Great finds!

Phil likes to tell me he is well trained.  Hummm, in some things I guess he is.  He went out to garage sales yesterday and found a dozen, brand new still in the box, wide mouth jars plus a few used jars.  That was good.  I washed them all up last night, and even filled some of them up with the vegetable soup I had been working on.  This morning we headed out of the house to go to an auction he has been talking about for weeks. On the way he spotted a yard sale and stopped for a "quick look".  He had been there for about 20 seconds when he found 3 boxes of canning jars for FREE!  He was excited and instantly started carrying them to the truck.  I haven't unpacked them to see exactly what we got, but what a great deal.
The auction turned out to be quite a disappointment.  The farmer was 84 years old and just about everything was junk.  It was amazing to see how much money people are willing to pay for the OLD nonworking tractors.  I saw quite a few things that made me smile, and think of Mom and Dad.  I remember Dad's old corn shovels, his drill press, tools and tools and more tools.  Many of the things this old farmer had were like Dad's things.  We came away from that auction spending only $2 for an old feed trough that we are going to use as a flower pot.  We found a yard sale on the way home and Phil bought a trailer for me to use to haul garden stuff, hay etc behind my tractor.  I don't know if I will actually get to keep it ... the axle is from a 1937 chevy, and we can probably get a lot more money for that than we paid for the trailer. 
This weekend is keg creek days here in Glenwood.  It is a very nice small town festival.  There are lots of antique tractors farm implements and fun.  The first year we lived here we brought Mom with us.  We took her to the cowboy church and old fashioned gospel singing.  There was a flea market and one of the vendors was selling wooden musical instruments.  She bought Courtney a beautiful wooden flute for Christmas.  She died before Christmas.  I hope Courtney cherishes the flute. 
We didn't get to the festivities today, but did go to the concert this evening.  It was fun.  They played rock from the 50's and 60's.  The band was unique in that there were a grandfather and grandson playing together.  They ranged from men in their 60's to young men in their 20's.  It was a fun show.  One of the things that made is special were the people dancing in front of the stage.  Glenwood has a very large facility called "the state school" where people with mental handicaps live.  Many of the people have downs syndrome.  Several of these young people dance through the entire show and make everyone smile.  I didn't see one person looking cross at these wonderful people.  What a wonderful small town this is.  Sometimes I wish we were a little closer to town, so I could get to know more of the locals.
Speaking of rock and roll, I stopped by Delana's house the other day to pick elderberries.  She has a wonderful bush in her back yard.  These are big berries and so clean!  I have always picked the fruit from road ditches so it was always covered in nasty dust.  These were clean and so easy to juice out.  Anyway Olivia came outside while I was there and I asked her to sing the song they were learning in music class.  I have to tell you there is nothing cuter that listening to a kindergartner singing "I love rock and roll, put another dime in the jukebox baby".  I would love to hear the entire class singing that!
Olivia loves school.  I knew she would.  I can't wait to see how she changes and matures being around other kids her age.  Ruby didn't like her first day at school because some other girl didn't like her.  I haven't talked to her since, so I am not sure how that is all going.  Caelum sounded like he was doing fine, but I haven't talked to him since his first day either.  I believe Emilia and Shelby start school right after Labor day.  Poor Joe will be home all alone with Mom. 
It is getting late.  I think it is time for me to scoot off to bed.  Tomorrow we will go to keg creek days again and see the tractors this time.  Phil would like to see the museum and spend time oogling the antique equipment.  You'd think he lived on a farm all of his life wouldn't you?