Our Country Garage Sale Plan Foiled

After sharing my tips on how to have a successful country garage sale I now have to admit defeat. We held our sale this weekend and it was a dismal failure -- as in the worst garage sale I have ever held.

We had a couple of big problems. The first being advertising. We seem to get the best response with a very detailed Craig's List ad that includes some pictures. Just as I was getting ready to put the ad up my computer decided to die. (I'm waiting on the IT people to let me know if it can be resurrected.) Our little country library has very limited hours and they were closed on our sales days, so the ad was a no go.

Secondly, we had rain, rain and more rain; oh and throw in a whole bunch of heat and make-up-slides right-of-your-face-as-you-are-putting-it-on-humidity. This was probably our biggest hurdle. People just aren't in the mood to garage sale in the rain. No matter how much planning you do, there's not much to a sale if you don't have customers!

After a couple of days of rain and lackluster sales, we finally decided to call it quits. I was never so happy to end a sale. As soon as George suggested we pack up everything and donate it, my energy renewed and I quickly packed every part of my car by the driver's seat with our castoffs and drove to the closest Good Will.

An Interesting Phenomenon

As excited as I was to be packing up our dismal failure of a garage sale and getting all that stuff our of our house I was torn between wanting to donate the stuff and cram it all back into our house. With each item, I had a little flash of "waaaaiiiit maybe I can use that!". So I kept reminding myself the reason we had the sale in the first place was to get rid of the stuff and I just kept loading the car up.  Why is it so hard to part with our things?

Success is a Matter of Thinking

As disappointed as we were we decided to consider the sale a success. After all, even though we only made $20, we did get rid of a whole car full of stuff, which was the whole point of the sale. Sure it would've been nicer to rake in $300 or so for our old stuff, but I'm not in the mood to give up a nice sunny weekend for another sale and a spot to store the stuff until then. We also got rid of a large dresser and hutch that was way too big for our bedroom. In my mind that made the whole weekend worth it. Every time I walk in the bedroom I'm thrilled by how large and open it feels.

Our Weekly Menu

Monday

Homemade bean soup, Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches

Tuesday
Roast Pork Tenderloin, Mashed Potatoes, Beets from the garden, Broccoli Salad

Wednesday

BLT's with our first ripe tomato! Corn on the Cob, Coleslaw

Thursday

Chili with all the fixings and cornbread

Friday

Hawaiian Pizza

Old Fashioned Settler's Honeymoon

Lately I've been on a kick researching about the white settlement of our county.  It's absolutely fascinating stuff! My favorite portions are the real life experiences shared by members of the "old pioneer societies".  Many of these are recollections of the mid 1830 -1850 era, written in the late 1800's by the old-timers of that day.

  I'm going to share a few tid bits with you here and my comments.

Jesse Hart, of Brookfield, thus relates his experience: “I was born in the township of Springfield, Portage (now Summit) county, Ohio, April 27, 1814, and lived there with my father until I was twenty-three years of age. I then married Rachel Richards, July 16, 1837, and about the tenth day of the next October we started for Michigan with two yokes of oxen and one wagon. We got along well until we got to what was called the ‘Black Swamp,’ then all the roads I ever saw or traveled over, that road through that swamp was the worst. Suffice it to say I worked hard for eight days to get thirty-two miles.

We arrived at Joseph Bosworth’s on the sixty day of November following; he lived then in what is now the town of Walton. He had moved two or three weeks before, and had built a shanty right in the woods. My land was four miles northeast of there in what is now the town of Brookfield. As Mr. Bosworth was the nearest one to my land, I made arrangements to stay with him until I could build a shanty and cut a road to it, and I got him to help me.

We got the body of the shanty up, three-fourths of the roof on, and the door cut out, but had neither door nor floor; then we moved in. It was here in this partly built shanty that, on the 12th day of November, 1837, my wife and I first began keeping house.

It was four miles to the nearest neighbor, with no road but a crooked track I had cut through the woods, and the whole county an almost unbroken wilderness. The screech of the owl and the howl of the wolf was our music by night, and the Indians our callers by day. The first night we made our bed on some split pieces of basswood in one corner of the shanty, built a fire in another, hung up a blanket for a door and some on the walls around the bed, and it seemed quite like home, and we had a good night’s rest. I soon made a pole bedstead, hewed out and put down a puncheon floor, built a stone back and stick chimney in one corner, made a clay hearth, and the shanty was finished, without a nail, except what were in the door. We lived in that shanty nearly two years—yes, the happiest two years of my life were spent in that shanty. There was something grand and romantic about it, which I very much enjoyed. The grand old forest yielded up for our support of its wild fruits, its honey, and its venison. It was in this shanty that our first child was born, cradled and rocked in a sap trough.”



Wow -- can you imagine spending your honeymoon traipsing over a swampy road for a month to utter wilderness, building your first home with little save an ax and then sleeping on a pile of wood with no door, to keep out the wild animals? And, then birthing your first baby in such a place (likely without the aid of anyone but your husband) and rocking your baby in a hollowed out log? Yet...

Despite all of the hardships and toil, those were the best years of this man's life.

It really makes you think doesn't it?

Menu Plan Monday

Sunday

Grilled Hamburgers, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob

Monday

Beef Stroganof over noodles, 7 Layer Salad, Dinner Rolls

Tuesday

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, 7 Layer Salad, Garlic Toast

Wednesday

Rueben's and Broccoli Cheese Soup

Thursday

Grilled Ham Steak with Mustard Brown Sugar Glaze, Augratin Potatoes and Peas

Friday

Cheeseburger Pizza

Want to take a peak at a whole bunch more of my menus? Go here.

This post is linked to MPM.

It's Not Everyday You Can Have Your Cow and Eat It Too

The other day a neighbor pulled in with a trailer full of steers on his way to the locker. He offered George his pick of 1/2 a beef. Apparently he had sold 1/2 of one steer, but hadn't sold the other half yet. We had talked with this neighbor last year about getting a 1/2 or a 1/4 but just didn't think we could swing the freezer room so we didn't order one. He stopped by on the way to the locker, hoping to entice us to take the other 1/2. George passed up the offer knowing we don't have the space right now.

But it did get me to thinking that we ought to get the freezer cleaned out and order at least a 1/4, which is plenty for the two of us. I'm a big fan of knowing where my food comes from, what it eats, how it's cared for, and ideally being able to see it with my own two eyes when it's on the hoof so to speak. And I've realized how much things have changed for me since I grew up helping to butcher all of our meat.

Does Meat Come From an Animal or "The Store"

Growing up, all of our meat was grown and slaughtered in an ethical manner whether it was chicken, pork, or wild game. We occasionally bought beef from the store and I'm assuming that was processed accordingly. I will probably get hate mail from the PETA people on this but it seemed perfectly normal to pick out an animal by name and fix him or her for dinner. Or to enjoy a succulent dinner of hasenpfeffer out of a couple of cute little rabbits that were frolicking in the yard that morning. It actually seemed weird to buy meat from the store. Now it's the total opposite.

I've gotten so accustomed to pushing my cart up to the meat counter and loading up on the chicken breast, pork loin, ground beef that I seldom think "hey, this meat came from a living breathing creature". It almost seems weird that I could pop over to the neighbor's anytime and pet "our" cow. Sometimes I wonder if George brought in a brace of geese or a couple of rabbits if I would be willing to clean and cook them. Would I be grossed out? Would I somehow think the meat wasn't "good enough" if it didn't come neatly sliced and wrapped in butcher paper?

It's amazingly disturbing this disconnect that's happened between me and food since I've become so accustomed to "the store" as our source of food.

What are your thoughts about food, where it comes from, how it's raised, hunting your own food -- and cleaning it?

How To Have A Successful Garage Sale --- In The Country

In a recent post I shared that we've been working on getting everything ready for our upcoming garage sale. Grace asked:

"How do you get traffic to your sale if you are way out in the country? I put off having one every year bc we are on a dead end street and I figure we won't get anyone, or if we do I worry it will only be creepy people. I'm just wondering if in the end, you feel it is worth your time to have one - do you get enough traffic to make it worth your while is my question?"


So, how do you have a successful garage sale when you live out in the country? The same way you do if you live in town!

Here are the essentials that will give you the best chance for a successful garage sale, no matter where you live:

Good location (yes, there is such a thing as a good location in the country)

We happen to be blessed with a great country garage sale location. Our house fronts to a very busy dirt road. Lots of people have to drive right by our home on their way to the main highway. Some sales we’ve had more traffic than when we lived in the city.

As Grace points out, her location is less than ideal for holding a garage sale. Paying customers – and lots of them are the most important ingredient for a successful garage sale and it’s hard to get customers when you live on a dead end road.

My suggestion to anyone in Grace’s situation is to consider participating in a large group sale in a town near your home. Here in our neck of the woods, it’s very common for each town to hold a community garage sale in a large public area. There are usually a large number of people selling things and lots of potential customers. Of course, this type of arrangement requires you to load up all your stuff, haul it somewhere and then unload it again.

For some folks it might work better to have the sale at home. If you want to do this, then advertising is key. Be sure to take special note of the Signs & Advertising part below.

Timing

The very first garage sale I held was on “Graduation Open House Day” which is typically the first weekend in June. For the longest time I sat out at my little table wondering why nobody was coming to my sale. Be sure to schedule your sale when most of the local population isn’t out doing something else.

Signs & Advertising

Post large, easy to read signs at the main crossroads near your home (it helps a lot if at least one of the roads is a highway). Advertise in all the local papers.(In our area we can put a free ad in 4 little county papers ( people actually read those). Put up a notice at the little country mom & pop stores, the local Elk’s club, the post office, etc. On your ads be sure to include something like “Big Sale – Worth the Drive” and highlight some of the bigger items you will be selling. You will also want to advertise on Craig’s List. Even if you don’t live in the urban community that your Craig’s List is set up for, still list your sale, address and a link to a map. We get lots of additional customers by doing these things.

For us, it works especially good to advertise our garage sale in conjunction with a bake sale and/or plant sale. We not only make some money off our clutter, but we also earn money from baked goods and plants.

Neat, efficient set up and lay out

Don’t just throw everything you’ve got outdoors on the ground. Your sales needs to look big, inviting and neat from the road or people won’t stop. Set up tables or makeshift tables from sawhorses and doors (yes, I’ve taken doors off the hinges to do this). In George’s line of work, we always have an extra door or two lying around.

Good Prices

Be reasonable with your prices. You are not going to get what you would if you sold your stuff at a consignment shop or over the Internet. Also, take extra care when pricing used furniture – the goal is to get rid of it, not to earn enough for a new sofa.

In rural areas, there tends to be a lot of poverty -- more than you might expect. Many of the people coming to your sale won’t be able to afford to pay a lot for your cast offs. You don’t have to give your things away, but do your friends, neighbors and community members a favor and price your items fairly. I am especially conscious of this fact because when I was starting out on my own I took home $77.40 a week after tithe. With this money I furnished my home on garage sale finds and had to find a way to eat too. There were times I got in my car after finding a few crucial things like a skillet, drinking glasses, and towels for next to nothing at a sale and cried with thankfulness. You just never know who you will be blessing to – so don’t miss your chance!

Menu Plan Monday -- the Sandwich Version

Thank goodness George loves sandwiches, because he's been eating a lot of them this week. We've got some pretty long days this week and the weather's been so hot that I haven't felt much like cooking or eating anything that requires a lot of cooking and heats up the house. As much as I enjoy cooking, sometimes I need/want to take a break during the hot weather. Between the deli turkey and meat from the freezer this is a pretty easy "week off" from cooking. 

Notice, even though I'm calling this a week off from cooking, all the meals still come from our kitchen. If there was a way I could work in a trip to our favorite Chinese restaurant for some takeout, I would. Trust me. But, time and location-wise it's just not going to work this week. What a shame, with all this hot weather, the food actually had a good chance of being hot when I get it home.

Sunday: Hamburgers on the grill, baked beans, veggies & dip

Monday: Turkey sandwiches, broccoli salad

Tuesday: Chicken Fajitas with all the fixings

Wednesday:  Sloppy Joes, Broccoli Salad, Chili Lime Corn

Thursday: BLT's, baked beans, veggies & dip

Friday: Hawaiian Pizza

Getting Ready for our Garage Sale

I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day weekend. We had a very nice weekend and got caught up on lot of things around the house, but also rested up quite a bit too.

George scheduled work on Friday, but he managed to make it a lighter day than usual. I did a 2 hr job that he had on his schedule to help him out a little bit - but boy, was it ever hot! I don't know how he can work out in the blazing sun for such long days.

As a result of three days worth of catch up on stuff around the house -- mostly cleaning for the first time in a long time I'm starting out the week with everything done. That hasn't happened in ages! Last night I was wandering around the house wondering what I needed to do next (that's the bane of us type A people:) and literally couldn't think of another thing. For once all the dishes are done, dried and put away, the sinks clean, floors, bathroom and the laundry all washed, dried, ironed and put away. Oh my! Can you tell how excited I am about this? I'll try to remember what it feels like because it probably won't be happening again anytime soon.

With my new found free time I started getting things ready for our upcoming garage sale. See our table filled with magazines above -- who knew we had so many of those? And, that's only the ones we want to get rid of. I tend to tuck magazines here and there and everywhere, and George does the same thing. We had old magazines coming out of our ears. I rounded them all up and ruthlessly culled the throwaway stuff from the "possibly can get rid of this at a garage sale" stuff and got busy organizing them into piles, tying them up and stacking them in the laundry room.

After that, I went through every area on the first floor and did a major decluttering and came up with 5 paper grocery sacks of stuff we aren't using/don't need/don't want. Every time we get ready for a garage sale, it's just amazing how much stuff we have that we don't really need. And that's not the half of it. We still have a lot more stuff that we can't let go of yet. Most of what I packed up for the sale this last weekend was stuff that I refused to sell at previous garage sales. Know what? Hardly any of that stuff was used even once since I decided not to sell it at the last sale!What is it with the mentality, of needing to keep useless stuff on the very off chance we just might-maybe-someday want to use it?!

How was your holiday weekend?