Aphorisms Of The Fathers(And The Mothers)

Dateline: 21 September 2015

The grandfathers and  the grandmothers too.
(photo link)

I have been blogging regularly for a couple of weeks and it has been fun, but I'm going to have to take a break. While I'm away, I invite readers of this blog to contribute (via the comments section below) to a little idea that has come to my mind (and gone from my mind) several times over the years.....

I was prompted to start thinking about this idea again last month after writing my blog post titled, Here's Why Modern Banking Is An Evil System Of Economic Oppression. It wasn't anything I wrote that revived the little idea, but part of a comment from David Smith, whose comments I always find to be thoughtful and insightful. In particular, David stated...

"My depression era father, growing up here in rural TN said that one of the family mottoes was "Take care of what you need, and then maybe you can have some of what you want."

Family mottoes? That phrase, and the words of David's father, reminded me of a book I once thought I should write. The book would be titled, Aphorisms of the Fathers. 

An aphorism is a bit of wisdom expressed in a few words. A well known example of an aphorism comes from the movie, Forest Gump, when Forest's Mama tells him, "Stupid is as stupid does."

Aphorisms of the Fathers would be a book that served to equip fathers (and grandfathers) with a selection of sage aphorisms. Conscientious fathers would select and deliberately adopt a few key aphorisms to pass on to their children, through the years, whenever the opportunity for a sage aphorism presented itself.

Such aphorisms, oft and appropriately repeated, would become part of a family's lore or tradition. And the grown children who had heard them over the years would one day say, "My father always used to say..."

More importantly, this fatherly wisdom would be absorbed by the children. 

There are some fathers who are naturally inclined to have a good supply of aphorisms for their children. Perhaps that's because their own fathers were full of wise sayings. But I'm pretty sure that a lot of boys did not grow up hearing a lot of wise fatherly sayings. I say that because I don't recall hearing any myself.

With that thought in mind, I once asked a room of co-workers (several men) if they recalled any words of wisdom that their father or mother always used to say. There was silence. Then one guy said, "Yeah, my father always used to say..." and he repeated some perverse saying with cuss words in it. I forgot exactly what he said, but everyone laughed. I was kind of shocked. It was sad.

Anyway, after Aphorisms of the Fathers was published and became a best seller, I would, of course, then come out with Aphorisms of the Mothers. The was my plan.

But I have way too many plans and, alas, my Aphorisms of the Fathers project will never be. The same goes for two other books I planned to write (and actually started writing): Work is Not a Four Letter Word, and The Father & Son Spud Gun Fun Manual. 

Nevertheless, I still think the concept of adopting and using a selection of wise sayings should be an important part of wise fatherhood (and motherhood). So it is that this blog post will serve to take the place of the book I will never write. And this is where you, my dear readers, are needed...

During my absence from blogging (a week, or so) I invite you to provide one or more short, wise sayings that you think a mother or father might commit to memory with the intention of passing them on to their children whenever the situation was right.

If your own mother or father (or another family member) "always used to say" something that you remember, and that would be considered an aphorism, that would be especially good (no cuss words, please). But any simple, wise saying that you have otherwise heard or read, and think is particularly good, is also welcome.

Biblical words of wisdom may certainly be included. The book of Proverbs is full of aphorisms, and it was actually written by a father (Solomon) to give wisdom to his son.

Which brings to mind, Proverbs 16:18: Pride cometh before a fall. I distinctly recall my mother telling me that once. And it was a prophetic aphorism.

Please post your Aphorisms of the Fathers (And The Mothers) in the comments section below. The more, the better. If the overall participation is good, I will put a link to this post on my sidebar, where new readers will be more likely to read it and learn from it.

Thank you.

AChristian-AgrarianDocumentary(From 1943)

Dateline: 19 September 2015

Alexis Tremblay: Habitant by Jane Marsh, National Film Board of Canada

After my previous blog post I started looking at some of the other films at the Canadian National Film Board's web site and was delighted to find Alexis Tremblay: Habitant.

"Habitant" is an old word for a farmer of French descent in Canada. The documentary film, made in 1943, is a chronicle of the life of a habitant family living in Les Eboulements which is a small village northeast of Quebec, on the Saint Lawrence River.

Another way to picture the location of Les Eboulements is to consider the farthest-north town in the state of Maine (Estacourt Station, population, 4), then go directly west (as the crow flys) about 50 miles. The funny thing about Estacourt Station is that, as they say in Maine, "You cahn't get theyah from heyah." The town is accessible only from Canada. But I digress.

The 72-year-old film is nothing short of a celebration of Christian-agrarian life and culture. As such, it is idealistic, but it is not unrealistic. It portrays a way of life (and a worldview) that most Moderns would see as outdated and undesirable. 

After all, the Tremblay family has little in the way of modern labor-saving devices and modern amusements. How could they possibly be as happy as they look? Don't they realize how deprived and poor they are? 

Surely, these habitants of old need a television in their home so they can more clearly see their material poverty. And they will want to start buying more manufactured stuff. You know, stuff that's made in factories. Stuff that the family couldn't possibly make in their limited home economy. Their problem is that they just don't realize that they need more of this stuff... yet.

And, of course, Alexis will need to start farming more than the 40 acres that came to him from his father, and which supports his large family. More stuff will require more income.

But, again, I digress, and with both sarcasm and contempt.

Instead of lack, I see the family in this film has a rich and rewarding family economy. Furthermore, they are rooted in a small rural community. Family is all around and families help each other. Their friends and neighbors share much of the same local history. In short, the Tremblay family is woven into the fabric of land, faith, family and community in a way that was once common. 

It is a beautiful way of life.  It is a pattern for living that is practically extinct. But, lost though it may be, I firmly believe this way of life is something that can, to some degree, be reclaimed by anyone who has a vision for it.

The pursuit of this agrarian vision within a family must be deliberate. And to bear the best fruit, it will require a multi-generational effort. 

I hope you enjoy this movie as much as I did (I've watched it three times).

Potato Harvest1955

Dateline: 17 September 2015

Harvest in the Valley by Larry Gosnell, National Film Board of Canada

Thanks to my Aunt Carolyn in Kennebunkport for sending me the above documentary movie. It's about harvesting potatoes in 1955 (three years before I was born) in the St. John Valley of New Brunswick, Canada. 

New Brunswick is a few short miles east of Fort Fairfield, Maine, where my maternal grandfather, Percy O. Philbrick was a potato farmer. There was no difference between harvesting potatoes in Canada and Maine back then. The potatoes were all picked by hand. I've written about this before, but to watch a 60 year old movie telling the story is something special.

Back in those days, in those rural areas, there were a great many small farms and agriculture (mostly potatoes) supported the local communities. What's more, people in the local communities supported agriculture by helping to bring the potatoes in. The schools shut down for two weeks because the children were needed for the harvest. 

Even my grandfather, at 71 years of age, and retired from farming, worked at helping on a neighboring farm to pick potatoes. This was in 1967. I know he picked potatoes because I have his journal for that year and he mentions it. I suspect my grandfather had helped with the potato harvest every year from the time he could walk and pick up a potato (three years old?).

I remember my grandfather had a flat bed truck just like shown in the movie (except his was red). And seeing the wooden potato barrels brings back some very early memories. I wrote about helping my grandfather repair potato barrels in the July 2010 Deliberate Agrarian Blogazine.

My other writings on this subject are....

Potato Recess 

(And Good Home Cookin')

Harvesting Pototoes

A BitGold Update

Dateline: 15 September 2015

It has been about five weeks since I posted my blog essay titled, Considering BitGold (It’s Not A Cryptocurrency). Since then, I have put more money into BitGold than the initial $100 I mentioned in that post. And I have watched the price of gold go up quite a bit, then go down quite a bit, as this next graph of the 5-week period shows…

My 5 weeks of BitGold value
(click to see enlarged view)

Then, yesterday, I received my BitGold debit card in the mail…

I’m looking forward to transferring some of my BitGold account into the debit card, and using it as needed for everyday purchases. However, I’ll wait until the price of gold climbs up to the point where the value of my account exceeds the amount of money that I’ve put into the account. Then, when the price of gold dips down again, I’ll buy more BitGold. 

That’s my plan and it will be interesting to see how it works out. It isn’t important to me that the price of gold goes up and up and up, as many precious metal buyers hope and expect it will in the months ahead. I have not bought into the BitGold concept to make a profit, but to utilize an alternative currency—a currency that integrates with the central banking monopoly currency we are all familiar with, but is, at the same time, outside the banking system.

BitGold is what Bernard Lietaer would call a “complementary currency.” I’ve been listening to some of Lietaer’s YouTube talks and I like how he likens the central banking, debt-money system to a monocrop. A farmer who grows the same crop over and over every single year is inviting trouble. Diversity brings health and vitality to natural systems, and Bernard Lietaer believes the same is true for monetary systems. It’s an interesting concept, and I’m inclined to think Lietaer is on to something important in his thinking. 

From my agrarian point of view, I see BitGold as a decentralized form of money. Decentralization is fundamental to the agrarian way of thinking. Agrarians see decentralized social systems as being safer for the people who live in them, and more resilient. 

So I remain invested in the grand idea of BitGold. However, in keeping with my own advice in my first essay, I’ve not invested more money in BitGold than I’m willing to lose if the idea fails. 

One of my concerns about the BitGold concept is the ability to purchase gold at only 1% above the official gold price. While I really like that aspect, I wonder how it is sustainable. My understanding is that the demand for gold is currently so high, and the supply of physical gold is so low, and the official price of gold is so disconnected from reality, that there is currently a high premium (added cost above the official gold price) to purchase gold. No business can survive if it buys high and sells low. I’m assuming that there is something I’m unaware of in this line of thought, and that BitGold knows what they are doing.

In any event, I’m pleased to be an early adopter and supporter of this new idea. I’m hoping that BitGold will survive and thrive as a complementary currency. 

Reflections On TheFrench Poultry Killing Knife(Blood Cups & Brain Sticking Too)

Dateline: 14 September 2015

(click pictures to see enlarged views)

Last month I blogged here about some Vintage Butchering Tools I have acquired, one of which is a 100-year-old French Poultry Killing Knife, made by the G.P. Pilling Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That knife, coupled with the excellent 100-year-old how-to information in the Agriphemera PDF download, How to Kill and Bleed Market Poultry, had me champing at the bit to butcher this year's crop of homegrown chickens. 

The common way to kill and bleed a chicken (or other poultry) these days is to tip them upside down into a killing cone, slice their neck arteries, and let them bleed out. The killing cone restrains the bird, while bleeding them with an artery cut allows the brain and heart to continue working (axe-chopping a bird's head off does not allow the heart to pump the blood out). As blood drains, life ebbs, the animal weakens, and soon dies, with a minimum of pain and trauma.

Unfortunately, many people who thus bleed poultry will unnecessarily (and often inadvertently) sever the bird’s trachea and esophagus when making the neck cut. This causes unnecessary suffering to the animal. Neck-slicing of chickens also results in a bloody head and neck.

One hundred years ago the approach to killing and bleeding poultry for market was much different than it is today. Back then, whole birds were sold with the neck and head intact (this is explained in the Agriphemera download, Dressing and Packing Turkeys For Market). Plucked birds that were sold in the marketplace also had certain feathers left on them. And, amazingly, the bird’s innards were left in. 

Seeing as the head and neck were left intact, a bleeding cut to the outside of the neck was cosmetically unacceptable. Therefore, the birds were killed and bled with the precise slice of a major artery at the back of the mouth. The cut was made with a short, narrow, sharp blade, like the French Poultry Killing Knife.

The 1915 bulletin, How To Kill And Bleed Market Poultry, goes into great detail explaining (and showing) the anatomy of a chicken’s neck and head. It reveals exactly where, at the back of the throat, the main artery can and should be severed for efficient bleeding. You simply will not find a better tutorial on the subject.

And so, with my first chickens in the killing cones, and my vintage French Poultry Killing Knife freshly sharpened for the task, I held a chicken’s head exactly as the illustration in the old bulletin shows, and I inserted the knife into the back of the mouth, exactly where I was supposed to. I made the cut and, to my delight, a steady stream of blood began to flow out the bird’s mouth. 

I bled several chickens this way and the technique worked but it seemed that the birds did not bleed out as quickly as they did when using a neck cut. So I bled some chickens using a neck cut. I did not time and compare how long it took the birds to die, but I’m pretty certain they died more quickly with the neck cut. Though they bled well at first when using the French Poultry Killing Knife through the mouth, the blood tended to clot and the flow slowed down.

I should mention here that, in conjunction with a cut in the back of the mouth, the old-timers also used a poultry blood cup. These cups were weighted receptacles that were hung on the bird’s beak immediately after making the cut through the mouth. They served to keep the head down (and the neck straight) as well as to capture the flowing blood. I believe this weight made a significant difference when it came to facilitating the steady flow of blood.

My search for an antique French Poultry Killing Knife was a long one; they very rarely come up for sale on Ebay. But I’m pretty sure that finding an antique poultry blood cup would be even more difficult. I don't imagine the sons and daughters of the old-timers wanted anything to do with inherited poultry blood cups. And were a few to survive to this century, who would have any idea what they were once used for?

The aforementioned bulletin, Dressing And Packing Turkeys For Market has pictures of a blood cup. This 1913 Article From Country Gentleman Magazine shows a blood cup for chickens. I may fabricate a couple of blood cups of my own design to use next year, come poultry processing time.

It may be that the neck cut is a better approach for this day and age. After all, it's no longer important that the head and neck of the birds we butcher be presentable. They are typically removed when butchering. Times have changed. 

Even still, I'm not going to give up on my French Poultry Killing Knife and the through-the-mouth artery cutting technique until I've fabricated a couple of blood cups and tried them out. That will be a project for next year. If a blood cup does help to keep the blood flowing smoothly, this old technique may be worth reviving for the simple reason that it is far less messy. As anyone who processes chickens knows, blood tends to splatter all over the area as a result of the head-and-neck death spasms of a throat-cut bird. 

In any event, if you butcher your own homegrown poultry, I think it is worth knowing how to bleed a bird through the mouth, as How To Kill And Bleed Market Poultry explains. And even if you decide not to use the technique, the explanations of artery location in a chicken’s head and neck are very useful when it comes to making an efficient outside-the-neck cut. I am now, without a doubt, making better artery cuts from outside the neck after reading the old bulletin and knowing where the arteries are. And I now understand why the blood flows better from one side of the neck than the other.

Brain Sticking

Another topic that is explained in detail in the How To Kill and Bleed Market Poultry bulletin is that of brain sticking to loosen feathers. It so happens that after cutting the artery at the back of the bird’s mouth, the old-timers would stick their knife into the chicken’s brain just-so, and that would loosen the feathers for easy plucking. 

Since I have a Whizbang Plucker, I did not try the brain-sticking technique. But it’s one of those intriguing old skills that would be good to know how to do if the need arises. As I understand it, a properly placed brain stick loosens the feathers so well that most of them can be easily wiped off the bird’s carcass… without the need for scalding. Imagine that!

Here are a couple more poultry killing knives from the G.P. Pilling & Son Catalog of 1914..

I am skeptical of the claims made for this instrument.
Cutting the jugular vein, is plausible. But severing 
the spinal cord to loosen feathers does not
correspond with the old how-to instructions I've read.

American GothicChickens(By Jax Hamlin)

Dateline: 12 September 2015

(click picture to see a larger view)

It's hard to believe that five years have gone by since I created a web site to let the world know about my friend and alter ego, Jax Hamlin, the amazing whimsical chicken artist. I myself have not even visited Jax Hamlin's Chickens in three years!

But today I went looking through my file of Jax Hamlin chicken art and it brought back memories of what I hoped to do with the Jax Hamlin site. 

I was looking specifically for a Hamlin original titled, "A Broiler's Highest Calling" to illustrate an upcoming blog post. Unfortunately, I couldn't find that most excellent piece of whimsical chicken art, but I did find the drawing pictured above, and I thought I would share "American Gothic Chickens" with you here today.

That particular picture is a work in progress, not the finished concept, but it's close, and good enough for a peek into an example of Jax Hamlin chicken art that the world has not yet seen. 

"American Gothic Chickens" is, of course, inspired by Grant Wood's iconic American Gothic painting. Jax is an admirer of American Gothic and got to thinking that there might be more to the painting than most people realize. He imagined what the painting might show if the curtain was not in that Gothic window in the background. 

(click picture to see larger view)

Chronicle OfAn Onion Crop2015

Dateline: 11 September 2015

(click pictures to see larger views)

If you never saw my garden in person, and judged my gardening abilities solely on the pictures I post to this blog, you might assume I'm one of the best gardeners in the country. That would be an entirely incorrect assumption. I may be among the most avid and enthusiastic of gardeners, but I have my share of crop failures, and the weeds often get ahead of me in some areas. There is a lot of room for improvement in my gardening. Onions are, however, the exception.

I have gotten to the point in my gardening journey (now some 40+ years long) where, in  my soil and climate, I feel like I can dependably grow a good crop of onions.  The following pictures chronicle the development of this year's onion crop.

This next picture shows two of the three beds of onions I planted in the spring. Those are raised beds, made as I explain HERE. The onions are Copra. They are the most dependable storage onions I have ever grown. I buy the sets from Dixondale Farms in Texas. 

This next picture shows the three beds. The onions are growing nicely. I have laid plastic in the walkways to keep weeds down. I have shallow-cultivated the beds a couple of times to keep the weeds from getting established. I also cultivate after a rain to aerate the rain-compacted surface of the soil.

In this next picture, you can see that the onions have progressed nicely. Again, I have cultivated the soil repeatedly to eliminate all weed competition from getting a foothold. I cultivate with a Whizbang Pocket Cultivator, which I tell how to make on page 69 of my Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners. Cultivating three rows gets difficult when the onion tops get bigger. With that in mind, I'm going to plant two-row beds next year. 

Another picture of the growing onion beds...

And yet another....

Most storage onion varieties let you know they are nearing harvest time when the necks weaken and most the tops fall over. But the Copra variety has such thick necks that they rarely fall over. They just start to die back, kind of like a garlic plant does. The trick with garlic is to harvest it while the top is still mostly green. Doing so leaves a good supply of intact paper wrappers around the bulb. I've come to the conclusion that is the same with Copra onions—they need to be harvested when still mostly green and standing tall.

Unfortunately, this year I did not harvest my Copras when I should have. I waited too long. 

Growing and harvesting are two different things. I have my growing system down pat, but there is room for improvement when it comes to my onion harvesting. Nevertheless, the Copra will still cure and store very well, even if, as a result of late harvesting, the cured bulbs do not have as many intact papery skin wrappers on them. I know this because I have late-harvested these onions in the past.

In this next picture I am using my Whizbang garden cart and some drying trays to cure the harvested onions...

The trays are just 2x4 and 2x6 frames with poultry wire stapled to the bottoms. I've used them for many years. I pull the onions, cut the tops off about an inch from the bulb, and layer the bulbs in the trays with the necks facing up. The objective is to get the necks dry. If the necks are dry, the onions will keep a long time. I leave the trays in the sun most of the time. The tarp is secured over the trays when rain threatens, and at night to prevent dew from getting on the bulbs.

Once the necks are dry, I take the bulbs inside and store them in an upstairs bedroom. I have grown larger Copra bulbs in the past. But, large or small, these onions are superior all-purpose onions that will last us well into springtime. The Whizbang garden totes are ideal for holding onions. Instructions for making the totes is in my Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners.

Pride,And Missing #13

Dateline: 10 September 2015

I voluntarily submitted to having a man pull tooth #13 out of my jaw earlier today. 

It was only the bottom half of the tooth. The top half was ground off many years ago before having a root canal and crown installed. The enamel crown, with its stainless steel post, has come out a few times in the past couple of years. When that happened, I went to my dentist and he glued it back.

But the last time I went to have it re-glued, my dentist said it looked like the tooth had developed a crack. He took an x-ray to verify and recommended that I have it pulled. And so I did.

My teeth are in better condition than some people’s teeth, and worse than others. Unfortunately, when I was a boy, I did not go to the dentist for a period of many years. I didn’t go because, frankly, my parents couldn’t afford it. When I finally did get to the dentist, I needed a lot of fillings. I could have used  braces too, but that option was totally off the table, financially speaking. The fact is, I’ve gotten by with a few crowded and slightly overlapping teeth pretty well.

So my dentist (a man who I sincerely like, and who has been our family dentist for many years) made an appointment for me to have #13 removed. He suggested that I might want to be anesthetized for the procedure.

I had one other tooth (a wisdom tooth) removed about ten years ago and decided to be knocked out for that. It was two days before I could fully function again. My mental and motor skills were slow to recover. I think that dentist overdosed me. It’s just a hunch. I got bad vibes off that guy. Marlene and I refer to him as the Nazi Dentist.

So I went to a different oral surgeon today. Dr. Brady has been pulling teeth for 20 years. I asked him if he keeps a tally. He said he doesn’t, but in 20 years he thinks he’s seen it all. Dr. Brady took the time to talk with me and explain things. I liked him a lot.

Of course, seeing as I’m a new patient, I had to fill out several forms. One form was two pages of questions (in small type) about my overall health. It asked about medications I’m on, different physical problems I’ve had, and so on. I suspect most everyone reading this has filled out similar questionnaires. 

When Dr. Brady came in the room where I was seated, and all ready to be worked on, He had the questionnaire in hand. He expressed surprise that I had circled “no” to every health-related question. Meaning, that I had no health problems or situations now or in my past, and that I was not on any medications, and never have been.

Dr. Brady said it is extremely rare that anyone he sees who is over 50 years of age circles “no” to all the questions. I am 57 years old.

Then he asked when the last time I had a physical exam was. I told him it was a very long time ago. It was actually when I was 18 years old, but I didn’t want to say that.

He looked at the monitor in front of me, showing my blood pressure and told me I had borderline hypertension (145/86). I asked if my blood pressure might be high because I was a little nervous about having my tooth pulled, and he said, "Yes." But he quickly added that I really should get examined by a doctor. He even told me that I really should get a colonoscopy. 

I explained that if I got a physical exam, they would probably find something wrong, and I feel pretty good for the most part.

“Do you smoke?”, he asked

“No, I’ve never smoked”

“Do you take street drugs?”

“No, I’ve never taken any drugs.”

“You never smoked pot?”

“No.”

“Do you drink?”

“I’ll have a little hard cider around Thanksgiving time.”

“Do you take vitamins or herbal supplements?”

“Yes.”

“What do you take?”

“Um… I can’t remember offhand. Whatever my wife gives me.”

Dr. Brady numbed up my tooth with novocaine  and proceeded to pull #13. He talked me through it. As he was wiggling the tooth back and forth he commented that I had very dense bone structure; the tooth was not coming out easily. But he got it all, in one piece, in short time, and that was that. 

I have no dental insurance. The bill was $375. One hundred dollars of that was for a “comprehensive oral evaluation.” I didn’t mind paying that much. I felt like Dr, Brady had treated me fairly and professionally. We had a good conversation (oral evaluation) and he answered all my questions. I actually learned a lot. In short, I didn’t feel like I was on a tooth-pulling assembly line, or perhaps I should say, “disassembly line.”

I left Dr. Brady’s office feeling pretty good. I suggested that Marlene drive to the nearby supermarket where we get Kombucha. I felt like I needed Kombucha. 

But before she returned from the store with the Kombucha, what I really needed was the prescription for Motrin (ibuprophen). I don’t do pain very well, and the ride home was no fun. But once the pain killer kicked in, I was actually able to get some productive work done around here, like write this her essay.

###

Part of the title of today’s essay includes the word “Pride.” That’s because, to be perfectly transparent with you, I was feeling a measure of pride when Dr. Brady expressed amazement that, at 57 years of age, I have absolutely no health issues (that I know about), and am not on any medications. 

But I didn’t feel prideful for long. That’s because God impressed upon foolish little me that I have nothing to be prideful about. The health I currently experience is a gift from God. I have good health (as far as I know) because of God’s grace and mercy towards me. 

What’s more, the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, as it pleases Him to do (blessed be the name of the Lord—Job 1:21). That's a sobering thought.

Besides that, I had #13 pulled from my jaw today, and my dentist has told me that I have four more teeth (#1, #2, #3, and #4) that should be pulled. 

In the final analysis, it’s a humbling thing to have to have your teeth pulled. 

September SunriseThrough The Lima Bean Trellis

Dateline: 9 September 2015

Outdoor Sink Improvements

Dateline: 8 September 2015

Well, My New Outdoor Sink on a Whizban garden cart continues to be a very useful tool, and I have made a couple of new modifications.

The first modification is the addition of two upright pieces of wood attached to the sides of the cart behind the sink. They are bucket holders, as this next picture shows...

As anyone with an active homestead knows, those plastic pails are downright useful. In the past, they were left here-and-there when we weren't needing them. But now, they have a place. Rinse them out (if needed) and tip them upside down on their place. It's a simple but beautiful thing.

And then there's this little brainstorm of an idea...

That's a homemade sink stopper. I paid money for a chrome sink strainer with a rubber stopper on the bottom, but it would not securely plug the drain in the 65-year-old cast iron sink. My homemade jar-lid-and-leather stopper seals perfectly.

The sink-stopper idea came to me after cleaning out a quart jar of kidney beans that did not seal properly. I dumped the spoiled beans on the compost pile and rinsed the jar at the outdoor sink. In the process of rinsing, the jar lid fell into the drain and fit almost perfectly.

I thought of using a circle of rubber to make a sure water seal but didn't have any rubber (and my rubber boots are not yet to the throw-away stage). Then I remembered, many years ago, when I helped Ken Badman change the leather on a hand pump at his house. And I happen to have a box of leather scraps.

Another improvement that I plan to make with the sink (next year, hopefully) is to pour a concrete pad under the whole cart. That will solve the problem of keeping the grass mowed. Or maybe I'll lay in some patio bricks.

As a side note, sometime before this year is out, I expect to make a YouTube video about the sink, and the Toe-Tapper faucet switch in particular. I'll also offer inexpensive specifications for people to make their own Toe-Tapper. And I hope to offer Toe-Tapper parts kits.

Another side note: It turns out that old cast iron sink is a more valuable item that we ever thought. Marlene recently saw one just like it in an antique shop. It was priced at $1,100. 

If someone offered me $1,100 for my sink....
I would not sell!

Class EnvyvsClass Disrespect

Dateline: 7 December 2015

Many years ago (I believe it was in the late 1980s) a local paper published the salaries of all the teachers and administrators in all the public schools in the county I live in. This was, of course, in the days before you could find such information on the internet. 

Seeing how much money the local teachers made was an eye-opener for my small rural community. Many of the teachers were being paid what was at that time a LOT of money. One husband and wife, both long-time teachers at the high school, were making over $100,000. 

A quick check with an online inflation calculator shows that $100,000 in 1989 had the equivalent buying power of nearly $200,000 in today’s dollars.

Do the math, and imagine earning $4,000 dollars every week (maybe some people reading this are doing just that—I’m sure not). And just think, government school teachers have two months of vacation every year.

So this revelation of income inequality (compared to the average local working folk) was, at that time, something of a sensation. 

When this happened, I remember talking to a man I've long known who operated a local business. I distinctly recall one part of our conversation on that long-ago day. The man said to me: 

“Did you see in the paper how much money these teachers are making? That’s just not right!” 

And my response was:

“Well, I’m not into class envy. They went to school and got an education, and if they can earn that much money teaching, then good for them.”

It was evident that the man was surprised at my answer.  There was a short silence and we went on to talk about other matters.

The fact is, I’ve never bought into the class envy paradigm of thinking. Not on a personal level or a political level. 

Oh sure, I've had plenty of little moments of envy. Lately, I have a tendency towards barn envy. I see a nice barn and think to myself, "That's the kind of barn I need for my Planet Whizbang business!" And I'm prone to think about the barn I don't have. 

But such little examples do not "rot my bones" like Proverbs 14:30 says. I'm actually a very contented (and profoundly thankful) person. When I speak of class envy, I mean something bigger: a state of mind focused on jealousy because some person or some group of people have a lot of money, and the things money can buy.

The way I see it, if someone is earning a lot of money at honest work, I’m sincerely glad for them, and, to some degree, I’m encouraged by their example, especially if they happen to be self-employed entrepreneurs (such people have always been role models to me).

However, that isn’t to say that I think all people who have a lot of money (which I define as having more money than me) are worthy of respect. On the contrary, there are quite a few wealthy people who I have little to no respect for because they have made their money through unfair advantage, or by cheating, stealing, or harming others in various and sundry means.

For example, many people in banking and finance have clever ways of taking advantage of “the system” and fleecing their clients, earning for themselves large amounts of money without producing a legitimate product or worthwhile service. Politicians are notorious for using their political resources to enrich themselves far beyond the salary their political position pays. 

If we really think about it we could come up with a whole host of people of means who have made their money not by benefitting, but by harming individual people, and mankind in general. What about people who enrich themselves by working for evil corporations like Monsanto, or any of a number of other corporations that prosper by systematically destroying the environment and the health of so many innocent victims? 

In the final analysis, I don’t buy into class envy based on wealth alone, but I do hold to a form of class disrespect. I disrespect anyone and any group who has made their wealth by what I consider to be immoral means.

So, when faced with the example of a person of wealth, you might want to consider for yourself how this person came by their wealth. Was it by moral or immoral means? If by moral means, then you should mentally applaud their success. But if by immoral means, then class disrespect may be in order. 

Envy, however, should play no part in our thinking. It "rots the bones." Besides that, envious people are easily exploited by political manipulators. And people who are easily exploited are not truly free. And personal freedom is far more valuable than money and stuff.

There’s something to ponder on this Labor Day, 2015.