We made it through day one of a two day neighborhood garage sale!  4 families all on the same side of the street.  We had lots of cars, vans and trucks parked up and down the street.  At first it reminded me of a small carnival but after the initial blast of customers things settled into more of a calm sale.  Folks would come in  small groups.  Then a lull and then another group.  Sort of strange, but that was the way it went.

We unloaded a lot of good stuff that we wanted to get rid of and it’s always surprising what people are looking for.  Our last customer was looking for a special type of salt shaker.  Another guy a broom.  One lady bought 4 or 5 old mugs.  An antique guy was here but we didn’t have anything he wanted.  And a guy who likes metal signs bought an 1936 Utah license plate that was quite rusty and had 22 caliber holes in it. And several guys wanted fishing gear and guns.   My deal of the day was selling my Gerber Biter for $10!  And that guy was a way happy guy.  His wife was too and she gave me the cash and said she was going to put it in her purse as she wanted it worse than he did.  I last saw him with it.

Tomorrow is the end and we have some very special stuff to put out for it.   A pellet gun and a set of tire chains!  What will be the desired items people will be looking for tomorrow?  That’s anyone’s guess!

Passed yard sales have seen people looking for buttons, sewing stuff, curios etc.  Whatever they want if they hit enough of the yard sales around they will find what they are looking for.

Bears Butt

June 22, 2012

Officially over!

A great day but much different than yesterday.  Maybe there is something about what I read that Friday is a better day than Saturday to have a yard sale.  This was the first time trying it for us.

As for take…well…we were trying to get rid of stuff and so we didn’t charge too much for anything and actually gave some things away for nothing.  A hardy thanks to the folks that took those things.  It was another fun day of meeting and talking to people, which is why I like these things anyway.

We keep track of what we sell and how much we got for it etc., and we had almost 2 full pages of stuff that is gone!  GONE!  What I mean is it is GONE!  We have a smallish pile that will go to good will on Monday and two small boxes of stuff that went back into the basement (seed for the next yard sale, does it ever end?)  And we have some “investment money” in our pockets.  Anyone have any hot leads?

Boy was it hot today.  I think we could have made more money selling sodas or water.

It was fun!  Thanks Magpie for taking all that muzzy stuff.  I hope you can make your own rifle from the parts and also make some extra on the side selling to others in need!  You helped me out big time!

Bears Butt

P.M. same day as this post started

A lot of emails and/or facebook stuff I see or get isn’t worth printing on this site, but this one hits the nail on the head.

Bears Butt

A definition of gloalization that I can understand and to which I now can relate:

Question:
What is the truest definition of Globalization?
Answer:
Princess Diana’s death.
Question:
How come?
Answer :
An English princess
with an Egyptian boyfriend
crashes in a French tunnel,
riding in a German car
with a Dutch engine,
driven by a Belgian who
was drunk on Scottish whisky,
followed closely by Italian Paparazzi,
on Japanese motorcycles,
treated by an American doctor,
using Brazilian medicines.
This was posted by a Canadian,
using American Bill Gates’ technology,
and you’re probably reading this on your computer,
that uses Taiwanese chips,
and a Korean monitor,
assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a
Singapore plant,
transported by Indian truck drivers,
hijacked by Indonesians,
unloaded by Sicilian long shore men,
and trucked to you by Mexican illegals…..
That, my friends, is Globalization !

Lately Sherry has been really focused on this years 4th of July celebration here in Willard.  The theme this year is “Then and Now” and you can just imagine where peoples heads are going with that theme.  She is putting together a then and now about the 4th celebrations, houses, old business’s and people.  Her crew of helpers are working their tails off to get it done.  But, the biggest thing I see coming from all of these efforts is the “past”.  Memories of things that people have done in their lives and the people that influenced them as they grew up.

Sherry assigned me a fun task and that was to get with Carol Butler Billings and try and get “her story” about growing up in and around the “Shack”.  The Shack was the only bar in town and her father built it and ran it for many, many years.

A partial story about the Shack goes like this.  The ground where the Shack is today was used as a garage.  A hole dug into the ground where people would pull their cars/trucks over and the mechanic would work on the under side of the vehicle.  Jack Herbert Butler was a mechanic at that garage for a number of years and it wasn’t long until they put in some gas pumps and built a building over the pit.  The days were financially tight back then and there wasn’t a whole lot of money floating around.  The depression was taking its toll all around the nation.

The President called for some action to get the economy going again and the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) was formed.  Willard had an encampment of “CCC boys” just on the South part of town, east of the highway.  Those men came from all over the nation to work.  They were here to dig terraces up behind the mountain to help slow down the water run off when heavy rain storms came.  They worked many years with picks and shovels to get that job done.

In the mean time, when they were not working they wanted to have a cold drink.  Be it soda water or beer and they came to the garage to find it.  It didn’t take old “Herb” long to realize there was more money in serving beer than there was in fixing old cars and so, he covered up the pit and built a bigger place.  It was called “Jacks Place” back then.  One of the local men wrote a poem about it before he left to go fight in World War II.  All of the local men that went to war returned to Jacks Place after their work was done.

I just got off the phone with Carol and explained that we would like a writeup of some of the memories she has of growing up around Jacks Place and Willard in general.  She went on and on telling me about her childhood.

She also said she was talking with another old Willardite, Larry Bragger and how the two of them talked for almost 2 hours the other day.  Reminiscing about the old times and how they needed to write their stories down for us younger folks to read and understand just how “free” they were back in their days.  How true!

We all have our story to tell.  It’s really too bad my folks stories didn’t get written down.  And their folks stories and their folks before them and their folks before them as well and on and on.  I guess what I’m trying to say with this posting is we all need to write down our story for the next generation to read and understand.  A big task for sure, but one that will be worth every minute spent.  Look at the memories that my dear Aunt Maria created with her diary.  Not every day was a big deal, but collectively you can see just what was happening throughout her life time.  The number of friends the family had and all the good and bad things that came and went over time.

Start your story today.

Bears Butt

June 21, 2012

This internet world we live with is very informative.  Have you ever wondered about the rest of the world and earthquakes?  We have not had an earthquake of any significance around these parts lately, but we keep getting told we live on a very big fault line and to brace ourselves for “the big one”.

And then all around the world there are tremors that we don’t ever hear about.

Well, Bears Butt went in search for you a site that tells everything about earthquakes, of course, “just for you”!  And here it is.

http://earthquake-report.com/2012/06/21/major-earthquakes-list-june-21-2012/

It has maps and everything!

Bears Butt

June 21, 2012

As we are all very much aware there have been several thousand game tags offered up for sale and auction through various organizations throughout Utah.  These tags are offered at individual organizations fund raising events as well as the large weekend outdoor expo held in Salt Lake City each year.  Most of us have put our money down in hopes of getting one of the coveted tags for a minimal fee.  However, we have been disillusioned into thinking the money generated from these tags has been going onto the ground in Utah to help with game related issues such as habitat restoration or other programs to help our struggling herds.  Some, not all, of the organizations have not been willing to disclose where the money has gone that they gathered.

The United Wildlife Cooperation, a non profit has proposed the following and they need your help in supporting it.  Please follow up and send email, phone calls etc to the people listed at the bottom of this proposal.  Show them you support this effort and please join their organization if you have not done so already!  Thank you.

Bears Butt

June 20, 2012

———————

www.UnitedWildlifeCooperative.org

June 20, 2012…the first day of summer!  The day when the sun is as far North as it’s going to get.  It’s the day with the most sunshine of the year!  Some call it the longest day, but in reality, it still only has 24 hours in it, just a lot more sunshine.

In the world of bizarre holidays it’s “National Ice Cream Soda Day”!  That sounds good on a good hot summer day.

All over the world people are celebrating this day in different ways.  There is a big party at Stonehenge that started with the sunrise and will go all day long and into the night.  Big party!

In towns and cities across America there are various activities that are being carried on with the First Day of Summer as the theme.  Bike rides, walks, water spraying, fishing, splashing in pools, the list goes on and on.

How about home made ice cream soda!  That really sounds good to me.  It’s gotta be vanilla though.

I thought I would share with you some of the activities that happened at the Stonehenge party a few years ago.

Enjoy!  It appears that Stonghenge is the place where the sun first hits the earth on this day!  Let the party begin!

Bears Butt

June 20, 2012

Here is a fun one for the kids!  It’s not real easy but it’s fun!

http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-cat-around-the-world/index.html

Will the latest episode of Bears Butt surfing cause him to sly away from trying to find you information that could be of help?  NO!  And with that, I shall dive head first into the slimy pool of the world wide web.

I have my snorkle tube, my protective gear “Avast”, my C-Cleaner, Malware protection and my side kick Spybot all at the ready!

It’s for you people!  I’m on it!

Bears Butt

June 19, 2012

Lots of problems with the old computer today.  It must be the sites I’m investigating for you all that has a bunch of bugs traveling through the electrical system.  Jumping from one diode to another and diving through the silver solder to attach themselves to another part of the system.

They have really hammered the vocal system, completely shutting it down.  Try dealing with a redneck video with no sound!

Luckily the eyes are still on the good side and they haven’t slowed down the movement part yet.  It’s still pretty fast.

I can navigate good as well, so the compass and oars are working properly.  Just no voice.

I have called out for re-reinforcements and I’m pretty confident the anti-bionics will have the voice fixed up pretty quickly.

Bears Butt

June 19, 2012

Less than one hour later:

One of the best anti-bionics guys came rushing into the room and with a quick analysis, a look into the throat of the beast, a slam of the cd drive drawer, some quick clicks and copies and suddenly out of the bowels of the voice box came music!  Good old music!  YEE HAAAA!  I’m back in full color!

Thanks Weasel!