First Monday Flea Market

About a 15 or 20 minute drive from us is the biggest flea market in the country.  It's called First Monday Trade Days and is the weekend containing the first Monday of every month.  I've gotten several things for our farm from there, including Harry.  I went yesterday looking for things to furnish the apartment.  Sometimes the market is so full one can hardly walk down the aisles, but I guess since this was New Year weekend and the middle of winter, there were much fewer vendors and much fewer shoppers. 

These are pictures of the old open air flea market area.  Normally there are no empty lots and the aisles are packed with people.  There is the old part of the flea market, which I think of as a "true" flea market with everything old and junky that you can imagine.  Then there are several long pavillions and several completely enclosed buildings that tend to house higher end antiques, handmade furniture, and craft items.  I usually stick to the open air market and the junk.

There also is an area called Dogtown (some people call it Dog Alley) that has all kinds of puppies (many from politically incorrect and admittedly cruel "puppy mills").  But there is also all kinds of livestock for sale - cows, goats, horses, chickens (it's where I got mine), rabbits, etc.  Then there's anothe area called The Mountain that I haven't been to at all, so I'm not sure what's there.  The flea market takes over the whole town on first Monday weekends.

My purchases yesterday:

These were in sets of four for 10.00 bucks a piece.  I bought four sets (two of each design), making the total 40.00.  When the guy asked me if I wanted them packed in a box, I said, "How else would you do it?" wondering if perhaps it would be better to carry them out in bags.  He must have misunderstood because immediately said, "Oh, I'll let you have them for 35.00 since you're buying four sets."  Heh.  Deal.

Then on my way out I walked down the row to a booth with some old quilts that I had looked at on my way in.  I had spoken to the vendor about this quilt that was priced at 75.00.

I had 65.00 left over from my 100.00 and asked the lady would she take 65.00 for the snowball pattern quilt.  She would.  She did.  Deal.

It does have a bit of damage that you can see right about in the middle of the picture, but it's nothing that can't be patched or overlooked.  The rest of the quilt is in great shape.