Barrister bookcases, barbecue and bear!

It's Saturday! Time for another rural, onsite, farm auction.  

This weekend's sale had a lot going for it. Dusty, rusty piles of stuff everywhere. Rows and rows and rows of box lots. Piles of pigeon-poop covered barn stuff - ladders, carts, totes, tools. 

And most of it being hauled out of a small, humble old house that had at one time served as an apple cidery and the town school. 

Just when I thought there couldn't possibly be anymore furniture left to sell, someone yelled out "Wait, we just found three more barrister bookcases upstairs!".

The house and barn were filled to the rafters, and set on one of the most idyllic pieces of property I'd seen in a long time. Did I mention it was surrounded by a vineyard?

Add to this, the promise of a chicken barbecue put on by the local fire department and you've got something that closely resembles nirvana as far as I'm concerned. 

Chicken, sweet corn, watermelon, the most delicious sweet and sour cole slaw I've ever tasted and those soft wonderful rolls that they serve at church suppers. It was summer in a white styrofoam to-go box!

We filled the car and the trailer, loaded in the pouring rain without getting grumpy and had just enough room for everything. 

The drive home was punctuated with heavy downpours and little to no visibility. In the midst of chatting about our next buying trip and an enormous black bear lumbered across the highway right in front of us. As in, RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CAR. Amazing. 

Now to unpack and process...but first a loooooooong nap. The AC's humming and Pippa is waiting for us.