Catching up

So I suck at this blog thing but need to be better. I have 2 blogs. This one and one for Bad Monkey Merchandise. Both need some TLC. I'm not as good as Bobzilla.

Anyway, it is spring on the farm and tons of things are growing. They picked up 9500 strawberry plants last week and they are going into the ground for 2012 season. Last year new berries went in so they should be excellent this season.

Dorothy our rooster was adopted this past weekend by Denise one of the veterinary lab techs. He will be getting 15 women all to himself. Spencer had a toe amputated 2 weeks ago. Stitches came out a few days ago and he will be back in the ladies coop on Saturday. Today I played a recording of his crow for the girls and 5 out of 6 of them laid eggs. They were so excited they started making all sorts of clucking noises.

Jimmy is off at photography school and doing really well. He seems to be liking it and coming into his own.

Jeter is Jeter. Hanging out, following me around and doing cat things. The kittens Snap and Dragon are about a year old and doing great. Snap is a killing machine and Dragon is a Princess, I don't think she has had one kill. Petunia is still king of the farm. And now we have a court jester and he name is Clover. Clover is a sweet little terrier mix. This puppy has so much energy. Sometimes I look out the window and she is just flying by on a mission. And we get lots of other dog visitors like Midnight, Brew and Hoss.

Speaking of other visitors, Lori is now moved into the house and getting used to farm life. She is still so city but that is to be expected. We will have her rolling in dirt by the fall.

Having someone else living in my house will take some getting used to but I think it will be okay.

I will be Wiggling again this summer for all of July and part of August. Let me know if I will be in your town.

Hello Cleveland

So just about to wrap up the first leg of The Fray tour. Today is a day off and I was going to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but I would rather see it when Jimmy can go and besides the whirlpool bath is calling my name. Just catching up on work in the hotel room at the Renaissance. I think some people are going to go see The Roots tonight but we have a 4 in a row ahead plus I have a 6:20am flight on Sunday and I need my rest. Can't believe I am going to miss Def Leppard this week at SPAC.

Yesterday at Riverbend a fence fell on me. That was alot of fun.

It was raining and hailing a bit when we arrived this morning. Totally got soaked.

Let's see what tomorrow brings. I'm off to the hot tub.

The Catalogue

Finally, the catalogue is finished. We will have it in hand this Friday and will be mailing it out over the weekend. You can view the catalogue here.

More tomorrow...

Ask me how I got screwed by Ford Service

Let me start by saying four dirty words Latham Ford & Orange Ford. We have always heard horror stories about car dealerships but these 2 take the cake.

Let's start with Orange Ford. I take my precious F350 in for an oil change and tire rotation. Well, those genius left a 4x4x20" wooden block jammed up in my axle. I drove all day with it like that, I'm sure stressing out my truck. While driving it felt like I was driving through cement. Had I not stopped to wash my truck I could have likely been killed driving back up the mountain. Or the wood could have come loose and shot through someones windshield. Neither option good. Anyway, call Ford and they have me bring it back. Jimmy brings it in because I am out of town. (Mind you that as I talk about all these trips to Ford dealerships it is an hour drive from our house.) The Ford Truck Service Manager, Bo and his gang laugh it off. Guess they think it is funny that I could have crashed. They supposedly check it out and say that nothing is messed up of course. I take it back again for the pre-100,000 mile check up and because the steering just feels tight and they say everything is fine just a bulb out next to the license plate. They "change" the bulb. They fail to notice that my inspection has run out. I thought they checked the car out from bumper to bumper? Yeah right. So now I have to take it to my local garage in Middleburgh, NY called Ryan's. Nate tells me the bulb is out. Nice job on the bulb change. The guys at Ryan's are awesome. Super nice staff and very aware of what they are doing with your truck. They actually take the time to check your vehicle out instead of parking it out back and saying they worked on it. Never going to go to Orange Ford unless it is to take a dump on their service desk.

Now about 6 months later the truck starts this weird loss of power thing that has happened before when we were in Texas. I think it is the EGR (or ERG) valve. Since this is a problem we have had before I had to take it to a Ford dealership in case warranty was an issue. So I go to Latham Ford. I stress to Josh in the service department how unhappy I was at Orange and I really expected more of Latham Ford. Stupid me. I told him about the valve, not sure if they looked at it. They come back and say that my turbo diesel needs to be cleaned to the tune of $900.00. They keep it for a week, I ask them to do the oil change while it is there and to look her over again. They come back and say the ball joints have some "play" and they need to be replaced here soon.. I don't have another $900 to blow on ball joints so I decide to wait on that.

I finally get my truck back and everything seems fine. The power loss thing was intermittent so it is hard to gauge. Within a week I feel the truck stutter some and act up. I know it needs a new fuel filter so I think maybe that is the problem. Change the fuel filter and still the problems continue. I notice that they didn't change the oil. I call Josh to complain about the oil not being changed and to tell him the car is still acting up. Says sorry about the oil change, come drop it off. Like I said, hour drive and no way to get home. It should have been done the week they had it. As far as the power issue, he tells me that well the book told us to clean the engine. If you really don't know how to work on a diesel, let me know so I can take it somewhere else. He gives me no help on this issue. Just "I'm sorry you feel that way".

I mull over my options and decide to call the service manager David Sullivan. Let's see, he says bring the truck in, it will probably take a week or two for them to work on it, that my truck is a piece of garbage when it was built (bad year for Ford trucks), I'm lucky I haven't had to replace the engine and the EGR, I should buy a new truck (it's an 04) and we did what the book said and cleaned the engine.

No way am I taking it to those bozos again. So I take it to another garage that is not Ford. It is called S&G Truck Repair in Latham, NY. The owner Sarkis is a doll and his crew is excellent. They had that truck fixed in no time. They saw the problem when they got under the hood. Apparently my turbo clamp was really loose and exhaust was going everywhere in the engine and making the computer not run correctly. They got that sorted and changed my oil as well. Truck was done in less than 2 days. Oh and by the way, ball joints are fine.

So here is the scenario, one of two things happened when the truck went to Ford...
The clamp was loose when I brought it in and they missed an obvious solution to my trucks problems. Instead they cleaned the engine which wasn't necessary and charged me out the *ss for it. Or there was a problem with the truck and when they cleaned the engine and put it back together, they forgot to hook up a major component. Either scenario is not good and Latham Ford is responsible for shoddy work.

I have since talked to 2 diesel shops and one said you don't need to clean the turbo diesel and the other said in terms of diesel age, my truck is still a baby and really didn't need something like that done. It is a service that is rarely performed. Kind of when an all else fails (loose turbo clamp), clean the engine.

Now the way I figure it, besides the money Ford owes me for service not done or unnecessary service, they owe me for my time. I charge $100.00/hour for my services. They owe me around $1,700-2,000.00 for the time (plus gas) I have had to waste taking my truck to them and to other garages to fix what Ford did.

Now tomorrow I am going to call the GM at Latham Ford and see what they have to say. Next step will be Ford Motor Company Corporate. Small claims court after that.

Now, something nice about Ford. We bought our truck at Mac Haik Ford in Georgetown, TX. It is one of the only few good things about Georgetown (that is a separate book). From the purchase to the last service they have been stellar. Even after we moved I would try and structure our business travel around the trucks major service so that they could perform it. They are 1,900 miles from me and their service is that good. My service manager was Jason Norman who took care of us like family. His crew was top notch. I could call him from the middle of Wyoming with a question about the truck and he would answer it, no problem. I never felt taken advantage of and my truck ran like a top. Since I haven't been there I still call for advice on my truck and I talk to Micah who has been awesome. He always has time to answer questions or look up something in my service records. Every service tech that I have dealt with has been perfection. The girls that work in service with the billing to the car rental have been excellent as well. I seriously miss this dealership and I hope that the two Ford dealerships that I have had to deal with are not the norm for NY dealerships, but I feel they may be. I went to the Cobleskill Ford dealership and I did not like the service man I talked to there. He couldn't give me an accurate price for an oil change, and he was rude to one of the staff members while I was standing there.

All Ford dealerships should use Mac Haik Ford as the model to live up to.

I will let you know how my phone call goes with the Latham GM.

Going to go watch Joe Biden give his speech at the convention.

The Catalog

Ah yes, it is finally done. Our new catalog is at the printers and will be hitting the streets in the next week and a half. It is twice the size of last years and includes a whole eco section. As soon as I have the pdf link I will post it on the blog. We will be sending out more newsletters as we head into the fall showcasing some new items, great services and special pricing. Stay tuned.

What's happening, what's going on?

We have been crazy busy around here. Usually after the Christmas rush we have a minute to breathe but we hit the ground running right at New Years and now all of a sudden it is August and we are getting ready for another holiday season.

We have been working on several things. Updating our current site and finding new products for all of you. The new catalogue is coming out in the next 2 weeks and also we are launching a new eco-website.

I have a few newsletters going out over the next week to keep everyone up to date on some of the specials we are running (chocolate, holiday cards etc.)

So lots of things to come in the next 2 weeks to help all of you promote yourselves and your business.

In uncertain economic times, some companies play it safe and hold back on their marketing. Mistake. This is the time where you should run full force ahead with your marketing plan and keep your name out there. Believe me, your competitors are. We are going into an all or nothing phase. Wouldn't you like to have it all when we see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Enough business and onto the important stuff....chickens. The chickens are doing good. We did have one death earlier this year. You all know Billie the sneezing chicken. She passed away earlier this summer. During the late winter the chickens were getting stir crazy and they did what chickens do and that was pick on each other. Billie being the smallest and weakest got beat on, so we had her in Chicken Hospital and two of the girls (Butterfly and Titleist) went to prison on the front porch. In the spring we tried to reintroduce Billie but, no luck. So we set her up with her own coop and she got free run of the garden. In the afternoon she would go into the yard with the rest of the chicks, because there was plenty of run room. She got lots of snacks and extra attention so she was happy at the end. She loved to go in the garden everyday and have it all to herself. One day I went out and had lunch with her because it was so nice out and when I went out a couple hours later, she had passed. It looks like she just fell asleep in the sunshine. We miss her everyday.

The chickens finally have a big pen to run in. They used to have the whole yard but I got tired of chasing them thru the swamp to keep them safe.

I need to post some new pictures of the gang. As soon as it stops raining I will take some.

Jeter the cat is great. He is on a raw diet now, he gets acupuncture and chiropractic care. He is so much healthier and happier now with all the healthy changes.

Talk to you soon.

My Birthday

Sooooooo, I knew it! The evil Christine has been spending her time studying the answers on the Trivial Pursuit Game. Of course her team gets questions like "What is your name?" and our team was getting "What color underwear was George Washington wearing on the first Tuesday of the 3rd year of the Revolutionary War?" It was ridiculous. But the food was good and the cake was even better. We had a good time. Here are pictures of me, Chris and her mom Simone (my second mother). A picture of me and my brother Joe and then one of me and my sweetie.

Happy Halloween and Welcome Back!

After many complaints that I don't update my blog I decided to just buckle down and get it done. It will make it easier to post if I just stay up on it.
So back in May we signed up with a new shopping cart and have been working on the new website non-stop. It will finally launch tomorrow. Also we created a new catalogue and finally have mailed that off to everyone.

I returned from a 6 week tour with Genesis back on October 15th. When I stopped touring I said I would never go back. Never say never. Howard Hopkins called and asked me to come out and I can't say no to Howard. I had a great time. I am looking forward to going back if they do another leg.

I've usually done tours where it is mostly Americans so this was a little different. I started the tour wearing my anti-Bush tshirt which helped. I got a lot of "I like your shirt" from foreigners and US people. It is unfortunate that one man can influence a whole worlds opinion of a country. The next president has alot of damage control to do.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone on the tour and learning about their life and families. And it goes to show that most people are the same. They just want to make a good living, provide for their families and spend time with loved ones and friends. Not too much to ask.

When I left my chicks were still babies and when I came home they were big girls that are starting to lay eggs. Here is a before and after with Butterfly.


When Butterfly sees me coming up to pet her, she does a little dance.

Jeter's birthday was October 16th and we bought him a little kitty bed for the window and my birthday is this weekend and I am going to my best friend, Christine's house for dinner and Trivial Pursuit.

While I was gone Jimmy and Eddie installed our wood burning stove. We have been using it on and off since I got home. It is so nice. Takes the chill off the house. And it is a lot cheaper too. What we would spend in one month for electric and propane we were able to cover the entire winter season with wood.

I will be better about posting. Promise.