The End of an Era

   When we started to harvest our apples, many, many years ago, it was decided that we would sell some on a stand out in front of the house. The Captain built a covered stand on a ski-doo trailer, and moved it beside the driveway where it has stood for 20+ years.  As the years passed it became a sort of landmark, and something people would recognize when trying to find our house. "It's the house with the white stand on the lawn."

           The years have passed and the stand has withstood the winter snows, the wild winds, and heavy rains. It was weathered and the roof had a big sag in the middle. We have not used it since we stopped farming, and I really wanted to take it down, but the job was way too big for me. After realizing that it was next to impossible to take it down myself, (I had visions of me wielding a sledge hammer or some such thing), and had more or less given up any hope, out of the blue, a gentleman drove in the driveway and said that he had looked at the stand for years, and seeing that it was no longer in use, he asked if he could get it from us. Picture me pumping my arms up and down, dancing in circles and shouting to the rooftop, "Yayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!" I asked him if he was serious and he said he was. He had a use for the whole thing, and could he come back and dismantle it. I asked him if he had looked at it closely, and he told me that he had. I led him to the stand to look again, and he pointed out what he would be doing. I asked again if he was serious......I couldn't believe it.

           Today he came with a truck and tools in hand, and within a couple of hours the stand was taken apart, loaded on the truck, and he was ready to go. The trailer will take a separate trip.
Of course I had to take pictures of this momentous occasion. I just couldn't believe it.

           I just received a call and he is coming back this afternoon to get the trailer......

#1 Poor weatherbeaten stand

#2 There goes one wall  

#3 and another..

#4 and the back wall down

The roof just sort of rolled up and died.

The base of plywood and RR ties

The lonely trailer

It marks the end of a chapter in our lives.

Perhaps I will put a little garden of annuals in this spot next spring.

The End

Fond Fairwell