Hovatter's Zoo and the Parakeet Experience

 In August, we went to Hovatter's Zoo in Kingwood, WV where we had a parakeet experience.

It started out innocently enough. John held out a food stick, and a parakeet flew over and landed on it. So sweet. And then...

Let's just say the parakeets weren't shy! It was crazy! It just took a few seconds until they were all over you. Note to self: make sure you wear a hat! We had a little trouble getting them out of my hair. It was fun, though a bit painful. Ha! Those teeny-weeny little bird feet claws are sharp!

The other animals were much calmer. The kids got to feed lots of animals, including the giraffes. 

Word of warning, the roads to Kingwood are very windy. I got a little seasick. Grace got very seasick, and we had to make a quick pullover in a store parking lot for her to throw up. A car stopped beside us to see if we needed help. Turned out to be (I think) the owner. He was so kind, which we appreciated more than he will ever know. 

Other than the motion sickness, it was a great day, and we will know to load up on Dramamine the next time! 

Scarecrows for the Wild Apple Festival

We had a lot of fun making scarecrows for the Wild Apple Festival which our son and daughter-in-law hold on their farm.

Wait a minute, those 2 on the ends aren't scarecrows!

We scattered our new creations around the field.

This guy is next to an old grain cleaner in the U-Pick Flower Patch.

This one is a short guy, with a short window and a short corn shock. 

Perfect size for little ones to pose with. 

If you look closely, you can see an arch with small pumpkins growing on it. The plan was for the vines to completely cover the arch, but a too wet Spring followed by a too dry Summer took its toll. The flowers in the background did great though! 

This one is at the top of the lane, helping to announce the two-weekend festival. 

And this guy was our biggest challenge. We named him Johnny Lee, because he is wearing grandson John's pants, and neighbor Lee's hat. But technically, he could be called Pappy Johnny Lee, because he is also wearing Pappy's shirt. 

He was the hardest to make, and the hardest to stage. We knew we wanted him to look like he was plowing. It took a little doing, and a few stakes, but it worked!

He is part of the Scavenger Hunt in the apple orchard. There is a list of 15 items to find in the orchard. Some natural, some added. Anyone who finds at least 12 of the items is entered to win a gift basket of Howard Family Farms products. 

And how do you get to the orchard? On a hayride! There are goats to admire, and pigs to feed. There are kid's games to play. Flowers to pick. A trailer load of home-grown pumpkins to choose from. 

This is the second year for the festival, and it's really taking off. 

Lots of people were there having fun this morning.... until the rain moved in this afternoon. Sigh. 

But tomorrow is another (supposed to be sunny!) day. 

Taking up Blogging Again after a Long Absence

I see I haven't posted anything since 2019. Yikes. In fact, I'm not sure I've even looked at my blog since then. Double yikes. As best I remember, my laptop had died, and for the next few years, I only had internet on my phone, which is not conducive to blogging, at least to me. I finally got another laptop, so no excuses now. 

I last talked about switching our shop to an Occasional Shop. Best business decision we ever made!! We did that for a few years and really enjoyed most aspects of it. But oh, the work! We were busier than ever, out picking for vintage items as often as we could, (the fun part), and then cleaning and pricing everything (the not so fun part). All that deserves its own post, or several posts. 

In 2023, we decided to close the shop, after being open for almost 21 years. It was time. All that furniture moving was taking its toll. And our son and his family (our grandkids!!) had moved 2 and a half hours away. We were spending more and more time on the road. visiting them and helping them get established on first a small farm, and then later a bigger one. That too will take several posts to cover!

After closing the store, we put the building up for sale. We took one last photo the day of the closing. It was so surreal. So much of our time was spent there, so many friends and memories made. But we had no regrets. We realized that our hearts were no longer in the store, they were at our son's farm. We bought a house just a mile or so from him, and for now, we are splitting our time between it and "back home". 

This was the day we closed on the house near him.

A very exciting day!!

And to make it even more exciting, when we are at this house, we are much closer to our daughter. It cuts our travel time to see her in half. We see her and her husband much more often now, which we love. A couple weeks ago, we met her in the middle just to see a movie, which is something we never would have done when we were 5 hours away from her. But now that we are only 2 and a half hours from her and can cut that in half again if we meet in the middle, an afternoon at the movies is doable. Especially if that movie is Hamilton! Gotta be in the room where it happens!

I'm excited to start blogging again. Honestly, I don't even care if anyone sees it. I look at it as a diary with photos. I wish I hadn't stopped. The last few days I have read all my old posts and have enjoyed that so much. Goodness, there were many that talked about things I had totally forgotten about. How I wish I would have had something like this when our own kids were growing up! And I missed out on recording a few years of the grandkids. 

Every moment is a gift. And I want to remember as many of those moments as I can.

First Occasional Shop Weekend of the Year

I was a little nervous about today. Would our customers come back? Or would they have moved on since we haven't been open since last December?

They came back!! Thank you! We appreciate you all so very much!

Here's a few pics from around the shop. A sampling if you will.

The wringer washer stand is still available. 

It's a 3-piece set; the stand and the two tubs. 

We pieced this together - we had sewing treadle legs with no top. 

We had a top with no legs.

Sweet union!

2 old bikes. A hand push cultivator plow. 

Can you say yard ornaments?

Speaking of yard ornaments! 

This old box fit perfectly on the rusty metal stand. It sold quickly after we opened. 

All through the day, more folks came in asking for it.

It's humble look was quite popular!

This sweet little dresser also sold quickly, as did the barrel and the box.

The wash tub on a stand is still available.

Perfect for flowers, or for ice and some cold drinks.

The black hutch also sold quickly, but a smaller one is still available...

Love it's 2 tone look! 

I'm blaming the cut off pic of this cupboard on my computer problems.

I apparently downloaded the wrong pic.

Since my laptop crashed, I'm working on our desktop computer which is

SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWW as molasses.

So, it is what it is at this point.

But trust me, the cupboard does indeed have a top.

Take me home, country roads!!!

What do you do with an old lawn roller? 

Take the roller part off, and turn the handle into a quilt rack! 

We added the mirror to the desk to make a vanity. 

And the woods matched perfectly! 

Yay!

The hen and her baby were a weather vane with a broken bottom. 

No problem!

We cut the broken part off, and mounted them on a couple pieces of wood.

They walked out the door right after we opened. 

So to speak.

Nice quilts for those chilly spring nights!

As I am posting these, every photo looks blurry.
Maybe because I took them from my Facebook page, instead of from the phone.
This whole laptop being down thing is really messing with my posting skills.

Wish me luck in trying to save it.

And if you can, stop in and see us tomorrow!
We would love to see you!

2019 Schedule

The best laid plans.......

Ha!

We had planned to close for the winter, hit the auctions hard, and open back up in March.

What we didn't take into account though is that auctions in the winter are far and few between. And the few there were didn't have the cool old stuff we fill the shop with.

Ok then, on to

We have a good start on bringing in more of the cool old stuff.

And we have been busy creating and upcycling. 

(The word upcycling makes me giggle)

We are carrying very little over from last year, so we have a lot of space to fill. 

We feel confident we can do that by April.

So, (drum roll please), our 2019 schedule:




We hope to see you on as many of these weekends as you can come!
We are looking forward to year 2 as an occasional shop.
And we promise to make it worth the wait.

Sellers Cabinet with a Story

The stories she could tell! If only this old Sellers Cabinet could talk.

In fact, she did tell me a bit of her story.

See the wood attached to the side on the right? It should hold a wooden shelf.
There was a shelf there, covered in dirty pink paper.
I pulled it out to clean it, and when I took the paper off, it wasn't wood.

It was a folded up heavy cardboard calender.

From 1956!

That makeshift shelf has worked for a long time!
Love the resourcefulness of whoever came up with a solution using whatever they had laying around the house.

The cabinet had another story that is a mystery.
The pull out table part was in bad shape.
It's not enamel like most, but rather some kind of wood.
Maybe its the underlayment for enamel, and the enamel is missing?
It was all stained and nasty looking, so I painted it black.

My own version of resourcefulness.
😄

He Finally Got His Sleigh

First off, you have to understand.... George has always wanted a sleigh.

It comes up every Christmas. And throughout the year.
In antique shops and estate sales.
Around the dinner table, and riding in the car.

He has admired many, but sleighs, REAL sleighs are expensive.

So, he has just dreamed.

A couple days ago, I saw this picture on a local auctioneer's Facebook page.

I texted the picture to George, with the comment, "Boy, she's rough."

He agreed, but said he was interested.
Hmmm...

I went to the auction, and he stopped in for a few minutes on his way to an appointment to get the tires rotated on our car. He looked the sled over, then came over to me with a very excited look on his face.

"Don't let it go for less than $150."

My response? "BOY, SHE'S ROUGH.'

"She's fine, I can work with her".
Hmmm....

So, he left for the car appointment, and I stayed at the auction, rather hoping that the sleigh would go for $160. Don't get me wrong, I want George to have a sleigh. And a fixer upper is fine. But, BOY, SHE'S ROUGH.

The sleigh finally came up on the auction block. The auctioneer tried to start the bidding at $100.
Silence.

$75.
$50
$40
$30
$20
$10

I held up my bidders card.
And no one else did.

SOLD!!!

When George got back to the auction, he sat down beside me. I looked at him and said, "don't ever think I don't love you", and he broke out in a grin.

"You got the sleigh?"

"Yep"

"How much?"

"10 bucks."

"WHAT? Only 10 bucks?"

Apparently he is the only one that didn't notice that BOY, SHE'S ROUGH.

"Yes, she's rough, but she's perfect. That makes her easier to take apart and fix." he said with a huge smile on his face.

He looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

Wish him luck!