On the Road Again.....

Every year about this time I get that itch...that On the Road Again itch (did you sing that bit along with Willie Nelson in your head or is it just me who does that?). We are back from our first official "summer" road trip. My husband likes to call these my "travelling road show" trips referring to the fact that, at times, I have been known to drag along dogs, cats, and all manner of other things and/or creatures with me or back with me. Well, this time hubby was away in Mexico so it was just the boys, the dog and I on this road trip, and let me tell you that the dog was quite pleased to have a front seat all to himself. (Maybe hubby will decide not to make such smart alec -y comments when he learns that he can be easily replaced as navigator/sidekick by the dog - or maybe he will decide he quite likes a bit of time in Mexico sans famille and will decide to skip out on a few more of his sarcastic wife's road trips. Hmmmm. )

Anyway we had a great time and, as always, I did bring home a few goodies that I want to share pictures of, although without hubby's truck I had to really prioritize the things I wanted to bring back.
This is a solar food dryer that my Dad and oldest son W built out of all recycled materials. The window was salvaged from the roadside - at the lake there is always an assortment of "good stuff" on offer from people who are making their "cabins" into "lake houses". We took out two glass panels, one is used on the food dryer. Two were left in the frame and the next time my folks come down they will bring it for me to use as a cold frame over my garden beds next spring. One panel of glass I will use as a weed burner in my garden pathways. The wood is from the old deck on my folk's home. The dryer will be used for my cherries, apples, apricots, plums, grapes, currants and peaches and store-bought bananas. I will likely try it with some herbs and veggie bits too. I was pleased to hear W come up with some make-do solutions for using parts that we had while building this.

Have to post about a garage sale find that I know Katherine will understand how excited I am about. The lake that we go to has an annual garage sale at the senior's centre where several years ago I scored this for $1. It actually worked at that time ( until I brought it home to kids and pets).
This year I got this for $1, a sewing kit full of all kinds of goodies. I will never again need to buy sewing needles (nor will any of my friends). There are two sock darners, although I have no intention of ever wearing out my knitted socks ( after how long it takes me to knit them they had better not wear out!).

and also this for $1. A conch shell for E. For the last few years he has joined in a Maui Conch shell band to salute the sunset and now is lucky enough to have his own shell instead of having to use a snorkel. This one already has the blow hole cut into it and came with a hand carved wooden stand. It sounds lovely.

Those are my kind of bargains. Now if only I could figure out what these are and how they work. There is a whole bag of them. I think they are some kind of attachment to make all kinds of stitches on the sewing machine, I am just not sure if they will fit on my machine. It would be a nice bit of luck if they did and since I am a big fan of serendipity I am going to believe that they will fit my machine until Katherine tells me otherwise. ;-)