A little post to say, "I am still here!"

 and thankful too considering all the storms yesterday from Tropical Storm Debby! Oh my gosh! Our little Franklin County made the local news big time with three tornado warnings and two of those tornadoes touching down, with damage. One tornado touched down just east of us and the other just west of us and were only five miles apart. Scary! and any of you that have read my blog for any length of time know how afraid I am of storms.

So how about a picture with a little sunshine and shadows...

We were walking Eli and Ellie early one morning. Gosh, looks like early spring. The leaves were still not on the little trees along the cutover. Can you tell which shadow is mine and Ellie's? :) This is a picture I liked and just now getting around to using it.  I've simply got to do better at blogging. 

and another one...

another walk, this time around the pond. Hard to believe our little cabin is hidden behind the trees in the background and hard to believe this is even our little pond. Sometimes pictures show more beauty than what we actually see while walking. Huh? Did that make any sense?? 

and one more picture, saved for this post...

Don't know why I love this picture so much. Maybe the colors, texture, or just sweet Ellie? Anyhow, on to life here on Henny Penny Lane...

Remember the baby chicks I bought at Tractor Supply and brought them home March 16th? Well, those sweet chicks are now hens and have started laying...

Time flies, doesn't it! So, after going through terribly dry weather in May and June, the rains came in July and have been overwhelming. The teeny tiny garden! Too much water causes tomatoes to split and ours did! We enjoyed one big perfect tomato...

The center slice was just under 4" across. Mighty proud of this one! :)

Oh, and back in the winter months I bought tomatoes at Food Lion called "cocktail tomatoes". They were actually sweet and good. So I saved the seeds from one and started them in the greenhouse...

These tomatoes are larger than cherry tomatoes and smaller than regular tomatoes...and are delicious! I will be saving more seeds!

and while bragging on the tomatoes I might as well tell you how good the old timey half runner beans have been...

Thanks again to Shelby for finding a cousin in the family that had saved these seed beans over the years. These were Mama's favorite beans and probably her favorite part of the garden. I always think of mama when picking beans...

A few quotes from mama while helping her pick beans...

"Try not to tear the vines all to pieces, I'd like to get another mess to cook".

"Watch out for old snakes. Shirley saw an old copperhead curled up under a bean vine".

"Lord, Mary said she could sometimes smell an old snake".

Mama was something! I miss her every day. 

Well, I guess that's about it for now. Thank you for looking in. I miss blogging and miss you, dear friends. I've simply got to do better. 

Love, Henny

Done with Deer Season!

Don't know about you, but we could sure use a day of sunshine around here. In fact, we could use an entire month with no rain.   

The weatherman said sun today, with a few clouds...I wonder what state he was talking about? It's been dark and cloudy here and misting rain.

Oh, but I am happy about the beginning of a brand new year...and happy too that deer hunting season has ended! Maybe the sun will shine again soon and things will calm down a bit...

Eli and Weetie have have worked full time keeping up with the yapping and barking of hunting dogs running in the area.  I must have opened the front and back doors a thousand times...letting them out and in, as they tore from front porch to back porch; gnarling and barking and carrying on. 

I'm tired of hearing about it all too. Every year, it's a battle between the still hunters and the dog hunters. Poppy and a couple others out here still hunt...sitting in a tree for hours, hoping a monster buck will walk past. 

While down below on the paved road the dog hunters abound; the sides of the roads lined with mud splattered pick-up trucks, each sporting a dog box on the back. The dogs are released, then the hunters gather around each other's trucks to admire the red mud and wait for the dogs to roust up a deer. 

and like Poppy says, once a pack of deer dogs run under your tree stand, you might as well come down and go home. WHY am I even talking about this! Well, I do have one more "hunting" story...

Just about every day that Poppy hunted, he came home complaining that something was stinging or biting his arm.  I must have washed his thermals a dozen times hoping to wash out whatever it was. Finally, we decided to take a closer look and there...

deeply embedded in the fabric was a straight pin, with a pearl head! I laughed! Of course, it had to be my fault, but I have no idea how that pin got there. 

A crow stopped in for a snack...

Oh, I've been meaning to show you what a good job our new, little red hens are doing...

Had no idea these hens would start laying in December. Big pretty eggs, and these are the sweetest hens.

Guess that's it for now. Anyhow, it's about time to dip ice cream. Poppy has been eating Turkey Hill's Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream...and I've just finished a carton of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Hope to be back real soon.

Love,

Henny