Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer
It’s been a little weird out there lately, I know. And not just the panic arising from the Chinese flu or the ever present, low hum of PC servility that runs like a current through every human interaction in the Western World. Now we’re in the midst of another election cycle at the tail end of Winter, and taxes will soon be due. Over time you just get numb, but that’s not the way you want to go through life, filled as it is with the myriad miracles and moments of sparkling clarity. Our very existence itself an expression of the divine and we are tuned into it from our birth, and if we try hard enough during the years that lead up to our departure from this mortal coil, we are able to ride on its never ending wave, like a surfer.
Every one of us will encounter setbacks and heartbreak, it’s part of the human experience; loss, death, sickness and want. For most people these obstacles and misfortunes present a roadblock to the future. They dwell on what is past and will never be again while missing out on the opportunities that await us further on.
Our family has endured its fair share of setbacks and losses these past few years but we have never given in to despair or depression, in large part because of our love and support for one another, and in other ways because of our lifestyle that keeps us occupied and busy. Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop, they say, but a mind focused on sadness and disillusionment is altogether worse. Lately there has been a spate of suicides among the peer groups of our children and of drug addictions among those of the older members of community that have led to deaths by overdose long after their lives were already ruined by addictions.
We discuss these tragedies as a family openly because it helps us to recognize our own weaknesses and failings and to always be on the lookout for any signs of trouble before they become problems, but also to reinforce our faith in each other and our decision to reinvent our lives for the express purpose of living purposefully. Time is always shorter than you think it is and in the words of Ferris Bueller, Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Here are five simple tips to help you refocus your energy and get right with God in these times of turmoil and confusion without spending a dime.
Do something small.
Every home or workshop is filled with innumerable tasks that you know you must attend to but would prefer to put off until you need to do them. Imagine how satisfying it is to reach for an item you need and to find it exactly where you put it and to discover it is in perfect condition for use without having to spend an extra moment getting it ready. This requires a certain discipline and intent and takes time- usually at the end of a chore or use- to be effective. I sharpen my knives while I am working, for example, but I always take time to sharpen them when I am finished using them.
I like the sound the blade makes against the steel or stone I am using, the methodical stroke of each pass, the rhythm you build when you feel the edge become keen. It isn’t something you do casually, knives are sharp, the space and handling close, but once you’ve done it a thousand times muscle memory takes over and you enter an almost trance-like state as you deftly angle the cutting edge against the surface of the stone for a perfect edge. I also know that whenever anyone picks up a knife in our home for whatever task it’s going to be used, it will cut cleanly and without resistance. It’s a tiny task that takes very little time, but it reminds us that even the smallest effort reaps great rewards if done properly.
Always sweep the corners.
Cleaning a home or maintaining a property is one of those Sisyphean efforts that never seem to end. Scrub the bathtub to a bright sparkle and one day in the not too distant future, do it again. Wash your clothes and dry and fold them and the next thing you know you’re picking them up off the bathroom floor and heading back to the laundry room to do it again. The endless nature of household chores is something that can be viewed either as a drudgery or as a form of prayerful submission. Before I went into the Army my mother did the laundry, swept the floors, washed the dishes and cleaned the house.
I was tasked with mowing lawns, weeding gardens, splitting firewood, bringing in the groceries and taking out the trash. Once I was an enlisted man I became responsible for every form of toilet bowl scrubbing and potato peeling imaginable. It was monitored and inspected and you were either rewarded or punished based on the effort you put into each duty. I learned fairly quickly how to buff a tile floor, polish a sink and scrub a pot until they glowed and I have carried that discipline throughout my entire life, not because I was told to, but because I came to take pride in my work.
The idea is not half-ass any job no matter how distasteful it might appear, from scrubbing the inside of a dirty commode to pulling out an appliance and cleaning up the debris beneath it. A job worth doing is worth doing well and there is no shame in doing something dirty if the object is to make something clean. Nothing is more repugnant to a guest than to drink from a dirty glass or to have to use a filthy bathroom and few things are less complicated than in keeping them in good order and sparkling with attention and care.
Care for a plant.
We spend countless billions of dollars in taxpayer funds trying to discover life in the depths of space. When the possibility of single celled organisms being found on Mars was announced NASA made it sound like the greatest breakthrough in human history. Meanwhile 100 million species of living creatures fill every nook and cranny of our planet and we don’t even know exactly how many we have discovered. Plants make up a huge portion of all living things, yet their inscrutable nature, their inability to communicate or to show appreciation make them something of a backdrop to our existence.
By planting a seed, or purchasing a seedling in a pot we open ourselves up to the ability to do something purely for the sake of the plant. To care for a living thing, to tend to it, water it, see that it gets the proper light and is kept healthy takes us out of ourselves and in doing so opens up our better nature. Altruism is often a concealed version of self-serving behavior simply to promote our social standing.
Famous actors who live in palatial Hollywood mansions lecturing the rabble on how to be one with nature and love cows would be construed as a form of comedy in a sane world. If you wish to make the world a better place, a plant is a great start. Once you’ve mastered the proper care of a single one and watch as it rewards us with fruit or flowers, it’s not much of a leap to raising a garden full of sustenance and in enjoying the experience completely.
Just Be Nice
My favorite niche during my comedy career was to M.C. Usually openers are the least experienced performers in comedy clubs and everyone loves moving up to the feature slot and the bigger money that comes with being a headliner, but every show is built upon the foundation constructed by the Master of Ceremonies. The difference between an average show and great show is the expectations set by the emcee; if it’s done right, it’s always a great show. When our youngest went to visit his grandparents last Summer they took the train to Manhattan and spent the day going to the museums, to the top of the Empire State Building, and to a spectacular dinner at one of their favorite restaurants.
Later, when he was back home telling us about his trip we asked what his most memorable experience in NYC was, he responded that all over the city, wherever they went, he saw people living on the street, sleeping on the sidewalk and that no one even bothered to look at them. He observed that it was as if they were- to everyone but him- invisible. It made him sad, he told us, that all these well dressed people were deliberately ignoring what he couldn’t help but notice and when his grandparents weren’t looking, he’d quietly passed out his money to them whenever he got a chance.
I tried to explain to him some of the conditions that lead to homelessness, the drugs, the mental illness, the deliberate choice to live outside of the conventions of society while feeding off of it’s detritus, but these were the kinds of explanations that did not suit him and he explained to me that no matter what the reasons, it was no reason for people not to be nice.
Find Something In Everything
We become the product of everything we ever do, everyone we ever meet, every place we ever go. These experiences and exchanges cling to us like barnacles, each moment is a coral unto itself and all of them become the reef of our life. Nothing we experience is unimportant or immaterial, nothing without value. The trick of course is how to discover the utility within the moments and to realize that our presence in each (one) is as essential to everything else as everything else has been for us.
Whatever we touch, whatever we do offers us an opportunity to add something to our life experience that makes us not only unique, but useful in a way that we cannot imagine when we go about our lives with blinders on. Back when I was working in an office and commuting I spent countless hours simply driving back and forth between two points, three hours every day that could either have passed in a blur, or as I learned over time, could be turned into an advanced education by listening to books on tape- an antique version of podcasts for the younger reader. This can be applied to every moment if we consciously try to apply our time to improving our lives.
This list is by no means definitive, nor does it scratch the surface of the kinds of things that others have discovered to make these days something more than an anxiety producing sabbatical where people put their lives on hold waiting for it to begin again when the government tells you it’s time to get back to work. It is simply a set of observations we’ve made as we’ve found our way out of a lifestyle into a life worth living, every minute or every day.
Please add you own and share them with everyone you know.
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Be thankful. Always. In everything.
Amen, be grateful for every little blessing, and when you notice anything that needs doing or anyone that needs help that you can do yourself do it.
Amen HSF,
Carpe Diem everyday and never let go.
I try to start every day by praying to God, thanking Him for another day and asking for his guidance. I then turn to reading my Bible. These two activities set the tone for the day.
I’m tone deaf at times, so I’ve been praying 10 times a day lately.
Happy Birthday Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
There is a lot of truth in the Mormon belief system, but the net result is a cult. The top hierarchy are Satan worshipers and Masons.
Well said, HSF. Especially the portion about tending to a plant. Before you know it, you’re observing complex interactions between itself and the rest of the ecosystem – as well as new problems to solve (iron chlorosis, magnesium deficiency, spider mites).
Care for a plant.
If for nothing else, purely for the aesthetic value.
And you are so incredibly deft at describing the aesthetics of life.
Well done, once again.
By golly, I just finished hanging the year old Chinese hummingbird feeder. It’s been laying around in its package and wasn’t thought of till a hummingbird buzzed about spying the red plastic cup, coca cola can then coming within half a foot of the red shirt I had on.
Being a sub contracting car tech, I’m not sure what Monday brings. I think of all my projects begun, upended by events unforeseen and can’t help but feel that the time may be very nigh indeed to reassess closure with them.
Life truly is about small daily conquests.
Thank you HSF
HSF: You may be a closet buddhist.
Do not pigeonhole anybody unless he or she is part of the despicable class. It’s demeaning when the person has earned uniqueness and is as singular as that plant you planted and honor with your care. Do you say to your lily, “Oh, lily, you appear to be a closet Liliaceae! Not so unique as you thought, are you?” Not that this matters so much to the one pigeonholed, but it does matter to we who do it, because we are not seeing what is but what we have imagined to be what is.
Krishnamurti said, “Do not quote me.” He also said, “Can you look at a tree and not name it?”
To see and do in one motion, in one instant, is a high achievement, as in sharpening a knife at the end of a job, but who is it that is counting? The me that counts is a construct of thought and thought is not consciousness, which is eternal and separate from the body, according to the sages, e. g. Harold Percival, Lao Tzu, Emerson, Krishnamurti, Christ.
Humming birds, man,what a wondrous feat of intelligent design! Two feeders up several weeks ago, and waiting. Put up 16 gourds for Purple Martins, and the eery quiet in this scuttling of normal is broken with the coupling of my 16 with yhe neighbors’ more than 60 for nearly 150 Martins and the full-on daylight airshow!
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul and leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for he is with me, and his rod and staff comfort me.
He prepares a banquet for me in the presence of my enemies, he anoints my head with oil, he makes my cup run over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Memorize and repeat to self when anxiety strikes.
Blessed Sunday to all.
Here is another way to enjoy it.
https://youtu.be/RbgxBvLFErg?t=13
I shoveled up a large waste oil spill yesterday.
Hard work that makes room for nature to rebuild.
What could be wrong with getting paid to both exercise and clean up the *other* promised land?
(The United States of America)
Set a goal and accomplish that goal. I have had no depression in my life. I have had a terminal illness and been to the brink of death and been cured -reborn from absolute certain death -without 4 months of sleep, withered to bone and then within 1 hour been totally cured gained 30lbs in one week 20 lbs the next with a vitality of a newborn at 24 y/o.
I have been homeless, down to only a single pair of shorts, no shirt, no shoes, no money, slept on the sand on a beach, ate fruit from fruit trees. Without ever stealing, lying our cheating I began picking coconuts out of trees, making hairwraps and beads for tourists making over $300 per day without any overhead, eventually got a place to stay, making custom shirts and selling them to make even more, after tripping on acid for over a year dumped the baggage of the past, went back to school for engineering to build the skills I needed to build all the inventions exploding from my mind, became top of my class, worked doing R&D under dean of engineering, built advanced 3d printers, advanced optical processing systems and algorithms, automated numerous scientific experiments across mechanical, materials, aerospace, optical and electrical engineering, physics, chemistry and biology all while founding the largest university cannabis activist club in the world with over 10,000 members and affiliates, taking over half of student government with the goal disbanded it and teturn those fees to students, bringing in top corporate donors for my research, being pushed out of university by men in black operatives for waking up too nany to the reality if 911 and in the corporate world built commercial vending machines, formed a startup company with the top optical scientists of the world and licensed tech, designed and ran some of the largest pyrotechnics displays in the world, designed and built wireless pyrotechnics firing systems, got patents in high volume mass production 3d printers, built next gen kidney dialysis systems, various biomedical automated test and production platforms, built automated cannabis aeroponics production tools and feedback control systems growing some of the best cannabis in the world, programmed various biotech automated assay platforms and genetic sequencing systems, built large devops ci/cd automated software production platforms, developed various highly optimized RF modulation/demodulation software systems and have a beautiful family of my own that works together and truly loves one another.
I have found that through pursuance and accomplishment of goals one can’t even have the possibility of being depressed.
The only thing that sucks is tyranny. I have been attacked by cops hundreds of times, thrown in jail (never for more than a day), tortured inside jails, hunted by the men in black simply for knowing the truth -they broke in my house, installed viruses on my computers, shutdown email accounts from inside microsoft and attacked associates cars, public events and sent viruses from my computers to slew of non-profit allies.
All this and I am not even at the half way point of my life and I was deathly ill and didn’t really get started until I was 24 y/o.
I can’t even begin to tell you how much more I can or could have accomplish without tyranny holding me back at every turn.
We can build endless energy and real stargates RIGHT NOW but this CANNOT be done within the confines of the current tyrannical system. The ninnies, gimies and slimies must be exterminated before I or those who are aware will move forward with the tech. The tech absolutely CANNOT end up in their hands. And now the whole world is imploding under their spell and no one seems to want to reverse course. There I s definitely a socially acceptable limit to honest intelligence, I see it all the time within authoritarian constructs. I am not authoritarian, I follow collaborative work models but people like me can easily see how authoritarian models holds back human advancement.
People need to fight back, don’t back down, reject the authoritarians at every turn and even notify them their destruction is necessary and prudent for the advancement of human existence and capabilities. If they choise to step aside then so be it, there can be coexistence if the remove their mental illness from our path to the future but if they demand to have a say, control our path, decide for others then their existence should NOT BE TOLERATED. We can end the need for human labor, end hunger, end a dystopian control grid future based on lies. We CAN DESTROY THEM if they won’t get out of the way but it is going to take setting that goal, deciding the path, and performing wvery ACTION necessary to accomplish it.
Do not go quietly into the darkness. Do not let evil people, deceive you, control you or scare you. Fight back. Reject all forms of authority. Live free and be free.
“high volume mass production 3d printers”
We have some people who need masks. What do you think?
For who? The people who attacked me over and over? The people who rat others out for living free? The people who build control grids to enslave me? The downvoters who downvote my life summary and good advice? The military people who want use my inventions to hurt me and others? The ‘health care’ workers who pump people full of poisons for pharma’s profit or demand health insurance middle men and bloated administrators overcharging everyone for healthcare?
My printing technology can build thousands to millions of parts per hour but nah, I’ll pass. I have no interest in helping anyone who won’t help arrest the criminals and remove them from existence but I can’t find any who will help do that.
Practice with you firearms in the backyard with your whole family while you still can.
And raising plants is a joy. From start to finish. Starting a variety of seedlings, keeping them warm and covered to ensure germination. Then getting them down cellar under very close hanging fluorescent lights so they grow straight up. Then transplanting them to larger containers, caring for them every day. Preparing the beds consumes a multitude of enjoyable tasks. Planting, mulching, weeding, fertilizing, diagnosing fungus and insect issues. Keeps one busy and thinking. Last week I planted the pea and lettuce seeds, and today I planted lettuce plants, getting them snug under a floating row cover. And yesterday I brought my family up to a guy who owns a farm to visit and buy some sausage, pork and bacon. You might be familiar with him. Thanks Marc for the reminders.
It was great to see you all together, like families should be. Hope the sausage was to your satisfaction, it was a pleasure to make it for a friend.
Cooked your sausage up tonight in some of my homemade canned tomato sauce from last year (good stuff). Heavy on the sausage. Just the right amount of fennel. Put over fresh tortellini’s and fresh grated romano. Awesome!!
Got you pork shoulder bone in butt in an apple cider brine overnight now and will smoke tomorrow at 225 for about 10 hours after a fine dry rub is applied. Can’t wait! Wood recommendation? Thinking apple and hickory.
Froze the bacon for when the “kids” are out of the house – ain’t sharing that delicacy!
Go outside and get your free vitamin D. Even the worthless government can’t tax that yet.
And, as an added benefit, exposure to sunlight prompts our skin to self-manufacture Vitamin D.
Increased skin pigmentation lowers the rate of manufacture of Vitamin D.
RELAX DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!
A wise and considerate article offering some great advice. There are silver linings and bright sides in every circumstance. And what is a circumstance if not a moment? And what is a moment? Is it not the present? Isn’t this moment all there is? The past is gone. The future is a promise and quite often promises are broken. But the here and now is for the taking.
Personally, I have an awareness that transcends my own thoughts – but only when I’m humble. A smile from a loved one. Laughter. A tasty meal. My new boots are awesome and my machinery hums like a top. Maybe it won’t last, but that only means it would be a shame to not enjoy these things now.
My thinking, however, can take me down if I’m not careful. Anger is my kryptonite and my hatred keeps me warm. In fact, it’s always simmering beneath – like the way a coffee machine gurgles as the pot fills, or water boiling in a kettle making the metal lid rattle.
I drove to a Big Box store this morning for some lumber and outdoor stuff as the wife rode along to pick up a few items at a nearby grocery. Several customers were wearing masks and some had on rubber gloves. The cashiers now check people out behind sheets of plexiglas as new the authoritarian messaging sounds “social-distancing” instructions overhead and even barks orders up from the floor: “WAIT HERE”
At the grocery, I remained in the car as the wife completed her shopping. A masked female caucasian placed her items in her car then doused her hands with sanitizer, then she lit up a smoke and drove away. Another woman returned to an SUV where her husband and kids awaited. The man popped the hatch and secured their groceries as his wife returned the cart. They both hand sanitized and drove away. A black woman exited, got in her car, checked her phone and drove away.
There’s no denying the fact COVID-19 has, at the very least, infected the minds of the masses. It has become a VERY big deal worldwide. Perhaps because it is a bioweapon killing legions of folks. Yet I told my wife I’m having difficulty accepting the new dystopia because my instincts tell me the billionaires have gaslighted the world; that it’s an illuminati mind-f*ck.
So…, yes…, the anger. It simmers. It boils.
The billionaires are now completely committed. They can’t go back now. Because this either ends with them against walls and hanging from ropes or with the masses in digital chains.
It’s a war. And, so far, the momentum is on their side.
The psychological suppression is complete in all but a few, and most Americans now remain in shock. They’re scared because it has become such a big deal. They see it every day; even from behind their masks.
Typing this, I am reminded of one of the best quotes I ever read. It was one that the author of the above article (Hardscrabble) wrote in a comment on a long-ago thread. He said it was paraphrased from a book. It was this:
“History appears to be a raging, bloody river, choked by the bodies of innocents and tyrants alike, but most of it is lived high upon its banks, where people tend gardens, raise their children and whisper to one another in the darkness.”
To be completely honest….. throughout most of history…. it’s always been like that.
As I once wrote in an article entitled “Choose Love: Don’t Ever Let Fear Turn You Against Your Playful Heart”:
Carpe diem. Do not fear. And, in all circumstances, be grateful.
1. Every morning have coffee with the smell of spent gun powder.
2. Plant a garden. Provides faith in the future and sustenance.
3. Pray. Daily
4. Be cordial and a better person even in your thoughts.
5. Have courage. Know you have the means of personal protection and the fortitude to provide it.
Careful there Farmer. Do I hear you promoting The Calm that comes before the Storm?
Alright, here’s my sobering observation about the ones who cannot be reasoned with.
We had a lot of rain in the past week and our driveway is very steep so after a couple of serious downpours I had a pothole, no biggie. I drove the tractor down through the village- maybe twenty houses, The Grange, the old Post Office and the local church. Right at the edge of the village we have the town sheds where they keep huge piles of crushed gravel, torn up macadam, pea gravel, sand etc. so I took a load of the 3/4 crush to patch the pothole. I got back up the hill after dumping it and tamping it down and was loading up the honor box with eggs when the local PD drove up. I ambled over said hi and asked him what was up. he said that they’d gotten a call that I had been seen driving the tractor through the village and did I take some of the stone. I told him of course, I thought that it belonged to the taxpayers of the town, I wasn’t paving a driveway I took about a 1/4 of a yard from pile that had weeds coming through it and hasn’t been touched in the 11 years we’ve been here and he stopped me-
“I don’t care”, he said, “I just wanted you to know who to keep an eye on.” Then he bought a dozen eggs and we talked about how odd people were behaving and that was that.
Over a decade of living here, all the free pig roasts we’ve thrown for the town down at the church and some busybody felt compelled to rat me out for a scoop of gravel to the PD.
That’s where we are right now. One part of the population is absolutely thrilled to be the new Stasi snitches on their own neighbors. It really hurt my feelings and I stewed about it for an hour or more until my wife and kids talked me down. Reminded me of the neighbor a few years back that said I was no farmer when the cows got loose. What’s the reward in being a shitty neighbor?
Oh well, back to my day of rest.
Awareness, grace and enlightenment. (AGE) I invented that acronym just for you Farmer.
This is the best line, ever from you:
“Our very existence itself an expression of the divine and we are tuned into it from our birth, and if we try hard enough during the years that lead up to our departure from this mortal coil, we are able to ride on its never ending wave, like a surfer.”
Thanks man.
The Spanish version is different from English, it says all good work wakes the envy of man against his neighbor.
Eclesiastés 4:4 Reina-Valera 1960 (RVR1960)
4 He visto asimismo que todo trabajo y toda excelencia de obras despierta la envidia del hombre contra su prójimo.
So many people do not have good judgment. They don’t have a gauge. And your son is absolutely right-on about the homeless. That’s what adds a massive dose of insult to this monstrous CV injury. People had every opportunity to care for the downtrodden and elderly, but most didn’t give a hoot or a rat’s ass. But NOW, all of sudden your freedom hinges on the health of a 90y/o. I generally used to like people. I don’t anymore.
Back at ya.
I have a good friend, an English lady who lives in southern France. Her daughter lives nearby but is afraid to visit. In France you now have one hour per day free from house arrest. You must print out a form with all your data, name, address, phone, etc. and the reason for being outside and in the public space. You may only be out for “necessary activity”. My friend’s daughter is afraid that a local old line Vichy resident will turn them in if they have a cup of tea.
This is getting crazy fast.
Some people just need to get a fucking life.
There are always going to be busybodies and snitches, some humans are so unhappy that they are compelled to make others equally miserable. Also, oddly enough, there are lonely people with little self-esteem who feel compelled to garner attention in whatever way they can and getting the attention of an authority figure gives them some attention.
There are also people who thrive on telling others what to do and how to behave, if they get into positions of authority or power they love to lord over the hoi polloi, they are bullies with very weak characters. Sadly, their numbers are growing…
I think it’s still frowned on to shoot people of that ilk. I think, I’m not sure.
Luckily it doesn’t happen very often, but when I find myself in a pickle where the adrenaline is trying to take over my mind, dragging me back into a primal caveman fight or flight mode, I think of Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction repeating “Bitch, be cool!” over and over and over. True story.
Today is Palm Sunday and the churches are closed. By the State and the Anti Pope. I’m PISSED.
I know, it’s like they just eliminated the 1st Amendment, with out even a public debate.
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
The church is people not buildings. Read your Bible and pray at home. The Lord will sustain you.
“Do something small.”
Today it’s smoking a rack of baby back pork ribs and 3 lbs of beef jerky. For some reason hickory smoke smells sweeter on a cool drizzly Sunday.
Today it’s smoking some crack, on my baby’s back porch and jerking 3 lb of beef.
I like that. I could have written that but for the 3 lbs of beef. Somebody would say, don’t make the chickens laugh.
I built a cabinet for a co-workers shop at home today.. Not the greatest joinery but I started job with goal of only using whatever I could find laying around the yard… It turned out okay. Once its painted it will hide some of the sins. The only thing I will is some hinges…
It was a great day! Listened to some good music and forgot about all the horseshit that is happening right now..
And I tried to be nice too!
Nice cabinet RiNS!
There was a surprising amount of fuckery due to fact that it is supposed to go in a corner. Not carpentry, moar like butchery with wood but it hardly matters. This project is all about function, fit matters too but form is a distant third… especially when I was using wood that was under a couple feet of snow just last week.
Do let TampaRed know that I braved the cold steppe and ventured outside. Didn’t see any polar Bears but to be honest I am not really worried these days. They have spend last couple of weeks fattening up on folks struck down by this COVID-19 fiasco underway here in Nova Scotia.
It’s so bad that folks are dropping in streets and the Bears can pick and choose which ones they want to eat! A positive if there ever was one….I’m a half full kinda guy and am trying to look for positives with the Martial Law I am living under..
That said the Premier can still go suck on a bucket of dicks!
Being nice are hard…
This is why everyone in Siberia carries guns.
That’s actually a very sweet piece. I love corner cabinets, very Shaker of you.
Thanks Man!
It cost nothing to make it as every piece of wood used was intercepted on way to the burn barrel. The whole day was a blast and beats the shit outta humping desk, answering emails and producing rebar placing drawings. I envy you Scrabble. Every day you do something that is real. By doing that you can ground yourself from the insanity reigning right now in world.
Ending on a positive note.. the skies here have cleared from the Chemtrails that used to appear.
The sunsets are amazing!
edit:
if anyone is worried the wood has sat in heated garage and dried out for a couple of weeks
Anyone who’s ever undertaken the nasty task of disassembling a pallet would find that funny. I wish I knew who the serial downvoter was so I could kick him or her in the twat.
Wasn’t that an episode of This Old Pallet?
If it was Shaker, it would be square. I guess your playing to the back of the room.
Nice work RinSeriNo.
Thanks Yote!
Might it be that I’m not playing with a full deck… this shelter in place is after all making me a lil’ cray cray.. As for the design best call it Shakerish..
Anyways done painting and now on the next project..
Turned out okay…
Doors are a little rough but it kinda goes with the theme..
Very nice building project RiNS.
Thanks VV!
This morning while painting it, I couldn’t help but have chuckle or two at what had been created. Looking at the various bits of the cabinet I could see, rough saw marks here, there and everywhere. I do have a planer but there isn’t much point when material being used is odds and sods spruce.
Quickly I came to realization that these are pretty much the cupboards my GrandMother used to have in her back pantry. Something that might have been made by my GrandFather some 60 or 70 years ago. I could hear Nan laughing with me as I stumbled around shop, paintbrush in hand. Meanwhile my GrandFather was sitting in his favourite chair by the window peering to the main road, nodding his head in approval.
The cabinet is being finished in a white primer to seal out the stains. Practicality demands it because some of the boards used are weathered.. and some aren’t. The primer helps make the Old, the not so Old and the New all look the same. The pastiche makes everything seamless..
Call it Aberdeen Hospital White…
Primer is drying right now and methinks it suits the vibe of this cabinet.
… might post picture of finished “piece” (lol) later…
In other News..
It appears, according to those to be trusted, that there are now 262 cases of COVID in Nova Scotia.
No deaths attributed to virus but no bears either wandering in or near abode.
Coinkydink? Maybe..
Still glad there are none to be seen hear..
Annual Polar Bear Plunge at Sydney, Nova Scotia:
Be nice to your dogs, they love you.
That was simply wonderful.
Dogs…true to the bone.
Live in the moment, pray for the future and be thankful for the past.
I suppose we could reassess the actual costs and value of the globalized economic/financial system which made this situation possible, who pays the bill for it, and who reaps its benefits – perhaps even consider a less integrated system, more resilient to problems?
Or we could make images, or something, I guess.
“…if we try hard enough during the years that lead up to our departure from this mortal coil, we are able to ride on it’s neverending wave, like a surfer.”
Pure poetry, man. Thanks.
I wanted to post McCartney’s song but I love KPOP so guess who won?
My daughter is studying Korean maybe she can explain that to me.
Simple. Asians being black.
SeeBee, It’s totally unfair to call them Asians being black. KPOP is Star Trek to our Lost in Space. You watch any of the girl groups and suddenly, Beyonce ain’t shit and JLo has got two left feet, you begin to realize how old these bitches are and you feel sorry for them.
We have aging infrastructure and aging pop stars. We’ve just been feeling smug because we don’t know the rest of the world got real young and we are that cranky dude telling the kids to get off the lawn.
I’m not denying they are the in-in. I’m just pointing out, it’s been done before.
I started my day with getting called into work early in the morning. Came home and watched online church service with family then did some minor tractor maintenance. After that, I moved our chickens to their summer home, prepared new strawberry beds, and began getting a blueberry bed ready.
I paused several times for long stretches just to watch my bees and chickens enjoy the beautiful day.
As evening came my girls helped me finish up the strawberry beds. The three of us doing work by hand in the beautiful dirt was wonderful. Then my wife and I took the dog for her evening mile. Now I’m tired to the bone and achy because it was the 1st real day of physical work I’ve had since last fall. I loved every minute of it and look forward to the next day I can do it again.
If one gets off the couch and away from the screen life tends to take care of itself.
Another win for the home team.
It feels like what we should be doing, does’t it?
do something small…best advice ever.
HSF, your wordsmithing brings to mind a supreme compliment my nerd friends early to coding would rarely anoint a bit of work. They would say it was elegant. What that meant was a piece of code has been reduced to it’s most simplest, shortest way to whatever launch or command was tasked. Your writing I suspect is much like your syrup, sap reduced to the sweetness of syrup. Do you ever wonder how the original recipe was stumbled upon? As for me, what meme works for me and those I choose to work with as well as those that look to the farm for some work:
LOOK-look around, really take the moment to look and not just blindly glance
SEE-see what needs doing within your powers and skills
DO-do the thing, tasks, and without needing even the acknowledgement of the giftee. Don’t let the smell of a dirty chicken coop or time with a lonely senior deter you. The rewards while and after fills the holes in our souls.
However I am one of a rapidly disappearing bunch of old coots who are fascinated keeping striped bugs in pine boxes so as to share in some of the gifts of the hives. Few follow those of us who choose not to wrangle their bees, shipping them to CA to pollinate almonds, yeah good money (finally) but your bees come back sick with high mortality. Then quarantine away from your apiary until your mostly sure they are nursed back to health, thanks but no thanks.
For those who garden and sell/barter your extra bounty, adding 2 hives and planting some early and late season food for them will give you 40% more vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts and flowers. For those that are not yet raising some food or spices, get started. No matter how small your first efforts are, plucking dinner from food you nurtured falls on the top five things to do to relieve those of us pestered by monkey minds at times. Tending to the girls so as to not rile them up to much, how would you feel if every 2-3 days I tore the roof off your house messing about, requires my focus. Anything less than that, risks getting stung up and good. When I do it right they will crawl all about, curious but mostly docile. But I’ve been known to piss them off so bad, they will fly backward to drive their stinger through a goatskin gloves.
bkpr
One last plea; Leave the Roundup and other lethal to pollinators shit on the store shelves.
I did not know HF was using Roundup. I wonder if he’s stopped beating his wife?
have you?
6# Comprise. Some basic freedoms will need to be expunged.
“How much of their freedom people will want back when the pandemic has peaked is an open question. They show little taste for the enforced solidarity of socialism, but they may happily accept a regime of bio-surveillance for the sake of better protection of their health. Digging ourselves out of the pit will demand more state intervention not less, and of a highly inventive kind. Governments will have to do a lot more in underwriting scientific research and technological innovation. Though the state may not always be larger its influence will be pervasive, and by old-world standards more intrusive. Post-liberal government will be the norm for the foreseeable future.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/why-crisis-turning-point-history
When push comes to shove.
Well written!
Superior work sir as usual, and big thanks.
Here is a seemingly reliable independent university lodged data site.
Tragically the old truism still applies especially now that,
“Figures don’t lie but Liars can Figure”. This looks to be OK.
http://www.healthdata.org/covid/updates
Have more sexual intercourse with the wife during lockdown.
seems as though we might be on the downward slope, and the leftists don’t like it..