Trash to Temporary Treasure

Several of my farmhands spotted a treasure in a corner of a field at Four Sisters Farm that had been used as a dumping ground years ago...long before the Four Sisters Farm family arrived here.

It was on the top of the pile...sitting on the rusted bed of an old pick up truck...past the poison ivy and the ancient Frigidaire.  A rusted old Radio Flyer Red Wagon with parts badly bent.  So badly bent, the wheels were completely out of alignment.

We hopped into Pop's pick up to go rescue it and only got a few feet down the lane through the field when Grammy got the pick up stuck in the mud.

We didn't stop to photograph the junk pile because I keeping three farmhands out of poison ivy and barbed wire isn't an easy thing.

We left the truck and detoured past the pond on foot.  After we checked out how the recent rain had filled the pond, we marched on to liberate our treasure.

The farmhands took turns helping me carry the wagon back to the farm where we looked it over.  Handy Grammy has some skills from living out on the farm but deemed the wagon a task for Pop.

I tried hard to get the truck out of the mud, but was not successful.  The fellows found the task boring but found a nearby dirt pile to pass the time.  Farm Chick offered a hand and moral support but in the end, Pop and his tractor were the solution.  Easy peasy for Pop.
Several days later while I was gone, Pop and the farmhands went to work on straightening the wagon out....and several more days later, Lil Ruthie helped me sand, clean, prime, and paint the inside of the wagon so it could be ridden in without ruining kids' clothing.

Like many of the of the things that get done at Four Sisters Farm, we all had a hand in making something usable out of something discarded.  We retained the popular "vintage" appeal of the Radio Flyer but made it useful again.  

While the paint dried, Lil Ruthie decided to sweep part of  the garage and driveway to surprise Pop.  

She said he might yell or he might be mad or he might be so happy he'd cry.  Farm Chick says some of the people in her life live in  glass case of emotion and apparently Ruthie knows all the possibilities!