Would you look what a difference a little rain has made...
it's now looking more like the month of October, and Fall, and has put a touch of gold in the trees.
Got a new sunflower poster to show you...
I loved the other one, with the huge yellow sunflower and a big bee, but it was laminated and the glare was just too much.
Oh, thank you for the comments on my last post. There were a couple of questions...
Rian, these little fig trees are sprouts from our "Brown Turkey" fig...
Oh gosh, I love fresh figs too. Love eating them right off the tree. So happy to finally have a fig tree growing and producing big sweet figs.
Pilar, I don't put leaves inside the greenhouse, but do add them to garden and around the pots inside the garden. I'm kinda like Tasha Tudor when it comes to adorable little mice...
In fact, I have rescued two of them here on our teeny tiny farm, and posted about them, (under "labels", see posts called "Mouse Rescue") if you would be at all interested. Just don't tell Poppy :)
Here's another adorable mouse...
a little birthday gift from my daughter Andee.
M.K., Oh my goodness, thank you for the nice compliment. I do have good luck rooting cuttings but, it is just "luck"! I sure don't feel very knowledgeable about anything. :)
The rooted fig trees are from little sprouts broken off the stump of a fig tree that had been chopped down. I haven't tried rooting a fig cutting yet but plan to try.
For roses and box woods, and most other shrubs...I take clippings about six to eight inches long, cut off most the leaves and any buds or flowers and put the cuttings in a bucket of water to sit for thirty minutes or so. Fill pots with potting soil and stick a cutting in each pot, firming the soil around cutting, and water well. I keep these newly potted cuttings near the outside faucet so I will remember to keep them moist.
I've never had any luck rooting little short pieces of plants, or if the cuttings begin to dry out. A neighbor trimmed her yellow knockout roses and brought me all the trimmings. I was tickled to death. I trimmed them and made several pots but none of them rooted. I suppose the cuttings were not put in water soon enough. Also, cuttings root easier in spring and early summer.
Oh, MK, this is how I root cuttings. I'm sure there are better, more professional ways.
Wish I had all the money back that I've spent on plants that didn't make it, the thirty years we've lived here. I would have a little spending money!
Good gosh! Time is flying! Hope to be back real soon.
Love,
Henny
See the little red transferware pitcher there in the center? I love it!
Poppy and I returned home Friday to find a package on the front porch, addressed to me.
It was from the sweetest blogging friend, Dianna, up in West Virginia. Dianna's blog is "Forgiven".
Dianna said she remembered my mentioning that I like the red transferware. Dianna collects the blue, so when the little red pitcher turned up in a box from an auction she and her husband had been to, well, she thought of me, and I am so tickled that she did!! Thank you Dianna! You make me want to be a better person.
While I'm on a roll with reds...and pinks...
this little pink checked apron has been half finished and taking up room at the sewing machine. Thinking it would get me motivated to start on other aprons, I buckled down and finished it. The pink checks look a little old fashioned, don't you think?
m'lady needs a new dress for modeling the aprons...
is this prettier?
Yesterday I started out the front door to take a picture of my new car (yes!!!) and dropped the camera. It hit on the brick pavement and cracked open just a tiny bit, the pictures are now a little fuzzy. :( Guess Poppy will be on Amazon looking at cameras tonight.
Oh my gosh! Did you catch that, "new car"?
a brand new Nissan Rogue!!!
I don't know how to act!! Seriously, I don't!! After driving mama's little 1998 Corolla for several years, and friends, you know what mama said about that Corolla..."it didn't come with anything but a set of seats". This new car even has a clock! :-)
One more thing to tell you...Some of you may remember about a year ago, September 2016, when I rescued a little mouse that was caught in a piece of wire. My post about it was called "mouse rescue". I thought, never again in my life time would I have to rescue a mouse, but it has happened again, except this time at the bunny's pen.
Thank goodness for blogging friends, because I could never tell Poppy that I rescued another mouse. You can see how I had to clip the wire. Poor little mouse, just like before, this one tried to go through the half inch square wire and got stuck, only this mouse turned and tried to go back through another hole. He was stuck twice. My heart felt like it would break.
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| image from Wikipedia |
I ran to the house and got my work basket which held the wire cutters, scissors, and pliers. Carefully, I had to squeeze the tip of the wire cutters between the fat little body and the wire and then snip. Then with the needle nose pliers, I bent the tiny pieces of wire up and away, freeing the mouse. He scurried away under a board and I walked to the house with my nerves shot, but happy.
Thank you, if you've managed to read all this. :)
Love,
Henny
We were at Urgent Care early this morning. Poppy woke up feeling mighty bad, running a fever, coughing, sneezing and very hoarse. The doctor says he has an upper respiratory infection.
When you have animals and live on a teeny tiny farm like ours, you never know what to expect when you walk out the door every morning, like the morning a while back, that a pig came to visit...
But what I did this morning, no real farmer would have ever done. Do I regret doing it? Absolutely not!
Here's the story.
(guinea lot behind the chicken house)
(door going from chicken lot into guinea lot)
Last night, after dark, when everything was quiet and the hens were sleeping on the roost above the chicken house floor, the mice came out. Scurrying about, they discovered that their little entryway into the guinea lot had been wired shut. Now who would have done such a thing!
"We'll simply dig a new tunnel", said a mouse, and they did.
The mice climbed and played and filled their tummies with cracked corn, birdseed, and crumbles; the feed that baby guineas eat. Tired of playing and swinging on the twine that held up the crumbles feeder, one mouse chewed the twine completely into, causing the feeder to fall to the ground and spill the feed.
(feeder with string missing)
Full, and tired of playing...and daylight just around the corner, the mice scurried back home through their new hole...that is, except for one little mouse who decided to go home through a tiny half inch square in the wire and got stuck.
(the clipped wire on the end is where I cut the square out with the mouse caught in the center)
Friends, when I found that tiny mouse this morning, afraid and stuck in the wire, my heart felt like it would break. I tried pulling the wire loose, but any movement and the little mouse squealed like I was hurting him. His fat little tummy was way too full and he was stuck tight.
Running to the house, I grabbed the needle nose pliers and the regular pliers. Neither worked. I ran inside again and got the wire clippers, but could not get the point of the clippers between the mouse and the wire to clip it loose. My hands were shaking as I clipped a square of wire all the way around the mouse, causing the square to fall out with the little mouse still stuck in the center.
With the needle nose pilers I picked up the little square of wire with the mouse stuck in the center and straightened up, easing my aching back, then moved out into the sunlight. After several tries, I managed to clip one tiny wire and with both pliers pulled the wire apart, freeing the little mouse. He didn't run at first, he just looked at me with those tiny little black eyes, then I shooed him into the safety of some sticks and leaves that had fallen on the ground.
Poppy has gone down home today to visit his nephews, Joey and Josh. When he gets home, I bet he will be real proud of me for saving that little mouse, don't you?
Better get busy again. It is simply too hot to work outside so I've shampooed the living room carpet. Got some ironing to do and another load of clothes to fold. Thank you, if you are still here after all this!
Love,
Henny
