Quieter Days Ahead

Things have calmed down a bit at the store, and I now have time to catch my breath and get some other work done that I've been putting off during the busy holiday season -- like cleaning up the place!   Certainly, I had no chance to do any dusting or vacuuming, etc.  in the store this last month, so now's the time to get it done.

We decided that we need a real shredder at the store.  I had a little "personal" shredder that I'd use for stuff, but that's just not up to the job we need to do now.   I print out all our internet orders, both from our site and from Amazon, and there's no need to keep all that paperwork.   We have almost two full file drawers full of paperwork from this year's orders that we need to shred.  I'd burn up that little shredder in a half-hour if that's all we had to use.   When I went on-line to search for one, I finally found a great deal at Staples.  The only problem was that the billing address for our Discover card didn't seem to work properly!  The problem seems to be with the PO Box that we have for a billing address.  After spending 20 minutes trying to get it to work on-line, I called them to place the order.  Unfortunately, they had the same problem!       All I wanted was to order a stupid shredder!   Needless to say, I was NOT a happy camper!  I finally pulled out the bill, and tried one more thing . . . I used ALL CAPS, and it worked!!  How stupid is THAT?!   Certainly something I'll remember, as this is not the first time I've had this very same problem with our Discover card.  
  
While I was trying to get all that worked out, my mother called with a problem.   :8_2_103:   They purchased a new, programmable thermostat, and when they opened it up, they discovered that the instructions were only in SPANISH!   OK, so I'm not going to go into what I think of THAT!    I had to go on-line and find the instructions and send the link to them, but their internet is so slow that they couldn't get the PDF file open!  Dad THINKS he has it all installed properly, and I suppose that if it's not, it's going to be cold in their house by morning and I'll be hearing from them again!  

Oh, did I mention that we woke to the smell of PROPANE in our house today?  We had to have our furnace looked at just a month or so ago because it wasn't working properly.   Turns out that the last time our furnace was blocked, they had to put a new pipe on, and because of the bend in the pipe, it became blocked again, but this time, the LP gas came through even though it wouldn't fire up.   It got down to about 60 degrees in the house, which wasn't too bad.  Fortunately, it was rather warm outside today (a balmy 28 or so), so the house didn't get too cold.  

I was talking to my mom about the problem and she couldn't understand why our CO detector didn't go off.  She was having a difficult time understanding the difference between carbon monoxide (CO)  and LP gas.  

I'm trying to figure out why we have an LP detector in our 5th wheel, but stick homes that use LP for heat, cooking and dryers don't have them.   I thought about that when we first moved up here and even mentioned it to my parents when we moved, but then promptly forgot about it.   It's now back at the forefront and is something I want to install near our furnace and near our dryer.   Those are the only two appliances that use LP, so I think that placing them in those areas is what we should do.  It's probably not a bad idea to get two more -- one for the lower level and one for the upper level -- so that we don't have to worry about this again.    

It would seem to be prudent that if a house is heated by LP gas that an LP gas detector should be installed in the home.   The odd thing is is that the best place to find one is from an RV dealer!    Guess I  know where to go to find one!   ;)  

Hope everyone is managing to stay warm!   Now that our furnace is fixed, we are!    

Julie

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas!   

It's hard to believe that today is Christmas Day.  This whole year has gone so fast!     We were scheduled to go to Milwaukee on Sunday (12/23/07), but there was a big winter storm coming.  It was questionable whether or not we'd go.   When we woke up in the morning, we had about 8 inches of snow, and it was NOT done snowing!   Our driveway was one big drift and there was no way we were going anywhere until our neighbors plowed us out.   We decided that we'd wait and see what the weather would do.  We had planned to leave by noon, and at that point, said OK, we'll leave at half-time of the Packer game.   NO, it was NOT done snowing yet, but we figured it was now or never!  

Here's a couple of pics I took before we left:

This first one is looking out our patio doors:



This is looking out the front door:



And, the saddest pic of all . . .



We watched the radar and it looked like we'd be out of the snow by the time we hit Waupaca (about an hour and 15 minutes south of us).  Unfortunately, that was not to be.    The snow followed us the entire time.  We had near white out conditions quite a bit.  Sometimes they were caused by the blowing and drifting snow, and sometimes they were caused by the idiots that were passing cars on the left (unplowed) side of the highway.  Actually, the right side wasn't really plowed either, but with all the traffic, there was a "path" for everyone to follow.  

There were a LOT of cars on the road during Sunday's storm and quite often, we just followed the vehicle in front of us.  Most times, I was only driving about 40-45 mph and drove the entire way in four wheel drive.  The kids were quite good, and actually stayed awake the entire drive!  Most times, after the first hour or two, they fall asleep.  I think they were as nervous as we were.  Course, they had some excitement, too, as they were keeping count of the number of vehicles that landed in the ditch!  LOL   OK, so that's not really funny, but if folks were prudent and cautious, they wouldn't end up in the ditch in the first place!  On the 230 mile drive, we counted 20 vehicles in the ditches.  One was a semi, and four vehicles had flipped.  "Stupid" hardly describes these folks!    

While some may consider us foolish for driving in the storm, we took our time and knew it was going to be a very long drive.  What normally takes 3-1/2 to 4 hours took us a total of SIX hours.   We found out from friends that left the next morning, that the roads weren't much better, and may even have been worse.  At least while we were driving, we were in snow, so I had some traction.  By the next morning, the roads were covered more with ice than snow (we had rain all day Saturday, so that's understandable).   I would MUCH rather drive in snow than ice!    

So, we made it to Milwaukee and my dear sister, Linda, had a cocktail waiting for my outstretched hand when we walked through the door!   ;)

We had a great time with my family, and this morning, stopped to visit with Greg's sister and her husband and family.  Danny makes the BEST Belgian waffles, and the kids always look forward to them, so we had a lovely late breakfast of homemade waffles.  We spent some time chatting and opening gifts to each other.  While it was a really short visit (just a couple hours), we were happy to at least have the time to stop and see them.  Living up here, we don't get to see Greg's sister much anymore, so any chance we have, and especially at Christmas, we try to stop and visit!  

We made it home in our usual four hours and the drive was quite uneventful, thank goodness!  Our neighbors plowed us out while we were gone and also took care of the chickens, duck, geese and goats.   We are very lucky to have such wonderful neighbors!  Now, I just have to figure out what I'm going to bake for Jim for plowing us out!  

After unpacking everything, we finally had time to open our own gifts.  The kids had fun, and of course, the house is a mess, but that's OK.  We're all happy and healthy and that's the most important thing!    

One thing Abby wanted was a Matchbox-type racetrack.  I managed to find a great one on Amazon and got a really good deal.  We put the track together, and it turns out it needs FOUR "D" batteries!  Who'd have thunk it!  Well, no D cells at home, but we have a BUNCH at the store.  So, yes indeed, you guessed it, Greg drove to our own store to buy some batteries!     When they got back and we put the batteries in, everything worked great!  Abby was thrilled!   The funniest thing was that the cats went bonkers over it!   All three cats were sitting in "pounce" mode watching the cars fly on the racetrack!   Mitzi pounced the most (she's our mouser), so that made sense!  It was VERY funny to watch all three of them with the heads spinning, watching the cars!  

Maddie (our shepherd) is right now sleeping in our bed.  She's exhausted.   She spent most of the last two days outside running and chasing my sister's dog, Otis.  Otis is just a year old, so is full of energy!  Poor Maddie had more exercise these last two days than she's had in the last two months!  

Aaron's busy on their computer putting music on his phone and playing with the new toys he received from his aunts and nana and papa.   Erica's upstairs painting her nails or putting make-up on, or some such thing!  She received a bunch of make-up and nail polish and also a lighted make-up mirror and a hand mirror!  Yea!  That means she's not going to be stealing MY mirror any more!    

So, that's pretty much it from the Mik Family for the last couple of days!  We hope that all our friends and family had an absolutely wonderful Christmas!    

Julie

Busiest Day of the Year for Us!

What a day!  

Today was pretty much the last day that packages could still be shipped via UPS "ground" and still make it to their destinations in time for Christmas.  That made it our busiest day of the year!   Saturday, Erica spent the day at the store with me, wrapping gifts for our family (I certainly don't have time to do it, and she was happy to take over that responsibility and see what everyone else was getting!).  She even wrapped a few of her own gifts that I had in boxes already!   :D

Once she was done with that, she helped me to pack orders.  Greg dropped Aaron off on his way to work and he helped us to finish up some of our orders and get some other work done in the store.  We packed over 50 orders on Saturday and after that, I had a bunch of gift boxes to make that had been ordered by a friend on another forum.  While the store closes at 5 on Saturdays, we didn't leave until about 7 p.m. and then I had a couple hours worth of work to finish up at home, along with getting dinner done, etc.  

We also had a local business owner stop in and order a bunch of gift boxes that I have to put together.   I'm trying to figure out when I'm going to have the time to do that, and right now am planning on doing that tomorrow night so they can go out Wednesday.  They're all local, so with UPS delivery, they'll all arrive the next day, so I have a little bit of leeway in getting them out.    Many of our local business owners do their best to shop locally and help the Abbotsford economy.  We really appreciate it when they think of us!  

Sunday, it was Abby's turn to help me at the store!  She got to wrap a few more gifts, and even picked out a couple gifts from the other stores in the mall.  Once that was done, she helped me pack over 50 more orders.  Once again, we left late.  

I had just ordered more boxes for shipping our hot dog forks and marshmallow trees on Friday, to be delivered on Monday, and with the sudden influx of Gift Box orders, it turns out I didn't have enough boxes or packing peanuts to ship them!  Thank goodness the company I buy all that from is just over in Eagan, MN, so I ordered them today and they'll be here tomorrow.  I can't wait to see what 24 cubic feet of packing peanuts looks like!  LOL  

We try to recycle boxes, as often as possible, and I get them from Dollar General next door to us quite often.   I'm always digging around in their back room and taking boxes before they put them in the recycling dumpster.  I don't know what I'd do without them!   Greg has also been bringing me boxes from County Market, as it's just been crazy and difficult to keep up with.  

Why am I telling you about the boxes?  Well, it's kind of funny!  

I had a call from a customer this morning stating that although UPS claims to have delivered his waffle iron to him, he couldn't find it anywhere.   The really sad part about this is that it was left on the front steps of a CHURCH!    Can you imagine someone stealing a package from a CHURCH?   Oh yea, going straight to hell for THAT one!  

I told the customer that I'd ship him another waffle iron today and file a claim with UPS.  No need for him to wait for UPS to do their thing.  I'll ship it today so he has it in time for Christmas.  He was thrilled with my response, as Amazon and UPS both were less then helpful.

I promptly filed a claim with UPS and was preparing to ship a new waffle iron to him when he called back.   The package had been found.  Apparently, an employee had found the box and because it said it was "perishable", they put it in the fridge!!!   :lol:      I'm thinking that I should maybe invest in a good magic marker to cross out that sort of stuff on boxes that I recycle!   LOL

We ended up with another new record today -- shipping out a total of  160  packages!   Those included the ones from Saturday and Sunday that we packed up earlier, and then today's orders.   Mom came in to help today, which was wonderful.  She worked hard and we had a good time.  I'm sure she's tired.    

The girls came to the store after school and helped me with some other things we had to finish up, and we finally left at 6:45, but not to go home!  We had to go to Erica's Christmas concert at the high school, so we didn't get home until about 8:45 p.m.   The concert was wonderful and we enjoyed it.  One thing I really enjoy about living in the "middle of nowhere" is that when the kids have a Christmas concert, we don't hear only "holiday" songs, but were treated to beautiful old favorites like Silent Night, O Holy Night (my
FAVORITE Christmas song) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, etc.  In essence, the concert covers a big genre of music from classic Christmas songs, to newer holiday songs like "Christmas Shoes".  Really a fabulous concert and collection of music.  

We heard everything from the 6th grade band, the middle school choir, the two high school choirs, the show choir (FABULOUS dance & song routines!) and the middle and high school bands.  

Sorry this is so long!  Not sure who will read all the way through, but if you did, THANK YOU!  It's now way past my bedtime, and I'm exhausted.  

Take care, everyone!

Julie

New Store RECORDS!

We ended up shipping out 117 packages on Monday!  That was a new record  -- but it was a "weekend" record, rather than a one day record (it included orders from late Friday, Saturday, Sunday and early Monday).     Our previous record was 77, so we've certainly grown!   We spent quite a bit of time packaging orders over the weekend, so it wasn't difficult to do.  

Our UPS driver had a delivery for us in the morning and asked "how's it look back there" -- meaning how much did we have packed already.  It old him about 70, and that there were at least 30 more to come.    About 1 p.m., he showed up (with his "helper" that he gets at this time of year) to pick up what we had done already.    He had some extra time and room in the truck at that point, so, knowing how much we had (and the variety of box sizes), he decided to stop and get what was ready.     When Lee came to pick up our packages today, he said he had over 1,000 packages in his truck when he finally got back to the UPS facility on Monday!  WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!      These UPS guys work so hard during the holidays.  They have to deliver all the business orders in the morning and then deliver the residential orders and in-between, after 3 p.m., they have to make all their regular pick-ups from stores like ours, and then continue with their residential deliveries.   Lee said he didn't get back to the UPS facility until about 8:30 last night.    They have to keep working until all their stuff is delivered, so they have a LOT of overtime at this time of year!  

We're fortunate that we have such a GREAT driver!   Lee's always in a great mood, and he's always willing to come back if I'm not done or ready for him.  We are VERY lucky to have him for our UPS driver!  He makes it so easy to work with UPS to get all our packages out the door.  

Today, I went in at 8 a.m., as I've been doing for the last two weeks.  In the past, my one day record for packing and shipping orders was about 40, which is up from 32, last year.   Today, I packed and shipped 64 orders!!!!!! Holy cats!  I NEVER thought I'd be able to get that many orders done in one day!  

The day was not without it's adventure, though!   As I started packing up orders, I realized that I didn't have enough paper to pack all the orders we have!   OMG!  What now??????????   I called Greg and told him to get me some paper!  I need paper!   He called the local newspaper (TP Printing) and they gave us a roll of unprinted newspaper (thank you, Carol!), and then he went to County Market and talked to folks there and got a bunch more paper, along with extra grocery store flyers that they didn't need any more.  In other words, Greg was my HERO today!    

I must say that we have some of the BEST suppliers there are!  On Monday, I had to call and order moreCrystal Color Sticks and Cones.   The company is just about 200 miles north of us, but they are VERY busy making and packing wreaths at this time of year.   I wasn't expecting them quite so quickly, but they showed up today!  Thank goodness!  

I also had to order more marshmallow forks, hot dog forks, waffle irons, etc.   I called on Monday and told them I need them last week.   They're such a fabulous company and fairly close to us -- just south of Chicago, but it usually takes at least two days to get the products to us.  Well, as I was working on orders, the buzzer on the back door rang, and it was the semi with my pallet of forks, waffle irons and pie irons!  How cool is that!    

I just LOVE these companies we deal with!  They are absolutely AWESOME!  Course, it helps that they're family owned, just like us, and really care about their customers!    Dealing with companies like Rome Industries and Winter Woods makes it so much easier to do what we do!  

I'm pooped, to say the least.   I can't remember EVER working so hard in my life!  BUT, I've never felt so good or been so happy, either!  I LOVE what we're doing and will happily work like this every single day to make our store a success!     Please be sure to spread the word!  We happily pack every single order ourselves and everyone is treated to PERSONAL service from our family.     We're not Camping World, and don't ever want to be.  We enjoy being a "mom and pop" business!  

Hope everyone is safe from the storms (they've missed us completely) and has power and everything else they need this time of year!

Julie

Scooping Up Chickens!

Normally, on Sunday's, we don't open until noon, but as has been the norm these last two weeks, I went in early as I had a LOT of work to do thanks to all the on-line holiday shoppers out there!  I really must say THANK YOU to all who have ordered from us!    We appreciate your business more than you know!

Greg brought Aaron and Erica in to help me (and himself, of course!), before Aaron and Greg had to go to work.   Erica stayed with me to finish packing up all the orders.  We also had to make some Dip Gift Sets.  OK, well, not just  some, but THIRTY of them!  So, once we had all the orders done, we went to town making the dip gifts.  The mall closes at 5 p.m. on Sundays, and so do we.  However, Erica and I were there until 6:30 so we could get everything done.

Once we stopped at the grocery store to get stuff for dinner (tacos), we had to pick Abby up from her friends' house where she spent the last two days playing and riding snowmobiles.

I suppose by now you're wondering about the title to this entry . . . well here's the reason.  Aaron went out to take care of the animals and decided to let the chickens out today, even though it's entirely too cold and they don't like the snow.  They won't walk on it if they don't absolutely have to, and I can't blame them, as they have NO insulation on their feet.   Well, as I was pulling into the driveway, I noticed something under the 5er.  I shined my lights on it, and it turns out it's a chicken!   Oh, and not ONE, but TWO chickens!   Granted their coop isn't exactly toasty in this cold weather, but it protects them from the wind and there are two heat lamps in there, along with their food and water.  We lose a chicken or two every winter, but it's almost always because they didn't get into the coop for the night and they died of exposure.   Well, Abby and I had to CRAWL under the camper to get at the two hens that were there!  Because I left my truck lights on so WE could see, the chickens could also see, and were NOT pleased with us trying to grab them!  

We DID end up getting both hens and did a quick check under the deck and around the coop, and a head count tells us that all the chickens are back where they belong.  I must say, that was the first time I ever crawled underneath the camper in the dark, in winter!  

That's about it.  Nothing much more going on around here!  Oh, I have to mention here . . . I'm getting more ornaments in the store!  I ordered them last night and hope to have them before the end of the week!  Anyone looking for RV ornaments, keep checking our store site as once they come in, I'll immediately have them available!   If anyone would like to "pre" order them, go ahead and do so and I'll ship them immediately once they come in!  

Well, it's after 9 and I need to eat dinner, so I guess that's it for now!  

Stay warm everyone!

Julie

I'm TICKED!

When I was packing up orders today, I had one for the last travel trailer ornament and when I went to get it (it was hanging in the front of the store), it was GONE!   I looked EVERYWHERE for that ornament and it's nowhere to be found!  If I had accidentally "oversold" them, my inventory would have said "-1" instead of "0" for how many we had left.  There's only ONE answer to why I didn't have one to ship.  It was STOLEN!      

I'm sure that whoever stole the ornament doesn't read my blog, but if you do, this message is for you!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that ornament looks lovely on your tree!  Obviously, you needed that ornament more than the person who actually PAID FOR IT you creep!    I'm thoroughly disgusted by your behavior and pray you never darken our doorways again!  
As Corporal Klinger would say:  "I hope the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits!"

Now that I have that off my chest, I feel better.  Well, not really.  I'm still REALLY ticked!  I'm ticked that some creep had the nerve to steal something from us, and I'm ticked that the creep has made me feel this way!  I was in a GREAT mood today and was happily filling orders until the last one, when I discovered the stolen ornament.   I'm not going to let this fester, but I DID have to get it out.    Thanks.

OK, on to better things!   I've been putting in so many hours at the store that I don't have time to do my OWN holiday shopping!  Seeing as I don't have to pack any orders up tomorrow, I'm going to spend some time shopping on-line and ordering my OWN gifts!   I'm kind of pleased at the thought of someone else having to pack up MY orders and shipping them to me!  LOL  

Yesterday, Greg went to check on the sump pump in the basement, and it turns out it's fried!   Apparently, the hose outside froze up, so the pump kept trying to pump and couldn't do anything.  Fortunately he caught it before anything flooded downstairs, but he had to get a new sump pump.  Not only that, but he had to go into the backyard into the snow and get a new hose out there that won't freeze up -- one of those big black 3" around plastic ones, instead of the smaller 1-1/2 inch flexible blue ones that we normally use.   So, there's more money down the drain (literally)!   Like I said, at least the basement didn't flood!    

It's gotten very cold here, and we've had more snow in the last few days and there's more in the forecast, so we're pretty much assured of a white Christmas.  This weekend is going to have some of the coldest temps of the year, with wind chills well below zero most of the night.    One of the lights in the chicken coop is burned out, so I have to get another one tomorrow.  With this cold weather, they really need that extra light in there.  

Our newest addition, Quagmire the Duck, is doing fine.  She makes herself a nice little nest in the chicken coop, although I don't think she's happy about the cold temps!     She doesn't even know that she's the "Queen of the Coop" as Aaron calls her!   She's bigger than all the chickens, so they let her do what she wants.  If she wants water, she gets it.  If she wants food, she gets it!  LOL    She's very sweet and wouldn't "peck" at the chickens, but the chickens don't know that, so they give deference to her!   LOL     We haven't been able to let them out since all the snows came, as it's just too cold out and they won't walk in the snow anyway.  However, the one day we DID let them out, when Erica went to put them away (about 4 p.m.), a bunch of the chickens were hiding underneath our deck.  Not only that, but Quagmire was there, too!    ;)   Apparently, she just followed the chickens and did what they do!    About 30 minutes later, they all walked back to the coop and Erica was able to close them up.

So, that's all that's been going on here lately.    Hope everyone's well and ready for the holidays!

Julie

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Remember my rant about the company I ordered boxes from?  How they canceled my order, blah, blah, blah?  Well, I got a phone call from them yesterday, saying that one of their trucks was MISSING and so they were calling folks who MAY have had an order on that truck!  HUH????  Well, seeing as I hadn't received a check yet, or a credit to my account, I gave it to the woman who called me with both barrels!    What do you mean, my order was LOST?  YOU PEOPLE TOLD ME IT WAS CANCELED?  Oh, and by the way, WHERE IS MY MONEY???????  It's been about 20 days since my order and you people stole my money!   The woman looked into it and called me back with a tracking number for the check that was going to be sent NEXT DAY AIR.  Lo and behold, I actually GOT the check today!  So, that's one problem solved!  I will NEVER order from that company again.  The small amount of savings is not worth the trouble they cause!  

We had quite a bit of snow the other day -- about 10 inches.  Of course, our driveway was one huge drift about 2 feet deep!   Fortunately, our neighbors plowed us out!   Unfortunately, the snow came on the 1st, which was supposed to be the day of the Christmas Parade in Abbotsford!    The parade doesn't start until 7:30 p.m. and by then it was so bad outside, there was no way we were going to make it there.  When I left our store at 4:30 (I closed early), it took me 30 minutes for the 8 mile drive home!   The snow kept coming, and the roads were getting worse and worse.  Erica was really upset because she was supposed to do her flag routine, but when I talked with the band leader, she said the girls couldn't do their routine in that kind of snow and wind anyway.  Not only that, but the bands were not going to be able to play either because of the weather.  So, all that time getting up early and practicing for nothing.   Such a shame!  

My days at the store are starting earlier and earlier and ending later and later.  Christmas shopping has really picked up!  We hit a new record for packages on Monday!  We shipped EIGHTY packages!   With all the time left before Christmas, I'm thinking we may surpass that record, too!    It's exhausting, because I don't have Greg to help me because he's busy at the grocery store.  Next year, we'll probably have to hire someone to help, but that' s a good thing!  

I still have to figure out a way to get my own Christmas shopping done, and I'll have to work on that this weekend.  I've a feeling I'll be finishing most of that on-line myself!  I ended up doing that last year, too, and it worked out great!  

We're expecting a couple more inches of snow tomorrow, and with the cold temps we've been having (brrrrrrrr, it's cold outside!), it's appears we're pretty much guaranteed a white Christmas!  

Hope everyone's doing well and staying warm!  

Julie