If Only Every Month Could Be Like This

In the last two weeks, DH and I have been pretty busy around this little place here.  I sold 350 bales of hay; 150 to one person and 200 to another.  100 of that 200, we were paid to deliver so the buyer didn't have to con her husband into making a bunch of trips over here to get it.  Delivery is an option we offer, within a certain mile radius, and for an extra charge per bale.

We also finally loaded up a bunch of stuff and took it in to the local monthly consignment auction.  I say finally because it has been on the to-do list since April.  And, you know, here it is October.  Plus, October is the last consignment auction for the year. So it was kind of a "hey, are we doing this or not?" moment last week.

I had the trailer all ready hooked up anyway, since I was making a board run to the lumber mill for a neighbor who needed 16' fence boards and had no way to haul them (another thing I do, from time to time, for a fee).  That made it rather easy to convince DH to help me pick up some of the large and heavy items on the "Take To Auction" list, fill that trailer up, and take the stuff in.

And, while we were at it, and since DH had taken the week off from work to bow hunt anyway, we decided to keep the trailer hooked up and on the third day, we loaded it full of the scrap metal pile we've been accumulating for probably close to ten years.  Then we took that trailer load to the recycling place where we redeemed that scrap--all 2600+ pounds of it!!--for a little cash.

Then, just because the weather was finally decent, and I didn't have anything else going on early Saturday morning, I grabbed up my unwanted cockerels and Default the rooster, plus five old hens.  They went into a cage I'd stuck in the bed of the pick-up truck, and I drove them to the weekly hay, straw and livestock auction (same locale as the monthly consignment auction.)

The previous Saturday I had taken some no longer needed horse items (boots and breeches my daughters had grown out of, plus a few pony sized tack items) to a used tack sale at the barn where I work.  Didn't sell as much of it as I had hoped--the weather was bitter cold, plus it was the same day as the great MSU vs U of M football game, so there weren't many people shopping.  But, I did sell a few items.

Yesterday afternoon, DH and I looked around at the mostly empty hay storage area, the much smaller chicken flock, the emptier barn and garage, and the much much cleaner area to the east of the barn (where the scrap metal pile and a lot of the consignment auction items had been).  Then we looked at each other and smiled.  Looked pretty good.

Looked even better when we started to tally up what our endeavors had netted.

350 bales of hay: about $613 (after cost of baling was deducted)
Consignment auction items: about $450 (after commissions deducted)
Lumber hauling trip: about $70 (after cost of gas deducted)
Scrap metal: $51 (after cost of gas deducted)
Chickens: about $25
Horse stuff: $43

If only it were possible to bring in over $1200 every month just by selling stuff we all ready have at this little place here or hauling stuff once in a while for a neighbor.  ;0)