Shoppin'

So Farmall Man has completed several cleanup jobs where he has either cleaned abandoned property or torn down unwanted buildings and houses. Through these adventures he has came across quite a collection of junk stuff.

I've been a benefactor of these endeavors over the past 9 years. I have built several brick patios from bricks I've loaded while FM has torn down a building, have several wheelbarrows, wagons, and unique planters that came from trash ditches, and my gazebo and bicycle planter was rescued from the land of  unwanted.

Its so true about "one man's trash, is another man's treasure". I have re purposed lots of items that are trash to others.

Like I said, FM has quite the collection of junk stuff out back (behind the house - the front belongs to me!) From old cars and chicken feeders to cash registers, farm implements, lumber and recycled tin; there is lots to be found out back. Occasionally I get inspired by his stuff and get to go "shopping" among the "treasures"!

Recently I eyeballed this shopping cart among the stuff. When I first enquired about it, I was met with some reluctance. FM had picked it up on one of his jobs and had envisioned using it to haul tools around his shop and equipment yard. After a little persuasion, I was able to move it around to the front yard! I debated on whether to fill the buggy up with soil to plant in, but decided to place pots in the buggy, just as if you were strolling the garden center, picking out plants to take home.

It is now nestled in my flower bed and creates a focal point for this area. A rectangle pot of petunias sits in the child's seat, zebra grass, verbena, creeping jenny, assorted foliage, and a rope plant fill the three pots in the buggy.

So what do ya think? So have you ever taken one man (or woman's) trash and turned it into a cool garden treasure?

Update

Well I took Farmall Man to the orthopedic doctor yesterday and we got a good report!

For starters - NO surgery for his broken collar bone...hip hip hooray.

The doctor was very nice and talkative and said for him to keep wearing the figure eight brace he has been wearing this week. We go back in about two weeks for more x-rays to make sure everything is healing properly. He should be completely healed in about two months.

Hopefully he can get back to normal soon. It's killing him to not be able to do all the regular farm work and him and his dad are getting ready to start baling hay soon. Until then, Im trying to take care of all the chores and him too.

This year I didn't plant a vegetable garden and have had significantly less plants in the yard. I just didn't feel motivated to plant lots of stuff and didn't want to spend hours watering. Now that my yard time is going to limited, I am thankful I don't have a lot of extra plants to take care of.

Ooops!

This week I am very thankful that Farmall Man is alive.

You see it all started when his friend gave him an old motorcycle a few weeks ago. It *was* free, but not any more. The motorcycle needed some repairs and Farmall Man is great at fixings things, but unfortunately he broke his collar bone in a wreck Sunday morning.

A motorbike has been on Farmall Man's Santa Claus list since he was a wee little kid and Santa never delivered. Now I'm wishing his friend never decided to get rid of an old bike!

I had gone to memorial day services at the cemetery where my family is buried and spent the afternoon with family. Farmall Man had got some of the minor repairs done and had rode around the field on several occasions when he decided to take off down the road for the first time. He had some trouble on a hill / curve combination and unfortunately he made contact with the pavement.

He picked himself up, rode to the next intersection, turned around, rode home, nearly passed out, and drove himself to the ER ( in the truck ). Notice he did not call me! Truth be told, my phone was on silent during the church service and while we had dinner on the grounds.

When I got home and came inside and found hospital paperwork and prescription drugs on the table I panicked. Of course he wasn't even inside. I had to hunt him up outside,where he explained the whole ordeal.

He is in lots of pain this week and unable to do much of anything. That means I am having to step up and do lots of extra chores. We have lots of animals that get fed and taken care of twice daily. Tomorrow I take him to a follow up dr visit. We are hoping for a good report ( read - no surgery ) from the dr. This will be the first time in nine years that either one of us has been to a dr for anything. It is so hard to see him in so much pain.

Please bear with me as blogging time will be very limited. It's earlier to rise to feed before work, work, supper, chores again, household chores, yada yada yada.