Cindy and Joanie's Great Junk Adventure Part one

Almost 2 weeks ago my friend Joanie and I went on the '09 Nebraska Junk Jaunt. That 300mile garage sale in the center of our state. We started at the southern point and went north.
One of the first farms we stopped at was in the process of remodeling to become an entertainment venue/steakhouse too I think. Photo op. for us.

In their barn was this WONDERFUL sink. Thank goodness St. Jim wasn't there....I probably would've bought it but, didn't have the nerve being without my man. He's so analytical...if it's possible to use...he'd let me know right away.
Click on the picture and I think it'll get bigger so that you can read. Several of the pictures are worth doing that with!

In this part of our state you could drive 10 miles between towns. In between were rolling hills, meadows, fields and waterways. Many spots had markers where there once was a town or church or something. So, we saw this marker (I stop at ALL hysterical markers), and then found the graveyard associated with it.

Eye candy for me, really...love this old stuff. This is part of that former church's graveyard.

This was a really large monument. Look at the countryside and cornfield next to it.

We went on to Burwell where a friend of ours has a cabin for weekend use. Debbie took us to Calamus Reservoir...we ate pizza on the beach.... wildflowers and prarie grass on the sand.

Joanie with the blanket that we sat on for dinner. We each had a beer! Wild women, I know. ONE beer, hahaha!

Isn't Debbie pretty? She's that pretty on the inside! She and her neighbor were up there for the Junk Jaunt too! We had 3 other friends out there among the thousands but, never connected!

Here we are at Calumus after our pizza! The sunset was so pretty. And we were so tired after a day of junking.

Earlier in the day we saw some interesting places in small towns....if you look closely, you'll see brightly spray painted christmas deer by this house. They're trying to keep up with the Joneses display in the next picture.

Something that we don't have in eastern Nebraska (where most people in our state live), mobile homes amongst houses in town. Around here, mobile homes can only be in a Trailer Park.

The vistas are breathtaking. Nebraska is a beautiful state if you can get off of I80!

Sumac was changing there 2 weeks ago already...it's just starting to change here, by Omaha.

This was typical of a lot of the farms or ranches that we stopped by. Stuff for sale leaning against barns and sheds.

It was so much fun seeing the stuff...thank goodness I already have so much, I was only on the lookout for real treasures.

I liked these chairs. But, only bought the leftmost brown one, which was the roughest. For the $5 pricetag...I can sand the heck out of it and spraypaint. As you see, most of the sales are at farms or extremely rural places. We bought a box of vintage Christmas and since it had several breakables, I was working on the tailgate picking out those to wrap. Joanie came up to me and at the same time we saw a mouse IN the box and SCREAMED! Not even thinking of the 30 or 40 people by the barn selling and buying! Lots of laughter on their part. Just some of the free entertainment on the Junk Jaunt. Then the poor little mouse hide in front of our front tire. It was not easy getting him away and towards the ditch.

Believe it or not, I'd packed work gloves just in case we had something really heavy or rough to pack. Couldn't find them so, it took some time but, we got him away from the truck!

I'll post a couple more times about our adventure. I was exhausted when I got home several days later....but SO glad we did it!

Junk Jaunt Nebraska, 300 Miles of JUNK

My dear husband, dog Zoe and I went on this Junk Jaunt last year. Lot's of people had their dogs with them. Above is Zoe in our Hotel Room....too much time on my hands...
This year Jim is going to hold the fort down and I'm going on the Junk Jaunt with my girlfriend Joanie. We're meeting friends along the way. Fun fun!
http://www.junkjaunt.com/


Just in case you don't know...Nebraska has a lot of farms and ranches...especially in this part of the state. Jim is observing Zoe seeing cows for the first time.


This place was great! Awesome stuff all for sale and leaning against their barn!

This was a little place in Cairo, NE...my favorite town. They are actually named after Cairo, Egypt! There are Camels on their town sign. I bring my camera along when I like things and then I can copy.

My two favorite chairs of all time. Bought them at some farm for $10 each. There were aqua ones too and another white one. I wish that I bought several more. They are SO comfortable!

I bought these $5 each. Heavy...beveled..leaded.

Very memorable. Bought hybrid pumpkins here and a delicious watermelon. This was near St. Libory, NE....they're known for Melons.

http://junkjaunt.com/locations/locations_st_libory.php

This is some of my junk at home...Oh, I love my junk.

Oh! The Hisorical (hysterical) markers. Don't you just love them?

I paid $5 for this old park grill. Jim cleaned it up and it's down by our firepit. We could only imagine that it was stolen from somewhere...but, assumed they came by it legit!

I'd never normally get to these small towns. Priceless architecture and or names of buisnesses! I think that this was in Dannebrog.

Home of Roger Welch

http://www.agriculture.com/ag/files/welsch/roger/index.html

Time to Repurpose Things for the Deck

This heavy oak drop leaf table sat on my Grandma's enclosed front porch for years. I sanded as much of the paint splatters off of it as I couldThen I decided that I like it looking like this. This set sits in our living room right now. Am thinking I'll put this on our deck when Jim's finished painting out there.


The waiting room chair is something that I picked up on the Nebraska Junk Jaunt (300 mile Garage Sale) last fall. I love it so much and regret not getting the auqua ones too. The green chair is something that my Mom picked up from an estate sale and I've always admired it. She gave it to me for my birthday yesterday!


Here's a picture of the table and one of the chairs that's out on the deck currently. Poor picture, I know.

found things, repurposed for my pleasure

I found this old wash stand at an antique store in Mankato, MN when I was just getting to know my husband. It was $40 I think. That was around the 1999. He owned an old Victorian home there and the main bath had no counter, so we put it in there for his teenage daughter to use. It had been painted a light yellow and was fine for it's purpose. Jim and I married and we're now on our third home. I painted this to match our kitchen now.

It holds my collection of restaurant ware and anything else I feel like putting in or on it. The drawer has all our cork screws and wine serving things so, when we entertain, that's where the wine bottles sit. The old brass lamp is something my grandparents always had, nothing special but, I like it. The cook book was purchased at the Nebraska Junk Jaunt last fall for $1. I actually liked the colors of the cover. The green lemon jar was from a tag sale in Omaha, again, $1. The BIG jar I got at an estate sale for $20 and the lemons inside: Pier One. I bought the reproduction glass drawer pulls at a Target too. So, that's one of my favorite "found" and repurposed things!