Out here in the country, landmarks are the primary way to tell someone how to get from one place to another — “about half a mile past the log house and if you get to the S curves, you’ve gone too far”. We had an awesome landmark just a little past our farm. The owner of the property had been a railroad man, and he put a blue caboose at the end of his driveway near the road, complete with tracks and a railroad crossing sign. Everyone knew the blue caboose. Unfortunately when he and his wife passed and his daughter moved to the property, she and her husband determined that the caboose needed too much work and expense to restore, and they sold it. It was a sad day in the neighborhood when it disappeared.
I never intended to be the new neighborhood landmark, but…. At Christmas time a year and a half ago, my daughter sent me a Pinterest pin of a tractor tire painted up like a wreath. We had a tractor tire lying around, so I decided to go for it. I spray painted it green, but it was COLD that December, and the tire was outside. I really didn’t want to be out there painting holly leaves and berries on it. Enter the craft store! I bought a Christmasy garland and a big bow and used the staple gun to attach them to the tire – instant giant Christmas wreath! My husband gamely took it out to the end of the drive (almost a mile) on the open tractor with a bucket and helped me get it set up. It was a big success.
But then Christmas was over, and my husband was somewhat less game to bring the tire back with the open tractor in the cold, and the tractors with cabs didn’t have buckets. So it stayed way past Christmas. Then I got the brilliant idea that it didn’t have to be a Christmas wreath. I got a couple spring flower garlands and turned it into a spring wreath. It was kind of sad when my spring wreath got snowed on…
When summer came, I got some new garlands and turned it into a summer wreath. I also got a little more aggressive with my flowers and added extras to fill in the blank spaces. For the Fourth, I added a little patriotic bling (not in this picture). I have to admit, I was really having fun with my “Christmas” wreath, and I was really glad I was such a wimp and decided that it was too cold in December to paint holly and berries on it.
In the fall, I visited a farm cousin who had a tractor tire wreath propped against her barn with a welcome sign on it. I really liked that idea and stole it for my fall wreath.
And then it was December again, and I had come full circle. This time my Christmas wreath was a little more elaborate. I even found some battery lights so it could twinkle in the evenings.
I’m back through spring and into the summer wreath now. It wasn’t my intention to be a landmark, but it is kind of nice. Instead of telling people that if they get to the blue caboose, they have gone too far, now I just tell people we are the drive with the big tractor tire wreath. Our farm is pretty hard to miss.
Oh, and although I don’t have pictures (need to run down to the bottom), although it’s dry, if you read my last post about uncertainty, our crops are looking pretty good so far. In fact, since the corn hadn’t had a chance to come up before it was flooded, a lot of it came up after the water went down, so we only had to replant about half of what was flooded.