Back To The Regular Agenda

After all the looking and limited buying I was ready for a good pick before the end of my vacation. These are the treasures I found the weekend after I got home.

I hit one estate sale and the VOA.  There was no shortage of poke sacks or buttons, like it had all been waiting for me to find and rescue it.

One sweet little Golden Book and loads of random sewing notions including tomato pincushions and tape measures for my non-collections.

A Styrofoam head to put on one of those stands I got a while back because I really need more projects waiting in the wings - lol!  Yes, that is a jar of buttons under it.

Any ideas what this is besides cool?  It looks like a butter crock but the ones I have seen are wider than they are tall, not the other way around.

These spoon racks WILL get painted white and head to Etsy for hankie display.  The wall hanging has already come and gone on Etsy.

A great old Emerald Green vase to add to my collection.  I DO collect Emerald Green and Royal Ruby.  On purpose.  This vintage wallpaper was being used as shelf liner in a bedroom closet.  When I went up front to see if I could buy it they looked at me like I was a little nuts.  Okay, maybe so...

A couple more thimbles to add to my jar.  I love it when I find the advertising ones.  I bought a baggies filled with debutantes and doves that has already come and gone on Etsy.

Sweet set of blue and white dishtowels in their original wrapper.

These are not the buttons in the jar.  They were much cleaner.  Never confuse dirty with valuable.  I kiss a lot of frogs in my hunt for buttons.  I will show my favorites in another post but have to show you this because so many of you ask about it....

This is a perfect (??) example of a SICK celluloid button.   It hasn't started to crumble yet but it is about to.  I kept it just long enough to take this picture then tossed it in the trash.  If you have anything that looks like this, get rid of it!

Hillcrest C.1820

One last look at the farm before I return to my regular agenda of random rambling and Portland junk.

The farm is called Hillcrest.  They don't have any livestock (so far!) other than the chickies so they stenciled a chicken next to the horse on the garage.

This is the view from the house looking down past the garage to the barn.  I miss watching the two of them stroll down there in their boots every morning to open the chicken coop and gather eggs.
{{big sigh}}

The back side of the barn where you can see the neat old stone foundation. That door at the top opens in to the hay mow where the hay is stored.  The property is currently farmed by an Amish gentleman who grows hay and soybeans.  He harvests the hay and gives it to them in payment for using the land.  It is a nice arrangement since my son can't be there full time.

A closer look at the hand-stacked foundation.  The original barn burned down and this one was built in 1957.  It was not as large as the original so the old foundation extends past the current structure.

This is what remains of the old milk house.  The round thing on the left is a well.  Water would be pumped up from the well and circulated through the trough on the right to keep the cans of milk cool.  The well has a wooden lid.  My son lifted the lid for us to look down inside.  One of the kittens had climbed up in the tree behind it, un-noticed by any of us, and suddenly decided to try to jump down on to the rim of the well!!  Luckily, my son has fast reflexes and swooped him out on to the grass as he was going down.  Wowza, we all shrieked!  No kitties were harmed in this incident.

The soybean field is behind my son.  The property runs to the tree line you can see in the back.

I have never actually seen a soy bean still in the pod before.  The crops in the area all seem to be soybeans and corn and they rotate the fields between the two.  One of the things that was really noticeable to me is the absence of fences there.  There are very few fences around yards or farms, just vast stretches of green broken up by stands of trees.  VERY beautiful.  I didn't realize we were so territorial here in the West and feel compelled to put fences around what is "ours".

Farmer Andy playing with his favorite toy.  That bucket on the front of the tractor sure came in handy when we were switching out the cook stove for the heating stove!  I have tractor envy.

On our last morning I finally spotted a flash of red and saw a Cardinal. It is a crummy picture, shooting straight up in a tree with my phone so you'll have to just trust me on this one.

Endless thanks to our host and hostess for letting us invade them for 9 wonderful days.  I miss you guys and the farm so much!

Amish Country, Burton OH and The Chickies

While we were in Pennsylvania we went to a Brewfest in Burton Ohio because we are, well, from Oregon (the mico-brew mecca).  Speaking of Oregon, they pronounce it Or-e-GONE everywhere we went.  The lack of micro-brews is notable in that area so it was fun to finally get to sample some of the local offerings.
On the way we stopped at a place called The General Store where I was very surprised to find the Amish more or less selling themselves as a tourist attraction.  I was very respectful and never photographed any of the buggies going down the roads while we were there but they were even offering buggy rides here.  No, we did not go, lest we burn in H-E-doublehockysticks.

I found these hankies at a different Amish grocery. They had stacks of plain men's hankies, floral women's hankies and these adorable farm scenes that must be for the little boys.  Horses and cows and chickens, oh my! They are not Amish-made but the pictures are SO adorable that I had to have them for my hankie collection.  We also got homemade bread and some delicious cheeses.

I DID pick up a used Amish horseshoe at The General Store (they had a basket full for $1 each) and a SHOT GLASS.  My husband has a collection but I didn't see this one coming! I also squashed a penny for the Granddaughter.

Speaking of chickens...  this is the view from the front porch.  We were standing there one morning and Doofster the Rooster and the chickens started making a huge commotion just past that tree in the center of the picture.  My son grabbed the broom and bounded down the stairs shouting "chicken hawk"!!  It was pretty amazing how Doofster sounded the alarm and the hens scattered for cover.  No chickens were harmed in this incident.

Chickens crossing the road....

Doofster keeping watch over his ladies.

Back to Burton Ohio.  Many of the towns in this area have patterned themselves after the town in New England and have a town common with a bandstand.

As we passed through the small towns we saw two weddings taking place on the town commons.  What a delightful practice!

The Burton brewfest was our bad weather day.  The event was a muddy mess, very much like our annual Rose Festival here in Portland! We felt right at home.

PA Loot and Lake Erie

As promised, my little pile of Pennsylvania plunder.  We actually visited several places but I didn't buy much since I wasn't inclined to leave my clothes behind, too.  There is always room for buttons.  The prices in PA were better than I expect and somewhat less than in Portland.  We even went to an antique mall that was inside a shopping mall, where I expected the prices to be sky high but they were not. 

We hardly ever see hats with nice millinery flowers around here and I have never seen this tin with the ballerinas before.  My favorite take-homes!  

I dumped all the buttons in to the ballerina tin and carried the tin and the hat in my carry-on backpack.  Apparently it looked pretty peculiar in the TSA's x-ray device.  I was glad I decided to leave some of the metal barn souvenirs behind.

The shore of Lake Erie.  This was the first time I have been to any of the Great Lakes.  I adore how they call it a "sweet water sea"!  It was overcast that day but the temperature was mild and there was no wind at all.  Perfect for walking along the shore.

I was determined that I would finally find some sea glass.  Well, I am back to that "one good eye" thing again so I did not find any myself but my son and The Husband each found a piece for me - bottom center and left.  I picked up the pretty rocks and some sea shells.  I wonder if I should call them lake shells?

There is a marvelous maritime museum in Erie.  They have a replica of the Niagara and we were able to go on board for a tour.

The complexity of the rigging is amazing.  The Niagara played a very pivotal role in history so the whole visit to the museum was fascinating and our tour guide was more than happy to share every single thing he knew.  8+).

Something I found particularly interesting were these prisms on the deck of the ship.  I couldn't get a good picture below deck but they are shaped like a diamond and project light to the interior of the ship.  Oh my gosh, those are some cramped quarters and hard to imagine 50 or 60 crewmen slung from the rafters in hammocks.

Only I would visit a maritime museum and come out with pictures of buttons and needles - lol!  I wish I could have gotten better photos of the uniform buttons but they were behind glass.  If you click them bigger you might be able to make out some of them.  They had a great collection.

I took a picture of the needles because I find this style in poke sacks all the time and they are still made today.  I never knew what they were for.  Apparently the flat curve prevents the needle from splitting the fibers in the canvas.  Good to know in case I need to stitch up some sails.

 Speaking of buttons...  here are my favorites from the heap in the first pictures.

The carved MOP button is my favorite.  I think the brown ones with the black stripe are Bakelite. Sadly, every single one of the green metal rhinestone buttons is missing some rhinestones.  I can't bring myself to toss them so maybe I'll find some green rhinestones in a poke sack one of these days.  Stranger things have happened!

It turns out I am STILL missing a few comments (not as many as before) so I apologize if you have left one and I haven't responded.

Farmhouse Souvenirs and Greenville PA

When we asked our son what we should pack for the trip he told us to bring shoes because the weather is very changeable and there is heavy dew in the mornings.  I took 3 pair of sandals, 3 pair of closed shoes and my rubber boots for walking down to the barn in the morning.  We had an entire suitcase of shoes and I wore everything I took - lol!  I abandoned our rubber boots and left them behind so I could bring back this wallpaper.  No kidding.  Priorities.  The red and the white are both vintage.  They are not fond of the vintage wallpaper but there was some in the foyer that I would have licked off the wall if I could.  The wallpaper in the back is modern and the previous owners special ordered it from Ireland.  I agree I would NOT want it on my walls but it will be fun for art making. 
The metal bits are barn findings.  I had a few larger pieces then decided to leave them behind since they might have triggered a TSA search.  They did search my backpack but that is a story for another post.

In the last post I showed you the front of the house.  This is the right side where the mud room, kitchen and deck are located.  Next Spring this entire section will likely be torn down and rebuilt.  The contractor said that would be less expensive that trying to fix what is there.  The previous owner fancied himself a handyman and he was NOT.
The chimney you see in the center of the photo is on the side of the kitchen.  While we were there we helped removed the old cook stove and replace it with a heating stove.  Despite what the previous owners said, a cook stove has a fire box about the size of a loaf of bread and was never intended to "throw" heat, in fact, it was designed to do exactly the opposite.  We also helped haul and stack wood.  It was a good thing since we woke up to a house full of smoke one morning and the boiler had gasped it's last breath.  They plan to put in geothermal next Spring and had just filled the oil tank for the final Winter on the boiler.  Are you starting to get the picture around here?

This is the back left corner of the house.  The portion with the hip roof is the original c.1820 house.  It was a small Summer home when it was built.  There have been a few changes over the years...  The second story is a master bedroom suite.  The windows below it are the family room.  We stayed in the room on this back corner of the original house. 

The room is huge and the previous owners did leave them with some beautiful old carpets.  They made it very comfortable for us.  Note massive non-working radiator under the window.  They are in every room and removing them will be a project in itself.  Luckily they have youth and enthusiasm on their side.  Restoring an old farmhouse is not for the faint of heart.

The house does retain a lot of it's charm, it is just filled with authentic chippy patina.  Betsy, this picture is for you.  These old marble doorknobs are stunning!

The balcony off the bedroom looks out over the farm.  They don't have any ambient light from a city so, on a clear night, you can stand out there and see the Milky Way.  Big sigh....  Or try to shoot a marauding groundhog.

Looking back from the house toward the pasture and soy bean field.  The property extends to the tree line at the very back of the photo.

Who takes a picture of a cellar?  Apparently I do.  I thought the quarried limestone foundation was pretty neat because I'm easy that way.

They live about half way between and somewhat west of Greenville and Jamestown.  The Husband loves old trains and, as luck would have it, Greenville has a railroad museum.  They were closed the day we stopped but the curator stopped to pick up the mail and saw me reading a sign out front and invited us in.  We got the low down on everything with a private tour.

After seeing the sign on the side of the Bessemer caboose we got back to the farm and I noticed the name Bessemer was stamped in to some of the bricks in the walkway from the front porch to the side deck.

I found a few others, as well.  The brick paths will be removed when the kitchen addition is rebuilt so I pointed out the railroad bricks so they would be sure to save them.  Maybe I should have sacrificed another pair of shoes for one.

This is the sign I was readying when the curator came by.  Stefan Banic was from Greenville and held the patent for the first parachute.  It was quite a contraction, like a big skirt you wore around your waist.  He had to jump out of an airplane to prove it worked.  That guy had some, um, brass somethings! We also learned the famous attorney, Clarence Darrow was from Greenville.

I think I have at least partially figured out the problem with my missing blog comments.  I have been getting a LOT of spam comments on my old Grow Your Blog post so I got frustrated with it and started marking them as spam.  I didn't stop to think that it might mark ALL the comments as spam.  Oddly, it only seems to have affected comments from bloggers that are also in my gmail contacts.  Go figure!  If you are missing comments, check your spam folder and mark them as NOT SPAM.