Yes… you can never know what you are going to stumble upon at the world’s longest garage sale!  These creepy mannequins were just a wee part of the whole adventure!  Once a year, along Route 127 from way down south in Alabama all the way up through Michigan, it’s four days of garage sales everywhere!  Since we live about a mile or so from 127, we look forward to the sale!   I’ve actually been waiting most of the summer for this sale.  We really haven’t been at many sales or thrift sales over the last couple months, to wait for the big sale.

We got up at the crack of 9 and were ready to go!  Super nice day, just a great sunny, and moderately warm day.  (Last year was more like a normal August time… HOT!!!!)  We gassed up Blue and had some snacks and a game plan!   We were going to drive south about an hour and then work our way back.  It was hard to pass up sale after sale but it seemed like a good plan.  If we stopped at all the close sales, we would just be hitting most of the sales that we went to the last two years.  Of course, most places have some new things, but still, I suspect they have a good stash of filler that goes year to year.  We just wanted to till fresh ground!

 

 

It’s pretty fun to wander about and see all sorts of things!  Not just one box of car logos, but four boxes!  Just all sorts of things from knick knacks to housewares to yard stuff to clothes to collectables to books to videos and just so so much more!

 

So much of the area that the sales around here are located in, is rural.  Last year, I saw so many awesome things for the farm!  Gates, fencing, electric stove, farm feeders and so much!   I was so excited.  I saved up and even borrowed a bit to be ready.  Getting some of those much needed things for the farm at a really good price would have been great!  And last year, I just didn’t have much and so, of course, I saw so many great deals that I really couldn’t afford!!!   So I was ready.

And of course…  didn’t see hardly ANYTHING on my big wish list!  waaaa!!!!

We did manage to fill the back of old Blue with quite a few good deals… including a pair of saddles!  One is an actual pony saddle for my little man Cody!  He really scores at the 127 sale…   last year he got a harness!  This year a saddle!

Funny thing about the saddles.   The first one I bought was an English saddle and the man assured me it was a pony saddle.  It looked pretty nice and I considered it and considered it for a good while, walking about, carrying it.  I didn’t want to loose it!  It was marked $25 and so I decided if he would take $20, it would come home.   He was slightly hesitant, but said yeah.  Sweet.  And of course, the minute I got in the car I started to think it wasn’t that good of a deal.  Well, a good deal, but I had this weird feeling it was not a pony saddle.  Just seemed too big.

Later that afternoon, we stumbled upon a big church sale and there sat a fellow selling two saddles.  And one was a nice looking western pony saddle.  And he wanted $50.  Well…  I’ve been watching Craigslist and such and I just never see decent looking pony saddles for under $80, so I knew it was a pretty good deal, but I was just so waffly.  I mean, I’ve been working on Cody with the bareback pad here and there and he was much more comfortable with it, but I really didn’t think he was “broke” to ride.   Was I wasting money and time?  Well, I figgered might as well offer a price of $30 and see what he thought and he was really pretty cool and said, yeah, it was fine.  He wanted it to go to someone that needed it.  Lugging that saddle back to the car felt good, felt right until I flopped it down by the other saddle and knew it was probably not a youth English saddle at all!  Oh well…    like Jessy said, “Mom, you can spend $20 at McDonalds for lunch, $20 for a big leather saddle is like nothing…”  She was right,  I guess I could always sell it later on.

 

 

Some of the highlights of the sale purchases!

Maggie got a overhead projector for her sign company…  they are awesome for painting murals or large cutouts and such.  She also got a nearly new Gameboy, a neat oriental old chessset, a messagner bag, book on Corgis…  some video games…

Jessy got some clothes and a few video games, and a few stuffed collectable critters…   She was being a little picky with her stash!  She can be that way.  But she was very pleased with her treasures!

Me?  Well, two saddles, a cool vintage plastic pony for the yard, some actual shuttles and spindles for my loom (that was a weird find!)  I got a big stash of artsy papers!  $5…   watercolor paper, vellum, cardstock, printer transfer paper, sketchbook and such.   Couple books, a couple neat old wooden spoons and a really nice brand new canvas barn coat in my size for $5!   It was the $5 deal day, let me tell you.  (My plastic pony was $5 too!)   It seems to be the new sort of low point, great deal mark.  Oh, yes, a really nice big saute/fry pan for…. ah…. $5.

All in all, it was a fun day with my dear daughters and we didn’t go nuts at all, but had a nice time.   Maggie did really well, she would sort of wait for reports from Jess and I to decide which sales she would amble through.  That way she wasn’t totally worn out after 8 hours of shopping!  We had lunch at one point and just had a nice day out hunting for goodies!

Oh, and that English saddle?   Well, I went and popped that baby on a stool and just got myself up on it to see how it fits.   And it was super awesome!  Like it was cut just for my rear end!  Haha…   I was really surprised how comfortable it was.   I did a bunch of research on it and I think I really got a sweet deal on it.  And the pony saddle, brand new was like $350 dollars!   Now mine is worn and needs a good cleaning, but still, I think I really got a great deal on that one as well.  Cody and the new saddle, well, that is another post!  But I really got to thinking…  I’ve been dreaming about my own horse some day, and lately, I’ve just been thinking, I need to voice that dream and give it wings. And I really think that this saddle is just one little connection to my buddy out there.  Don’t know when or how it will all happen, but one big thing on my bucket list is to actually own my own horse.  A lifelong dream.   And we finally have the land and conditions that make it actually a very easy and real possibility!  Wouldn’t Cody  be happy to have an equine friend!!!  So I’m going to take this saddle as a sign that maybe, just maybe, that old horse is closer than I know.

Because as we were out and going about the sales…  a HUGE bucket list dream fell into out laps!

A piano for the homestead.

 

Another post… but suffice to say, we got a free, beautiful piano on this day.  Stored away in a lovely couple’s closet.  Just waiting for someone to say, yeah, I’d give that thing a great home!

So how hard would it be to believe a horse might come our way as well?

Stranger things happen, ya know.  

 

 

 

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