Looming Storm.....

 The oat sprouter was sold like a piece of furniture among the farm things in the Montgomery Wards catalog.  My first sight of it was in an older couples' house in southern Iowa.  It sat out on their porch where many things were placed. The floor leaned because it was a traditional porch floor to drain water.  It was originally a screened porch but their was clear plastic storm protection for the winter. It was there all year.    My grandmother married into the couples family and she was their sister-in-law.  It made them my step great uncle and aunt.  They moved off the farm and I moved on in my life.  In later years I was in my dad's garage and there it sat.  He took it to display his rock collection. Time moves on forty years more since I first saw the cupboard and it did become mine. 

I will back up and tell you that the cabinet has a  metal lining and the pans of dirt and oat seed were placed inside on shelves.  A light bulb was turned on to warm it and the oats did sprout.  In the winter they wanted to feed their chickens fresh greens to make their eggs to taste better. 

I got it when I was somewhat younger and painted over the red stained wood. That was probably a bad choice.  It is a textured paint covering sponged on over three layers of paint.  It is my toy cabinet holding collected toys and some other stray old things. I added a couple of shelves for more storage.

You can see now why I have been posting photos of model cars. The ones in the bottom drawer are never displayed so when I found them a few days ago I was happy to start shooting photos. 

 

The Ford woodie is one of my favorites.  I remember seeing them as a kid.  It was strange to put wood onto metal especially when the wood did not wear very well. They made them like this for only a couple of years.  I think this model is of a 1949 Ford station wagon.  I remember when Norman Rockwell did a painting of one of these cars with all the family inside headed to the beach. Parents are in the front seats and kids are in the back.  A grumpy grandma is sitting also in the back far seat. 

We are waiting for a snowstorm to hit.  We are suppose to be at the bottom of it but it usually does spread all over, hitting more area that forecasted. I have a doctors appointment on Thursday so that is up in the air.  Thanks for checking in today.