Wisconsin Barns and Good Fences

 Barn, Leinenkugel Brewery,
Chippewa Falls, WI

Since this is leap year, which gave us an extra day, I decided to clean out closets and dresser drawers (some, anyway). I never think to take 'Before' photos, and was going to show you some 'After' photos, except for the following:

Our daughter-in-law stopped in and I was so proud of myself for having actually pitched a lot of stuff over the past few days, that I decided to take her on the exciting tour so she could see the efforts of my labors. (Isn't that pathetic!) The only problem is, when we were on the second closet, I started laughing because I realized that to her, it sure looked like a 'Before' closet. LOL  Oh well, we take these things step by step. I promise you, I did actually get rid of a lot of stuff, some of which will be burned, some of which will go to Goodwill. As I already told Sandra (MadSnapper), I even broke down and got rid of the zillion Amazon boxes the UPS man keeps bringing me. He needs to start stalking someone else.

 Fence, Irvine Park

Chippewa Falls, WI

One of our daughters is coming in June to spend a while with us, and she happens to have the middle name 'Spartan.' No kidding, she has NO extra stuff. She missed the hoarding keeping gene. I console myself with the fact that in the movie 'Shadowlands,' even C.S. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) admits that he's not good at getting rid of stuff. C.S. Lewis and I relate on so many levels! ;-) Anyway, I'm in good company.  But I am trying to turn over a new leaf and get rid of a lot of the extra. We'll see if the new leaf thrives or shrivels and dies prematurely. Stay tuned...

 Fence at our son's house
Little dogs, now's your chance!
Confuse those big dogs.

What about you? Are you a keeper or a pitcher? Do you have a regular schedule of when to go through and get rid of stuff? Every weekend? Every month? Every spring? Every Leap Year?

Linked to Theresa's Good Fences

and Tom's Barn Collective

P.S. We're going to be gone Thursday through Saturday, so I will be putting both of my shops on hold while we're away. We'll return Saturday night and I hope to get caught up with y'all soon after that. Friday's post is scheduled to publish.

 We're off to visit these little ones!

***

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Eager to see those little Grands,

Vintage Treasures, 1913 Home Comfort Wood Burning Range

Good morning! Yea, it's March 1st. That means spring to most everyone else, but in NW Wisconsin it means maybe spring, maybe more winter. We'll see how it goes, but I've stopped hoping for spring to arrive March 21st. I now think of April as the arrival of spring. It makes me happier that way, for if warmer weather arrives earlier than April, I'll be pleasantly surprised. And if not, I won't be as sorely disappointed. Any way you look at it, May is the real month of springtime around here. Green grass, planting potatoes, peas, and onions, and the alfalfa field coming back to gloriously green life.

Okay, back to the subject: I've always liked the little cast iron train (above) that I bought out in Pennsylvania years ago (I think), but the real vintage item is the box behind it, of course. I've always liked different kinds of wood boxes - cheese boxes, chalk boxes, nail boxes, TNT boxes, etc.

These are definitely vintage - both my collection of cast iron skillets and our 1913 Home Comfort wood-burning range. The stove works, but we usually don't fire it up unless it hits 25 below zero. Short of that, our Quadrafire in the livingroom heads the house adequately. When it gets to 25 below, it's nice to take the edge off with the auxiliary heat from the Home Comfort range.

So here's a photo of the hay rack clamps box. The jar on the left holds coriander seed from my garden and the one on the right holds dried cayenne peppers. The right side of the box contains some heavy cast iron object and an old oil can.

Mr. C. suspects that the cast iron weight on the left is some sort of counterweight for inside a window frame. Sounds reasonable. If you have a better idea, let me know.

Some roses I finally parted with. I had to get their photo before I threw them out. I've got way too much of that kind of thing around here and have spent the last few days going through closets, dresser drawers, etc. pitching and organizing.

You've probably seen this before, but in case you haven't it's a photo of our Home Comfort wood-burning range. The dog cookie jar no longer lives on the stove and the teapot (with its cupcake cozy) is in the hutch. It looks like I have a bag of oranges and a towel on the kitchen counter. I really should remember to tidy up before taking photos.

Just a few more shots of the same, except for the sunlight on the hill, taken from our front porch. I love that view in every season.

Linking to Tom's Tuesday's Treasures
and Stephanie's Roses of Inspiration

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Have a wonderful day, everyone!