Roosters and ReStores

There are just some facts of life that you can't get around regarding farm life and large family life. The first is, if you have free-roaming livestock, you will lose some of them over time. The second is, when you have a large family, appliances don't last as long as they might otherwise. I think you can see where both of these things is going.

I'm sorry to say that Rooster, the rooster, is no longer with us. Tuesday night he didn't come back to the coop with the rest of the chickens, and we had our first suspicions. Then yesterday morning, TM and P. found some feathers that are most likely Rooster's on the edge of our yard. I like to think he valiantly sacrificed himself saving his hens, though just as likely, he decided to attack whatever was coming after him instead of hiding. Either way, it was his final moment of glory. We all have very mixed feelings about this. Since we raised Rooster from a day old chick, and since he was a particularly beautiful bird, we are sorry this happened. But he was also a mean son of a gun, and several children were more than a little wary of him. It was interesting to overhear G. and L. comment to each other, "Let's go outside. Rooster isn't there anymore so he can't chase us!" "Okay, let's go!" And off they ran outside. More than a few people have mentioned to Fluffy the rooster that he is now going to have to up his game a bit, and start protecting those hens.

On to the appliances. Throwing water inside the dishwasher at key moments is growing old. Spinning wet clothes inside a heatless dryer is just not going to work at all for the amount of laundry I do in a week. Both of these are appliances that were with the house when we bought it. That gives them over a year of constant use. And by constant, I mean they were each run two to three times a day. That's a lot of use. I never expect our heavily used new appliances to last more than a couple of years without needing repairs, so why should I expect older ones to? J. took a look at both of them, and while he has repaired appliances in the past, neither of these seemed to be something he could fix himself.

Enter the Habitat ReStore to the rescue. You'll remember that this is where I bought our new (to us) range last year, which is still going strong, and works great. Knowing the price of new appliances, I figured it was worth a look. Well, the good news is that I found both a dishwasher and a dryer. The bad news is that J. gets to spend all his free time over the next few days installing them. (This is truly not his favorite activity in the world.) I think I got a pretty good deal. They are both Bosch, though older models. they look good though. Better yet, I spent slightly less than $300 for both of them. Yes, together. Since I couldn't touch one new appliance for that much, it seems a worthwhile experiment. And, I supported Habitat for Humanity at the same time. What's better than virtuously saving a ton of money?

I did have to pay for a new vacuum, though. From experience, the cost to repair our vacuum would be the same as buying the new one that I did.

We should be okay for a while. I admit to talking very nicely to the washing machine these days, it being the last of the appliances we inherited with the house.

Comments

Blaine said…
RIP Rooster
You menace

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