Sunday, September 30, 2012

Sweet September's Last Day

Today was the perfect temperature to enjoy a bike ride.
 
These images are taken on the Wauponsee trail that runs by our home.
 
 
 
(I *heart* dirt roads)
 
A five mile bike ride yielded many farms being harvested.
 
The sun was almost too bright to get really good shots, but I got a few.
 
 
 
 
*sigh*
 
Dreaming of this life.
 
 
 
 
Linking with:
 
 
 
 


Sunday, September 23, 2012

This Old Barn

Today I'm doing a farm tour.
 
Tickets, please!
 
 
 
 
 
We live across the road from the Round Barn Farm.
 
It was saved as an historical marker by our town, and now they have loaded up
 
the former farm fields with baseball fields and wine shacks.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Round Barn Farm itself is constructed from wood that was salvaged
 
from the World's Fair in Chicago...when they built the White City.
 
 
 
(For anyone interested, there is an incredible book titled, "Devil in the White City,"
 
 
a true tale of a serial killer during the World's Fair that hunted farm women
 
as they traveled to Chicago to find work.  It's rich in it's descriptive tale
 
of the architectural structures that were erected, including the museums still
 
standing in Chicago and the world's first Ferris Wheel.
 
I have read it, and I concur it's a great read!)
 
 
 
 
 
 
For years, it was used as a petting zoo and museum and that's why they wanted to save it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
There are only so many round barns in the country of this size.
 
I have been meaning to take some pictures of the structures
 
and today I hightailed over there to finally get them.
 
 
Why am I in such a hurry now?
 
 
 
 
 
They've begun painting. 
 
One day I came home from work and it was done;
 
no more chippy paint on the barn.
 
These chippy images are from other structures...ticket booths, etc.
 
 
 
 
 
It is a cleaner presentation from the highway,
 
 
 
 
 
but there's a lot of overspray on the windows. 
 
Maybe they're replacing those, too, and didn't care.
 
I found the huge old sign laying behind the barn on the ground in pieces...
 
 
 
 
 
...I'm assuming at this point that they will put it back up.
 
 
 
 
 
I think at one point, many children made some memories here.
 
They are trying to bring a little of that fun back
 
in making this farm a community park and festival center.
 
 
Sharing this old barn with...
 
 
 
 
 
 


Friday, September 21, 2012

I Found Her on the Side of the Road Today...

...and I named her Gale.
 
 


What I thought to be a mostly unassuming cabinet,
 
turned out to be so much more.
 
I wasn't even looking for furniture today.  It wasn't even a garbage pick-up day.
 
I first saw the curvy front.
 
Could it be some strange buffet?
 
 
 
 
Of course, her side doors give us some identifying clues...
 
 
 
 
...cubbies!
 
 
 
 
...industrial mechanisms!
 
Are you on the right track yet?
 

I opened her top hatch
 
to be blasted by gale force winds.
 
 
 
 
The crowning glory to the old cabinet!
 
The detail is amazing.
 
I couldn't capture it all with the evening sun.
 
 
 
 
There's even a working metal pedal down there.
 
 
 
 
I just couldn't leave a 96 year old lady on the street.
 
(Gale is circa 1916).
 
 
 
 
So the boys helped me load her up and we brought her home to await a make-over.
 
Don't really know what I'm going to do yet...
 
will I remain a purist on this one,
 
or paint and distress her exterior because she has some damage anyway?
 
Or will I remove the sewing machine from the cabinet altogether?
 
Dunno, dunno, dunno.
 
Any of you ladies have one of these babes in a big wooden cabinet like this?
 
 
 
SHARING WITH:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Monday, September 17, 2012

AWOL

What would it mean  to go truly AWOL to you?
 
I've just finished reading
 
AWOL on the Appalachian Trail
 
By David Miller.
 
 
 
 
This is the journal of a man who quits his job and,
 
with the persmission and encouragement of his wife and kids,
 
hikes over 2,000 miles of terrain through 14 states,
 
from northern Georgia to central Maine.
 
I can say, I'm inspired.
 
I think I would love to hike the AT.
 
It may be dangerous, rainy, cold and hot,
 
but from reading this book I have learned that it has been accompished by ages six to eighty.
 
It can be done.
 
Who would take 5 months of their life to up and leave their job to accomplish this?
 
Turns out thousands.
 
 
 Sharing with
 
 
 
 


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Betty's Full of Guys...

...Halloween guys.
 
We couldn't wait any longer.
 
 
 
 
This year she got decked out early.
 
 
 
 
She turned out to be a great vintage display case for many
 
favorite Halloween guys that seem to just
 
get lost around the house with kids.
 
 
 
 
With some of my collection housed in here,
 
they remain corralled but still on view.
 
 
 
 
Old guys, really old guys, and new guys that look like old guys
 
is my kinda Halloween style.
 
 
 
 
Betty, my cabinet, hasn't been with us that long,
 
but she's like an old friend.
 
We talk about her all the time.
 
I think she rather likes it, as she has the opportunity to get dressed up for
 
the seasons now.
 
 
 
 
 
When we see a piece just like her, we always say-
 
"There's a Betty!" 
 
or 
 
 "Did you see how much they want for that Big Betty?"
 
One time someone emailed me and asked me what a Betty was!
 
Cute!  She's just favorite cabinet.
 
 
 
 
 
I'll be sharing with:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Saturday, September 8, 2012

Request

I confess I haven't had much to share lately, but today's news is rather urgent.
 
I'm going to ask that anyone who takes the time to read this to please
 
say a quick prayer for my friend Kate, who is battling small cell carcinoma ovarian cancer,
 
which has only one known survivor to date.
 
 
 
 
Cancer is never easy, it's never cut and dry, it's never "get the treatment and get out"...
 
Right now, Kate has some very critical health issues that have arisen that must be addressed
 
before further treatment can resume. 
 
She has been in and out of the hospital trying to correct the situation.
 
Scans are showing she is cancer free;
 
she has had surgery, finished chemo, but must still go through radiation.
 
The radiation cannot occur until some other things are taken care of.
 
She amazes me, that at 19 years old and facing a ferocious cancer in the face,
 
she can still greet me with a very bright positive smile!  She in one tough cookie.
 
 
Kate, I'm praying that you beat it!
 
 UPDATE, SUNDAY MORNING:
I just talked to Kate's mom this morning and she is now cleared
to start her radiation!  Thank you for your prayers and please
let's pray that this will be the end of her treatment and she will be survivor #2!
 
Linking with Sunday Best


Monday, September 3, 2012

It Could Only Be...

Dorothy called me down to the antique mart.
 
"We have a statue for you, but we don't know who it is," she said.
 
They were holding one for me again.
 
 
 
 
With one glance, I knew it was St. Barbara,
 
always pictured with a castle.
 
She is missing a hand, and a sword from the other, I believe, but that's okay.
 
She is a giant antique chalkware piece.  They let me have her for $20.
 
 
 
 
She came home with me that day,
 
and I'll tell you a bit about her.  I had to refresh my own memory with
 
 my saints' book.
 
 
 
 
(My abridged notes)
 
 taken from Novena, The Power of Prayer,
 
By Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua
 
 
 
 
Barbara was believed to have lived sometime around the 3rd-4th century.
She was born near Persia and her parents were wealthy.  She was their only child.  Because it was
a time of social and political unrest, they had a tower built and Barbara lived there...protected from the world, instructed in school, and with much time to think about everything since she was isolated.
(Kind of like a real Rapunzel).
 
She developed an interest in Christianity, and,
while her parents were away, sent for a new teacher to educate her.
 
He father had been constructing a bathhouse as a gift for her,
and while he was away,
she had the decorative pagan statues detroyed and three windows installed instead
to represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
 
 
 
 
Her father returned and was furious that his daughter converted
to Christianity.  He ordered her to be tortured
and then he himself beheaded her with a sword.
 
Immediately afterward, he was struck by lightening
and returned to the earth in a pile of ashes.
 
 
 
 
St. Barbara is know as the patron saint of
sudden death,
invoked for protection against lightening,
artillerymen and bombardments or explosions,
and- for her work on the bathhouse- ahe is also known as the patron saint of architects.
 
She is a popular saint in the
Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church
and her statue guards many homes and businesses
in regions of the world where Christianity tends to be persecuted.
She is a reminder of justice.
Her remains are housed in a church in Egypt.
 
 
 
 
St. Barbara now stands at our front door, too.
 
 
Sharing my St. Barbara with:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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