How Much Stuff Does One Guy Need?

I decided that two lifetimes' worth of inventory may not be enough and therefore attended an auction in Walker, Minnesota yesterday. Walker is about 220 miles due north of Minneapolis, very near the edge of the advancing continental glaciers. Attendance demanded that I be on the road by about 6 AM. The auction bill included photos of many great (and huge) looking pieces of furniture and antique store counters. I hauled my trailer, a second trip to pick up the pieces that were too big for the truck the first time was not feasible.

There is still enough ice on Leach Lake at Walker for the fishermen to be standing on the bay doing their fishing. At least they didn't drive their 4 wheelers to the spot to enhance their sinking possibilities. Its May 3rd and the ice is still thick enough to support standing men. So much for global warming here on the tundra.

There was almost no one at the auction site. I parked in the row one off of the the building and directly out from the doors. This was a very encouraging sign. The furniture that was pictured on the auction bill was at least as good looking in person. This was going to be a fun auction. Well even though there were only 50-60 bidders there at any given time, they all had money and they all wanted to spend it on the things that I wanted. I ended up with an awesome Apothecary counter from the 1900 Nissawa Drug Store, a counter from the International Harvester store in Winger, a great green painted two drawer 1860's library table, a porcelain on enamel Family Fallout Shelter sign from the 1950's, a high school shop project of an airplane wing strut from the 1930s, a 1/2 round window with saw tooth design on the casing, 2 1940's pressed steel lawn chairs (one chippy blue and the other faded red, I have a similar white one to place between them for our July sale) and a couple of bark cloth cushions that will work well when I find that 1940's wicker chair missing it's stuffing.

The Apothecary counter must weigh 500-600 pounds in two large pieces and the IH counter is only slightly smaller. All the pieces were loaded on to the trailer or into the truck. Being quite clever, and realizing that there was no way for me to unload this mammoth load at home alone, I stopped at Gypsy Lea's enroute. She was there with her friend Mark, we called Kris and Mike, who live near by, and between the 5 of us, mostly Mark and Mike, the trailer was unloaded directly into the new shop.

Mike, Mark and I assembled the Apothecary counter, deliberating placing the top piece on the counter 180* out of normal because of the dramatic effect that it provided. The piece looks spectacular. My huge pumpkin pine 2 piece cupboard was dwarfed by its presence. It will work as a room divider or bar or other focal point in a home wonderfully.

I stayed at Gypsy Lea's to well after 11 PM getting things arranged. It was a regular Furniture Dancin' Hodown. Today we are planing to meet in Buffalo at 5 PM to remove anything that didn't sell at the occasional sales there and haul it all to Gypsy Lea's. The grand opening is only four days away and we are hustling to get things in place.

I hope that the new memory stick for my camera arrives soon. I will take pictures and will keep living by my antiquing name.

Mr. Flannery
aka Dances with Furniture