Sometimes the fun projects we do over the summer are driven by our aging selves and trying to make life a little easier for us. The fun projects give us a break from the necessary ones like digging the well deeper or crawling under the barn to dig out the wood piers and put down a vapor barrier. Of course all fun projects have to “fit” with Squabetty’s history and uniqueness. One of these projects was a porch mounted spigot, from which we could fill the ice maker and our water glasses, without going around and below the porch or into the kitchen. Necessity truly was the mother of invention. To match the oldness of Squabetty, my brother did a quick internet search for antique faucets. He found two and bought them, only to find out they leaked. [These were repurposed into decorative faucets in the garden beds.] So back to the search, which turned up another antique faucet. He knew he needed to see the actual internal workings to see if it was repairable and so using the “patent” number (stamped on the faucet, clear enough from the ebay picture) he found on the faucet, he searched the internet. Bingo. He found the drawings. He bought both - the detailed drawing hangs in the barn and the faucet on the porch railing. To installed it, he ran the water pipe under the concrete porch, up the backside and through the log post to create a seamless spigot coming out of the post. It was perfect...except for one thing: water splashed all over the porch. And so another invention driven by necessity: invention #2: a custom made water trough to direct the water off the porch and into the shrubs below the deck. Perfect. We love this new, but old, little touch to Squabetty. All it takes is creativity, talent and persistence to make our fun projects work!