Burgaw Sale Score

Today, June 30th, I went on a little adventure.  I once again visited the town of Burgaw.  The first time I went, there wasn't much to see, but today was different.  It's about 35 minutes from home and...you guys!  I live in THE country!  

The drive is on NC 53, a two lane road, through farms and fields and TREES.  This state has more trees than California and several other states combined!   I passed hog farms, blueberry farms, corn fields and farm houses (and log trucks). Where there isn't a farm, there's trees and foliage so thick you can't even imagine.  Crossing a section of the Cape Fear river, you almost can't tell there's a body of water in there because of the thick foliage.  There's no sense in taking photos of the trees.  There's just no way to capture the enormous amount in a photo!

Anyway, an auction house in Burgaw advertised on Facebook that they were having a huge sale today, tomorrow and Saturday. I hadn't heard of them before so I made plans to go.

Stover Auction House

 I got there a half hour before it opened and there were already cars in the lot with people waiting for it to start.  We had to sign in on a sheet of paper on the door.  They were going to let you in, in order of arriving.  I was 18th.  Someone came out and offered pieces of paper marked "SOLD" so that if you found something you wanted you could put your name on the paper and leave it on furniture pieces.

I wandered the aisles looking at everything.  If I could have transported furniture items, I would have!  As usual, I go for things I can carry and sell on Etsy.  It was fun going through some linen items like tablecloths and aprons.  The room was packed and I waited in line to pay for almost an hour.  All in all, I spent $30 total and came away with about 10 items.  The prices were great and many items that I can post on my Etsy shop:

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/PicketfencesVintage

It will be a few days before I post the new items since they need washing, ironing and research before I can do that.

After I left the sale, I visited a thrift store and two antique stores in town.  There were several more antique stores I could have gone in, but I was pooping out by then.

I  think I heard their staff say they will have another sale like this near the end of July.  If I'm able, I'll be there!

USO Event

On Tuesday this week, I worked at a USO event for kids and their moms.  This was a usual story time day, however this one was special because the Jacksonville Fire Department came to do a fire safety program.

I'm guessing there was at least 100 moms (one dad) and kids that came to do a craft, see a puppet show, learn about fire safety and eat lunch.  These would be spouses and kids of active duty military, (mostly Marines, since those are the ones closest to this USO facility).  Moms were herding toddlers while carrying a baby and trying to get them to their table.  The story time days are for kids up to 6 years old but I'm willing to bet most were 4 and under!

I helped at the craft table, which was a challenge for me, but it worked.  This is what the kids were making:

In case you can't tell, it's a fire engine.  Having kids spread red frosting on graham crackers was the challenge. I'm sure they were taken apart and eaten by the time they got back to their tables!

The kids loved the puppet show, the firemen and getting to see their equipment up close.  

A local pizza restaurant donated pizzas and there were cupcakes and cookies galore.

On Wednesday, I went back to the USO and helped with a Rack Pack party.  There was probably 10 of us filling sacks with the essentials that Marines can use when they get to their barracks upon returning from deployment. They get toothbrush, shaving gel, deodorant, wash cloth, etc. so all that is available to them no matter what time of day or night they get in.

The "party" can be a bit chaotic, but somehow it all works and everyone pitches in and gets it done.  We put together, or repacked almost 1000 rack packs.  There was still a little time left,so we started on some deployment packs, which have different contents.  (The USO can always use donations of travel size items and wash cloths!)

These two events put me over the required 24 hours of volunteering in order to get my own USO name tag.  

Whoo-eee, now I can look like an official USO volunteer.

I look forward to more of these events.

Friendly Lady

When I first got to North Carolina I didn't venture out too far, but one day after I'd been here about two weeks, I decided to stop at a little antique store on Burgaw Hwy.  There was a sign out front that said, "Home Fires Country Store."

The sign out front said, "Park in Back."  All there was, were tire tracks in the grass leading to the back of the place, so I drove to the back and parked.  I went up to the door and walked in but there wasn't a soul around.  I could tell it was an old fashioned antique and country-like store but no one there!  Here's a picture I got from Google maps.  Unfortunately it's not very good and was taken in the winter so you can't see how pretty it looks now, but it's an old, old house with little tiny rooms. I think the roof has probably been painted or replaced by now.

After looking around a few minutes, an older lady came in the door and said hello.  I'm pretty sure she just came from across the street.  I guess she figured if she had a customer, she should come over to the store!

Anyway we started talking, and she said her name was Caroline. She asked where I lived and I told her "Off of Haws Run" since I was so new I didn't know what else to tell her.  She knew right where that was because she grew up on Haws Run, in this house:

Mama's House

Mama's barn

 She told me it was her "Mama's house."  But, "She's been gone a looonng tiiimme  now."  Then, "But you never get over losing your Mama!" Oh gosh. At that time, I broke down in tears and couldn't stop.  I told her I had just lost my mother and had just moved here.  She gave me a big hug and comforted me. She was so sweet about it.   It was so embarrassing!  I ended up buying a book from her and went home to cry some more.

Skip ahead a few months, and I was out at a USO thing this morning and decided to stop again at Home Fires on my way home. She's only open Thursday through Saturday, so I knew it was a good time to stop.

Once again, there was no one in the store, but I knew that if I waited a few minutes, she would show up.  Sure enough, in walked Caroline.  

I'm guessing she is in her mid to late 70's and very spry.  She looked at me like she knew me and I reminded her that I was the customer that cried while I was there before and she remembered me. "Don't feel bad, we all do that honey."  (How could you not remember the weepy customer who cried) 

We chatted for a while about the store and her "Mama's house."  The house is empty but she goes over a few times a week to "feed the kitties and check on things."  Currently the house is surrounded on all sides with corn fields. They might belong to the neighbor on the side, or maybe they are rented out for that purpose.  She would like to rent the house that contains the store but hasn't found any takers. What fun that would be, to operate a store in that little house!  It's so small, it's like a doll house.  I know business is extremely slow right now but the summer months bring tourists. She said she only had one customer in May!  (I hope I'm not her one customer in June!)  I know she doesn't do any advertising, or have a website, etc. like businesses need these days.   The place needs work, but she does her best to keep things up.  She has been trimming bushes around the place, and even put up a small railing for the porch steps and was proud to tell me she mixed up the ce-ment and poured it herself for the post.

She is a sweet lady and probably would have talked for much longer if I had stayed.  Other than other USO volunteers, she's the only person I've had a conversation with!  I bought two things from her, one marked $1.00 and the other marked $.50!

I told her that IF my sisters come in October, I promise to bring them in the store.  She said she would be looking forward to that!  Me too, sisters!

Nature and New Skills

I haven't written in a while but was thinking lately about how much "nature" there is here.  When I was a kid, my favorite thing to do was go camping.  I loved being out in nature and enjoying the trees and birds and everything that goes along with camping.

Living here reminds me of the same feelings. There's a forest in the backyard.  Pine needles could be swept off the deck every day, but seems like a lost cause.  Birds fly in and around the yard and sing all day.  I've never seen a bright RED bird fly through my yard until now.  One song of the cardinals sounds like they're saying, "pretty, pretty, pretty."

There are squirrels scampering around and breaking into walnuts and pine cones on the deck railing.  Abby thinks she can catch them but they're too fast for her.  
I've seen caterpillars that are the strangest looking critters.


   But they turn into these:

Of course there are a few things I'd rather not deal with like the salamanders, lizards, and mosquitoes.  If the lizards and salamanders stay outside, not so bad, but I don't want them in the house.  As far as mosquitoes go, I have very bad reactions to the bites, so I'm trying to stay away from them as much as I can.

This guy lives on the front deck

Then there's the morning I woke up, went into my bathroom and found a frog in my sink.  Yes, a frog.  I called Elaina to come in with her "frog catching device"  (plastic container with a lid). She's used to doing the catching.  We think he came in on something else by accident.  He was more scared than I was.  
I know, I know, the lizards and frogs will eat the mosquitoes, so God bless them.

I've been making use of my sewing machine too.  I learned to make a pillow case with french seams and border. Thanks to youtube tutorials.

I made a little bag with an old hankie for decoration.  I'm still a novice, so I haven't tried anything too complicated, but I'm willing to keep trying.

Never too old to learn something new I guess!  Thanks for reading.