One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasures

Dave and I had a great time in Ripon this past weekend.  We stumbled upon an auction there that consisted of four barns and numerous storage sheds on the property of an old Vet.  Being Memorial Day weekend, you might think I am talking about a Veteran, but I'm not.  This man was a veterinarian who had been collecting stuff his entire life.  And I have his books and syringes and receipts from 50 years to prove it.  The grounds had tables and tables of awesome, rusty junk in and all around the barns and out buildings.

I had a blast bidding on things I really didn't need, but found myself in somewhat of a bidding war with a woman sitting near me.  She had no concept of money and was getting on my nerves because she seemed to want everything I did.  I probably went home with a couple things I should have let go, but I could not stop my hand from going up.  The sad part about this is by the end of the day, when the auctioneer asked my number, the poor guy delivering the stuff, knew my number by heart and shouted it out before I could.  As fast as I bid, poor Dave had to run the boxes out to the truck.  There were too many people sitting around us and my pile was growing.

I saw the owner sitting on a stool in one of the sheds.  He looked to be in his 90's.  I asked him about his collection and he said he'd been a collector his whole life.  I told him he was my kind of man!  There was so much stuff,  they actually had 3 different auctions going on at the same time.  I had a hard time deciding which direction to look most times.  We were there over six hours and the weather was not the greatest.  It was cloudy and windy and freezing cold.  This worked to my advantage as the crowd seemed to thin out by mid-afternoon.  The auctioneer started holding up boxes and held up just an item or two from each and was selling them for a buck or two.  I had no idea what I was even bidding on, but hey....one dollar?  I'm in.  I found I bid on a lot of kitchen utensils.

This man must have had at least twenty five potato and corn planters.  I didn't even know what that was before but I bought two of them!  Lots of stuff was rusty, lots of stuff hadn't seen the light of day for many years. Edison Talking Machine records, bugs, brass binoculars, oil cans, ammunition boxes, bugs, metal boxes full of old tools, kitchen scales, old receipts, bugs, 1904 metal bread maker.  Cool stuff.  I have no idea what I will do with it all, but at least that lady sitting by me didn't get it!

words for the day.....

Whenever a bird poops on my car, I eat a plate of scrambled eggs on my front porch

 just to let them know what I'm capable of.