I'm not sure why big box stores are so popular, is it just the thought that the prices are lower? is it better selection? roomier isles? more staff?? I cannot figure it out. I've shopped local and yes I'll admit I was wooed into the big box stores as well. I'm not pointing to a specific industry here, I've spent time and money at large chain food stores, clothing stores, home improvement stores etc. I've thought about this for a while and have always tried to support local businesses even before it was the "in thing" and feel strongly about it. But seriously why are the box stores so popular, for me it's
not the 'low prices', (look at where they are made, what had to happen to get them that low?) I really don't see much of a deal. Selection?? How many types of pepper does one really need? How many pairs of shoes can one wear at a time?? The choices for toilet paper are
ridiculous, a whole isle, seriously? So it's not about selection, for me. Roomier isles? Nope, makes me think that it's another gigantic structure taking up space full of imported stuff we could make in America! More staff? Uh I don't think so either, I'm more of a quality vs. quantity kind of girl. I'd much rather have a smaller educated staff than employees that are there to collect a paycheck and don't have a clue about that which they are selling.
Case in point, yesterday I needed more wood to stack the cord wood I'd been splitting on to let it cure for next year. I headed to the local
lumberyard. I walked in and was greeted with a genuine smile despite the closing time was 20 minutes from my arrival to the store. I asked to purchase the said wood and was directed to the 'wood guy' he inquired as to what grade of wood I needed.
What? He actually was trying to best meet my needs and cared enough to help me?? Try
finding
that in a big box! So I explained what I needed it for and was taken to the less expensive get-the-job-done type wood. I made my selection and the 'wood guy' picked it up and loaded it into my truck for me. Again,
what? Not once have I ever had that happen, I always have to haul the cart out of the store and load it myself. Large pieces of plywood or particle board are not easy to
maneuver by your self; not being a very tall woman, thankfully I'm pretty strong. Seeing my struggle to get them into the truck other customers have stopped to help, but not a store employee. After the wood was loaded I walked back into the store and paid for the order, yes, the wood was loaded before it was paid for! They trusted me?! Yes! The 'wood guy' wrote up my slip and asked me to take it to the cashier and said thank you and please come see us again. I actually felt like he meant it! So I get back to the first person I dealt with at the store who saw my children for about at total of 5 seconds commented to me that I've got some great kids there. She was aware the kids were mine and that they are awesome?! (I do, but that's another story...) Find that said about box store employees! I paid for my items and the total was 8 bucks and some change, not a huge order by any means but I can tell you I never felt like an inconvenience, like I was interrupting the store employees or an
IPH (items per hour, damn I dislike that posted as you leave the store!) Mind you I could have driven a few miles further and gone into a big box but would the outcome have been the same? Would I have have the wood, yes, would it have been less money? maybe? maybe not. For me it's not about the money, it's about choice, support, voting, (with my money) call it what you will, it's about doing the right thing because I'm not an
IPH and I refuse to be treated like one.
When we bought the farm it had previously been another business, and when the old owners moved out they left the frame of the road side sign in the ground. I've been trying to come up with a sign for some time now and this is the start of that sign. This is one of the pieces that will hang off the bottom of the sign. It's wood burned and will have poly on it when it's ready to hang, but wanted to show you what I've got so far.
Pull up a stump and gather around our campfire! There is something to be said for having a day of rest, our day of rest was spent around a campfire, laughing, enjoying each others company, eating roasted veggie dogs and (vegan) marshmallows and washing it all down with apple cider. Shortly after we moved here there was a tree, (which I thought was cedar) that for what ever reason just died. What a huge stately tree it was, well aside from being too near the house for comfort it was unsightly now that it was dead and it needed to go. Ron took it down last week and Friday we limbed it and cut the trunk up. Our intention was to split it and use it as firewood but after the first stump chunk was whacked about a hundred times and went nowhere fast we decided that maybe between the size of it and all the knots that maybe it was too much for Lola to handle, but since we do not own a wood splitter we had a problem.... or so we thought. (Did I mention that it was hemlock and full of knots!?) Sunday arrives, the weather could not have been better for an outside kind of day, you know the kind where you're out in just a long sleeve shirt and revel in the warmth of what you know will be one of the last warm days of fall. So I decided to burn the rest of what we could not use as firewood; limbs, bits of the trunk, etc. We sat on the ground around the fire for a while then an idea popped into my head, I jumped up and rolled the stumps over to the fire and sat down! Duh, what a better way to use the stately old tree! These stumps are perfect for gathering around a campfire, there is one for each member of my family plus extras for company! What is it about a campfire that offers universal connectedness anyway? No matter where you go when people gather around a campfire you experience a closeness that seems primitive yet comforting. Is it the hypnotic flames dancing and licking at the night sky? Is it the warmth that only wood fire can bring? The snapping and crackling of the fire itself? I'm not sure but I know the world seems to fade away when I am surrounded by those whom I love and a simple campfire.
I've been at the wood pile for a while now splitting and stacking and this is the result as it stands currently. Having purchased a new chain for the chain saw helped speed up the process immensely! Lola, (my axe) worked wonders, took a bit of getting used to but works wonders just the same. I love the feeling I get when I split a foot+ diameter chunk of wood in half with one swing of the axe! It's powerful! I've still got a bit more to do but I don't mind, it's kind of therapeutic! While reading this past summer I came across a saying, I do not recall exactly how it went but I remember thinking I completely understood the sentiment. It went something like this..... '.....having extra hay in the barn, wood in the shed and ____________ is like money in the bank......'
.... I stopped into the local feed store (since I was in town) to pick up a pitchfork to make cleaning out the goat's pen easier, something that was needing attention as she was high enough with her deep bedding to get her head stuck in the gate. There's something to be said for having the right tool for the job, what had previously taken an hour (with the wrong tool) took only minutes this afternoon. Hopefully since we moved the bedding to the back she won't get stuck again. Then the kids and I hauled wood out of the front part of our property with my truck. Andrew calls it "redneck truck pulling"when we do this. He loves it though. Then spent the rest of the daylight hours splitting firewood, with a hatchet. Again, there is something to be said for having the right tool for the job, clearly a hatchet is not the right tool for splitting firewood. Faith gave it her best try and found out it's not for her, Andrew on the other hand loved it! The hatchet worked well for him, more his size than mine. All the wood in the picture was cut from our property and will keep us warm next winter. It's still way too wet to burn this year, but it still needs to be split and stacked just the same, to be ready for next year. So since I spent the afternoon cleaning goat pens and sweating more than well, quite frankly a race horse I'm going to go soak these aching muscles in a hot bath, enjoy a cup of hot cocoa and probably be asleep before my head hits the pillow. So much for a day of rest. Good night.
