Mojo, congratulations, what a score for you!!!! Hey all, don't forget to check shopgoodwill.com for stuff. Yes you have to pay shipping but some great buys there often on many different things. And those GW folks sure pack GREAT. I've gotten several very fragile things, and good sized to boot, and the packing is just unbelievable. I love that place! Quite a few GWs around the country participate in this site, its run just like eBay is. I'm in awe of some of things donated as opposed to what I find here locally. Some REALLY good things pop up occasionally. hugs, Karen Here is a link that might be useful: shopgoodwill.com

Estate sales are big business here, it seems. There are companies that run them much of the time. Yes, they happen here when when people die, and also can happen if an estate is being broken up, but usually is due to death. They open up much of the house, and sell pretty much everything in it. You can walk through the house, yard and garage, shopping for almost anything and everything you need, from kitchenware, and dishes to clothing, tools, collectibles, curtains, and furniture. What doesn't sell, the estate sale people take to their stores. Yes, they even have estate sale stores. I like being nosey, though, and going to estate sales in interesting neighborhoods with the cool houses. To get back to cooking, I've found some interesting cookbooks at estate sales, too. I just remembered about one I picked up that had arabic recipes. It was one of those fund raiser cookbooks that churches and civic groups do. This was done by an Arabic church, and has half Arabic recipes and half American recipes. I have yet to cook anything out of it yet, but found it fun to read through. Sally

I'm no stranger to garage sales. I've probably had about six or seven. After my last sale, I decided that if I think I can only make about $300 then I'm donating everything. I think I might be able to make about $1000 on this one so it's worth it to me. I excel at organizing for a garage sale. I don't know why, but I kind of enjoy it. I start by clearing out the garage (it's already pretty sparse, we don't store things in the garage except for cars and bikes) about two weeks in advance. Set up the tables, shelves and poles for hanging clothes. Then I put out all the items for sale, then price everything and hang signage. I'll be advertising in the local paper, FB, CL, a local garage sale website and a neighborhood website. I'll have directional signage posted around the neighborhood as well. I'm thinking about creating a one page website listing items for sale and including the address in my other advertising. It won't cost me anything and I can do it pretty fast. However, that might be overkill - still thinking about it. Day of sale, everything in the garage is in place so I just open the doors at 6am and start setting everything out that goes in the driveway. The sale starts at 7am so if anyone shows up early, my policy is to say they can shop but they first have to help me set things out. It works! Then I'll give whoever helped 25% off whatever they buy. I price things to sell, so very little haggling is necessary. If anything is left at about 1pm. I set everything outside and leave a "FREE" sign. By 3pm everything is gone and nothing comes back into the house. I only sell what I intend to not keep. It's a lot of work, but like I said, I kind of enjoy it. It's a fun day too, I offer bottles of cold water, have music playing and get to meet lots of nice people and hear some cool stories. Neighbors usually come by and it's a chance to chat with them as well.

I really appreciate the responses. So far thanks to the responses I have it narrowed down to 4 potentials: GE, Andrew, Golden Meadows, and Hans. I am not eliminating any of those 4 choices but am leaning toward GE. GE is more common and sold widely including big box stores. A little background on the estate owner whom I met: she is in her 90's and no longer able to take care of her garden or house and always using a walker now (still driving though). She was an avid gardener but NOT a hostaphile. She had very few hostas. It would be more likely that she would have a more common hosta! I've been on these hosta ID hunts before, going around and around like a dog chasing its tail. Before driving myself crazy I pick an ID and stick with it until evidence proves otherwise keeping in mind other possibilities. I hope it is not GE as I have low expectations of GE.