Our Adventures Amongst The Ducks: No Time To Waste

We are still just a little behind on the blog but we're almost caught up! This post is for the first weekend in August

Saturday would be a busy day. We knew this in advance. Rob's mom would be celebrating her 75th birthday and Rob's sister was having a birthday barbecue for her at 3pm on Saturday. This meant keeping our sales to a minimum and not wasting any time. As the week drew to a conclusion, the total number of sales that interested us was three. That seemed manageable. The real challenge would be the distance between them. Only one of the sales was close to our house. That one started nice and early so it was an easy choice to start the day. With an eye to the road and another on the time, we would hope for the best.

Sale # 1 was only fifteen minutes from our house. We found it in a very quiet ad. It was listed as an indoor estate sale and it was obvious that it would be a privately run sale. There were only a couple of other shoppers there when we arrived and it was a very small house to search. Only the main floor was accessible and there was no real digging to be done. By the time we finished our visit here, we found a squirrel salt and pepper shaker and a pair of ceramic St. Patrick's Day decorations. We found a few things and were making good time. On to the next stop!

Sale #2 was forty minutes away and was run by an estate sale company that we know. The ad was not all that descriptive but the items in the pictures were old and, in one of those pictures had tiki mugs sitting atop the bar. We didn't know if they would still be there when we arrived but we were willing to take a chance.

The side door was one of those great old jalousie doors...a good sign!

The basement was our first plan of attack and we found this great old bar downstairs...and the tiki mugs which we quickly grabbed before spending time taking pictures.

These were on the wall behind the bar

The pantry had these amazing metal cabinets!

Upstairs, in a closet, was this mounted pencil sharpener. Always a good sign but we already knew that. We got the tiki mugs!

Monica...put down Marge Simpson's hair!

The bathroom was still mainly the same as when it was built...

...and the old oven was built right into the wall!

This house was a lot of fun and we did not leave empty handed. The tiki mugs, a coconut monkey and some records came with us.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at our third and final sale of the day. It was described as "original owners from 1957" and "everything must go". The sale was run by a small tag sale company that only does sales occasionally but we have known the owner for over thirty years. Of course, we went!

The house did have three floors and the basement had a mounted pencil sharpener. Clearly, we would find something. Although none of the floors had all that much, we did find a great Christmas tray, a record and a few other things that definitely made the trip worthwhile.

We had a 3pm barbecue at Rob's sister's house and were 45 minutes from home but we made the most of our time (even finding time for breakfast earlier) and had plenty of time to go home, relax a bit and go to the barbecue.

Your attention please...we interrupt this program to show you what we brought home:

Some records

An old amoeba-shaped wooden switch plate and a book

Two St. Patrick's Day elves (Lefton - Japan), a ceramic bull for our annual Cinco de mayo parties (also made in Japan) and an old squirrel shaker who is missing its mate

Five Treasure Craft tiki mugs dated 1960 and a coconut monkey who we have named Professor Julius Kelp (Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor)

A Christmas tray and four ceramic Christmas candle holders. All are marked Japan

Thank you...we will now return to the rest of the story...

We spent Saturday afternoon and evening at Rob's sister's house celebrating Rob's mom's 75th birthday. She is on the left. Rob's Aunt Betty (mom's sister) is on the right.

Chores and errands were the order of the day on a beautiful Sunday but we left plenty of time for a short afternoon nap together and to barbecue some steak. After dinner, we went down to our lake to see our winged friends.