Sugar and Lemon Balm

I have taken on a major overhaul here, with, of all things, my diet!!!  After reading and hearing so much about the magic effects of totally leaving off sugar, I decided to give it a try!!   I did not know that sugar was added to just about everything until I started reading the ingredients listed on packaged foods!!!  This is day three of sugar-free for me!  I want to see if all the stories are true.  This is taking a lot of thought...being used to coming inside hot and thirsty and grabbing a glass of lemonade or sweet ice tea, my favorites!!!  And, I don't like artificial sweeteners!!!  This is truly going to be a challenge.  I will keep you posted as to how long I can do this, and also as to how fabulous I am beginning to look!! :)  Ten to fifteen pounds should magically drop from my mid section!!  Yeah right!! 

Seriously, I would love to lose 10 pounds.  I am not a fat person, but have ALWAYS wanted to be able to tuck my blouse into my skirt and look comfortable, and slim...not look like a pillow with a rope tied around the middle!!!  Sorry I don't have a picture to post for this one!!!  Was it the Duchess of Windsor who said, "A woman can't be too rich or too thin"?

About the Lemon Balm...this is Lemon Balm...

 And this...

And this...

All this Lemon Balm came from one tiny pot that I bought at a gardening center a couple of years ago.  It is all over the yard.  It smells really good when I mow it down.  Problem is...Lemon Balm is coming up in the vegetable garden.  I pull every tiny sprig I find.   The garden is a good distance from where I planted the first lemon balm.   I believe lemon balm is in the mint family??   Just a gardening tip, (learned the hard way), like mint, lemon balm should probably be planted in a container and then put in the ground.

I don't know how I got this tiny print!!!  Me and computers!!!  At this point, the tiny print will have to stay!!!.
It is raining SO HARD!!!!  There is 4 inches in the rain gauge since last night!

Sorry for such a post.  Thank you kindly for stopping by.

Love,
Henny Penny

Gardening and old furniture

This garden!!!...is far from being the best looking one I've ever seen, but I think it is beginning to grow!!!  Even the wattle fence, as mama used to say, "such as it is"...has a few pole beans climbing on it!!  I took pictures..not because it looks good, but because it looks a little better than it did...

Next spring I want to try building a better wattle fence.  This was my first try.  I want to take more time in gathering maple saplings.  The vertical pieces stuck into the ground are weak and wobbly.  It is the weaving that makes the wattle fence strong.  It was fun playing with this small one.

Every time I walk up on the front steps, I admire the antique kitchen furniture.  My cousin Pat gave us these beautiful old pieces.   I've mentioned Pat in a couple of previous posts.  Pat is my first and second cousin...Her mom and my mom are sisters.  Her dad and my dad are first cousins.   Pat and her husband bought a very large, old home in the country when their three children were small, many years ago.  Pat and I are the same age...Anyway, this old cupboard, table and chairs were in this old home.  The cupboard was built by a doctor during the time of the Civil War...

I love love love these old pieces and worry because we have it all on our small covered front porch.  Keeps me busy dusting and polishing.  I've just bought a can of Johnson's paste wax.  This might give the wood more protection.  My dream is to enclose the front porch half way up with old wide boards and install old windows around the top half.  Then add an old timey pot-bellied wood stove on one end.  Can't you just imagine having breakfast out there on a cold winter's morning...Poppy's response to my idea...alright, you come up with the money and we'll do it!! :)

I would love to bring this furniture inside but don't have enough room...I'm telling you...we need that front porch enclosed!!! :)  Poppy is always saying..."Mel, WHEN are we going to stop changing things and just maintain what we have??"  That sounds so boring!!  Don't you think??

This is our small dining area, which is just a corner of the open kitchen, living room area.  The entire house is under 1200 sq. ft., including both porches.  I like small...it's like a playhouse! :)  Sometimes I wonder about myself!!!

Time surely does fly when you're having fun!!!  I've got to leave this computer and do some work!!  Poppy never catches me sitting down...what horror!!!  That comes from mama too.  Mama used to say, "your daddy's coming in, you children get  up and get busy doing something!!"

Love,
Henny Penny 

Accomplished today!!

Everyday I add new "jobs" to my list of "things to do".  Once in a while I remember to glance at the list before walking out the door!!!  More often than not, I will start on some totally new idea that pops into my head.  At the end of the day I won't be able to mark anything off my list!!! :(  Not to be outdone...I add what I've worked on all day to the bottom of my list and then cross it off!!!  It does my heart good!!  Here's what I accomplished today, that was not on my list...

This rose bush planted under a willow oak tree...I don't know how it even bloomed this year.  The tree saps all the nutrients and moisture from the soil.  The ground around the rose was dry, grey, and hard packed, like the driveway.  Watering the rose was useless.  The water ran off and down the hill.  I went to my supply of stuff I save, in case I ever need it, and dug out these metal fence pieces.  After fitting the fence around the bed, I lined the inside with old pieces of logs.  Logs rot and stick to the ground and keeps the water from running off.  I then added a couple of scoops of compost from the compost bin.  Then I went to the edge of the woods where I dump leaves and raked up 2 wheelbarrow loads of rotted leaves and mulch and added to the bed, then watered it good to pack it all down...

This mulch is about 4 inches thick.  The reason for the fence...THE CHICKENS!!!  This mulch would last about 5 minutes without the fence!!!  I was just finishing up when the first chicken walked up.  She went right through the fence and started to scratch!!!  I went to the sewing room and got all the dark colored cord I could find.  I wove the cord in and out around the fence to make the openings smaller .  It hardly shows and works great!!  Can't you just imagine how good this rose feels.  It's thirsty roots soaking up water and nutrients!!! 

Next I went to another small bed where the soil looked like cement.  There has been a clematis vine trying to grow here for 2 years.  I cut pieces of poultry netting to fit around the box.  Again I added compost and mulch.  This may eventually turn out to be pretty...There is a red bird feeder and hanging basket also on this post...

Note:  Clematis do best growing in the sun but with their roots shaded...

Anyway, my two good deeds for the day!!!  The hen trying to figure out why she can't get to the mulch.  No matter where I'm working in the yard, the animals hang around with me...I enjoy it though!!  The Guineas...

By the way...This is the big willow oak the rose is planted under...to the right...

You all have seen enough of this big boy, I'm sure!!!  He is such sweetie pie and likes the camera.  I told him I would post one more picture!!! :)

Trees

I'm inside for a break..  Do you ever have a day where you can't get anything done, no matter how you try???   A day where you've been busy all day, but accomplished nothing!!!  A neighbor brought me an armload of cuttings off her yellow knockout rose bushes!!!  I've been outside trimming cuttings and filling pots!!  Another neighbor saw me and stopped to talk, and another stopped to show me a painting.  It is a beautiful, beautiful day though.  A day that is going by way too fast!!!

Here I am in the hot driveway using the wheelbarrow to pot up plants...While my lovely new potting area up at the greenhouse sits catching dust!! :) It's hard to break old habits!!

That armload of cuttings made 30 pots.  :)  Now if these will just grow...Poppy brought home this old metal cart.  The tongue is broken off but I tied a rope on front and it's perfect for hauling stuff around.  Not pretty, but it works!!

Jewel and the chicks have been in the new lot 3 days and Jewel has done nothing but pace back and forth wanting out.  Do you think she's telling me these chicks are old enough to be on their on?  This morning I opened the door and let them out...

Trouble is...when it starts getting dark and all the other chickens go in the chicken house and  fly up on the roost!  Well, I have no idea what these four will do.  Jewel will probably leave her chicks and get on the roost with the others, and I'll be out with a net, in a panic trying to catch the babies!!!

I got a couple of pictures to show you how the yard looks with some of the trees gone.  It may take clearing out 11 more to really see a difference...

There is now a lot more sun here in the back.  The stump you see in the center was a tall pine. Several trees were cut behind where I am standing taking this picture, which lets more sun in.

This opening to the pond used to be blocked with ugly cedar limbs and a dead pine.  I love trees but so glad to be rid of a few!!!

One thing I have wanted ever since we built this house is a swing on a big tree limb.  The kind of swing made using 2 ropes and a piece of wood for the seat.  When trees are too close together like ours, the limbs can't grow out long and strong.  Oh, one of my favorite poems is, "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Oh my,  I've gone on long enough.  Thank you if you've managed to stay this long!! :)

Love,
Henny Penny

Moths

Looks like it's my year to see pretty moths...Anyone know what this is??  My book says Pyralid moth, but what I see on line for pyralid moth looks different.  I worry over butterflies and moths because their wings are so delicate.  Trying to move them to a safer place, I usually wind up doing more harm than good.  I guess they are where they are for a reason...so I'm leaving them alone!!!

We had an exciting weekend!!! My  wonderful son-in-law loaded the chainsaw, drove down from Virginia, and cut 11 trees from our yard.   A dream come true for me!!!  Andee and my granddaughter came too.   Andee and I pulled away limbs and stacked wood...with Andee doing most of the pulling and stacking.  They both worked really hard and we appreciate it so much!!!  Poppy cranked up his chainsaw and helped too.

There are still a dozen or more trees we want cut from the yard, and we will still be surrounded by trees!!!

Jewel's baby chicks are about grown.  In fact, they have outgrown their pen so we've moved them.  These chicks sure favor their dad, especially the two in front.  The other on looks more like her mom.

Looks like two young roosters and one hen...

 I appreciate your looking in...Even on this pitiful post.  I'll be back soon :)

Love, 
Henny Penny 

Around the yard

Has it really been 7 days since my last post?? 

The Peonies were in bloom this week but they didn't last very long.  We have had wind, thunderstorms, hard rain, high humidity, and hot sticky days, off and on this entire week.  Peonies have such long stems and large blooms, they flop over and break pretty easily.  I need to work on this flower bed.  The Obedient plants have about taken over.  I just feel overwhelmed when I look at this big job and find something else to work on!!

I like the Obedient plants but they will take over!!!  These plants bloom in late September and early October.  The blooms are hot pink and pretty!!!

As far as the vegetable garden this year...well I just don't know what to do!!!  The plants start off looking good and begin to grow.  Then they start to look sick.  Could it be the unusual weather this year??  The many cold days we had in early spring???  We have had a little frost twice this month (May)!!!  I've heard a few others in this area say their gardens are not doing good!!  These are the pitiful looking cabbage and kale plants I showed you in an earlier post...Would you just look at the bug holes in the bean plants!!!  It's just not a healthy looking garden!!!  The empty spots are where plants have died!!!  And the wattle fence...These pole beans are more holes than leaves.  How will they ever climb the fence???  Today is too windy, but if it's calm tomorrow, I plan to dust everything in the garden with food grade  Diatomaceous earth.  We will see if it helps!!
 

I can't believe I am posting pictures of this awful looking garden...

On a happier note...the sweetest little black hen, (the real Henny Penny that the sky almost fell on that dreadful night), posed for the camera earlier...

Then came the others...thinking there was scratch involved...

All last winter 3 Dill plants grew in pots in the little greenhouse.  These plants are still growing and are so tall, if I back up far enough to get the whole plant in the picture it looks little and insignificant....This is just the top of one of the dill plants...

"Baby goats," though I fed the chickens and didn't give them anything....

I've kept you long enough...but this is the dark, scary, grapevine covered path that goes by the chicken lot into the forest..... :)  Just kidding!!!

Thank you for looking in..

Love 
Henny Penny

Mowing

UPS delivered my brand new, taxi cab yellow, push lawn mower late yesterday!!!  Too late to start mowing, but boy, I have done some mowing today!!!  This is the first time this year the yard has been mowed.  I actually mowed the wheels off the old push mower.  Poppy mows around the pond and up the road to the garden on his riding mower.   He likes to sit while he's mowing, and mow only in wide open spaces where he doesn't have to hit the brake, back up, or go around anything!!!  That little Cub Cadet looks like it's running about 20 to 25 miles an hour!! He finishes his mowing before I can get my mower cranked!!!  Because it's "my landscaping," I get to mow in, out, and around all this stuff in the yard!!!  Here's my new mower (before I run over something and tear it up)!!  :)  And a look at the grass and weeds!!

I've been worrying about something I posted a few days ago.  I was complaining about the tomato plants dying in our tiny little garden.  Six tomato plants!!!  It took me all of 15 minutes to plant more!!  Actually,  I have nothing to complain about.  I am very thankful that I'm still able to work outside and have a garden.  I need to spend a day helping a real farmer set out hundreds and hundreds of plants!!!

Here it is Friday morning!! I never got back to finish this post yesterday.   I got a cute picture of Dumper.  He likes to sleep under this table... 

   Better get busy.  Times a wasting!!!

Love,
Henny Penny