I Own All Of This. . .

Junk!  90% of what we find is junk.  The first few trips to the property found me wide-eyed and mouth hung open.  All of this stuff!  Suzan and I walked around and laughingly admitted that we were now proud owners of all these. . .

and most importantly, lard – buckets full of very old animal fat.

The task wasn’t just a little overwhelming; it was simply shocking.  What were we going to do with all of this stuff?

Off to the right of this 1950’s dairy barn is a wing of three rooms that we needed for storage.  One Saturday morning we lit a fire, and began taking EVERYTHING out of the barn offices.  We started putting things in piles: recycle, garbage, scrap metal and treasures.

As we began pulling things out one at a time, there were thoughts like “I always desired a vintage blender!” and “Can you believe we own all of this?”  The recycle bin at the entrance to the Nokesville Community Park next door is conveniently located and has already come in handy.

Walking around, taking a good look at what we now own, the craziness of our situation turned into excitement.  We were filled with ideas of what we could do with . . . well, with most of this.

There were sheds full of couches, beds, chairs and old tools.  We couldn’t complete this task in one weekend.  It would take time.  One area at a time.

We’ll try to dig out and sort through the good, the bad and the gross.  There are a few areas I can’t wait to get my hands on!

Maybe on a very long weekend (with gas masks over our noses) we will begin cleaning out the attic of the farmhouse, the tool shed and the tenant house.

At some point, someone lived in this small shed.  Off to the side is an animal pen built from an old bed spring.  When you look at the little things in this picture, one can’t help but wonder, who lived here?  A family?  A single person?  What was their story?

Growing up I often heard Paul Harvey say, “And now you know the rest of the story. . .” The Rest of the Story, an ABC radio broadcast consisted of stories presented as little known or forgotten facts on a variety of subjects.  They would hold back a key element of the story (usually the name of some well-known person) until the end. The broadcasts always concluded with a variation on the tag line “And now you know the rest of the story.”  But our story is still unfolding.  So,  in Meghan Heaton’s word’s   “Stay tuned. . . for the rest of the story!”