The Howlong RFS Auction.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Today saw the annual Howlong Rural Fire Service ‘auction’ day.

The RFS (like all regional fire brigades in Australia) is mostly staffed by volunteers, and whilst they do get a minimal amount of government funding, rely for the most part upon local support to keep the fire services going. Today was Howlong’s BIG DAY. :smiley:

And what a day it was. They took over the local sports grounds and the pony club paddocks to flog off whatever they could. Folks in the community donated all sorts of miscellany, farmers donated feed, firewood, ancient old tractors and other crap to be auctioned off, and there were even some somewhat decent cars being sold on consignment. The local preschool was in charge of the catering, and by the numbers of 'sausaged in bread w/onion" being sold, I reckon they might make themselves a penny or two too.

The beauty of these sorts of sales is that by lunchtime, the auctioneers are totally buggered and cannot be bothered haggling prices too much anymore. So my ‘fantastic stuff at an amazing bargain’ list is:

Three little hardwood occasional tables for $2.
A box of junk (including an electric frying pan, a full set of stainless steel pots in good nick, a funky retro set of canisters, a new wok, an oven roaster, a camping frying pan and an electric drill ) for $5
Another box of junk (which had unopened sets of crayons, watercolours,oil paints brushes, books, frames and other misc stuff) for another fiver.
Twelve potted Cymbidiums (orchids) for a tenner.
Oh, and lest I forget a NEW KITCHEN SINK for a measly $5 as well…I live with a single sink unit at the moment, and this one is a double that will fit perfectly into the available space.

I bid on a whole heap of other shit too, but there was NO WAY I was gonna pay $30 for a rusty old Tonka Truck, or $50 for a fishpond (mind you, in retrospect, I should’a gone the extra tenner for the fishpond…it included a whole heap of other shit that I could have flogged on Ebay and made my money back. :D)
Except for the sunny weather and my current ouchie sunburn, I’ve had a perfect day.

:slight_smile:

2

I am seething with jealousy here (says the madrabbitwoman who goes to auctions with $20 and fully expects to go home with at least 20 items)

3

Shame on you for being so cheap.

A year’s worth of fire protection for you and yours, by VOLUNTEERS, and you think it is worth $22.00?

I think you should show a bit more appreciation than that. If you sell any of that stuff on E-bay, you should give them half of what you make.

4

Just curious - what makes you think that the Howlong RFS protects Kambucta who lives in Corowa. How do you know that Kambucta doesn’t support the RFS in other ways (directs donation, buying/selling raffle tickets, being a volunteer him/her self etc). There were probably people at the auction who spent thousands and probably people who spent nothing - perhaps you should hunt down all the folks who spent bugger all and accuse them of being cheap.

It’s not like this was one of those charity auctions designed for folks with money (you know the sort where they may sell a box of the seasons first cherries for 10 grand)

I’m glad Kambucta had some fun and the RFS got some money: win - win

5

Whilst I cannot claim to actually volunteer my services to the RFS, I do provide ongoing support with donations. If I were to assist with fire rescue work, I’d prolly bugger everything up, being the klutz that I am. :smiley:

Better I leave that job to the able men and women in my community who do such brilliant work. I’ll stick to donations and raffles and the annual fundraising auction thanks.

:slight_smile: