Hodge Podge

It’s been awhile! Again! Where doth the time go? This may be a hodge podge of a post. Today, The Blacksmith and I wandered off to a “draft horse and related items” auction. We saw many antiques and beautiful buggies, and more!

I did not take my ‘real’ camera, but instead used the camera on my phone. I’m slipping!! But, truthfully, these turned out better than I thought they would.

Here -- there are many items shown: an antique v-belt pulley (turquoise) that for some reason I fell in love with, White Vis-à-vis (carriage), original spring wagon, antique seed cleaner, antique incubator (I SO wanted this for a coffee table!!), brightly painted horse drawn mower, numerous old wheels… and so much more. Also, please note the Amish boy riding the “trike”… I really liked his mode of transportation.

We truly enjoyed our time at the auction, although we didn’t purchase any of the vintage treasures today. There were a few vendors in attendance. My Blacksmith bought me some lucky horseshoe earrings which I love. And I bought this hoodie. If you’re looking for some cool donkey & mule designs (isn’t everyone??)… then I must recommend these nice people. Their company name is Aardvark Graffix and the phone number is 219-267-4799 or toll free 1-888-582-3513. Website coming soon, so they tell me. They also have some beautiful horse designs.

After the auction, we shopped till we dropped in two different towns. My Maytag gas range has died (for the second time in 5 years or less), so the shopping began for a replacement for that. Then it was home to chores.  And butterflies. They are so elusive!

How has your week been so far? Missed all of you!!

A Succulent Old Chair for the Garden

“What???”… you may ask?? I turned an old chair with a worn out seat into a container for some of my favorite plants: Succulents.

A Succulent Old Chair. See??

I’m going to pretend this is a real tutorial, but truth is, I did this a couple of months ago and didn’t take any before or during pics. I was inspired by a post I saw somewhere. I am 99% for certain it had something to do with Donna at Funky Junk Interiors, and perhaps some inspiration pics she posted on Facebook (although I can’t find it now!). I’ve always wanted a Succulent Wreath, but this Succulent Chair was much more doable. For me, anyway. It took only a few minutes to complete.

I began with an assortment of succulents from our local greenhouses. Our Lowes also had some different little cuties I threw in. I already had eyed an old chair with a worn out seat down at hubby & father-in-law’s machine shop. I had just enough potting soil left over for this project. And also a scrap of hardware cloth (from the big, huge Chickens 2010 project.. hehe), and burlap, plus a trusty staple gun.

I knocked out what was left of the seat. The hardware cloth was turned into a very crude bowl formation and placed in the area that was the seat . Gloves work well for that task as hardware cloth can be a little wicked to work with at times. The “bowl” was covered haphazardly with burlap, which I scrunched around and stapled to the chair here & there. Then the potting soil was added, the plants, and finally I threw on a little mulch & some pebbles.

Voila. An almost maintenance-free little garden, sitting in an old worn out chair.

It takes very little water. I keep it under the shelter of a porch much of the time to protect it from the occasional torrential rains we’ve had this year.

I simply can’t do a post without at least throwing in a little something “chicken-y” (since this is the year of the Chicken here…), so I must show you our big run, still in progress. We still need to add some boards along the sides, the cover (flight netting to protect from hawks), as well as some hardware cloth around the perimeter about two feet up (to protect from raccoon and cat’s paws). Special thanks to the Fiddler for helping on the Run project over the weekend. It has been incredibly hot here and it’s not pleasant to be out in very long!

It is 97 degrees here at 5:30 pm and I’m headed back out to refresh the cool water for everyone. Almost makes me wish for Fall!

Hope your week is going well!

p.s. Thanks for all the nice birthday wishes!!! :) :) :)

For the first time ever, I'm linking up with a party. My friend Andrea over at Rural Revival hosts Thrifty Thursday. Check it out! You won't believe the fabulous thrifty treasures! In Andrea's words - "Recycling, up-cycling, reusing, re-purposing. Whatever you want to call it, it's being thrifty and walking with a softer footprint."

Barn Raising, Day 3

(NOTE: for background on this project, please refer to the last half of "Rainy Day Thoughts")

The builders were very productive again today. Most of the metal is on the barn, except for the roof. All windows and the walk-in door are installed (but we will add a few more after completion, although this will be a major pain methinks).

The second picture is taken from the southwest corner. In thirty years of marriage we have never had the luxury of a garage, so rest assured… this will be greatly appreciated!

I went mushroom hunting tonight. Should have been prime morel hunting after our 70+ degree day. I found no mushrooms, but I did find a very old feeder top. I was so excited at first because I thought it said “Feed Donkeys”. However, upon closer examination it says “Feed Conkey’s”. What?! I think I will keep it anyway. It’s already flattened on the backside, so upside-down it could make a nice primitive planter hung on a fence post…. or something? If you have any ideas, please share.

More barn updates tomorrow I hope!