Viroqua Wisconsin: Rusty Relics

When it's time to finally sell off the old family farm place, it's by no means a big surprise to discover piles & piles of old rusty things left behind.  Some barns & sheds can turn out to be treasure trove for antique dealers and auctioneers.  It can also be a clean up site and headache for the Realtor. I have seen both. One thing I do know is that now-a-days not too many city buyers are willing to inherit this debris and remaining rusting junk.  They want it "Broom Clean". A vague terms we Realtors use that should leave no misunderstanding in the sellers mind.  

The Definition of BC: The buyers simply do not want any of your junk remaining, clean it all out! "Of course anyone who has ever worked the country real estate market knows that, this is what sheds are for!  "Because you never know when you might need a part off that old broken washing machine or have a use for that 2 bottom plow again."  It's an old farm custom to just stuff and stacked it into the shed in no particular order along with the old wooden storm windows, broken lawn mows and next to the various lengths of leftover pipes that server no immediate purpose, but might.

Much to my surprise, even in my time, many of these relics have been elevated to collector status. Rusty stuff seems to be popular now. Such as cream separators, which I never thought anyone would want. I see old rusty wheelbarrows finding their way to front yards brimming with petunias. Amazingly, another coveted decorative farm implement, used as a front yard planter, is an old wooden manure spreader. Can you believe that, I couldn't?  However, one old item that seems to still be plentiful around old farms, I bet will never find its way into collector status is an old above ground storage tank.  I photographed this one recently. It looks to me like it is having a bad hair day as it has been left behind to rust away into a cornfield.