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Monday, February 22, 2016

Our friend Nellie

Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me! Well,  I'm back!

Poppy is off work on weekends now and is counting down the weeks until retirement...just last night he said, seven weeks to go, Mel.  Seven more!! He plans to work part time...maybe three days a week.


no reason at all for this picture, other than I just like it. Poppy hung the laundry basket on a nail on the pantry door to make room for 


this heavy pan of sweet potatoes. Our friend Nellie popped in Saturday evening at the edge of dark. Nellie is a character!  I know where we can get a bushel of the best sweet potatoes you've ever tasted...for $18.00. Oh my goodness, I would LOVE  to buy some. You want to split a bushel, she asked.

   

I just might go on tonight and get us a bushel, she said. See you later! Wait, let me give you some money. Nah, she said, just wait. We said our goodbyes and she backed out of the driveway...but wait, the dogs were barking again, it was Nellie back up on the front porch...here, she said. I meant to give you this pack of coconut cookies. Get you a glass of cold milk and eat a couple. They're good! That's Nellie!


Less than an hour later Nellie was back with the potatoes. Get you a box she hollered from the car, I ain't got time to come back in. There a man up near Littleton who makes his own country sausage, $3.00 a pound. I ain't even going to stop at my house, just going on up there and see if he has any. Nellie called me later to say she bought his last three packs.

Nellie is truly a character!! The most free-hearted person you'll ever meet! Don't know exactly Nellie's age but probably in her early 80's.  Nellie lives alone in a small older mobile home...totally surrounded with arbors and vines, and flowers and old buildings with chickens and geese and turkeys and peacocks. Goats in the front yard and rabbits in cages. She loves animals. Nellie has an old beat up pick-up truck that she drives for hauling stuff....there is a plastic dove wired to each side mirror on the truck. Nellie goes to town every Friday to buy groceries, and pick up feed for her animals...fifty pound bags of feed that she still unloads herself. Amazing!


Since I did not reply to the much appreciated comments on my last post...Karen at wyndsonfarm.blogspot.com , you may have been right about a couple of Jewel's chicks being roosters. Out of the eight that she hatched, two, plus little Jewel herself, disappeared. Snatched away, probably by a fox, poor chicks. It's still rare that six turned out to be hens, don't you think? Plus the one chick she hatched earlier in the spring is a hen too. 

All the hens have started laying and I'm getting around a dozen eggs a day!

Had more to tell you, but friends, I have simply got to get busy. Time is flying! The floors need vacuuming, and the kitchen needs mopping...there are clothes washing, and clothes in the dryer, and another load on the floor...oh well...hope to be back soon!

Love,
Henny


Look who loves to feed Rosie!

47 comments:

  1. Aren't neighbours like that a gem. I think my gran was a lot like that in her day. She was a mover and a shaker. lol You must be enjoying all those fresh eggs everyday. I'd love that but I question whether it is smart for us to get chickens next year as we have wild-life roaming around such as fox and raccoon and the odd coyote. It would break my heart if they were taken in the night. Loved visiting again, Henny and I love the last photo. Those men are such softies. lol Deb

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    1. Yes, nice to have folks like Nellie. I know what you mean about chickens. I get attached to these and get sad when one dies or something happens to one. Thank you Deb.

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  2. My goodness, you'll have to come up with a sweet potato and egg recipe, you have so many.

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    1. That's the truth! We both love baked sweet potatoes.

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  3. What a wonderful neighbour Nellie is, and what a character! We love sweet potatoes here, especially the white ones, and are eating many more of the 'sweets' than the ordinary ones. I use them in different recipes, as well as just eating them plain.
    Poppy really is a softy under that 'tough' exterior:), but it would be pretty hard to resist that cuteness. Congrats on his almost retirement, just think of all the projects you can get him to do for you, wink wink:)
    Hope you get a chance to check out the cute donkeys on my next to last post, I was thinking of you when I was visiting them!

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    1. Hey Karen. wink wink is right! I'm just afraid when Poppy talks of retiring...he really means retiring. :) Hope not. I did enjoy seeing those donkeys. Those were really fluffy looking and cute...the kind I want!

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  4. Nellie sounds wonderful, I just love ladies like this :) God Bless her xx

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  5. Your life sounds full of adventure! Nellie sounds just great. Have a good week!

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    1. Well sometimes maybe. :) Hope you are having a good week!

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  6. I would love to have a friend like your dear Nellie! I, also, want to be like that! What a joy!

    Grace & Peace

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    1. Hey Pam. I hope to keep going too, like Nellie. She is determined to keep going.

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  7. Nellie sounds like a wonderful character. I think we need more Nellies. : )

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  8. Love that first photo too! Your home is just so cozy and inviting...like stepping back into the past. I have a cabinet very similar to the one in your post...minus all of the decorative wood oh the door. It has been in my family since I can remember. Nellie sounds like a real gem! Love sweet potatoes too :)

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    1. Thank you Debby. We bought that china cabinet at a flea market in 1989...and the entire dining set. I fell in love with it.

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  9. What a sweet neighbor, and an inspiration! I'd have trouble DRAGGING 50 lbs and I'm nowhere near 80!

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    1. Me too, Cynthia. I had to stop bringing in 50 lb. bags because of my back. In fact, that's probably what happened to my back in the first place! :)

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  10. It sounds like we could all benefit from a neighbor like Nellie, what a trooper !
    80 years young, and plodding through life with such zest, I could use a little of her spirit and fight right now :)
    Sweet potatoes look good, will you bake them ?
    I love the warm and cozy look of your home Henny, so inviting.......
    We share a love of "old" :)
    Hugs,
    ~Jo

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    1. Hey Jo! Sure hope your ankle is healing. Yes, Nellie keeps going and doing. Poppy and I both love baked sweet potatoes. Get well soon, Jo, and thank you.

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  11. awww how sweet Poppy feeding baby Rosie. I know you will be glad to have him retired and home with you more. I love sweet potatoes I have some left where I bought back in October. We love getting sausage at Key's Packing they have some great sausage.
    Love you bunches!

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    1. Well hey miss Vicki! I love your new profile picture. You look so pretty! These sweet potatoes are delicious! Love you!

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  12. That first picture, with the table covered with a lace cloth and an oil lamp in the middle... just looks so cozy and lovely.

    Would you believe I had never tasted a sweet potato until a few years ago? Now we have them every week.
    Tasty and good for you. Can't beat that.

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    1. Thank you! That is hard to believe! Sweet potatoes are so good for you!

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  13. I just love folk like that dont have a care in the world and are soo kind . People like this Nellie make me smile . Oh glad to hear Poppy will be retiring soon wish Papa here was I would love to spend more time each day with him doing stuff . Thanks for sharing lovely photos . Have a good day !

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    1. Thank you! Nellie has not had an easy life and yet she doesn't complain. She seems happy all the time.

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  14. Nellie sounds like a great friend. :-))
    I like sweet potatoes too. Do you have a favorite recipe you make with them?

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    1. Hey Carla. Well well love sweet potato casserole, and we love baked sweet potatoes with butter. Thank you. :)

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  15. Whatcha' going to do with all those sweet potatoes!

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    1. Oh gosh! I'm sure we will eat every last one of them! :)

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  16. I have to say Nellie sounds like quite the wonderful neighbor! A real country gem! Those sweet potatoes look amazing - no blemishes at all, they must be lovely. Sad about Jewel and her two chicks - I think it's good I don't keep chickens any longer, it's too hard for me when something happens to them. I get free eggs from my sweetie's neighbor across the road - he gets about a dozen eggs per day and just gives them away! I'm ok with that - it was quiche for dinner tonight again!

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    1. These really are the prettiest sweet potatoes I have ever seen. Sure hope to get more when these are gone. I know what you mean about losing chickens...and it does happen. I get all sad too. I've never made a quiche! And have all these eggs! Thank you! I'm going to find a recipe today!

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  17. I like sweet potatoes too:) Nellie sounds like a wonderful neighbor.
    You will have to get your own computer when Poppy retires:)

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    1. Far Side, my daughter Andee said the same thing! Yes, life as I've know it is about to change!! :)

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  18. I would love to have a friend like Nellie! She sounds so interesting and I bet has a lot of knowledge to share. How will you use the sweet potatoes? That room looks so inviting and homey! Nancy

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    1. Hey Nancy. Nellie is a trip. She makes me laugh...we laugh together. Poppy and I love baked sweet potatoes with butter. Thank you. :)

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  19. Enjoyed my visit...Nellie sounds like a character.

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  20. I need a Nellie. :) My friend Ms Lou died New Years day. She was a character too, in her mid 80's. I just loved her so much.

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    1. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that about your friend Lou. She must have been a special friend. Thank you for visiting. I love your place!

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  21. Nice potatoes.

    Just a blink of the eye and retirement will be here.

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    1. Thank you Gail. Yes, and things will change around here! :)

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  22. I remember when we had 7 weeks to retirement. Congratulations, good luck to Poppy, and God bless you all.

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    1. Thank you Linda! Hope I can talk Poppy into doing a few things around here. :)

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  23. Your friend Nellie sounds like a wonderful person to know. Great looking sweet potatoes! Have a wonderful day.

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  24. Hey Melanie. The sweet potatoes are delicious! Thank you. You have a great day too!

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  25. Nellie had me at sweet potatoes, but then you told about the doves flying off both side mirrors and I fell in love with her old soul. thanks for the uplifting story.

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