Treasure Hunting in the Ozarks with Anna Hogue

When it comes to Anna Hogue’s weekends, you’ll find her at her Ozark home, tending to her farm animals, playing with her grandchildren and in her country kitchen. “Our house is a zoo,” says Hogue. “Right now we have a baby sheep running around in diapers and bottle-fed puppies.” 

Hogue and her husband, Gary Hogue, built their home on 20 acres with lots of animals to provide a fun and exciting space for her grandkids to learn and grow. “I’m just learning along the way, right along with my grandkids,” Hogue says. Outside the Hogue home you’ll find a variety of animals like chickens, rabbits, goats, sheep, mini cows and her newest venture, alpacas. She says these new additions are so friendly, and she has added a spinning wheel so she can make yarn from the alpaca fleece. 

Inside the Hogue home you’ll find a country kitchen where Hogue, with the help of her grandkids, collects the eggs from their chickens in a vintage jadeite bowl and displays wildflowers picked from her land. Hogue doesn’t consider her home rustic in style, but she loves simple and clean interiors. “I joke and call it Ralph Lauren on the farm,” says Hogue. Her love for color is what has attracted her to the highly coveted jade-colored dishes known as jadeite that she proudly displays in her kitchen. “I just love the color,” says Hogue. “It feels so country.”

It’s all about the hunt for Hogue. She knows she can find the jadeite dishes online or purchase reproductions, but she enjoys the experience of shopping for them in person. “I look for pieces to bring home when we travel,” says Hogue. “I have wanted the authentic jadeite butter dish forever.” She finally found it on a trip to Florida with her husband. Gary also enjoys surprising her with a piece of jadeite to add to her collection from time to time, and friends often gift her pieces as well. She decorates using her jadeite throughout the year, pairing it with pink hues in the spring and adding red accents for the winter holidays. 

Life for Gary and Anna Hogue is all about the experience. Hogue’s dream was to retire and learn how to do all the things she didn’t know how to do. How to weave yarn, milk a goat and make her own butter. Together they travel around in their RV on the hunt for one more perfect piece of jadeite to add to the collection. “I’ve got the big jadeite salt shaker,” says Hougue. “Now I want to find the big pepper shaker on a trip.”