Criss-crossing the Valley: Day 2

Today was not as filled as yesterday, but after baking an apple pie this afternoon I returned the the estate /moving sale to see if the "cave painting" horse print was still for sale. An auction of the remaining items was to begin at 2 pm and I arrived before 3 pm. My neighbor Jan was leaving just then and said the owner changed his mind and canceled the auction. Instead he was closing down the sale early. He had advertised the sale as lasting until 5 pm.

Jan said the horse print was still available so I decided to go inside. The seller, Jerry, offered to sell it to me for $40. Less than it is worth new (as he claimed he paid $179 for it ), but more than what one usually pays at garage sale or auctions. I hemmed and hawed and he said "Go on, buy it. You will regret it later if you don't." He also said he planned to have another sale in a month and I can have a 20% discount on whatever I buy then. That didn't make a difference as I don't plan on getting anything else later.

I really like the print so I decided to get it. After all, I should hang something classier on my house walls. Colleen said how a person decorates their house is a reflection of their personality. I should have asked her what my house said about me, other than decorating my house is not a priority with me. She doesn't care for my decorating style. Others have described my place as a "bachelor pad" or "lacking a feminine touch". That sounds about right.

When I bought the print the seller also gave me a small poster of a wagon train set against a photo in the shape of Montana's boundaries. "Since I like horses.", he said. I am not sure what I'll do with this poster. It is ok, but something I would have put on my office wall back in my IBM days, not on my house wall.

The print seller asked my name, then wanted to guess my nationality.

"Hungarian?"

"No."

"Don't tell me. Let me guess. Czech?"

"No. Ukrainian."

He then told me about sponsoring the Ukrainian Boys Choir on tour in Texas back in the mid-1990s. He also used to sponsor a music festival in the Flathead Valley, the last time over 10 years ago. Jerry is an old, uncombed, white haired, rumpled, chain smoking character. He loves music.

After getting the print I returned to the ski swap sale back in Kalispell. The sale was over and I wondered what they did with the old unsold stuff. Maybe I could get some cross-country skis and boots for my brother. I don't know his size so "real cheap" would mean I would take a chance on some item. They were in the midst of packing up. Most things were gone, and I heard someone say what little still there was going into storage. So, no deals for my brother.

Back home I found, having eaten all the leaves from the sunflower plants, the deer have started to eat the sunflower heads themselves. Some of the heads were on the ground as the stalk was broken. Other heads had bites in them. Deer tracks were all around in the garden's soft earth. Some of the beet leaves and carrot tops were eaten also.

Darn deer!! I can't wait until gun hunting season starts in a few weeks!

Photo 1: my covered tomato plants
Photo 2: a surviving sunflower head




Photo 1: carrots and corn
Photo 2: leafless sunflower plants