Cleaning up the Mess!

But first, I am so happy that the month of February is winding down. Out feeding chickens this morning, I noticed buds on the Flowering Quince. 

Be still my heart! I can hardly wait to feel the warmth of spring again...to hear the frogs down at the pond...and see grass that needs mowing.

Awww, speaking of the pond, we'll sure miss our old Miss Ducky. Sadly, she passed away last month...

The teeny tiny pond won't be the same without her. This was her pond for at least 15 years, and she stood guard and protected it daily. It was funny watching her swim out to meet any wild duck that might stop by...explaining to them that she was in charge here. She was our sweetie pie. 

Another bit of news from January that I forgot to mention...

Our sweetest boy Eli turned 12 years old. The books say that's pretty old for a Pyrenees. He is doing well except for those big back legs which have become very weak. We keep looking at those wheels or wheelchairs for dogs but those made sturdy enough for a Pyrenees are expensive. :(  

Still dreaming of Springtime, this is the little playhouse of my dreams...

Hope I won't get into trouble using this picture from off the internet. It's just so beautiful!!

Okay, about cleaning up the mess and what a mess it was! Remember my brilliant idea of using every towel in the house to make walking paths over the packed snow and ice?

Well, it took days for these towels to thaw up enough that I could pull them apart. Seriously! Frozen towels cannot be pulled apart. I used a potato rake to pull each towel from the ice and ground frozen beneath it. Chopped a few holes in the towels too!

That wheelbarrow packed with frozen towels facing the sun...stayed here for two days without thawing. I finally had to carry buckets of hot water from the house and pour over them.

Even though the sun came out the days were cold and the ice stayed around. The fun part was setting up a little laundry area with an old bench and No. 2 tub. My hands were more than a little chapped and dry after all this. Oh my gosh...there were bird seeds and sunflower seeds and gravel all frozen into the towels! My goal now is to buy all new towels and save these for future ice storms. :)

back to spring being just around the corner...the Jonquils are coming up...

I raked pine straw from off the dam and covered the bare winter ground around them. At least, it looks a little warmer for them. 

Guess I've kept you long enough friends, well, that is if you're still here. Sure do appreciate your visiting.

Love, Henny

Uggg! This weather!

 No siree!! You will not hear me wishing for snow any time soon!! I am scared to death trying to get from the front porch steps to the chicken house door...slick as ice out there!!

No soft, fluffy snow here! We have sleet, and freezing rain, all packed down hard and slippery! Poppy went to the mailbox yesterday...

There was no mail and no sign of tire tracks that the mail had run. Going in the opposite direction here, takes you into town. In case you're interested. :)

 

                  

I started this post last Tuesday and here it is Saturday! The ground is still solid packed ice and we're waiting now for the next snowstorm. 

We are not used to weather like this...ice covering the ground for a week and now a major snowstorm predicted for today and tomorrow! 

So afraid of falling, I had to come up with some way to get to the goat lot and chicken house...

Well, necessity is the mother of invention! Our towels will probably never come clean but that's okay. We need a stack of new ones anyway. This idea works perfectly!! The towels stick to the ice and the top feels like walking on grass.

This pink one especially won't come clean! I had spilled a cup of coffee on it before adding it to my path. :) The damp towels stick to the ice better. 

One more weather-related item and I will hush about it...Take a look, if you will at the weird icicle...

Okay, I'm done. You Northerners are probably thinking, "she doesn't know anything!!  and I bet you're right!

Staying inside now, Ugg!!! I was bound and determined to finish this apron that has almost broke me from sewing altogether...

First, this apron has darts. Darts! I don't like making darts and the ones in this apron are odd and hard to get right. Then I had to sew the pocket on twice. I made the ruffle too short and had to take it completely off, add another length and gather it all over again! Then I pinned the bib to the skirt, sat down to sew it on and had pinned the bibb on backwards. Whew!! 

I've made a few teeny tiny pinafores and bonnets. These used to sell really well at the farmer's market. Don't know why I stopped making them...

Well, it's 10:41 am here and a few tiny snowflakes have started to fall. Guess I'll go prop up at the kitchen window, watch the birds, and finish off the bowl of popcorn from last night. :(

Want to mention though, I was looking back at the comments on my last post, the one just before Christmas. There were some very nice comments that I am just seeing. Thank you! And South Carolina girl, I enjoyed reading about the wormy Hickory nuts. The panful on our front porch may have worms but are too frozen to move around. :) 

Thank you, dear friends.

Love, Henny

WHAT'S THIS?

 

Wabbit twacks?

It wasn't a big snow we got last weekend, but a pretty snow. It made the little playhouse look very cold. I've simply got to find that old cast iron wood stove I've dreamed of forever! 

Actually what I need is a little building from Lowes. A little place of my own, with a roof over my head.  No walls and no roof gets awfully cold, you know. :)

But that's okay.  Guess what was delivered today?? New panels for the teeny tiny greenhouse...something I really really need. Couldn't get them all at once.

Would you believe, you can buy the entire greenhouse package cheaper than you can buy the new panels? Isn't that crazy? We ordered the ten top panels and the three back panels first. For now the sides and the front door sections are in good shape.

Want to see who enjoyed the snow most...Miss Ellie

and, of course, Mr. Eli

We did take their leashes off and let them run in the snow. They loved it...

Let me tell you, I ducked behind a tree when I saw Ellie rounding the corner at this break-neck speed. Visions of broken bones popped into my head.  

Got enough problems going on now anyhow. Saw a spine specialist yesterday. I have arthritis and a pinched nerve in my neck. One day last week, in the new OrthoNC emergency facility, the doctor put me on one week of Prednisone which immediately took away my pain and let me get a night's sleep, for the first time in two weeks.  Enough about what ails me. :)

I need my gloves! Poppy was telling Eli. Eli's fun game is pulling off your gloves and running with them. 

I've been trying to finish this post for two days. Here it is the end of another week and the weatherman is calling for more snow overnight, tonight. Dear me! How long until spring!

I'll end this with these pretty birds...

I did open a large tarp and spread it on the ground and covered it with birdseed. It was fun watching from the kitchen window as all kinds of birds seemed to drop from the sky, covering the tarp.

Sure appreciate your visiting. Hope to be back soon.

Love,

Henny

Warming by the Fire

Hey friends,

This has been one long, dark, gloomy, messy, day. We've had it all today, snow, sleet, freezing rain, and high winds. It ain't fitten fer man nor beast.

Around lunch time, tired of walking from window to window, feeling cold amd miserable, I marched out to the back porch, gathered an armload of wood and started a fire in the fireplace...

Oh my gosh, the popping and crackling of the fire immediately lifted my spirits and warmed my heart. Kept me busy at first bringing in firewood but once there were lots of hot coals the big logs burned long and steady...

and of course, put everybody in the house to sleep...

Poppy brought in his share of firewood too before giving in to the warmth of the fire...

Ellie stole my end of the couch but that's okay. I could watch the fire better from the other end...

Eli snuggled down in his chair.

Now I'm not much for watching movies but seeing as how the lure of the fire kept me bound in the living room, I found myself interested in an old black and white Western from the early 1950s; Westward The Women. I watched the entire movie, getting up only to throw another log on the fire. It was good!

Gunsmoke with Matt Dillon is my favorite Western, followed by The Riffleman, and I love Death Valley Days; stories told by the Old Ranger. Remember 20 Mule Team Borax? I like Wagon Train too. Guess you can tell we pay for the Western Channels. I don't sit and watch them all but can't help but hear them as the TV stays on when Poppy is home.

Well, I didn't finish this post yesterday and here it is near the close of another day. Sure appreciate your stopping by. 

Love,

Henny

FIVE MINUTE BLIZZARD

Okay, you're going to laugh at my picture, and the tale of the blizzard that hit Henny Penny Lane on Saturday...

but let me explain. It was the weirdest thing! Most of you know how afraid I am of thunderstorms. 

Well, weatherwise, Saturday was very strange..we had rain, we had a little sun, we had wind and we had rolling dark clouds...supposedly it was fairing up and turning cold.

Around 3:30, Poppy looked out across the cutover and said, "Mel, if you're going to feed the bunnies and give the goats hay, you'd better go. The clouds look terrible".

I looked out the front door and said, "nah, those are fairing up clouds. That's what mama always called them".

Anyhow, I got my coat and boots, and bucket of feed. Gave each of the goats hay, pushed the wheelbarrow under the edge of the porch, drew a bucket of water and headed to the bunny lot.

The 10' x 10' bunny lot has a heavy duty canvas roof and also three sides covered with tarps that can be rolled up or let down, depending on the weather. All tarps were down, so the rabbits and I were pretty well enclosed, and unaware of how dark the sky had become...

when suddenly there was a BOOM of THUNDER followed immediately by BLOWING SLEET mixed with snow...my hands trembling, (that was lightning and thunder, mind you!) I grabbed both buckets, somehow managed to close and lock the gate, then tried to run for the house...thinking "DAN, WHERE ARE YOU!!!  SUDDENLY, THERE WAS DAN!! I absolutely could not run! Dan grabbed one of the buckets and my hand, and we ran, him pulling me along, uphill, facing the wind with what felt like shivers of glass hitting us in the face!

I know, this is North Carolina and I've never been through a blizzard in my whole life...but this was really freaky. It lasted about five minutes...long enough for me to grab the camera...

That's the rabbit lot way down past the little red shed. See the canvas top? So now, you all have my permission to laugh. We both laughed when it was over. Poppy saw the streak of lightning just before I heard the boom of thunder...He knew I would be scared to death, so came to rescue me. :) Bless his heart!

Better get going. Andee will be here soon. Nothing makes me any happier than to have a daughter come visit.  

Is that Smokey at the door?

Why yes! My sweetest boy!

Love,

Henny

Blizzard to Spring this week

Okay, I started this post last Monday...I think?? wasn't it Monday that our little blizzard blew through, freezing everything? 

Since the end of February this little peach tree has been through warm sunny days, cold wet days, freezing rain, high winds, sleet, and now snow.

 The flowering quince

and icy buttons on the button bush.

new growth on the rose bushes

I felt like covering everything with warm blankets...but it was just so overwhelming!

From the kitchen window. Funny how the birds hide in the trees and then magically reappear when I come back in the house.

Bound and determined to publish this post, here it is Friday evening and still not finished. 

Snow on Monday, springtime yesterday and today. Unbelievable! I've been outside most of the day. Had to make myself come inside to start supper.

Poppy called me to the window! Would you look at Smokey! This is the tree where the baby squirrels, and a Pileated woodpecker lived. He came down empty-handed, thank goodness.

and curled up on the couch. This leather couch takes a beating from the animals. It needs a rich creamy conditioner. :(

Thank you for putting up with me. 

Love,

Henny

Our big snow!!

We got snow!!! An unbelievably beautiful snow. I know this is no big deal for a lot of you who see this all winter, but for us, well...

It was yesterday and we were really beginning to wonder if was going to snow...then about 10:00 am started.

It snowed and snowed and snowed! and funny thing is, the temperature stayed at 33.3 degrees all day, so lots of snow fell before it began to stick.

then like magic...

everything began to turn white.

Snow was falling mid afternoon when we carried Eli outside

but was still not very deep

at 10:00 when we went to bed it was snowing...twelve hours the snow fell.

Then first thing this morning when I looked out the kitchen window...

 the birds had gathered in the same spot but all the seed was covered.

the sun came out...

casting an orange glow on the snow covered trees and on Eli

Then late this afternoon...

Eli, Weetie, and I walked in the edge of the woods along the property line.

We saw deer tracks and other funny little footprints in the snow. Eli followed a few with his nose to the ground.

and last, and least too...

little snow blossoms.

Okay, this is my big snow post for the year. Tonight the weatherman said we can expect warmer than normal temperatures for the rest of January. Isn't that something!

Thank you for visiting. Hope I didn't scare you away with too many pictures. 

Love,
Henny