Garage Sale-ing

After the fun we had at the auction in Raton, (and the parts bin debacle) we decided to go garage sailing on Saturday mornings.  (Now, is it Garage Sale-ing?  Or Garage Sailing?)  Les has been lamenting the loss of his parts bin for the past 2 months.  (See my 7/29/12 blog. )  I told him that the only place he'd find another one was at a garage sale.  So off we went!

I have been trying to get Les to go to garage sales with me for years.  Ever since my friend, Fred, found an antique cloisonne smoking tray for a few dollars at a garage sale, I've been wanting to find treasures at them. But I would always have to go by myself, and where's the fun in that?

Finally, Les decided to go with me and we've gone every Saturday ever since.

We've discovered that the sales in town are generally clothes, kids' things, kitchen items, knick-knacks, etc.  But if you go even just a little bit out of town, we've found some real treasures.

This is similar to what our new bed looks like.

Two weeks ago, I found a king size head & foot board bed frame for a cedar post bed.  It had been hand made by the Mennonites on the other side of the Rockies.  It was a nice, comfortable king size and it was only $100.  When I asked the owner how much it was and she said $100, another woman standing next to me said, "$100??"  I told her I'd take it because these beds can go for over $1500.  What a find!  It's beautiful.  It will need a little cleaning and some wood oil, but will be absolutely gorgeous in our new home.  Of course, we will outfit it with a new mattress and box spring.  I'd never even consider buying a mattress at a garage sale... yuck!

Then, last Saturday, we went out to a little town called Cokedale.  It's about 7 miles west of Trinidad and was home to the miners working in the coal mines in the early 1900's.  Now, it's an eclectic little community with a town hall and a post office and a church.

But we arrived first at a garage sale held by an older couple.  He was obviously a woodworker and just seemed like he was ready to hang up his tools and move to Florida someplace.  She was a crafter, but was selling all of her craft materials because her eyesight had diminished to the point where she could no longer see to create the things she loved.  They were a really kind, old couple and we took to them immediately.

I saw an aluminum step stool and made a nice deal on it.  It's wider and higher than usual so when we start working on our house, it will come in handy.  While I went back to the car to get my money, Les went into his parts bin story, which we have a lot of fun telling.  But when I got back into the garage, Les was looking at an old, green parts bin.  It didn't have a sale sticker on it, but when we asked, we were given a price of $15.  What a steal!

Look at the grin on his face.

 So, Les is finally the proud owner of a parts bin.  Yesterday he sanded it and re-painted it and it now sits safely on a shelf in his shop.  No chance of a forklift driving over the top of this one!

DJ

Daniel is getting out of the Army this year.  He re-enlisted once, and now he's ready to move onto the next phase of his life.  I'm glad, too.  2 of his friends were killed in Afghanistan within the past week.  They were in his unit.  He would have been there with them except for the fact that he had already decided to leave the Army and was given the choice to deploy.  He wisely opted to stay on US soil.

He applied for a job with an oil company.  He interviewed yesterday in Denver and called me this morning to let me know that he got the job!  I'm so excited for him.

He sent me a copy of the offer letter.  Holy smoke!  What a compensation package this kid will have!  He'll have a company truck.  The company will give him $4000 in order to move to Utah.  They will give him a free paycheck in advance and will pay all of his travel expenses.  Then, he'll be paid huge money as a base salary plus over-time.  The kid will be almost making more than I do!  They will match up to 8% of his salary for his 401k.  You just can't beat this deal.

The downside... he has to move to Roosevelt, Utah.  Or nearby Vernal Utah.  He won't know a soul, and will be 500 miles from home.

But he'll be working on his own maintaining the pumps and equipment on the pipeline.  They'll give him all of the schooling he needs for this.  They really want him to join their team, and he's excited to do so.  He's thrilled about the money.  I just hope he's happy.  That's all I've ever cared about.

Critters

We've had a fun time with our "critter count."  All of the little woodland creatures are out and about.

We've seen the baby bear a few more times.  He's always crossing the road.  We never see Momma, just the butt-end of baby as he hurries into the forest.

Today I saw 2 grey foxes.  They crossed the road ahead of me.  When I saw the first one I didn't know what it was because he got into the trees so quickly.  Then just a few feet further down the road was an exact duplicate of the first creature, and it turned out to be a fox.  Must have been a breeding pair as they were identical in size from what I could see.

Yesterday as we walked on one of our trails, I spotted a deer on the ridge just to the west of us.  She was going at a pretty good clip... both running and trotting.  We watched her as she climbed up the hill and casually bounced over scrub oak.  She really was covering a lot of distance and we watched until she got into this little meadow quite a ways away.  She crossed the meadow in no time and disappeared back into the trees.  I assumed that because she was moving so fast that maybe a predator was behind her, but I didn't see anyone.  And she wasn't moving in terror or fear, she was probably just enjoying her young, bouncy life in the wilds of Colorado.

And there was an absolutely gorgeous buck down on the county road.  Must have been an 8 pointer.  Magnificent!

And the roadrunner!  Yesterday a roadrunner popped out of the scrub oak next to the road and crossed just in front of the car.  He climbed up the bank next to the road and posed while I stopped the car to try to get a picture.  Lucy (the huntress) saw the beautiful bird, too.  She stood on the window button and it went all of the way down.  Then she bolted out of the stopped car and flew after that bird.  They both ran into the pinons and I thought for sure I wouldn't see Lucy for a while.  But she came back right away.  I don't know how you can possibly get that chase instinct out of a dog.  I would if I could, but she came to me that way.

It's too bad that I can't get any pictures of these creatures.  It's always a surprise when we see them and they're gone in an instant.

The weather has finally eased a little bit.  Our wet season is the monsoon season, July and August.  The clouds would come, the thunder would roar and the lightning started fires.  But what little rain we had was due to the cloud sneering at us after it past.  Once in a while the cloud would spit in our direction... and that's about all we had.

But the 100 degree weather has passed.  We had 90 degrees last week, but the nights get down to the 50's, so it's not so bad.  If you play the doors and windows right, it's comfortable in the house.