September 15–The Auction

A post from Kelli–

This post is HEAVY on pictures!

On September 15th, Jason’s Grandma Lois is going to have an auction.  A few years ago, his grandpa had been having some health issues.  He ended up at a bigger hospital and right as he was getting ready to leave, they think he had a massive heart attack.  He ended up passing away.  I remember that it happened the day before Kayla got married.  Things were up in the air a little as to if he was going to make it to the wedding, but things got worked out and he was able to make it.

When he was alive, Grandpa Ray loved things!  Everything mechanical, motorized, or in need of a little repair.  He always had plans to fix things up or make things better and sometimes it seems like he attracted things like a magnet.  He had sheds filled with things.  A barn filled with things.  He bought two local creameries and a store and had lots of things there too.  When he was out and about, you never quite knew what he was going to come home with.  Jason always talks about the trips he went on.  While we were looking through things, he told me a story about how his Grandpa bought a porsche somewhere and Jason got to drive it home.  He told about how they would find lots of stuff in Wisconsin and ventured out to Indiana once too.  I asked Jason how he found all of the things as this was way before Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.  He just shrugged his shoulders.

After his grandpa had passed, there was always talk of an auction.  When he was alive, Grandpa Ray often hauled grain and drove for some Amish farmers near Hazleton.  After he passed, they came up to his wake and always said to let them know when an auction was held as they knew he had lots of things that they’d be interested in.

Over the past year, an auction has actually come to fruition.  Jason and his aunts and uncles have been working hard to go through the things, arrange things, take loads to the junkyard, etc, etc.  If you’ve ever had an auction, you know how much work is involved.  Multiply that by about 100 or so and you might have an idea of the amount of work that has gone into preparing for the auction.

Here are some examples of things that they have found–

Over 100 tractors (68 for sale, the remaining distributed among kids or junked)

Several cranes and bulldozers

A shed that was build around the things–They actually had to take the shed down to get the things out

Cars, cars, and more cars

Trucks, trucks, and more trucks

Honestly, if it’s mechanical, you can likely find it in this acution.

Jason and I were out to take pictures a few times and I’ll add them below.  I don’t always have tons of information, but if you have questions, feel free to ask.  I’ll probably be involving Jason in lots of the question answering–Maybe we could turn it into a kind of date night or something!

A link to the sale bill is here–http://www.sweeneyauctionservice.com/calendar/0915.pdf

Here is a link to the photos that were taken by the auctioneer.  There are lots of things that dont have pictures uploaded to the website, so I have included lots below–http://www.sweeneyauctionservice.com/calendar/0915.html

There are lots of manuals.  Lots!  Like 2- 8 foot tables stacked high!

Here’s a hit and miss engine.  They have probably 15 others outside that I’ll show later.

Here are some wooden tractor pulleys.

Here’s a rack with some bigger things on it.

This is the trailer full of chainsaws.  And Jason said that they have enough more that they would likely be able to double stack this trailer full.

They are planning to get all of this on another trailer to sell too!

I asked Jason if they were planning on selling these doors.  His response was “Probably not…no one wants them anyway.”  I then informed him of pinterest and the fact that just because they might not be something he was interested in, didn’t mean that they weren’t interesting to someone else.

There are lots of signs–LOTS!

I loved this barrel!

Another trailer….with more things!

About halfway back, there’s alittle pile of gear looking things.  I think they’d be super cute if they were made into little flower lawn ornaments.  Just a Pinterest project waiting to happen!

I thought this little cuppula was pretty cute!

There’s tons of license plates too!  And you never quite know where your going to find them!

Here’s a corn binder.

This is the inside of one of the sheds that still needs to be put on a trailer too.

This one is a wooden hay loader.

Jason explained to me that this is a 2 man chainsaw….as though there weren’t enough chainsaws already!

And everywhere I turned there seemed to be a corn sheller or two!

This was the bike bin–Some motorized, some person powered.

I promised–More signs!

I told you….lots and lots!

More license plates!

I loved this little red drawer thing and told Jason I wanted to add that to my list–He told me that there’s probably $1000 worth of brass pieces in there…so that promply got removed from my list.

More hit and miss motors!

These are the outside trailers.

I loved this green lamp.

More parts and pieces!

Jason thought these were junk–You can bet that I told him otherwise!

A primitive planter I believe.

More engines!Isn’t this little basket so cute!?!?!

And I love this little basket!

Another trailer with you guessed it–More things!

Some good blue Ball jars!

I thought this little fan was cute–Does it work though?  I have no idea!

A generator–And lots of little motors too!

The other side of this shows that its actually more of a greenish color.  I think it would make an awesome end table!

Tools–Becasue as Jason says, you can never have enough tools!

And that my friends is the inside stuff and the trailers.  Over the next week or so, I’ll be showing pictures of the outside stuff.  If you are wondering, the auction is in Castalia Iowa on September 15th, starting at 9:00 AM.  If you have any other questions, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them!