Bitter sweet

I've written before about Hope, Missouri.  The  post are here: October 19, #1  and post #2. Today we made what will be our last trip to Hope, at least to the Wilkinson farm.

We lost both Phyllis and her husband Joe recently, just weeks apart. 

The family chose to offer Joe's blacksmithing equipment for sale to fellow members of the Blacksmith Association of Missouri.  We arrived shortly before 9 AM and many familiar faces greeted us.  It was to be a tag sale, or best offer sale.  We didn't take a truck, or a trailer, as we only wanted some small memories of two great people.

I took no pictures there today.  I chose to remember the house and shop as it was in happier times. I met daughter Jane and son Phillip right away.  I have only visited with them via email, but remember their parents talking about them.  Phyllis would always tell us how much Phillip enjoyed his job at the VA hospital. The teasing he gave and took from the nurses always made an interesting story.  Jane's daughter Becky (who I wrote about in the previous post) was at a wedding.  I had hoped to visit with her.  I know we would have cried together, but no fear Becky, your Mother and I did it for you.  I also met their son, the chef. His mother talked about all his cooking adventures.  He tells me that now he has his own BBQ sauce and is marketing it.  I only wish I had gotten the name of it. 

Maybe this is another reason we didn't take a bigger vehicle.  The more room you have, the more you buy.  In this small space was a forge, tongs, fruit jars, some great bluegrass CD's, 3 shovels, a club aluminum cook pot, blacksmith books, and a Coleman cook stove. 

The jars sitting on the ledge are those that we bought today.  They will be great for more storage. 

Here's the unique little stove. You can use the top and the bottom as cook pots. 






I believe the neighbor has dibs on this. One shovel went to him too. 






My heart goes out to the Wilkinson family as they close up their parents place.  I've been there and done that. 


I'm sure Joe and Phyllis were happy today, looking down from heaven watching all the blacksmiths gathering at their former home purchasing various mementos to remember them by.

Happy Mother's Day to me!

The kids gave me a gift certificate for Mother's Day to a local green house.  So local it's only about 4 miles from my front door.

I went by after work on Monday.  There wasn't a big crowd, so I went rather quickly.

There are many green houses full of beautiful flowers.

So many flowers in fact, they are sitting on the floor.

You take a wagon and fill it at your leisure.  For only $1.64 I got all these flowers plus a big bag of potting soil.  Thanks Jeremy, Lori, Sarah, and Rusty!!  Love you guys.

Monday night I filled this bed with Coleus of many varieties.  It still had pansies blooming that were planted last fall.  I hated to part with them, however I knew they wouldn't hold up to the heat much longer.

I took Tuesday night off from flower duty and went to the monthly meeting of the Missouri River Quilt Guild.  The bag ladies entertained us! 

Wednesday night it was back to flower planting.  I worked on the deck planters.  This one will bloom with yellow when matured.

The two beds below have bright eyes. (Sorry for the blurry pic.)

My pink planter with the geranium that I actually kept alive over the winter.

I just couldn't bear to part with the pansies so I stuffed  planted them in this pot. 

It's been a busy week, first time I've been scheduled to work 5 days in a row in a long time.  On my way to work almost every day this week I saw these ducks.  Today I was prepared with camera in hand. 


Now for the weekend, some rest will be much appreciated.

Auction in Fayette, a wonderful day!!

We left home just shortly after 7:00 AM.  It was almost an hour and half drive to the auction we would be attending. 

Here is the house when we would spend the day. The back yard was full of trailers of many treasures, a full garage, and spaced around the tree covered lot were many more auction items. 

 It was a beautiful old neighborhood, here is the house across the street.

 . . .and another house down the street. 

Now to show you a few things that caught my eye today . . .

A Poll Parrot shoe trunk. It sold for $75.00. I heard someone say it came out of the International Shoe factory at Boonville, Missouri.

Being from Jefferson City, this beer case caught my eye.  I don't know what it sold for, as I snuck away for an hour or two. (more on that later).

Prince Albert in a can. (Wasn't that an old telephone joke you played as a teenager, years ago?) This was not the only box of these either.

At the auction, we ran into some old friends, Mike and Nancy.  (Not to be confused with our blacksmith friends, by the same name.)  Later during the auction Mike told me Nancy had walked downtown to Rosewood antiques.  So off I took for the 3 block walk. 

I saw some beautiful paintings across the street from the antique shop.  There I had a great visit with Nancy again, and the sewing ladies who were there for an afternoon and a catered lunch.  Mike soon joined Nancy and me. They wanted to take me to Back Door Antiques about 3/4 of a mile away. 

There I saw Don's wash board collection, all 277 of them with no duplicates!

He and his wife restore trunks that are to die for!  He told me the story about a man who called him up a few years ago with some trunks for sale, 14 of them to be exact. The guy hesitated for a bit and finally said $100.00 will take them all. He said he loaded them as quickly as he could. 

This might have been my favorite wash board. He called it a washboard tub.

Back at the sale, this was my only purchase of the day. We almost bid for it twice, thank goodness the auctioneer figured out the blacksmith and I were a couple!  A bargain at $2.50 for both boxes. Now what do I do with 2 grosses of caps???


When the sale was over, we went down Main street for dinner. Our son (the neighbor) and our friend Nancy had told us we must eat at Emmit's 

Here is my Chicken Jade Orzo.

The blacksmith had Jambalaya!

The last picture I took as we got in the car downtown. 


Now to see the eye candy that the blacksmith saw and/or bought today visit the Osage Bluff Blacksmith blog.

BAM conference 2012

We took off for the Missouri State Fair grounds last Wednesday.  Our little Casita was so enjoyable for the  5 days we spent there.  Of course at times it was dwarfed among the rather large RVs close by. 

I ran the boutique every day and thoroughly enjoyed visiting with all the blacksmiths. At times my blacksmith (in the gray shirt) gave me a helping hand.

This impressive sign stood guard next to the boutique.

At the FFA building, baskets were being woven.

 A broom class was also going on.

On two of the nights an impromptu meal was put together. Here Ken grills his homemade venison brats and hot dogs. 

The blacksmiths enjoy the brats, hot dogs, Phil's awesome baked beans, and my turnip kraut with potatoes. I would bet this becomes a tradition from now on. Oh, I almost forgot, Karen's cookies and Don's pecan tarts rounded out the meal.

The conference would not be the same if Roger didn't come.  He's always riding his bike around.  You could say he wears many different hats. . . . 

 . . . . and outfits too.

My blacksmith was totally surprised when he was awarded a Life Membership.  He was one of the original founding members back in 1984.

And look what I came home with!  Farm fresh eggs.  There are even two green ones!  Thanks Margie!!

The Ringing of the Anvil

This past week, the blacksmith and I attended the annual Blacksmith Association of Missouri conference. 

Friday night was an emotional night for us.


In the last two months we have lost three of our members. 


At the end of the night, all those in attendance were asked to walk past one of the two anvils set up and strike it one time for each member that died. 


To see and hear nearly a hundred people walk in silence, pick up the new hammers, and hit the anvil three times brings me to tears now as I write about it, just as it did that night.

Rest in Peace

Joe Wilkinson

Ed Harper

Dave Shepard

You will be missed.


And at the fundraiser auction on Saturday night, my blacksmith purchased one of those hammers. It will always have special meaning for both of us.

An e-mail from the neighbors, after Grandpa gave them lettuce out of the garden!

Alex would like to know what variety of lettuce this is.


He said "Maybe Grandpa should be a little more  careful. "

*We've been out of town for a few days, I hope to return to normal blogging soon!

A present for me!

When I got home from work yesterday, this is what I saw!


It's a jewelry holder for me.  I had told the blacksmith I need a holder for the necklaces I would be selling at the BAM conference. Isn't it adorable?


He's a keeper!  The blacksmith that is!