FB Impulse Buy and a Floater in the Pond

Facebook marketing has succeeded in making a sale.  This is what I bought and I thought I'd share the process with you.

The FB algorithm has been feeding me ads for this mechanics rolling shop chair.  I'm not sure what logic it used to target me - I'm not a mechanic.  But the pitch was "got a sore back", "uncomfortable working at low levels", "tired of cheap products that fall apart", "want to buy American", etc.

Well, I do have this 5000 sq ft pole barn with a concrete floor.  And occasionally, it would be really handy to have a rolling seat with back support where the seat elevation can change to match the work (think gutting and skinning a deer).  So I clicked on the link and went to check out the product.

Wow, $625 for a rolling stool.  Plus there's options like a tool tray (down by the wheels) and the sidekick (seat level tool holder and spray bottle holder that looked like a beer holder to me).  But if you buy them as a package, the price drops from $835 to just $720.  Started to buy and thought the better of it.  Seemed like high quality stuff and could be pretty cool, but too rich for me.  I clicked out.

I returned to my regular business but the next time I went to my email, there was an email from Vyper Industrial that says "welcome, take an additional $50 off".  Must be karma - I clicked on the save $50 link and went back and bought the $720 package.  With taxes it was $769.  I checked out.

Then it dawned on me - seems high.  Taxes aren't that much.  Shipping is free.  Looked at the order confirmation.  No $50 discount. Ok, I dropped customer service a note - I didn't get my $50 discount.  CS says that discount doesn't apply to already discounted products (ie the package deal).  Says so right on the email.  Guess it wasn't karma.  Like it says in the ads, "Buy once, cry once".

There's a 105% money back guarantee but I'm looking forward to it now and I go with it.  Three packages arrive (stool, tool tray, and sidekick).  I unbox and start the assembly process (reference earlier statement - I'm not a mechanic).

I start in on it.  The directions are for the stool.  There's additional directions for the tool tray and the sidekick.  But the accessory directions are like you already had a stool and were retrofitting the accessories.  And the accessories had parts lists that included things like bolts that weren't in the accessory package.  Hmm.

But I got to work on it. and started putting stuff together.  Beefy stuff.  Seemed solid.

I quickly learn that the direction diagrams show items like to put bolt 11 thru here and attach nut 13.  But all of these bags don't have anything labelled 11 or 13.  And there's lots of bags.

I use up the whole bag of 11's and the directions are calling for me to install more of them. Uh oh, is this the parts that weren't in with the accessories?  Then I open the lift cylinder bag and find another bag of 11's.  And with minimal disassembly (maybe not so minimal) and reassembly, I'm able to integrate the accessory directions into the stool directions.  But now I'm done.  And I have three unopened bags. What's this stuff for?  What did I miss?

If anybody ever does this after reading my blog, here's a tip for you.  In the back of the instructions there is this page that shows the part, the part number that's printed on the bag, and the number used in the instructions for assembly.  If you take all of your bags, look up the part number on this page, you can find the instruction number and write it on the bag like I did in green above.  It'd be nice if they were just labelled that way but they must have subcontracted the instruction writing out to Ikea or something.

Anyway, I eventually got it assembled.  I have no idea what those other three bags are about.  It seems pretty cool.  I took a shower, put on my lounging pants, popped a beer, and tried it out while cooking dinner.  It does seem like a quality product. $769 worth?  Hmm, we'll see.

So for my next adventure, I was out and about and noticed that my little pond house seemed to be leaning and trying to fall into the pond.

As I approached to inspect. I found a body floating in the pond beside the dock.

I'm guessing this was an EHD casualty last fall but why is it just showing up now?  I suspect that it died with low water in the pond and floated under the dock.  The water rose and it was trapped under there.  Wet weather and low evaporation all winter but I've got a pond leak and during the first spring dry spell, the water level went down and she was released.  Yuck.

So I was able to lasso her with the help of a rake.

I dragged her up onto shore.

And got her into the bucket.

I tried to drive her down into the woods, encountered a downed tree on the trail, backed out and went around thru the fields.

I got her down in the woods and over near a steep drop into a dry creek bed.

I hope that nature finishes the job quickly.  I'll have to get back on that pond house movement one of these days.

Joan and I did the camera tour.

Found this moth on the porch - Luna moth?

There are a ton of tadpoles in the pond.  I suspect it is from the toad eggs we found previously.  The fish usually gobble these up pretty quickly.

Last week's chores - multiflora rose patrol.

Thistle battle.

More photos from Eric and Tommy visit.

I found this pleasant discovery in an empty 5 gallon bucket in the barn.

The thistles are showing some signs from the spraying.  Curling up.

I had one camera slip down the pole and it ended up on the ground.

And that's where it spotted this bird. What is it? First identifier says Meadowlark.

Looking a little pregnant.

Antlers starting.

Coyotes.

Fox.

And lots of turkeys.

Taunting Tom Turkeys

 The cameras were full this week of strutting Toms.  Here's a sample.

But first, I had some chores.  I decided that it was a good time to take a whack at the multiflora rose.  They are nicely greened up and very little else is.  So I loaded up a backpack sprayer and headed out to do battle with it.  Twice - two tanks.

It may be like peeing in the ocean but it was worth the effort (I think).

I also have to try to keep the brush and trees from invading my warm season grass prairie plot.  Burning it would be ideal but I'm gun-shy on that.  Someone at the DNR recommended brush-hogging 1/3 of it each year before green-up.

I did that this weekend and tried to spot mow areas with tree stems showing.  There's 2 or 3 acres total and it seems to be holding up pretty well without burning.

Here I am on the way in.

I also disked this field up for later planting in sunflowers (no pumpkins this year).

I also disked this field which will be a warm season food plot.  I bought a new mix to try this year.

The clover plots look pretty good but I am seeing some thistle coming up in a couple of them. It is invasive and hard to control.  I can't seem to kill it - just stunt it for a season.

So I sprayed (early) with Butyrac for broadleaf weed control.

The redbuds aren't at peak yet.

But they are starting to look pretty interesting.

The worms seemed to like their new home so I gave them a good dose of worm food.

I also did a little shooting with the 30-06.  I learned that I won't we able to travel with the silencer for some crazy bureaucratic reason.  I went to get the Form 4457 and I got exactly the same two agents as two years ago.  They did it in 2024 but now they say only the Commerce Department can license the import of silencers.  I talked to my contact at the Safari Club and she said they are working on a fix for this but it will be months before anything can be done.  So I took the can off and shot with the muzzle brake.

I had to lower it an MOA but it still shoots decent groups.

One more photo from last week.

The pedicles are warming up for action.

The coyotes are still out there.

Turkeys do come in to clean up spillage at the birdfeeders.

And they were all over the property strutting away.

Several years ago I had 3 jakes that always showed up together.  I called them the three amigos.

I think that the three amigos have all grown up.