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Good pony for not jumping by traffic! From this distance, the greys look nice! Ha ha
Today’s job is cleaning out the carriage shed. We got it half done last fall before we ran out of gas and good weather. It is long and narrow, so everything in front has to come out to reach the back half. Not sure what all we have in there. Hoping for things that can go to Martin’s Auction in a couple weeks, to gain space. Husband is helping after his chores are done. Kind of funny, rediscovering what we “put away” then forgot we had!
If we get done kind of early, we might go for a drive. Weather is wonderful at the moment. Down to one sweatshirt over my T-shirt.
Hung up the bird net curtains. Still working on them. They blow in the wind, snag easily on things, are pretty invisible except where I tied orange and white streamers on the edges that meet. However! The birdies bounce off netting when curtains are closed! None snagged in the netting. More creativity meeded to make husband happy using them.
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Adding our trip to Martin’s Auction here. We left Thursday EARLY, o-dark-thirty. Took a back highway to avoid roadwork and morning traffic on the Interstate. The Toll road across Ohio was nice, moderate traffic and went fast. Took I-80 across Pennsylvania to avoid tolls, being cheap. It was INTERESTING to say the least! Good pavement, lots of winding around the mountains and steep grades up and downhill. Quite different with no rest areas, but we could pull off into actual towns if needed.
Arrived in good time at the Lebanon Fairgrounds. Plenty of time to walk among the parked carriages and miscellaneous items on display, look at them up close for possible purchasing. Then we headed off to the hotel and dinner.
Friday was sunny and got hot pretty quick, 80F! There was a pretty good turnout of nice vehicles. There were a few historical farm wagons or reproductions of farm wagons. A collection of lovely pony vehicles of all types. One nice Brewster Park Drag and a nice pony coach ready to show. All kinds of other vehicles both vintage and modern types. We saw THREE Slat-Sided Hunting Breaks, which I have never seen sell at auction before! One Brewster, one Demerest, very handsome in paint and one no-name that was natural wood. We don’t get to all the auctions, so perhaps other breaks have sold and I missed them. We have a Slat-Sided Phaeton, very short-coupled like a Trap, two seats. So anything with slat sides catches our attention!
The one I liked best was a small break, in that it was short front-to-back, two seats, horse sized. Natural wood with lovely curving sides and overlays of carved molding. I could EASILY have taken it home! So attractive! But it went a collector who will take good care of it.
There were some bargins, but prices appear to be going back up a bit. We bid on a marathon single but the other folks wanted it more. Sold well for the seller.
Leather name-brand harness mostly sold pretty well. Much looked like it was new or only used a few times, no sweat marks. Used Smuckers Singles, brass with Patent, went high, but I have not bought new from him in a long time. Could be they were bargins at $1900! A collection of spare Smuckers parts, patent collars, various style traces, brass Hames w/short tugs, went for $3200. A fair amount of excellent Pairs russet marathon harness (too small for our horses), complete, was much less costly. Mini equipment sold well, lots of buyers. Draft harness, plain, fancy, leather and synthetic, went modestly priced.
I had my shopping list marked, but other folks wanted the items more than me or the Auctioneer did not hear me yelling to bid! Always noisy, but enclosed room, lots of bidders, makes it REALLY noisy. If you plan to go take earplugs!! Mine were a blessing on noise reduction. So we did not bring much home. Husband said it was our cheapest auction ever!
Got to see old friends, catch up on news, which is at least half the reason we attend! They sold differently this year. The backroom started about 10am, selling with two auctioneers going up and down the wall and tables, on opposite sides of the room. The main auction started about 1p. There was some kind of online selling at 11a announced, but we never saw or found it. The main auction alternated between the good accessories, good harness, vehicle in selling order. Auction handed out FREE list of items selling order, which came in handy for tracking things. It went kind of slow but did result in higher prices on items, was more interesting to watch. The third selling location across the main room from carriage selling went fast and furious. Lots of mixed items of nice quality, books, pictures, accessories of all sorts. We left about 7p, helped our friend load the pony carriage she got and her other purchases. The remaining 100+ items in the main sale were not anything we wanted. I bet the sale ran pretty late, like it often does. Might have been bargins to be had!!
We headed on home, put on some miles before stopping for overnight. Drove home today, thru rain and sun. Makes for easier driving, less hours in the car. It was fun running off for such a change of things!
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