Sunday, April 22, 2012

Pickins'

My brother has rented a property in town that has two houses, and some outbuildings and the whole place has been empty for so long that it has almost been completely destroyed (he is redoing one of the houses). However, at one time, someone who owned it had put a whole lot of work into the yard. There are buried stepping stones everywhere, pots, birdbaths and statuary.  Today when we visited him, we went "pickin" in the yard. He wants to get rid of anything he can so was happy that I wanted some of it.
The first thing he gave me is this birdbath. I think it is lovely but this is its good side. It needs some work.
I then found this cast iron muffin tin on one of the porches. It is a little rusty but it isn't pitted so with some care and cleaning it might be alright.
I also got several terracotta pots. I have some petunias that may get planted in some of these if I ever get any time to do some more planting.
The absolute best thing I got, however, was this wood.  My brother was nice enough to cut it in half with his chainsaw.
I am hoping that one of these pieces is my future bread  bowl. Don't look for it to happen too fast though. I will have to work on it a bit at a time. I will keep you undated though.

15 comments:

  1. Looks like a good haul. Personally, I'd rate the muffin pan as top prize.

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    1. Well, it is not as if it is an "old" muffin pan. It says TAIWAN on the bottom, lol, but I think it may eventually be usable.

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  2. Very cool Becky,
    Really looking forward to seeing the bread bowl but don't let me rush you ;)
    Carolyn

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    1. I worked on getting some of the bark off of one of them today and then decided the other half was shaped better, lol. I'll be working on it when I can.

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  3. You never previously mentioned that you had a brother, did you? Does he live close by? I presume that he is not agardening type of person...

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    1. I actually have two brothers. One 11 months older and one 6 years younger than me. My older brother, the one who gave me this stuff, did live in the next town over but now lives in town in Thomson. My younger brother lives in Thomson too but is a truck driver so I only get to see him about every month or so when he gets home.
      Neither of my brothers is exactly a garden person. My younger brother did try to have a garden one year but said it was too much work.
      Yesterday my older brother did mention that he would like to plant fruit trees at his new place which might be possible in the far back of the property or in the front yard but most of his property is big, very old, hardwood trees.
      By the way, you can change back to the old blogspot by clicking on the asterick like symbol on the new dashboard and in the drop down it gives you that option.

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  4. Hi Becky-it’s great that you have ‘discovered’ these old things and see the potential in them to give them a new lease of life. Look forward to seeing how they eventually turn out-best of luck!

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    1. I have always been a junk picker. My father used to go to dumps just to pick things. Of course, you can't do that now.

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  5. Awesome, Becky! Really nice wood for a bread bowl - what kind is it? I bet that cast iron will clean up perfectly - give a really good scrub with some steel wool then slather it with heat stable fat and stick it in a really hot oven until it's smoking.

    Let us know how it all turns out!

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    1. I don't know what kind of wood it is. Oak or maple would be my guess but I don't know enough about wood to be able to tell without looking at the leaves.
      What fats are heat stable? I did use steel wool and then put some oil on it for now.

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  6. The wood looks beautiful - I'll wait patiently to see what it becomes.

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  7. Hi Becky, nice score, I like the muffin pan and can't wait to see your bread bowl

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  8. They are really cool find... Looking forward to seeing your completed bread bowls.

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  9. how wonderful to get such cool stuff for free! cast iron muffin tins - after reseasoning they should be lovely!

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    1. This is how I have gotten most of my stuff, lol.

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