Gear heads

Yesterday, I hit the second hand store and scored a pair of Merrell Hiking Boots with Vibram soles for Sawyer for $9, already broken-in.

One thing we've had to stock up on since moving to Colorado is a butt load of gear, particularly for the children. Had we been living here the past decade and been here when they were born, we would have accumulated a certain amount of gear from baby showers, friends and through slow accumulation. But, arriving last October, I found us in desperate need of gloves, hats, winter socks, boots, snow pants, helmets, skis, sleds ... you name it.

One of the worst items to buy are socks. I mean Smartwool and other wool/wicking socks that stay warm when wet and keep feet warm and cushioned skiing and hiking. One single pair of even children's socks like this can cost $10-$14. And they could seriously wear these socks every day in the winter. We barely made it through the winter with one pair of warm socks for each kid — both were Justin's socks we had saved from when he was a baby in Leadville. Hard to believe those socks traveled across the country with us twice.

Actually, it's amazing to think about all the gear that has traveled back and forth, and how old some things are. Because we didn't really use our gear in Virginia, a lot of stuff was preserved. I have a down vest that I've owned since 1995. My hiking boots are 10 years old. Most of my long underwear traveled with me to Patagonia in 1994. There is some advantage to being a gear snob and investing in quality stuff from the get-go.

So today, on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, as we were driving home from an Alpaca festival, I pulled over at a garage sale. And then another. And another. I kid-you-not, I spent $7 and came home with a $65 snowboard helmet, five pairs of Smartwool socks, a pair of kids ski gloves, a garbage bag full of good quality clothes (thank the local Lutheran church for that one), a purple Barbie car, Candyland and four puzzles for Sawyer.

So, the lesson here is that I should have gotten up earlier this morning. It didn't even cross my mind that the whole town would be having yard sales today, not to mention selling off valuable gear for pennies. Given that I was shopping at noon, who knows what I could have landed at 7 a.m. The advantage of hitting the yard sales later in the day is that people are willing to sell entire garbage bags full of clothes for $1. I plan to start going to as many yard sales as I can over the coming months and stocking up on anything I can to outfit the kids for the next few years.

And just because it's sometimes more about form than function, these silver beauties were $2