Who would post about cleaning a shop??

Now that Poppy has retired from his full time job, and working part time, and off every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, well, I am finding less time to blog, but more time to get some big jobs done around the house.

Jobs like cleaning out the shop! What a mess, and you should have seen it last week! Poppy said to me, "I wish you would start cleaning out the shop, maybe that would get me in the mood to get in there and clean too".  So, after squeezing my way through the shop door, I carried out five big barrel deer feeders and three deer tree stands and made room for them under the shed...where those things should have been stored in the first place! Now we can at least walk in the shop! It worked! When Friday got here, Poppy could hardly wait to get started.

That's Dale Earnhardt, Jr. standing in front of a dozen more Nascar driver stand-ups. There must be ten or more large chests of Nascar, along with baseball and basketball collectibles packed away in here that Poppy is putting up for sale, plus we are planning to have a big yard sale, soon!

a tangled mess of fishing rods,

but we are getting there...

Okay, I'm sure you have seen enough shop pictures, but one more...

Remember Poppy's brother Joe who passed away about three years ago? Joe was a carpet designer. A few years before Joe died, he designed and made this rug using a picture he had drawn himself of a buffalo in snow. He gave the rug to Poppy for Christmas that year. 

Okay, I will be surprised if you are still reading. :) Maybe my next post will be beautiful! Time to get busy.

One more thing...thank you for the comments about taking osteoporosis bone building medications. I have decided to stay away from them all, at least for now.  Once that injection is in my body, there is no changing my mind. I'm taking vitamin D3 and Calcium Citrate with magnesium, drinking whole milk, and trying to eat healthy. :)

Hope to be back here soon.

Love,
Henny

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

News on the well house and such

Good gosh! Would you look at the leaves, and look at this ugly mess! It's no wonder I was depressed the whole month of February! This is definitely a "before" picture. 

You may remember back in February when the pump in our well stopped working and we were without water. We called the pump and well digging folks out and had a new pump installed. You may recall too that the well cover fell apart as it was being taken off, and how happy that made me. I don't like those little wishing wells. 

This was a couple of years ago before the old well house fell apart.

When Poppy said a friend at work was going to build us another well cover,  I jumped right in and said it had better be "big"! Something that looks real. I wanted a well cover like Aunt Berlie used to have. Now Aunt Berlie's well cover was big enough that she and I could carry our straight chairs out and sit and crack walnuts...under the cover of the well.

Poppy's friend delivered this late yesterday. It took four men to get it off the trailer.

I did say "big"!  We can't sit under this one but maybe it looks more real. It needs leveling a bit and painting. I'm thinking a dark walnut color, the same color I plan to paint Poppy's shop. 

The shop was supposed to be barn red but it turned out orangy looking. Now that we're living in a red house, I'm thinking the shop needs to be another color...maybe dark walnut.

Okay, I'm off to make bowls if ice cream. I can't seem to get off this roll I'm on...let see who can get the fattest!!! Have you tried Turkey Hill's Box of Chocolates? Honestly, well it's indescribably delicious. :) You need to buy a carton!

Hope to be back soon. 

Love,
Henny

Building Bun Bun a Home

Poppy's shop...

Dear Friends,

What I need to do here is a post on how "NOT" to build a rabbit hutch! Seriously! Why didn't I take "shop" instead of "home economics" in high school? Probably because you did not have that choice back then!

Funny how you don't know what you really enjoy doing in life until it is too late. Most of my time as a teenager was spent laying on my back on mama's cedar chest, daydreaming about being a movie star or an opera singer. A movie star...me...too bashful to buy a ticket at a movie theater let alone act in a movie.  And an opera singer...yeah right! I can't carry a tune well enough to help sing the hymns in church.

So back to the rabbit hutch. How much wood does it take to build rabbit hutch anyhow? I've used eight 2x4's, and sawed the brackets off one good saw horse which gave me 5 more shorter 2x4's which are now part of the hutch. In town yesterday, I bought 12' of wire mesh but still need a couple of short 2'x4' pieces added so the wire will fit flush. The more I build the more wood I need and the hutch is not getting any bigger. There is one more 2x4 that Poppy said I could use. All it needs is the "no trespassing" sign sawed off the end.

As Hank Hill says, "I tell you wot", taking apart an old pallet is near bout impossible. The nails will not pull out! That's what hurt my back in the first place! I need the wood in that pallet to build a door! 

Andee was telling me just yesterday that some community colleges will let seniors sit in on classes for free...like "shop"! Would this knowledge be too late for me with this Osteoporosis in my back? My back! I hammered and pulled out nails, and sawed 2x4's while bending over for too many hours yesterday. Disgusted, with one foot I raked all the bent and crooked nails into a pile on the floor of Poppy's shop and dragged myself into the coolness of the house. Perhaps I need to label that one jar of used nails, "L" shaped nails...

Poppy preached to me all morning about all these things I am trying to do.  Is hurting your back really worth building a rabbit cage, he said. Just keep it up and one day you won't be able to do anything.  So, I suppose I will try to cool it a little and just finish painting the trim on the back porch today. All that's left to do there is the trim on each end and the boards up near the top, which require climbing to the top of the ladder...something I put off doing when I painted last Tuesday. I can't wait to show you before and after pictures, which means I need to end this break and get busy.  

When Bun Bun's new home is finished, I will proudly show you that too! :)  Thank you so much for stopping by. We simply need more hours in the day!!! And a good back brace! :)

Love,
Henny Penny