It is the same every year...just as soon as July 4th is past...I start looking forward to November!!! Seriously!!! In February I start getting excited about gardening, flowers, mowing grass, baby animals, warm air, sunshine!!! In July, I don't even want to see the yard and all that needs to be done. I have created too many monsters!!! The humidity is 98%, the temperature in the 90's, and the grass and weeds (more weeds than grass) are knee high and wet from the previous night's thunderstorm. There is a bird bath in the middle of the front flower garden, (with all the obedient plants) that I can no longer find, and I'm afraid to look for it. I might step on a snake!!! And the little wattle fence, the one I was so proud to show off!!! Now a mass of vines...
Over do"!! That's me!! The beans are planted too close together and with my knees that don't work so good any more...well I can't step high enough to keep my toes from going under the bean vines. Here's my plan for next year...A taller, wider, longer wattle fence, the length of two rows, with half-runners instead of pole beans. Right now there are both growing together!!! I think the half-runners would climb the fence. I could finally look forward to picking beans without all that bending over, looking under vines. Yep! That's my plan...sparsely planted!!!
The okra is doing good. We cut enough to fry for supper a few nights ago. Okra blooms are pretty...
Last week when Poppy was on vacation and we were doing all that running around...I convinced him we needed to walk through a thrift store while waiting for his truck. Immediately, I spotted this chair and just had to have it, knowing I have nothing green in the house!!! We hauled it home and of course, it doesn't fit in anywhere. Right now it is taking up space in my sewing room while I decide what to do. I love the fabric...
I have been looking for a very small, comfortable chair for the sewing room. What was I thinking??? (Poppy would say, "you weren't thinking")! I hear that a lot!!
There was something kind of special about this old picture against this chair fabric. "Daddy and me"...
Oh my, thank you for looking in.
Love,
Henny Penny
We all know about Lynn's "standing and staring" club, of which I am a major member!!! I have spent most of today standing and staring, shuffling and moving stuff around, arranging and rearranging!!! I have made a drastic change in my tiny little dining area and can't decide if I like the new look or hate it. Your thoughts will be most appreciated...
Before: I really do like the warm, soft, cozy look of curtains...
After: I also like the light shinning through and the openness of the roll-up bamboo shades...
For sure, more dusting will be required. Nothing shows up dust like the sun!! Why did I start all this??? Seems like Poppy just left for work and here it is 3:00. Have a feeling the curtains will be going back up as I am just drawn to the cozy feel...HELP!!!
Thankfully, there is something started for supper. I picked beans yesterday and snapped them last night...a dutch oven full. Corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, and some cornbread to go with the beans may be it for tonight!!!
Deviled tomatoes and cornbread...well you just can't beat it. All these tomatoes are getting ripe at the same time!!! Here's how mama used to make deviled tomatoes: (I don't have exact measurements)
In a cast iron frying pan, cut up and stew 5 or 6 (?) tomatoes. Season with 1 to 2 Tbls. of fat back grease. Add small pod of hot pepper, cut up. Simmer until it thickens a little. Very good over cornbread or rice. Mama used to fry the best cornbread patties...thin and crispy and lacy looking around the edges...
Best get going. I still have some outside things to do and it is now 3:35!!! Thanks for the help!! :)
Love,
Henny
"Normalcy"!! That's right! Poppy went back to work this morning and I fell back into my daily routine...my little "order of things to be done"!!! Sorry I stayed away so long.
The purple coneflowers are blooming. None of the blooms are as pretty as usual because of the heavy rains. Doesn't seem to bother the butterflies!!
Phlox are beginning to open too. The full week of sun and no rain, we are supposed to get this week should help all the plants...
Little Fiona Ling Ling...taking a break from the big ducks. Wish I knew where she came from. How she got to our pond. Some wild animal would surely kill a duckling wandering out alone. No one close by has a pond or ducks...She could have arrived here the same way "big boy" did...Dropped off while no one was looking!!!
Funny how flowers show up too...In the midst of all these "obedient plants"...an orange "gladiola" and pink "phlox"...
No reason at all for this next one..."big boy" leading one of his hens...:)
Not much of a post here! Again, I am sorry I stayed away so long. I've got to get back into the swing of things!!! I'll let you know if I get sun burned this week...with all the rain gone!!! Thank you for stopping by.
Love,
Henny Penny
Poppy's vacation started yesterday...9 days off work!!! We have been listing things we want get done around here, like finishing up the mess in the back yard. There are still several downed trees to be cut into firewood and the limbs and brush hauled away. We had also planned to paint the back porch floor (and the front porch floor, if there is enough paint), and all that trim around the screened-in back porch. So, we wake up this morning to a thunder storm and pouring rain!!! The 7-day forecast...thunderstorms and rain, every day!!!
This is Tuesday night already!!! This post was started yesterday. I'm sorry. My schedule is up-side-down with Poppy here all day. We had another thunderstorm with a hard rain. It is too humid and hot to do all those big jobs on our list. We did a little shopping today; picked up some chicken feed, etc....We probably don't make enough selling the few eggs that we sell to pay for the feed these big girls eat. Must keep reminding myself of the fun I'm having!!
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Little Fiona Ling Ling is still here, and feeling more at home. If she turns out to be a "he", we will have to drop the "Fiona" and use "Ling Ling"...don't you think?
Speaking of rain...does it seem to you like we have more hard, flooding rains now, than we used to?? Growing up, I remember rainy days. Days that the rain was slow and steady. Mama would let us go outside and walk in mud puddles and play in the rain. Seems now there is more danger, in everything!!!
A few months back a heavy downpour filled our pond to over flowing and covered our pier...in about 30 minutes. Now that is a hard rain!!!
Remember hurricane Fran that hit North Carolina in 1996? Well that was the same year we built this pond, and in the same month, September!! The pond was finished and we were told that it would probably take one year for it to fill, since there is no natural spring, and we were relying on rain water. Poppy and I bought the materials and build the pier ourselves. We completed the pier the day before "Fran" hit. We didn't get any sleep the night of Fran!!! We sat in the living room in the dark with a portable radio and no electricity. We sat quietly listening to the crazy wild winds and beating rain. Occasionally, we would hear the cracking of a tree falling. Then there were bumps and cracks, sounds of sticks, limbs and green pine cones hitting the house. It was a long, eerie night, listening and trying to imagine how everything would look when daylight came. It was like Fran was traveling with the night and was gone when the sun came up. Never will I forget that smell of chewed up green leaves, green limbs, and pine needles that totally covered the property....ankle deep. And the pond!!! The pond was full and running over the spillway with red muddy water. Not one inch of our newly built pier was visible! It was totally under water! We were without electricity for several days and the weather was extremely hot and humid. Fortunately, there was no damage to the house!!
Okay, here it is Wednesday!!! I've been with Poppy again...getting dual exhaust put on his truck!! Thank you for looking in. Hope to return soon...a little more interesting!! :)
Love,
Henny Penny
Hope you all had a happy 4th of July!!! Around here it was like any other day. We didn't grill out, or have friends or family over, we didn't go to the beach or cut a big watermelon, we didn't watch a parade, or even go watch the fireworks!! Later in the evening we did hear the distant boom of some fireworks. I walked out on the porch but couldn't see anything. Late afternoon Poppy said, "this doesn't seem like the 4th of July". Well, course not, out here in the woods!! We need to put forth a little effort to feel the 4th!! He did ask if I wanted to go somewhere to see fireworks and I said,"not really", I enjoy watching the celebration on PBS. Well, it just so happened that Neil Diamond was singing when Poppy turned on PBS...his response, "I'm not sitting here listening to Neil Diamond all night"!!! What's wrong with Neil Diamond?? Now if had been ZZ Top, Mick Jagger, or Bob Segar...oh well!!! I do love July 4th, I love this country, and all things patriotic!!! When my son-in-law was stationed at Seymore-Johnson AFB, we were invited to come on base for a July 4th celebration and fireworks...oh my...talk about feeling patriotic...I loved every minute!!! Okay, didn't mean to get carried away.
Little Fiona Ling Ling (I know you're smiling) is still with us and hanging with the other ducks. She tries so hard!! It is cute to watch her run, keeping a few steps ahead of the big ducks. She doesn't completely trust them yet and keeps her distance. She likes my bucket of feed so she is trusting me more. That makes me happy.
After all my complaining about the garden, (the squash bugs, wet ground, etc.) we are getting some really good tomatoes. Not only are these tomatoes big, these are sweet and delicious. Last year our tomatoes were very tart.
On the menu for tonight...Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches...
Better get busy. At 7:45 this morning I had finished what needed to be done inside, and was headed outside with my work basket. All the recent rainy days put me behind. The yard has been a mess with sticks, limbs, overgrown mint, and flowers beaten down by the rain. This has been my fun break for the day.
Thank you, if you managed to stay this long... :) Hope to be back soon.
Love,
Henny Penny
Wish I could say this beautiful barn belongs to us, but I can't!! Our little house is about the size of the lean-to on the back of this barn!! Poppy is off work today and had some errands to run, so I went along with him. We made a wrong turn out on a country road and drove past this farm. What a beautiful place!!
Thankfully, the baby duck is still with us. She seems determined to fit in and be accepted by these older ducks. Muscovies are territorial, and since ours have been here for over 10 years, well I've worried that the old male might kill her. On the other hand, the old female seems to want to protect the baby.
Thank you for helping me with some names. I like "Fiona" and I like "Ling Ling". She is such a brave little thing. Hopefully, it will all work out.
This hummingbird moth (hope I am right about this) was going from flower to flower...
I got quite a scare late this afternoon. We had another thunderstorm with a washing rain, which added to the muddy mess in the chicken lot. When the sun came out, I let the chickens out to free range, including those six new chickens. Usually the first time out of the pen, chickens are cautious and afraid to go far. But not these, they made a bee-line for the dark wet woods. I called and threw out feed, but these chicks were free and on the move. I had left supper cooking on the stove so I had to run back inside. Hoping the chickens were smart enough to come back. Besides, when I walked toward them they went farther away. Poppy said, "before we eat, let's go try to find those chickens and get them back in the yard" The chicks were no where to be seen. I felt like crying, but, thought I would look again inside the chicken house. To my surprise, there sat everyone of those chickens...on their roost!!!
Oops!! I started this post yesterday. So far, no rain today. It is hot and very humid!!!
Happy 4th of July!!!
Love,
Henny Penny
As far as day to day life goes, here is what touches my heart and makes me happy. A very hungry young duck showed up on the pond this morning. I noticed it swimming as hard as it's little webbed feet could paddle, right behind our old female duck. It's like it was saying, "mama, wait, is that you?" The duck looks about half grown...
Thinking I'll probably never see this little duck again, I took pictures to show Poppy. Sure enough, it left the pond. Later, on my way to the chicken lot, I met this baby duck waddling toward me. I poured a pile of scratch feed on the ground and backed up a bit. I probably could have stood there. The duck was so hungry. She ate all she could hold along with some old Roy dry dog food. Do you think she will be ours??
I don't think this is a muscovy duck. The coloring and the bill look different, and it has no sign of red on it's face...it almost has the look of a goose. I'm thinking of names...if anyone has any suggestions!
I was back for another visit with my sister yesterday. We had late afternoon plans that, guess what, got rained out!! We were almost to our destination when we began getting flash flood warnings. Immediately, the streets became flooded and I mean like 2 inches of rain fell in about 30 minutes. We drove in the center lane and through the flooded streets and made our way out and back onto the interstate...toward home!!! I've been worried this morning about a tree falling on the house. The ground is so wet. I should have named my blog "worry wart lane"!! That sounds more like me!!!
Before the storm, we took a quick walk to the garden...in the big boots again...:)
That is one huge citron melon vine growing behind where Shelby is standing. It goes on and on, and this is just 1 plant. I'm sure there will soon be a pot of citron and sugar on the stove for making preserves.
Small citron melon...
Cows cooling in the shade...
Thank you for stopping by. Hope to return soon!
Love,
Henny Penny
