Farm stay, Anne Sloan paint, flash sale!

So many irons in the fire right now. For a l o n g time now I've been working on an area of our  home to become a self contained cottage. When I bought this house so many years  ago, the area was a summer kitchen and a coal room. It is now 3 rooms kitchen, living/sleeping area, bathroom, and small sleeping loft. Many people have helped me with this project. Many times it has stalled. But my goal is to have it functional by the end of the year. It will be a farm stay. That's one of my dreams.
People from the city can come and get away with their families.

Also one of my dreams is to buy and sell vintage wares long before they became so popular as they are today. Maybe a spring and fall barn sale. Well I've collected so much "stuff " over the years it's time to get rid of some of it. That's the thing about having a barn, you get to fill it up. And I've just about manged that. Complete with a 1958 vintage tiny glaspar boat, waiting reno, a 1976 volkswagon bug, the love of my life. And a 1964 travel trailer!
Oh yeah and things that belong in the barn. Like the 1958 ford 8n tractor, grader, bushog, ect. And horses and llamas and a whole bunch of old cobwebby stuff I've collected over the years. It's time Will my partner has an old building in on main street of a very small town nearby. Across the street from an old building turned into an antiques mall. So they are having a festival street fair on the weekend of sept 21 so yep you guessed it we are having our first ever Hannah's creek vintiques flash sale. I've been busy cleaning and painting furniture for the sale. Yes I've even purchased a few items for resale here and there. Today we are going over to get the building ready to accept the items. The idea is if things sell well we may open a tiny shop of our own. We've been lots of places looking at these types of shops. None nearby though. 

So thats a lot of irons for me oh yeah and we bought a tiny little rental in the same town. Well be working on that too. Hope the farm stay gets done by dec 1. But not holding my breath!
Hope everyone is having a great week end!

Water feature!

Water feature

One of the reasons I bought this farm was that hannah's creek runs the entire length of the farm. It is a beautiful creek. Kids love to play and swim in it. the livestock drink from it. It's very peaceful to just sit and watch it. But this is the year of the drought. The creek at one point did dry up. Very sad fact. I've kept a close eye on it and the horse tanks. We have finally gotten some rain. I believe its too late for the corn crop this year as I am sure many of you know. Several years ago i added a few water features here. one in the front by the porch. it just an old piece of cement tile that was here on the farm. And a large copper bowl I purchased many years ago. I just put them together added some rocks, a very small pump, and water. The birds enjoy it. It's close to what used to be in other years, the butterfly garden. Water feature number two is my favorite. Its a tiny water garden/fish pond. Right out my back door. I can see and hear it from my bathroom and dinning room. Its a main feature of my patio. It has a liner and a larger water garden pump, a water fall, and the best I believe are a great rock collection from all over. Places Ive been to. Michigan, Maine, a nearby farmers field rock pile. I added a large piece of stone I found here on the farm. a kinda seat for little people to sit and put their feet in. In fact I got to do just that. This past summer our little Eli was here for a visit. It was one of those 105 days from hell. We stepped out the back door, and I got to show Eli the wonders of sitting with your feet in the water watching the fish and throwing pebbles! I added some water that day....so we also learned how to drink from the hose. A good wet time was had by all.

Weather vane!

Decisions

I was standing in a beautiful coppersmiths shop in Maine . I was looking at the most beautiful weather vanes. They were so lovely what a luxury. So not a must have for my farm. Still I've been drawn to them for many many years. We left the shop. No purchase made. I had to ponder the thought. For I am a ponderer! We traveled up and down the coast that week. I saw so many weather vanes on all the lovely beach cottages. I saw a witch on a broom atop a cottage named "ruby slippers". It was my favorite! That would surely set my neighbors talking! But indeed I was drawn to the horses, the running horse one to be exact! It reminded me so much of Jarvis my 30 plus something horse I've had for over half his life. Hours before we left for the airport in Portland on a glorious rainy morning I said ok let's stop I'm gonna get the weather vane. It was a hard decision it wasn't a cheap souvenir from Maine. Yep it would be atop my barn forever! That was in June. Little did I know I would have to make the very hard decision to put jarvy down in less then a few months two weeks ago, Will and I had gone to the movies it was a stormy evening. When we got home first thing I saw was jarvy standing under the tree. Made me smile his mane turns almost white during the summer months. It had been an extremely hot and dry summer so far. Before I even got out of the car I noticed he wasn't steady on his feet. Terror stuck my heart at once I felt hot and sick. I went to him right away. He backed away from me almost like he couldn't see me. I thought he was going to fall into the creek. I ran to the house and called my vet, of course it was late I got the answering service. It was only a minute and he called me back. He was here in less then 20 minutes. I live maybe 30 min from his clinic. He did an exam jarvys heart rate was twice that of normal. We talked he was colicky . His age was a huge factor. He was in pain. In the 20 min it took for him to get here I was in prayer . I was holding jarvys head when he was given the injection . It was so very hard. My vet Lance and Will were the best not a lot of talk just facts and what needed to be done. I miss him every day, in fact I'm crying now just remembering him. The vet drove out the lane darkness would soon be upon us.
On the way back from closing the gate behind the vet, I looked up atop the barn there was the running horse. Jarvy is surely running with his pal kojack in lush green pastures in heaven.
His body is under the tree close to the barn. Not a day goes by that I don't see the weather vane and think of jarvy, and I know I made the right decision about him and the running horse weather vane.

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I love my trees!