Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

Latestarter said:

My "need" to purchase a gallon of milk and bottle of creamer turned into $50... Why is it I can't leave wally world for less than $50?

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Many times around here, I can buy milk as much as $1 cheaper at a convenience store as long as it is a clean and busy one, such as a Valero or Stripes type.

And yall should know by now, that I make a habit of being observant in all things. So, speaking of Walmart, they are and have been, for about the last 6 months making a subtle but profound change and I don't think it is for the better as far as the consumer goes. Here's what I am seeing locally, at our old semi-super walmart and at the 2 nearby more modern Superstore:
1. They have greatly reduced the variety of food items across the gamut.
2. They have all but quit carrying their own brand canned and packaged items..Great Value.
3. They have reduced the number of different "big bag' dry breakfast cereals they carry. There used to be about 1/2 aisle, 3 shelves high with these econo bags, and now, there is just one little area at the end of the breakfast cereal aisle. They filled the now empty shelves with small boxes of higher priced/oz brand name cereal.
4. I was in there just yesterday, and I noticed all their Smithfield hams were 'reduced' (for quick sale) and all their pre-packed pork (hams, boneless loins, ribs etc) are now Tyson. The boneless loins were labeled "half loin" but were probably 1/4 the size of the Smithfield they used to carry.
5. They made a major re-shuffling of where things are located..different aisles even. And, you can go in there one day and finally find a selected item, then go back a couple days later, and they are located elsewhere..they've bee 'reshuffled' again. ***
6. Lots of prepackaged frozen meat brands are no more. All Gordons frozen fish disappeared out of the frozen food cases for several weeks but finally reappeared after a lot of complaints.

*** This, is intentional, and done @ direction from Corporate. The reason they move things around so much and so often, is to make you "LOOK" for items. The more you wander about & look, the more apt you are to find something else you 'want-but-don't-need' and add that item to your cart.

Overall, the quantities of each item they carry now very much appears to be reduced. They are running out of popular items. I've been in there several times over the holidays and seen empty shelves where very popular foodstuffs used to be..the spot is there...the label is on the edge of the shelf, but there just isn't any.
I try to go to H-E-B instead, but our local H-E-B is probably 20 years old and very small. (But, I've never seen them run out of canned corn or other popular items)

We only buy toiletries and such at Walmart but even with minor purchases, we are seeing the same thing. Kroger is getting busier all of the time so it's paying off for them.

I haven't been to Wal-Mart in quite some time(at least 3 months) now

I've been noticing subtle changes at wally world for well over a year. Stuff being "out", empty shelves, etc. It varies over time what they are out of. For a while they were missing cheeses, another time was real deli meats. I still see plenty of the great value items throughout the various isles. You're right on the milk price being higher. That happened a couple months ago here. It jumped up from ~2 bucks to 3 bucks a gallon for the great value milk.

Finally sat down with some breakfast and my big mug of tea. What a morning... Went out and rounded up the babies. One of them (she IS silver with frosting and beautiful! ) was shivering a little so I carried her in my arms while the adult goats ate their pellets. That warmed her up fine. The little black one had gone under the shelter by the entrance but luckily had laid down next to one of the support cinder blocks right there, so I reached under and pulled her out. Put them both back inside against the back wall in a corner formed by the center partition and mom followed me in and went to be with them. Mom is getting a lopsided udder so I know at least one of them is feeding, but only from one side. The silver one is much larger, more mobile, and "stronger" than the black one, so I'm assuming it's eating. I helped the black one suckle several times so she should be eating as well. Will continue to monitor them of course.


Mini, there is a double cinder block step right under the door threshold. There's a gap between it and the shelter though and they'll need a few more days before they can clear it.


So after them I went to take care of the chickens. One of my RIRs was standing there with her whole back at the tail head eaten away. I waited and saw one of the BO's go over for some fresh chicken meat so though I don't know if she started it, she sure contributed Virtually no muscle left to hold her tail feather "bulb" up. I noticed another RIR with the start of the same thing. My Blukote spray can, though 3/4 full, won't spray So that went in the trash and off I went to TSC to get some more. Also picked up some Iodine 10% solution from wallyworld as the old bottle was about empty after last nights use. Made it out the door with just that as a purchase, so I guess I CAN get out of there for less than 50 bucks. Also got Vetericyn spray, and a couple of vials of goat CD&T (10 shots/vial) while at TSC. Just went to check spelling on Vetericyn and found I'm disconnected from the internet... It's just been that kinda morning... So will keep typing then cut/paste to word when done so I can cut/paste back here when I can post again. Both RIRs got treatment for their wounds and the badly wounded one is now separated in a large dog crate. I hope the blukote on the other will be enough to keep the BO from eating her back as well. I made sure the entire area was well coated.


Started sprinkling on my way home from the store. Can't check the radar as internet is down at the moment. But yeah, seems like it should move through rather quickly. I just hope it doesn't dump a lot of rain as I'm finally drying out here. I really don't want to be right back in the muck again so soon.

So restarted the computer and that fixed the internet problem. It seems every time windows 10 does an update or D/L's an update to install, it shuts down my internet connection. I guess it's microsoft's way to force you to restart your computer so they can force/load the changes/updates. If they proceed with their next iteration which will be like the present office suite and you'll have to pay for it monthly like a service, this old boy's switching over to Linux.

Congrats on the doelings!

Boy am I knocking on wood that I've never had a hen that attacked another, not even ones that had just died. The only attacker I had was Trouble and he only went after Zorra because he THOUGHT she once attacked him when in fact she was just flying out of the broody buster and landed near him. He was re-homed and apparently wasn't smart enough to stay with the other chickens, coon got him within 2 days.

Been sprinkling a little off and on all day, but nothing that's kept the goats indoors. Seems the stuff I felt first thing this morning developed well to the north of here and is up in and above Arkansas now. So now I wait the 4-5 hours for the trailing front to get here that's approaching west of DFW. Getting about time to go do chores again too.

The rain just hit us here in Middle Tennessee I didn’t even know it was going to be raining today and tomorrow

Will you post another picture of your silver kid when you get a chance...please

Congrats on the doelings Joe!!....I guess ya are getting a jump on the goat math this season....