5-11-12

12:30pm

Back home from yard sales.

Last night I was thinking about how to make

an arbor for cheap in the backyard

either for veggies to grow on,

climbing flowers or for my grapevine.

A nice sturdy arbor is not cheap to

go and buy from Menards or home improvement stores.

So I had come up with the idea of possibly

making one from a wooden ladder if I could

find one.  And wouldn't you know it,

the first yard sale I stopped at had a 

nice long wooden ladder.

It was $6.00 but I paid $5.00 for it.

$5.00 to make a wood arbor...

that's really cheap if you ask me.

You can't buy but 1-2 pieces

of new lumber to get you started with making

an arbor!  

I know Tony's gonna wonder why in 

the world I bought this ladder.

I'll keep him wondering for awhile, lol.

I told y'all the wheels are always

spinning in my head with ideas

of things I can reuse and recycle

to make something else out of.

 And I can tell you it fit perfectly in the Suburban.

It ran from the dash windshield all

the way to barely making it in the back doors of the truck.

Any longer and it would not have fit.

The only other thing I unloaded from the

truck was my BESTEST buy of the day

and are still in shock I got it so cheap.

I even questioned the seller as to how

much it was!  
I found an HO electric Thundering Rails train

set still in its box for $1.00!!!!!!

I know how much these electric train sets

go for because my one son is into trains

and we attend lots of trains shows and Expos.

I knew right away this one was worth

$100 to $200 and for only a DOLLAR!

I priced it on Ebay at

$113 to $150!!

 One neighborhood we yard saled in 

had trash pick up today and I was curb crawling, lol.

I found me a couple small pallets

and a section of white plastic fencing for free.

I think mom has gotten to the point

that she doesn't ask why I get some of the things I do.

I'm sure she was probably wondering today

what I was doing putting small pallets in the truck, lol.

I've been on the hunt for a pallet

to attach to our small area of privacy fence

under the carport area to hold 

brooms, rakes, shovels, etc.

I've tried those plastic tool holders

without much luck and need a place to

store garden tools and such.

So here's an inspirational photo

of what I want to make.

You see all this crazy but true stuff on tv

and think it'll never happen to you.

Today I stopped by the house to unload

the ladder and parked out on the street

on the side of the house.

I'm in the back with mom who is watching me pulling and tugging

at this ladder to get it out when mom says,

"Is the truck rolling???"

I'm not paying attention to nothing but

the ladder but happened to look down

and sure enough the truck is rolling

and the street goes downhill a little

in the direction the truck was facing.

I'm running beside the truck to catch it,

cars are going by, not real sure if I may have run

in front of one at that time because one stopped

beside me and my mind was getting the truck stopped.

 I caught up with the truck, swung open

the door and jumped in and hit the brakes.

I'm still not sure how the truck wouldn't

have been put in park because it was not

running and I had the keys in my purse.

I don't know.  All I know is I had to sit

in the back of the truck to settle

down a few after that episode because

my knees and hands were shaking.

All I kept thinking was if this truck makes

it to that hill by the main road I'm screwed

since it would pick up speed.

I do need to take the front tires off

sometime this weekend to check the brake pads because I've

been feeling occasional grinding in my brake pedal

and today it started making noise.

I got a couple other things in the truck

from yard sales that I'll get out this afternoon.

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1:45 - 2:10pm


Finally!  I got the garden beds nailed together.
Only smashed my thumb once out of 32 nails. 
Once was enough to be reminded not to do it again, lol.

Tonight I might work on stringing the lines for the tomato trellis,
get the rest of the pine mulch put in the last two beds
and see about getting the pallet tool holder put up.
Still deciding about putting up the wire fencing
to keep the rabbits out.  I don't
want all this hard work to go to waste
over rabbits stopping by for a bite.
Plus I've seen raccoons and opossums
in our yard before that could cause problems.

I bought a roll of chicken wire today for .25
cents at a yard sale.  Might use that for 
the arbor and another wire trellis
that I got another sale for $3.00.
It has white Christmas lights on it.
Still need to go get it as it's at 
a yard sale just down the road
and I didn't have room in the truck for it.




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3:00pm




Had to share the excitement of showing
Christopher the train set I found for one dollar, lol.
Still shocked over how much I got it for as
you can see in the video!
I don't think Christopher can believe it either.
HO Thundering Rails electric train set.

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4:30 - 7:00pm


No rest for the weary.
I had Tony take the tires off the Suburban
to check the brakes.  Good thing he did
because I saw one brake pad and it was
completely gone!
Here's a side-by-side comparison
of a new brake pad with the old.
Notice there is no pad!
I still had brakes somehow.  I just noticed in the past
couple of weeks every now and then
I could feel grinding or vibration in my brake pedal.
Today I actually heard it making noise
and wanted it checked out.

While Tony was putting new brakes on
I went out to the garden and
got the tomato trellis strung up.

Then I unloaded the truck of the pallets
and got one screwed into our fence for yard tools.
I'm so tired of tripping over them
(or looking for them).
This will make it so much nicer and more organized.
Tony loved the idea with the pallet.

I love free stuff.  I love curb crawling.
I love yard sales.
And I love finding new uses for things.

The neighbor down the street brought
over the $3.00 trellis this evening that I bought
from his yard sale earlier.  I had no room in my truck
so he brought it over in his.
I sat one of the headboards that I found
under it to see if when I make
a headboard bench that it would fit underneath it.
Looks like it's gonna fit perfectly.

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9:05pm




My tipsy planter.  I have two on each
side of the front step.  I've put solar
lights into the tops of them.

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