SOUTH COLTON -- 3 Falls Antiques and Collectibles will close after nearly six years of operation.

“There comes a time when you just have to let it go,” said Julie Brassard of Potsdam who owns and operates the business.

“I always wanted to do something like this,” Brassard said of the business. When she retired as a secretary with BOCES, she started the shop on state Route 56 in South Colton as a “retirement hobby.”

“The long winters are just too tough” to carry the business through to spring, she said.

“In the summer there are lots of people and business is good, but there’s not enough to hold it for the whole winter.”

So before another winter comes, she said she will have a big sale and then shut the doors for good.

Her sale begins Oct. 2 with 35 percent off. It continues on Thursdays and Fridays from 1:30 to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Now that her husband has joined her in retirement, Brassard said it will be “time to travel” and spend time doing other things they have waited to do, once the shop closes.