gardenjunkpickergirls: Wisconsin and Minnesota during deer season and an early snow storm

Inspired by the recent reality TV show Picker Sisters, we are fans of REAL picker shows. We relate to the thrill of finding something cheep. We love road trips and filling the truck with our unique finds. We love the reaction of your husband’s as we pull in the drive w/ junk. Unfortunately, Picker Sisters is like watching a train wreck. You know you should turn away, but something draws you to it. You try to yell at the TV hoping it will STOP, but they just keep heading straight into a disaster.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Wisconsin and Minnesota during deer season and an early snow storm

Without a production crew following you on your picking adventures, it takes a little longer to get the details of our adventures posted in a timely manor. The weekend before Thanksgiving, I headed north to Minneapolis for a convention I needed to attend. Laura decided to tag along, needing a break from her job. The weather was great and we had a great day to work our way north. A few wrong turns, but we managed to find some interesting small town antique stores. We did not have much time and we heard the weather may not stay good, so we decided to take the car instead of the truck. I had one nice find, some old church lighting. After I got them home I realized they were copper. and painted. I am debated cleaning off the paint to expose the copper, it will be a messy job so I may wait until summer and then have my husband rewire them. For know they will just have candles in them.

One of the best parts of a road trip is the food, and Wisconsin is great, because at any gas station you can get "fresh" cheese curds. We try to eat out of the cooler to save money and that is easy in Wisconsin.

We found a hippie destination, for coffee and fun collectables, they also directed us to the closest antiques stores.

In the store was this fun VW hood painted and displayed. Maybe the picker sisters will make it into a chair.

Antiques malls can be overwhelming, and this was no exception. It was a reused old grade school, and not a small one, a very large 2 story school filled from top to bottom.

After 2 days in the city, we headed north again back into Wisconsin. Unfortunately, I was not feeling well, so Laura had to drive. and it was also starting to snow, It may have made sense to head home under the circumstances, but for some reason, I thought it was a good idea to continue on our picking adventure, and besides our Saturday night destination was only suppose to be 3 1/2 hours away, far closer then going all the way home, unfortunately, it took us over 6 hours!

Picking, is not just about the finds, it is also about experiencing the small towns and coming across interesting places. This is a sculpture park we came across along Route 8.

The sign indicated they have concerts in the park, we will have to come back during the summer.

We found a few junk shops, but since I was not feeling well and the snow was falling, we decided to just try to get to our destination, Midway Bar in Butternut Wisconsin. Remember, Laura is driving, I do have to give her credit, she kept the car on the road . . . well at least on Saturday.

Deer season started this week so we got to see many of the hunters trophies. One 13 year old girl went hunting for the first time and got an 8 point buck, her sister also got a deer, dad came home empty handed. In this picture, they are counting points, possibly a 16 pointer!

In the morning, the roads were not much better, so I planned to drive, at least until we go to a major highway.

Yep, as I said, Laura did a good job driving on Saturday, Sunday on the other hand was a different story. I was still feeling bad, so Laura was trying to do be helpful and packed up the car, she then thought it would be a good idea to pull the car down the long driveway, as soon as she walked in the bar, I could tell by the look on her face that the car was in the ditch.

It is not even December and this was my second snowstorm, but it was beautiful!

As I wrote this post I came across another junk show on HGTV called Junk Gypsies. Some how I have not seen this before. We are not county girls and their style is defiantly country shabby chic, but I found them real and interesting to watch. The episode I saw was redoing a small Texas ranch house. Laura and I live in small houses, so it is nice to see ideas for decorating in small spaces with little money.

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MO

I come from a long line of pickers. I learned from my mom, driving the station wagon around on garbage day looking for stuff others didn't want. She taught me how to search through old barns, and find the items everyone else missed. I was refinishing furniture and polishing silver at a young age, always looking for the diamond in the rough. Her passion grew into a fabulous business, but for me, I am still just a picker who makes a living more traditionally. Many of our trips stem from my business trips that Laura tags along on, or weekend adventures. Laura is more thrifty then I am, we are very different . . . I will always have time for picking, gardening and blogging. I have three blogs, none for money, just to share my interests and opinions. Click on my picture to get to my garden blog. There is a reason I do the driving, do not let Laura fool you- you do not want her to drive! Picking is hard work, not a glamorous Hollywood production. You can call us “the picker girls”, “garden junk picker girls” or “the REAL picker sisters”!

Laura

Picker, gardener, not that good of a driver. . . Is one of the "greenest" people you will ever meet. She uses a clothesline, saves everything, is still cooking with some of the pans we had in our college house in the 80's. It’s not about being trendy, it’s how she lives. . . . OK I need to speak for myself here . . . Mo is definitely the blogger, driver and boss. However, I need to clarify a few things in my bio. First and foremost, I am an excellent driver and have an almost clean record to prove it. Also, my job as co-pilot is equally as important. I am, after all, the navigator through unknown country roads; no GPS in the old pick-up for these gals! I also have to rummage in the cooler and prepare sophisticated hors d'oeuvres. Last, but not least, I'm in charge of tunes. If left up to Mo, all we would be listening to is satellite radio's all Grateful Dead station. Not trendy? Without a doubt. I actually started thrifting and picking to save money. I still do for that reason, but more importantly, I want my surroundings to be funky and meaningful, and am always up for an adventure with my "true picker" sister!

Fender Art - has a long connection to "junk"

No it is not a fender made into a chair, just a fender made into ART! DEFINITION: The Middle English word jonk, ancestor of junk, originally had a very specific meaning restricted to nautical terminology. First recorded in 1353, the word meant "an old cable or rope." On a sailing ship it made little sense to throw away useful material since considerable time might pass before one could get new supplies. Old cable was used in a variety of ways, for example, to make fenders, that is, material hung over the side of the ship to protect it from scraping other ships or wharves. Junk came to refer to this old cable as well. The big leap in meaning taken by the word seems to have occurred when junk was applied to discarded but useful material in general.