Update on a thing or two...
Piper the duck has started hanging around the pond. She quacks and walks to meet me when I go out but does not follow me back to the house. I suppose that's a good thing, but I miss it. All that water is just too tempting. The lonely muscovy needed a friend. I'm happy they have each other...
And the cherry tomato looking mushroom...this is how it looks today. Still inside the little cup...
Also, the little bantam couple, Festus and Lucille, have adjusted to their new home and seem to be happy. I am wondering more and more about that feed I bought for Sweet Pea, Popeye, and Olive. It just seems odd that all three died shortly after starting them on it. I called the company that makes the feed. They are interested and asked me to send them a bag full to be tested.
The sun was pretty early this morning...
Thank you for stopping by. Hope to be back soon.
Love,
Henny Penny
A few days back I thought about a post on the unusual mushrooms growing in the yard. But on second thought, eeewww, gross! Then this morning I happened upon this really weird mushroom. Really weird! It looks like a cherry tomato sitting in a porcelain cup...
These mushrooms are probably from all the rain lately plus the sawdust, bark, and other stuff on the ground from having trees cut a few months back. I've just read that mushrooms house thousands of tiny spores and if disturbed will spread to grow even more mushrooms. Great! I've been kicking these things and mowing over them.
A sampling of sickening mushrooms...
There are lots more but that's enough for one post! Posting about mushrooms is not much fun.
Here's fun. I cleaned the back porch today and washed the cover on the old iron bed...one of Eli's favorite spots. I then replaced the old burlap curtains with these pale green sheer ones.
Poppy is getting good at bringing in pretty pots of vegetables. These he picked while I cooked supper again. The bigger tomatoes have splits caused, I think, by too much rain. By the way, that's a lottery ticket there on the bar. I will let you know first thing tomorrow if Poppy and I have become millionaires. I asked Poppy, if we win could I buy a donkey and run to the drug store and get a few things... :)
We have a storm brewing....a storm with a severe warning. Think I will say goodnight and back away from this computer. Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny Penny
Frying out fat back to cook a pot of green beans. Southern style... :)
To tell you the truth, I'm about tired of messing with green beans. It took all day yesterday to snap that 17 pounds. Of course there were other things that had to be done besides the beans. I was in and out of the kitchen all day. There were enough beans for another caner full...seven quarts and all the rest I put in a big pot with some fat back grease and put the pot on simmer...
And as Mr. Darling from the Andy Griffith show would say..."Done and done"! All we need now is cornbread, corn of the cob, fried okra, and a sliced red ripe tomato.
While the beans were cooking I stewed all the tomatoes that were getting too ripe. I can freeze these...
Poppy and I will never eat such a big pot of beans so I plan to share these with our friend Nellie. Nellie is always stopping by with some kind of food she wants us to try. Last week it was squash pie. Once she had baked a pinto bean cake and brought each of us a slice and to go with the cake, a quart of cold goat's milk. Nellie is a character. She is an older lady who lives alone in a small green mobile home about five or six miles up the highway. Nellie has goats. She has chickens, guineas, peacocks, ducks, and geese. She loves birds, birdhouses, and flowers. She loves Indian jewelry and rings, and Nellie loves dolls. One day last week Nellie stopped by with two pitiful looking naked baby dolls and asked if I would make them some clothes. Here's how the babies look now...
I can hardly wait to give them back to Nellie.
Guess I had better get out and close the chicken house door. It is getting dark earlier these days. This morning when I walked Piper down to the pond, she stayed. Last time I checked, Piper and our lonely little muscovy duck were swimming side by side. Did my heart good.
Thank you for stopping by.
Love,
Henny
Poppy was off work last Wednesday. I talked him into going with me to buy a duck...or two. These ducks were on Craig's List. As it turns out the people selling the ducks live a mere ten miles north of us. They raise ducks, chickens, and geese to show. In fact, all the beautiful big geese and ducks that Shelby and I spend so much time looking at when we go to the State Fair belong to this couple.
Of course, they don't sell their show stock but there were lots of ducks to choose from. We bought only one, a young female. Had we brought two home there was a chance the two would stay together and not become friends with our lonely muscovy duck. This ducky had never seen a pond before...and did she ever stir up the water...
She bathed and splashed and dived and was fine until she saw me walk away. She then flew to catch up and followed me back to the house quacking and talking to me all the way. I am amazed that she is following me around so soon. The name Piper seems to fit her just fine, don't you think?.
Poppy came home from work with a grocery bag full of blueberries someone gave him. I froze most of the berries then went on line and found a simple blueberry pie recipe...
The taste was really good especially with two dips of vanille ice cream on top but there were too many berries for the amount of crust. Guess I should have made a cobbler.
Looks like tomorrow will be another canning day...that is if I get the green beans snapped. I've picked another 17 pounds of green beans from the garden. Been a long time since the garden did this good...
Better get going. The days go by so quickly. Seems like I just get all the curtains in the house opened and it's time to shut them again. Maybe we could hire someone to just stand by the windows and open and close curtains. :)
Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny Penny
Computers, computers, computers!!! I could use another lesson but Lynn has so much going on in her life right now.
Shelby has tried several times to follow my blog but the system won't let her. She has tried leaving comments, but can't. The comments won't publish. Then there is my cousin Pat...same thing. Her comments never come through. I've had others tell me they cannot leave comments on my blog. If anybody out there has any suggestions I would be most appreciative. :)
Poppy went to the garden this evening while supper was cooking. He came back with the most colorful pot of vegetables...
That big tomato in the pot weighs one and a half pounds. It's been a long time since the teeny tiny garden grew vegetables this pretty...
First time ever growing orange bell pepper. My favorite...
I was awakened in the middle of the night last night by Eli hassling. Panting heavily, his hot breath hitting me right in the face. Go lay down Eli I said quietly. Eli walked away but was back in a few minutes. I quietly slid over to the middle of the king size bed and patted the bed for Eli to get in. He got his front half up on the bed but I had to help him get his other forty pound half up. He was so pleased. He lay there quiet as a mouse but he did reach over, take my arm in his mouth and pulled my arm over him. It was the sweetest thing. Something must have frightened him. Poppy didn't know until this morning that Eli had slept with us...
Better start getting the animals all situated. Here it is almost 10:00. Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny
The new Bantam couple have settled nicely into their new home...
Chicken silhouette...
The little country couple moved in last Sunday. I didn't really want more Bantams because there could never be another little Popeye and Olive. However, since these were a gift from a friend, what could I say but thank you.
These two are more countrified than Popeye and Olive were. In fact, they act plum backward, like they've never been around people before. They have spent their entire lives in a cage with a wire bottom. This pen must be heaven to them. The little rooster was not able to fly up on this roost Sunday night so yesterday I built this ladder for them...
Look at these legs. Think I will call him "Festus" and her "Lucille"...
Poor babies. We will soon be best friends. I hope no harm comes to them. Poppy and I still have no idea what killed the others.
At the edge of dark I was out in the driveway with the camera. I was watching the bats swooping and diving to catch insects. Poppy said I was out wasting the batteries in the camera...but look, I caught one...
I will say good night now. Thank you for stopping by.
Love,
Henny Penny
What a gloomy day. It rained yesterday, it's raining today and is supposed to rain tomorrow and Monday. I will be so in need of the sun by Tuesday. Just hope I am not totally overcome with gloom before then.
I walked Eli down to the pond in the rain late afternoon yesterday. The raindrops on the water and the haze over the pond were beautiful. By the time Eli was back inside and I had the camera the look had changed...
I do love these grasses that hang gracefully over the water...
4:00 am again this morning...things were on my mind, keeping me awake...
How things change over the years. Change so slow and gradual you don't even see it until one day you remember what used to be.
When Poppy and I bought this five acre piece of land in 1987 we were ten miles from the nearest town. This was country. We loved it! There was a one lane dirt road that went past our land to a dead end. Then there was an even smaller dirt path that ran along side our property.
Our little plot of land 1987. This would soon be our front yard and driveway leading to the dirt path...
and our little cabin would soon sit here...
Over the years more people have bought property out this way. Thankfully, because of the trees and the fact that we have the five acres of land surrounding us, we can't see any of our neighbors and like to pretend none exist.
More traffic on the little dirt path meant more mud and when two car met on the path well someone had to move over so the road naturally widened over time. By the way, this is a very young Poppy with a cigarette in his mouth. How things have changed!
And the path now......
This was way back when we gardened in the red mud. I hated it. By harvest time the weeds and grass were knee deep...
What a difference in the soil now. Adding compost, leaves, and old hay from the goat and chicken lots have made a huge difference...
This post was started yesterday. Better get busy. Hope to be back soon. I have new little Bantam chicken couple to show you. A surprise gift today from my friend Nellie.
Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny Penny
