit the floor this morning. I do believe this is the first time I've actually sat down during this twelve hours...well except for driving in to town to grocery shop and buy feed.
It's been a sunny but cold and very windy day. A good day for taking the bedspreads and quilts off the bed and hanging them on the clothesline to sun. That was my first job this morning, and probably what got me going. Then the curtains hanging on the french doors, well I just had to wash those dirty things...I don't know what struck me but I even dusted the dining room chairs and china cabinet.
It was in the midst of my cleaning frenzy, that the neighbor called and asked if I would mind moving my car out of the driveway...that he had raked up two more truck loads of pine straw. Wow! That's five loads, and I have a place for it all! These last two loads will cover the entire goat lot...wonder how that will look? For sure better than the leaves and Mr. Eli's big feet will stay clean. The goat lot is where Eli plays.
Somebody put Smokey's mouse in the bowl on the coffee table...
Probably Poppy, again.
Better get busy. :)
Thank you for putting up with me. Hope to be back soon...with something a little more interesting to talk about.
Love,
Henny
The days go by so fast! Sometimes I feel like all I do is open and close curtains! Seriously!
Gosh, that big snow storm moving up the east coast! Seems like North Carolina is always just outside the snow line. Oh, we've got snow this morning. Let me show you...
This is how our snow usually looks...
Getting this amount of snow is fine with me now. A few years ago however, if the weatherman called for snow and this is all that fell, we would be furious! We used to wish and hope and pray for snow. We dreamed about playing outside, building a snowman, making snow cream...praying that the snow would at least be enough to close the schools and give us a good excuse for not going in to work. But most of the time around here all that excitement turns to sadness as the snow melts as fast as it hits the ground.
Old sweety pie did get to run through the falling snow flakes early this morning...
The towel I left on the porch for drying his feet...he snatched up and brought inside and into his chair, wet feet and all...
and, we're going to whip Poppy for throwing the towel over Eli's head...
We have had a few beautiful snow storms in the past. In the year 2000 we got a shocking twenty inches. Poppy and I thoroughly enjoyed that big snow.
That was back when Nikki and Susie were still with us. Big Nicki was part wolf and just the sweetest dog ever! Eli reminds us a lot of Nikki...
Both Nikki and Susie were special dogs. We still miss them.
I appreciate your stopping by. Better get busy. I don't quite know how to act...Eli is at the groomer's and Poppy is at work...all this free time!
Love,
Henny
Looks like I'll be stuck inside for a day or two as the rain has just started to fall again. Can't complain though, we've had several warm beautiful days this week.
Poppy is the news of the day...well actually he was the news of yesterday, his birthday. The 22nd...
Seeing as how we seldom eat out, and it being Poppy's birthday, we decided to ride to Wake Forest and eat lunch at the "Olive Garden". We, especially me, or so I thought, enjoyed getting out of the house. The food was delicious!
The waitresses were going to sing Happy Birthday to Poppy until I said, oh, you don't have to do that. Are you sure, asked the waitress. Oh, sure. When we got back to the truck, Poppy said, I can't believe you didn't want them sing Happy Birthday to me. Gosh, I felt terrible. My thinking was that I had saved us a lot of embarrassment!
In other news, at the end of this month Andee can finally pick up her Christmas present from Todd...
This big sweet baby boy, a "Golden Retriever". He will be eight weeks old and old enough to come home with Andee...
Andee's expression here looks like "awhhhh"! Reminds me of the day we brought Eli home. Can't you just smell that puppy smell?
Little Smokey's surgery has not slowed him down one bit. He got a little sweeter maybe...
I'm afraid there hasn't been a lot of fun exciting stuff to post lately and my blog has become pretty dull. Guess I should be thankful that I haven't burned up any more pots or anything like that. Thank you for stopping by. Please do come back. I appreciate your friendship so very much.
Love,
Henny
Dear Friends,
Not feeling so chipper this morning. Could it be that I've overdone it these last few beautiful days...I'm good at that, you know.
Little Smokey and I were on the road at 8:15 this morning. Today is his appointment with Dr. Davis. Poor baby. He'll be fine and back home after 4:00 today...
Sneaking up on Dumperoo...
Wasn't it in the early 1980's when country blue and mauve pink became so popular? And if that wasn't bad enough, every utensil in the house was decorated with a pink heart and a duck wearing a pink or blue ribbon around it's neck.
It was along about that time that Poppy and I, one Sunday, were on our way down home to see Mama. We stopped in Vass to walk around in the "Dunrovin Country Store", an unusual store that sells a little bit of everything. Their motto is, "If we don't have it, you don't need it"...
We bought this kettle for Mama...
She loved this little kettle and used it for years. Now I use it...ducks, hearts, ribbons and all.
One morning a few months back I put water in the kettle for tea and turned on the burner. We use gas...a flame. Anyway, my neighbor stopped by to visit for a minute. We were standing at the front door talking when she said, what have you got cooking that smells so good? Nothing, I said. Huh, she said. A minute later she said again, what is that? It smells a little like a cake baking. Turns out it was the handle on the little tea kettle burning. Glad I had not wandered off too far...
Better get busy. It was cloudy here this morning, but now looks like the sun might shine. :) Hope to be back soon.
Love,
Henny
Dear friends,
It has been like spring today! Warm and sunny and beautiful! Just beautiful! A fun day to me is a day filled with outside work.
Normally at 6:00 in the evening I am busy in the kitchen. Today was special, even rare. At 3:30 after I had put the hammer and the crowbar back in the shop and had come in the house, Poppy said, do you want to order pizza for supper? Pizza? Really? See, Poppy doesn't care for pizza. Could it be that he noticed all my hard work?
Another truck load of pine straw neatly spread over the side yard. The shed cleaned out, swept, and every tool put in it's right place. The potting bench I so proudly built in the spring of 2012 torn down and every heavy cinder block, exactly eighteen, brought back in the yard and stacked neatly next to the compost bin. I've not been happy with that potting bench since the beginning. The area around the greenhouse and garden looks much neater now. The plan was to take my time. Move a few cinder blocks and boards every day...not over do it! Yeah right! I don't know when to stop...never have. So, the potting bench, blocks, and all the junk, gone!
Every time I looked up from my work there was Eli and his bear watching me from his pillow on the porch...
He was such a good boy. We went for that long walk I promised him.
Now to that hammer and the crowbar. There's been a big heavy whelping box leaning against the back of the shop since way back when we used to raise and sell Lab puppies. I tore that thing apart, nail by nail, and now have a wheelbarrow load of boards. Have you ever used a crowbar? Good grief! Poppy must have used four inch nails when he build that thing. The crowbar pried those boards away from the nails. That was fun!
Two day of sunshine have helped a lot to dry things out after four days of rain. The pond is still muddy and the pier under water. Every day without rain I move a few more leaves. I'm now down to the edge of the pond where raking is the hardest...
Once again here it is near bedtime. Cats and dogs all over the house waiting for their beds to be made ready, and their water bowls filled, and needing a big hug.
Thank you if you've managed to still be here. Hope to be back soon.
Love,
Henny
It is 28 degrees here this morning. The sun is coming up big and orange and shining through the trees...
It's easy to tell when the sun is shining here cause I'm pretty scarce. No time to sit down at the computer. My mind was made up that if and when the sun decided to shine again, my body was going to be out there in it! And so it was, yesterday. 51 degrees and sunshine. At 11:30 a.m. standing in the yard...what to do first?
A few things crossed off my list...
spread truck load of pine straw
rake and haul more leaves to chicken lot
rake and haul more leaves to goat lot
clean and refill all water buckets
measure chicken lot for new wire
hose down and sun muddy rugs at front
steps
anchor arbor
Doesn't sound like a lot, but dragging three sheet loads and pushing two wheelbarrow loads of heavy leaves from down near the pond, up hill to the goat lot...well...again, I know how a mule feels after a day in the field.
The side yard is looking better with pine straw covering those leaves I brought in. The yard almost looks level again. Hey, I am single handedly changing the lay of the land out here... (is handedly a word)? :)
These pictures were taken early this morning in a heavy frost...
The arbor supporting the Chocolate Vine was beginning to tip. The vine has grown big and heavy. A wire hooked to the arbor, pulled tight and anchored to the tank nearby works...
This wire is not as dangerous as it appears. No one walks through here...
Somehow I also found time to bake a pie for the neighbors who gave me the pine straw. He is bringing another truck load of straw, maybe today. :)
Smokey was sleeping on the bed again. You just can't resist taking pictures of something this cute, can you?
Like the pictures of Eli in his big leather chair. It looks like I post the same picture over and over, but not so. He just looks so sweet when he gets his teddy bear out of his toy box, steps up into that big chair, flops down and looks at Poppy and me. I simply have to take another picture. His teddy bear needs to be washed again...
I've got to get busy! The housework is almost done and the blue skies are calling my name. Hope you will come back. See you soon. :)
Love,
Henny
Thank you all so much for the encouraging words. Glad to know that most of you don't care for Google+ anyway. I'll stop this worrying and enjoy my blog. :)
Smokey had an appointment with the vet this morning. Here's what we found out...Smokey is for sure a boy, he has mites in both those cute little ears, and the vet thinks he is close to eight months old. I was guessing maybe five. He weighs 7.7 pounds.
For years now I've been meaning to buy a kitty carrier but keep putting it off. Nothing to do but pull out that old cage used for transporting BunBun, Bickett, and Dumperoo. It needed cleaning a bit and a kitty toy or two. Smokey thought it was his playhouse...
Eli seemed a little concerned...
How did you get in there?
Can't understand why my pictures are blurred lately.
Gosh! This weather! We are in day four of cold wet weather. Feel bad mentioning this because it's nothing compared to the long cold winters you folks up north have. It's just been such a wet rainy muddy miserable winter. No beautiful snow, just cold rain and a muddy yard. We woke up yesterday to freezing rain and everything icy...
Eli and I slid down the front steps. Yep, he was on his leash and went down first, pulling me. His feet slid right out from under him. Had I not been holding onto the post...well somebody would have been hurt.
This ice was supposed to be gone by noon yesterday but was just beginning to melt some by noon today. Sunshine and blue skies would be so appreciated right now! So appreciated!
Need to get up from here and put something on to cook for supper, AGAIN! Seems like I just got the mess cleaned up from last night's meal! Yesterday I tried a new recipe...kale stew. Then I went to Jo's blog, A Brit in Tennessee, and borrowed her buttermilk cornbread recipe. The kale stew was good and the cornbread was delicious!
Baby Smokey had two bad old shots. He gets to rest on the bed where it's nice and warm...
Hope to be back soon.
Love,
Henny
