×Hippie Tom

Hippie Tom Cerny is 75 years old and lives alone on his Serendipity Farm near Waterford, a patch of rural Wisconsin so quiet you can hear the trees talking. He isn’t a rock star. He isn’t a novelist. He isn’t even an influencer. He’s something more rare: a “picker.” He can look at a rusted dustpan and see not trash, but potential.

His farm is a kingdom of the forgotten. Forty-five buildings groaning under the weight of a hundred thousand relics: antiques, architectural salvage, furniture and straight-up junk. You want nostalgia? He probably has it. A chipped lawn ornament. A scratched rocking chair. A road sign. A weathered suitcase. The sort of castoff that carries plaintive conversations, waiting for someone to feel its history.

Most of the year, Serendipity Farm is a mona

See Full Page