My “dream”  handsome man around the farm…  Oh I wish!!!

This lovely roo is from Carole and her website… www.foulvisions.com

Well, being that this chick is flying solo these days, Valentine’s Day doesn’t quite have the same meanings to me as it might have in years past.  But that’s okay.  I decided early on to just have a great day and enjoy a little time out running around and doing what I liked.  Sounded like fun.

I’ve been wanting to build a couple cold frames in the garden this year and so while haunting Craig’s List I found a fellow selling old farm house windows and I was excited!  And he said, come on out!  So I loaded up the dog and we headed out.

Gypsy loves to go on adventures.  She’s a good companion and is comfortable with riding in the car.

We traveled to Whitehouse, which is only about 10 minutes from my house and in such lovely countryside and little farm homesteads all over.  Each from maybe an acre or two to 5 or 10.  Lots of variations on the theme as well.  Not all just perfect little fancy houses, there were well kept ones and those that were a little less than perfect, but all happy and looking like nice places to live.

It’s something I love about this area of the Toledo metroplitan areas.   You don’t have to go too far to get to some pretty rural areas.  That’s good.  Keeps the prices of land affordable, yet you’re not so far out in the boonies that you’ll never see any friends!

The minute I drove up, I knew that I just loved Todd and Sandy’s lovely home!  It’s all finished in stained natural wood and is just decorated enough to be cute yet not overpowering you with the cute country thing going on.  It’s lovely and classy.  And there’s an old tractor and a big old tree with a swing!!!  Oh how that brought back memories…

Our house in Perrysburg that we lost had a old wooden swing board out in the front yard.  I suspect our slightly well to do neighbors didn’t like the swing, but we loved it and the kids loved it.  There was always someone out there just swinging and dangling and spinning on the tree swing.  I think sometimes I miss that most of all!

Well Todd met me at the barn and we got to work and of course, a lot of talking!  I knew right away that he was my kind of person!  Loved old things and antiques, but also liked his land and yard and making old things into new things.  He told me that the windows came out of the original house and that there was a log cabin buried in the house!!!   When he offered a tour when we were done, how could I refuse!  I would love a log cabin!!!   The chance to see and touch some ancient hewn wood, well, a girl can not pass that up, now can she?

Todd is redoing this old Farm-All tractor and looks like he’s on the right track.  It’s a snow plow now and by the looks of it, does a good job of it.  He also had some great old farm attachments to show me…  a corn husker and mill grinder for corn to make meal!  They would attach to the tractor.  It’s clear to me that the tractor really opened up a lot of opportunity for the farmer back in the old days.  No wonder folks are very attached to their rigs!

In his garage, he had a whole lovely little mancave worked out, complete with a wood burner and lots of lovely found items like his coffee grinder collection and neat things found around the farm and even an old Hoosier kitchen cabinet that he’s refinishing!   Those are SO COOL..  google them if you’re not sure what a Hoosier Kitchen is!

Well, it was time to go and meet Sandy and their cool dogs and her son too!  And see the house…  at the front door I knew it was going to be lovely… the door was an old craftsman door with multi-panes and a beautiful old wood patenia.  Todd said he got it a sale and stripped all the many layers of paint down to the beautiful natural wood!  Just lovely.  And then right inside the door… this lovely little shelf unit that fit perfect!  Looked like hen nest boxes to me, but it’s perfect for shoes now!

And you could see the old square hewn timbers of the original cabin on the back porch!

Well, I’ll let you just see some of the pictures I snapped… I didn’t want to hang around and waste their day too much, but I just loved the whole 50 cent tour!  Just lovely.  And I love all the touches of old without being totally overwhelming!  Oh and the dog boys were just big and goofy and lovable.  I just the old gate that serves as their doggie gate… just the perfect bit of whimsy with a totally practical side!!!

Well after the lovely visit, we got the windows in the wagon and Gypsy and I said farewell!    I thought it was such a lovely bright day in the sunshine so we went for a little drive and looked at the lands and the little cute town of Whitehouse and then ended up over in Maumee.  I have a post office box there, so I dropped in, grabbed the mail and then thought, let’s go over to the Maumee Antique Mall!  Yah!

It’s this HUGE store, probably was a department store or something at one point or another and it’s been sectioned off and people buy little sections and display all their goodies.  Some are reasonably priced, others are a tad high and some are down right cheap!  I love the cheap ones…  why not!  But looking at everything, it’s hard not to come home with a few treats and treasures.

I’m in love with the blue Ball jars, especially the bigger ones and the old wire clasp ones.  And of course, I found a few and most were only 2 or 3 dollars each!  In fact the large one was only $4!  Those are usually in the 8-10 dollar range so I made sure to grab a couple.  I love storing bits and pieces in these old jars.  Buttons, ribbon, whatever, it always looks nice in them.

And another weakness of mine is old square or rectangle pyrex baking dishes!  The ones with lids are especially my favorites.  However, this cute little round casserole in a very neat coloring got into my bag!  I wonder how that happened?

Found a couple old forks for a quarter a piece that I want to use to make some cute little garden markers for plants…  but that’s another post sometime.  I did see a vintage 4 piece Fireking refrigerator set that I would have LOVED to get but it was $32 and that just didn’t seem right.  Considering that I got all my goodies for under $30.

I also found an old bluegrass LP of a band that is local!!!  I know these guys!  They have been guests at the Opry before… I had to get this, if nothing else to have them autograph it sometime!  It’s got to be worth more than the $4 it was marked!  It is to me!  Isn’t that the lovely charm of these things… one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, so they always seem!   I also got this sweet tall tin for Edward’s guinea pig munchies.  It’s nice that it’s tall and yet it’s not got a huge footprint in size, so Maggie can fill ‘er up and still not loose too much space.

We were getting a little tuckered and tired and I remembered that it was Shamrock Shake time at the old McD’s and so we dashed in, got a shake and a burger, Gypsy too and then called it a day.  And a lovely day it was.  Came home, unpacked the treasures and got in a little knitting time watching a cool movie about how they sought out a reincarnated Buddist Lama in Nepal.  I’m not sure I could deal with someone knocking on my door and questioning my little 2 year old and then deciding he was the next version of some old dead religious guy.  You could see the poor mom’s troubled eyes as she tried hard to swallow back tears and give her son up to the monks and the world!  It was a great honor and would transport him from their life in very very rural Nepal, but yet, he was her little boy and they struggled with it.  Wow.  Different cultures.

Well, I’ve already warned Tim about my cold frame plans…  these old windows have a lot of charm and dust!  HAHA…  but they will work awesome and the price was perfect, just $5 a window.  They will look great once they great a good cleaning and maybe a little wire brushing to knock off a couple layers of paint.  If you’re not sure what a cold frame is, it’s basically a little raised bed that is more like a greenhouse than a simple bed.  You can extend your growing in the fall and basically get plants out much earilier in the spring as well.  A great place to harden off your house started seedlings too!  And I think they will look awesome next to my shed!

Mine are going to be 8 feet long by 2 feet wide and have double windows to lift and all.  And Todd gave me two extras that I might see about making a real deep one as well.  Something that I might be able to put a couple tomatoes in and keep getting vine ripened tomatoes even into October and November with!  That would be sweet!  We’ll have to wait and see how it all takes place!

It might not have been a super romatic day, but I sure did love the adventure.  My kids will be home in a hour or so and that will be nice.  Ready to get started on a nice and busy work week!!!

Hope you all had fantastic days too!!!!

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