The First Day

I'm Heading down to Pocatello today to start the scrounge.

The set-up:
If I remember correctly, which I'm probably not, in the summer ninety-four my great grandma Shoemate decided to go into a care facility. So to help out, my family spent a week or so at her house boxing and cleaning. All the boxes were then shipped via horse-trailer to her son's, my grandfather's, basement. There they have sat.

Jump to 2010.

My husband Brandon and I have recently decided to buy a home. We thought we were good to go. But no, we hadn't realized the enormity down payments really are. So we're stuck, halfway through a bid, realizing we don't have enough money to move forward. Instead of giving up we asked around for advice. We got a lot. Though the most interesting advice came from my mother, who suggested I ask my grandfather to allow me to clean out and sell the items in his basement to help save. Grandpa agreed.

So, I created an etsy account, uploaded some of my antique collection to get the feel of it, and now feel slightly ready for the plunge. We'll see. Pricing is weird. Any advice?

The purpose of this Blog:
I feel that I need to document my findings. I am not sure why, maybe it's because these boxes have sat unopened for nearly fifteen years, or maybe it's because I didn't really know who my great grandmother was as a woman.* I feel like an archaeologist discovering some ancient tomb, or perhaps more like a cartographer sailing the coast of an island only known in old fishermen's tales.

It's less cheesy than that though. I'm interested academically in the lives women lead in the early Idaho badlands. How they did what they did, what roles they played in the household. Maybe this sift through my family history will give me some insight that the historical society hasn't.

I'll upload photos of my findings daily, descriptions, insights, what have you. If you see something you like, a link to my etsy site is on the sidebar.

Look-out spiders and spirits, I'm burrowing in.

*What I do know about my great grandmother: her name was Virginia; she was born in 1901; she lived on the Salmon River; she wanted to be the next Annie Oakley; she had multiple husbands; she over-fed her pets; she was great at catching grass hoppers; oh, and she had a really cool car.