Sunday Reading - All In The Family

 

I feel much better now. Friday when I pulled into the parking lot at work I barely managed to pour myself out of the car onto the ground I was so beat from walking miles around keeping up with the new vehicles they thought they needed before this UAW strike gets going. I was met by a sweet summer child salesman (who really is a nice guy despite when he started) that had his eye on a possible sale of a vehicle that had come in that night and needed it within an hour to show. As it turned out it wasn't available when I got the paperwork together so he was out of luck anyway.

I took yesterday slow but got the roof totally repaired on the chicken house and most of the mowing done. Two important chicken situations developed yesterday. First off I had to physically lock up my Red Hen as she now tries to run under my mower while the blades are spinning. I guess she got used to the rooster scaring bugs into her waiting beak and thinks it's my job now, I had to get her locked up or it would have been ugly. Secondly I have now found the new egg spot. Interestingly enough the three remaining hens have also formed their own flock sans the rooster and were hanging out together instead of alone. This a development I watched all day and an important one as they keep to the safe area now almost exclusively and I can begin giving eggs away to the guys at work again without looking all over for singles.

Chickens around here need to have a rooster or a lead hen to keep them from getting too spread out to keep them from leaving eggs where predators learn to come looking for them regularly. The three hens I have left are from three different groups and were not adapting their own flock until the last few days. The original black hens still doesn't like the newer Amaricuna much but they are at least staying together more now. I have run free range chickens for decades now with very few incidents and wish I could again but getting my flock back since all the new immigrants moved in and disrupted the area is proving very hard indeed. 

I have considered just building a safe enclosed space for them but there is nothing happier than a fee range chicken and I have always enjoyed having them just run around as they please so I am hoping to go back to it or I will need to switch to caged birds.

Trust me there really is a noticeable difference. 

I had to pitch in and help the service department out Friday as 2 out of the three new employees didn't bother to show. Ford is actively financing extra employees at dealerships now to add extra service options for new car buyers  This is nothing new Ford has tried doing this since the last Obummer caused Res-session but has never been able to keep employees in enough numbers to make it last and get the results they celebrate/report as happening (the first week) to continue. 

I could tell that up the chain of command of this new Auto-group that bought us they were beginning to get pushy with some old employees and thought they now had an advantage in that area.  Employees they didn't have to pay for!!!! I have seen this tactic before many times and although I am pretty much outside any danger spot myself I just told the older employees to give it time as I knew what was going to happen. 

Sure enough within a few weeks they had already lost enough new employees that just having enough on the job at one time to answer the phone calls was proving difficult.  

How these people in some office somewhere come up with this stuff will always amaze me. They decide to add free vehicle pick up and delivery with every service call, including oil changes. I bet they would dress the cute females up in waitress outfits if they could!!! They have good luck with it the first three days until people 50 miles away hear about it and start making appointments and then wonder why they are losing so much money when their new employees are gone 4 hours as the New Custmers were off getting a milkshake rather than waiting for their pick up and the new employees don't show for work.

Finally by the end unless they hire a fulltime clerk to interview new hires daily they cannot keep employees to do the actual work they advertise and it just stops.  Until some new executive AA hire up the chain tries to make a name for themselves again that is. I have seen it happen so many times over the years.

Next stage, since they are already having issues getting enough new hires to show up will be a limit on the range for pickups. The problems will be of course that since they use the automated number for service reservations as well as scheduling pickups and deliveries that no one is available to actually check the distance... Yadda Yadda Yadda result will be the same. For the poor guys above me to tell them the truth equals a simple job loss until they can hire a new yes man, it does no good to try and aim for a better result. I have never been ayes man myself that is why I have always liked it irreplaceable at a lower level!!!

Like I said have seen it happen many times.

Ah well it is better to live with a problem you are familiar with than a new one that surprises you or so I have found to be generally true!!!

 

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!