I had the best two days this past week doing something I love to do. Drive along country roads and go antiquing. There was an event going on. Several ladies had joined together to have a tour of their home owned shops out in the hills and valleys of southern Indiana. It was called Country Neighbors. Now country neighbors don’t always live close to each other. When David and I started out, we didn’t have a map, just addresses I had gotten off the internet. Miss Garmin had a problem finding the first one. We missed it entirely. But just remember, the best is usually saved until the last.
It was just by happenstance I saw a sign along the road regarding one of the shops and then we realized there were signs all over if we had known to watch for them. After that, we had no problem finding them as we got a map at this particular one.
Please forgive me if I don’t put the names of all the shops here as we went to several and I can’t remember which was which, but this one was called the Washhouse for a reason you will soon see It was so wonderful with so much to see and so much to buy if you chose to do so. I bought several things here. I added to my Santa Claus collection. Getting to this place was quite a trip along high cliffs and woods.
This was a gem of a scenic drive that not many people see. Most people go to Brown County to see the Fall foliage, but this was just as beautiful and we were the only people there.
The colors of the leaves on the trees was just wonderful. This picture looks magical to me.
It was just a gorgeous Autumn day. But, back to the shop…..
The proprietor had a washhouse where she actually did her laundry, but it didn’t look like any ordinary laundry room. It was a building off by itself. Full of all kinds of old laundry paraphernalia like wooden clothespins, wash tubs, old baskets and old clothes pin bags hanging on the walls.
Here is David getting ready to go inside. Long underwear hung on clotheslines outside.
She really had quite the collection.
And she really did her laundry here because there are her washer and dryer hidden underneath a cloth. If I had a laundry room like this, I would be doing laundry every day!
This was another little shop and here are some pictures from a few others.
Each was unique in its own way.
I remember this one only because the lady who had the shop told us to go on through her house and look at it. I was a little concerned to just walk into a stranger’s house and look all over it and I said, “Do you really mean we can go walk around your house?” And she said, Yes,” so she didn’t have to tell me again and in David and I went into one of the most wonderful houses I have ever seen. Her husband was standing in the kitchen offering hot cider(which I am not fond of) and I said to him, “How do you feel having strangers walk through your house?” and he answered “I’m use to it.” I found out this house had been in the magazine, Country Sampler and another magazine I don’t remember the name. It did look like it came right out of the pages. Her décor was primitive with woolens folded neatly in an old cupboard. The bathroom is the rustic bathroom of my dreams and I told David if we ever get our little house built in our woods I want my bathroom to look like hers. I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t feel right doing so, but if you ever get the chance to see this house, you must do it. Her shop is called Mustard Seed.
She has this cute sign out on her front lawn.
As you can see from this brochure, Mustard Seed and the Washhouse will be open on December 1st and 2nd and will be decorated for Christmas. Oh, How I would love to go back. Maybe we will. Who knows. These shops are well worth the trip.
So we wandered through the countryside looking for all the shops and finding most of them.
I really, really loved this building.
And this little shop in a little barnlike structure. I was fascinated by all the lighting in this shop. The husband had done some very unique light fixtures, one being an old fan. He used canning jars and hung them from the ceiling with old fashioned looking light bulbs inside them. He directed us to the last shop we were going to and believe me, it was the best one and I don’t have any pictures because there was so much to see, I didn’t have time. It was in a very nice neighborhood by a state park. The lady who lived there had made her backyard a wonderland of old buildings and antique art with little old looking shops full of goodies to buy. While waiting for me to get out of a shop David saw two deer and I got a picture of the backside of one of them before it got away. But I can’t show it because I forgot to download it. I did buy a primitive table painted red. David and I had a discussion about how I had too many tables already and I won the discussion because it came home with us and sits in my girly room as I type. We are going to put our Christmas tree on it. One day, when we are gone, our kids are going to have the neatest stuff or the best auction! I keep telling David I am buying our children’s legacy. Ha.
David is the perfect travel companion. He drives me everywhere safely and waits patiently as I look at everything. He did find himself a canister of buttons as he is a button collector and has thousands of them all over my workshop. I am blessed and I know it.
We drove by woods, old barns, bucolic scenery, majestic old houses, and little churches that dotted the countryside.
We followed a swollen river for miles. They had had a lot of rain in southern Indiana and the rivers were overflowing their banks.
The river was this close to the road.
We drove down this road and came to water standing in it and David thought about driving through until I said a big “NO!” imagining us getting caught up in the current and swept downstream never to be heard of again, so we turned around and went another way. It can be an adventure sometime to drive backroads.
Sunday was church and a day of rest and then today we got up early and drove to our younger grandboys’ school for a Veteran’s Day program. They put one on every year and invite veterans to come. The children sing patriotic songs and the principal gave a speech and a retired army colonel spoke and a boy played taps for all those lost in wars. I must say, I got tears in my eyes hearing the children sing and a lump in my throat hearing taps. David and I have talked about him being in the military. I have said it is my one regret that I did not join a branch of the military when I was a young girl. It would have been good for me, I think. We counted up all the days David was gone from home while in the National Guard and he was gone well over a year of our marriage and that doesn’t include the times he was traveling to other states to take classes. He would go to different states and take pictures while there and later on our family would take trips to see what he saw. That is how David and I have traveled in most of the states. He was in the guard for over 36 years and not until he retired did he tell me he did not enjoy it. He was taking care of his family and that is what it meant to him. It was a job and he did it well and was well respected by the men in his unit. I didn’t know how well until one time we went to a Veteran’s Day parade in Indianapolis that he was taking part in and so many young men came up to him and saluted him and greeted him with smiles. It made me very proud of him.
This picture is horrible but here he is with our grandboys during the program. They are learning to love our country, what serving our country means and they say the pledge of allegiance. So proud of them, too.
There was a bigger crowd this year than usual. I think this school must be growing. It’s one of the highest rated schools in Indiana for elementary academics. So happy my grandsons are going here.
God bless our flag
Now to end this post with some added sweetness.
Our daughter’s golden retriever had puppies a couple of weeks ago. She had eleven and six of them lived.
They don’t pick them up for two weeks and it was so hard for me to keep my hands off of them.
Such a sweet mama. Their little bellies were full as you can see.
This is proud papa.
In a couple of weeks we will go see them and I can hold them then. Can’t wait.
To end this post today I will tell you a cute story. Or at least I think it’s cute. David came into the house today and told me to put on my shoes and come outside, he had something to show me. I had no idea what it was. He said he had heard our little lame chicken, Miss Mary Foster, just cackling up a storm like she had just laid an egg.
This is Miss Mary Foster. She is such a pet. She follows me around when I am in the chicken yard hoping for some extra chicken scratch and she gets it.
Anyway David showed me this.
Just a bunch of old boxes and wood stacked in the garden, but……..
behind it, Miss Mary Foster had been laying her eggs for at least five days. I don’t know why she started laying here as she has been laying in the chicken house, but now we know she is hiding her eggs. I wonder if she thinks she can hatch them? She can’t because they are not fertilized as we have no roosters. Poor Mary Foster. Her hopes are dashed.
Here’s to darling shops, fun drives, puppies and sly chickens. Bye.
