This sounds like an odd title, I know, unboxing farm collectibles? As you might remember from my previous blogs, we recently moved to our ‘downsized’, ‘rightsized’ , and “new to us” retirement home. We have been busy with some renovation projects, and we are still unpacking the myriad of boxes in the lower storage area and downstairs bedrooms.
A box labelled Farm Ornaments??? (that doesn’t even make sense!)
Only a couple days ago, I rediscovered another box that had been in our garage at the other house, and the one before that, and before that, lol.
It was a box I had repacked after a trip to Saskatchewan to our old farmstead. I couldn’t for the life of me remember what was inside. But I knew I had brought things back from the farm many years ago.
The Old Farm and Yard
Here’s a few pictures (from a later trip) of the old homestead of my Dad’s grandparents when they first emigrated from Finland. It was looking pretty bad and makes me a bit sad looking at these old photos now. This was the farm my dad was born on, in this very house. We moved back to Saskatchewan in 1972 and lived in this house between 1975-78 before buying a neighboring farm and newer house.
The picture below shows the blacksmith shop and then pictures of other outbuildings and granaries follow.
In the picture below, my son and I scared a deer out of the granary 🙂 He took off like lightning!
The Summer Kitchen
The picture below is the old summer kitchen. My grandparents and great grandparents used to cook there in the summer time to keep the house cool. There must have been alot of cooking going on! Having a summer kitchen was quite often with European families who immigrated to the Prairies. What a smart idea!
This is the old garage below. I can’t believe I used to play basketball in front of that old garage. Well at least I took a lot of practice hoop shots!
Old Finnish Style Granary
The building below is one of the older granaries, made in the traditional Finnish way. My dad used to talk about Uncle Ivar sleeping in that granary in the summer. I guess the house really was hot in the summer, not enough insulation. I remember the house being really cold in the winter, with only the oil stove for warmth.
The Unboxing
Anyway, here are a few pictures from the unboxing. I am calling it that because that is how it felt, like Christmas with a twist, where everything is old but somehow has special meaning and is full of surprises!
Sorry, but I took the picture above after I realized that this truly was like an unboxing..I sort of knew what might be there, but hadn’t seen the real things inside before or for ages.
I checked the newspaper wrapping on few items and they said 1994!
But this didn’t make sense, because the paper was the Vancouver Sun. So I realized I must have rewrapped everything after I got back to BC from my trip to Sask.
What I found:
Anyway, it did get a bit exciting as I started to recognize the items as a I pulled them from the box. Here is what was inside! They were some typical prairie farm collectibles.
These vintage bottles were found in the granaries and ramshackle garage and summer kitchen on our farm. The old stubby is unique, and there are several old medicine type bottles, whiskey and a grease bottle, a couple more insulators.
A few more vintage bottles, old tap, tool, lighter and a soap holder that I pulled from the old house (original dirt included, lol).
Some tools and vintage arrowheads!
My Dad liked to hide things, and always told me to check the garage. I remember that I found the assortment of rocks and arrow heads/grinding stones or hand tools hidden in some old boots or the rafters of the garage. OMG!
(I have since checked if there is any archeological value, but likely not since the location of where my dad found these is unknown. Farmers are forever finding arrow heads on the fields.) The one arrowhead / hand tool looks like a brown quartz or flint material. There are lots of grooves where it was sharpened.
The insulators and other vintage farm tools were found in the blacksmith shop. (On another trip I found a green stone brooch, and a couple other momentos that I will post about later.)
I remember these! I remember putting the other pitchfork in my stuff. The other ‘complete’ pitchfork I brought back and carried through airport security back in the day when everything wasn’t considered a weapon 🙂 That pitchfork has already been photographed and is on my Collectibles page.
I do remember adding the cultivator shovel because that had meaning for me after countless hours spent passing my Dad tools under the cultivator. I must have thought the grinder would always come in handy (think survivalist mode!).
Glad I took these when I did…
These farm collectibles were all left for gone in our abandoned farmhouse and surrounding outbuildings. I have made several trips back since they were abandoned over the years, and always tried to bring back a few momentos. Luckily I did that before the whole house and blacksmith shop were bulldozed over by current owner.
Well that was exciting! Feel free to leave me comments or questions below.
YouTube video of this Unboxing:
If you want to see more Collectibles, don’t forget to check out my Collectibles page.
If you like Blue Willow and Blue and White Displays, visit my blog entry My Latest Blue and White Display!
I hope you enjoyed this post on unboxing farm collectibles. ‘Til next time!
🙂 Bonnie