Country Life and Shop Life Collide, with an E-I-E-I-E

With a shop name of Country Lane, it's only fitting to carry farm decor, don't you think?

So, we do. 

After all, farms and country lanes go together. 

For us, farming is who we are, in large part thanks to our son who started a farm on our property.

Then he married a farm girl.

And they are now raising a little boy who is a farmer thru & thru.

One of his first words was tractor.

He loves the maaas. 

And any piece of equipment.

Note he is wearing muck boots.

He prefers those (and cowboy boots) over sneakers.

He even discovered where old farm equipment goes to die. 

He didn't care, it was just his size.

He loves to sing Old MacDonalds farm.

E-I-E-I-E.

He never sings E-I-E-I-O, it's always E-I-E-I-E.

Love that little farmer boy! 

Even when he's in the shop with Mimi, he is still surrounded by farm animals.

With a moo moo here....

And a baa baa there....

With a cluck cluck here.....

And a quack quack there..... 

And everywhere an oink oink!

Back on the farm, I'm not sure what he was so awe struck by. Maybe a bird.

With a tweet tweet here, and a tweet tweet there.......

An Icy Wheel is a Beautiful Wheel

We woke up to a pretty sight this morning....

Mother Nature had decorated the wheel in front of our porch.

It was quite nippy at 17 degrees. But since the sun was shining directly on it, I was afraid the ice would melt if I waited until after my shower to go out and take a picture. So, I threw my winter coat on over my night gown, grabbed a pair of shoes and went out with my phone to get the picture.

I'm just glad no one drove by while I was out there!

Winter? Spring? Who Knows

I took this photo in our back yard a few days ago. Aren't the daffodils pretty? 

They shouldn't be. It was late February.

Daffodils should not be blooming in February in the northern panhandle of WV.

It's been a crazy warm winter for the most part.

But let me tell you, if all the rain that fell this winter had been snow, we'd be snowed in until Mother's Day. 

Finally, in late February, we had a dry spell, plus more warm temps: 60's and even 70's. 

We took full advantage of it and cleaned off a hillside, burned lots of brush, and worked on a road into our woods.

Ask me if I thought to take pictures.

Nope. 

Just this one of George digging a stump out of the road.

He said, "I don't want to dig a hole to get it out".

Famous last words.

A few days later, the rains came tumbling down.

That is not a creek. It's just water run-off from the road. Running right down our new road. Fortunately, it didn't do as much damage as we feared.

But we're not complaining too loudly. Many locals are cleaning up their homes after the lots of flash flooding. A road into our woods is not nearly as important as someone's home.

That was a wild day though. 60 something temps, 4-6 inches of rain in a few hours, severe storm & even tornado warnings, then sunshine for a bit. More heavy rain that evening, then the winds hit. And hit hard. Temps dropped to the 20's. Our electric went off so many times we lost count, but always came back on. Until it didn't. For 12 hours.

You know what? Nothing makes you appreciate your electric bill as much as not having power for 12 hours. (Or 2 or 3 days as happens occasionally)

Now today, we woke up to snow again. Just an inch or so, but very slick roads early in the day.

And how do our beautiful daffodils feel about that?

They aren't impressed.

National Old Stuff Day

March 2 is National Old Stuff Day. 
Who knew? I didn't, until a couple days ago.

Sounds like a good day for a sale!
Let's do 20% off all regular priced vintage items in our shop that day.
Walk-in customers only.

We are a little low on vintage items right now, but still have plenty to choose from. 

Like these windows, and the stepladders behind them.

And this pirates chest. Well - it's actually just a dome topped trunk, but little boys like to call it a pirates chest, while they dream of buried treasure.

Kitchenware. Ahh, I can almost smell the food baking! 

Isn't that Singer sewing machine a beauty? And that cabinet with it's iron base? 

Shoe stretchers. LOTS of shoe stretchers! 

There's some chippy perfection going on with that table! 

Or how about some shovels with wood handles?

Or a wooden jewelry box? 

What a fun wagon for your porch filled with flowers! Or in your yard filled with kids! 

Old metal cookie cutters. Fun, fun, fun.

A HUGE dictionary! 

Let's zoom in, shall we? 

Stuff. 

Noun.

We will go with meaning 1 or 2. 

Just ignore meaning 4.

Let's see. What else? 

Wooden boxes, crates and drawers and aluminum bowls.

Vintage quilts and quilt racks.

Plus more not pictured. You'll just have to come see for yourself!

While you're here, don't forget to stop by the Clearance Corner. The additional 20% off won't apply there, but.... everything in the Clearance Corner is already half off or more, so you're still getting a deal. 

The shop will be open from 10-5 on March 2.

Well, that's the plan anyway. This morning, (March 1) I was just ready to leave the house when a tornado warning came over the phone. 

Ok then, I can wait. No tornados that I'm aware of, but LOTS of rain, on top of the already LOTS of rain we had in the night.

Betcha can guess the result of that! Yep, lots of flooding. It doesn't affect us, we live on a hill, and the shop is in an area of town that doesn't flood.

But, this is what I saw as I came into town half an hour late:

That is a campground. Fortunately, there are only a couple campers in it right now. Unfortunately, they were still in it, the water can rise there VERY quickly. Hopefully the owners were able to get them out before the water rose any more. 

So, sometimes life happens and I get to the store late. But, the plan will be to be open from 10-5, with 20% off all regular priced vintage items. 

Thursday, March 2.

National Old Stuff Day.

What a fun holiday!!!

Cozy Old Quilts

Quilts. Ahhhh.....quilts. Even when they become too tattered to use on a bed, they can still be used to decorate. 

They make great table covers. Note too the vintage scarf draped into the display we had in our shop last spring.

This quilt is draped over an old wooden ironing board. I about always have a few ironing boards on the floor as display pieces. As well as a few extra in the back I can pull out in a hurry if a piece of furniture sells.

An old iron footboard serves as a quilt rack.

This long quilted table runner is running down a ladder instead of laying across a table. Forgive the glare of the display windows. I have never figured out how to take a decent photo through glass.

Our deck railing is a great spot for putting freshly washed quilts out to dry. Ignore the nasty deck floor. Obviously, our deck could use some attention this summer. 

How sweet is this embroidered baby quilt? 

A sweet butterfly hanging quilt, pillows made from vintage quilts, and another one covering an ironing board. This is in our display window. Since they are long and narrow, ironing boards work well in them.

Wall hangings and table runners. 

I don't have the patience or know-how to make a quilt myself, but I sure enjoy the finished products! 

Getting Back on Track

I can think of several places in my life this applies. The last few years, I've gotten sidetracked in many respects. Some was good. Some..... not so much.

I have been very busy. Some was good. Some.... not so much.

My focus got muddled.

While I certainly believe in helping others where possible, it can swallow you up. I found myself spending so much time helping others that I had no time left for me. For my family. For my health. For my shop.

So. I'm reining in. Getting back on track. Selfish? In some ways perhaps. But that will just have to be ok. There are only so many hours in a day, and the older I get, the faster those days are going.

I look forward to working on this blog again. I've missed doing so.

I left off almost a year ago with news that the baby goats were about to start arriving. What an adventure that was! And extremely time consuming.

Spring was a blur of taking care of the mama's while they waited to go into labor.

And the babies as they came.

48 of them!

And as babies tend to do, they got into mischief every chance they got.

Every day was a blur of day job work, and evening time goat tending.

Or fence mending.

For a few months, those goats took over our lives.

Unfortunately, despite our constant efforts, we couldn't keep them in.

Not in the barn - they figured out how to knock down fences.

Not in the pasture fields. 

I never understood the term "walking down a fence" until I saw goats do it.

Repeatedly.

Long story, and a difficult decision, but we ended up selling the herd.

And using the money to build a new front porch.

Which was also very time consuming.

And whew! A lot of work! 

Speaking of work.... 

In addition to the added farm work, I also spent most of the summer baking for a farmer's market. 

Talk about time consuming!!!

It was a good experience in many ways, but not one I plan to repeat.

Maybe if I was younger.

When I was younger, I could eat that stuff and get away with it.

Now..... not so much.

I had lost weight doing the farm work. 

But gained it all back (and then some) eating leftovers.

Yeah. Not good.

So. 

I'm looking forward this year to helping our son & daughter-in-law with their farmwork. But not being as tied down to it as last year.

I'm looking forward to having more time to devote to our shop, creating, planning, decorating. Without the distraction (and calories) of the baked goods.

I've reined in some other areas of my life as well, and feel a great sense of relief in doing so. 

Here's to a New Year! 

Hopefully one full of lots of new blog posts.

I promise to try.