TWENTY-EIGHT MILE GARAGE SALE

It's the weather. It can make or break your garage sale. Washingtonians take rain in stride. The sale was smaller than advertised, it rained off and on all day, with more of the same scheduled for today, the last day. Many of the vendors had their goods in tents, or inside of their garages. Some suffered with sodden goods half covered by tarps. Everyone was cheerful. The numbers and letters above, beautifully handcrafted, would look great at my place for only a buck twenty-five each. Smaller versions were fifty cents, not that I wanted to haul it around in a motor home until I return, though.

Normally, I avoid garage sales because I already own a garage full of "stuff" I don't need.  We were looking for a cast iron omelette pan since I'm determined to give up those coated pans that make cooking so easy but release horrible chemicals into your food. Sometimes I think, I'm already ancient, so what?  These sales tease me to look for eccentric, fascinating, unheard of, items I've never encountered before. Make my day, I say. I've seen beautiful decoys, hand crafted. Collectors love them. This cheap rubber flyer can cleverly fool a duck. Cheating, unsportsmanlike.  I felt the same way about decoys when I was just a little girl and hated it when my dad hunted birds. The feeling is still there.

 Ahh, something beautiful and indigenous to the area. Small cranberry vine woven baskets with oyster shell, apple wood and sand dollar bottoms. Hard work; beautiful; worth the $15 I paid for one. A  reasonable fit in the Motor Home. .

Nobody uses old doilies any more. This woman was loading them onto a curtain rod for a valance over her kitchen window. A great recycler.

This vendor had hundreds of scarves at fifty cents, a dollar, larger ones for two and three bucks. She demonstrated package wrapping with them. A clever idea, beautiful, and cheaper than wrapping paper.

This guy, it turned out, wasn't selling old buoys. He just collects them as a yard decoration.  Hey,whatever floats your boat!
I enjoyed poking around town for a couple of hours dodging raindrops. Didn't find a cast iron omelette pan. Next time!

WIND, RAIN, AND SNOW ON OAK TREES MAKES YOU WOOD RICH AND COLD

Son Doug called me this morning to warn me an 80 mile long by 40 mile wide weather system was headed our way. Oh, Joy! Didn't we just have enough snow to quality for exemplary weather? Jim insists that we saved all this weather just for him! Together we carried in a load of wood for the stove, then he fired up his vehicles to make sure the batteries stay healthy. It IS cold and windy.
Inside, he huddled into a sweatshirt and gloves and declared he would not go out again today. Can't say I blame him. This is unusual weather even for Murphys. The snow is supposed to stay at a higher elevations. Oaks keep their leaves and do not do well with a heavy wet snow. Then a good hard rain saturating the ground, and fifty mile an hour winds? Possible heavy tree damage. I have multiple wood piles about the place from past tree disasters. I maintain the weak trees are already gone. I have nothing left to lose. Then I pray its true.
Truth be said, we have no control over old man weather, so enjoy or curse. Its all the same.