Criss-crossing the Valley

Today was a "running around" day.

First I attended the annual "Ski and Swap" sale held at the county fairgrounds by the Kalispell ski club. The sale is of consigned equipment, used and some new. Skis, boots, poles, accessories, and clothing. There was more clothing than I expected. Much more. I expected many old skis, boots and poles but that was only half of the stuff.

The sale started at 9 am and I did good as I arrived only a half hour late. The better to miss the initial crush of people waiting to get inside. Plenty of people were there when I arrived but it wasn't insanely crowded. I was pleased to get to the sale when I did as I went to bed around the same time I usually do but I woke up on my own and out of a dream hours earlier than I usually do. My internal clock was working. I don't remember my dream's details, but I do remember my dream as seeming to be like a fun Hollywood movie and was disappointed in waking out of the dream.

I am looking for cross-country ski equipment. I have assembled, via several auctions, skis and poles. The skis are the old 3-pin style to hold the shoe in place. I don't think you can even buy that type of binding anymore. The stores don't sell the shoes that work with the 3-pin bindings.

I was looking for the new binding style of a small rod the shoe clips onto. When I entered the building there were row after row of skis. Nothing looked to be cross-country skis so I asked one of the ski club volunteers and he pointed out where the cross-country skis and equipment were located. They were along a short wall at the other end of the building. Let's see... 90% downhill skis and 10% cross-country.

A few older looking skis on sale were the 3-pin bindings. Their prices were $10 to $15. Most skis were the new binding style. Other than the binding style, and having or not having a metal edge, I am not sure what to look for in the skis. Nothing looked "right" to me. It appeared that a third of the skis were Fishcer XC backcountry skis, and these skis looked new. I wonder if the local Sportsman Ski Haus store consigned some of their last year model skis. The skis looked to be similar to ones I seen at the store's "ski cruncher" sale selling last year's stuff. The price of each of these skis was $135. I'm not sure their original price, but $135 doesn't seem like a deal to me and I passed them by. Besides, when I was at the "ski cruncher" sale I learned all of last year skis that they had left lacked a metal edge. I want a ski with a metal edge as that helps one stop when going down hills. Knowing Joyce and Sue Ann I'll again be skiing on old logging roads - and they are not flat.

So.. no skis. I looked at the boots and found 6 boots with the 3-pin binding style. Two boots were women's boots, two boots were too small, and two boots were maybe my size. They were a tight fit. On one pair the left foot felt good, the right foot tight. The other pair - the opposite was true. *sigh* I tried each pair over and over unable to definitely decide which pair to get. Eventually both pairs felt tight. What?! I decided my feet may be swelling slightly from the activity of switching back and forth between shoes.

I bought the first pair. The shoes only cost $4 so if they still felt too tight when I got home I wasn't out of a lot of money for a bad decision. When I got home and tried the shoes on they felt fine. Not too tight at all. Good!

I tried the shoes on each of my skis and the shoes fit each ski. So it appears that I am ready for snow and skiing. Yee haw!

Also at the ski swap were snowshoes but the prices were over $100. They also looked new and there were only a dozen or so shoes there, including shoes so small they appeared to be for pre-teen kids. I would like to get snowshoes, but I guess I will keep an eye open for a sale some other time. While trying on my ski boots I overheard a ski club volunteer tell another shopper the snowshoes were spendy.

After picking up some groceries. and stopping by the library to get some reading material, I stopped by an auction sale held a mile from the ranch. The auction started at 10 am and I arrived around noon. They were still selling odds and ends of household stuff off a flatbed trailer.

This auction was different than the previous auction in that the stuff for sale looked to be clean and useful, not junk like at the previous auction. The crowd seemed to be half and half male/female and not the usual heavily male crowd. Then again this was an estate auction and no equipment other than two vehicles were part of the auction. The items were mainly household stuff and furniture.

The prices seemed reasonable so I got a bidding number as I had my eye on a small box containing smaller boxes of different sized nails. A number of nail were long thick nails and perfect for my corral fence rebuilding using poles.

Sometimes the auctioneer helpers would hold up several boxes of items. The box of nails was in another box with dishes and miscellaneous household stuff. Then the helper added another box to it. I started the bidding at $2.50 and it quickly went up from there and I dropped out right away. I wasn't about to pay $17.50 for the stuff just to get the nails.

The woman who won the bid was next to me and I asked her if she wanted to sell me the box of nails as they were the "odd man" out among the boxes. Before she could answer me I noticed the auctioneer was now selling the box of nails on its own. Huh?! I bid $2.50 but another guy beat me to it. The nails were not worth $5 to me just to get the long nails - the other nails I have plenty of already - so I didn't get them and the other guy got them at $2.50. *argh!*

I waited for a box of pans. I don't need more but could use a few more - if that makes sense. Naturally this was a box others wanted and a bidding war between multiple people immediately took off and the winning bid was $25.

Okay... let me try my luck at some chairs that I could use for my dining table. I am short of chairs as I only really have two good chairs left which isn't enough for when I have company of more than one person.

I waited sitting in one of the chairs as they sold other furniture. The woman must have collected oil lamps as she had a large table full of them and it took forever to sell them as the winning bidder usually would only select one or two lamps.

While the weather forecast called for partly sunny skies, they naturally were wrong as it was cloudy and cool all day. The temperature barely got above 50 degrees. I got up and walked around as I was getting cold sitting there.

Finally the chairs. The rocker recliners chairs sold cheap, a few even for only $2.50. A husband showed up later and a middle aged woman proudly told him she bought the chair for $2.50. His reply? "Where are you going to put it?!"

It was a different story on the dining chairs and business chairs. One chair sold for $45 and I thought the buyer could have waited until the after Thanksgiving Day sale when Staples or OfficeMax often sells this type of chair for less than $50.

I had my eye on four identical leather/vinyl chairs. Since they weren't with a table and were plain looking I thought I could get them cheap. But no, it turns out they were with a table elsewhere and several people said they wanted the chairs and table sold as one. The bidding took off and I didn't get get to be a part of it.

Lastly they had a small simple secretary chair. I started the bid at $2.50 and a mother/daughter bid $5 and I immediately bid $7.50. They hemmed and hawed before finally bidding $10. I let them have it as I didn't want to pay $12.50 as it would be an odd chair and not match anything.

So I was skunked after almost 2 hours of waiting.

Then I drove north to an estate/moving sale. They had a big ad in the newspaper and promised plenty of stuff. It was almost 3 pm when I arrived - well after they started the sale. The guy collected odds and ends of stuff and most of it didn't interest me. Dishes, glassware, lamps, rugs, and stuff like that.

I did find a book - "Into Thin Air" about the 1996 Mt Everest climbing disaster. No prices were on any items and when I went to check on prices I discovered my neighbor Jan was one of the helpers. The sale's proceeds are being donated to a few of charities including the Whitefish Soroptomist Club of which Jan is a member.

Books sold for a quarter so I bought the book even though I wasn't sure if I already owned it.

I found a print that I liked of a few horses done in "cave dwelling" style but with color. It is hard to explain but unique. The price? $50. I didn't like it that much.

After a day of criss-crossing the Valley I returned home. I found religious literature tucked into the side of my screen door. It appears the Jehovah Witnesses were by when I was gone.

It seems as if it continual wet weather is deterring the pocket gophers from being active as I haven't caught any for a few days now.

After cutting up some wood for firewood I dug holes and placed two poles near my mailbox. I plan to nail a board to the poles this winter and use this board as a break to prevent the snow from the snowplows from trashing my mailbox.

As dusk fell I was still disassembling wire on the section of the corral fence I plan to rebuild.

Then it was uptown again to visit a store I missed earlier - and whose sale ends today - before buying 10 items at a grocery store and getting a rotisserie chicken free. That was part of my supper tonight.

So, a busy day.