My hubby is the man who loved auctions and one who could never turn down a 'good' deal for 'good' stuff. Eventually I realized he was a 'collector'.
So often I'd come home from work and find him unloading his latest prizes.
Him: Hey Sweetie! Look what I got for you today at an auction!
Me [subdued voice]: Um, gee, just what I want. Used pots and pans? I don't even like to cook!
Another time.
He comes home and starts to pull boxes out of the truck bed chatting excitedly about the deals he got. I watch as he starts to pile them up in the garage next to our saddles and bridles. I realize there is not going to be room to park in the garage ever again.
Him: I got you another gift!
Me: Oh how wonderful a box of 30 white coffee cups! For $2!
One time he came home with a trailer full of metal pipes and another trailer. He was always going to scrap things out. He never has. But he still contends that those pipes and piles of other things are valuable. No amount of begging to have it removed or sold has ever worked.
Then something would break at the farm and he'd go scrounge in his piles of 'stuff' and come up with a way to fix that broken thing.
Him: See, that is why I have all this good stuff!
Me [cringing]: Of course dear.
Need a 5/16th wrench? There's a bucket of 10 in the shed!
Need hoses for watering? I have 100's of feet of them hanging in two sheds.
Need nails? I have buckets and smushed cardboard boxes of them.
Need barbed wire? Metal fence posts?
Tires for hay wagons?
Scrap metal to weld?
How about a lawn mower or toilet?
Parts to a hay wagon rack?
Darnit! Why do we only have one single hammer? How could that even be possible?
Him: Sweetie! Look what I got you at auction! Dish Towels!
Me[smacks forehead]: Oh thank you honey, what a prize that is!
I will have to admit though, I've never had to really buy dishtowels. They are ugly colored and mismatched but who cares? Though I have bought a few nice ones to put out when company comes.
Those coffee cups? I did take two into the house. They are the same type that are used in restaurants. They are a nice size and weight.
My husband was a very talented welder and manufacturer of things needed for a farm. He could make a hay loader for nearly any piece of equipment. He could fit an Olive loader on an Allis Tractor. At one time he could tear down a tractor engine and put it back together.
He once took apart 3 old manure spreaders and put them back together to make a working one.
I smile as I look out at all of his unfinished projects. Sometimes the 'stuff' really bothers me and then I realize I am looking at the history of my husband. All the projects he had in his head and ideas for things. His ideas were good. He just rarely completed them.
Many nights I think about how many auctions I'll need to have at the farm to clean it all up. Surely there is another fella just like my hubby who would marvel and drool over all the Good Stuff we have.