Free Yard Sale Day

Gratuitous horse pictures. I'm done taking care of these three beasts, but it was fun while it lasted.




A week or so ago, our town had "big garbage day" - I've also heard it called "free yard sale day", which I like better.

People slowly started making large piles of random objects at the curb. Sometimes it was bags of garbage or recycling. Sometimes it was broken bits of wood and other assorted materials. Sometimes, though, sometimes it was TREASURE.

We got some good finds this year. Last fall, someone put out an old couch and we quickly snatched the big foam cushion off of it before it had a chance to get ruined in rain and stuffed two big dog beds with it. Score!

This year's first find was a really cool retro tin bread box. It had two stickers on it and was scuffed, but otherwise fine. I took the stickers off and cleaned it, and now it sits on top of the fridge awaiting the day when we are planning on (coincidentally) painting our kitchen with a very complementary colour scheme.


Find #2 was this year's bizarre object. We were walking the dogs past a pile of really interesting-looking free yard sale items when I saw something that really looked a lot like a milk crate, except it was made of metal. It's pretty darned cool and verrrry heavy - I think it's actually iron. I've never seen something like this before. Score!


The third and final item was very timely. We were driving along a secondary highway outside of town when I shouted out that we had to stop and turn around. Mark was a bit confused, but complied. Leaning against a tree by the highway were the components for a baby crib. What I wanted was the barred sides - I'd seen a friend use bits of baby crib as dog gates in their house and figured we could do the same thing.

We lowered the back seats in our car (thank you for being so handy, Kia Rondo), and threw in our new metal gates. It just so happened that we were almost done putting up the fence in our yard, but had not yet installed our gates. Well, these side rails from the crib fit perfectly - I mean, perfectly - into the openings in our deck. They are now makeshift gates while we finish the permanent parts, but since they fit so well one will become a permanent gate as soon as we attach it. Score!