rocking horse publishing « Robin Writes

Yes, we’re back to working on the pond. And when I say “we,” I mean my husband . . . He did have me come down to make sure the dock was straight in the water, ‘cause, well, I like things neat and orderly. He couldn’t care less.

We did go to an auction this past weekend, and my husband picked up a metal detector. Good thing, because to date we’ve (I’ve) lost two throwing knives, an axe, and just this morning, an arrow, somewhere behind the shooting range.

The garden has a few late tomatoes still left, and maybe three pepper plants that will likely do absolutely nothing. And garlic, of course, that won’t be harvested for a couple months yet.

Clearing and plowing are up next, to finish expanding next year’s garden and put in the greenhouse for the winter. And we still have a few missed spots on the kitchen deck to pressure wash.

Assuming, of course, we can find and move all the cat toys that a friend bought this weekend for Arthur.

We finally finished the sliding doors—thank goodness our neighbor helped, those suckers were HEAVY—and got the rest of the deck furniture. Voila, another room!

And, well, another bedroom for my friends who visit overnight who claim they are too “old” to use the campsite (this includes our kids, by the way):

Oh, and big announcement:

We have considerably fewer spider webs all through the woods. You’re welcome. I’ve been wearing them for a week . . .

Everyone needs a day off now and again, and yesterday, I took mine.

We started off with breakfast at the local café, and since I’m a creature of habit, I went for the loaded hashbrowns and, of course, bacon. My husband had the biscuits and gravy; I usually have to flip a mental coin to decide between these two . . . we go there at least once a week, or sometimes pick up something for dinner.

Then we headed north to the town of Doolittle. “Town” is kind of a misnomer because all we saw was the antique mall and—wait for it—a Stuckey’s! Bet I haven’t seen one in 30 years, and yes, I got a pecan log roll. Tasted just like I remember . . .

So, this antique mall. Wow. I mean, the place is huge! The outside looks like an old West town, there’s tons of parking, and on a Sunday morning we practically had the place to ourselves—at least until about 11:00. It took us TWO HOURS to walk through the whole thing, and when we checked out, we noticed a few more things outside—furniture and such. There’s a flea market section too; no AC so we hurried through that but it was typical flea market stuff.

We went there looking for a pie safe. I have always wanted one and they’re hard to find—and the ones I do find are either not quite right or super expensive. Even after today, I’m still looking.

We did find two more chairs for our kitchen table, and a dinner gong—the old triangle kind. I was holding out for a dinner bell, and we saw two, but they were HUGE, aka heavy. Really heavy. Cast iron heavy. Also around $300. So, no.

My husband picked up some kind of saw thingy, and of course we got some fudge. And peanut brittle. And chocolate covered cashews.

I can’t wait to go back—I saw a few other things I’d like to pick up one of these days. Particularly a very nice leather shoulder holster. Oh, and the Indian spear . . .

But the best thing I found was Tupperware. Not the used, icky kind, but clean, well-kept vintage stuff that you can’t get from the company anymore: cracker boxes, butter keepers, all kinds of things. Picture your house when you were a child; well, if you were a child in the 50s-70s.

This place is awesome, and unlike a lot of “antique” malls full of plastic junk—Tupperware aside; you know what I mean—this is the real deal.

You should go. Prices are reasonable, and it’s a prepper’s heaven: hand tools, old fashioned, non-electric kitchen gadgets, handmade quilts, and a lot more . . .