the farm update
HighButtonShoe       
 
..what did I say about the weather forecaster saying a few weeks ago that we were pretty well done with snow?????????  I wonder if he has been tarred and feathered and ridden out of town yet? He was in  error big time! We were hit again last weekend with blizzard conditions and bad winds, minus 0 temperatures and who knows what the wind chill was. So we have been digging out again. The banks alongside the roads, (when they ARE plowed... and this is said with a frown..) are mounting up to where it is hard to see around them. This morning, as I had to get out to mail boxes, the paved road going to town was a two track where you could see the road, and the rest you rather guessed where you were on the road and gauged that also by oncoming traffic. NOT the road conditions I favor. Our country road when plowed is slicked right down to a icy challenge to drive on. When not, it is snow filled. I know I will regret this thought, but I am almost looking forward to spring and the inevitable mud! Feel free to remind me of that, when I am mired in mud for the 1-1/2 miles to a paved road. My poor white beautiful truck hasn't had a bath in a while and with the salt they pour onto our roadways (NOT our county of course, they are incompetents and don't do anything...but hide from us I think..) is surely taking a toll on the truck. It seems I never can find a good season to get the truck detailed. But I think that should be a good plan for late this spring. After that mud I previously mentioned dries up some. And before we have dust that chokes you out. Ah, country living.
 
I unshackled myself from the harvest table this morning and away from the mounds of paperwork of income tax. Having it already, I take my hours and hours of work into the accountant and they put it in the form the IRS requires, charge me HUGE fee, and it is done. I cannot tell you how frustrating income tax time is to me. Even when I think I made great strides in my preparation in the entire previous year in chronicling all the required paperwork, I usually come to the conclusion (late of course), that I should have done a few things differently. Differently, in that I could find it easier. This is my year, (worse than most)of not being able to find anything anyway. I finally bought a small hand held pencil sharpener. It was either that or take my handful of pencils to Beulah's to sharpen them all in my old cupboard mounted pencil sharpener. And I had it on my grocery list to buy another staple remover.  I had seen the other one about 2-3 months ago and put it in a good place. Un-huh. Not to be seen since. BUT I decided this morning on one last search of the boxes in the basement and I found it! Ha. There is hope afterall. Fleeting most of the time, but still now apparently some hope.
 
So, my day has been spent loading the truck with newspaper recycling. Loading boxes with orders to ship, in the truck. Checking the income tax folder over for the umpteenth time to take to the accountant. What could I possibly have forgotten? Something I am sure. My grocery list..yes, the dreaded grocery chore. A trip to UPS, trip to the post office, trip to the bank,  trip into Home Depot, got the truck gassed up ($2.95), and that of course, means that with a now full tank, gas prices will go down. I have a theory, the gas station specifically waits for me to drive in. It's like they have some radar that identifies my truck and when they see it, and I fill up, before I leave town they drop the price. OR, if I wait until I am leaving town, onto their practice mentioned, they then raise it $.15 per gallon. I never seem to get the lower price full tank advantage. It has become a obsessive challenge with me. And I never win.
 
But the harvest table is cleared off, except for an orderly stack of paperfiles that need to be filed away. But I think I have tested my brain far enough in the past several days and will let that sit there for another day to file away. Have I mentioned lately, like winter...I hate income tax? Probably. It does sound familiarly like something I mutter often.
 
I am writing today, to tell you that we are newly listed on another new site with some antiques. A website I have always loved invited a few of us to join her and I did. www.the1800house.com has some group guests. That's me! And a few others.  I have listed some of my Tilda Collection items there. Karen always has great farm finds herself and now we have joined her. Check it out when you get a chance.
I probably won't write again Friday on the 15th... but our new things come out on the 15th on www.theprimitivegathering.com also. Deena is increasing her list of exhibitors, and she has a great list of vendors.  So check that too. Also, please remember Deena in your prayers and thoughts, as she continues her battle with cancer. She was finally able to begin chemo last Friday. But she has an uphill battle, and any prayer on her behalf is always welcomed with gratitude.
PrimitiveGathering showcases new items on both the 1st and the 15th of the month.
I would also invite any artists who do shabby chic or a country primitive look to check out www.lemonpoppyseeds.com  where we are currently hosted for extreme primitives. DJ is starting up two new host sites, for those two categories. It is reasonable priced and is getting a lot of attention. They also have something in the works for pattern makers. I think all this information is located on the poppyseeds place, but if you can't find it, let me know and I will give you the links. Tell Dj, Tilda sent you!
And as always, be sure to look in occasionally for good friends, Bittersweet Susan and Miss Elspeth, for great primitive works... www.pineberrylane.com
and www.bittersweetsusan.com .
 
Okay, I still have groceries to put away, and if you can believe it, my gorgeous old wood kitchen floor is 1/2 covered to my knees (yes, that deep!) with the most lovely colored antique grass to be bagged! My coffee is done, so I will pour me a big mug, and work on bagging that gorgeous hue'd grass into bags. And wait for the big surprise of Ron to find that he can wade thru the dining room and find an almost empty table. Some days the simplest things make me smile. An empty table is definitely one today!
Thanks for asking to be a part of the farm!
Should you decide not.. request it and you will be removed.
in fond regard,
Tilda,
freed from the table.
badly in need of a hair coloring,
stuck with snow banks and my red wool hat..
www.highbuttonshoe.net
www.simplyprimitives.com
www.theprimitivegathering.com
www.lemonpoppyseeds.com
www.the1800house.com