Saturday March 28 - Tuesday March 31

Saturday
I managed a walk today, it is a fraction under two miles and takes about 40 minutes. It is very different from when I was here in September as the fields are barren and so I can see a long way,

In the late afternoon we went to Karleen and Lori's for a farewell party for two of their friends. It was a very pleasant evening with good food and company. 

I also caught up with their kitten Sam who was a wee thing last September. She is badly in heat, poor thing, and is booked in next week for her spay. At least she is less shy and I was able to stroke her.

There was a gorgeous sunset and, in spite of the cold, I went out to take a few photos.

I was awake most of the night keeping up with the World Cricket Cup final in which new Zealand played Australia. Unfortunately, New Zealand did not play at their best and were beaten rather badly.

Sunday
I slept in today t catch up on some sleep and seemed to spend most of the day yawning! I did go for a walk although it is very windy and still cold to me!

Monday
I went for a walk in the early afternoon and Karleen came to pick me up to take me for a look round the area she works in at Sauders. On the way we called in on a friend, Billy, who has five cats. 

I saw four of them - Pepper, Amy, Lily and Keith.

Sauders first started years ago manufacturing church furniture but it has now diversified with a wide variety of products. 

Creativity is actively encouraged, people can make things to see if they will work. For example, in one area I saw barn and and wrangler beds which would be great for kids.

There is also quite a large customer service area where people can get help with their item. In Karleen's area - they can experiment with different products, they get tested in various ways and when the sales reps go out they see if there is any interest. 

Some items then go to production while other items never go to production. In her area I saw a wide variety of items such as beds, cabinets, sets of drawers, gun cabinets and a lego piece. I also saw a curved TV stand to match the new TVs.

They have their own laminating machine where the veneer is glued to the particle board in a special process. There are over two hundred different colours and they have to retain colours out of manufacture due to warranties on products. There are different programmable machines that might simply put the holes in for screws or carry out routing. These machines are programmed from the design stage through to production using specific software. About nine people work in her area. I also saw coffins in various stages of production as well as a pet coffin! 

We then drove round the rest of the factory and it is huge. The distribution building is massive, 17 (American) Football grounds could fit inside it! Back in the day, there would have been trucks drawn up at all of the doors but we only saw a few on our drive. Sauder used to have its own trucks but that has changed as well. In those days, over 3000 people worked at Sauders, it has dropped off quite a bit today. Sauder has recently won a contract to produce items for Ikea and this will help for the future. One of the buildings is being upgraded to meet this contract.


Tuesday
We went round to Lisa's sister-in-law, Val, to see her grand-daughter who is now ten months old, I had visited her previously last September. 

We spent some time there enjoying Oakley who has a lovely smile. She is beginning to stand up with help but has not worked out how to put one foot in fort of the other yet, lol!!

Following on from that great visit, we went shopping for some groceries in Defiance and Lisa filled up with petrol at $2.14 per gallon.

We finally ended up at Frickers and ate wings for dinner, they also had Angry Orchard Cider which helped. Karleen met us there and we had a very pleasant evening. Tomorrow we go to Toledo Zoo and the weather is supposed to be good with milder temps! The temperature was supposed to be milder today but in the afternoon it only reached 39 F.