I was surprised to notice when I went into the basement this morning that my water heater does not have an insulated blanket over it! Seems to me that I put one on it a couple of years ago. Last year I had some maintenance work done on my furnace and water heater; I have a contract with my propane company to do an annual check up. I think that the maintenance man might have removed the water heater blanket when he was checking out the water heater. I wonder why he didn’t put it back on; maybe he ruined it when he removed it. He should have at least told me about it! I am guessing he didn’t tell me about it because he was afraid he would have to pay out of pocket to replace it. Oh well, regardless, I am going to have to go buy a new one this week!
I cannot believe that it is December already! Life on the farm has kept me so busy that the days seem to stretch on forever but they fly by. I know that doesn’t make any sense at all. Its just that I am so busy every day, doing really hard work that it just seems to never end, and I go to bed exhausted almost every day. The alarm goes off in the morning way too early and before you know it another month has gone by! I cannot believe that I turned the calendar page to December this morning! I have mixed feelings about winter, some of the work of farming slows down, but tending the livestock in cold weather isn’t much fun! At least I know how to dress for the cold weather, and I can spend a little bit more time relaxing a little bit here and there!
I was reading that there was a study done about animals detecting the earth’s magnetic field. The study showed that cows and deer tend to align their bodies in a north-south direction. The scientists say they are surprised that hunters and herdsmen and farmers didn’t notice it. Who says farmers didn’t notice it? Did they ask any farmers? Maybe farmers noticed it but were too busy farming to care about something like that and get all excited about it and report it to a scientific community. I mean really, why would a farmer even think that anyone would care about something like that? Big whoop!
Well yesterday was a little more work than I had planned on. Some drunk lost control of his truck and ran off the road and through one of my fences. Some of the cattle escaped the pasture. So I had to spend several hours rounding up the escapees and moving them to a different pasture while I mended the broken fence. This happens from time to time, so I always have the materials on hand to mend the fences, but it is always an aggravation when it happens. I wish all cars and trucks had a meter in them that tested the breath of the driver and if they register as having too much alcohol in them the vehicle wouldn’t start. It was a drunk driver that caused the accident that killed my parents, so I don’t have a lot of patience or empathy for any of them.
With money so tight, all the way around and across the board, as consumers we are all looking for ways to save money, while businesses are searching for ways to drum up business and bring our hard earned money into their bank accounts. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not dissing anyone running a business, just stating a hard fact.
It seems that customer satisfaction surveys are a growing way for companies to hear how they are doing as well as finding ways to bring their current customers coming back. I don’t mind taking these surveys if there is something in it for me, not just the promise of being entered into some sweepstakes that the odds are completely stacked against me winning anything at all.
There are a few places that if you complete one of their customer satisfaction surveys that you will be given a code to write some where on your receipt so that you will receive some type of discount on your next purchase, those are surveys that I have no problem taking the time to complete. I always don’t mind a quick survey that only takes a few moments online since I’m on a computer some where most of the day. The kinds that I really refuse to complete are the kinds that come in the mail, no time for that and I don’t appreciate them junking up my mailbox with such trivial concerns.