News on the well house and such

Good gosh! Would you look at the leaves, and look at this ugly mess! It's no wonder I was depressed the whole month of February! This is definitely a "before" picture. 

You may remember back in February when the pump in our well stopped working and we were without water. We called the pump and well digging folks out and had a new pump installed. You may recall too that the well cover fell apart as it was being taken off, and how happy that made me. I don't like those little wishing wells. 

This was a couple of years ago before the old well house fell apart.

When Poppy said a friend at work was going to build us another well cover,  I jumped right in and said it had better be "big"! Something that looks real. I wanted a well cover like Aunt Berlie used to have. Now Aunt Berlie's well cover was big enough that she and I could carry our straight chairs out and sit and crack walnuts...under the cover of the well.

Poppy's friend delivered this late yesterday. It took four men to get it off the trailer.

I did say "big"!  We can't sit under this one but maybe it looks more real. It needs leveling a bit and painting. I'm thinking a dark walnut color, the same color I plan to paint Poppy's shop. 

The shop was supposed to be barn red but it turned out orangy looking. Now that we're living in a red house, I'm thinking the shop needs to be another color...maybe dark walnut.

Okay, I'm off to make bowls if ice cream. I can't seem to get off this roll I'm on...let see who can get the fattest!!! Have you tried Turkey Hill's Box of Chocolates? Honestly, well it's indescribably delicious. :) You need to buy a carton!

Hope to be back soon. 

Love,
Henny

Not so peaceful!

The peaceful little cabin in the woods...or so it would seem!

Wouldn't it be nice if everyday life was as peaceful, beautiful, and perfect as pictures on a blog?

Of course no picture here, but this is more typical. Poppy ready to leave for work turns on the porch light, looks out and says, what's that Eli is chewing on? I look out and say, looks like the lining from your Crocs. Good grief, says Poppy going out to take it from Eli. Poppy yells back to me, it's not my Crocs, it a little rabbit and it's dead.

Now Eli can't go off the porch during the night and for sure bunny rabbits don't come on the porch. This was the doings of little Smokey. Smokey killed that rabbit, brought it on the porch and Eli stole it from him.

My first job of the morning was to have a decent burial for the little bunny...which left me feeling very sad indeed.

Pulling myself together, I hurried and finished with the housework and went to work in the garden.

Around midday on my way inside, I happened to look up and there on our teeny tiny porch, lo and behold...a BAT!

Right there over my head!! Shiver!! This bat hung there all day with Eli, Weetie, Smokey, and me going in and out, noisily opening and closing the door.

Poppy got home around 4:00 and as he walked up the steps I showed him the bat. He was excited and wanted to get a closer look so he opened the front door and put down the load he was carrying, turned around and the bat was gone. Seriously, GONE! After hanging there all day! Good thing I got a picture. 

Do you think old sweet Eli will ever outgrow his teddy bear? These pictures were taken just last night.

He is such a big sweetie pie.

Smokey is the only kitty we have that will curl up in the rocking chair for a nap. Looking all sweet and innocent! Wouldn't hurt a flea!

We may have rain coming in this afternoon. Guess I need to do a few things outside while the sun is shining. I appreciate your stopping to visit. And again I'm sorry for not replying to your nice comments. It feels like you stopped by and I was not home. 

Love,
Henny

A little cooking, a little posting

Down behind the shed...today at the teeny tiny farm.

Not much need in starting this post with supper cooking and cornbread baking in the oven. Oh well, I'll get a word in here and there. Are collards good to eat this time of the year? My Mother would say "no"! She was probably right. Mama thought collards were best eaten in cold weather. Collards are not fit to eat until after a frost, she would say.

Anyhow, the collards in Food Lion looked good to me so I bought a bunch. Like Mama used to do, I cut off a piece of pork ribs and cooked it in the pressure cooker. Then used the broth and fat from the ribs to cook the collards in the same pot.

Might as well go on and make this a fall meal, after all it is feeling more like fall than spring these days.

So here we have fordhook lima beans, collards, ribs, cornbread, and that huge sweet potato in the foil came from Shelby and Jimmy's farm and is big enough for the both of us.

I  write about the teeny tiny garden and the teeny tiny house so now you see I cook teeny tiny meals...if only I were teeny tiny!

The sun decided to come out late this afternoon and must have felt good to the guineas who have been out in the cold rain all day.

Supper is finished and the dishes washed. I've walked Eli, shut the guineas up and fed corn to the ducks. Oh, and while playing with Eli in the goat lot, a hawk swooped down right there in front of us and almost grabbed a guinea. Quite a close call!

Look, I'm as tall as Big Boy!

Eli says, we're pretty worn out now. Thank you for stopping by and we will be back very soon.

Love,
Henny

Strolling through the yard

Somebody has been under that big Azalea.

Seriously, I did not put that blossom there. I talked Poppy into taking a quick walk, with Eli and me, around the yard to look at the flowers and see how nice the yard looks after my mowing for the last two days!  Funny how you don't realize how badly the yard needs mowing until you get started. It was absolutely snaky looking!

The Gardenia bushes along the back porch look terrible. The unusually cold temperatures this winter and last winter almost killed them. Two years ago the Gardenias were beautiful. Long stems covered in sweet smelling blossoms. I'm wondering if these will ever look good again.

Smokey follows...climbing trees and hiding here and there.

Thinking, "what can I do next?"

This is the first Azalea Poppy and I planted. It is huge now!

Kind of pretty in an unusual way.

Looking at flowers is mighty tiring. Simply wears a fellow out.

And look who slipped out when the front door was left opened this morning.

I've been mowing and working on the garden this week. You must be awfully tired of seeing the yard and the Azaleas. Hopefully, soon there will be something worth seeing in the teeny tiny garden. The yard long beans are up. I need to come up with some kind of sturdy trellis for the beans to climb. 

Thank you for looking in. Hope to be back soon with something new and more interesting. 

Love,
Henny

Early morning fog

The clock alarmed at 4:20 this morning. Yes, Poppy's vacation is over. He had to be at work at 6:00 a.m. By the way, wonder when my vacation is going to start! At 6:00 I was washing sheets and out hanging the bedspread on the clothesline. 

It's cool here this morning and the steam or fog over the pond made for a good picture. Looks like soon there will be lots of Iris in bloom...another reason to bring the camera out. I might as well add AA Batteries to the grocery list. :)

No only are the flowers thriving this spring but the weeds! Good gosh! Look at the red rock path around the Iris bed and down to the bridge...It is overwhelming! 

At least once while the snowball bush is in bloom, I have to stand underneath and look up at the blue sky. My excitement for the day, that is unless I walk up on another snake.

Where are you off to in such a hurry? I kinda like it under here...we might catch a mouse.

Need to get up from here and get busy. I've got to run to the grocery store...AGAIN! Then, hopefully I can work outside!! Thank you for visiting.

Love,
Henny 

More Springtime!

You know me, something pretty comes along and I go overboard posting pictures.

Aren't the pinks and purples and blues of spring beautiful? In fact, this is the prettiest spring we've had in a long time.

Wish I could show you the hundreds and hundreds of tiny blue "Quaker Ladies" that are in bloom. The ground is simply covered.

Ever notice how hard it is to get blue flowers to show up blue in a picture? Or is it just me? I seriously need to mow the yard but can't stand the thought of mowing down all the tiny flowers. 

Must say, it is getting a bit snaky looking around. Speaking of snakes, Saturday I walked right up on two. Both were rat snakes but people round these parts call them black snakes. One of the snakes was big, like five feet long maybe. He looked at me then slithered on down to the brush pile. Folks, I stopped dead in my tracks...chills!!! Then I immediately came across another rat snake up near Poppy's shop. This one was smaller and faster and quickly disappeared into the woods. Once I've seen a snake in the yard...every step I take I expect to see another one.

This bright pink Azalea has a pale pink one underneath, not in full bloom yet.

More Quaker Ladies and Ajuga.

and a couple of Dogwoods.

I've just finished outside, closing the chicken house door and the gate to the guinea's pen. There is a storm coming. The thunder is getting closer. Once we get through these storms tonight, we are supposed to have fair weather...sunshine and no rain for the rest of this week. Lows in the 40's and high's in the 70's. Does that sound wonderful! I want to finish planting the teeny tiny garden.

Better get off this computer. Oops! Loud thunder!

Love,
Henny

A pink post, maybe

Sending a quick hello while Poppy is in the woods again. No turkey yet, but he did hear one gobble yesterday. Mostly want to thank you for the nice comments on the "Poppy Post". I love replying to each comment but lately time seems to be passing unbelievably fast. Do you think it's true that time is going by faster?

The pink Azaleas are in full bloom. Out walking Eli this morning, honestly, the shocking pink was, well, shocking...

There are six of these Azaleas in the yard and I meant to get a picture of them all. After this picture the battery died in my camera...as Poppy says, imagine that! I do go through the batteries!

This is a wild Azalea and it is blooming for the first time. This little plant was growing wild here when we bought the property. I brought it from the woods into the yard back in 1989 or 1990. I'm so happy to see it thriving, finally!

This picture was taken a couple days ago before the blooms had fully opened. The guineas don't often sit still for a picture.

Okay, I didn't mean to go on and on. The sun is out and the birds are singing. It almost sounds like they are calling me. I do want to stay outside today. Tomorrow we could get  over an inch of rain. Hope to be back soon. Thank you.

Love,
Henny
Spring,

A Poppy Post

Our teeny tiny farm

Sometimes I read back over a post and realize that my wording has made Poppy sound like a lazy bum. He is not that at all. You see, Poppy still works a full-time job.

Poppy loves hunting so he takes two of his hard earned vacation weeks and does just that. One week in November he deer hunts.

and a week in April he turkey hunts. 

Thanks to Poppy the little red hen and her friends have their own house complete with a fenced-in yard.

The goats enjoy their own teeny tiny barn, all fenced in and what a sweet little gate I open and close throughout the day.

and it was Poppy who measured off  24 x 48' and built my teeny tiny garden with a gate. There is something magical about opening and walking through a garden gate. My very own garden gate...just like my Aunt Berlie's.

I suppose it is because of Aunt Berlie that gates are so special to me.

The gate to the chicken lot.

This gate to the goat lot.

It was on a Saturday morning that Poppy said, let's ride to Raleigh and buy you that greenhouse. Then he worked for two weekends putting it up.

He built the pier in 1996 right before Hurricane Fran hit and overnight filled our newly dug pond with rain water.

and the little red tool shed we ordered from Sears in 1989. Poppy put it together, building a floor inside and adding shingles to the roof and after all these years it still looks good.

then the little foot bridges in the back yard Poppy built so we would not have to jump across the wet weather creek that runs through the property.

Oh, and you may remember my bright idea of adding a Bantam lot onto the back of the chicken house. This project I intended to do this all by myself.

how tickled I was to see Poppy coming to my rescue with his nail apron tied on and bringing a level and his saw and hammer.

Poppy has worn out three chain saws over the years.  There is no telling how many trees he has cut down and cut into firewood. 

It was Poppy who put a cover over our front deck turning it into my favorite little country front porch. Then a couple of years ago he added a tin roof.

However...through all this, all these many years, I have been by his side every step of the way, through every building project...picking up nails and screws, running back and forth to the shop for tools and drop cords. Bringing glasses of tea and lemonade, and a few band-aids along the way. I've made sandwiches and jars of ice water, and packed lunches so we could stay outside. 


The difference in the two of us now is that Poppy wants to maintain...I want to keep building and adding and changing, making the place prettier and prettier. Whew! Wasn't that a load to get off my chest! I'm wondering if any of you are still reading. : )  Thank you!

Love,
Henny