September 8th Mennonite Country and Frog Legs?

I was up before 7 AM, we wanted to get an early start to go to an auction in Versailles MO. It featured lots and lots of Blacksmith items. The sale was hosted at Martin Auction barn. Mr Martin belongs to the Mennonite faith and besides being an auctioneer he is a blacksmith. At the beginning of the sale he told us, the sale bill did not list the owners name because he was very sad to have to sell his stuff, but was gravely ill. We arrived a good hour before the sale. Parked among the cars, and pickups were lots of horse and buggies. The little girls were running around in their long dresses and their brothers had on homemade cotton shirts and suspenders. Some were barefoot, some had on hats or bonnets. The weather was overcast, humid and not a breeze was stirring. All items were under roof, some in the barn and some on the porch of the barn.

Mr Martin started a fire in the forge just after we got there. He hammered around on a horseshoe to show those who weren’t familiar with the craft. The bidding started just a few minutes after 10. The first thing I bid on was a glass and oak curio cabinet. I really didn’t need it and in the end I gave up. I also didn’t win traps for Jeremy. However I did win a really neat spider cast iron pan. It sits on 3 legs and is a #10. The funny thing is, one of my biggest fears is frogs. Earlier in the day I had pointed out an antique wooden box that frog legs had been shipped in. Well the auctioneer threw the box in with my skillet. BT and I had a big laugh over that. I also bid on a wooden box of bottles, I quit at $15, after all I only wanted one cobalt blue bottle. I watched the guy who won it and I followed him over to another wagon. I asked if he would want to sell the blue bottle, sure he said for $3.00, I quickly handed him the $3.00 and walked away with a smile on my face, after all I had just lost it for $15.00. It commemorates the 50th Anniversary of the American Legion 1919-1969.

BT bought a huge swage block. He feels he can now safely say his swage block is bigger then anyone else’s. The items were cleared from inside and we all moved to the porch. That is where the 50 lb trip hammer sat. BT had drooled over it all day. He talked with another blacksmith, actually a knife maker, Bill Miller who was also interested in it. The bidding war started BT would bid, Bill would bid. Back and forth it went, until BT stopped at about $1200. So then Mr. Martin looked at me and said young lady you can bid for him. I looked at Bernie and knew it was alright. So then I would bid and Bill would bid. At $1450 I stopped and BT said no, with the repairs it needed he didn’t want to stick anymore in it. Bill won it for $1475.00. After the auction, Mr. Martin came over and thanked both BT and I and shook our hands. He said he really appreciated us coming. He also told us there could possibly be another sale later this fall with a trip hammer equal or better to that one.

After we loaded up, we stopped just next door at Weaver’s General Market. We bought two big blocks of cheese, one jalapeno, the other smoked cheddar and a big bag of frozen pie cherries.

At 4:05, we pulled into Pat’s shed and showed his siding crew our wares, then rushed home to take showers. After mass at 5:30, we were to meet Eric, Kathy, Allen and Roseann for dinner. We got to Colton’s first and called them on the cell phone to say the parking lot was full of people waiting to get in. So we decided to go to Longhorn and Kathy called ahead for reservations there. BT and I were at the bar getting a drink when everyone else arrived. I walked out to the sidewalk with my margarita and a shaker full of more. WOW I didn’t know a Texas Tornado Margarita was so big. We were all on the sidewalk with our drinks having a sidewalk tailgate party as one passer by said, when our buzzer went off. Inside I had the best salad with fresh mozzarella balls and balsamic vinegar to go along with my shrimp and chicken skewers. We visited until after 8:30 and then continued to visit on the parking lot for a bit longer.

Bedtime came after the news; I wanted to see if MU won. And yes they did.