Last weekend, Joni and I went garage sailing! No, I don’t mean that we hit the high seas in a garage. Actually we visited several garage sales. Every year, the town of Gibbon sets aside one weekend and everybody who wants to hold a garage sale does it on the same weekend, so there are lots of them going all over town and little maps of the town showing where they are and a few of the items each is offering.. We don’t really have any money for things like that, but Mom said she would help us out if we felt like looking around and if we found something we could use. So we hopped in the truck and headed to town on Friday, around noon.
Well, we struck gold on our very first stop. They had a nice patio table set for just $12! It was a nice sized, glass-top table with four chairs and an umbrella. We quickly snatched that up before someone else got any ideas and moved on to the next sale.
We stopped at four or five more sales that day but didn’t really have any more big finds. At one, we picked up a few t-shirts for Adam and myself for fifty-cents each, and a couple of little knick-knacks. Actually, I did find a waffle iron, which was kind of exciting. Last October, when we went to Omaha for my surgery, I had a big waffle at the hotel’s continental breakfast and I had been wanting my own waffle iron ever since. This was a small one but it was only $5 so I thought it would make a good starter iron.
The really exciting part of the day came when I talked to my sister, Bobbi. She knew that I had been wanting a wagon or wheel-barrow to use around the yard out here. Well, she hit the garage sales earlier that morning and actually found both at the same sale! Our truck was full of patio furniture that day so we couldn’t go over and pick them up yet, but we made plans to go to her house Saturday morning and get them.
So Saturday morning we got to Bobbi’s house and looked in the shed and I was amazed! I had been hoping for perhaps a little red wagon, like a radio-flyer or something, but this thing is the monster truck of wagons! It has a solid metal frame and the sides and bottom are formed by some heavy-gauge wire mesh. The wheels are big and actually hold air, and all four sides can be unhooked and lowered to make something like a flat-bed. It’s a really awesome wagon and I was really excited about it.
The wheel-barrow was also much more than I had expected. At Mom’s house the previous weekend, I had been asking Uncle Butch what had become of Grandpa Howard’s wheel-barrow, just wondering if he had it or if it had gone in the sale after Grandpa died back in 1982. Apparently it had gone in the sale, but the one Bobbi found really reminds me a lot of that one. It’s a big one and pretty heavy duty with a large, air-filled tire, solid wood framing that extends out for the handles, and a big metal bucket. Again, it was much more than I had hoped for. The wagon and the wheel-barrow were great garage sale finds and my gracious sister gave them to us as gifts. So we loaded the wagon into the back of the truck and tied the wheel-barrow down on top and headed into town to visit a few more sales.
Saturday’s sales mostly had various knick-knackery and little things so we didn’t really find much of interest. After stopping at about five sales, we decided to hit one more and call it a day. Well, at that last sale Joni found a Health-Rider, which is a piece of exercise equipment. For nine years Joni has been talking about this exercise thing that she used to have; how much she liked it, how she wished she still had it, etc. This one she found at the sale wasn’t exactly the same, but it was very similar and they only wanted $20 for it so we took it. We felt kind of bad because there was a little boy riding it when we came up. He kept asking his mother why they had to get rid of it and “Can’t we keep it Mom?” He cried and cried when we loaded it into the truck but Mom kept reassuring us that she definitely wanted it gone and that her little boy was having a bad day.
So with wagon, wheel-barrow, and Health-Rider loaded up, we called it a day and headed home. When we got there, we hauled the Health-Rider to the basement and found a place in the shed for the wagon. The wheel-barrow had to stay outside because the shed was pretty full with that big ol’ wagon in there. Our garage sailing had been a lot of fun and we actually ended up with some really useful items instead of a lot of junk. Once again, through the good graces of God and family, our needs, and even some wants, were met.
Luke 12:30-32 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ESV
Here’s the monster truck wagon that my sister picked up at a garage sale. I told you this thing was awesome! We have a lot of trees around and a lot of wind so there are always lots of branches to be picked up and this wagon is perfect for the job. It has a nice little hitch that could be hooked up to a riding mower if we had one, but I just pull it around myself. Also, all four sides can be let down to make something like a flatbed.
And here’s the wheelbarrow, also picked up by my sister. I love this old thing much more than I would have liked a brand new one. The wooden handles are kind of weather-beaten and one of them already cracked so I have to be careful not to put too much weight in it. I’m thinking it wouldn’t be too hard to replace those. I use this a lot for picking up the piles of dirt our friendly little voles are always leaving for us. I’ve been carting the dirt over to the south side of our garden shed where the rain leaks in and piling it along the foundation.
Here’s the patio table and chairs Joni and I found. And we got this for $12, can you believe it? We had a little set out here on the side of the house but the table was smaller and there was only one chair left and it had no umbrella. We love our new one!
And here’s Joni’s little garden fence, another garage sale find. She loves junk, um I mean things like this. :) It actually did fit nicely right here in our little flower bed by the back steps. A little nicer than just an ugly concrete backdrop.
