Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Augh but then you may not have truly appreciated it as you do now...now that you have something to compare to! Catskills are beautiful! Almost as beautiful as Appalachians! are you ready for an early cold winter? Signs are here already, projected to be pretty wintery this time around...our leaves are starting already...here and there, summer is over. I really love to drive, especially those winding back roads with no guardrails so you can really 'see' the drop off! Always see deer and turkeys and an occasional bear. No sirens. Life is good. Have been thinking about going back to work, maybe part time or prn...maybe. not yet.

 

[galanie]

 Bravo ACW!  that's not an "attempt".... it is terrific!

postal carrying is my "retirement" job... i did my 20+ years in management, but was technically too young to really retire... i should have 24 or so years in the PO when I really do retire...  it's a great job, only 3 weeks in winter that is dreadful with ice, and 3 weeks in summer when it's just too darn hot... and i listen to audio books... it's like story time.  and being that i deliver primarily in the Catskill Mtns, the views are spectacular, I have thousands of pictures of the scenery and animals, wild and domestic... it's really so much fun I kick myself for not thinking of it when I was much younger and stressed out in a job that I hated...

Worked for the Post Office for 25 years myself before I got out (retired). Delivering the mail really is, or can be, fun. I LOVED my route when I had one that was worth having. Then I hurt my back, then management came along and screwed it all up, etc etc. Did my years in management too. It's not worth the stress.

Another postal job that can be fun is walling box mail (putting the mail in PO Boxes). Did that for a few years. Working Primary in the big processing units can be peaceful too. This is where the letters the machines can't read go to actual people to sort by zip code, city, whatever. But overall, letter carriers have the best deal if they know how to do it. Lots more exercise for sure but also a lot more rewarding.

Overall I think I've done everything but sweep the floors and sell stamps. Worked in the Postmaster's office, been a manager and supervisor, carrier, clerk, route inspector, certified tester, Human Resources, whatever. Cheeka, you have a great job. I'd have me a rural route now if my back could take it. Even being a replacement postmaster in one of those tiny offices would be fun, but those jobs are very hard to get around here.

 

[cheeka]

The OIC or PMR posts are all but impossible to get 'round here too... and the PO Upper Ups seems to think it's amusing to shift people around so they have to drive 50+ miles to an office while one is just a few miles away, but someone else is commuting 50+ miles to run that one... you pass on the way, wave to each other and do the eyeroll thing... anything to get you to quit it seems... I was quick thinking and got myself into a dozen different offices as a sub carrier before I got my own route. Lots of RCA's here have no sub and therefore no days off... so here I come to save the day!

Then, I got my own route a little over 4 years ago, it's a beautiful route, and I have a sub, so I can still go work in other offices and give other carriers a day off, and my sub has more steady work and doesn't have to scrounge like i did years ago...
I work the Express Route on Sundays and holidays too, so I'm at the GMF regularly. i love chick season... we do get chicks year round, but from the end of March to the end of June, it's heavy on chicks... i love the peeping in the car all day as I drive them to their new homes... when i've delivered the last box, and the car is quiet... it's so strange, and I can't wait to get home to my own chooks! this is my favorite view along my route: i won a photo contest with this shot...
I have loads of others, have to import them to my main photo program so i can post some someday....

 

[cheeka]

i got to visit friends who adopted 6 of the 26 rescue chicks i started out with... thought i'd share a picture... they are 17 weeks old, my friends are right along with me... waiting it out for eggs.

 

[animallover505]

they are beautiful!

 

[cheeka]

Augh but then you may not have truly appreciated it as you do now...now that you have something to compare to! Catskills are beautiful! Almost as beautiful as Appalachians! are you ready for an early cold winter? Signs are here already, projected to be pretty wintery this time around...our leaves are starting already...here and there, summer is over. I really love to drive, especially those winding back roads with no guardrails so you can really 'see' the drop off! Always see deer and turkeys and an occasional bear. No sirens. Life is good. Have been thinking about going back to work, maybe part time or prn...maybe. not yet.

you're probably right...about appreciating it so much... and the Appalachians are spectacular! there are so many similarities between the 2, I could take you places here and you'd swear you were back home. my (ex) FIL was raised in the hills of WV and when he came here for the first time, he was amazed at how much it looked like where he grew up. unfortunately, i don't know the name of his hometown...

summer is over up here, it's notoriously short anyway, we have at leat 6 months of winter weather as the norm. i usually have snow in mid October and remnants of snow in late April, but i like the cold and choose to stay despite many years with 7-8' snowstorms. Last year was freaky, hurricanes Irene and Lee destroyed this county and surrounding counties on 8/28-8/29, ~10' of water in the valleys, every (valley) farms crop entirely wiped out, hundreds of homes destroyed, 80% of our roads and bridges gone... and virtually zero precipitation since... thankfully, we've gotten several inches of rain in the last month, but we are way below average, drought just like everywhere else in the country... two bad crop years back to back is devastating to this region...

my leaves have been changing since end of June, mostly because of drought, although my birch trees always change in August. but autumn is usually exceptional. every road here is a windy country road with great views or dense wood with a sun dappled dirt road... turkey, pheasant, grouse, deer, hawks, eagles, bear, the occasional fox... no sirens up by me either, and there are a few little towns that I've never ever seen a patrol car other than DEC (they have a main station up by the infamously crumbling Gilboa Dam) but... about 18 miles away, where the grocery store is...lol...it's a aggie college town, so lotsa cops. yeah... I gotta say, life on my little hilltop is really good... now if my girls would just lay me one little egg...

ever see an 8 foot snowstorm? i have a few great photos of crazy snow, but this one sums it up pretty good


that's not a snow drift... that's 8 feet of snow that came in 30 hours. then, a week later, we had 3 days in a row of 60 degree weather (it was April...)
THIS is 29,000,000 gallons of water per SECOND flowing over a 90 year old poorly maintained dam.


20 miles down the road... this is where i bring my dog and we eat Chinese food together at a picnic table that's somewhere under that little peaky roof you can see in the center background... some smart engineer built that other building up nice and high tho', there are 3 more "steps" of stone under there that you can't see...


but this is like a puddle compared to last years hurricanes

OK's gonna wonder how we got so far off topic in his absence... lol

 

[cheeka]

they are beautiful!

i think so too, my friends say "Thanks!"

for the compliment! it's nice to see them thriving and happy and so well cared for.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Cheeka those are some beautiful photos, I can understand how you could win with that...I think I'll steal the clouds for a painting yes, I've been in some eight foot snow drops, he year before I moved to Florida actually, in the Poconos. It's nor supposed to snow like it did the winters before last, there was not a day that didn't snow, and always at least a foot on the ground. We had ice hanging on the house eight to ten feet long.. what is NY doing with hurricanes.? I've been through five in Florida, the first was bad because little to no maintainence along the power lines meant years of catching up to do. The hospital was actually four hours from running out of the last available fuel for generators, four hours, with people of all ages on life support. Wow. Right down to the wire. The town I live near is over shawdowed by a beautiful lake and dam...the shallow end is 100 feet. I should have brought my sailboat. OK should know,when the cat's away....! He will have to step lively!

 

[cheeka]

ACW, if you make a painting of the clouds, i'll buy it!
the strangest part of last years hurricane is the impact on the elevated areas. the NE gets hit with its fair share of hurricanes... but inland upstate elevations... it's a bit unusual... our valley's are still in the elevation compared to say... downstate, my road blew up 'bout half mile down from me - 5 holes, some of which you could fit my house in... i'm still detouring closed roads and bridges today, almost a year later, but next weekend is the big celebration of "a year later" with "mud fests"
it will be nice to celebrate the rebuild, but we're still cleaning up. houses are still being torn down, one of my pals had her house finally torn down 2 days ago, she lived there for 26 years... heartbreaking really.



this is what i came upon while trying to get to work Monday morning. my boss called me minutes later to tell me not to even try to get to Gilboa. there was no way in or out. i told her... "yeah, here too" this was one on the way down, there was a matching hole the other way too. I was stuck on the hilltop for 2 days. it was like being on an island. in 60 years or something... the post office in Gilboa had not missed a day of delivery despite major storms of all kinds. this was very surreal

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Hey cheeka! I am going to steal part of that creek too! I have been hung up on my foreground, it is a winter scene though, so when spring came around I had lost inspiration...and there's so much to do outside! The last one I did I gave away to the guy who took care of my chickens when i went to Florida..! In the winter - so he earned it! it's incredible what nature can do, we are around 2000 ft elevation here and alot of the roads run on top of the ridges, but te majority of people are much lower and in towns - which are low! Oops! Gotta go