The First Auction

Through all of our craigslist searches my DH found an auction that had a lot of things that we could possibly use in this venture.  So, we did our homework. We watched Storage Wars, Auction Hunters, and Storage Wars Texas! Homework done and now we are professional bidders with all the fake knowledge and even less experience and of course, we now feel that we are fully prepared! :-)

So, he takes seven kids and I keep seven kids and he leaves for two days. One day is for previewing the auction items and the other is to bid on them.  He stayed at his parents' house because that always comes with free babysitting, good food, and well, it's home.  The kids that went were happy to stay with Grama and the kids that stayed were feeling like Momma's big helpers.

So, off my DH goes...he took pictures of ten items that he wanted made notes of others that he thought he could like.  Then he started his research and gave himself price limits on each item. (I thought that he wasn't going to stick to it, but I am proud to say he did very well.)  He talked with his dad to get his very valuable and knowledgeable opinion and got some sketchy sleep.  He was so worried about my night he kept texting over and over to make sure I was okay. (I'm always nervous I won't hear the kids cry if I am asleep.) So, he slept a little and then off he and his dad went to participate in this auction.

They get there and the wind starts, and keeps going, and then the dirt joins the wind. His dad tells me he's glad that he brought a small shovel to be able to clear the dirt from his ears. My DH texts me and shows me a picture of the crowd that began to dissipate as the day went along. He sent me various pictures of items that were cool but were obviously going to go for too much for us.He got two items, the rest of the items that he was hoping for sold for more money than he was comfortable to spend on them. I am very proud that he stuck to his guns on the amounts. He ended up winning 18,900 feet of barbed wire, enough to fence the entire property. Then he also got 2 hay feeders that hook onto corral panels, that our three goats and future horses will no doubt appreciate. I am very glad that he is bringing back much more money than he spent, and also feels like he got some good deals. :)

However, the biggest thing I believe he got out of the day was the experience of attending the auction and seeing how this one ran.  This auction started at 9am and ended after 5pm, that makes for a long day especially with the dirt and the wind.  The auction went very quickly but there were so many items at the auction.  Also, some of the items were in bulk quantities and they would separate them out so that 200 corral panels become 10 separate lots of 20 panels each, so that makes things take a lot longer also. All in all it was a good auction and my DH feels that he is off to a good start to be able to fence the property. We now know how this auction runs, we know that they sell some pretty good items and it will be worth our time in the future to go to other auctions at this auction house.

 So, tomorrow we go to dedicate the land. How exciting!  I pray for great weather, well behaving children and continued peace for this journey that we are embarking on.

Blessings!
Country Momma