Here are some of the things my granddaughter Grace and I painted this weekend:

This little shelf (it really is little, about 6 inches wide and 10 inches tall) was plain wood with a very small little lily of the valley painted on the top. The problem was that although the flower was pretty, the rest of the shelf needed a lot of help. I reluctantly painted over the flower with a fresh spring green color, then cut wallpaper to fit into the back of the shelf to dress it up. What is funny is that I gave all this effort for a little shelf that I paid 25 cents for, but it came out so well that I am glad I did.

The black tray behind the little shelf was in a bad way too. It was wood with stained, faded green velvet lining in the bottom of each of the three sections. I tried to remove the velvet but it was well glued, so I decided to just spray paint the whole thing with Killz black paint and see what happened. What happened was very good. The tray looks great and, like the little shelf, is once again attractive and useful.

 Some of you might recall this photo of some thrifting finds last December. The 4-drawer shelf wasn’t exactly pretty, was it? But I thought it might clean up well…

 and it did! We chose soft pink and cream for our paint job on this unit, and I am pleased with the result.

Our last project was a small stool I found at a thrift shop. The top was painted with roses but someone had dripped white paint on them and I wasn’t sure I could clean it off. I decided to try dabbing it with nail polish remover and it worked. Whew. The base of the stool was wood finish that was not in good condition. Since we already had the pink and cream in use, we went ahead and painted the edge of the top with pink, and the base with cream.

Next project was a wood basket that Grace painted. This too was a wood finish, and it had a red rose drawn on it with magic marker. We sanded it and then painted over the rose. We were dismayed when we saw the marker had bled through the paint but then decided we liked the softened look of the rose so we left it that way:

This chair is a work in progress. It will need several more coats of paint before it is ready for the seat to be replaced.

I still have things to paint but it was good to get some of it done. There is nothing quite like a fresh coat of paint to brighten up a worn piece, is there?

By Megan Greco and Morgan Young, WV Uncovered

At 10 a.m. trucks overflowing with everything from crushed cars to rusty washing machines begin the slow trek onto the industrial scale at Coffman Metals in Birch River, W.Va. Customers from all over central West Virginia come to Coffman’s to cash in on their finds at 50 cents a pound for mixed aluminum. The loud clanging of unsecured scrap is not enough to drown out idling engines and ringing phones.

“Everyday we have 100 to 150 customers,” said Tony Coffman, owner of the recycling center.

Coffman’s career path was already set in stone at 14-years-old. As a high school sophomore he began his education in the family recycling and trading business. A common love for the outdoors made a job working in his grandfather’s establishment ideal.

“Then kids mowed lawns. I worked for my grandfather,” Coffman said. “I just liked hanging out with my granddad; he was a pretty cool dude.”

In 1928, Tony’s grandfather, Guy Coffman, started trading fur and natural roots, such as ginseng,  with community locals in Nicholas County. It wasn’t until after Guy’s death in 1987 that the recycling aspect of the business took hold. A year after his high school graduation, Tony was the logical choice to carry on his grandfather’s legacy.

“I’m the only guy who showed any interest in my grandfather’s business,” he said. “That was the whole idea I think, from his point of view, someone to carry on. He had nine children, and none of them were in the business. My dad was in insurance, [he] owned an insurance agency, and my brothers they were all in insurance.”

By helping to clean up his hometown, Coffman began his own 30-year tradition. He says it wasn’t long ago that discarded bed frames and tossed beer cans were fixtures of the Birch River landscape.

“I used to walk quite a bit, and it was all over the hills,” he said. “You go for a nature walk and any where along a gravel road or a wide spot they were throwing garbage over the hill, old refrigerators and washers and dryers.”

In 2007, the state exported approximately 440,359 tons of solid waste according to the West Virginia Solid Waste Management Plan.

“In more rural areas, if people are paid to recycle it really gives them the incentive to clean up their properties,” said Laura Stiller, Recycling Coordinator for the Monongalia County Solid Waste Authority.

According to Stiller, because West Virginia is so rural, recycling can be kind of tricky. The location of recycling centers pose an obstacle for many residents, but the reward of monetary gain is great motivator.

“Recycling really helps the community develop. No one wants to put a business next to a rundown piece of property. If it takes a couple of cents to get people to clean up West Virginia then it is worth it,” said Stiller.

With the invention of the shredder, what was once useless became valuable, creating a market for resourceful customer.

“West Virginians aren’t lazy,” Coffman said. “You take your can and pitch it out along the road – someone is going to pick it up and bring it [here] because it has a value on it.”

Coffman’s pays 70 to 80 cents a pound for aluminum cans, a common sale. Approximately 50,000 pounds of cans come through the recycling center every month.

While recycling is the bulk of the business now, Coffman has not forgotten his roots in trading. Though ginseng digging and fur trading are on the decline because of government regulation, the old practices still bring in business throughout the season.

Coffman’s relationship with ginseng began where his career did, with his grandfather and the surrounding community.

As a child, Coffman was always around ginseng but it wasn’t until he and his friends saw a way to make some extra cash that he became interested in the root.

“I remember the year that [ginseng] went from $20 to $50 a pound and in the ’70s that was a lot of money,” he said. “It was always just for fun.”

In the recent economic climate, what was once “money for boys” in Coffman’s childhood is now an additional source of income for some. Last year, the recycling center paid out $13 million into the hands of West Virginia residents.

“We give a lot of people jobs and we hand a lot money out to the economy,” Coffman said. “And we cleaned the place up and I’m kind of proud of that, I wish my grandfather was there to see it.”

Photo gallery of The Family Business. 

There is nothing like variety, at least for me. I think I thrive on it.While family, storytelling, writing and gardening should have been enough to keep me busy in retirement, I seem to have added a part-time job: re-selling. But the rest of my life also continues and is just as interesting to me as it ever was. This weekend is a good example of how eclectic our days can be.

Friday was a “work day” for me–listing items on eBay, packing and mailing and adding to and rearranging my booth at the antique mall. While working on the booth, another vendor stopped by. She was complimentary about how it looked–and ended up buying the little green wicker shelf and the wicker chair, along with a few other items. That meant I needed to add another shelf for display and I also needed a place to stack linens for sale since I had them on the green chair. I noticed several other things had sold too, so I left feeling pretty happy about how things were going. We met two other vendors at the mall, and checked out the new booth that came in last week. This is a small mall with about 20-24 vendors; I’m not sure exactly because several of them have more than one space. The ones we spoke with seemed pleased with their sales and one lady was moving to a larger space. Even more encouraging.

Larry has been busy with his own list of work. He took a load of scrap metal to the scrapyard and sold it. It is amazing how much metal we can collect without really trying–my old washer of course was in the load, and Larry has been collecting the odd bits of copper wire and saving those to sell along with all sorts of other oddments. A load in our truck may bring between $50 and $100 depending on what’s in it; not a lot of money but I like that this stuff that otherwise might go to the dump is now being re-used.

He has also been working on his cabin and has two more courses of logs to go before the roof goes on. He’s been hunting for windows–then realized we had two from the cabin we took down in 2010 that would work just fine. He still needs to find doors; those may have to come from ReStore if we don’t stumble on some freebies. On his way home from selling his scrap he stopped to talk to a man who had just replaced his porch. The old porch roof was out in the yard and the guy said Larry could have it for the hauling off! There’s the porch for his cabin. The wood and tin are in great shape, not more than 10 years old. More recycling

While he was off taking care of those things, I had another project to try. Boy did I make a mess! But it turned out well in the end. I’m still not finished. Here’s what I was up to: last summer at a yard sale I bought a grocery bag full of those complimentary soaps you get at motels. The whole bag was 50 cents–I guess the lady traveled a lot and took the unused soaps from each motel stay. Now those small soaps are a pain to use and generally a lot goes to waste because they get so small so fast they end up getting tossed. I decided to try making all those little bars into standard size bars. First I tried melting them in the microwave. NOT a good idea. They didn’t really melt and they smelled so strong from the perfumes in them that I had to abandon that idea pretty quickly.

The next try was melting them in a pot on the stove. I put a bunch of them in the pot and added a little water, turned the burner on high and stirred just in case they might stick. I’d never cooked soap before! Well, they did soften but I had to add a lot more water. I kept cooking and stirring for about 20 minutes; then I decided to take some of the liquid out, cool it, and put it into an empty liquid soap container I had–just to see if it would work, you know.

It did! The soap came out foamy and just fine for use. I continued cooking the other soap until the liquid was really thick and most of the soap chunks had melted. Not all of them had, surprisingly–soap is made from fats or oils so it would seem to me that it would melt easily but that was not the case for some of it. I ladled it out into a plastic-wrap lined square pan and let it cool. I wasn’t optimistic at this point, I can tell you–some of it was hardening but some was sort of gooey and stringy. But after 2 hours it all hardened and I cut it into bars.

So from batch #1 I have nine big bars of soap and a bottle of hand soap. That “liquid” soap also set up and I thought I had a mess on my hands with hard soap in a squirt bottle, but it’s more like gel and it still works fine.

We had a lot on our to-do list for Saturday. I needed to go to Sistersville to check out the theater and other arrangements for next weekend’s storyteller retreat and I needed to take more things to my booth and replace the chair and the wicker shelf so they could go to their new owner. I also needed tires BAD–I was pretty much riding on air held in by thin, thin rubber. I have never been good about tires; I keep them until they are so worn out even strangers point out the fact to me. Last week I realized I’d pushed my luck as far as it would go, so we went in early Saturday morning to get them replaced. After leaving a painfully large amount of money behind we were riding in style again.

Next stop was the flea market that’s been running a half-price sale all week. I’ve bought a lot from them but there was a cabinet I really wanted. They weren’t open. Bummer. We waited a bit to see if they would open but no luck. So we left for Sistersville, and there I found a sweet little resale shop with all sorts of great stuff. Best find was a stack of 5 Tepco Banana Leaf platters. I remembered that this pattern was highly collectible so I bought them, a gorgeous modernistic blue glass bowl, an old jewelry box and several other really neat things. We went over to the Gold Derrick Gallery to meet with owner Terry Wiley, checked out the theater and made arrangements for the storytelling concert, then headed over to the Wells Inn for a delicious lunch. I checked with Kim Winslow while there to be sure we had the spaces needed for our retreat.

Then it was time to return to Ripley then to see if the flea market was open. It was–but the cabinet I wanted was gone. Bummer again. However, I did find a shelf that would work so we drove back to Ravenswood to rearrange my booth yet again. I noted more items missing which meant more sales. Happy dance! I got everything re-done and we added still more items. The booth is getting pretty full but I still see areas that could hold more so I’ll go back this week and add to it.

By the time we got home, we were both tired, and tired of being cold! It was a bitter day yesterday and we were in and out all day so we were chilled to the bone. A nice fire and some peppermint tea fixed us up nicely. Some early daffodils were about to open so I picked them and brought them inside to bloom, afraid the night’s cold would freeze their stems. Now the house smells heavenly and the daffodils are a delight for our winter-gray eyes.

Today we both had projects to do: Larry worked on taking apart the porch roof he’d been given and I worked on sorting some of the things we’ve bought recently. Two of the Tepco platters sold quickly on eBay and I also needed to pack the 8 amethyst plates that sold, as well as the Dansk placemats. I made a good Sunday dinner of ham, cauliflowoer and broccoli in cheese sauce, and baked potatoes. Then we took a road trip.

This time we drove to Spencer, a small town about 24 miles from home, to check on an antique mall there. I am thinking about opening another booth and this is the closest to home except for the mall where my first booth is. The drive was beautiful–the sun shining brightly and signs of spring everywhere. The mall is beautiful too, full of great booths and so much to look at. I talked to the lady who worked there and was surprised to hear that the city of Spencer actually owns and runs the mall. That’s an unusual setup but it has worked well for them and the mall made it through the recession in good shape. Their arrangements for vendors seemed good so I agreed to start a booth there in April. That gives me time to find shelves and prepare my stock without feeling rushed.

We took the long way home because we needed to stop by my son’s house on the way home to pick up his female dog. Larry will take her to the vet tomorrow to be spayed. She’s spending the night with us tonight; Tillie is such a sweet girl she’s no trouble to have at all.Larry built a fire and we all enjoyed relaxing in front of it at the end of this long busy day.

That was our weekend: junking, selling, organizing, recycling, road trips, experimenting, and cooking. I hope your weekend was just as interesting as ours was!

What does it mean to “live green?” Does it mean buying organic, locally grown foods, wearing  natural fibers, driving a hybrid, and using the new light bulbs? Or does it mean that you grow your own food, produce your own energy, and ride a bike to work? All of these are “green” activities, but there is another behavior that many West Virginians engage in without considering its environmental impact.

I’m talking about junking, and I do not mean the scrap metal recycling business that is keeping many families financially afloat these days.  Their hard work collecting scrap and taking it to the recycling centers is certainly helping the environment. I don’t know about you, but I like seeing loads of junk heading down the road because I know that another trash pile has been cleared, and someone is going to get some hard cash in their pocket.

The kind of junking I refer to is the kind I engage in regularly: shopping at yard sales, thrift shops, auctions and any other place that sells used. I am always looking for the unique, the old, and the unusual in out-of-the-way places. My whole house is furnished from these places. My adored Tappan Deluxe gas range (c.1950), for example, was sitting on a front porch with a cardboard for sale sign taped to it. My like-new gas dryer came from a Craigslist ad, and the ornate pre-1930′s clayback heater we call “The Beast” because of its phenomenal heating abilities was another resale find. Vintage dishes, stainless cookware, silverplate, crystal, hand-embroidered linens and everything else that finds daily use in my home was once someone else’s unwanted item. Even my clothing is secondhand. I can’t remember the last time I bought something new to wear-besides underwear and socks, that is. A woman has to draw the line somewhere!

While my main reason for buying secondhand (or third or fourth, who knows?) is because I enjoy the hunt for the unusual and the older, better made items, there is another benefit to junking: recycling. This country is awash in clothing; everywhere there are resale shops and yard sales where people try to dispose of their old clothes to buy new. Donation centers get overwhelmed quickly with clothing donations any time there is a natural disaster.

I was horrified last year when we were dismantling an old log cabin (to re-use for an addition to our house) to find that clothing that had been left in the cabin for over 30 years had not deteriorated at all. Think about all the millions of pounds of clothing discarded annually in our landfills. It is sitting there, not rotting away like cotton or other natural fibers, but retaining its shape and color for who knows how long. In the future, will buildings be built on piles on un-rotted clothing? Okay, that’s extreme, but you get my point.  The same is true of almost everything we use: if we discard it, the item is out of sight and out of mind. Yet it has to go somewhere and if it is a synthetic material odds are it will be around for a long time.

So here’s to all the junkers out there: may you live long and prosper, and may your tribe increase. The more of us who prefer to shop the used markets, the less the landfills will have to dispose of and the less oil and other resources will be needed for manufacturing. And that’s better for the planet and for every one of us.

A professional storyteller, Granny Sue has several published works, online at http://www.grannysu.blogspot.com/.

What a great free eBook! 94 pages of crafts and ideas for items you already have and might usually toss in the trash!

Of course, my favorites are the crafts made from newspapers and magazines, but this book is stuffed FULL of ideas and projects using all kinds of items you have around the house!

Recycling-eBook .