Friday, May 6, 2011

Josie, Hippie Tom and Grayslake

Yesterday, Kathy and I met early in Eagle, a small town in the beautiful Kettle Moraine Forest. It was the start of Eagle's Community Rummage sales.  Our first stop was out in the woods at Josie's place. (Josie declined to be photographed.)  I was too busy shopping to get many photos.  The driveway, garages and surrounding areas were overflowing with great junk.  
This sale is so well run; everyone starts a pile and one of Josie's helpers tags it with your name and watches over it, so that new arrivals don't mistakenly pick up something that's spoken for. That gives you the freedom to keep shopping with two hands...love that!  You should see the fun things I found - and you will, if you come to the Grayslake Antique Market this weekend!


Later in the day I headed into "town".  Three miles down the road from me is Serendipity Farm. It was "open" and I couldn't resist a quick stop.  If you're a fan of American Pickers you may remember the "Hippie Tom" episode, arguably one of the best ever.  (* I forgot my camera and had to take pics with my iPad...in the bright sunlight I couldn't see the controls and discovered later that I'd taken video rather than still shots, so the following pictures are photos of video frames...drat!)
 Serendipity Farm is the home of "Hippie Tom" & his wife.  Yes, there really are bicycles  hanging in the trees. 

 It's impossible to convey the volume of great junk that Tom has gathered; it's all over the yard and in the quirky buildings that he's constructed from reclaimed materials.


Tom is an 'old soul', WYSIWYG, a friendly, gentle spirit who truly loves pieces of the past.  You can visit Serendipity Farm for their occasional sales, or see Tom at various markets, including the upcoming Elkhorn Antique Flea Market


I'm linking up with Debra at Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday.  Grab your cuppa joe and follow me over to check out all the great participants! 

See you at Grayslake!

4 comments:

  1. Yay Tom and yippee for you. Glad to see your finding some more awesome pieces. You got the eye girlfriend..see you sometime this summer. doesn’t look like I’ll be making the first Elkhorn after all. Come on by...I just opened my first Etsy shop...phew..what a “challenge” lots goes into it! Cynthia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like a great sale. Took me a minute but I finally got WYSIWYG, hey it's Sat. morning, only 2 sips of coffee.

    My family is mostly in the mid west and I'm planning on heading north in August, I so want to go to Elkhorn! But my all time favorite sale is Gold Rush in Oronoco, MN, my old stomping grounds.
    Susanne.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I drove myself CraZy "not being able to shop the town SaLe" - but you can't be EVERYWHERE all the time!!! Enjoyed your pics!!! Sounds like you had fun!!!
    Jeanine, ChiPPy!-SHaBBy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love Serendipity Farm! I found it by accident trolling the edge of farmer's fields for rocks for my garden! It's not all that far from my house, which I guess means, either are you!

    Howdy do, neighborino! Nice blog, I'm now a follower!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.