MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Yes, Merry Christmas dear blogging friends. We've had computer problems...had a new hard drive installed. I can now load pictures from my iPhone to the computer. Yay! I'm on my way back into the world of blogging!

 Just wouldn't be right to let Christmas pass and not post the old cupboard, and a picture of our same little old Christmas tree...

and maybe tell you how happy we are to have both Eli and Ellie with us for Christmas...

Just a few weeks ago, Eli became very sick. An ultrasound showed a large fluid filled mass touching his right kidney. He stayed 2 nights in the hospital. The doctor drained the mass and no cancer cells were found. He was also treated for Gastroenteritis. 

Eli will be 10 years next month!

You may remember it was just last March that we almost lost our sweet Ellie to Addison's Disease...

We're so glad both are well and gaining weight again....Eating us out of house and home, I should say. 

Thank you for coming back to visit. I'm far behind but will be around to read and catch up with you all. 

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Love, Henny

PS:  Smokey is well too and sends his love. :)

I will get over...

  The fact that it's Fall!  

Seems like every direction I look there are beautiful colors that need to be captured in a picture! Keeps me busy running in for my camera...I mean my iPhone! 

But first, there is also a special picture from Poppy, so look for it...

So I have pictures, such as they are. Now I've seen the gorgeous colors you folks up in the beautiful mountain areas have, and also you the northern states too, and mine aren't that beautiful, but...

 here's a few from around the house and yard and woods...about as far away as I travel these days. Easy to see why I get excited. :)

Several years ago, it was in the Fall, I remember my sister Shelby saying, I wonder if I'm going to die soon because the colors have never looked this beautiful to me before. Kind of how I'm feeling now.

Miss Ellie wanted to get in this one. Eli and Ellie like being in the goat's lot...as long as Rosie, the spoiled goat, is locked inside her teeny tiny barn. Can you believe Rosie intimidates these two big livestock gardian dogs? 

Oh my gosh! The amount of leaves on the ground have tripled since taking this picture a day or two ago plus I've raked this front yard once already.

and have I shown you our weather vane?? I don't think so...

been meaning to, and we've had it two or three years. While wandering around with the camera, looking up into the trees, the rooster caught my eye.

Oh, and when the sun shines through the oak trees in the back yard, well...

makes me want to go sit on the back steps and feel the warmth of the sun.

Can you spot the fat kitty cat...

Thursday when we carried Ellie in for bloodwork, Smokie came along too for his 3 year Rabies shot. The doctor said he weighs 14 lbs. but I'm thinking maybe the scale was wrong. 

Yep, here we are waiting for the doctor...

Smokey said what bothered him most was the cute bobtail cat that sat and stared down at him. So embarrasing!

I apologize for all these pictures and so much talk. Now as promised here's Poppy's picture. Can you spot the deer??

So very glad Poppy had rather take her picture than shoot her.

 

Once again, thank you friends for stopping by...for putting up with me. 

Love, Henny (and Eli)

The little Parsley plant

Last March when I started a few seeds in the teeny tiny greenhouse, I put a parsley seed in a bit of potting soil. It sprouted and grew to about the size of a toothpick.

After the garden was planted, not wanting to leave the tiny little parsley plant to die, I dug a hole at the end of a row and planted it there, then forgot about it. 

Cleaning up the garden lately this big green healthy plant growing under the edge of a  bunch of zinias caught my eye. Could that be Parsley! Is that the tiny spindly litte sprout I stuck in the garden and forgot.  

It's Parsley alright. So big and pretty! The weatherman was calling for a hard freeze Friday night. With a shovel I scooped up the whole plant, roots and all and put it in a big bucket, watered it good and put it in the greenhouse. 

The little greenhouse is not heated except for a heat lamp, the kind used for baby chicks, with a red 250w bulb. Anyhow, it worked. That was two days ago and the parsley is still pretty. I've dried five trays of parsley in the dehydrator...enough to fill one spice jar. Yay!

Oh my gosh! The leaves, the leaves, the leaves...here they had just begun to fall...

Hard to tell where the driveway ends and the path begins...it's that time of the year!!

and there have been some really pretty colors around the pond this fall...

I love the gold in this big old hickory nut tree that grows just outside Rosie's lot...Sorry I have no picture of Rosie. She is so fat! Rosie tries to eat every leaf that falls in her pasture,  and so far has done a pretty good job of keeping up.  :)

I apologize for all the pictures. I've taken so many and just need to share them with folks I love. Thank you for looking. :) Oh, and I have a few "hello" pictures from the animals, plus a little Randall Rabbit video...

another one of the pond with miss ducky...

Isn't it hard to believe that our Eli is ten years old!  He loves being out in the sun these cool days. Sunshine makes his sweet face even sweeter...

and of course our baby Ellie. Ellie is doing well on her medications. She goes in once a month for bloodwork...so far,  so good...

and now here's Randall Rabbit. What a big sweet bunny this boy has become...

Have I mentioned that I want another bunny?? Well, I do. Not just for me, but for Randall. There are some for sell in Wake Forest for only $20.00...not as big as Randall but are considered large rabbits. The problem is finding a way to get her spayed. My gosh! Why is it so expensive!

I've heard there are places that will help with the expense of spaying and neutering pets, so I am checking around. I have a Christmas craft show coming up November 18th. Hopefully, it will be a good one. Haven't mentioned all this to Poppy yet. So don't tell anybody. :)

and now the Randall Rabbit video... (especially for you Rian) Hope I remember how to load one...

Not the best post I've ever done. Thank you friends for stopping by. Our computer is dying...of course, it's about time for a new one. The screen is jumping up and down as I try to type. It's like trying to type while riding on a four-wheeler! :)

Love, Henny

Are your days busy?

How can there possibly be so much to do on a teeny tiny farm? Whatever would I do with a real farm!

Anyhow, my days are full. Did you know a fireplace screen makes a great drying rack for green beans...

I wasted half a day trying to build a drying rack with old screen wire then happened to notice the fireplace screen and it worked! 

Funny, when I stood the screen up against the tree, Smokey thought it was playtime...all for him.

Silly kitty! The beans frightened him so he found another place near by to sun...

Can you tell I haven't started raking leaves yet? All these little willow oak leaves will be raked up and put on the garden, hopefully, if I remain able. I am bound and determined to improve conditions in the teeny tiny garden before next year. The garden was awful this summer. Simply awful! 

Oh, I finally got around to adding a little more Fall decor to the old cupboard...

I stopped by Goodwill on my way to line dancing last week and found the pitcher. Andee sent me the cute little welcome mat for my birthday...

and the matching flag that hangs up at the playhouse...

Oh, and those green beans drying in the sun...well I've never had any beans worth drying and saving until now. These are old timey heirloom half runner beans...seeds passed down over the years by my Mother's family. Thanks to Shelby for asking around and sure enough a cousin had a bag full stored in her freezer. Shelby and Jimmy grew a couple of long rows of these delicious beans...plenty to eat and plenty to save for seed. Shelby gave me enough beans to plant a couple of rows too. 

By the way, what is your favorite color of the Fall mums? Oh, I love them all! But if I had to pick just one, it would be the deep reds. My son-in-law Todd brought this pretty mum to me for my birthday...

Good grief! I am so embarrassed. My last post has a misspelled word...right up there big as day in the title. That was supposed to be "Community" rock pile.

Okay, I could go on and on. There are spiders and webs and animals to talk about...I need to post more often. 

Thank you friends...if you are still here.

Love, Henny

Comminity Rock Pile

 Who would've guessed Tropical Storm Ophelia was headed straight for North Carolina! "Not I, said the Little Red Hen".

Winds were terrible Friday night and all day Saturday. No damage here but man, the yard and porches were simply littered in dead tree limbs and green leaves.

Guess I'll wear out another wheelbarrow cleaning up the mess...

This was the first of many loads...Poppy carried the bigger pieces away by hand...The joy of living in the woods. :)

Anyhow, about that community rock pile...

Actually, my friend Carla's husband drives a dump truck. Occasionally he brings a load of not so perfect gravel to be spread on the dirt road. Turns out this load had too many big chunks of cement...

so the rock pile, once much bigger, keeps disappearing. Folks slipping in and carting off enough to repair holes in their driveways and such...

so I'm thinking to myself, why not slip over and cart off my own few loads of gravel...maybe build something pretty...

Not even one car passed by and caught me loading up my little pink wheelbarrow.   :) But I have an advantage...see the grey showing under that center board, right side, on the gate? That's the rock pile...just a stone's throw away. 

I built a little patio, joining the greenhouse and playhouse even extending  into a little entrance way...

I kinda like it, do you? Is there anything any more fun than building something pretty?

Remember the old green tub, part of an old fashioned wringer washing machine? Holds the potting soil...

well, it was sitting atop an old rotten pallet about to fall in...what to do? plus I needed it to be a little higher...so off to my stash of wood pieces, bricks, and cinderblocks. 

Perfect! There leaning against an old saw horse...a big, brand new, wooden pallet my neighbot Windy had given me about a year ago. Headed back up to the garden for a saw and the wheelbarrow.

Whew! quite a haul from down near pond! Anyhow, stacked there is the pallet sawed in half...and...

my new, sturdier, taller, easier to reach table! Actually, to me it doesn't look as pretty as the old dark pallet but in time this too will weather and age. And now I see part of the problem...I forgot to spread out the runners on the chocolate vine. That would sorta cover the new boards...

Boy I can sure go on and on, can't I. Bet you've all ssigned off. Anyhow, if not, thank you for visiting. Sure appreciate you all.

Love, Henny

On the 1st day of September...

a cold front came through tricking us into thinking Fall had arrived.

I rushed out and gathered all the pink and white Spring dishes from the old cupboard, fixed a dishpan full of warm soapy water, pulled out the Old English furniture polish and went to work.

What a dirty dusty mess covered the old cupboard! Henny Penny Lane is dirt, you know. It has been hot and dry and the cloud of dust kicked up behind going and coming cars, drifts and settles on the everything on the teeny tiny porch. 

I pulled out a few "almost Fall" looking things...

We had three wonderfully cooler days and nights, even turned the air conditioner off and slept with the windows open. Been a few months since we could enjoy cool night air and hear the frogs down at the pond. Sleep was good.

Rarely do I pick flowers for a vase except for Goldenrods in the Fall and Goldenrods are not in full bloom yet. There are masses of these plants with tiny little flowers growing along the path...so I gathered a few. 

Sorry for posting three pictures of the cupboard. Would delete one, but that would throw all different font sizes into my post and that drives me crazy! :(   Same with the picture below, It is not worth posting. 

Anyhow, still spending time in the sewing room...

working mostly on bags and bonnets. Can't believe I haven't been to the farmer's market since I started making bags. That's just like me! :(  Guess I need to get up from here and go take a picture to show you. Be right back...

Well, here are a few... Have 3 more bags in the sewing room and 2 more cut out ready to sew...

It's kinda fun using this low hanging limb on the old snowball bush for picture taking. Maybe I should try bonnets and aprons here too. Log homes are dark. I've just discovered how much better the natural light makes things look. 

Don't tell anyone there's a big sweet kitty cat that hangs out in my sewing room...

No way could I ever advertise, "made in a pet free home"...

Good thing Smokey doesn't bother things...like the pin cushion. Sweet Dumperoo, (we miss you so much), would have, with his teeth,  pulled every pin and needle from that pin cushion.

Guess I've gone on long enough. Hate to wear out my welcome.  Forgot to mention above that the hot weather came back with a vengeance. Temps in the high 90s and Wednesday was 102 out here in the country.

Here's a neat sunset picture I took looking up the road toward the garden...

and I thank you very much for stopping by, dear friends.

Love, Henny

Can you believe!! Someone must have heard me talking and for meaness threw some large font words into my post! :)