Let's hear it...awwww...or ewwww...

Well, I love this lil' critter paddling his canoe and like it or not, raccoon are a problem and will always be trapped or shot for raiding the hen house and garbage bins, at least with taxidermy, there is some semblance of usefulness to the loss of the poor creature's life, if only a trophy.
I know, I know, but it is what it is...

Don't even go there...this is one of the booths at The Junk Asylum, she has the best stuff!
I'll post on Friday some of the other dealers...however, I did find something for moi...

I've been Jonesin' for this wicker clothes hamper and today it was on sale big time...MINE...and this portrait, at $18.00, I just couldn't pass up either, together they really give my bathroom an uplift.

Aren't the handles just too cool on this piece and the muted colors...I love my job...but for now these sweet pieces are mine and my other hamper will just have to go to the shop...
it's the way of it you know!

Back to the sweat shop...

Well, UPS just arrived with my work for the week...soap product...
200 pounds of base...whew...
I have several orders to do, plus batches for Sisters' and The Junk Asylum.
If I play this right, the soap biz will take off and I'll never have to leave my shack again...
'cept for a road trip to feed my addictions...right!
Don't you just wish you could sit at home and make soap all day, taking a break while the soap cures...maybe to the swing to watch and listen to Nature...
or maybe to putz in the garden for a few.
I was reading in my new Organic Gardening about raising chickens and the benefits to the bug problems in your yard...

I have got to get my 'Chicken Shack' designed and built...
then I gotta think of a classy name for it...
and do you think I should paint it pink???
Help me out here oh crazy ones...

The fruits of my labor...
and NO that's not a picture of me...
not yet anyway...

Y'all have a wonderful day
gotta get back to the cauldron...

My buds...

Told ya I was homesick for Florida...well this lil' reminder is in a new herb bed I planted last summer. My sandy soil is perfect for herbs, so more lavender is on the menu this year, you can never have enough of it...right!

My poor apricot tree, every year is loaded with buds, but few fruits...I need a mate...

FOR THE TREE!!!

Since the local nursery closed, it's been a struggle to find one close...and reasonable.
Not many honey bees around yet, last year I finally had bunches of them, I think they must've recovered, somewhat from the blight...but when you live this close to aerial spraying in the fields all around me, it's a wonder any bugs survive!
Good ol' Monsanto, thank you very much!!!

My lowly lil' lilac bush, every homestead had one...and birdhouses on every tree.

To me, not playing by the rules and mowing my grass like everyone else, has really doubled my bird population. Some mornings it's so loud, you wanna turn the volume control down, instead, I grab a cup o Joe and head for the swing, binoculars in tow, I scan for new friends...
can't wait for the meadow lark's return, he serenades from the treetops
telling all...
summer has arrived!


Sigh....

Weather...and chores...

Well...here it is, our first tornado watch of the spring season...
Isn't this the most beautiful rumbling sky...I just have the best views since I cut down some of the troublesome trees that freaked me out every storm season.
Chinese Elm trees...huge trees 3 feet in diameter swayed with the winds just feet away from my kitchen and living room, now I can rest in peace knowing the giants are gone and...
I can see the sky!

I have a project that I have been working on for years at the chateau aka shack...
tree rows...
My six acres is filled with cedar trees and as you can see, the new 4-lane they built is maybe 100 feet from my back door...YUCK!!!
It was great for biz when we had the shop in the house, but now, it's a rumbling, smelly eyesore to this country girls eye...sooooo...
The chore begins...tree rows...
Planting the cedar wind/sound barrier is a matter of walking to the field and digging the seedlings and transporting back to site.
The plan is to hide me away, tucked in solitude in my own lil' nature preserve, where I can work and rest knowing the meanies are just on the other side of my secluson.
First thing yesterday morning I took some garbage bags out to the highway and started picking up the refuse the meanies leave behind...
OMG...
Three crammed bags later, I just want to sit next to the road and throw all of it back to the wretches driving by. The biggest share of the heap was plastic water/tea bottles...
are you kidding me...I couldn't walk 10 feet without finding one.
Beer bottles, pop cans, Styrofoam, cardboard, clothes, walmart bags...
What is it with people...THE MEANIES!!!

A spring morn over the strawberry patch out to my six acres of scrub and walnut trees...
aka paradise...

More tree rows in the making, as me and my shadow gaze out the front door at the greening of Spring...

Do you think a moat is too big of a project...

Shadow Shot Sunday...Her Blue Moon...

rusty old relic
pushed from the hand
to the heart
duos of life
dawn to dusk
Winter to Spring
they sing in harmony
an adagio to the sweet pea
a pastoral to the rain
in a symphony of
dancing droplets
I see a reflection
in these pools of solitude
the songs of stormy nights
and the silent wings
of the day light
illuminating
bits of earth
and promise
in my secret storm
a rusty old bucket
worthy still
rambles on
dutifully
celebrating
life and singularity
once in a blue moon



s.wilson

I just love that term, it has such a mystic voice to it...once in a blue moon...conjures up all kinds of mystic moods, huh...
Anyway, our waiting is over here in the Midwest, the blossoms are budding, gardens are being groomed, grass is about to be mowed and tornado season is upon us...it's always something isn't it, nobody said it would be easy, so let's just enjoy it why we have it...6 long, glorious months of warm weather...oh what shall we do...

Well for one, we can head on down under to Australia where hopefully Tracie is back online and able to join us in HER MEME...we miss you girl!!!

Still pretty bleak...BUT!!!

The buds on my trumpet vine are still in hiding and the birds are slowly taking residence...but...

...my sandy, loamy river-bottom soils are ready for the working...leaves and trash raked and piled on the compost...I wait with the tools of my trade, no fancy tiller for me...
I'm a glutton for punishment, but the workout is needed after a long dormant winter...
another 80 degree day in the works.

My lil' rhubarb heads are peeking through, as I extend my garden by 10 feet this year, my strawberries have taken over, it's a great patch, but I need more room for the veggies.
The prairie sod is a force to be reckoned with, but oh the rewards!
My peas are planted, as well as the broccoli and cabbage...these will tolerate late frosts and snows...like Granny always said...get them peas in the ground early so they get the last of the snow...they were soaked overnight and inoculant added, so they are good to go and this evenings rains are well timed.

It's hard to get in the mood to paint and make soaps, but getting the gardens ready for the dried herbs to be used in the product...it's a trade-off that I'll gladly take...been a long time comin'...

YEAh, that's what I'm talkin' about..............................

OMG...I slept with the bedroom windows open last night...I could hear the frogs in the ditches...I could smell spring in the air...
Well, this isn't my house, but I spied it yesterday on my deliveries and couldn't resist a shot...look at that window in the peak, how cool is that and the corbels...sigh...
The old abandoned home was filled with boxes in every window...can you imagine having so much stuff that you have to fill a vacant house...hmmmm...

The Amish kids were on their way home from school, wish I could've gotten a closeup of big sister driving a buggy full of siblings home...but Scratchy went BALLISTIC as we drove by, so I was too busy being a pack leader...DOWN HEATHEN!!!

AND YES....I'm barefooted...and I will be the rest of the season...ahhhhh...

SPRING...

PS...I heard from TOT yesterday and she said the Texas show has been fabulous so far...just like the good ol' days!!!
Could that mean a trip to Iowa is in the making...YIPPEE!!!

American Picker...I knew him when...

Yup...it's him...Mike Wolf...we crossed paths when Lorie and I rented a shop in LeClaire, Iowa from him.

Mike's love of bikes is well known on the show, but every time he got a new one, he'd ride it down to the shop and talk me into a shoot...

Oh look...a loon...
Mike has a great eye for the good stuff, I was frequently tempted by all the cool stuff he dragged in and sold at our shop, funky stuff that really sold well...hey Mike, what ever happened to that moth-eaten antelope head...my kinda trash!

Lorie and I had the cutest shop, right on the Mighty Miss, called The Captain's Cottage Antiques...aka The Captain's Wives...the home was a former river boat captain's home back in the day...
This home was also featured in Country Living magazine, when fellow dealers, the Merkels' owned it, very primitive inside, both Lorie and I could've easily lived in this lil' home...if I can find the article, I'll post it.

Isn't it just the quaintest lil' thing...snow YUCK!!!

The home was quite old and displayed early river architecture...and Janet Merkel had the most fabulous gardens all 'round the house, to add to it's country flare.

We fell in love with this old counter Mike dragged in to let us use...sigh...and a copper boiler...who knows where he found this stuff...connections and tenacity!!!

This was Mike's lil' shop, you would've loved all the prims inside...it sat outside our back door, so we were slowly starting to fill it's porch with the trash of our trade...junk!

The whole place was just filled with ambiance and we had a blast doing the shop there, until the 'C' word turned me and Lorie's worlds upside down...my son in law
and her mother, brain cancer would force us to forgo our shop together while this tragedy unfolded.
But Mike continues to buy and refurbish old homes and buildings in LeClaire, a quaint town on the Mississippi...and I continue to sell soap at one of the local shops, Grasshoppers, the cutest lil' shop ever.
See, Iowa ain't so boring...come check us out...a lotta history goin' on here.


...time heals all...in a day in the life!

A comin' O the greens...

Oh boy...oh boy...oh boy...
Well it doesn't take much for us Northuners to get excited...
a little bit o the green really turns us on!

New candle styles and scents fill the shop and the street with wonderful scents of Spring.
We've been told you can smell us cooking candles 2 blocks away...

The soap bar is starting to fill again with all those scents of flowers and clean,
fresh air...yummmm...

Love them pastels...sure signs of spring...

YUP, IT'S HERE!!!
SPRING!!!
...and I'll be planting my peas today and tilling the rest of the garden...it's supposed to get into the 70's today and the rest of the week, so I guess you could say...

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

The church in the vale...

Me N Scratch took a drive to the river bottoms yesterday looking for interesting shots of old buildings...what a gem. This abandoned old church sits down near the Oakville bottoms,
an area that has been ravaged by flooding for several years now.
The levies just can't hold back the Iowa River anymore,
too many floods...do you think we're seeing weather changes...?

What a homestead...this old relic just looked so forlorn, as the Chinese elm tree dwarfs it,
so typical of abandoned homes on the river bottoms. Scrub trees run rampant, decay sets in and
folks tired of the floods move to higher ground out of harms way.

Having served it's term, the barn stands as a monument to farming everywhere, no longer useful because the new equipment doesn't even come close to fitting through the doors,
so they sit, filled with rusting implements past their prime...

Boy, would this American Picker love to go through these old steads.

Speaking of American Pickers...Mike Wolf is a friend, Lorie and I rented a shop from him in LeClaire, Iowa...the shots of me on the Harley over at The Wild Thing blog is one of Mike's bikes that he dragged in for me to see...he has a great eye for the good stuff...always like to see the new stuff he acquired every week....
PICK ON AMERICA!!!