Garage Sale-25 Degrees? Brrr

 
Garage Sale... when it is 35 degrees? Brrrr.....   We had a late season garage sale... just decided to have it for sure last Sunday , so things were busy and rushed. The forecast said it would be chilly at about 55 degrees on Friday, but we were out of time and wanted to have a sale and be done with it, so we went ahead.....  Then .... the weather changed.....

 The sale was all set up.... in the garage and some on the driveway, then the sky darkened.

Just that morning, they had changed the forecast to include a 20% chance of rain in the morning. 20% isn't much and we were already committed, so we were hoping it wouldn't rain.

The sky looked a bit unsettled. 

Then it also looked a bit pretty... but the clouds were moving fast.

 All of a sudden, it started to rain lightly.... we rushed to move a few things under the canopy... then it rained hard for several minutes. Sigh.

After about 10 minutes or so, the rain stopped, it was windy, then the sun came out and though a bit chilly, especially with the winds....  it was beautiful. 

We had lots of people.... and as we sold things, we rearranged and kept it interesting. It was a very busy day...  in the afternoon, the temperature started to drop and it was quite chilly. 

Before closing that evening, we rearranged much and did some consolidating, to get more into the garage since it was supposed to be even cooler the next day.... and there was to be a hard freeze the next night.

 The 2nd day WAS very chilly in the morning... and VERY windy. The morning's temperature was 36 degrees with a wind chill of 29 degrees. Brrrr........ The whole day was cold.... we had tea and warm drinks to keep warm... and dressed in lots of layers.

The end of the 2nd day, we were so tired and chilled, we just closed up when it was time. We had sold much in the 2 days we were open. With the freeze expected that night, I made a big batch of chili and had 2 big crockpots of it simmering all afternoon - it smelled so good. In the late afternoon, I made a batch of homemade bread to have with the chili. The recipe is here. 

I had spent much time harvesting in the garden on both days of the garage sale... trying to get everything done before the night's freeze. We also did schoolwork.  It was a busy day.... and a very cold one.  All of the potted plants had to go into the garage for the night.  In the afternoon, we had hot homemade spiced apple cider and it tasted good and helped to warm us back up. When all was finally done, it was so nice to come in to the house and eat hot homemade chili and hot fresh bread. It was very much of a comfort meal and warmed us up from the inside out. :)  Also, we still haven't turned on our furnace yet, so we piled on the blankets and quilts and took hot rice bags to bed with us. They felt so good. :)  You can see how to make them here.  I love having the rice bags. :)  We all slept wonderfully well with the cool temps and nice warm covers, but it wasn't so easy to get out of bed on Saturday morning. In fact, we opened late as we figured no one would be out early with the freeze, so we waited until about 9:00 am to open.

 On Saturday morning - day 3 of our garage sale... the last day... we woke up to frost all over the place... and very cold temperatures. It was 25 degrees in the morning... and it was cold... outside.. and inside. We all dressed in a LOT of layers, drank hot tea, ate breakfast and set up the sale.... and how nice it was that my husband was home to man the sale, for the most part. :)

Saturday wasn't a busy day, but we still sold things... and gave some away at the end.

It was a cold garage sale... we had rain, wind, cold temperatures, the first freeze of the year, and more. It certainly wasn't ideal for a garage sale, but we are so glad to have done it anyway.... and to be done with it. :)  We have many people who love to come to our garage sale every year and we call them our "regulars".  Many have seen our kids grow over the years, or we have learned things about them... we have prayed for them... and they for us.  We have shared Christ with many of them.  A garage sale is a lot of work, but there are also benefits... for one thing, there is the ministry aspect... also we got rid of unneeded things before winter AND freed up some money, which will be helpful. It would have been easier to do it earlier, except that our schedule wouldn't allow for it, so this all worked out even with the weather problems.

By Sunday, I was really tired.... and after church and then the potluck, I came home and took a 2 1/2 hour nap! A tiring week, but it was good... I am so thankful for hot drinks - teas and such. There is something cheery about a hot cup of tea, or cider or cocoa or other hot drinks. :)  Thank you for visiting my blog today....

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