Frugal or just being smug...have you scored a real deal recently?

Burra Maluca wrote: Who would ever have thunk that I'd fall so in love with an old bostik bucket...

I would suggest you aren't the first person who fell in love with it. If it wasn't loved, it wouldn't have been given such care. I suggest you ask your dragons which of them are also in love with it! (Actually, that could be dangerous, as they might claim it for their personal use!)

That billhook is a great find -- colour me envious. The steel is likely better quality than most of the stuff we get today.

Jay Angler wrote:I would suggest you aren't the first person who fell in love with it. If it wasn't loved, it wouldn't have been given such care. I suggest you ask your dragons which of them are also in love with it! (Actually, that could be dangerous, as they might claim it for their personal use!)

Oh now there's a challenge I can't refuse.

I brought it in and stuck it (not too literally, the bostik has worn off over the years...) on the foot of the bed and watched what happened.



Iggy is still too involved in his books and took no notice.

Gwen, the memories dragon, slid over and decided to occupy it, looking very smug and pleased with herself. Well I guess we all knew it was full of memories, and it certainly is now! Getting them all out again might take a while though...

Rosa says it's smelly and dirty and possibly toxic and doesn't think it should be on the bed. She says it can't possibly ever be used for putting food in, and I think she's right about that. She says it would look better painted, and reluctantly chose hammerite black, which I thought was very restrained of her. I wasn't convinced though as I'm rather fond of the history that it exudes with the Bostik label on. Austin vetoed the paint job and said it would ruin the whole thing and would obliterate the story. Rosa is unconvinced. She does however admit that it would make an excellent ash can and starting reminiscing about the smaugust adventures with ash when she found Shiva in the rocket mass heater.

Roxa is fascinated by how it's been converted and wants to know all about the tools involved and whether or not we have a proper old-fashioned soldering iron. And a riveter. It turns out we have a pop riveter but not a 'proper' one. Guess want Roxa wants for her next birthday...

Vermelha wants to know how the soldering works and I've told her that she's not allowed to even think of such things until after we've had a good amount of rain and the grass has greened up. And she has to practice huffing slowly and gently as I don't want a repeat of the fiasco we had with her attempts at burning pretty patterns onto those bits of wood...

Ursula, the sleepy story-telling bear, has also come over to say hello to the new arrival. She thinks it has good stories inside which are already starting to come out. She has some ideas and is going to sleep on them for a while.

I've been thinking about what you said about it being loved, and I actually think 'appreciated' and 'valued' might be a better description. I love it because of its history and what it represents, ie a totally different value system to the one that is so prevalent today. But the more I look at it the more I think it was purely practical. These days something made out of a repurposed metal can would be a statement. Back then, it was just what people did. Austin said that the house he was clearing out was a fairly typical old-fashioned village house. Living quarters upstairs, wine cellar and storage (possibly a goat...) downstairs. Because this is Portugal and pretty much anywhere that had enough land to grow grapes also had a wine cellar. This house has the same layout, only the emphasis here was on goats more than wine. There were old garrafões down there with maybe wine, maybe aguardente, the most recent dated 1992. None of those got rescued and having being nearly choked by a bottle of something or other breaking and gassing the whole house out once when we were clearing this place I'm not actually disappointed.

Back then most decent sized villages were likely to have still had a tinsmith, like this guy. I took this photo in 2017 and I believe he's since closed up shop. There are more photos of him and his shop here.



Roxa wants one of those soldering irons. Vermelha says she can improvise...

I had a look at the back of the bostik can and it included instructions on how to use the glue, so it was glue, not sealant. It seems far too big a can (25 litres, over 5 gallons) for a normal sized household to use. So my guess is that the local tinsmith collected used cans from manufacturing businesses in the area and converted them into buckets to sell. And then repaired them as needed. A glue can would be a valuable commodity, not a waste product. Well used, but maybe not 'loved' as such. Well, not at the time. I do have an incredibly soft spot for it now...

Oh, and as for the other tools. I've hidden the pig sticking knife, for a while at least. Austin hasn't yet realised that Mochyn has come home and I think tomorrow is scheduled for attempting to straighten the bumper out and patch his poor car up a bit.



I think Mochyn should stay in hiding until Austin's rage at rampaging pigs has settled down a bit. I don't want to be responsible for his actions if he catches the culprit when there's a convenient pig sticking knife around the place.

Austin did, however, say that the billhook was rather a nice one that might deserve a closer inspection and a few photos of the handle and construction. Maybe later...

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:That billhook is a great find -- colour me envious. The steel is likely better quality than most of the stuff we get today.

I took some more photos, mostly of the handle, in case it's of interest.

Austin said the handle looked interesting. It looks like the blade is full tang and comes right through the handle and out the other end.



Then the end bit has been hammered over to secure. In horse-shoeing this is called clenching. I've no idea if it's the same with fitting blades to handles.



There appears to be a load of welding where the blade meets the tang. I wonder if that means it broke off at some point. Or maybe it used to be fitted to a long handle and was adapted to fit a shorter handle.



Another view showing more welding and that metal collar thing, which Austin tells me is called a ferrule.



The ferrule seems to have been welded shut at some point. Or possibly tied with wire and then melted a bit.



The handle has some interesting markings on but I couldn't quite figure them out. I messed about and at one point thought maybe if I held it in my left hand the dark patches matched where my fingers sat, if my middle finger was missing. But I suspect I'm just overthinking it. It probably just got too close to a flame sometime.



The blade has been used, has a bit knocked out of it, but is still surprisingly sharp and is nowhere near as worn out as some old tools I've seen around here. I would happily grab this and use it for light jobs without even running a sharpening stone over it.



That little blade on the black is completely blunt though. I suspect that it never got used for whatever it was designed to be used for.



It does look to be a rather nice bit of steel. One day we'll give it a good clean up and post before and after photos, but the project list is rather long at the moment...



There were two guys working at that place sorting stuff out and bringing the rubble and junk closer to where it could be loaded up to be hauled away. One was raised in a very similar village house and knew what all the tools were - he told us what the pig-sticking knife was for! The other is a young lad working his first job whilst still living with his parents. Apparently there were quite a few other useful looking basic tools there, like shovels, which he delightedly took home with him to start up his own tool collection. Then Austin got the pick of whatever was left before hauling the remains away. I'm quite delighted that more stuff has been rescued and re-homed to somewhere that will use it.

I've been frugal in a different sort of way this time.

All summer I've been nagging my son to bring his sleeping bag over so I can wash it, and I finally nagged him hard enough he relented.

And this is what is looked like...



In his defense, it's nearly 25 years old. But even so it stretches my definition of 'usable'. It's already been patched too. Twice! Once by me to show him how to do it, and then again by him. But the fabric is too far gone for patching this time. It turned out that was why he didn't want to bring it over and let me see it as he's awfully fond of it and thought I might insist on donating it to the dog or something equally drastic. I did remind him that we had very recently been given a load of bedding and he'd rejected the duvets from it, though he did take a couple of blankets.

I couldn't use any of the old sheets I have stashed away to re-line it as by definition they are all worn or ripped, else I'd still be using them. I did however have an old king-size fleece duvet cover that I didn't use any more. It had been my husband's favourite one and I was far too emotional about it to use it, but couldn't get rid of it either. Like mother like son, eh? Apparently my son doesn't use the sleeping bag as a bag any more, just as a quilt. So I used some of the fleece from the duvet cover to line the sleeping bag. I left the sad remains of the original liner in place, partly because it didn't seem worth removing it and partly because it was still holding the padding in place, roughly speaking. It took far longer than I expected to sew it on, but I think it's come out looking rather good!



I wonder if he can get another two decades out of it...

Burra Maluca wrote: ...All summer I've been nagging my son to bring his sleeping bag over so I can wash it, and I finally nagged him hard enough he relented...

And this is what is looked like... In his defense, it's nearly 25 years old. But even so it stretches my definition of 'usable'. It's already been patched too. Twice! ...

My version of this, is a really nice mattress pad. I caught it before it looked quite as decrepit as your son's example. The first time I covered it with a cotton table cloth.  The second time, it was a linen tablecloth. So far the bottom's been fine, and the sides and elastic have been fine.

I know that the padding in it is some sort of artificial material. Finding a mattress pad anywhere with even mostly natural materials would be a struggle. The only one in the house that qualifies is one I made myself at a time when buying actual cotton padded material at the fabric shop was possible (30 years ago).  

So go right ahead and be smug about upcycling something to fix the old blanket for your son, and keep it out of the land fill for another decade or so...

Guess who showed up?

Yup, you guessed it - Bostik Bucket's Big Brother!



He's the full 25 litre size, with original bottom.



I think the handle fittings might have been cut off an identical bucket and soldered or welded on to replace the originals. I also suspect that the handle itself is a replacement from a 'normal' bucket too.



No nice rolled edge on this one either - but you can see where the original lid was cut out. I'm imagining giant can openers...



It's a total pain to carry though - it's too tall and it hangs down so the bottom is about an inch off the ground. The current plan is for it to become a storage bucket for ash so there's a constant supply by the willow feeder, because just occasionally maggots manage to appear and ash sorts the problem out nicely. We're keeping the smaller Bostik bucket to collect ash from the rocket mass heater, and I found another old enamel bucket that I'm sending over for our friend to use in his motorhome to collect his wood ash because the two Bostik ones really should be used as a pair.

That boy of mine has been raiding the rubble heap at yet another job site for me.

He arrived home at a sensible hour, for once, then showed up on my doorstep bearing gifts.  First, he handed me this enamel plate.



Then with a smug grin he pulled his other hand out from behind his back and presented me with these little beauties!



There's a teeny one, slightly bigger one with a lid, and a lid off a bigger one.

I'm really not quite sure what I'm going to do with them...

Maybe 5 years ago my wife got hearing aids at Costco.  Well out of warranty, they recently stopped working.  We went to the Big City about a month ago where the nearest Costco is. The verdict was dead batteries…$150.00 each to replace the batteries. The hearing aids would have to be sent in.  Today we picked up repaired hearing aids.  …except….the hearing aids were new….the charge was $273.00 for both ….oh yes, that includes the warranty.


…..and I thought the hot dog and a coke for $1.50 was a good deal!!  Yes, we are talking about $1600.00 hearing aids.

That's GREAT to know, John! Thank you! We've been noticing John's hearing is getting... a little dicey, so this is also great timing.

That is a great suggestion. I also have done vision exams at a Costco (you don't need to be a member), when I travel to the US I have to do it somewhere and they are always great (usually very organized and easy to schedule). I never have time to do glasses, but I hear it's a good place for that too.

One of the fun things about having social media nearby is the notion of flash sales. As I have my face in a computer all the time and have a mostly flexible schedule, every so often I'll see a bulletin that has me running out the door without my shoes.
Yesterday my favorite veggie store announced they had a truckload of frozen asparagus with a short expiration date, priced to move. I ran and bought 4kg before someone realized that the price was about ten times lower than it should have been.

It's quick frozen, so it's not the texture of fresh, but my garden puts up maybe a spear or two a week right now (and I need to redo my asparagus bed anyway) so this is the only way I'll be getting asparagus for a bit.
Still, the taste is great. I put half a kg in the air fryer and had it for lunch- it did get crunchy on the outside and flavor was fabulous, but it released a lot of water into the oven itself and I wasn't thrilled about that.
I'm going to make a soup later, and maybe some kind of frittata. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. The spears are individually quick frozen whole, and so inside tends to be soft and stringy. (and i'm the person who usually eats my asparagus raw!!)

Once a year, some time between the clocks turning back and Christmas, my son takes me to a local second-hand place.

I seem to be developing a bit of a reputation there and the guy recognises me and pulls my leg a bit asking if I've managed to break all last year's plates yet. I assured him that I hadn't broken many this time but I'd brought ten euros with me and intended to spend all of it, regardless of how little room there was in the house or how much I didn't need the things I found. After all, we all have to indulge ourselves a little once in a while...

His stuff is really cheap though, and even with a few things my son added to my heap I had to keep going and finding more and more things to add until the tally had reached enough to spend the whole ten euro note I'd brought with me.

Here's Rosa examining my haul, not including my son's stuff because he hasn't sent me a photo yet. If he does I may edit it in at the end...



Two vintage plates, with patterns moulded into the rims (is moulded the right term?), gold trim and a pretty pink rose design.

No doubt totally unsuitable for microwave or dishwasher, but that's hardly a problem...



Two very nice little plates with flowers. More modern. And I splashed out at 75c each! The others were just 50c...



A hand made, hand painted Alentejo plate.



Signed by the artist.

And somewhat unbelievably stamped with what seems to be a symbol saying it's safe for use in a dishwasher.



Two little glass bowls.

One is a six-petalled flower. The other is a leaf design that I already have a fruit-.bowl sized version of.



Two useful tins that I might even find a use for one day. One green and fruity and one with british wildlife illustrations, which is rather adorable.



A big pyrex-type bowl with apple designs.

I'm not quite convinced it's microwave or oven safe though. But it is very pretty and rather useful looking.



A very cute little chinese bowl thing.



The token thing for Austin, as a thankyou for letting me go and stock up on tatt to (over)fill the house with.

It's a little shot glass with a 1907 Renault car design.



And then she found it.

I have no idea how I managed to stumble on this little gem. It was lurking in the bottom of a great big bag of odds and ends of stuff that didn't look worth rummaging though.

It's a dragon-sized pink rodilha! Which is about as perfect a present as I could imagine for a little overly-domestic Portuguese pink dragon...



She's testing it.

She thinks it's a crown for a working princess!

She might be right.

And it is an absolutely perfect fit...



And if you're not sure what a rodilha is, it's for carrying things on your head.

I'm still not quite sure where I'm going to put it all. I might have to juggle some stuff out of the kitchen and hide it in the cupboards downstairs out of the way for a while. I did have a lot of fun though...

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Edit to add photos of my son's part of the haul, which was included in the tenner I spent as a thankyou for him taking me there...

He got a knife and fork, a mug, and seven glasses.



I hadn't noticed that pretty glass mug in his part of the haul so I asked for a closer look. It's all leafy and flowery! I think he's more like his mother than he lets on...



And the fork looks rather nice too. With yet more flowers on...



In total 23 items for €10.

I just got an insane deal on art supplies.  Our local house clearing auction was cleaning out the house of an artist and they put stuff up in huge lots.
I did spend a bit more than usual,  but nothing like what this stuff would be retail.
It was around $40, all in.
The IKEA bag is all sketch books, papers and canvas boards.
I haven't even fully gone through the brushes and paints. (There are more than in the pics) There are also 2 wooden boxes of vintage French pastels.
Also got a ton of art books, hand tools and other supplies.
She was a porcelain painter and I've set a huge amount of those supplies aside as well, but I'm hoping to donate those through a group she was part of.

I'm really set for life on a bunchbif stuff and I've got lots to share and donate.  I've got to get some bundles together for our local giving tree!

Wow, this is beautiful that you can give these items good homes.  I like to think the first owner approves ..

My own personal win this week has been fruit I couldn't grow .. two mangoes, five bananas and ten peaches, which the local greengrocer gave me as they were cosmetically imperfect.  

This was part of the daily "scrapped off" (past its best) food from their shop, of which five packs of bread, two caulis, a tray of bananas and a tray of apples were good to eat still. These I pass on to our community Black-led Mutual Aid programme.

The fruit I took home was in need of too much fiddly pareing for the volunteers in the kitchen.  They mostly focus on cooking vegetables & distributing ready-to-eat whole fruit.

Everything else could only be composted, but we did that, keeping it from landfill ..