January 2018 Coop

[luvmymorgan]

Happy New Year everyone. As usual, I didn't make it to midnight. No surprise there! Only 1 of the dogs was bothered by all the fireworks. He just hid in the bathtub-poor guy. He's 14 so he pretty much gets to do whatever he wants!
No New Years resolution - made & broken too many
No real plans for today. Had thought about a Costco trip but they are closed so saved a bunch of money! Probably just lay around watching TV & reading. Then back to work tomorrow. At least my boss is gone until Thursday so the next couple of days I should be able to get a lot of work done.
Hoping for a good year in 2018. Getting my life back on track - great message in church yesterday on that subject.

[ghostrider]

They cancelled church her, minus weather! it's been really, really cold. Of course I was off Sun and Mon and it was too cold to do a thing. Mom didn't even get dressed Sunday! LOL
I hate this TSC they have just way too many tempting things. I went in for a harness for D and ended up with a harness and a three tier saddle stand! Just hate it.

[luvmymorgan]

GR, I wish you were closer. I gave away an expensive (heavy) steel 3 tier saddle rack when I sold Risty. I remember when I bought it was right after the price of steel went up & it cost more than I really wanted to spend. It has sure come in handy over the years though.
They opened up a new TSC not too far from where I used to board Risty. Haven't made it there yet since I don't need horse supplies any more. I know they have lots of other things too, but just don't want to look at anything horse related just yet. It's already been 3 months this week since he went to his new home.
The weather here has been great! I guess it make up for the heat we have to put up with in the summer. I sure don't miss the cold & snow.

[horsespoiler]

We've been having pretty good weather too. It hasn't even been freezing at night lately. A year ago we had a foot of snow! The valley has had cold dense fog every day but up here we have had sunshine and about 10* warmer than the valley. We haven't had too much rain yet but I'm sure it's coming. Our niece in MO said her hot water in the kitchen froze over the last few days. She had only left the cold water dripping. She said she was sure glad it thawed out so she could do dishes since she was sure every dish they had was dirty. I remember having to heat water on the stove to do dishes when we didn't have hot water years ago. I guess sometimes younger people forget that hot water didn't always flow magically from a faucet.

I wish we had a TSC here. The farm and feed stores here seem to be shrinking their tack selections every year. We have hundreds of horses in the area and riders for both western and english but it's getting harder to find stuff. One of my favorites, Action Rider Tack, closed their store here and moved to Ohio. They do most of their sales online but it was nice to be able to go and actually see and touch the stuff I was interested in. They had a cooling vest I was really interested in last summer and I guess now I'll have to order it if I want one. I thought it would be good for more than just riding since I've been getting way too hot all the time. We had a guy come out and move all our RP panels to fence the winter pen and pull out all the bent wire panels and t-posts. We hope to put in something to ride in year round this year along with fixing the mud problem in the pen. We'll see what happens.

[ghostrider]

LMM I always wanted one but just never wanted to pay the price, plus shipping. I wish we lived closer too I'd let you borrow Boomer anytime you felt like riding or could have put Risty with my guys and saved you a lot of board. I am LOVING having TSC but wish they would get in the bulk pig ears and lamb ears etc..

HS, how big of an area are you going to fence in? will you have to bring in footing? Do you have a wood mill there you could get free sawdust or mulch to mix with sand or lime? I finally have good footing in my XL RP. And trails going through the wooded pasture. It's perfect but will be nicer when I can use all 8 acres to ride in. There are still a lot of vines and sapplings too thick to ride through but the guys have been here almost every day cutting up wood with this cold snap they are busy selling fire wood. Mom and Jim said they are really doing a good job clearing it. Odd they are leaving the big oaks in front, which are spaced nice but huge and going right through the middle of the denser stuff. Works GREAT for what I want. My guess is the trees on the other side of the denseness are good ones to sell to the mill and since I told him they wouldn't be able to get to them through the corral up here after snow fell...they are coming up from the other side.

When we had the corrals in Green River we had to bring in footing for the second corral because it was lower it was mucky every time it rained or snow melted. We mixed a lot of mulch with what they call road base. It's a larger rock that they use on the roads under the smaller gravel. It'll sink down and then the smaller stuff doesn't disappear as quick. The wood mulch and sawdust helped absorb the moisture and after the first season we never had to worry about the snow melting or rain leaving the coral mucky.

Anyone hear from V lately?

[horsespoiler]

I think the area will be around 60X100 or so. We'll need road base too. Here they call it pit run. It has to be worked into the ground and then you add 3/4- and top it off with decomposed granite or coarse sand. Then you can clean it easier unlike the mud. I can't scoop or push a wheelbarrow through it. I hate that I can't keep it clean and DH doesn't help one bit. I told him after I get somewhere I can ride I want to do it more but he told me he's given up on me riding. Way to be encouraging. He doesn't understand needing to feel in control of what's happening and needing somewhere secure to practice. His solution is just get on and ride and so what if you feel terrified. The only really important thing is that things benefit HIM. If he doesn't want to go somewhere we don't go and I can't go on my own. If I don't want to go somewhere we still go and I have to drive on top of it. I am just so tired of life.

[ghostrider]

1. What do you want from life? what goal are you trying to attempt?
2. What can ''you'' do to move you closer to that goal?
3. No one can stop you if you put one step in front of the other and by next year you will have accomplished if not your goal than at least you'll be closer to achieving it. Don't let anyone have the power over you, you can have what you want if you stop waiting on someone else to do it for you. LOL

I throw all the manure into the RP to be composted with the cornstalks and sand and such. We have always spread the manure in the arena for better footing. At the corrals Fred had a spreader and would spray the arena with all the old poop. As long as it's not all poop than it's great for the softer ground.

I had three glorious days off, unfortunately I go back to work today and it's the first day it hasn't RAINED ALL DAY or been icy. Supposed to turn crappy again tonight.

[vsolubo]

Hi everyone! I've been working too hard & have been too tired to get on-line. Not going into work today, I got sick on Christmas day & was sick for over a week, still have a really bad cough. I've been coughing so hard now my back hurts! We got a thin sheet of ice this morning, I know the streets should be clear by 1pm when I start my drive into work, but I think I'll just play it safe with my back. Really don't feel like a hour & half drive to work.

Horses are both doing well; had to put Bear in a blanket this year as it seems like he isn't handling the cold well. He now has a heavy weatherbeeta & a medium equi-sky. The weatherbeeta is water proof, the other is water resistant. Marie is doing pretty good, both get a daily dose of turmeric. It really seems to help Bear, Marie is doing better but still has a problem her gait.

[ghostrider]

Do you get turmeric in large quantities? where? I thought about giving some to Buddy although he hasn't been bad this winter so far. I have just started to breath again after TGD, Christmas, NYE etc... You may need to go to the chiro if you've coughed a rib or three out of place.

With Trumps tax aide those at WM will be getting a bonus depending on how long you have worked there. Mine will be $300 plus our starting wage will go up to $11 an hour but for some of us in positions of more responsibility it'll be even more. I am hoping for at least a dollar raise. But I'll take anything. LOL The only bad thing is that I've had to work 8 yrs to make 11 an hour and a new hire will start tomorrow at the same wage. I think they should keep them at 10 and give the rest of us depending on how long we've worked there a bigger raise. Our raise hits the first of feb, then our my share will be sometime first part of march with the bonus the second paycheck in march so looks good going into 2018. WOOHOO

[vsolubo]

I get turmeric at Sam's club. Hopefully they won't close the 1 I live near. You do understand that is why Walmart is able to give bonuses? They are closing up to 250 stores nationwide & are firing thousands of employees. That & the fact they are doing so much automated that they are not having to pay so many employees. They announced this the same day they announced the wage/bonus increase.

[horsespoiler]

V, I don't think you have to worry about your Sam's Club closing. They are only closing 63 locations and none of them are in your area. Our local Walmart is actually handing out flyers with open positions trying to get more employees. In fact almost everywhere I go has "Now Hiring" signs. Of course as the minimum wage is forced to increase you will see more automation in businesses with lower profit margins like fast food. Lots of brick and mortar stores are closing in areas where there is high competition and they are not profitable any longer. So much buying has shifted to online sites. One of my favorite local tack stores closed at the end of the year and relocated their warehouse to Ohio. The majority of their business is online but it was nice to be able to go in and check sizes. I'm sure the cost of doing business is lower in Ohio than Oregon.

We're going to get rain again this week and snow a bit higher up. I'm just glad it isn't supposed to be this low. I swear I'm going to get a freeze proof hydrant put in by the barn this year sometime. I think I will have to have someone do that for me, I'm not real confident about installing one myself. Our neighbor had a quad stolen a couple of weeks ago. They have a locked gate across the driveway into their property but the only house past them leaves a key to their lock hanging on the back of the gate post. He claimed his friends needed to be able to get to his house. We would here vehicles going up and down the road at all hours of the night. He has 3 "caregivers" staying up there and someone that one of them took up to his house with them saw where the key was and came back another night and took the quad. One of the high school boys was sending me messages on FB and told me who he had seen riding it. The day after he told me one of the caregivers "found" it and brought it back for them. They knew who they had let through the gate so they knew where to look. There is a new lock on the gate now with keys for each person that needs one. They will probably go nuts when the gate in front of our house gets the opener put on it and they have to purchase extra remotes for each person they want to have one. We will also be getting a camera system for our property and one camera will be aimed at the gate. There is also a group in town that are keeping an eye on what is going on in town. We have a group on FB, a closed one, and when someone mentioned they needed to get some spike strips for the guy racing up and down his street they stopped doing that. So either that person is in the group or someone is feeding info to these folks. We had a fight one night in front of our library where someone had his work saws stolen out of his truck in his driveway and he just went around to the houses where the lowlifes are known to hang until he found the right one. Saws were recovered and someone got a well deserved beating. He has been cutting fuel lines all over town to get gas and causing a lot of damage with costly repairs. People have decided to not sit back and let these druggies take whatever they want anymore. We still don't have a city cop and the sheriff and staters won't come up for just anything. They had some guys stealing pallets from the water bottling plant and called it in and were told it wasn't important enough to send any one. So they city guys managed to unhook the trailer and they only got the pallets they had in the back of the truck.

My nephew raced last week in Tulsa in the Chili Bowl. He did really great on his first day of qualifying and made it into the main event that night. His finish in that race secured him a spot in the B main for the final day. They had 2 mains for every letter from B to N with top finishers moving up to the next letter. He got caught up in a wreck in front of him and had to restart from the back and couldn't finish high enough to transfer to the A main final race. The car owners were still happy and he finished the best of the 3 racers they had on their team. There were 347 racers and lots of them are professional NASCAR drivers. I think he is doing a series in AZ in Feb with his modified car since there isn't any racing here until spring. It's hard to race on clay in the rain.

[ghostrider]

Yes they are closing 63 stores, all employees who want to remain with Sams/WM can transfer to one of the other stores and they will keep their pay rate and their senority. They are also getting rid of a few CoManagers depending on the volume of the store will determine how many they will keep at each store. And no this has nothing to do with the Tax benefit per associate. This is money they have saved due to the tax cut that they chose to give to their people. The longer they have been with the store the more you get. Walmart is a really great store. We are not just employees we are associates who share in the profits and benefits. That is why we get a My Share every three months and why we get a lot of other free benefits. I'll be getting a raise, a GOOD one in Feb plus they match my 401 and my stocks are at $102.70 as of today.

HS, We are supposed to be in the 60's Sunday with showers which I weird because it was -4 yesterday, 32 today and the schools have been closed all week and again tomorrow in some places because of the COLD and snow...yeah all of 3"! Ya gotta laugh. That's too bad about Bricen getting bogged down behind the other cars.
When we lived in WY we had to drive into the city limits and meet the cops in a parking lot to file a report. Can't remember why but it had something to do with Matt's motorcycle because they asked if he could drive it that far.

[vsolubo]

The Walmart’s that I live by & occasionally shop at have let go of most of their staff. You now need to stand in line to check out….at the self-checkout stations. Today I stopped to buy a couple of things & there were more staff in the produce section then I have seen in the entire store in months. I asked the woman stocking & she told me they had called all the employees to help put out the delivery they just received so most of the people working there were from other departments. She then nodded to a couple of women & told me they were department managers helping to stock.

When I checked out there were actually 2 lines open (normally only self-checkout is available); I always go through the employee line instead of self-checkout if 1 is open so I waited & went through a young man’s line. We talked & he said they were just informed that the part time employees had been let go & almost all the non-manager full timers were brought down to part time status. He told me it “would get a lot worse before it gets better because most of us have families & can’t support them on part time wages”. So yes, they have started letting many people go. If a business automates the majority of their service business it is common sense they can raise the employee’s wages with wages saved from the terminated employees.

Our local Sam's club is much the same; you shop & the lines that are open are self checkout & few employee manned lines (if any) are available. You have to stand & wait for a self checkout line to open up. Lots of fun when you are behind people with several flat beds full of items. The only reason I am renewing my Sam's Club membership is so I can get gas there, it is much cheaper than the gas stations around.

[horsespoiler]

We don't have any Sam's Clubs around here at all, we have Costco. Our Walmart Always has 4-5 checkouts open along with 4 or more self checks. They were passing out flyers about hiring opportunities at the doors. Everywhere is hiring. They just moved the Costco to a bigger building and we're getting a Hobby Lobby in the old location. All our stores are always busy but they are all well staffed. I wonder what is going on in your area that is so different from others? We have 3 Walmarts and 2 Fred Meyers(Kroegers) in our shopping area along with lots of other smaller grocery stores and large specialty stores and everybody is hiring.

I hope everyone isn't getting too pounded with snow and cold. We finally got some snow last night, almost covered the grass. We're supposed to get more tonight but I don't know.

When the race series in AZ starts it looks like both nephews will be going. Good thing the new trailer hauls 2 cars. My brother is at a trade show in Long Beach,CA and sent me a couple of pictures of our old house in Orange County yesterday morning. It's changed some but not a lot. I've seen pictures on google earth of the neighborhood and only 1 house has changed much. The 2 story house across the street is gone with a new one in it's place.

[luvmymorgan]

Casa Grande (where I lived before moving to Tucson) is in a decline. They had a Target(less than 10 years old) that closed over a year ago. The Sam’s Club is new since I moved to Tucson (probably 4-5 years old) and they are one of the ones closing. Macayo’s Mexican restaurant recently closed. Casa Grande is quite rural-mostly cotton farmers & I’ve always felt the mindset in the area was pretty “ghetto”. A lot of unemployment. No major industries except for farming and a small hospital.

We’re supposed to get freezing temps tonight & rain today. Need the rain! Got to remember to cover my plants tonight!

My computer is about to bite the dust one last time. A year ago I lost everything. HP was able to retrieve everything except Quickbooks. My version was too old & Intuit didn’t support it anymore. Ended up buying Quicken but not able to get any of the last 15 years exported over. Now I’m getting the same freezing up & corrupt driver message. HP said it was because the computer is old – originally Windows 7, upgraded to 8, upgraded to 8.1 and then upgraded to 10. They said the computer is just not made for Windows 10. It would have cost a lot to replace the drivers & downgrade to Windows 7 or 8, so I ordered a new computer. All in 1, 24” monitor that replaces my current monitor, tower, speakers, etc. Can’t wait until it gets here! Then I just have to figure out how to get everything transferred over. I did a big backup last weekend to an external hard drive.