Festival of Trees, and other things

Let's start with the Festival of Trees.  Hearts in Motion (the re-sale shop in Munster on 45th where the old Sterks used to be) currently has their Festival of Trees.  It features Christmas trees decorated by local non-profits, with ornaments being sold and the profits from those ornaments going to the non-profits.

So, naturally, we went to set up a tree.  And, naturally, I didn't listen to my mother, who said to open the tree box and see if there was a stand.  So we get there, and, well... there was a stand, but my dad had taped pieces of wood to the base of the tree, so it would need a larger stand than what we had.  Ok, so I drive home, dig our garage sale tree stand out of the garage, bring it back.  Screw it on, and naturally, the tree starts tilting until the point we need to catch it so it doesn't fall over.  So, I'm having such a heck of a time with turning those tighteners on the tree stand that I'm starting to get cuts on my hands due to the threads, so I ask my mom to make herself useful and go ask one of the workers for pliers or something of the sort.  So, she goes and finds those, we remove the tree, unscrew the tighteners all the way loose.  We put the tree back in, and I count the tightens.  So, 5 turns on each side, then 5 more turns on each side.   And it took forever, but the tree is now standing!  Yay!  So, we put on the ornaments, wrapped a donated piece of fleece with paw prints on it around the base as a tree skirt, and now our tree is up!


Came home, put together most of two snowmen hanging toys, one for pickup today, another for possibly sometime on the weekend.  Got the three circles drilled, all the eyes/nose/buttons on, and the hats drilled and dyed.  When I get home today, need to attach the hats, drill the holes for the arms, and put in the arms, and they will be good to go.

Remember the other day how I went on about people not calling when they don't show up?  Yeah, that was for Tazzie's adoption that was supposed to be last weekend.  I still have not heard from those people, despite my sending them an email asking for them to contact me to reschedule, and tomorrow (Thursday) will be day 5.  You know what that means.  Well, maybe you don't... it's been awhile since I've sent a 2 day notice out.  So, what it is, if I don't hear from someone for 5 days, I send em an email saying they have 2 days to get back to me if they want the animal still on hold for them.  99.95% of people don't respond to them, but the purpose is so that no one can say, oh, they didn't know I wasn't going to hold it for them any longer.

Now... these people wanted a wire cage on hold (see picture).  One that I find to be a pain in the ass to assemble and disassemble.  I have only, in my entire time at the rescue, had two of these cages in, but they are an absolute pain.  And I'm telling you, if two cages drive me this nuts... they've gotta be bad, cause I deal with a lot of cages over the course of the rescue.  For Tazzie's pickup... they wanted the cage broken down.  So, I broke it down.  And you know, typically, I actually leave the cage mostly set up, with the thought that I will break it down fully when the people get there and they can SEE what I'm doing (so they see how the cage goes together).  But, I felt this one was reasonably self-explanitory (though, that doesn't mean not-difficult), so I broke it down, and even cable-tied the pieces together for these people.  Naturally, they didn't show up.

If they don't answer the two day notice, I will re-set the cage up, and I will use metal C-clips to make it more sturdy.... and to effectively make it so that I will never have to take it apart again.  And it will be listed as a cage that does not break down for transport.  Cause my mom can tell you, I spent way too much time breaking down this cage, only to have the people not show up (and likely I'll never hear from em again) and then that'll require me to set it up again.  The next time I set it back up will be the last time.

Oh and I now have oodles more cages cleaned and ready to be up on the used cages for sale page.  Mostly guinea pig and rat cages, I think a rabbit cage as well.  Hope to get those up soon.  And still, lots of used supplies, like rat wheels, litter boxes, a plastic flying saucer, and more.  Still need to get those put up on the website as well.

Oh and I made a snowman ledge.  Like a circular perch, but snowman.  Working on finalizing that today and should have it up in the store soon.