By: Emily Austin

Emily Austin — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 11:13:57 +0000

Miss Cindy,
I just love the outhouse, and quite frankly your entire article here. I hung on your every word in hopes that one day my life will be very similar to the one you describe here! I am one year away from turning the big 3-0, but I have always considered myself to have an old soul and have always had a passion for things that other ladies my age just didn’t care for. I am always crafting and creating. Like you, I love my junk. Antique stores are my happy place. At a very early age, my grandmother and her mother, my great grandmother, taught me how to sew. I used to love going to Granny Lou’s because I knew that I would get to help her sew and piece together a quilt. Granny didn’t use sewing machines. We hand sewed everything we made. It’s been two years since she passed, and I am the only one to carry on her legacy and tradition of quilting. And like Granny, I never use a sewing machine. Just these two hands.
Just as in my sewing, in my gardens, my hands are my best tools. My palm’s are calloused, my fingernails are in no way manicured. But, to me, that’s just a good sign of a hard worker. I have been gardening since I was a wee one. In one form or another, my mother and I always had gardens no matter where we were living. The majority of my childhood was spent living in a subdivision. We had a decent sized yard, but definitely weren’t working with the farmland that we are fortunate enough to have in our family today. From small flower beds and salad gardens to the full sized garden’s and berry patches that we have today, I have always been passionate about finding a place to get my fingers in the dirt.
I have recently taken up a new love affair with cacti and succulents. Once I realized how easily I could get several cactus plants from one mother plant, I quickly decided to begin a new project of a cactus farm. So, amidst my tomatoes, potatoes, squash, and green beans this year, I added a section to my garden specifically for my new project. The cacti are thriving and I have so enjoyed learning how to care for them and multiply my inventory so easily.
Like so many others recently, I have found myself making a lot of things out of wooden pallets over the last 2 summers. Herb gardens, chairs, tables, and the next venture will be a swinging bed/ hammock type piece of furniture that will hang low from the trees.
My mom and I are always looking for new ideas of things to make and crafts to do together. This summer, when we haven’t been busy canning our vegetables, we have been working on making fairy homes for fairy gardens. Every year we are vendors at several craft shows all over Tennessee . Our main product is jewelry, with several other crafty things on the side. But, this year we have decided to try our hand at building fairy houses and other various accessories for fairy gardens. I’d love to recreate your red outhouse in fairy size !
Thank you for sharing your picture and story with all of us. You really inspired me, and reading your words, I felt as though we could have been friends for years. I only hope that by the time my husband and I have been married 39 years, my life will be as happy and full of gardening and antique stores as yours is today.
Again, thank you for sharing your story. May you be blessed in all that you do.
-Emily

By: Joanne Scallion

Joanne Scallion — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 21:01:28 +0000

A friend of mine made me an outhouse for my garden. Only on the bottom of the door there is a place where you may stick your boots out of the holes. So…I put my garden boots in the holes and shut the door. Looks like someone is in there using it. Also, I found an old wall phone I added to the walls of the Outhouse.

Comments on: Cindy’s outstanding outhouse…repurposed!

By: Emily Austin

By: Joanne Scallion