Going to Step out on Faith

 

Well, I guess I'm going to do it.  Al gave me a great idea, we found the perfect spot, now all that is left is to sign the lease and pick up the key.  As of September 1, Town Hall Trinkets Online Estate Sales will have an official drop off and pick up storefront.   I'll share more when I know the "for sures" of it all.  

I will also use this space to hopefully host at least 1 needle felting class a month and have felting supplies available for purchase.  

I know, I know...."you have a cute building on your farm."  Well, that cute building has become the storage unit for all the things I sell.  I still plan to do sales at my farm, once I sell some of that out of there.  Also, "we" like our privacy...."we" as in Al....ahahah.  So, this will be a good "fix" for now.  Who knows how it all will go...that's the step of faith.  I just know, I can't keep storing things here anymore.  

So that and working on an estate sale in Stevens Point area are on my agenda this week.  Have a great Monday!

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.  

Baby Dicky Bird

 

My brother found my hospital baby picture.  I've never seen this before.  Or, if I had, I don't remember it.  If I never knew who this baby was, I would know it was a "Ritchie" baby by the eyes and mouth.   From that to this....

Lots of living between these 2 photos.  Love, life, loss, lessons...things that still bring me to tears of joy and sorrow are lost somewhere between the gift of that time.    

As summer rounds out, I am so thankful for the season I'm in.  I have had a fun summer and look forward to an "eventful" fall.

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.  

I Will Monday - Find the True Story

 The garden gave me an object lesson reminder.  

Look at these gorgeous peppers!  Wow are they nice!  To look at them from this side, you see their size and beauty.  But, if you turn them around, you see the real story.

You know, that is how lots of things in life are.  It's how you take the picture that tells the truth.  I am pretty open with my issues, not just here on my blog, but in life really.  I have always let myself be vulnerable in telling the truth on myself.  In doing this I can be free to let go of the "pretty" side of my story and work on the "ugly" side without any facade or fakeness.  

I posted something on my business facebook page:  Town Hall Trinkets, LLC:  

I was laughing this morning thinking about this ….. doing an estate sale like this one was like pregnancy. First you’re excited, finding good stuff, staging making it look good, but then you hit pricing and oh boy will this ever end. Restless nights, will I get everything done, will people come, will they laugh at our prices (cuz this has happened), let’s retire talk, we’re too old for this even. Then you open the gate to the sale, have huge crowd, holding area full, some complaints but overwhelmingly more compliments. As we drove home last night Lisa said “we did it” and then you think, well that wasn’t so bad, let’s do that again. . Truthfully, we started just last week and the past 2 weeks felt like 9 months.

Come see us today 8-7 ….

While at the sale that day, a customer came and shared something with me about this post. I didn't know they felt this way about themselves, so I had to speak truth. I then shared that, yes, marking items is hard! We want to make money for the client, so we can make money for "bustin' our butts" yet keep enough "wiggle room" for the buyer to feel like they got a good deal or could resell it. I know, in 1995 a picker could pick things for $1, however, this is 2022 and the world ain't the same. On ALL levels! Anyway, I said "we see dealer friends pick up the tags and roll their eyes" but, we still SELL it. Truthfully, some of the items we have let pass through our hands this past year, we could have bought and sold ourselves.

I had to tell this person, that "yes, this business is tough" and something I was told decades ago, "there ain't no friends at the auction" (estate sales too). Flipping shows, American Pickers, Storage Wars, shows like that make all "this" look easy and many are picking it up as a hobby and that is great!

Just keep in mind, just like this pepper, not everything you see is "all that" flip it over and see the real story. Even the pictures of this sale showed staged items, it didn't show the dusty, hot, dirty, droppings, sweat equity that came with it.

Those 2 peppers from my garden, I cut off the black part and still ate it. That is what we can learn from this. Cut out the bad and move on to making something good from the rest.

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.

June to July 2022 Happenings

 

This past spring, Al and I decided to plant the old horse pasture in wildfower seeds.  We went on a tour of a lavender and wildflower farm last summer and loved the look.  Anna's neighbor has a small field of them too - so pretty!  It is happening!  Baby flowers are starting to grow.  We planted a perennial blend with self seeding annual seeds.  I have high hopes, but truthfully, this is an old horse pasture and I hope quack don't choke out the flowers.  It is our intention to put our bee hive out there next year.  Cosmos are a bright show of color.

I've been working on creating a cute space in and around my greenhouse.  It is my favorite spot now.  This little oak, spoon carved dresser was only $20 at a backroads farm sale.  I took a wrong turn while traveling and had no idea of this sale.  It may have been wrong but ended up being right for me.  I bought several things.  I was going to sell this, but I like it here.  The drawers hold my pots and supplies.  

June just flew and now July is here.  I purposefully tried to keep June open for me.  I wrote in my journal last June - "do not do any sales" and "you want to have fun gardening and enjoying your yard."  I did keep to that too.  Well, with the exception of picking up almost 2000 salt & pepper shakers from a client.  We are setting up a "pop up" at the Ringle town hall tomorrow afternoon.  We were listing some on the group, but we need to "weed" out some first.  

As far as my business goes, we did look at and talk with several families with more appointments this next 2 weeks.  I think we will be booked until December with sales.  We have some amazing pieces of furniture and unusual smalls coming up for sale.  

Well, Al is raking hay and should have wagons to unload tomorrow when the kids can help.  Hay will be on the agenda for next week as well - should weather hold out.  

I hope you have a great weekend.  Do you have a special space you enjoy?  If so, let me know about it.  

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin

It's the Little Things

 

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.  

Dicky Bird's Bananna Rhubarb Muffins

 I have been baking and saving rhubarb for decades...ahahha...but, I was today years old when I discovered this on pinterest:  

I added a (4 serving) box of sugar free jello (you could use regular) to my diced rhubarb.  Now, I normally don't add this type of thing to my food - I don't like artificial sweeteners - but, to cut back on sugar - well like all the sugar, I gave it a try.  You could use any flavor - I picked black cherry.  

I let my rhubarb and jello sit in a container over night to bake with it the next day.  Here is one of the recipes I made up.  I started with a simple banana muffin type batter.  

1/2 stick soft butter

3/4 C brown sugar; cream together

add 2 eggs

2-3 cut up bananans; blend well

add 2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, blend well

stir in your jello rhubarb (mine was 1 huge stalk - if you like it more rhubarbish add more).  

If your batter is too thin - add a bit more flour; if too thick - add a splash or 2 of milk.  Spoon into muffin cups/tin.  I added a crumb mixture on top:  melted butter, brown sugar, oatmeal and a bit of cinnamon.  Bake 375 till done.  

Super moist and tasty.  

I like to experiment and make up my own recipes.  I guess you all know that after all these years.  Don't be afraid of not having a recipe, the more you experiment with cooking/baking, the more you'll like coming up with your own creations.  Sometimes Al will say, "that's a good one, make sure to write it down" as sometimes I can't remember how I made it.  That's why I blog these things...ahahah.  

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.  

Waste Not Wednesday - Bone Broth and Croutons

 Any stale or old bread usually will get fed to the chickens, however sometimes I make croutons.  Easiest, thing to do, with something you would just toss.  Just cube up your bread, this could be any type, drizzle with an oil and season with your favorite herbs and spices.  Put in a 350 oven until you can smell them and they are toasted.  So easy, so good!

Another thing I do is save bones and carcasses.  I know that sounds funny, but instead of tossing out the chicken carcass, the beef roast or ham bone, I bag them and freeze them.  When I have enough to fill my pressure cooker, I'll make some bone broth.  I also am happy that last year I did this:  Harvesting Herbs I plan to do this again this year.  I also add anything in my refrigerator that is less than fresh...this time it was mushrooms.  Fill with water.  

Liquid gold .... so easy to do!  I thought everyone did this, because growing up, my mom did this.  I just thought it was what you were supposed to do.  Little did I know....now it's a "thing."  My parents were little during the depression, they had so many things they did out of necessity that have now become trendy.  I use my T-Fal Calipso, Infusion Pressure Cooker - it was the "intapot" of the 1990's.  It is a valuable part of my cookware, that I wouldn't want to be without.

Next time you have some "less than" fresh food item or something you may toss, I hope you think of this post and try to use it.  Do you do something like this?  If so, what is it?

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.