Wish List

Mark and I spent the day driving all over Adams County, Ohio looking for 'The Clothesline of Quilts'..Clothesline of Quilts Trail...'Donna Sue Groves had a dream to someday honor her mother with a large painting on their barn of her mother's passion, quilting. That one beautiful dream has now lead to more than the planned 21 quilt squares, throughout Adams County and beyond!' Check our other blogs for pics and info about the Trail. (http://TheEllisFamilyCincinnati.blogspot.com)

I found this and decided that it might be the second project we do...after the window boxes that I have been dreaming about for years.

Here We Go Again

First measurement....3 inches...but is is slowly melting away. But as I type this it is 20 degrees and a little snow is lightly floating down and sticking to the grass. Michael wanted me to check the TV this morning to see if he had a Snow Day. He loves Snow Days just like his mother!!!

Special Treasures

I have the best kids. And I have the best neighbors! My two doors down neighbor thought of me when she was moving/having a yard sale. I love the old Singer sewing machine bottom. The slab of marble is cracked and a little rough...that's what makes it so great! I am not sure about the blue. I have taken a vote and it is tied so it might just stay blue until next spring...going to see how it weathers in the winter.I am still amazed that the fern looks so good. The kids always supply the porch with ferns on Mother's Day. This is a definite living longest record!


I have to introduce you to my new goat (I think it might be the only one I will ever have) BillyBoBob. I love him. You can read how he came to live with us here on Monday on the main blog...TheEllisFamilyCincinnati.

Miniature Birdhouses

These miniature birdhouses are from my Mom and Dad's house. I think they look nice on the banister. The little girls think they are pretty fun there.

Shutter

We had a Yard Sale on the same day as our neighbors. I saw this shutter and hoped that I could buy it before anyone else did. Courtney came over and was checking our our stuff. We traded my stuff for her stuff. Don't you just love it? That's my kind of Yard Sale.

Repurposing

Mark and I made a climbing rose trellis out of some 8 foot post that we got from FreeCycle. We did have to buy the dowel rods from Lowe's.

I think this is another one of my nephew's windows that I now have hummingbird feeders on. I placed them there so when we are playing outside we can also watch the hummingbirds. And I always have my camera outside...and the sun is always shining on the window. Hopefully I can get some colorful shots.

Windows, Banisters, and Other Stuff

I wanted you to see the what a difference a week makes...these gourds are going crazy. And they have blooms now! That means gourds are on the way.

Remember the outhouse fiasco? I think the banisters add just the right touch to the bed of zinnias, formerly know as the square foot garden spot.

The bed will be beautiful when it is finished...around November it will all be cleaned out and next spring black-eyed Susan's and marigolds will look nice. Oh, the mirror came from my nephew...it used to have a really cool frame but it bit the dust. Let's see...the milk can was my Mom's, the welcome to our garden sign my in-laws and all the tools came from my gardening buddy's Dad. Treasures, treasures, everywhere you look some kind of treasure.

Something Old, Something New

The white flaking banister is from out outhouse fiasco. I think the guy felt sorry for us because we worked so hard trying to get the outhouse away from his barn and didn't leave with the outhouse. My Mom gave me a bunch of woven birdhouses for my birthday one year. And that poor morning glory vine. I dug it up on probably the hottest day of the summer and transplanted it when I was redoing the flower bed. I didn't think it would live. Amazing what a little fertilizer and a lot of water can do for a plant.

Wicker Chair and Iron Bed

The last pick-up trip to WV brought me back a wicker chair from Uncle Terry/Papaw. I have had that stinkin' chair all over the yard looking for just the right spot. And I think I have finally found it...right there in the middle of the black-eyed Susan's. The old really rusty iron bed in the background has been with us forever. I think we found it on the side of one of the back roads in WI. It has been a bed full or snow in summer to look like a lacy quilt. It has literally been a bed of roses...really pretty but the Japanese beetles did the roses in. And not it is a bed filed with Bearded Iris. She too may have given all she can give...we don't dare try to move again.

Hopefully next year the lavender that Mark planted while I was in CO, will look nice in front of the chair and all those BES.

Gate and White Chair

Mark and I made another pick-up on FreeCycle...the gate is in really good shape. I like the way it latches onto the fence...with a piece of metal in the shape of a horseshoe. The white chair came from Herb and Tater Ridge (Ms Renee's first trip). Love that man and all his stuff...and he has a lot of stuff. If you go plant to spend a lot of time looking and a little more time talking to Herb. All those clay pots came from Kay, our neighbor's garage. She loves to send little things over every whip-stitch. And I love that she does!

Radio Flyer

I'm thinking that there aren't to many more seasons for the wagon. She has rusted clear thru the front and the front wheels and handle are just sitting there propping up the rest of the wagon. This will probably be her final resting place. The front tires have no rubber on them at all. I know Mark found this but I can't remember where. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Screen Door

Dewey and Betsy found this screen door for me at SEM. I love it and it just adds a little something to the bed that really doesn't have and pizazz yet...a work in progress. But the black-eyed Susan's have taken over. I kinda like the look.

Sifter

I have had this sifter for years stuck in the back of the cabinet.. Don't think I have ever used it to sift anything...just takes up space. The other day I was looking thru a Country Living magazine and saw that someone had the clever idea to make a planter for a hen and chick. I had a sifter and a few hen and chicks...so ya-la...cool little conversation planter sitting on the table on the front porch. Wonder how long it will be before someone yanks it off or tries to turn the handle?

Old Bike

This poor old bike, I don't think it is going to be up for another more around the yard. Over the winter I look out the windows and try to figure out how I can switch things up a bit in the spring when we first get out in the yard to begin the clean up. Mark has always wanted to hang this in the tree...like at Serendipity...(which by the way will be featured on American Pickers on the History Channel sometime in the future) but I like it under the wind chime tree. We may have to remove the tires because they are starting to rot.

Bed Springs

These bed springs, which you can hardly see for the climbing hydrangea, used to lean against an old barn on Gallaher Street in Huntington. The barn belonged to one of my grandfathers old cronies. One day I asked Big Bob what he was going to do with the springs. "Nothin', they have been there for years. You want them? You can have them." So off we trucked back to Cincinnati with rusty bed springs tied to the top of the van.

Long Window

Large Item Pick-Up day is just about my most favorite trash pickin' day ever! We ran across this window and several others last summer when my Dad was here. At first when we told him what we were doing, he wasn't real sure he wanted to be involved. I promised him that he wouldn't have to jump out of the van to get anything. Mark would drive, he and Michael would be the spotters and I would be the jumper/picker. (Those are all very technical terms) Isn't it amazing that you can train gourds to climb around the window. We will see what happens when there is a heavy gourd on the vine.

Bathroom Sink

One day driving down an alley in Huntington I saw this old sink. It is a heavy one. I always fill it with Inpatients. I had some leftover seeds and just threw the seed heads in and just look what came up! Now that is the way to plant!

Stopping To Smell The Ladies

Can't actually say that this is a trash pickin' treasure, but it is a rusty treasure. Mark found a little shop on the back roads in WI one day. And this goose just flew right into his arms...with a little help from me. And look at those hosta filling in around the old oak tree very nicely. And naked ladies are starting to pop up everywhere. I love it when they finally do that!

A New Window

Before you jump to any conclusions...we did not cut a hole in Mr John's fence....we just put a mirror I acquired from who remembers where....I think it might have been over the mantle when we moved in...and I just found it when I was cleaning out for the rummage sales of all rummage sales. It has been collecting dust for years in the basement. I love the way the black-eyed Susan's are reflected in it.

FreeCycle Strikes Again

I can not tell you how much I love FreeCycle.org. Here was my finding for today.I got in touch with this wonderful woman 32 seconds after these posts were posted on FreeCycle...my best time yet! Nicest lady. Her parents were cleaning about from behind their barn. The first job was to remove an old fence...my favorite kind. These post are 6 and 8 feet long and I have a million ideas. Now to get Mark on board with them and then to get them accomplished. They also have a rabbit hutch...I'm thinking we need a rabbit...........

Birdfeeder

Emmy told us about the craziest thing...Large Item Pick-Up in Maderia, OH. Here's the deal...people up large items, the ones that you want to get rid of but the trash guys won't pick up., out by the curb. Everyone goes around the neighborhood...hopefully with a large truck or trailer and 'garbage picks'. I love it! We took my Dad the last time they had one. He thought we were nuts, but we got some great stuff. This bird feeder is a little tarnished ( the better I like it) but it is a National Geographic bird feeder...says so right on the lid. I love it. I think it is my most favorite feeder of all. And we hung it right by the kitchen window so I can open the shutters and see the birds eat all day long if I want to. Great for nature photo ops too.

So, check in your community to see if they have large item pick-up nights. (We have been know to right around dark, to walk around the neighborhood with a little wagon to just see what their might be to pick.

Garden Angel

I had to ask Mark where we got the banister. He remembered the banister came from an old white barn in Lake Geneva, WI. I know exactly where the garden angel came from. When Sarah was in first grade, when she first came to live with us, I helped out in her classroom doing anything her teacher needed me to do. At the end of the year Amy Feldkamp gave me a garden angel that all the kids had signed on the back. She has since lost her bucket and the grapevine but she still keeps watch over all the flowers in the yard. The jar candles are a little creation Emmy and I made a few summers ago. We have them hanging everywhere that you can drive a nail. And they look so wonderful at night. Magical I tell you. All we did was save every shape and size of glass jar. 'Tied' and piece of wire around the top and a few curled hanging down, a loop on the back and there you have it. The only thing is that you have to empty them after a rain.

Willow Heart

I've said it a hundred time, but I do have the best neighbors in the world. Everywhere we have moved, we have been blessed with great neighbors that are good friends. I think our neighbors here think we have gone off the deep end by all the 'treasures' we have in the yard. 'Boot Country' neighbors pull little treasures out ever so often. I love this willow heart and so do the birds. A few days after Mark put it up for me we saw one for sale...$85...we about dropped our teeth. I did bring myself to ask Kay if she wanted it back since it was so expensive. She said heck no. I said Yippee!

Old Sled

If I am remembering right, this is my old sled from when I was a little girl. We lived at almost the top of a pretty good size hill on a dead end street and when it snowed somehow the street would get blocked off so the salt truck couldn't come down and throw salt and ruin all the fun. All the neighborhood kids would sleigh ride until after dark. The grown-ups would come out too. I remember one time we had a huge piece of clear plastic and there must have been 20 people, young and old, sliding down the hill. We did a 180 and cracked up all the way to the bottom. The rocks are from one of the families that Emmy's babysits for. They tore out a wall and didn't know what to do with the rocks....Mark and Jan's Rock Hauling to the rescue.

Ice Cream Churn

Nothing any better than homemade ice cream. There is a place in C-K that has the best banana that you will ever in your life eat...Austin's. We use to stop there on the way back from a day at Dreamland....ahhh, back in the day!

This ice cream churn was yet another gift from Sweet Pap. He finds things and gives them to me and then when he visits he walks around the yard saying..."If it weren't for me giving Jan all this stuff, she wouldn't have anything." And then he tried to take it back.

I got the hyacinth bean seeds from a lady on FreeCycle.org. She sent so many that I took some to CO with me and they are growing in Cassie's backyard. I have a few stops where I am trying to get them to climb. Keep your fingers crossed for me that the deer don't like the taste of them. I am hoping to hardest some seeds so I can plant them again next year.

Lots of Treasures

This picture is filled with lots of treasures. First the pink pillow. It is a pillow but no one that I would want to lay my head on. A mold was made and then colored cement was poured in to form the garden stone. I can't tell you how may people have picked it up to put on the bench, thinking it had fallen off. Mark and I found them (I have two shapes) at our all time favorite garden center...North Wind Perennials in WI. Then there is the broken pitch fork that I think Papaw found in one of his houses. The bench made the trip from WI to Cinti with us. It used to sit out under the willow trees in the back yard in the shade garden. And last but not least, the bucket was a $1 find at a yard sale on the yard sale o the way back from picking strawberries a few weeks ago. The lilies of the valley and azalea are from Sweet Pap in WV. See, told you this shot was filled with lots of treasures.

White Gate and Mirror

Everything you seeing the pic was acquired by the Master Treasure Picker...me. First the fencing. One evening Mark and I were sitting on the front porch and I noticed up the street that someone had placed two 6ft x probably 8ft sections of fencing. We jumped in the truck and headed down the street. I heard people in the backyard pool, so I just let myself in and asked if they would mind if we removed the fencing. They said have at it. So the next day Mark and I put in a corner section fence to hide the compost bins. The mirror was picked up at Large Item Pick-Up Day in Maderia. I can't remember when the gate came from. And the ditch lilies...again on the front porch watching neighbors dig up an entire flower bed of 'ditch lilies'. Mark walked over and asked what they were going to do with them. I backed the van down to their driveway and loaded three garbage bags full of orange ditch lilies into the way back. I am not sure how many we will see bloom...seems the deer love the blossoms.

Just Old School

I actually was given this by Ms Renee last summer...or was it the summer before that. I love my old black lunch box. I am hoping it is in a good spot for the impatience to thrive.
















My bathtub is now filled with a new bunch of flowers...from Bryce and Tini on our 35th wedding anniversary. I love them. They fill the bed up to overflowing. I just hope I can water them enough for the to even grow bigger.

Wicker Chair

Last summer I was driving Sarah to youth group I think, or maybe Michael, Emmy and I had been somewhere...anyway we were driving up the main street to our house and I saw this little beauty on the side of the road...the other side of the road. Now I get a little excited when I see something that looks like something we might want to use to 'dress up' a little bit for the yard. I could not get turned around fast enough. Emmy wasn't about to jump out of the car to put this treasure in the way back. So I jumped out after coming to a screeching halt, gravels and dust flying everywhere. Picked it up and away we went. I even got a wave from the people sitting on their front porch. I love it. And the flowers are from a little nursery we found on the way back from Hillsboro a few weeks ago. Pretty nice I would say!

FreeCycle Fence Phase II

Mark made a few more trips to our friend in West Chester to pick up the rest of the railings. We decided that Tobi and Parker needed a little challenge when chasing the ball into the next door neighbors yard.Not only does the new fence look good...check out that horseradish....yum!

The fence and the cold frame. And the chives are about to take over there little corner of the raised bed.

The iris bed was stunning this year. The new fence runs the entire length of the backyard to the house.

Split Rails

Oh how I do love FreeCycle.org. I was able to email back within 30 minutes of the entry being posted. I think that is the key to getting what you see. We have been trying to decide what to do in the back of the way back flower bed. It stretches the width of the back yard. And does it ever need lots of work. So yesterday before Mark went to work he made a trip to West Chester, OH.He was able to pick up one pickup truck's worth of split fence railings. Then off to work he went. He wasn't there very long before he called to tell me how much money we had saved. Each railing costs about $9.00.

Then this morning, rather early, he was off to West Chester again for another truck load of rails. So we now are the proud owners of around 100 rails. We put in about a 12 hour day in the yard today. Our goal was to make a zig-zag fence about 5 rails high.

We have been weeding and moving plants around so it doesn't looks so crowded back there. Eventually we will add a brick path made from bricks we dug up. But for now we still need to work on the weeding.

While Mark was drilling holes, I was weeding and carrying rails. We only went thru three drill bits and two batteries. Thank heavens for neighbors with electric drills.

So here is the finished product. We love it! Now to finish the weeding. We hope to take the leaves that we have in the compost pile and mulch them up and use as mulch. Tomorrow , if it is not raining, we hope to put some kind of fencing down the vegetable bed side of the yard...and of course get rid of all the weeds.

If you haven't already checked out FreeCycle in your area, go check it out. Thanks BobbieJo We love our new fence.

Clay Pots

We have been collecting clay pots or years. I 'just love the way that they look with or without flowers. Last summer my neighbor, Kay, gave me all the ones that she was storing in her garage. And then to have this peony just drop in and take up residence beside the clay pots on the old bench in the 'park bed'. Recycle and reuse.

Double Duty

One day, I think it might have been a Tuesday trash day night, Emmy and I had just Taken Sarah to youth group and we were on the way home and decided to take a short detour through a subdivision in our area. There were lots of things out that night for trash but we found an old mailbox still connected to the post. Numbers and all. She stopped and I jumped out (she likes to be the driver so she can hide behind tinted glass) and put it in the van. It has been out behind the barn until last night. Mark and I cut down a bunch of old pines and we for some reason saved one trunk. Now inside the mailbox is stored some garden tools and gloves in the raised vegetable bed area of the yard. Luke likes to have the red flag up because there is something inside. When I forget to put things back in I am supposed to put the flag down. The other treasures in this photograph are awesome finds too. The two screen doors, Betsy and Dewey found them for us. The are the actual screen doors from SEM. Hopefully by the end of the summer some black eyed Susan vine will cover it. And the chair we found in a barn at Serendipity in Waterford, WI. I love that place...almost as much as Tater Ridge. Barns for of old junk. And the couple that run it are hippies from way back. I sometimes take the time to sit int he chair and just look at all the work we still have to do in the yard and dream of new things to do...just making the To Do List a little longer.

'New' Feeder

Last summer Mark and I went 'treasure hunting' sorta over close to his old Circuit City store. It was Large Item Pick-Up Day...and day where it is okay to go through someone else's garbage. I saw the top of this sticking out of a box. It is a National Geographic brass bird feeder. I thought about polishing it up but then saw how much work it was going to be and decided against it. We had it out for awhile in several different places and the squirrels always seem to be able to find it. So this year I saw it again in the barn and decided to try again. Yesterday we had all kinds of birds on it. The 'junk' birds were feeding on the Mercedes 1224 in the back bed. All kinds of good birds, like this cardinal found the feeder in record time. I enjoyed watching them all day. The this morning when I looked out...no seeds to be found. Guess the squirrel nation found it. So do we feed the birds or the squirrels? Just guess it will have to be both.

Love This

Last fall Mark and I got to go to the Country Living Magazine Expo and foud this little bathtub. We had a fountain in it last summer and decided jsut to put flowers in it this year. Now there is a lot of color on the front porch.

A Path Is Born

When we moved back to OH four summers ago our backyard was a jungle...a real disaster. Literally we could only see one neighbor and that was over their fence. We have worked really hard at taming this place. We are getting there slowly but surely. One of the things we did outside was dig up an old ratty looking brick patio and a railroad ties lined pathway to a small fish pond. In place of all of that we now have a beautiful exposed aggregate patio with inlaid bricks (which Emmy and I laid). We still have tons of bricks left over so we keep brainstorming about what we can do with them. So last week we started making a path in the back side flowerbed. I have pictures of each step we took.


In the beginning there was a little path.

Then the man dug out the little path...10 inches deep and 24 inches wide.

Then the woman and the man hauled gravel and put in 4 inches of it.

Four inches of sand covered the gravel and then skirted from end to end by the woman.

The man hauled bricks from the stack from behind the barn...choosing just the right ones for the job. The woman laid them as level as she could and as tight as possible.

The little helper tried it out to see just how great it is.

I was too tired to take a finished photo. So I promise to take it first thing in the morning. Now we have sorta a little park in the corner of the backyard.