Christmas Angel, and Happy New Year!

Here it is New Year's Eve! Just doesn't seem possible. Look, I'm not prepared...I still have a little bit of Christmas stuff to talk about...

I was in the Safe Space thrift store a week or so before Christmas and saw the prettiest angel. I took her off a top shelf for a closer look...she was priced at $10.00...I sat her back on the shelf.

Well, the Thursday before Christmas I was back in the little thrift shop and noticed the sign on the door read, "all Christmas items 75% off". To my surprise, the angel was still there...

This time she came home with me and I paid only $2.50. Isn't she pretty?

I moved her from place to place before deciding she looked best on the table in the hallway...

Have you taken down all your Christmas decorations? We haven't! Normally, I take down and put away everything the day after Christmas but not this year. Sunday is supposed to cold and rainy. Hopefully, I will get it all done then. Looks like Eli is still waiting for Santa...

Anyhow, it's New Year's Eve out here in the woods. Poppy is watching, well, it was Gunsmoke, but now it's some old Western...probably with John Wayne or Audie Murphy. I did a little sewing tonight...almost finished two aprons but left it to do this post. We live very exciting lives out here. :)  Good grief! It's 9:34, bedtime!

Really just wanted to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Not making any resolutions but I sure do want to post a little more often in 2022. I appreciate you, my blogging friends, so much! 

I've been playing in the teeny tiny greehouse these warm December days and have a few pictures. I hope to be back soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Love,

Henny

 

The Christmas Deer

Been a few years since we put up any Christmas lights in the yard but this year just feels different. We needed something that would light up the dark nights here in the woods. We hung a star in the old well cover...

I like it, but you know how one thing leads to another...you know what would be pretty way out here?? A lighted deer I told Poppy.

So we have patiently waited to see a delivery truck arrive. We were given a delivery date of December 10th through 13th. 

Late yesterday,  a beat up pickup truck carring a load of hunting dogs pulled into our driveway! Poppy's first response? "D...! that looks like a dog hunter. What the h... is he doing in our yard"? 

You see, out here, dog hunters are hated by still hunters. Anyhow, A man gets out of the truck, pulls out a large box and asks, is this such and such address? Yes, Poppy answered. Well, said the man, this package  belongs to you. It was delivered to our hunting club about 6 miles from here and we don't even have an address there. The driver just sat the package out at the road. 

We thanked the man over and over for bringing us the package. I mean, they could have kept it and we never would have  known. Especially nice of the club since Poppy is pretty well known out here because of his quest to do away with all dog hunting. 

"Kinda throws a new light on the dog hunters, doesn't it, Poppy?"

I said to the man in the truck, you know what's in that box, a deer. He laughed. 

Anyhow...

Poppy went to work immediately setting up our new Christmas deer...

It may be a touch too fancy and the red cloth makes it look more like a camel, but that's okay, I wanted a deer and got one.

On my last post, Carla, from "The River" asked if we have holly trees. We surely do. Lots and lots of Holly trees and most years, are covered in pretty red berries...

It's so sad that this year there is not even one holly berry to be found. Not one! I love the holly tree! Thank you Carla.

I asked Smokey if he would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and he rolled over...

and said, "Yikes! Am I on camera"!

A Merry Christmas to you all!

Love,

Henny

Christmas Post, such as it is :(

Dearest Friends,

Eleven days until Christmas and I haven't posted the first thing about decorating or shopping or any of the fun things.

But, I have now put up a few Christmas decorations...

Yep, out to the shop and picked out a few favorites and placed them on the mantle...

then brought in the same little old Christmas tree and like the mantle, picked out and hung just a few favorite ornaments...

For some unknown reason I am hooked on Western and kinda wanted a Western look for the tree and surroundings. Wonder if this feeling comes from living day in and day out with Matt Dillon and Gunsmoke? :( I actually dreamed about Matt recently.

I added another string of lights to the tree and didn't do a very good job of hiding the cord.

and this old old wreath I pulled from the shop too...Oh, I have carried this wreath to many a yard sale only to bring it back home and hang it in the shop...

so I added a few sprigs of holly and cedar, a pine cone or two, the bells, a ribbon and it looks okay, maybe. At least the artificial look is covered. 

Oh, my new lightweight battery powered leaf blower has arrived. As soon as the battery was charged, I gave it a try and soon had the front yard cleaned, again! I love it!!

and I did hang the big Santa poster...just can't get a good picture because of the glare...

tomorrow I'm taking it down and figuring out some way to fit it better into the frame and reduce the glare.

Well, I'm going now to write a few Christmas cards. Hope to be back soon but one never knows. Want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for putting up with me. I love and appreciate all my blogging friends. Thank you!

Love

Henny 

Oh, and let me show you this big red barn!

Is this a beauty or what! It's located about five miles from our place. I watched with envy as this barn was being built. I wonder if it really is a barn or if it was built for a home? Okay, lots of love!

A Big Thank You

Dearest friends,

In case you've forgotten, it's me, Henny, posting from our raggedy little farm here on Henny Penny Lane.

I am so ashamed of myself! I keep going back and reading your comments on my last post...wonderful comments...sweet little fairy tales, and comments about the "wish bone", and cutting up a chicken to fry, and lots of good helpful stuff about a broken wrist and how to make it well again. Thank you all so very much. 

Here it is December and we are ankle deep in leaves...

These pictures were taken a couple weeks ago so all the have now fallen to the ground.

I am overwhelmed with leaves. One day last week for more than three hours, I raked leaves and hauled them away on a big tarp, dumping them in the garden or in the goat lot...

the next day a cold front came through with winds gusting to 25 mph...in less than half a day, the little front yard was once again covered in leaves.

I marched in the house and announced to Poppy that something had to be done...raking leaves is hard work! I think we need a light weight battery powered leaf blower. One that I can use! So friends, a little blue hand held leaf blower is on it's way!

We have three leaf blowers in the shed, but two are electric which means I have to drag a big 100' heavy duty drop cord along with me, and the other is a very old gas powered leaf blower Poppy bought 30 years ago. It is big and heavy and loud!

Here it is December and I should be talking of Christmas and pretty decorations...not leaves. 

Yesterday was my first full hour of physical therapy. It was okay. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I plan to go back to my last post and read your comments again and again. I appreciate you all so much. I also plan to come back soon in more of a Christmas spirit. Maybe I'll hang the big Santa poster on the front porch first. 

Love,

Henny

The Leaf and The Pulley Bone

A golden leaf fell near the pond and landed at Poppy's boot as he walked home from hunting this evening...

He picked it up and brought it home. I've been terribly worried the leaf was meant for the fairies that lives near the ferns. The moon is bright and nearly full tonight, perfect for crossing the pond to the far side where Fairies meet...

Hopefully, they will find a way there.

Seriously, the leaf is huge, and what kind of leaf is it? 

We finished the fried chicken for supper tonight and there in Poppy's piece was the pulley bone, or wish bone.  The only way to get the pulley bone in a piece of fried chicken now days it to cut up a whole chicken yourself...and that's what I did. Poppy said, hey, why don't do a post and call it the leaf and the pulley bone. :) 

Growing up, Mama always cut up a chicken to fry with three pieces of breast meat, one containing the pulley bone. I remember watching her. I must have stayed under her feet all the time.

Always in the kitchen with mama, or standing behind the sewing machine watching her sew. I remember once being in the kitchen while she was busy cooking. I dropped something on the floor, bent down to pick it up and raised up under her dress and apron. She said, "oh good lord"! as she moved from over me, pressing her dress down with her hand. I was very small, not meaning to get in the way.  Dear sweet mama.

Oh, look what's blooming...

trouble is, we have no room for house plants, neither do we have enough light. Log cabins are dark inside.  This Christmas cactus has grown huge. We sat it at the end of the bar where a tiny bit of sun comes in this time of the year. 

Okay, can I tell you about my broken wrist.  Do you think the cast is ready to come off?? 

I broke my wrist on Oct. 10th and wore a splint for one week, waiting to see the orthopedic specialist. The orthopedic doctor put a cast on my arm for three weeks. He then cut the cast off, x-rayed my arm again, said the bones were healing but my wrist would  not be exactly right. He suggested surgery...but still left it up to me. I didn't want surgery so he put a new cast on my arm and told me to come back in one week. He cut the new cast off, took x-rays, gave me a velcro brace to wear during activities, and set me up for physical therapy.

My thinking was...you break a bone, wear a cast for six to eight weeks, the bones grow back together, you get the cast taken off. 

So, I've worn a splint for one week, and an actual cast for only four week. I can't stand to be without this velcro thing. My wrist feel very weak and fragile.  

I also asked the doctor about my shoulder pain. X-rays showed no cracked or broken bones so he gave me a steroid injection in each shoulder. Which helped immediately.

Thank you friends! be back soon...and around to visit.

Love,

Henny Penny

Blogging Dogs

Dear friends,

Sorry to be so behind visiting your wonderful blogs and reading your posts. I will be around to catch up. Been lots going on lately...plus when our sweet Ellie knocked me to the ground, the impact did more than break my arm. I've had aches and pains in places I didn't know I had.  Certainly haven't felt the best lately. Hopefully, this too shall pass.

My daughter Andee and I share stories and pictures of our children dogs. Seems Andee has outdone me lately with the cutest pictures. 

You've met Bruno, the Golden Retreiver, but don't think I've introduced you to their big overgrown black Lab puppy, Auggie...

What a pair, these two! Bruno has had a time trying to teach Auggie the rules of his ball games. Bruno says, if you don't know my rules, you can't play.  Auggie says he KNOWS the rules!!

This summer, the gnats were really bad and for some reason they were brutal to poor Auggie; even to the point of causing an allergic reaction...something about his skin and shiny dark hair seem to attract the gnats. 

The Vet put Auggie on medication and suggested he wear a tee shirt while playing outdoors. Auggie was fine with a tee shirt...

Mama said I needed the pants too...

Mama, is this outfit like the ones the wrestler wear? Well, I'm teaching Bruno my rules on wrestling.

Auggie, you are a handsome boy! What a shiny coat you have...

Mama said I could bring her comfy old boots outside to play. Are you sure??

Two big sweetie pies saying goodbye. Thank you boys!

Okay, it's going to be hard to top the cuteness of Auggie and Bruno...but yesterday on our walk, we stopped in the back yard to let Eli and Ellie play.

Well Eli climbed up on the picnic table. Wanted to show Ellie...this is how you pose for a great photo shoot...

 How's this mama? Okay if Poppy is in the picture too?

Speaking of big silly overgrown puppies...Ellie!

this is about the best mama can do...mama says  I can't be still very long and my hair is always in a mess. But I'm so adorable!

Look mama! When I shake this stick really hard, it makes my eyes look blurry.

Well, mama says I have a royal look, specially when I pose for the camera.

Oh Eli, you have a very Royal look!

Well, you may look like royalty but sometimes I hear mama tell you to move your big butt out of the way. 

Thanks to all the players starring in my post today...Bruno, Auggie, Eli, and Ellie.. and you too Poppy.

Thanks most of all to you, dear friends.

Hope to be back soon.

Love,

Henny

A very rainy day

Our first frost date is usually around October 15th. This year it's late arriving but by daylight tomorrow  we should have our first freezing temperature of 32 degrees. I dread it. I'll take sunshine and warm weather anytime!

When it rains like this, instead of finding something constructive to do inside...I walk from window to window, staring out at the rain.

It was simply pouring, as mama used to say...

Poppy was working at Food Lion that day last week when the heavy rains came. The house was quiet with just me and the dogs and the sound of the rain coming down. Kinda makes you want to build a roaring fire in the fireplace, doesn't it?

rain, rain, rain from the back porch too...

You know what we need here?? An old fashioned cast iron woodstove on the porch. Been my dream since day one! 

Looking a little dreary on this end of the porch too.

oops! missed the bedroom windows. Need to go back inside and take a look...

G

The kitty cats were here too, but under the bed in the sewing room, fast asleep.

Ellie watched from the front porch as the rain washed through the yard...

Guess thats it for my rainy day post, I started yesterday. It was cold when we got up this morning, 33 degrees! Lots of unsettled weather this time of the year, with the change of seasons.

Saw the doctor last Monday. He said in two weeks the cast can come off my wrist and I will then need a little physical therapy. Sure hope that means I can get back to work around here. :)

Thank you dear friends!

Love,

Henny

Listen to the Mockingbird

Again, thank you very much for the nice comments and get well wishes for my broken bones...resulting from a foolish accident caused by no one but me! I do love and appreciate you, my blogging friends!

Anyhow, while up at the teeny tiny playhouse...moving and re-arranging things with my one good hand, I was entertained by a mockingbird. Have a little video here...

Entertaining at first but then I began to worry, this mockingbird was serious. He was bound and determined this intruder was not moving in on his new home. I decided right then, the mirror needed to be taken down or covered up.

I found a brightly colored piece of posterboard and cut a circle that would fit over the mirror...what really made me feel bad was finding blood on the mirror...this bird meant business! So, all is well now...

As soon as the sun was up and shining yesterday morning the mockingbird was back, sitting atop the playhouse wall, satisfied he had won this fight and the playhouse belongs to him.  Hope he plans on sharing the space with me. 

and the morning glory vine! Who would've thought...

Big pretty blooms keep opening...

and on the subject of birds and such, what kind of bird builds a nest like this...

Actually, that's Poppy putting up new camo netting around a tree stand he plans to use for deer hunting.

All neat and finished. A little covered chair on the side of a tree. 

What was that noise! A deer, maybe?

and here's Miss Ellie. Can you believe how she has grown up?

and a bowl of spilled ice. :) Guess that's about it for this post. Thank you for visiting, friends.

Love,

Henny

still can't figure out why the print size changes and makes the post look so ugly!