Creature Comforts and Technology

Been a crazy week on the home front. Here’s what happened, but not in any particular order.

We have a hate/hate relationship with our heating oil company. Originally they filled our tank and put us on a ‘budget plan’ so that our monthly bill was $310. After the winter season, we didn’t use an entire tank of fuel, but they topped us off in April. We are very fuel and water efficient individuals.

They continued to charge us $310 a month, making serious bank on our billing. We paid for the initial delivery and then some. After the summer we had paid for the fuel AND had $1400 in credit. He got the budget plan reduced to $210 a month.

The credit continued to grow. The next season they topped us off again, but we barely needed any fuel. The credit amount was nearly $2000. He got them to stop billing us and let the credit ride.

This week he called the company to inquire as to the going rate for fuel. It was $4.00 a gallon. Diesel fuel is now $3.79 a gallon. I know they have to deliver, but they also don’t pay ‘road tax.’ They have to hire CDL with dangerous load credentials, but they get a volume discount.

He called a local competitor that was beating their delivery price by .19 cents. Our address was logged incorrectly and he said they didn’t deliver out as far as we are. Really? We are only 2.5 miles from your office. Why can’t you come that far? Where is your house? It was hysterical, really, because he had us located about 17 miles away. Our road name is similar to several others in the state, being ‘old’ roads that led to an important destination, back in the day. We received the documents the very next day.

The day after that the fuel company delivered oil at the $4.00 rate. We have enough ‘credit’ on the account to cover it, and receive over $500 back, but the woman in their office knew we were shopping around for prices, and to say the least, he is LIVID.

We have a clock in our bedroom that projects the time onto the wall. We love this feature because we get up in the dark every morning most days of the year. That is life on a farm. If we didn’t have jobs, we could do things differently, but some things need doing before we get ready for work, which makes that an early morning. This week that clock turned on us – twice.

I don’t know what happened to this clock, but the alarm went off at 12:00 MIDNIGHT. Two different nights, not in a row. Don’t use this clock for the alarm feature, so can’t explain why it was set, and for midnight! I ended up unplugging it because apparently I only hit the ‘snooze’ and it went off again nine minutes later.

We have a great microwave. It has so many features, plus it has a stove hood fan built into the bottom. It is large and versatile. It goes with the stove as a unit and we really love it, but not this week.

Returning to the house from barn chores, I discover the microwave running, and it is heating up NOTHING. He’s in the shower. I ask him why he turned on the microwave and he said he hasn’t been in kitchen.

I try hitting ‘clear’ and it resets to 6:00 minutes, over and over. It’s beeping, with a scrolling message that says “SERVICE REQUIRED.” He unplugs it, plugs it back in. It starts all over, continuing the out-of-control beeping and resetting back to 6:00 minutes. He unplugs it and we leave for the day.

When we return, 9 hours later, he plugs it back in and it is fine. I make dinner, using the microwave like I do nearly every single meal, and it runs fine.

We’ve been experiencing issues with our exterior lights. The light he installed on the back of the house continues to turn itself off whenever it feels like it, and then comes back on, when it feels like it. It is supposed to be ‘dusk-to-dawn.’

He tries to find a replacement bulb at the BigBoxStore. Only carry the same bulb as what is already installed. He goes on the internet to find a better bulb, delivered this week. He re-lamps the lights and it is a like daylight out there. A slightly warmer light, but reaches way down the hill. If we had had these originally, I could have seen the fox straight away, instead of guessing what it was.

Speaking of which, haven’t seen either fox in a couple weeks. Maybe they’ve moved on.

Fading Fast

Daylight is surely shrinking - by nearly 7:00 p.m. it is deep twilight. Ugh.

Getting home by 6, rushing around with the dogs, then moving the boys over to the electric corral, we just run out of light. He's relamped a couple exterior fixtures with brighter bulbs, but still energy-efficient. It really does make a difference.

Hate a Rainy Weekend

We got nearly 6 inches of rain in 2.5 days. We needed rain, but not like that. The boys stayed in Friday night, and it rained and rained.

In the morning I put them in the electric corral, and they were happy until they weren't. Late in the day Skip was distressing and running the fence-line.

Did not put them out in the corral on Sunday and KC sulked about that.

He spread manure and I promptly filled the spreader again.

Love a Rainy Night

The rain was 'supposed' to fall lightly, off and on. On Wednesday night we put the spreader on the tractor. We enjoyed a lovely, bright sunset. As soon as he got the tractor pulled around and the seed loaded it began to sprinkle.

We believed it would be a good thing to spread grass seed right before the rain. It has been very dry lately, the last time it

rained was a couple Monday's ago. Now I'm afraid it might have rained hard enough to pool the grass into clumps and waves.

It has rained steadily since Wednesday night. I should have brought the boys in, but I did not. It was mild, not windy. Placed flakes of hay in the run-in shed. I added more before going to bed.

It rained all through the night and all day Thursday. When we got home they were at the fence gate, fussing and chasing each other. I wanted to put them into the electric corral. He didn't want the grass trampled. We put them in the corral and they immediately settled down to munch. I left them in there until nearly 9:00 p.m.; it's raining but they are HAPPY - no chasing around, just munching.

I prep the stalls for their overnight stay - water, fresh sawdust. While doing this Sprite rolls in Skip's stall. She is wet, and the shavings stick to her. I put shavings in Fred's stall, she rolls in that, too. He makes dinner (fish, onion rings, brussel sprouts), I leave them out there until nearly 9 - still raining. I bring them in to feed, check on them around 10:15 p.m. - give them more hay, Skip more water, and go to bed at 10:41.

Friday's weather status? Still raining. Sounds like more with the metal barn roof. Skip is covered in sawdust, like a powdered donut.

Birthday

Been a lot of birthday celebrations in the office in the last couple weeks. I'll throw mine out there, too.

October

We've had a good stretch of dry weather. This is great for riding, sort of, but terrible for growing grass. We all like to ride on sunny days, but the trails are as hard as asphalt and sometimes the dust cloud is impressive.

This past weekend was hot. Not just kind of hot, but seriously hot. And factor in that it is now October, who would expect temps in the 90s? The creeklettes and mud pits are drying up.

I am continuing to give the big boys electrolytes and their water intake is up.

Max helped me with the laundry.

He is growing up.

On Sunday we rode to Sykesville. It was another warm day, but staying in the shade was the best bet.

The downed Sycamore is still in the trough, and there are a couple go-arounds, neither are fit for man nor beast. One is marked with bright pink ribbons. Do not go this way. It will be a big mistake. We went the lesser, and not by much, of the two. I did not like it one little bit.

On the way back we ran into a couple, who admitted creating a third go-around, unmarked. Stay left he said, she said go all the way to the top, follow the downed tree until it touches the ground, walk over it. That is the way to go! Easy! We didn't have time to dismantle the copious pink tags and place them on this brilliant third way.

Stink Bugs

The Stink Bug fall migration has begun in earnest. I turned on the outside faucet and out came a bunch. Ick.

The dryer, warmer weather is really driving them out. They seem attracted to dark colors, too. These are the non-native imports from China, brought to you by Penn State. For years they have been trying to find a way to combat this scourge, but so far no