Amazon is kind of neat here, they bought a million acres or so up North and the local paper mill is putting in a new paper machine to provide the special cardboard they are using for their shipping boxes. This is being subsidized by a $200 million dollar grant from the Fed's to help boost Maine's failing logging industry. Managing their forest as they inevitably will, they can put a green stamp on the shipping containers, but the mix of hardwood/softwood paper mix will inevitably come from other landowners. Sappi mill in Skowhegan to get $165 million machine upgrade All this is really good. It is at least staying here, boosting a paper mill that needs it, and putting Mainer's to work. The real question will be what the hardwood/softwood ratio will be. Right now hardwood is all that is moving, so if they can get softwood moving, it will really help.
That mill shut down 3 years ago. :-( It shut down the same month as Bucksport, Lincoln, and Madison. Brewer, Augusta, Winslow, Millinockett, and East Millinockett, and Berlin NH are also shut down. Jay and Rumford are operating in bankruptcy proceedings with several paper machines shut down, but some paper machines still running. These are predicted to shut down soon. Fort Kent, Woodland, Skowhegan, Westbrook, and Waterville are operating, and seem to be in decent shape financially. Woodland and Skowhegan having invested heavily in the mills in the last two years. Waterville is unique in that it is a paper mill, but gets its wood fiber from Skowhegan. (They make Chinet paper plates) (All paper mills listed in red are not only shut down, but have been demolished completely).
I am confused. Seems like all shipping is chaos lately. I just got used to the "SmartPost" of UPS delivering to the post office, now other inconvenient things.... I sent back a pair of shoes for a 1/2 size smaller on December 15, return label was UPS, I tracked it, UPS delivered it to "returns agent" at our post office on December 22, chatted with Merrell boots today and they said it was due for delivery to them on Jan 4. Three weeks?!? The last few orders I have ordered from Amazon that were Prime items and showed 2 day shipping have taken a minimum or 4 days and longer, not 2. I ordered new washing machine hoses & drain yesterday (1/2/2017), shows 2 day shipping but delivery on 1/8/2017. Cancelled the order, I cannot wait that long to do laundry (rearranged laundry room so I could move around better in there, need longer hoses), going to have to pay more to our local ACE hardware. I finally ordered a doggie door & extension tunnel for the new dog yard (blob snowdrifts are forming in the back yard) on Dec 29th. Tracked that just now. One tracking number pulls up both USPS AND FEDEX, huh?!? Even with the holiday closures, still wonky. OMG just let me know when and where to pick it up so I can arrange with WWW!
I did what you did a few years ago...rearrange the laundry room. In my case I needed really long washer hoses so I just used 2 sets of shorter hoses and bought hose connectors (pipe nipples) that made the female-female connection in the middle. Not sure if it would work for your situation, but for me it was a lot cheaper doing it that way then trying to find really long ones. Another cheap alternative is to use PEX Pipe if you have extra lengths of the stuff kicking around from previous projects. In that case getting the proper fittings might be cheaper than buying longer hoses. they are ugly so out of sight situations might be best, but its an option perhaps. (Not telling you what to do, just thought I might suggest alternatives)
I ordered a Christmas present (from Target, my first mistake, never had good luck with them) for my wife on 12/18. Said it would be here on 12/22. Tracking shows it sitting in California waiting for UPS pickup since 12/19. Finally got a response today saying ‘sorry, we are sending another via express shipping’. Tracking says it will be here on 1/17. They must be strapping it to a llama somewhere in China, kicking it in the azz and saying ‘go to Michigan as quick as you can’. I find out after the fact that I can buy the darn thing at any store locally for the same price, give or take a buck or two.
