Country Crafts and Goods

We hope that you enjoy our family collection of favorite recipes and crafts.  Take a look at our gardening area as well.  Our store will be opening soon so you can order from our selection of handmade gifts and goodies. 

A Little About Us

We are a family, who for the most part, are 2nd & 3rd generation Californians.  My father was born and raised in Deadwood, South Dakota and has done everything from farming, cattle ranching, gardening to woodworking.  He has actually been the inspiration for this website. As kids we were introduced to crafts, cooking and gardening early in life and I for one didn't truly find the value of all of this until I was in my adult life (if there is such a thing).  When I married, I soon found that my mother-in-law and I shared a lot of the same interests with regard to gardening and crafting.  While working for a large corporation in Silicon Valley for 37 years, I practiced the skills that I learned in my spare time [while trying to raise a family as well].  Over the years our family has always practiced holiday gift giving in the form of creative crafts and homemade goodies.  We still practice this today and by adding our preserving to the mix it's given us a lot of joy, happiness and satisfaction. 

Since retiring at the age of 55 I've put my skills into full swing.  From crafting with my granddaughter to making gifts for family members and friends to a full garden that supports us through the summer and most of winter.  With a full garden I've been able practice many of my grandmothers and mothers canning, drying and freezing techniques. My daughter-in-law also works with me on the gardening, providing fruits and vegetable for preserving. Our current goal is to perfect our gardening techniques for that we can become a self-sufficient family, and soon get to the point where we can provide to various charities through sale of our items. We're also making plans to extend Zeke's Barn  to collect and sell slightly used clothing, etc. with proceeds going to charity.   From the gardening skills that were learned from my father, mother and mother-in-law to the crafting skills learned from my grandmother, and mother I decided to put together a web site for use within our family as well as to those that might visit our website.

Let me say right up front that I'm by no means an expert in any of these skills nor am I degreed in any of these skills.  These are things that I and members of the family have learned, tried and improved upon as well as those things that have been passed down through the family over the years.  Having said all this we hope that you find our website "FUN" to visit and please pass on your comments, tips, etc.   We'd love to hear from you.