The Tractor Supply nightmare has finally ended.  Unsatisfied with the outcome - which was simply that I ended up going to my home town store and paying $6 more PER BAG for the rye grass seed, I decided to call them one more time.  This time, I spoke with a headquarters manager.

Word salad, excuses, etc was what I heard.  I'm very persistent, however, when it comes to things like this.  Going to a store to pick up an order that I had already paid for and having them tell me the order was thrown into the trash can, so sorry, nothing we can do for you, bye-bye?  

No.  That doesn't work in my world, especially for a company that proclaims it's "great customer service" value and ethic.  I spent half an hour on the phone with this lady who said I had received a gift card via email - which I was never told about nor did I see in my inbox because I was receiving a lot of emails from them on both orders.  I eventually found it going through all the emails - with her on the phone - it was for $50.  

Although that's nice, I didn't ask for neither did I want a gift card, I wanted a discount on the price of the seed since I had gone through quite the ordeal.  More word salad until she became exasperated with me and asked, well what is it that you want me to do?  I want a discount.  I didn't even get the price from the Longview store, they charged me $6 more per bag.

Well, let me call the store and find out if they can do anything.  Why does she have to call the store? This isn't something they empower their headquarters employees to do? Apparently not.  After another lengthy wait, she got back to me and told me the manager of the store in MY town, not the store where this fiasco originally started, said he would give me the seed for $40 per bag, which is over $15 per bag discount.  Now I got happy. Thank you!  I am getting $60 plus back on that purchase plus I have the $50 gift card.  I am rather soured by this experience, but I will spend the gift card money and I know exactly what I need: 2 ratcheting chain binders.  They have them there for $32 (I think? ) a piece.  This will bring that price down to a very  minimal amount and I can start using my trailer to haul the equipment from rental places instead of paying an extra $30 for the trailer rental as well. 

I just couldn't let that thing go, not without trying one more time.  

No power company. Yup, my normal update, lol.

Dozer rental place doesn't do it anymore, told me to try another place. The other place is still under construction and they aren't open for business yet. 

Another place rents them but the cost is a bit high - like really high. $450 per day plus $350 for delivery and pickup. Gag, that's a lot.  I think I'm just going to rent that mini-ex again and just get the area around the pads finished and get a good 50 feet area cleared around them on either side if possible and save the rest of that for some other date.  

But it's getting late in the day for renting one, just wait until tomorrow morning.  I have not been having those boys out there to do anything, I'm good with the trails for now, it's the front area I need to focus on.  

Now, I knew something was off.  I couldn't figure out what it was.  I had all of the lots meticulously measured and marked with stakes.  I didn't mark the pads because the contractor said he would do that after we were discussing it.  

So I was sitting there looking at the pads this morning.  Just something said no, this isn't right in my brain.  I drove the 4 wheeler to the back of the property, got my 300 foot tape measure and also my level - I wanted to see how much of a grade there is on the lots - went back to the pads and start measuring the lots and the pads on the back-in/west side.  The lots are/were 40 feet wide.  Now? 37 feet wide here, 45 feet wide there - measuring from water spigot to water spigot. The pads? that was what was really eating at me.

The contractor said 12 feet wide.  No.  Most of them are wider, some of them are much wider.  Now I understand why there is less room - psychological effect anyway - between the pads.  What anyone needs with a 15 foot wide pad is unknown.  It's just a lot more gravel and waste of usable "grassy" space.  I don't know if I can alter that stuff with a mini-ex.  I am going to contact the contractor and ask him about why they are so wide?  I could maybe see 12 feet wide, I cannot see 15 and wider.  

I'm going to ask in a couple of groups if anyone has wider pads and what the advantage of it is?  I do remember seeing one park owner saying if he had to do it all over again, he would have made the pads 14 feet wide, but his only explanation was that "the campers will appreciate it".  

It's just a little bit interesting that they didn't meet my design specs by clearly set stakes that were easily visible from the inside of a dozer or trackhoe - the two pieces of machinery that were being used for that operation.  I'm not real happy about that and yes, I will ask the contractor directly.  Need to back out there today and measure all of the lots all the way around and the pads and write it all down on paper. I need to number the lots as well so I can reference any lot to the size it is.  

Anyway, that's my day.

Happy Monday!