Kindred Spirits

This past weekend was one of the biggest yard sale weekends of the season . 

There are literally hundreds of sales to go to in my area on this May 24th three day long weekend 

Thursday night, in preparation, I sat down with a map and a list of early listings from the paper, prioritizing the good from the bad, and then on friday morning I reckoned my first list with new listings in two different friday papers, planning out a weekend strategy. 

At 8:30 am friday morning I visited my first sale, a huge fundraiser sale for animal welfare....

There were thousands of items at this sale laid out on tables and in boxes on the ground in a huge parking lot. The air was almost electric with excitement as hundreds of rummager s  simultaneously searched frenetically for treasures. 

You have to be quick to get the deals because if you think about something for too long, someone else will often scoop your item for themselves.

A personal goal for the weekend was to find some more flashlights to talk about on 'flashlight friday's"

Well its true you never know what will happen when you are out visiting garage sales. Thats part of the appeal, the unpredictable aspect of this hunt.

Saturday morning, my second day searching, after visiting a number of less than inspiring sales in a tiny  uninspiring subdivision on one side of Peterborough Ontario, I happened upon a kindred spirit.

Cliff a fellow flashlight fanatic, and coleman lantern collector too was having a garage sale of his own.

This is the first time I have ever met him.  He is humble about his collection and dismisses it as "tinkering in the garage" I think its amazing!

The photos that follow are from the inside of his garage.

-Martin

Flashlight Friday

Baden Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement created the motto "Always Be Prepared" for young scouts to live by. 

"Be prepared for life - to live happily and without regret, knowing that you have done your best"

Here is another flashlight from the vaults that stands prepared and ready.

Its an Eveready 2 Cell right angle Boy Scout lamp with ring hanger and belt clip, circa 1927

-Martin

And so it begins....

Last weekend marked the true arrival of spring .... a good number of garage sales advertised in the weekend paper.  Its a joyous time of the year when I can "hunt and gather"  material needs and wants.
Here is my  "saturday score" . I have always been interested in canning and "putting food by" at the end of the growing season....here is what I found.....

Its a 30 Quart Pressure Canner made by All American.

The retail price for a new one seems to be around $300 but mine cost $5 !!!

You can process 19 pint jars or 14 quart jars in it at once!

More jars  and some good pressure canning recipes are the next thing I have to find.

-Martin

A glimmer of light from an old friend!

It's flashlight friday again. 

 It seems like a long time has passed since I last posted. 

Life has been busy with working in the bush cutting wood for next winter,  the arrival of a second dog, visiting with friends and turkey hunting. 

Yes turkey hunting, which has me waking up at 4:30 am. daily to head out into the dark forest and set up my decoys, ready to call birds at daylight.  

This morning I watched as a hen turkey skirted around my hen decoys at a field edge. Gobbling Toms (mature males) called loudly in the distance but wouldn't respond to my calls, so I just sat and reflected on the beautiful and quiet early morning.

It's been a bit grey around here since my good friend passed this last month, but yesterday I saw a glimmer of light. What was it that caused this glimmer? It was the beautiful flashlight you see below that my old friend Dermot sent as a gift to share with you this flashlight friday!

There was no description in the package mailed to me, so I looked it up at the flashlight museum (well worth an online visit) but couldn't find a listing.  

Digging deeper it seems this light is German, Daimon light,  circa some time after the 40's

It has a single battery in it which seems to be Swedish. The fish eye lens it has was typical of older handheld lantern style lights. 

-Martin