Birds - Sump Pump - Butcher Box Story

I glanced out my patio door Wednesday afternoon and saw it filled with black birds. I turned my focus back to the movie I was watching. Ten minutes later they were still there, flying from the field behind the house up into my trees and then back down to the field. I grabbed my camera and tried to capture as many as possible.

Thursday was pretty productive for me, getting a few things done on my list that lingers around here. 

Every since the power came back on a few weeks ago, after the five days of power outage due to the ice/snow storm, my sump pump was making a weird sound and would run longer than it use to. I turned it off a few times thinking it would help to reset it or have whatever was frozen might melt if that was a possibility. Still there was no change. 

Once I saw the increase of electricity use on my recent utility bill I knew I had to make a call. After some searching online I found this company. 60 years of experience was good in my book plus anywhere I looked they had 5-star reviews.

I was on the phone at 11am to their office discussing the problems I had. The young man pulled into the driveway a few minutes after 1pm and in less than an hour I had a new QUIET sump pump that was working. 

I had misidentified a photo from the house inspection in May 2021 thinking that was the pump. From that photo it looked to be to the left and behind a partial concrete wall in the crawl space. As soon as he crawled inside he reached above this door and pulled the electrical plug. The pump was to the right and with his flashlight I was able to kneel down and see the hole for the pump.

There was a light grayish smoke coming out of the hole. The old pump had been burning itself up all the times of the weird noise. When he touched the water in the hole before installing the new pump, it was burning hot. We turned on the faucet to put cold water into the hole to decrease the temps before installing the new pump.

He thought it was possible I had a power surge when the utility company turned our power back on and that might be right. I remember at the time, That was my vacuum running more powerful then it ever had for a few minutes right after it came back on. There was another sign where I thought there might have been a surge but today I can't remember what that was.

Anyway long story short ... a new cast iron pump replaces the old burning up pump made of plastic. The valve that closes once it is done pumping is not heard whereas before I could hear that valve slam shut. When I first moved here I didn't know what I was hearing but it was loud at the time.

Pump check off the list.

I went to Facebook Marketplace to find someone that would haul the cut bushes and saplings off the berm. I have a couple of guys where things are still being worked out.

Butcher Box ... the concept sounded good. After all the advertisements and reviews I decided to give them a shot. Let's just say things are off to a BAD START.

Order placed February 1. I received an order confirmation "your order is being processed for shipment". No word for the next 4 days!!!! I see a shipping status when I get up on Wednesday ... shipping label was made on February 4th at 4:15am ... am. It sits there for 26 more hours before UPS picks it up. So Wednesday night they tell me the delivery date has been moved from February 4th to February 7th.

Packed in dry ice with instructions that the box must be hoped within 6 hours after they deliver it to my front porch. Well we are already talking hours before it was picked up. I find out yesterday on my call to their customer service the box sits in a freezer after the label is made until UPS picks it up. Still UPS is using up my 6 hour limit.

The story gets better!!!

Thursday morning, drinking morning coffee I check the status of the shipment. LOL .... "shipment delay due to severe weather" ... hmmmm ... sunny and 48° outside and I had not heard about any storms on the news. So I check the weather radar in the Philadelphia area, the origin of shipment.

From Indiana to Pennsylvania there is nothing but clear skies on the radar ... no rain, no snow, no ice is showing up. So the question is "weather delay" ????

I call customer service. 

She verifies that she cannot see any severe weather on radar and of course does not know nor should she know why my order is delayed. 

From February 5 at 4:10am to February 7 at 6:55pm ... the box has traveled a little over 4 hours and 272 miles !!!! After 9 hours of travel time and has not even left New Stanton PA .... 

I really have my doubts it will arrive between 8pm and midnight tonight. YES they included MIDNIGHT as a time range. This is really unbelievable. 

So when the box finally arrives I am to unpack it, stick a meat thermometer into the sealed packages to see if the meat is warmer than 40°. If so, I am to throw the meat away and call them for a refund. 

After I had heard NOTHING from them on the 4th, three days after the order was placed, I canceled my subscription and the automatic payment for a new order on March 1st. $169 for 14-15 pounds of beef is $12.07 per pound at 14 pounds. Cheaper than most steaks but at times I can buy it much cheaper than that at the store and butcher shop. 

I have no doubt by the time this box of meat shows up, it will not be good. Cold weather though MIGHT keep the dry ice working after 3-4 days but I doubt that it will. 

I am off to get my 2nd cup of coffee and build a new blog for all the corruption news you crave ... 

It's a sunny COLD morning here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.