Lightening the Load
This past weekend we had a garage sale with our friends. Since we live in a community with a front gate and restricted access, we had the garage sale at their house in town. There’s nothing like having a garage sale to make you realize how much stuff you really have that you don’t need.
Since we had our basement waterproofed this summer, we carried everything up the attic. Before putting it back down into the basement, we’ve been sorting through stuff and getting rid of all those unnecessary things you accumulate over time.
It’s kind of funny because this is our 3rd garage sale and we’ve gotten a reputation in town for having great stuff. Everything is nicely organized by genre, we have a kitchen table, holiday table, housewares table, electronic section, etc. It’s perhaps the most organized garage sale you’ve ever seen.
Having a garage sale is a great way to remind yourself that you have too much stuff already and don’t need more! I find that it really keeps me from buying things I don’t need throughout the year. We’ve just about exhausted our supply of “stuff” though so I don’t know if we’ll have enough for another garage sale any time soon. Since we’re not buying new things we aren’t accumulating things to sell later.
All-in-all it was a successful sale. I took 3 car loads of stuff to their house and only brought home a few boxes (and those all went to the Goodwill the next day). So my house is much lighter, as is my mind, after getting rid of a lot of things I didn’t need.
What about you, do you have garage/yard sales or do you just like to go to them?
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Quote of the Day: Alys Fowler
Our modern world has become very unrewarding – that long commute to nowhere with the only treat being a shopping trip on the weekend. When you grow your own vegetables, make your own teas, or recycle your kitchen waste in a bin that you made, you are taking control. You are rewarding yourself instead of waiting for someone else to. You are transforming your world by your rules and, by expressing your life creatively,
the unexpected thrives.
-Alys Fowler, Garden Anywhere
Is gardening, composting, preserving rewarding for you or do you do them for other reasons?
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Gardening Quote: Thomas Jefferson
In 1793, Martha Randolph wrote her father from Monticello and complained of insect damage in the garden. Jefferson’s response summarized a basic philosophy of gardening:
“We will try this winter to cover our garden with a heavy coating of manure. When earth is rich it bids defiance to droughts, yields in abundance, and of the best quality. I suspect that the insects which have harassed you have been encouraged by the feebleness of your plants; and that has been produced by the lean state of the soil. We will attack them another year with joint efforts.”
I love this quote! He was a true gardener, growing the soil. This is exactly what I try to do here at Chiot’s Run, I try to build good soil so I can grow healthy plants and pretty much let nature run it’s course after that.
How do you handle pest problems?
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Book Report: A Homemade Life
I read about A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table
It’s a wonderfully entertaining book, part cookbook, part biography. Each short chapter is comprised of a brief story about a specific dish some are quite funny others sentimental and sad.
It’s quite fascinating to read the history of the recipes and how each recipe became a part of Molly’s life. The recipes are also fantastic, I tried several of them and I’d highly recommend the pancakes! It’s the perfect book to keep on your nightstand so you can read a chapter or two each evening, although you many end up dreaming of delicious food all night long.
Have you read any good books lately that you’d recommend?
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Rest? Not a Chance
We had a busy busy weekend around here. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know that Mr Chiots and I own a business, it keeps us rather busy, but we don’t mind. This weekend we didn’t get to celebrate like most folks, we were working all weekend. On Sunday evening when we were driving home from a job I calculated that we only spent 7 hours at home and awake from Friday morning till very early Monday morning. We were up early and out late every night, this is what we were doing if you’d like to check it out.
We don’t mind being busy, but every now and then we get a little too busy for even for us. I’m looking forward to some time off soon!
What did you do this weekend, were you working, relaxing, spending time with family?
