No rain this week!

Sure appreciate all the comments on that last post...and for letting me know how you feel about the font with the crazy print. It did look a little like large chicken scratch. :)

The sun has been out this week and friends, it has been wonderful. The slick mud in the chicken lot has dried up and the standing water in  the front yard is gone. 

While I hauled dirt from across the road to build up the front yard, Poppy did some patching on the shop. He also gave Mr. Sun a fresh coat of paint...

Best I can figure, bringing two or three wheelbarrow loads of dirt and dumping them in the front yard every day for a month or maybe two...would be the same as buying a truck load of soil. 

What a shame, there are no pictures to show all my hard work this week. Besides hauling dirt, I've cleaned out and remodeled four bunny pens...moving large cinder blocks from the goat lot down to the bunny lot to build a row of condos. :) 

Oh, Poppy finally helped me move the long legged tower!

Doesn't it look better! But now the arbor and vine are out of whack. So moving that is my next project.

Also built a new table top for the potting bench. Gosh, I've got so many projects started.

Do you like the new tassels on my old swing? Actually, the rope on the swing had drawn up, making the seat too high, so we cut the rope and added another piece to each side. Then I scrubbed the wood seat with clorox water...it had turned completely green with algae...

Poppy tried the swing first to make sure the knots would hold...he doesn't have osteoporosis...like me.  Then it was my turn. 

A swing always reminds me of the poem, The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson. I love that poem!

Eli brought his bear out for a little sun...

and moved him from place to place...

Guess you see that muddy pond in the background. :(  Rain, Rain, Rain. We sure needed this break from the rain.

Had no idea I would get a little post done tonight...but here it is...such as it is! Better get my teeth brushed...the bed will sure feel good tonight. I'll probably dream about carrying cinder blocks all night. Take care!

Love,

Henny

The tower and other things

My dearest blogging friends,

Thank you so much for the nice comments on my last post. I seriously meant to reply to each one...seems like I did reply to one, but how sorry is that. Don't the days simply fly!

Sure loved reading your thoughts on the long legged tower. Karen you made me laugh, saying you never did like the tower.  You've all given me good ideas, so stay turned for some changes. :)

Remember when I talked Poppy into adding those long legs onto the little well-house top...

All I ever wanted was a little roof over my head; a teeny tiny potting shed. Oh, I've dreamed of having my own little building for years. I was so appreciative of the teeny tiny greenhouse, but a little potting shed was my dream.

Well guess what Poppy said just this morning..."LET'S GET THE NEW PANELS FOR THE GREENHOUSE FIRST, THEN WE WILL GO TO LOWES AND YOU CAN PICK OUT A LITTLE BUILDING".  That's exactly what he said! my heart skipped a beat. 

These wet rainy days make looking after animals, especially sick ones, extra hard...

Heidi seems better, if we can just get the muscles in her front legs strong again. When it's not raining, we bring her outside.  I've rubbed her little legs and tried helping her stand and walk. She actually took a few steps on her own, with front legs straight, this morning, which was very encouraging.

But how discouraging is this? We have six straight days of rain in the forecast starting today. There will be a picture of the weather forecast at the bottom of this post. 

Last night instead of getting on the computer or sewing,  I stretched out on the couch and watched "Mountain Men" with Poppy...

You see, I got up Monday morning with vertigo and nausea. Scrounged around and found a bottle of Dramamine tablets and decided to take one. It helped, but made me sleepy.  I began feeling better and by Tuesday felt okay. Yesterday and today though, I have had periods of nausesa and feeling a little dizzy. Not a good feeling!

Don't know how Dumperoo knows, but as soon as I sit down, he appears and will not leave my side. 

Weetie stayed close by too. Worried about me, I suppose. I can tell you the sewing room was pretty empty last night. 

Funny about my vertigo and nausea; Shelby (my sister) got up Tuesday morning with the same sickness. We haven't seen each other in weeks! Strange, right?

Well, here's that depressing weather forecast I promised...

Thank you reading this mess, if you're still here. Sorry for all different size print and all the times I used the word "little". I'm as bad as mama used to be. :) 

Love,

Henny 

 

 

Blaming it on the long-legged tower

Should probably call this a potting area not a potting 'shed' because there's no roof. At 2:30 this morning I was lying awake planning how to build a roof and had come up with a decent plan, then remembered there was a holly tree growing up through the center of the floor.

Thought I would go back to what started all this in the first place...

It was that silly little roof top from off the old wishing well driving me crazy. It was cute and I wanted to use it somewhere. "Nail some legs on it", I asked Poppy. It will be an entrance to the teeny tiny greenhouse.

"There you go", said Poppy, wondering why I wanted something that looked so out of place and useless. So it became "the long-legged tower". But the tower needed something??

The potting bench. Never could get that thing to sit level. I buried all kinds of crap under the dirt and leaves.

Poppy found that old Singer base in a junk pile several years ago and thinking I might like it, brought it home. Then back when he worked for Winn Dixie, picked up a park bench with one metal leg broken off. It was part of that broken bench the made the back for the potting bench.

Then friends, I remembered the magazine article I had saved since 1997... 

Oh my gosh! See the little wood stove! I still want one, just like that!  

"Guess we need to go to Lowes", said Poppy. So we did, and then started building the walls. That was two years ago.

Son-in-law Todd recently suggested using that stack of boards they gave us to build a floor. Of course, we needed to!


By this time the potting bench was looking rusty and bad...

So, during sunny breaks in these rainy days, I painted.

Back to the plan made at 2:30 this morning...

I'm thinking the legs on the long-legged tower could be shortened, then move the tower to the left side and place it over the antique washing machine tub, which holds potting soil...just for looks, of course. :) 

Then put up 4" x 4" posts in front on each side and build the top over the fence panels, kinda how a lean-to looks. 

So there it is. If this rain ever stops, I can go stand and stare and maybe figure it out.

Good gosh, I bet all of you have left your computers by now and I don't blame you one bit!  

Well that's it...except, during all my thinking and planning during the early morning hours, a very loud scary rumbling noise caused me to sit straight up in bed! "Was that thunder?", I thought to myself! Then seeing a flash of lightning, snuggled down in the covers to be safe, only to hear Eli scratch at the door. 

Now wonder where he got his fear of thunderstorms?? I ran to the front door and let Eli in. He slept between us until the clock alarmed at 4:45. 

Thank you friends for putting up with me.

Love,
Henny

Playhouse/Potting Shed...Dream come true!

Come on in, the door's open...

Gosh, really there is no time for a post. It's almost noon, Poppy just left for work, and I've simply got to sweep and mop the kitchen floor, vacuum the house, and clean the living room carpet! Simply got to!

However, I really really wanted to show you the playhouse...

We actually made the two eight foot fence panels into a ten foot back wall and a six foot side wall. 

I've been gathering boards and bricks and things to build shelves. More stuff will make it prettier. Decorating is the best part!

Just this morning I said to Poppy, "I've got to decide where to put my little wood stove". "What wood stove", he asked. "The little wood stove I am looking to buy". "Don't you remember", I asked...

"in the little picture how the lady likes a spot of tea to ward off the chill, and her little wood-burning stove does just the trick"?

Here you can see both sides. Adding the fence panels sure toned down that long legged tower, didn't it. All this happiness, and from two 35.00 fence panels. The playhouse of my dreams. 

You know what else would be nice? A pretty little garden table with two small chairs. Oh my!

Okay, I'm off the get the mop and a bucket of soapy water. Hope to be back here soon.

Love,
Henny

So far, so good!

Thought you would like to know.

We have the six foot side section up! The ten foot section will go across the back...there behind the potting bench.

This work is hard. Poppy does the hammering, sawing, drilling , etc., but I run my legs off, going for things he needs. 

At one point I had been around the house and down near the pond to our stash of old boards and building supplies, looking for one more 4 x 4 post, which I found. Sweating, and lugging the heavy post up to the building site, I said to Poppy...

"I know one thing! Being the gopher is just about as much work as being the builder"!  Poppy said, "yes, but if it wasn't for the gopher, we wouldn't be doing all this"!  :)

Hopefully, tomorrow we will get the back section up and the playhouse will be done! I can move in!  :)

Thank you for visiting and for all your encouraging words.

Love,
Henny

Old sweet Eli still has his white eye lashes.

Ideas for the playhouse!

Way back in May of 1996, dear friends, I clipped this little picture from a Better Homes and Gardens Magazine...

This was the playhouse I wanted. Just a simple little corner, enclosed with a couple of wooden fence panels or even latticework might do, and that old fashioned wood stove! As daughter Lynn would say, "be still my heart"!!

But wait! It's not too late, is it? Look again at the playhouse, if you don't mind...

can you picture the fence panels installed there behind the potting bench, then...

ending somewhere back behind the old green washing machine tub, turning the corner and installing another fence panel, enclosing the playhouse. A little wood stove would fit in there somewhere. 

Just this week, messing around up at the greenhouse, neighbor Ann pulled over to speak. After telling her my plan, she asked, do you want some latticework? Fred just put up new, under our porch and he is taking the old to the landfill. Seriously!! Ann?? Wait a minute, she said, I'll be right back. In five minutes she was back with a stack of latticework pieces...new pieces, left over pieces.

So now I have a totally new reason for lying awake at night; planning and dreaming and all night long figuring out how to put up pieces of latticework to make a wall. :(

I've searched Craigslist for old wooden fence panels, but so far, nothing. It would cost way too much to buy new wooden fence panels. Good Gosh!!

Okay, need to get busy this morning. There are herbs ready to plant, and okra seed for a row in the garden, and much to my surprise, the seeds I saved from those tiny pretty little red, orange, and gold peppers, from the grocery store, germinated and are big enough to put in the garden. Besides all this, I've got lots of standing and staring to do up at the long-legged tower. 

Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated. I've been chopping down more saplings and small trees. A tall, neatly built wattle fence behind the playhouse would be nice. 

Thank you! Hope to be back here soon!

Love,
Henny 

Playhouse at the garden

Up at the playhouse...the more stuff I add around the base of the long legged tower...

the shorter those long legs look. Maybe I've gone into my second childhood, building a playhouse and such...don't the say old folks eventually enter into a second childhood? :)

It sure is fun looking for things to add to my little playhouse. Shoot, I just might put up curtains and a little bed and move in. 

Actually I've been busy planting the garden, AND playing house...

Not much to see just yet, but maybe soon.

I did build three tee pees from saplings, for the cucumber and squash vines. You can see a little of them over to the left.

Yesterday, I tackled the hardest job yet! Let me tell you about the worst gardening mistake ever made!!

a few years ago I set out ten small azaleas along the path to the shed. Then, for a border, a row of liriope or monkey grass. Oh my gosh! Was that ever a mistake! The entire row of azaleas looks like this. 

This is about half way down the row. What a back-breaking job! Liriope will not pull out of the ground! I've chopped and pulled, and tugged away at this mess, then added rich soil from the back of the chicken lot, then covered it with pine straw. 

Still have this end to go. This is one job I'm looking forward to crossing off my list!

In places, we have a quarter inch of snow---ball blossoms covering the ground. 

One last picture. Sure hate to see it go, but what a delight this has been.

Better finish up here and get busy. It is now 6:30 am...Poppy has gone to work, and I want to be in the garden by 8:30. 

There is a good article in the May issue of Better Homes & Gardens about Russ and Marion Morash, who started the TV series, "The Victory Garden". Russ grows pole beans on 10' bamboo poles plunged 2' into the ground. I don't have bamboo poles, but there are plenty more saplings to cut. 

This was going to be a short quick post. :) Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

Back to spring again!

We have had fierce winds lately. Cleaning up around the teeny tiny greenhouse the other day, I happened to see this little bird's nest dangling from a limb high up in a tree, barely hanging on.

The winds did not give up, but blew until the little nest broke lose and fell to the ground. 

The sweet little nest has a bit of Eli's hair woven in. I'm wondering if it was built this year, it looks fresh and clean. Poor little bird...all that work. Does it look like a hummingbird's nest?

Looking through the woods at the long legged tower. I had planned to move that tall lanky thing without mentioning it to Poppy, but wow, is it ever heavy, and awkward!!  

I can just see myself lifting that heavy thing and then losing my balance and crashing into something!

So, to balance things out a little, I've moved this old arbor up to the playhouse. All it needs is a pretty vine, one that will grow in the shade. The entrance!

You know, I mentioned how Poppy is working more in the yard now. The first of the week he helped get the compost bin back in shape.

This compost bin was once two raised beds, back before we fenced in a garden spot. It was hard keeping the chickens out of the compost, so I built that nice looking top one day, all by myself. :)

For months we've been emptying kitchen scraps, cardboard, grass clipping, and old straw to the compost bin without ever turning it. It was a mess!

Then, by cracky! on Wednesday Poppy tilled the whole garden! All this help, folks!!! Why, I don't know how to act!

and today, the first pitiful looking little plants. These are six "stir-fry broccoli" plants. Poppy is working today, so I set out the plants.

Today was simply beautiful and the weather people talk like we may be done with winter this time. 

I found the cute bunnies in the little Salvation Army Thrift Store yesterday. Only .49 cents each.

Oh my, and I found the cutest new apron pattern and two pretty pieces of fabric...in Walmart. I've cut out one apron and can hardly wait to get it finished and show you.

Thank you looking in today.

Love,
Henny