Hello dear readers!
Welcome to all the new subscribers! The sheepies say hello and ask “did you bring us treats?”
Lucy Update:
She seemed to regress last week on us. Stopped eating again, needed help getting up, etc. Vet did a look see at the pus from the abscess and had us change her antibiotics.
She perked up within 48 hours. The abscess is almost gone, she’s eating again, and I’m not picking her up every few hours. The cooler weather this week helps too, she never did like the hot sunny stuff.
She even led us on a merry chase last night when it was time for her daily dose of meds. Silly girl. It was so good to see!
On to what I’m sure you have been waiting all week to know. The answer to last week’s mystery object!
Oh but first, I got some great answers from you dear readers. Here they are!
Big Ass Bell
Mud Pie Mold
Helmet for children to protect them from bad ideas
Hay Counterweight
Cow Bell
Doorstop
Weighted Anchor Thingamajigger
Rope Making Device
Aren’t those some great guesses!!
Ok Ok, I know your waiting
It’s a horse anchor, or buggy anchor!
Samantha B was the closest with her weighted anchor thingamajiggie answer.
Many years ago, when horses and buggies were the norm, these would be carried in your buggy and if you got to church or town and there was no hitching rail space, you put it on the ground in front of your horse and tied the reins to it while you went about your business.
I got this from a wonderful guy who actually grew up on my farm. He still lives in town. His grandparents started this place over 100 years ago. If you go into my outhouse, you can see where Mr Jim carved his initials into the seat a few times. Guess he was bored while he was sitting there.
When we remodeled the bathroom in the house, Rob and I felt that making the doorway larger would be a good thing in the event that one of us ended up in a wheelchair. The existing door was way too small for that.
When the workers removed the dry wall, the original wallpaper in the kitchen was still there and in really good shape. Afterall, it had been covered for who knows how many years.
I cut a piece of that paper off and tucked it away for a while. I had been intending to frame it and put it back in the kitchen. Who doesn’t like to see that kind of history?
After Rob passed and I had to go back to work, I found out from my coworker that indeed, a surviving member of the founding family was still here in town.
When he came in, I was introduced to him and got a chance to ask him all the burning questions I had about the property. He is a wonderful resource!
I decided that some of that wallpaper should go back to him, and when Laurette was up the last time, she had some frames she was not using and we found two that worked great for what I wanted to do.
One went to Mr. Jim, and one stayed here in the kitchen.
Mr. Jim was quite surprised to get a bit of his family history back. He did recognize the paper.
A few weeks after that exchange, Mr. Jim came into the store and plopped the horse anchor on the desk. His father use to collect them.
Mr. Jim explained that many of these were used for the two world wars war effort. They were collected as scrap metal. There are not many left now. They are cast iron and were melted down for various uses. Since the advent of cars, many were no longer needed outside of very rural areas.
This was his thanks for getting a piece of wallpaper.
It sits in front of my house on the wall as an enduring piece of American history.
I wish you all a Happy 4th of July! Stay safe!
Blessed Be!
That's awesome! So glad you had the opportunity to connect with a former resident of your farm! That's always very precious. <3
So interesting! What would you estimate that horse anchor weighs?
And glad to hear Miss Lucy is doing better.