vintage Halloween

       Beloved by many collectors - including me!

There is something magical about Halloween - and

I quite enjoy unpacking & setting out all my goodies...

kind of like when we would sort thru all our candies 

after trick or treating!

I still have 4 plastic Halloween candy containers from childhood.

We used to set these along the picture window in our home in Monona.

Now they live on a window sill at our farm.  The wonderful box of 

Halloween invitations were gifted to me from dear Sarah Dill.  Found at

a garage sale - now a part of my collection....truly adore them!

About 5 years ago, we were given permission to enter an old farmhouse 

that was vacant, but still full of possessions.  The owners allowed us to take

what we would like before the weather & animals got to everything.  Strewn

across an upstair's bedroom were vintage Halloween napkins...somehow 

undamaged despite the rain & raccoons that had gotten in.  I gathered them

and am glad to add some to my collection and have many move on to 

other collections (several still available in my case at the Hixton Antique Mall).

          Vintage Halloween - charmingly perfect!

it just takes a bit of sunshine

I traveled Friday, a day off, some things on my mind.  I found

myself sitting at a little auction in Independence, Wisconsin.

Maybe thirty chairs set up in tidy rows in the front yard of a home 

that would itself be auctioned off at 12:30.  Most of many years of

collecting packed in boxes, unloaded and sold one by one.  The

collector now living in a nursing home.  We gathered as this small

community, bidding on one after another lot.  On the surface, a very

solemn event...dispersing a lifetime of a home, carried off, collections 

divided many times.  My number 36 was raised, very select choices...

one of her cow creamers, several of her hen on a nest, two of her milk

bottles~~ one from Augusta meant to add to my own collection.  One

bid after another, I spent a morning as part of this group of bidders,

dispersing a lifetime.  But I know I will love the milk bottle I won -- as will

the person who eventually picks up the little cow creamer & takes her home.

Sure, this is all stuff....but stuff certain to hold stories & maybe a memory or two.

I will remember that chilly morning on October 17 ~~ sitting on a folding 

chair, raising my number, adding ever so selectively to my own story,

my own memories.

It only takes a bit of sunshine reflected just right to make a rainbow.  

As I carefully packed my treasures, folding them into my raincoat,

I knew I carried off with me pieces of someone's life.  Little shimmers,

little fragments of color, little stories.  

"Made it!"

"Made it!", she stated with a grin.  That will be me - 

as I wander through a number of anniversaries over 

the next two weeks.  

Today I mark my first 'second weekend of October' without

my usual Barn Sale.  I won't say I didn't miss the festivity of

it all, setting up vignettes & waiting to see if anyone arrives.

However, I appreciate feeling rested as I enter this mad dash

into winter readiness.  It has been good to catch my breath this 

year.

This coming Thursday Dave & I will mark 33 years of marriage.

Friday I will mark reaching my one year mark Cancer free.

"Made it!"....I will repeat over & over through October.

Addendum....just watched my neighbor's cows run across their pasture in a line...

heading in to be milked.  Each one seemed to moo, "made it"!  

one last reminder

Just so that no one shows up at our farm this weekend...

there will not be a Meadowview Farm Barn Sale this year.

This event has taken place on the second weekend of October ~

this year, for many reasons, we are taking the year "off".  We 

will certainly miss seeing so many now familiar faces!

Have a wonderful Autumn weekend!  Miss you!

Holy Buckets!

Please accept this post as a full on apology!  I have been a tad busy.

And I miss stopping by all my favorite blogs and posting a note or "hi".

Just about 3 weeks into my new job has me realizing why most folks do

not raise young babies or take over nonprofit organizations after a certain

age!  

Well wow!  I am feeling a bit like that deer in the headlights....or this wide 

eyed fellow below these days!  Lots to learn, lots to wrap my mind about.

But, truth be told, I am loving every minute of it.  I am best in

positions where that "buck stops with me".  I have learned to be 

patient, to listen, to ask lots of questions, to learn.  There are also

plenty of big things that will not wait for me to learn this new role...

funders need to fund, public hearings need my testimony, was on 

T.V. my first day on the job responding to issues in our community.

So, please pardon my absence from the blogosphere.  All my comments 

are in my heart.  I will be back soon!  Promise!

pink it is

Today marks the start of October, certainly one of the sweetest months I know.

And today marks the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness month.  With some

authority I share the importance of early detection...one out of eight women will be 

diagnosed with breast cancer ~ that is the reality.  But the reality is that the prognosis 

can be very good.  I placed my faith in my medical team and let them do what they needed.

A lumpectomy followed by 35 rounds of radiation ~ "sure".  No clear margins, so a second

lumpectomy ~ "do it".  Still no clear margins, so a mastectomy with lymph node removal
 ~ "let's get this done".  It wasn't bravery or courage....for me it was survival.  Period.
I had things to do.

And I was fortunate, my lymph nodes were clear, it had not traveled...
so no radiation needed, no chemo required.

On October 17th I will mark one year cancer free.

Now please do not get me wrong....there are realities that come with any medical

procedure.  I wish I would have known some of those things.  Regaining arm motion

after a mastectomy is work.  When your lymph nodes are removed, funky stuff

happens to nerves, and forever more that arm is off limits for any pokes.  Fatigue 

rocks you to the core.  Deciding to go through reconstruction, wear a prosthesis, or

just be ~ are all decisions that impact every day.  Practical things are not so easy.

And no one told me the implications this would have on something like life insurance...

I am now a risk to any underwriter ~ they won't bet on my life.  Thank goodness for

safeguarded health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.  No matter your political

persuasion, everyone should have enough heart to agree that denial of health insurance

based upon a preexisting condition is inhumane.  

I have learned more than I ever thought I would along this pink winding road.

My admiration to those women who bear a double mastectomy runs deep.  I cannot even

begin to imagine how so many women travel from surgery to recovery to chemotherapy.  

How they walk through that valley ~~ heroic!  But we all do what we need to, that is life.

And no one really wins or loses any battle in breast cancer....we all survive, moment by moment.

Today marks the start of October, certainly one of the sweetest months I know.