Rope and Chain

Rope and chain are next to each other on the way out to hardware.

I was SO wrong

I mean like STUPENDOUSLY wrong.
About the ghost door and the stairs to the Boot Room.
(Oh, and when I wrote that the ceiling was tongue in groove, I meant to say BEADED. Tongue in groove is flooring. Damned aphasia.)

Anyway, my doubts arose quickly.

Like...

(1) How could these stairs NOT be original stairs up to the Boot Room? Look at them! They are all old and beat up! They look just like the cellar stairs by the office.

Top of the Boot Room stairs. Don't you love this view? You have to walk through the chip room to get to the boot room. The baggie back stock room is through the door to the left.

Looking down from the top. Look at the worn edges!

Looking down from the landing.

These are the cellar stairs. See how they have the same sort of wear pattern?

(2) Why does that beam over the office take a 90 degree turn? That is just not normal.

The bent beam.

(3) Why is the ceiling so utterly different in the Screw Room if there is just one addition for the toy department, the office/Nail Bench/Boot Room stairs area, and the Screw Room?

Looking into the Screw Room (really called Nuts And Bolts) from in front of the Boot Room stairs. See how the ceiling is slanted, low and unfinished? Also see the Surveyor's Tape Department over the door? Classic. That deserves its own post, really.

Finally, common sense prevailed. I asked Got Dinner some questions. He knows a lot of stuff about the building. After all, he spent his childhood there exploring all its nooks and crannies. He tells great stories.

YAY!!!

He told me a crap ton of stuff. I learned SO MUCH today.
To be continued...

(FYI, Got Dinner is in charge of wood for all the stoves in the basement. The wood for the store is an amazing story yet to be told.)

The Most Expensive Thing In The Store

The Evaporator

Besides containers and an evaporator,
tubing, buckets, filters, thermometers,
and grading kits,
sugaring requires lots of little parts.

This is the spot in hardware that gets crammed with all the seasonal stuff.

Christmas stuff is switched out for sugaring stuff.

For example:

4-way threaded manifolds and 3/4 inch mainline tees with branches

5/16 inch "tee" saver spouts and regular old fashioned taps with hooks. It is supposed to say TREE saver. There is a whole box of them for sale behind the plastic drawer full.







Double manifold saddles with 2 straps, 3/4 inch bases, spout plugs.

Lids to fit All State gallon, 1/2 gallon, quart and small and Sugar Maker gallon, 1/2 gallon, quart and small.

The Vast Container Requirements Of Sugaring Season

Glass

So pretty

Then, just in case, a crap ton of back stock in the basement:

Plastic jugs:

One side of the basement

The other side of the basement

Tins:

I feel like I sorta promised the ammo case

I find it quite beautiful.

It is across from the Nail Bench, in amongst the tools.

This pic was taken last fall, before the crazy run on ammo,
but ammo purchases have been WAY UP this winter,
and I suspect that the case is looking rather empty now.

People who use ammo feel there is going to be an ammo shortage.

 I would like to find out who did the rope art.
I don't have any hunches about that so I think it was someone who has come and gone.

All seasons of the year are nice

I love the seed packet season --

shiny new packets

crisp precise edges

tiny seeds in perfectly folded envelopes

all labeled the same

all priced the same

each with a perfect pretty picture

and

all the slots full.

What Valentine's Day Means To Me

It means trying to sell off the large boxes of Lake Champlain chocolates by dressing up Register #3 all pretty. As of 3:00 pm today one had sold. I almost sold another but when I rang it up the lady went into real bad sticker shock and I had to administer an emergency Void-Ticketectomy to save her life.

By the way, meet the NEW Dairy Queen. She took over the dairy coolers when Verne deserted us. She runs a real nice dairy. Today she got in a new yogurt flavor -- Key Lime Graham Crumb And White Chocolate. I saw her try it this afternoon. Her face said, "EWWWWWWWWW."

Things I Never Told You

There is an UPSTAIRS!

Turn left to go into the  the Screw Room. (Note the Surveyor's Tape Department over the doorway into the Screw Room.) Turn right to go upstairs. There are lots of things upstairs. Like the Chip Room. And the Baggie Backstock Room. Like Belts, Fan and the Spice Endcap Staging Area. But most importantly...

The Boot Room!

It is a wonderful place full of Venerable Old Stuff. It is usually quiet and empty and the floor creaks when you walk on it. You can hear things going on downstairs and it feels like you are all hidden and secret. It is a good place to go to be alone for a bit. Except it is cold in the winter. The wood stoves are, after all, a long ways away down in the basement.

My favorite boots. I like to visit them.

Sale Today. Yay!

New Chips

Bulk Nails

This is the old scale on the Nail Bench used to weigh the bulk nails.

What I love is when someone weighs their own nails on it, 

then comes to the register with their brown bag 'o nails, 

and has to have them re-weighed on the produce scale to get the price,

and the weight is slightly different,

and we get to have chuckle over the Venerable Old Thing not being as accurate

as the shiny new stainless LCD-equipped electronic whiz-scale.

I like that juxtaposition of old and new.

Once a customer did get upset though.

He was an older gentleman who clearly remembered The Old Days.
He believed in the unswerving accuracy and honesty of the Venerable Old Thing.

He felt it was unfair that the New Whiz Thing was making him pay more money for the nails than the Venerable Old Thing.

I agreed.

I gave him the Venerable Old Thing price.

Who wouldn't?

The Bell Department Continues To Decline

Hard times in the Bell Dept

Spamming Poetry inspired by OSM

Sir Spam-a-lot I love you so.

Just how much? I think you know!

Your shiny can with key replete

Is such a lovely visual treat.

But when I open up your can,

I admit I hate the taste of Spam.

No eggy dish can ever hide

The salty horror of what's inside.

 

But someone enjoys it (I wonder who?)

Because I must keep ordering you.