It all started with a garage sale and a wooden spool.

Yep, Jessy and were coming back from a town run and we just happened to notice that a neighbor just a quarter mile or so east of us was having a garage sale! And well, it’s very hard for us to pass up a garage sale! But we almost did, because it was late in the afternoon and well, we thought, they might finished up for the day. But they weren’t!

Well, right there in the yard is a bunch of wooden wire spools! Yeah! Hillbilly garden tables! I really wanted something for in the garden, so that you can set your drink on, or your garden tools, basket for produce, you know, stuff that you need to do in the garden! And a little spool would be PERFECT!!!

So we started to look around a bit, found a cute little table too, that would work so nicely in our little front parlor foyer or somewhere… and a neat little wooden ship for Maggie, whom we have left home… but there was something about the folks running the sale and their house and homestead. They had a neat covered run and coop with a bunch of chickens! And a great old barn with livestock corrals… and just a lovely garden in an old foundation by the house… and you know that niggly little feeling that you’re standing there in a the presence of a like minded person and you just have to start being less the in and out garage sale shopper and more the conversation starting, maybe meet someone cool, sort of human being and just jump in and say howdee!

Well, it was that moment. And I was so excited to find that they were ready to respond in kind with conversation and smiles! Oh my gosh! We have met our first neighbors that are like us! Fairly new residents to the little village… and right away, I just had that feeling that we were certainly on the same path for sure!

We talked about growing pigs… they have done a few red durock piggies and said the experience was great… and we talked chickens… and then we visited with their very pregnant goat and her goat hubby, and got to see the old barn with it’s big lofts and tall hand hewn timbers… oh my… and then we got to talking and all, it was an awesome visit!

Our new friends are Clift and Julia and they have some teenage sons as well as some grown children and grandchildren!!! (One of the boys is learning guitar and wants to start a band! I wonder if I can gently condition him to try a little bluegrass… hahha… you know bluegrass is addictive fun!) Julia cut us some wonderful fresh lettuce from her garden and that was SO welcome as of course, we don’t have any yet ready to eat! And we talked about how earlier in the year, one of their goats escaped and ended up here at Windhaven, in our screen porch under a desk in a bunch of junk that was here before we bought the place!!! So they knew how crazy overgrown and wild the place was before and thought we were sure doing a lot there in short while!

Well, the mention of our crazy mowing schedule came up and how we are saving for a riding mower and all, and well, Clint offered to come over some time and help us a bit with his mowing machine! Oh, wow… well, seeing how beautiful their yard is, I thought, that is sure a nice offer and maybe some day, might happen. We chatted a bit more but I was concerned that Maggie would think we had dropped off the face of the earth, so we begged farewell and got home.

We hadn’t hardly been home at all, when Jessy says, “hey, someones here” and we look and it’s Clift and Julia with the mower!!!! OH MY GOSH… he said might as well come down and see the place and getter done… I was so surprised! He mowed for what seemed hours and just made the place so beautiful! He’s a master with his mowing, I must admit, carefully done, beautiful patterns and a neat and beautiful cut. It looked just like a golf course when he was done!!!

What was a delight is that I got to spend the time chatting and visiting with Julia and her son Jeremy, who had come down later on. We got to give them a tour of the place and visit with the chickens and just visit and learn a bit about each other! Very cool.

One of the things that they don’t talk a lot about, with small towns, is that it’s hard to really get to know people. Some say it takes months, even years to get past the “strangers” in town monikers and mystic. I have to say, it’s kind of true, but at the same time, we’ve meet a few people that have been warm and friendly, like Julia and Clift.

The lady at the post office, Deb, she’s been super nice and helpful. She has gone the extra mile for certain to welcome us and our business and really has been nice. Our neighbors right across the street, Bill and Rod, they were friendly and we certainly owe them a visit in return. But we just were so thankful for the gift cutting… it gave us a break in our monotous mowing pattern!! In fact, almost a week off!!!! It’s been a little dry and thankfully, Clift cut it good and short so we don’t have to dash back to it. (We’ve got to get back to the front and side yard tomorrow, but still, it has been WONDERFUL to have a little break for sure!!!)

But my gosh… it didn’t stop there!!! A few days later, they were back, with a big old rototiller to help us with our gardens!!!!

Oh my gosh! It looks so beautiful!!! And it has prevented my children from revolting and declaring anarchy against my feeble attempts to get a big garden in! No more hoeing the hard mud that my garden had become after the flood!!! We are almost done planting everything… and it is just so wonderful!!!

And then, he even had some time to get the garden behind the barn tilled for me! I thought that was going to have to wait for next year, but now, we might even get a crop of short season sweet corn in!!! You just never know! We have some 60 and 65 day sweet corn seeds and boy, we’re going to give it a good shot. I think we’ll make it…

Any of you that have been reading this blog for a few years now, know that I am so missing my lovely raised beds of the Moby right now… they were so beautiful and ready to just go nuts this year! And now, I’m back to square one! Of course, this is good, for all we have gained, I am so thankful. But now??? Oh my gosh, I am so delighted!!! I just can’t believe how sweet this is and so helpful and I just don’t know what to do to return two such generous displays of good neighborly friendship! It’s so nice.

We have had a crazy little few days and I haven’t gotten everything planted but tomorrow, it’s going to be all done… all the big garden, the new barrel beds AND the corn field!!! It’s going DOWN… haha… and I just can’t wait! I hope tomorrow is going to be a nice day, since today was simply beautiful. I had a gig at a wonderful church picnic in a nearby town and it was so nice, good food and great people! And well, we had to make the turkeys new house safe for them. Life! But tomorrow will mark a special day in our Windhaven history… the final planting of the last seed of the 2011 gardens!!!

And we have a little garage sale and a hillbilly garden table to thank for that…

And of course, the kindness of some wonderful new neighbor friends!!!

Thank You Both!!!!!

Bucka Roo approves of the fantastic corn field tilling. He’s inspected the soil and has given it his chicken scratch of approval…

Pin It