Green is Today's Gold!

In my recent posts about signs of Spring, you know the ones about birds nesting, garden cultivation, baseball games, lawn mowing, foals and calves being born, and of course Pete's Hamburger stand opening, I left out one of Mother Nature's most treasured signs of the season . . . namely the dreaded "Garage Sale" sign. This past weekend, Fennimore, celebrated the arrival of spring with its citywide garage sale. It was a real deal with 65 registered "garages" and a couple of dozen "outlaw" locations (we got in under the wire and snatched up sign #65). The sales ran from 7 a.m. Friday morning til noon on Saturday. And, although we had vowed not to participate after being involved in the past selling off a lot of my mom's and Jo's mom's household belongings. After emptying out both of their homes when they moved on to assisted living facilities, we realized how much stuff we really didn't need. So, we have been making an exerted effort to dejunk our home. As a result we don't have a whole lot of things to sell but we came up with a marketing plan that turned out to be a sure fire winner. What do we have in abundance that might appeal to the roving bands who will be scouring the streets of Fennimore in search of treasure? Instead of looking IN the house we took to the yard. There in overwhelming amounts grow "Green Gold" aka Hostas. Everyone loves Hostas, they're easy to grow and no one ever has enough of them. Well we have more than enough of them, I gave up counting plants at a hundred and twenty. Jo grabbed a spade and filled every empty receptacle she could find. We set up a few tables in the garage with an assortment of "treasure" (junk) and one table on the driveway filled with pots, cups, and cans loaded up with greenery. Friday, we sold some of the "treasures" but, the plants were the the cash cows. We sold more than half of our stock, plus a few that Jo dug to order for those who wanted particular species.
Saturday was cold and windy making for a fairly sparse crowd. (Not even very many Amish were out on Saturday) But, once again the Hostas were selling off the table. Just before noon we gave up the ship. Closed up the garage but, left the plant table out on the drive. Considering that there may be some stragglers who might be interested in a "bargain bin" plant sale, we placed a coffee can with a $ sign on the lid thus making our sale self serve. Sunday, when we returned from shopping in Dubuque (spending our profits from the sale) kiddingly I told Jo to check the can and lo and behold there was a ten dollar bill stuffed into it. Monday as I was handling some real important projects around the house, I saw a lady rummaging around the plant table. I remained in the house peeking out the window til she loaded her car and left. As she drove away I noticed that the plant table was empty. I ran (actually walked quickly) to check the can (which in a small town like ours, is as good as a safety deposit box). I dumped the contents on the empty, mud spattered table, only to find ten dollars and forty four cents. This was weird because first of all, there weren't ten dollars worth of plants remaining Monday morning and, secondly, what the ten dollars and forty four cents was comprised of - four two dollar bills, one single, one Sacagawea dollar coin, a quarter, dime, nickle and four pennies. Even more intriguing was the fact that that plants were priced at ONE dollar each. I guess it will just become one of those urban mythteries that will handed down for generations to come. In the mean time I'm off to find more receptacles to fill with unsuspecting Hostas. Wonder if I can sell enough to buy a new computing machine?

Thar's Gold in Them Greens!