Warning! Guard dog on duty...
The deer was in the yard again today. Poppy and I are beginning to think this deer was raised by someone. Wouldn't that be sad as deer season starts in September. This poor deer will be killed for sure...
The deer did not come any closer to Poppy but neither did it run away. It wandered into the back yard and down to the pond for water...
This deer is definitely not like the others around here. Deer run at the slightest sound or sight of a person.
Poppy went with me up to the garden this morning to see if there was anything that needed to be picked or gathered. Now I know you're tired of seeing my vegetables...lots of people out there have gardens and raise vegetables much prettier than ours. It's just that this teeny tiny garden has given us so much this summer. I am overwhelmed...and thankful...
and, another pound and a half tomato...
Looks like tomorrow will be another bean snapping bean canning day. Never let it be said that I was caught sitting idle! Mama used to say, well don't stop now! :)
Part of the flock gathered in for a group picture...
and, Big Boy said get one of me down here in the grass and weeds...
Sorry for all the pictures. Sometimes I get carried away. Thank you for stopping by. Better get supper started.
Love,
Henny
I've had the pleasure of company for the last three days...Cousin Pat. That right. The same Pat who gave us her treasured old cupboard that graces our little front porch and Pat is the artist who painted the picture of Bickett.
Pat and I had fun shopping. A thrift store downtown had a bag sale. Five dollars for all the clothes you could pack into the bag. Now I can pack a bag! I came home with lots of new old clothes to wash and iron. Even had to clear the closet of all the even older clothes that I no longer wear.
Once again I am behind in posting and reading posts.
Just minutes ago Eli and I walked out the front door and right into a deer. She was helping herself to water from the birdbath...
Drinking from the birdbath is fine with me. I am however a little leery of wild animals that are not afraid of people. She stood there several minutes drinking, raising her head, and drooling into the birdbath. She looked up but made no attempt to run, even after Eli growled and barked...
When she had finished her drink she wandered slowly over to the raggedy old well and hung around for a while. Are deer ever rabid?
Eli and I decided to go through the house and out the back door for our short walk.
This hillbilly couple...reckon they will ever amount to anything...
In town yesterday I mailed out a sample of the chicken feed that Popeye, Olive, and Sweet Pea were eating before they died. Once the testing is done and I hear back from the manufacturer, I will post the results.
The trees and plants have lost their fresh spring green and are looking older and worn here in the middle of August. The yard is blah. The Joe Pye weed is attracting lots of butterflies and bees...
and, for the first time ever I have a Rose of Sharon in bloom...
The Impatients are still blooming. The first bit of cold will take these out though. Someone once said that Impatients are so sensitive to the cold that you could kill them by sitting your glass of iced tea beside them...
I want more flowers and a prettier yard next year. Something to look forward to and dream about, I suppose.
Thank you if you have managed to stick around this long. Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny Penny
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
