Friday, October 16, 2020

Pick Up Day

 Tim took a day of vacation so that we could get our butcher block picked up. 

Ed's comment made me laugh. He suggested that he would never have bought that, choosing to make it instead. While we were measuring it and plotting how to come back and move it the following day, a man walked by. He said, "I wouldn't pay money for something that I could build myself." When I read Ed's comment, I wondered if maybe he'd made a trip in for the sale. He would have been disappointed. His desk was sold.

I suppose that building a butcher block isn't hard to do, as far as that goes. Tim has a lot of tools, but I am going to say that he would need to purchase some tools for a job like that, clamps and planers and the like. We have none of that. He also doesn't have a workspace. Building something like that in our basement would be a big problem wrestling it back up the stairs. 

I guess that woodblock says a lot about the type of people we are. We are the sort of people who save a hand hewn beam from a house built in the 1840s because:

1) the beam was repurposed, probably from an old barn. You could see where it had been notched and pegged for use in its previous incarnation. 

2) guessing that even if the barn stood for even 20 years or 30 years, you're taking it back to 1810-1820. Maybe further. Our town was founded in 1795. 

3) the beam is maaaaaassssive. Huge. We figure that a tree that size was growing during before the Revolutionary war. 

4) and the idea of touching the wood from something growing in that time frame was a marvel to us. We saved that beam, and lord knows what we're going to do with it, but...

In any case, that's the kind of people we are. 

I loved the butcher block right away, and so did Tim. Simple. Sturdy. Here long before us. Will last long after we are gone. And that's the sort of stuff that catches our eye, usually. 

This morning, we got up and headed out to load up our treasure. We were loading it onto our appliance dolly. A friend of Tim's hailed him and headed over, offering to lend his big burly self to the task. And the two wrangled the dolly out the front door as people stepped out of the way. Once out to our old blue truck, Tim began lifting the ramps out of the bed. A man walking by stopped to marvel at our purchase. He said, "You know, I'll bet we could just lean that dolly back against the tail gate and then lift the bottom right up. It has wheels on the back of the dolly. We could just slide it right in." 

And three men stood there in the parking lot circling around. 

They put their backs to it, lifted it in just like they'd been moving butcher blocks all their lives. It went up and in. 

Today things were marked 30% off, which we didn't expect. I bought an old rolling pin. Tim found some corbels, 8 of them, unpainted, which he thinks would be interesting to hold up shelves. As we were carrying out the corbels, we passed by a little table several times. It had caught my eyes multiple times the first day. I was a little surprised it was still there. It sat quietly in its dusty old corner with a $45 price tag. It was surrounded by tables that were hundreds of dollars, and a great many of them had sold. It hadn't, and now it was 30% off. 



"Tim," I started, and he stopped with his armload of corbels. 

"I was looking at that yesterday, he said, "I think we should get it."

 And so we did. I also picked up a brand new cappuccino machine still in the box. I'll take the old one to the camp, and use the new one at home. We got off lightly. $58.10 for our purchases today. 

Loading the last of the purchases on the truck two ladies walked by. I heard one of them say to the other, "I wonder if they have anything good left." I said, "Oh, there's plenty of stuff in there. We didn't take it all." 

And we all laughed together. 

"That was very thoughtful of you," they said. And watching us put the table on the truck, one of them said, "That cutting block is something, isn't it?" Her friend agreed. 

Feeling quite happy with our truckload, we headed for home. 

15 comments:

  1. Job well done lady (and blokes) :D

    Love that table.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am smiling as I read this - and how generous of you to leave things for others as well.
    Definitely a job well done - and items to treasure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's a lovely little drop-leaf table! I remember a time when every home had one of those. Real space savers, yet handy when you need a bigger table.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My butcher block is made of many pieces of wood and put together with dove tail seams. The pieces run from the block top to the bottom and it is about two feet deep or thick. I need to get someone to take a picture and send it to you. I don't know how to do that.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the drop-leaf table. My parents had several of them (different styles). They’re multi-functional. With the leafs (or is it leaves?!) dropped they can serve as an end table or sofa table, or even an entry hall table or buffet. With the leafs up, you have a dining table. We have two in our house that were my parents,’ and we passed one to our older bison and DIL. The best part of all - each one has a story. Enjoy your new, old finds! (And why would I go to the trouble of making a butcher block when I could purchase one at such a reasonable price?! 😂)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh my Lord. I do not own a bison! We gave that table to our SON! I have to learn to proofread before the fact!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lol. Bob, you might remember that we have Bob the bison in the library. What will happen to him when we are gone I couldn't tell you. I know my own bison and dil won't want him.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Should you predecease me, I, Bob from Tennessee, would gladly take custody of Bob the Bison!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great! You'll be written into the will then. Side note: the last gentleman who gladly took custody of Bob was not permitted to hang Bob in the house by decree of his gentlewoman who got decidedly loud on the matter. Pete, being a gentleman, gave up. I believe that it took nearly 20 years for him to decide she meant it though.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It’s settled then! Bob the Bison is mine!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh, gosh..... I am laughing so hard I can hardly see to type. As I read Bob's bison comments, I DID remember you had a bison, but didn't remember its name was Bob. This is all just too good!

    And you know, Debby.... I will NEVER forget your story about being goosed in the behind by a dog with carrion in its mouth. (saying "carrion" since I don't recall which body part was in use)

    ReplyDelete
  12. That would be the dog who dragged a deer head around. Tim thought it was funny. Me? Not so much. I was bent over getting stuff from the back of the car. He was glad to see me. That's life in the woods, people.


    ReplyDelete
  13. When I was younger, I was a new wood kind of guy but as I have aged, I too appreciate the story behind the wood and have made several things out of wood salvaged from something meaningful for me. A butcher block like that deserves a good home and it has one I'm sure. But I have made several over the years, not as thick as that one though, and they are a pretty good first time wood project. Instead of clamps you can use ratchet straps or stack some cinder blocks on top. Instead of a planer, one can use a rusty old hand plane with a sharpened blade.

    By the way, I like that table too. I would have gotten that for $45! It would be great for our downstairs where we could fold it out for game night in front of the fireplace.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Good lord, I read the rest of the comments and can't stop laughing now!

    ReplyDelete
  15. The thing is that we really didn't need a table. But it was marked down, and even under all that accumulation of dust and scratches, I could see that it was going to be pretty. Once it was cleaned up, it was gorgeous. Now I've got to figure out where to keep it. But in the new house, I see it tucked under the small paned French casement window we rescued from a rescue. I figured to tuck a box of games and puzzles in a basket underneath it and we can pull it out when we need it. I've got two lovely old chairs upstairs to set on either side of it.

    ReplyDelete

I'm glad you're here!

Weary

I am sure that everyone has seen the video of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. I lived in Baltimore for a couple years while my...