This last year I am doing my weekly jaunt to Goodwill and find something that is either a farming or ranching implement. I try to take a look at what they have at least once a week and then I spot this. I know by the looks that this is old, handmade with bentwood and something to only dust off! Don’t forget to open with your mouse over the photo to enlarge it.
We are personally made as people from the stuff we are raised around. My grandfather had a ranch, and visits there are more fun than the large theme park near where we live. Once a year we visit and each time I put my future desires to live on a ranch deep into my psyche. My poor husband lives with the complaints of city life for years.
We finally get to ranch country after the beach country that was also on the ‘let’s live there’ list! So here I am with a store filled with old cowboy boots and stained plastic containers. But I know this item is something from the area that had some significance to farming or ranching. It has to be a farming or ranching implement. So for $6.00 I buy it and post a picture onto my Facebook site. My nephew nails it right away, and a farmer/rancher we know in Montana gets back to me as well.
This is Fun for our Family Ranch Room
Our family room has our ranch artifacts in it. We have the classic horse shoes from the ranch and Dad’s bridle and reins for his days of horse riding. Mom does photo collages of us working on the ranch after Dad inherits it, and these are proudly adorning the wall. This room is soothing to my ‘ranch desiring soul’.
Now I have something to hang on the wall that definitely belongs. In fact, this item is for both farming and ranching, the duo implement. I nailed it without knowing what I was looking at. This is a grain sifter. It has loose hook to shake it with a shovel full of cut grain. The sifter is put to work and then the farmer or rancher can compare the amount of grain to another field and see which one has the greater seed yield.
We now have a ‘new to us’ item for the walls and souvenir of Wyoming that fits perfectly into our ‘ranch room’. When I find out what it is, the emotional link hits me hard. I am closer to living where I have wanted my entire life, and this little farm/ranch artifact has a home where it is appreciated. What age it is I would love to know. All of these grain sifters that I see online are hand made and vary in design of course. I enjoy envisioning someone soaking their would and then sitting down and wrapping the wood around something round. Maybe misses farmer’s round pot. This is how this collector’s brain enjoys collecting older pieces. I also get the added bonus of asking guests what they think it is!
Things Change
Now my hunting ‘eye’ has a new vision. The hunt is now for dirty and dusty, plus items a little muddy now. I love my glass and crystal, but this is new. I never see ranch and farming stuff in our state of Washington in the suburbs. Now I have exposure to the ‘wild west’ here in Wyoming. When we first arrive here during The Frontier Days, I am extremely disappointed in the Goodwill store being loaded with cowboy boots, and no cut crystal. Now I’ve made the leap to the old west and all that it entails!
Public Value too
I always love hunting up the value of items with eBay or Pinterest. My nephew beat me to the punch though. When he identified it, he found the value, and sent me the links. So my joy is dusting it and hanging it on the wall, with the added knowledge that it goes for about $120.00 online. Now understand that the on-line price covers the seller’s cost, time, commission and shipping. Broken down it’s about $35.00 at a second hand store. However, my grandfather would get a kick out of seeing it on the ranch room wall.
Response Magic