On the Garden Path at 5~Acre Farm: Time to Hit the Thrift Stores!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Time to Hit the Thrift Stores!

I had a chance to get out of the house today!

Please understand, I'm out all the time it seems like, with John, on our way to the grocery store, the farm supply store, family gatherings, and various meetings, projects, and errands. Often, I can't wait to get home! But all that time on the road doesn't mean I get to go the places I'd like to go to.

When we're out driving, I often see interesting places as we pass them, and I think to myself, "I'd like to stop there sometime." I can't tell you how many places that is, and I haven't managed to visit a single one of them in the last several years!

So my goal today was to visit a few thrift stores in the area. I'd ridden past them numerous times without having the chance to stop, and since the warm weather has settled in, I was really feeling the itch to get out on my own for just a bit!

My mother and I loved going to yard sales and thrift stores together. Mother always believed that she'd find some unnoticed treasure, and often, she did! So I thought of Mother often today while I was out, missed her terribly, and looked for my own unnoticed treasure. And what do you think? I found a few! Mother would be proud of me!

I spotted this basket tower (right) in a catalog more than a year ago. I was still thinking about it recently, but continued to agonize over the cost, $100. I had the perfect place for it picked out in my kitchen, where it would fit perfectly, and I was convinced that it would help contain some of the clutter I've been struggling with. I just couldn't bring myself to justify the $100 cost.

You have to realize, I'm very thrifty. I have been all my life. I've always managed with second hand things, and I rarely buy things new, especially really nice things. So bringing myself mentally to the place where I decide to spend large sums of money (over $20) on items is an agonizing process that takes a lot of time and consideration for me!

Well, while I was out today I found this basket tower (right). It was only $20, and although not exactly like the $100 basket tower, I recognized that it would fit in the pre-chosen place, and it would do the job of containing the excess clutter. I didn't have to think twice about this purchase! A couple of the baskets are ragged, especially the one on top, but I can work with that!

I also bought a metal corner shelf rack (right) that I will use on the front deck for container plants. I paid $12 for it at the same thrift store where I found the basket tower. I thought it said $2 when I took it to the cashier, and was surprised that it was $12, but I decided to get it anyway, since the basket tower had been such a deal. I have two other metal shelves that I use for my container garden on the front deck. One is a baker's rack, and the other is an over-the-toilet shelf unit. I found both at the county landfill a few years ago. So that was a cost of $0! And I've been more than pleased with both. I can get a lot more container plants on my little 10'x8'deck using these shelf units.

The only other thing I bought today was a book, Back to Basics. I couldn't believe my luck when I found it! It's a marvelous collection of instructions on traditional American skills. It covers a lot of topics, from buying land and building on it, building materials and techniques, to alternative energy sources, year-round gardening, and old-fashioned recreational activities for any season. But what I really love is the section on old time skills and crafts for the home and homestead. Natural dies, spinning, weaving, hooked rugs, broom making, metalworking, soapmaking, candlemaking, and basketry are just a few of the crafts and skills covered. I'm really going to enjoy reading through this book and adding it to my collection of homesteading books.

Do you like visiting yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, or thrift shops? What unnoticed treasures have you found? What unnoticed treasures are you still looking for? Or will you know them when you see them?

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John and Michelle, and 5 Acre Farm

How We Came To Be

John was born and raised in Georgia by parents who lived incredible lives of their own, and passed on to John a rich family history from both sides. He was a die hard Boy Scout, and later, spent 17 years as a Troop Leader. He earned a dual Agriculture/Agricultural Engineering degree at ABAC in Tipton, where he also started the college's radio station. After college, John served on nuclear submarines in the Navy, where he once saved the lives of his shipmates, and, rumor has it, did many incredible things in the service of our country. He married and had a family, and after the Navy, worked briefly with the EPA before opening his own HVAC-Refrigeration company. John was inventive as a child, and that carried over into everything in his life. He is a fixer of severe mechanical problems, and an inventor of all kinds of things that improve on or simplify existing machinery, equipment, and ideas. His inventions are unique, and some of them may some day aide humanity, save lives, and save our planet if we can get the right people to listen.

My dad was career Army. I was born in France, and introduced, at a very young age, to the Virginia countryside, where we raised rabbits and chickens. After dad retired, we moved to North Carolina, his home state, where we spent many years on the coast, near Wilmington. Here, we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, and fished commercially. Our freezer was always full of fresh Spot and shrimp, and oyster roasts were a weekly event! As a young adult I lived with my family in the mountains south of Asheville. Here too we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, as well as geese and peacocks. I worked for many years with an arts council, Christian organizations, and other non-profits. I helped train missionaries, researched/wrote grants, produced professional documents, edited newsletters, and wrote a lot of publicity materials. I already had two Associate degrees, but in my late 30s I finally completed an undergraduate degree in English/Art History. For 20 years I was active in community theater, sang solos with a community choir, and danced with a show choir. Treasured memories! I moved to Georgia in late 1998, and married my first husband in 2002. I was 45. Eighteen months later, I was widowed.

John and I first met in 2000. After I was widowed, and John was divorced, we found each other again. Of like minds, spirits, and goals, our hearts came together quickly, and we married in 2005. Each of us has undergone Elijah House training, and we were both ordained into ministry in 2006. I have been a Christian counselor and prayer warrior for probably 30 years. John and I live to put God first in our lives, and in our dreams for this small piece of earth of which we are the caretakers.

We call our place "5 Acre Farm." John's father took this barren, overworked field from a larger parcel of farmland in the mid-70s. He fenced off about three-quarters of an acre for the house, and added plants, flowers, and trees. Elsewhere, he transformed the property through years of hard work, adding an apple orchard, peach trees, pears, two fig orchards, grape vines, and a greenhouse. John and I have been trying to continue his father's work on this land, adding to it with our own hopes and dreams, and our late-in-life efforts. Not a day goes by that I don't feel great respect for John's father, for the man he was, for the work he did here, and gratitude for the bounty we reap because of his hard work.

John and I are in our 50s, just starting life together, but with age and health trying to work against us. We aren't ready to sit down and take it easy. We have a goal to become self-sufficient by growing our own food (meat and vegetables), and getting off the grid. The challenges we face in doing this are age, health, and finances. John's inventiveness is being strongly applied, as is my gift for budget stretching and frugality. Our strength? The love we have for each other, and the trust that we are working inside the will of God.

One of the things we ask ourselves now and then is this: "Is it worth it?" I never had children. John's son has set his own path with family and career. There does not seem to be anyone we can leave this property to who will continue the work and the dream; one of John's grandchildren, perhaps, but they are very young right now, and do not yet notice or care.

So, is it worth it (all the work and expense) if there is every chance this land will end up in the hands of developers after we're gone? Well, our answer to that question so far is always "Yes, it's worth it." It's worth it to us, because of what we are accomplishing here in our lifetime. It's worth it because what we grow here we share with family, with friends, and with our community. And not just what we grow, but our faith and philosophy, our hopes and dreams, and our very desire to leave at least our little part of the world better than it was when we found it. We are living - consciously, and deliberately - a lifestyle that expresses who we are and what we believe. Does anybody care? Why don't read our blog, leave a comment, and let us know.