The Barn Sale

We had no idea what to expect from the Barn Sale.  However, the excitement of the Barn Sale Gals (vendors) involved was satisfaction enough.  A beautiful clean barn to open and enjoy with all was something I’d never dreamed of.  The fact that it was cold and I mean colder inside than out only helped the Teen’s hot cider and hot coffee sales, as her darling brownie skeleton treats pretty much sold themselves.

My favorite part of any sale is when people ask you for things you don’t have, like you might be hording a separate secret stash and if they ask for it, it will somehow magically appear, and sold just for them.  Oh and at a ridiculously low price too, that is important.   “Do you have pole cattle panels?”  A Bargain Cattle Panel buyer asked the Teen and I.  Luckily for us we’d had the Teen Boys this summer so we knew the proper dialog for just such questions.  “Hun?” & “What?” we said looking at each other.  The Bargain Cattle Panel buyer asked the question again, a little louder and a little slower as she guessed she was dealing with uneducated Barn Sale vendors, which of course she was.  This time we raised our eyebrows a bit as we muttered “Hun?” & “What?” to indicate that we’d heard her the first time, but we were not speaking her Cattle Panel language and if we did have some, they’d be out, priced, marked and quite probably adorned with pumpkins.

The Barn Sale Gals had some wonderful items, vintage farm treasures, fresh dill, corn stalks, and antiques all decorating our barn in what I know was its best light ever.  As you can see, it looks ready for Thanksgiving and all my work cleaning the barn was clearly worth it.  For more inspiration I recommend you check out Julia’s website.  For my dear decorating friends down in So. California (you know who you are), you’ll kick yourself if you don’t go and look at the one of a kind table she built.  Long and sturdy, with reclaimed wood on top, a one of a kind treasure.  Priced at $300 even with shipping, you’re ahead of LA prices by $1000 or so….

In my small life the best part was to meet so many people.  Neighbors who are just down the road, over the hill or at our church.  However, in the bigger plan the very, very best part was the exposure and the sales for the Haiti ApParent project.  We’d invited the Haiti ladies, a dedicated bunch of gals from our church who spend a lot of time and effort to help the lives of women and children in Haiti.  Haitian mothers who were so poor, they fed mud baked to look like crackers to their children so they’d not go to bed on an empty stomach!  Pooh (one of the fierce and mighty barn cats) did her part to show how comfortable everything was.  The Haiti artisans products sold well and their story was told to many new people.  Many came to the Barn Sale for fun, for cattle pole panels, for vintage farm items and were glad they came.  However, many left with a plan to hold a fund-raiser, so simple and easy for the children of Haiti.  A few men left saying to me, “Thank you for what you are doing for the children”.  Believe me, we did nothing.  It is the dedication of the Haiti ladies that are to be thanked, I’m guessing they’d probably say something like, “to God be the Glory”.