Third Generation Picker

I'm teaching our son to pick.

It's not really a new concept to him. Bless his heart, we've dragged him to auctions and antique malls since he was a baby. When he was playing little league sports on Saturday mornings I would pray for an early game so we could stop by any yard sales along the way and hit the estate sales on the way back.

We come from a family of pickers. My daddy is a picker but not a seller. He got me started with my bottle collection when I was in my late teens and early 20's. He would dig up bottles he found on job sites...see this post for the story.

Part of my soda bottle collection

Corkers in the bathroom window

I love bottles in the window

He has a varied collection of things he's picked from over the years. He rarely if ever sells anything, but for the most part he can justify keeping his treasures because he has put them into use at some time or another. What he hasn't is somewhat on display around the barn or shop.

At any rate, I got the bug honestly. I spent a lot of time as a kid, digging through old trash piles on farms near where I grew up, finding little saucers or zinc jar lids...enough to make me want to keep digging and searching. 

My first auction buy was a Diamond King wood cookstove that I saved until we built our house and still have it today. It cost $150 in 1981. I was offered $500 for it a couple of years later and I wasn't even tempted to sell. I loved it that much. 

Our cookstove, here piled with stuff during our recent ceiling reno project...we now have tin, but more on that later...

And now...generation three. Our son.

Sam NEVER intended to be a picker. Since becoming a teenager four years ago he began his protest against anything old. But, now at a wiser seventeen, he can be motivated.

Sam likes to spend money. His likes far exceeds his needs, which is probably true for most of us. Being homeschooled has so many advantages, one being we get to choose curriculum. This semester his electives are Photography and Essentials of Business along with his last English class needed to graduate. 

With jobs for teenagers being slim to none here, we finally convinced him that he can be his own boss and generate as much or as little money as his own efforts produce...plus he will be earning school credits at the same time...or in other words, an internship.

Picking without selling can become hoarding! We can easily have a relationship with all of the cool things we find...so, I've started Sam out selling first to get a taste of profit and motivation for more. We still have a barn stall full of things from the trailer...see here for story... that need to be sold. I'm letting him pick from there first. He has been sifting through boxes for smalls to list on ebay. 

Ford Volt Meter

Model T Headlight

He cleans, researches, photographs, packs, weighs, measures, writes descriptions, lists on ebay or craigslist,  answers any correspondence, ships and collects his rewards. This helps me immensely by taking care of things that need a broader market than than our local venues, by building positive feedback in our new ebay account, and saving me the incredible amount of time it takes to do all of this.

He is doing a great job, all the while, using his creative writing skills, business essentials, plus teaching me all about the functions of my camera. Win! Win!

The items above end this evening, February 8. Click on either photo for a link to the auction if interested.

Do your kids work for you? How's it going?

For the Locals

Hope it's cooler where you are than here in the hot and humid south! On Monday it honestly felt pretty tolerable at 95 and low humidity. Now, both the heat and humidity are rising and I'm happy to be inside sprucing things up for our opening this weekend.

We recently got in some new local collectibles that I think are quite unique and just may be near to someone's heart....

First is the High Point Bank and Trust 60th anniversary commemorative ashtrays. Ordinarily, I may have passed up something like this but,

My first bank account was with this bank and they gave me my first loan as well for my one and only brand new car....and my best friend worked there for a while. The bank looked like this even when my children were small. I remember going through the drive-thru in the back and my kids getting lolli pops. It was fancy back in the day.

We have two of these smoky glass ashtrays. I still know several people that worked there and am wondering who will scoop these up.

....And on the other end of the spectrum are these little windshield ice scrappers...

From the iconic Fulton's Grocery. It was one of those places everyone stopped by and that had Cokes in a big red cooler outside for a long time.

If you've not been to one of our occasional sales, we have lots more local collectibles you may be interested in...

New old stock North State Telephone Match book

Dial???

First Methodist Church
Winston-Salem
Built 1842

Great Smoky Mountains

Blowing Rock

White Lake - I'm not sure what this is but I like the art...

Tiny little ashtrays from Star NC

I would use them for soap in a guest bath/powder room

More from White Lake - 10 coasters still in package...

Coasters Lable

Commemorative silver plate money clip from Kay Jewelers

Record Cleaner from Greensboro Music

I know...a cat hair. 

Lots of vintage travel brochures from all those childhood vacations.

Post cards...some linen...from the same childhood family trips.

If you see anything you are interested in we will be open this Saturday August 7th from 10 - 5 and Sunday the 8th fom 1 - 5. We'd love to see you! 

Three days and Counting...until...

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

With Father's Day approaching I thought I'd throw out a few ideas for gift giving. If your Dad is like mine he already has everything and says he doesn't need anything.

Remember those little coupon booklets we made for Dad as children? A coupon for a car/truck wash, breakfast in bed, or for mowing the yard...and then there was one for something that included us...a day of fishing or trail riding or even better a weekend of camping. Those were the days!

In the shop, we have a few things Dad may like too.

For the collector Dad...

Collectible oil cans

Handmade fishing/tool box and old tools

Collectible cameras

For the writer Dad...

Hand lathed pen and pencil sets by Charles Hepler

Letter opener sets / pen and pencil sets

Soy Candles for burning while writing

Masculine scents like Caribbean Teakwood in various sizes and containers

For the art appreciating Dad...

1950's  framed Charlie Russel prints 

Dyrk Godby print, "Countin' 'em out"

Vintage Travel Trailer  art by Paige Bridges

These are only a few suggestions...we have more! Come see us for your Dad's unique gift! Open this weekend 10-5 Friday and 10-2 Saturday.

New at the Ranch

New glass in the shop this week...

Vintage Freezer Jars

I think this is my favorite of the three

Don't you love the aqua lid? We have cannisters to match.

Or is this my favorite...I love the red lids.

Gallon Milk Bottles

Arden Farms

Royal Farms

Paper Flour Sack framed in an old window

These way cool vintage goodies are all for sale and ready to go home with you. Give us a call and come by!

We are also opening up our new ebay shop this week. Click on the Ebay tab at the top of the page after 9 pm Tuesday night to see the what's on the auction block this week.

Here is a just a sneak peek...

Working Telechron Motored Neon Ad Clock

We will be adding new items a couple times weekly, so you will want to check our listings often...we are cleaning out the shed! 

Shop Update 9/24/10

As we near the really and truly official opening date I want to write a longer update than usual. I know it's not good to write such a long post, but I've been asked quite often lately "when are you opening?" and when I say, "I don't know", I can see the question on their polite faces..."what the heck have you been doing for a year?"

Well, first off, for the last month, I've been incredibly busy sorting through lots of boxes, trying not to breathe in too much mildew and dust, cleaning lots of glass, china and pottery, clothing and linens, and then researching what I've found. I do this trying also to keep some balance in my already busy life with family, animals, and maintaining a home, farm, business and hopefully a handful of good friends.

On September 16th last year I started this blog to document the process of this endeavor and then in October we had the trailer pulled in here to start unloading. Remember how full it was? I believe this stuff was stored in there 15 years before it came here. From what I can tell from some papers I found the house was condemned by the city in 1994 and it must have been in horrible condition judging from the looks of some of the things. As I've gone through the boxes and drawers and found squirrel nests in with the clothing or water damaged things it makes me think of how Jackie O's rich cousins lived with cats and raccoons in the delapidated house in the Hamptons after the money ran out. Remember that story?

That's an entire estate...you can't even see the furniture against the walls.

So...Our plan was to work on that during the winter after Rick's workshop was finished and use that space as a staging area while we sorted and priced and repaired or painted things. We would be ready to open our doors in May...or so we thought. Those of you that have followed along for this last year know already that our plans were worthless! Rick didn't have any walls up on his shop until April of this year because of all the snow and rain and then he's had such a heavy work schedule putting in sometimes more than 60 hours a week, that it's taken until recently to get his shop finished much less get moved into the store.

So, for the last month, I've been spending my days digging through boxes and sorting things according to what I should do with them.. 1) for the shop, 2) donate, 3) ebay, and 4) Trash...yes, with a capital T. Tons of trash.

We've already hauled one pick up load to the dump and the next one will have to go on the dump trailer.

These folks saved everything. Broken things, pieces and parts of things, every piece of mail that came into the house since the 1940's, greeting cards, letters, bills, receipts, clothing, shoes, newspapers, magazines, notes written on  everything from old envelopes to cereal boxes, bread bags full of miscellaneous goodies,...lots of good stuff...depression glass, pottery, furniture, glassware, china, old radios and vinegar bottles, blue canning jars...I could go on...I can't just look in a box and decide if it's junk and chunk the whole thing. I have to literally pick through every piece of paper or article of mildewed clothing to make sure I don't miss anything. I've found many a treasure so far, and 14 cents. So you see there is much to sort through and all dusty and stinky. Claritin is once again a staple item on my weekly shopping list

An emptier trailer today

Rows of  sorted boxes ready for Goodwill and Ebay...this is where our firewood usually stacks up.

 Glad it's not cold yet!

 

My fire barrel for all the packing paper, worthless grocery lists, directions, etc...and Rick's finished workshop there in the background. Yay!

I will have to say reading some the letters I've found has been fascinating. I haven't read them all by any means, that would take months...literally. I read enough to learn way more about this family than I should have...even read one yesterday that said "burn my letters, I don't want anyone else reading them" ...and so I did.

From the letters I've learned much about family life during the Great Depression through the recession of the 1970's. I want to do a post on the letters sometime when I have my thoughts together a little better. It is so interesting to compare lives. I will say what stood out the most is that women have always thought they had too much to do. In nearly everything I've read written by a women, it begins...I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write or it's past my bedtime but I wanted to get this written today...because I have just been so busy with_____________.

So to you that have asked or to you that have wondered...I've been just been so busy with....

Tornado? No, just  organized chaos.

You know I would have to have a section for advertising tins, boxes and bottles...and most of them will be in this very cool fruit crate case piece I found in the trailer.

Wonderful Marsh Cabinet...I need a porcelain top...anyone?

Another sweet kitchen cabinet

When we are finished going through every last item in this trailer I think we can officially call ourselves "Pickers". Although we didn't have to ride though the countryside to find all this stuff we've picked through our share of snake skins, rat droppings, squirrel nests and spider webs. In my opinion that makes us official!

On Monday I will begin showcasing a few of my favorite finds. I hope you'll stop back by then.