Gotta bring the old wagon out where it can be admired!
Houston, we have a problem. The forest is eating my old grain wagon.
I rescued this dear old sweetie, with permission, from a collapsing barn on the Bates farm just outside of Killarney about 30 years ago. I brought it home as yard art and pulled it up under the big beautiful oak tree, where it has resided ever since.
The oak tree has since died because I didn’t know having the sump hose from the basement draining near it would eventually kill it. I drowned my poor tree. I had been planning to cut it down, leaving about a 10-foot stump to turn into a neat, chainsaw-carved statue, but now I’m changing my mind on that.
I’m now thinking I’ll go up and cut off any big branches that may be getting rotten enough to fall, then go to my buddy Ray at Ron Paul Garden Centre for some climbing vines to plant at the base of it, which will eventually grow and cover the tree with beautiful new foliage. Great idea, if I do say so myself. I’ll let you know how that goes.
The wagon has to come out to where the sun and wind can keep it from rotting, and where it can be "showcased" a little more. I love having historical pieces in my yard, and in my house. I enjoy picturing them in use, way back when, and wondering who was using them, and, in the case of this wagon, how many trips it made into Killarney hauling whatever. Did it roll by me with a load when I was a kid back in the 1950s cruising Killarney streets on my Schwinn balloon-tire bike? Maybe. Nice to think so.
I’m thinking of creating a patio/fire-pit area on top of the old retired septic field here. The wagon would make a nice backdrop to set some lawn chairs in front of. That just might be the perfect place and use for it. Time will tell.
I’ll have to create a nice rock garden or plant rose bushes or something else in the space it’s being moved from, because there are two beloved family cats buried under that wagon. I’d have to mark their final resting place with something homey and special. A few big rocks and flowery bushes might be perfect, with our kitties’ names, Sam and Jack, engraved on the rocks. I like it.
I probably won’t move the wagon until spring, but it’s good to have a plan.
I also have a plan for another old piece of history in my yard, an old hired-hand shack I had hauled from a former farm down the street, and, until now, have just used for storage.
The Killarney sign on it, by the way, is from the town’s original locker/freezer plant that was still in operation when I was a kid. When the business closed up, the sign ended up on an old barn a few miles south of town, where I spotted it while hunting for old cars one day, and bought it.
The old bunkhouse will be stripped to the studs inside, insulated and turned into a comfy little cabin/escape right here in my own yard, warmed by a beautiful little antique wood-burning stove I acquired on one of my jaunts.
It’ll get a new coat of paint and look like it’s right out of Pinterest! Even I can’t wait to see it.
Talking history, another thing I’d like to move into my yard is an old grain elevator, full size, of the type they’re tearing down presently in small towns all across the nation. I would love to have an observation platform around the top, from which to view the beautiful prairie and sky.
Somehow, I don’t think the neighbours and RM will go for that. Go figure.
Have a happy weekend gang. Enjoy the warm while we still have it.
Comments/feedback welcome at lmustard1948@gmail.com
