Consumer capitalist commitment copout

Cocky cage for repurpose into a chook tractor

So my friend dropped me at the airport, and asked  'Do you have everything?'  Then we burst into hysterical laughter, because we had just unloaded a uteload of junk into her garage.  Not to mention the carload the previous day, and the bits we hid in there the day before that, on the way from the airport.  There was a circular saw, amongst other things, in my suitcase.

We have more fun at this time of year than should strictly be legal. And this last weekend it was verge collection in some of the uber-rich and super-tasteless areas of Perth. At first we thought that the two facial expressions of the residents were directed at us, as we drove slowly and examined their junk.  Then we realised that those expressionless, non-smiling women had had botox, and the ones with pursed lips just look like that all the time because it's so stressful being wealthy.

I get that it's below their dignity to have a garage sale,

Ooooh, wrought iron...

although we did observe some activity which looked surprisingly like listing things on Gumtree. I don't, and never will understand how the women who lunch for a living don't have time to drop stuff at an opshop, or call a charity for pickup of larger items.

If your house is big enough to have it's own postcode, and your housekeeper has a secretary, why would you prefer to send perfectly good stuff to landfill?  We picked up some lovely things to drop off in charity bins, rather than let them be ruined in the rain. I salute their capitalist commitment to consumerism. 

So many options for repurposing.

For that matter, no-one was playing tennis on the private courts, or lounging on the expensive up to date patio furniture,or even strolling in the landscaped grounds.  We did see some functionaries, functioning. 

The competition out there is killer.  One guy circled past 5 times while we considered options for rather a lot of wrought iron. At another places there were as many as 5 cars competing. I literally threw myself out of the car and onto a vintage David Jones leather suitcase just as a car screeched up behind us, intent on the same thing. We exchanged insincere pleasantries as I threw the suitcase into the back seat. The owner came out and went through the remnants, trying to talk up some items.  We left them to it.  

The early bird gets the suitcase.

once again onto the verges....

My favourite time of year has begun.  I'm a bit pressed for time so I'll just give you the highlights from week one:

A nomination for second in 'best finds ever'* is this young gentleman.  He positively leapt into the vehicle, several thoughts about how he may end up.  I'd love to know why someone painted his face green, and set fire to one knee. 
*Best find ever: the church hymn board last year, in case you were wondering.

In the same pic, polo ...um... stick things.  I'm going to need 2 horses, and a 'Polo for Dummies' book, especially if my new armless friend wants to play.

50's metal chair, faux wrought iron folding chair, and circular stand in the style I call 'curly'. How could I leave them? TLC required, consider these the 'before' pics.

An electric base guitar, in case, with amp.  I'm putting the band back together.  The mannequin will have to play harmonica, for obvious reasons, probably not very well. 









A vase, English, 1890-ish. Classic Nouveau shape. Sir Christopher Dresser design.
Gotta love Google.

On the practical side, a new awning for the back veranda, to replace the ones blown to shreds this year, another easel, 2 working Dyson vacuums (for friends), a new trolley, and bits and bobs, various.  I like the unused chantilly cream maker, like a soda syphon, complete with a full box of gas cylinders. I never wanted to make chantilly cream till now.

Now, I have to put my stuff out, so that I can fit the new stuff in. Lucky I got the trolley...

Dinosaurs, silk and ostrich feathers

Hands up who DIDN'T make a dinosaur suit for their daughter's dog today?  So many hands....

I had the sewing machine out, for routine wardrobe maintenance and alterations, possibly too much time on my hands, and I came across some scraps I had put aside for the oft-requested outfit.  I considered for a moment something in silk and ostrich feathers, but the dinosaur won.  She looks quite cute, in a bewildered sort of way. But my daughter is happy, and as she often says, that's the important thing. 

I've been having a bit of a de-clutter, but when it comes to the stash, one can only go so far.  I saw a post on Facebook for a garage sale, where someone commented that they had never seen so much junk.  I was stunned, the garage in the post looked positively minimalist.  My latent fear of featuring on one of those shows about hoarders surfaced, briefly.

I don't so much have junk, as a stash.  A BIG stash.  Of lots of things.  All of which can be re-used for something, although not necessarily their original purpose.  I don't mind sharing things, when someone needs something, but I have to draw the line at tossing things away in a willy-nilly manner.  

Over the past few weeks I've had some visitors who appreciated my stash.  It's nice, and reassuring, not to be viewed as the upcycling equivalent of a mad old cat woman, and I enjoyed sharing some gems with them. In return, I saw my stuff through their eyes, which gave me some new ideas.  We agreed that  you can't be creative without a stash.

Although it's technically winter, the weather's been sunny and still.  I spent a morning sitting on the front steps with a cup of tea, watching a whale slothing about in the harbour.  You could tell it was cold this morning, when I awoke to one paw visible against the white sheet.  My little friend emerged later, so that he could have a tummy rub while I worked my way through another Dresden File. It's a busy job, being a security dog. You don't want to peak too early.

Head of bone and heart of stone

Sun, rain, wind...the Mitfords ...opshops, garage sales, tipshops...sick girlchild...suicidal cat next door...it's all go here. There's a cyclone in the north, and a long weekend coming - they may even arrive at the same time. 

We've had some rain,which was really welcome.  The cat next door has taken to laying in front of approaching vehicles.
  It won't end well. 

I'm re-reading The House of Mitford, by Jonathon Guinness with Catherine Guinness.  Nancy wrote to her sister Unity, starting 'Darling Head of Bone and Heart of Stone...' They were a family entirely of contrast but their use of language was magical and fabulously far from today's text-speak.  Text speak is slowly but surely sucking the poetry and wit from communication. I shall continue to rant against it.  

I also read Honk If You Are Jesus by Peter Goldsworthy. I finished it this afternoon, waiting in Accident and Emergency at the hospital for my daughter to see someone about the brain splitting earache she's contracted.  Apparently she's going to live to work again but is spending some quality time with various pain reducing potions.   The medical bent of the novel fitted my surrounds.  

Fantastic pickings at the oppies and garage sales this weekend.  A friend brought me two new very old suitcases; one garage sale had not only a pine box, but enough lovely old crockery to fill it.  I found a wonderful tin trunk, it's a bit rusty on the outside but the inside is still very tidy. There was a watercolour in a beautiful old frame, and a heap of framing stuff like hooks. A very nice English-made navy leather jacket. Brilliant yellow rusty tin numbers.  Very exciting.

As things occur in runs, this weekend was CD's, DVD's, crockery.  One lady had lots and lots of the same kitchenalia that my mother had, it was uncanny to see it all together in one place, so far from her kitchen.  I bought some pieces in good condition, to use and some in chipped and cracked condition, to misuse and abuse.

And some new jewellery....

A rainy day, what's a girl to do?  I made some jewellery.

Thelma, Louise, and little boy Blue

On Friday afternoon, we scheduled a roadtrip.  Sort of like Thelma and Louise, but in a 4 wheel drive with a trailer.  We had an earlybird look at a friend's garage sale, the Denmark tipshop, and a visit to the fabulous South Coast Woodworking Gallery to complete, plus a visit to a friend's farm, to pick up some old fenceposts.

A fellow salvage fiend was home from his swing on the rigs and was coming with us, he had been trying to get to the tipshop for ages but never quite had the time.  Let's call him "Blue". 

Our babies are well grown up, but we decided that it was like taking our little boy out for a drive in the country.  He curled up in the back and went to sleep like a good little boy, virtually as soon as we got on the road.  At the tip shop, his eyes were like a kid in a toyshop. 

That tipshop is only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so it was a positively seething mass of people dropping off and scanning the goods which had come in through the week. We picked up a solid pine single bed (for the timber - $5 instead of $100's at Bunnings), a slab of timber for cutting boards,  a metal frame, a galvanised thingy for making cement slabs (NOT for making cement slabs), and a bunch of other bits and pieces. 

My friend came out $2 up because a guy had bought a door, but didn't have a roof rack on his sedan. He got some pillows from the tipshop and my friend sold him some old rope (we travel prepared)and he tied it on the roof. Tying the doors closed caused some delay.


We filled the trailer with fenceposts on the way home, although we were disappointed that the lichen encrustation wasn't quite as hoped.  I suspect our friend the farmer took a dim view of my suggestion that he give the posts a quarter of a turn a day (each) to even them up.

On Saturday, we went to the local Albany tip shop,as always behind the play.  The game has been lifted somewhat of late, and more stuff is getting recycled, I suspect after a lot of ratepayer complaint.  The thinking, however, remains steadfastly inside the box, and a small box at that.

While we were there, someone came in with one of those pine folding cots with the canvas base.  He was told that they couldn't take it due to 'toddler issues'.  Unfortunately, no-one bothered to think that it could be turned upside down without the base and used as a puppy pen; or that the dowel and wood in it could be re-used.  Rather than sending it to landfill, my friend had a quiet word, it was transferred from car to car, and it will be repurposed for non-toddler applications. It was, for the record, absolutely mint.

While we were there, someone brought in a sail from a sailboard.  The functionary told someone that he was supposed to check e-bay and Gumtree to check current prices, but then straightaway sold it for $10 without checking.  It turned out that the person didn't even have $10 so he 'put it aside' till the man came back - in spite of the sign saying it isn't to happen.

The main problem at the Albany tipshop is that there is no real commitment to recycling. They just don't get it.  By 'they' I mean primarily Cleanaway, who run the shop and make the policies, but some of the staff they hire really just aren't interested. (Some are great.) The terms 'repurpose' and 'upcycle' do not seem to be in the vocabulary.  

The tipshop is under-resourced and some of the rules are silly.  If they can't accept upholstered furniture, what about the shoes?  What if I get a blister?  Why does vintage wooden furniture get sent to landfill, but damaged chipboard get put aside for sale?  We got some jarrah beams from the firewood pile.  They turned out to be the posts from the jarrah beds we got a couple of weeks ago.  About $150 worth of old, dressed, (nail free) jarrah.  For firewood. I hope I don't get a splinter.

Timber, dressed or otherwise, is considered not saleable and sent straight to landfill.  A tiny percentage is set aside for firewood.

The Denmark tip, for all the disorganisation, at least has the right idea and the support of the community. We rarely walk away empty handed at Denmark, whereas at Albany we frequently do.

Perhaps Greenskills should tender for the contract for the Albany tip.  There are art projects. Community education. They walk the talk on tipshop recycling. 

And I would hazard a guess that the stock, as well as the cash turnover at Denmark well outstrips that at Albany.

How to repair a market umbrella, and other useful information

Preparations for the girlbaby's 18th birthday proceed apace, and her list of requirements for the celebratory festival is getting longer... so far I've managed to find, amongst other things,  4 dining chairs (interior), 5 easy chairs (exterior), 2 sunlounges, 2 sunlounge cushion sets, (matching) chair pads for the outside chairs, a table, and 2 umbrellas, including one huuuge mint condition white canvas market umbrella, in full working order.

And some of this was done in the rain.

I also learned, incidentally, how to fix the problems causing most market umbrellas to be discarded.  If you take something to bits and see how it works, often the problem can be fixed with only minor attention.  In the case of umbrella #1, a 20cm piece of common or garden fencing wire.  This approach is not to be recommended with electrical goods.

The suitcase supply is still growing, my friend Obie takes a dark view of these things, and is watching like a hawk in case I disappear on holidays without him. I think the count for this year is 5 so far - or is it 6?  I'm particularly keen on the nice one with the initials, and the fabulous stickers for the airlines and shipping companies and destinations.

Found inside that one was what is known colloquially I believe as a 'ging' - imported from the UK, according to the label.  There was also an old cap gun which I rather like. 

I found some West German pottery, apparently in demand - who knew that the common description for the glaze is 'fat lava'? Apparently a mistranslation of the German 'thick glaze'.  ( Now you do.)  I have  2 large serving platters, one white, one clear glass, with a fine scene etched into the bottom of the glass, and  2 oversized glass brandy balloon candle holder thingys.  And continuing the kitchen theme, 2 Le Creuset French enamelled iron casseroles, large and medium. Yep, the gen-u-wine articles.

If this keeps going I'll end up cooking, which only leads to cleaning and thus is to be avoided.

Don't even ask about the virtually brand new lawnmower - we know what that leads to.

Quite a lot of the photos will count as the 'befores' in the before and after shots to come - if I ever get a minute to actually get some things done. 

This quilt rack was in pieces - do people not know about good glue?

I'm thinking of erecting the fabulous Black Wolf tent, found yesterday, to house the other projects while I get things sorted and put up the brilliant indoor/outdoor rollup sunshade on the back veranda.

Or maybe I'll just sleep in the tent - less housework...It would be like a holiday, without the suitcases.