The Last Tag Sale - October 12, 2019 @goldenoakfarm

Usually Columbus Day weekend is a big blowout for the last tag sales of the season. There were very few listed in the paper but I had found a couple for here in town. We seldom get to those because for some odd reason our town starts tag sales at 9AM, instead of the 7:30 – 8AM of everywhere else. So we are long gone by the time they open.

My husband had heard about a giant tag sale in Ashfield, a hilltown north of us. Apparently they’d been doing this tag sale every year for 24 years, but we’d never heard about it. So we decided to get a later start, do the 2 in town then head north. We hoped to be home by noon, to put the last wall up on the addition. My son would help and my helper friend.

On the way to the first one we saw another and I bought a large planter pot and tray. We got to the main one and, even though they’d not said no early birds, they weren’t opening until 9 on the dot.

So we ended up going by the 2nd one, an estate sale, and it had opened. I got 6 of these PEVA garment bags, in perfect condition, varying sizes, for $5. They are up to $20 each and are far better than my old ones. They will be lovely in my new cedar closet! I also got a cute kitty patterned throw for $3.

We went back to the first one, and didn’t find much of anything, a few canning jars and 5 gallon buckets. So we headed home, unloaded the garment bags and went off to Ashfield.

It was enormous! Crowds and parking everywhere in the tiny town. But well organized, you could get around just fine.

My first find was a lovely old oil lamp, but they wanted $40 for it, so it went back. I found this one. (The photo doesn’t do it justice) It has pineapples and large leaves as the decoration, and it was only $4. I also found a nice pair of salt and pepper shakers made from tiny Ball jars. They are bigger than the standard shakers I have, so I won’t have to fill them so often.

We saw a few things, but left them, like fence chargers and cameras, as we couldn’t test them. I had managed to break my glass water bottle the night before and was looking for a new one. I also needed 2 different sized pan covers for my Farberware, was looking for FireKing (found 1 storage dish w/o its cover) and enamelware (another lady grabbed the enamel baking pan before me), and perhaps Christmas stuff or whatever else I might need.

My best find was the book! Joel Salatin’s book from 2012. It’s a hard cover first edition, signed, and in excellent condition for $1. How cool is that! I’ve already started re-reading it.

My husband’s big find was enormous fudgy brownies. They were so good he went back for a second one! He’s always on the lookout for chocolate chip cookies at tag sales. They often have them, must be good sellers.

But for all the stuff there, we didn’t come home with much. So this tag sale weekend was sort of a bust. Have to wait now until April or May when they start up again.