Masterpieces Out of Messes
- Debra Flaming
- Sep 20
- 4 min read
Farm Projects with Dion (and His Sidekick)
Every farm has its piles. Some are neat stacks of hay bales or tidy rows of equipment. Ours? Well, let’s just say we’ve perfected the art of creative chaos.
If you wander through Flaming Acres, you’ll see the evidence of years of “We might need this someday” thinking. Old wood from sheds we took down? Check. Fence posts? We’ve got plenty. Rolls of wire, buckets of nails, pallets, hop poles, old play structures, three lawnmowers (one that actually runs!), and—just for variety—six tractors, half of which work on any given day. Oh, and of course, the ever-growing burn pile. A farm classic.
To the untrained eye, it might look like we’re running a junkyard. But around here, junk has potential. Junk has destiny. Junk is future infrastructure.
Dion’s Crazy Farm Projects
The crown jewel of Dion’s repurposing talent is his knack for transforming old leaf cutter bee houses. These little shacks once buzzed with bees pollinating alfalfa. Now? They’ve lived second lives as a General Store, a Coffee Shop, a food prep kitchen for the Flaming Acres Grill, and—currently—our soon-to-be temperature-controlled dahlia tuber storage facility.
Rough around the edges? Absolutely. But give Dion a pile of boards, a roll of wire, and a vision, and you’ll soon be standing in a functional building where before there was just an eyesore.
He even has a signature style when it comes to building gates. Picture baling twine, wire, and “it’ll do” engineering. Functional? Yes. Easy for me (Debra) to open? Not even close. If farm gate opening were an Olympic sport, I’d still be stuck at the starting line with one of Dion’s “custom models.”
Mechanical Mysteries
Dion also has a way with machinery. He once taught me that one of our tractors would start if you banged the hood with a wrench a few times. Mechanical genius or sheer farm folklore? Who knows—but it worked!
Meanwhile, I’ve had the joy of piloting the loader (which, fun fact, has no brakes) to rescue Dion when he got stuck in the field. My city-girl instincts screamed “This is how I die!” while Dion calmly directed me from his stranded perch. He’s also been known to hop in the loader bucket so I can raise him sky-high to “get the job done.” Let’s just say OSHA would have a heart attack.
The Odd Couple of Farming
The funny thing is, Dion’s main farm hand is me—a half-sized, non-mechanical, somewhat jumpy assistant who nevertheless keeps showing up. He dreams up ways to move giant beams or piles of fencing with my limited strength, and I sometimes wonder if his “creative solutions” are just clever ways to test how many angels are on duty protecting us that day.
Somehow, we make it work. He admires my perseverance and willingness to try even when I have no clue what I’m doing. I admire his ability to look at a heap of odds and ends and see a future barn, fence, or storage shed.
The Farmyard Symphony
Add in the piles of manure (excellent fertilizer!), mountains of bark chips, and our tree nursery where over a thousand pines are standing in neat rows ready for planting, and you’ve got a picture of a farm in motion. Things are always growing, shifting, and being repurposed. One day the hop poles are animal pens; the next, they’re signposts or light poles. One day the burn pile is a mountain, the next it’s a bonfire.
It’s not polished. It’s not perfect. But it’s resourceful, thrifty, and always entertaining.
A Comedy Duo
Through all of this, Dion somehow manages patience, while I provide the comic relief—half his size, no mechanical skills, but full of perseverance. Together, we’re a mismatched but unstoppable team, fueled by equal parts determination and duct tape.
So yes, Flaming Acres may look like a farm with junk piles to the untrained eye. But to us? It’s a treasure chest of future projects waiting for Dion’s magic touch—and my nervous laughter. And when all is said and done, the farm doesn’t just run on tractors and tools. It runs on teamwork, humor, and a whole lot of baling twine.
Treasure in the Piles (Masterpieces out of Messes)
When I look at all the piles around the farm, I sometimes shake my head and wonder how it all holds together. But then I remember: God does the very same thing with us. He takes the rough edges, the rusty spots, the overlooked pieces, and—through His grace—repurposes them into something useful, beautiful, and lasting.
What looks like junk to the world can become a testimony in His hands. Our farm piles may turn into storage sheds or quirky gates, but His work in us transforms into hope, love, and purpose. And that’s a treasure far greater than any burn pile or bucket of nails.
Sincerely,
Debra (& Dion, the Junk-to-Genius Master)
