Sticking To The Plan

It's a crazy ol' world.  And you can lay all that craziness at the feet of human beings.

Today I went on a quest to find 8 ft T posts so I could finally build the fence to the new chicken yard and thus make the garden safe from poultry.  You'd think I was trying to build a skyscraper from toothpicks or something equally ludicrous.

Finding fence posts...It shouldn't be hard.

But the world has gotten complicated and me, with my take on what it is to be a responsible consumer, well that just makes it that much more complicated.  I know this, but I am also too stubborn to give in merely for the sake of convenience.

I began my quest by traveling across town to the west side.  There is a Habitat for Humanity store, and I wanted to see if they had fence posts.  Nope.  But they did have my sink.  Not the sink of my dreams, but a pretty incredible one and for a great price.  So I bought it.

Then I went next door to the True Value Hardware store, because on line it said they had 8 ft fence posts, but nope.  They only had 6 ft. posts.  but I did buy a scrub brush, because it was a stiff natural bristle brush set in wood.  And with my stubborn resistance to buying plastic, I snapped it up.

Then I went next door to the Good Will store just in case they might possibly have fence posts, which they didn't.  But they did have really cheap enamel pans and I had been looking for cheap water pans for the chickens...again, not plastic.

Yes, lots of great stuff that has been on my list, but no fence posts so far.

I headed home and said a prayer that Mike wouldn't rain on my parade about the sink.  But on the way I checked out Lowe's.  They also only had 6 ft posts.  Pretty wretched Lowe's.

When I got home, I thought I'd quietly haul the sink via wheel barrow into the back yard.  No easy task, since it took two strong men to load it into my car.  (Double cast iron porcelain sink.)  I eased it into the wheel barrow, and got it as far as the back gate, when Mike came outside and gave me a hand.  He thought it was a good deal and a nice sink.  I think he was relieved that I got it at Habitat instead of at an antique store.

After telling him I'd had no luck finding fence posts, he got on line and announced to me that True Value had them.  I told him I'd been to the one on the west side and they didn't have the size I needed. We decided to try the one down town, so I called them.  Yes, they had 8 ft T posts in stock.

Hooray!  Mike and I drove into town, and he helped a young man load the fence posts into our car, while I was inside paying for them.  When I got out to the car, I noticed that the posts were different, but didn't know why.  When we got them home, I realized that they were made in China.

What's the difference? you may be asking.

Let's just say that for reasons of my own, I specifically sought out posts that were made in the US.  The True Value Website shows that the fence posts they carry are made in the US.  It didn't occur to me to check because I believed their website.  It's the ol' bait and switch.  Maybe not intentionally...but maybe?

I was angry.  You know, the kind of angry when you've been led down the garden path.  Nothing to shout about or anything, but it is typical business as usual in corporate America and it makes me mad every time it happens.

I could just keep them, and get on with my project.  But I knew I would never be happy about it.  I also knew that every time I looked at my fence I would get angry.  I told Mike that I was disappointed, frustrated and getting angrier by the minute.  He double checked the website and saw that I was right.  What probably convinced him was the sticker on the post driver that declared the product to contain toxic chemicals known to cause cancer and birth defects...Translated that means that there is lead in that there red paint.  I also wondered about the paint that was already chipping off the posts.

I told Mike I had to take them back, and he helped me load them back into the car.  He often thinks I'm crazy, but he gets this.

When I got back into town, I suddenly felt happy.  That's when I knew I was doing the right thing.

If you know me at all, you probably know that I work to eliminate plastic from my life, and try to reduce waste, and I am an advocate for organic sustainable local food production.  But that isn't all there is to it for me.  I also take my role as a consumer very seriously.  In my life time I have watched local businesses and even whole economies ruined by multinational corporations and I am not okay with that.  And it has shaped my habits and my strategies as a consumer.  It has been the reason I always choose local first, and often go without certain things for long periods of time and sometimes all together, to keep me from betraying my principles.  It is the reason I shop at antique stores and second hand stores, and the reason why if I have to buy from corporate America (which is everywhere), I want to know where the product was made, because it will be one of the deciding factors whether I buy or not.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not against corporations in general...just their practices and ethics.  There's an old saying that may be familiar to certain movie fans, which goes "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining."  That about sums it up.

I had no trouble returning the fence posts, but I did have trouble finding something to replace them.  So today I struck out at seven stores.  Even at the big box stores.  So add totally disgusted to the list of emotions experienced in the quest for the simple domestic 8 ft T post.  It's just fence posts for God's sake, not a rare mineral or secret plans or a living coral reef (since we're mentioning hard to find items here).

I returned home totally defeated, and told Mike that I would have to try Lewis County or Mason County next.  Then I suddenly remembered something..."What's the name of that little farm store on highway 99 out by the airport?"

Mike didn't know, but he found it on line.  Kipperts Korner Feed.  I called and this time I asked all the pertinent questions.  "Do you have 8 ft T posts in stock?" "Yes." "Are they the green and white made in the US posts?" "Yes."  "I need a dozen.  Do you have that many in stock?" "We have 500 of them in stock."  Now that's my idea of a farm store.  In response to my enthusiasm, she said "I love it when I give all the right answers!"  I told her she was a blessed angel and that I would be there in the morning.

And Kipperts is local.  Maybe that's why they carry what people need instead of what they want to force us to buy.