Who has time for a "to do" list!

It's nuts around here folks!

Here it is Monday evening! It's crazy when the day starts off so busy that you don't have time to look at your "to do" list. I did manage to get the bed made, the dishes put away, the kitchen floor swept, the litter boxes cleaned out, the living room straightened up, and the animals fed before Poppy asked, "are ready to help with the shop"?

The back side of the shop has some rotting wood. We replaced the bad boards with treated 2 x 4's. But wait, we're not done yet! Tomorrow I've been selected to drive to Lowes in Henderson for more nails and a gallon of the best heavy duty oil-based outside paint, one that will cover every flaw in these old fake logs. I'm thinking a rich walnut brown color over this faded red would look good. Also while in Henderson I need to pick up prescriptions and a few groceries...as usual! That means my long "to do" list will lay on the bar untouched for another day.

Some kitties around here have nothing to do but play.

But that's okay!

Here is the first red tomato from the teeny tiny garden. Big and heavy, but not too pretty. It almost looks like two tomatoes grown together?? 

Better get busy. Gosh, it's almost 9:00! I had planned to sew tonight. A day or so ago I cut out two aprons....a red and black print and a green and black print. The trim and pockets on both aprons I had cut from black fabric...or so I thought. When I sat down at the sewing machine last night...prepared to sew... I realized that I had cut the pockets and trim from navy blue fabric, not black. Always something!!

Hope to be back soon.

Love,

Henny

Sorry, more about those long beans!

Thank you Connie, and thank you Shirley Cox...two new followers. You know, I don't think I mentioned or thanked some followers in the past and I feel just awful about that. Please know that I appreciate you all and your friendship so much.

I left some of the flower heads on the dill because they were so very pretty and also because the flowers were simply covered in insects. Maybe even beneficial insects! I do want the dill to keep growing so I'm cutting the flower heads off most the plants, like you suggested.

The yard long beans were delicious! Delicious! I had picked only four of the long beans, so I ran back to the teeny tiny garden and picked two more. Then cut the beans into smaller pieces and stir fried in olive oil and garlic. Poppy ate a piece or two. I asked, what do you think? "They're alright", he answered. That's about as close to a compliment as Poppy ever gets. Ever! About anything! 

I didn't take the laundry basket to the garden to pick beans in this morning but did carry my largest granite ware pan.

 How pretty to look inside the crookneck squash vine. Mama thought crookneck yellow squash were the best, but only if the squash were picked while small and tender. 

A few of the squash on the bottom here are too big. Yep, I missed going to the garden one day.

Big lovable Eli is so irresistible, it keeps me busy taking pictures...but look...

Weetie, the real guard dog at the garden this morning. Seriously, This little dog would probably give her life for me. She stands faithfully on this old bench while I am in the garden. She will not leave me. 

Poppy and I rescued Weetie a few years ago. A family moved away and left her alone in the country to fend for herself. She was hidden in the woods for several days, we could hear her whining. Then one day Poppy and I were working outside and spotted her. She was lonely and hungry but afraid to come to us. All it took was a few kind words and a hand held out. 

Weetie is now happy and healthy. She does have a serious heart murmur but she sees the vet often and is on a daily heart pill...and is a touch overweight. We sure love her. Did I tell you that she bit the Direct TV repairman? Well, she did. I think he may have reminded her of her former owner. 

Need to get busy. I may have to run from a storm later. Poppy works until 6:00 tonight. Seriously, I am trying hard to not be afraid of thunderstorms...something I inherited from my dear sweet Mother. The sound of thunder and my first thought is "RUN"! There is a cozy little thrift store in downtown. Now that's a handy little place to be during a storm. Lots to keep one's mind off lightening and thunder.

Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny 

Early, very early, and more on the yard long beans

What it's like here at 4:30 a.m. when the lights are turned on and a moth flies under the lamp shade.

Do you have to use that flash so early in the morning??

The same routine day in and day out...lights on and animals come from every direction. Bickett meowing at the laundry room door. Smokey wanting a new can of food and Dumperoo chasing a bug through the house. As soon as my feet hit the floor, jobs begin piling up. Taking Eli and Weetie outside is absolutely first. Then start the coffee, pack Poppy's lunch, then on and on we go. Gosh! How did everything get to be my job? Would I have it any other way? Probably not. Wouldn't mind trying it another way once though to see how it feels. :) That first cup of coffee sure is good !

Late yesterday in the teeny tiny garden I picked a handful, four to be exact, of the yard long green beans. The longest here is 27".

Reading about these beans, why, they sound fun to grow and really good to eat. These yard long beans are also known as Chinese long beans and are delicious, so I've read, stir fried in olive oil with garlic. I'm going to try, try mind you, seeing as how I don't do anything really good, to stir fry some of these beans for supper tonight. Crisp, crunchy, and bright green instead of the southern, cooked to a mush and seasoned with a little fat back grease. 

Also read that these beans are aggressive climbers, which I am finding out, and should be harvested daily, and best picked before getting a yard long...like at 12-18", oops! These in the teeny tiny garden are getting on up near a yard! Probably should carry a laundry basket with me to the garden this morning.

I simply must get busy. Good grief! This day is flying! See you back here soon or over at your place. :)

Love,
Henny

Yard long beans and other stuff

Poppy and I are inside today. 101 Degrees is forecast and that's simply too hot for working outside. I tell you what! That lovely spring weather was short lived and then we jumped right into this NC August-like weather.

Hope you don't mind another little walk through the garden. Don't worry, walking through this teeny tiny garden only takes a minute.

Waiting for that first red ripe tomato.

This old chair made a good prop for the Dill. Should I cut the flower heads off the Dill to keep the plant growing? Anybody know about Dill? :) 

These "yard long" beans I planted are about half a yard long now.

I'm loving watching these beans grow.

Been a long time since I've had a row of Zinnias in the garden.

Looks like all red Zinnias.

and these pretty little blooms near the well house are wild Petunias.

Everybody in the house is napping right now, except me, of course. I was standing and staring earlier...trying to decide...should I put a post on my blog, walk up to the garden, or sew. Guess I'll get busy in the sewing room next. I've spent every extra minute lately cutting out aprons, bonnets, bag holders, and making dolls.

The Duke Homestead in Durham has three upcoming events. July 11th it's the "Pork, Pickles, and Peanuts Festival", August 8th "Summer Child's Festival", and September 12th "Harvest & Hornworm Festival". Arts and craft vendors are needed for all three events. My application has been accepted. Let me tell you...this lit a fire under me real quick! Lots of sewing to do now!

If you have never seen the Duke Homestead you can visit them at dukehomestead.org, but especially check out "images for Duke Homestead". It is a beautiful old place. Shelby, Lynn, and I did a craft show there several years ago and it was lots of fun. We dressed for the occasion in our long dresses, bonnets and aprons. Shelby and Jimmy's farm is not far from Duke Homestead.

Better get busy in the sewing room. Thank you for visiting and I will be over shortly to visit you. :) 

Cr

Love,

Henny

Hey, I can't think of a title for this!

Don't you dread even going outside on wet humid mornings like this. 71 degrees sounds comfortable, but it's not. Not when it has been this hot and humid. Our entire property looks like the rain forest. Limbs, wet and heavy, hanging low to the ground. Dirty wet grass that swipes the tops of your feet and your ankles as you walk. The air heavy and wet...not a pleasant feeling.   

We have had rain and thunderstorms for the last three evenings, leaving the pier slightly under water. Eli was fascinated with the reflection...

It was Eli who pointed this out to me. He cautiously walked out on the pier, looking down like he was afraid of falling.

My first teeny tiny gathering from the teeny tiny garden.

Nothing to brag on here, but this is enough squash to stew for Poppy and me. That first little cucumber was perfect in my salad last night. Poppy hates cucumbers.

These extremely hot and humid days have brought me back into the sewing room. In fact, doing a few upcoming craft shows sounds pretty good to me. 

Yesterday I got started on a few dolls and managed to cut out an apron. At the moment I have plenty of bonnets made but very few aprons or dolls.

This apron had been on the sewing table half finished for months. I find it hard to finish something I don't really like. Anyway, I finished it. Somebody out there might take a fancy to it.

You folks have seen every inch of my sewing room except behind the closet door next to the sewing machine. Stored back there are those old VCR movies I was so anxious to watch on my newly purchased TV VCR combo. Not even one have I watched yet...not even my all time favorite, Jane Eyre. Maybe soon.

Gosh time flies. When I sat down here it was a little after 7:00 a.m., thinking til 7:30...I'll sit here til 7:30. It is now 8:29! 

Thank you for putting up with me! :) I am getting to work, right now!

Love,
Henny

We got rain!!

A row of wet Guineas?

A little before ten last night, there was a loud boom of thunder, then either wind or hail or rain, or all three...our lights went out and came back on, went out again and came back on. Then the lights went out and stayed out and the generator came on.  Of course just when you really NEED the TV to see if there are storm warnings out there,  there is no TV. With Direct TV there is no signal when it rains or storms.

We had thunderstorms most of the night as the sound of thunder kept waking me. We needed this rain!

Couldn't wait to look outside this morning. Here is what I found...

Another tree down. This time across the grape vines, arbor, and my clothesline.

This tree fell awfully close to the Bantam's pen. It could have crushed it and my little bantam hen is sitting on eggs inside there.

You know who...always under my feet checking out the damage too.

Sticks and limbs that were scattered about the yard by the storm. This small problem in nothing compared to the rainfall and flooding in Texas and I feel so bad for those people. 

This hot, humid...and I do mean HUMID weather drains what little energy I have. Okay, back to work. This bedroom MUST be dusted today. I'd rather dig stumps! Guess I'll go search for a dust rag. Bye!

Love,
Henny

Old sweet Dumperoo.

Be careful clipping those rose bushes

Bye Poppy!

Most mornings I wake up early, very early. Even this morning I was laying awake at three a.m. making a list in my head of all I needed to do before the day got too hot. One of those things was to cut the old blooms off the rose bushes. Lynn told me years ago that if you clip the old blooms back to the first group of five leaves the rose bush will keep blooming.

By 6:30 Poppy was at work and I had fed and watered the animals, raked the chicken lot, swept the goat barn, and put BunBun is his lot to play. 

I cut most of the dead blooms off two rose bushes and moved on to the third one. It was at the third rose bush that I got the life scared out of me. 

Do you see that snake! It was right there in front of me. My hands were all up in this bush, clipping and moving the limbs. See the clipped stem right there in front? That was just a little too close for me!!

No doubt, there will be a lecture from Poppy. Where was that pistol I bought you? Why didn't you shoot the snake? 

Friends, it is just not in me to kill a snake or anything else. I catch house flies and wasps in a big yogurt cup and set them free. No way am I attempting to shoot a snake out of a rose bush! I did however move on up to the garden to work. The snake disappeared.

Still trying to get a good picture of the mimosa tree. One that really shows off the pink blossoms. It is the reflection that caught my eye here.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to be back soon. 

Love,
Henny

A very hot day!

Wild orange lilies are in bloom everywhere around here!

Dear friends,

Who in the world has time to sit down at the computer at 10:22 on a Monday morning. Surely not me! Actually, I have just walked inside from mowing the back yard.  

Can't stay but a minute. I'm cooling off! The temperature is climbing and could reach 100 degrees today! That seems unusually hot for June here in North Carolina? 

It is so hard to leave the housework and go outside to work first, but I did just that this morning. As soon as I cool off a bit I'm going up to work in the garden.

Wow!  I'm back and it is HOT in the garden! I managed to work about an hour.

I took this, not so great, picture of the Mimosa tree yesterday. This tree always reminds me of Madison and Michaela about ten years ago, climbing and laughing and hanging by their knees from a limb far up in the tree.

Okay, back to the heat...

Would you look at the volunteer vine, how terribly hot and wilted, but wait...

a little baby gourd. Do you think this is a gourd? Awww, I hope so!

Guess I had better finish the housework. Need to check on BunBun too. I worry about all the animals when the temperature gets up near 100 degrees!!

Appreciate you stopping by.

Love,
Henny

Tired, sleepy, and dumb too (me, not Eli)

Eli and I feel about the same today!

Here it is twenty til four, late afternoon and I have wasted the day away. Big plans I had of getting a ton of stuff done! Poppy is in a meeting in Raleigh and said not to look for him home before seven tonight. So what have I done? Again, wasted the day away! Here's the problem. The clock alarmed at 4:20 this morning. Poppy needed to be at the store at 6:00. Same thing yesterday. I am tired and my mind is not functioning. Seriously. 

I go outside and stand and stare thinking, what am I out here for.  The volunteer vine is moving right along. 

There are big yellow blooms but no fruit. Every blossom falls off like it was snipped off with scissors. I wonder why.

Oh! misspelled words! In my post about fishing I spelled Bream...Brim. Good grief, how embarrassing! I do know that Bream, not brim, is a fish. :)
Did you read Red's post on hiawathahouse.blogspot.com about embarrassment? I should have written that post. I'm good at embarrassing myself. Oh well, this too shall pass.

This peach tree I moved in early spring seem to be doing good. It has several small peaches.

That heavy duty yellow drop cord, actually there are two, hanging over the little door that goes under the house is where the dehumidifiers are running, hopefully drying things out. 

Okay, I don't feel capable of writing a decent post today, so I'll push away from the computer for now. Sure glad you stopped by.

Love,
Henny