The Ancient Threshing Circle

[MMe M]

baggy, those tall weeds with hidden stumps your talking about? I use fire first. Works like a charm, shows all those hiddin wicked things. Then I use my mower.

If I cant get gas at the gas station, ill brew and distill some.

Originally Posted by MMe M

baggy, those tall weeds with hidden stumps your talking about? I use fire first. Works like a charm, shows all those hiddin wicked things. Then I use my mower.

If I cant get gas at the gas station, ill brew and distill some.

My neighbors would b****

we aren't quite rural enough to get away with it.

My preferred method would be goats and hogs. Then the
work gets down while you sleep in, and you don't have
to micro manage them like you do a teenager

[doodah]

MMe M -- I would ask you to accept my apology here. You obviously have many skills that would be very valuable in a community.

I have carried water every day for seven years. That is, I don't have running water in my house, a thing most people consider "going backward". In fact, most people think I'm crazy to live this way, so I rarely talk about it. I guess I'm just saying that it is possible to live with pre-modern conditions with no feeling of lack or want or wishing it were otherwise. Frankly, I am grateful that there is water here at all.

I am all for lightening our burdens when possible.

[MMe M]

Originally Posted by doodah

MMe M -- I would ask you to accept my apology here. You obviously have many skills that would be very valuable in a community.

I have carried water every day for seven years. That is, I don't have running water in my house, a thing most people consider "going backward". In fact, most people think I'm crazy to live this way, so I rarely talk about it. I guess I'm just saying that it is possible to live with pre-modern conditions with no feeling of lack or want or wishing it were otherwise. Frankly, I am grateful that there is water here at all.

I am all for lightening our burdens when possible.

Accepted.

We are all here to help each other. I may have sounded like im complaining but am really expressing the anguish I felt every time I saw my most cherished Grandfather and Grandmother come in from a long hard days work. Id have done anything short of murder to ease their load and this post just reminded me so strongly of them.

Please accept my appologies if I sounded harsh or whiney. I use an old wringer washer. I prefer it, it works so much better. People look at me the same way you described when I do share. You get no judgement from me, only a hope for an easier way if you choose. Peace to you my friend.

[doodah]

Thank you, MMe M, accepted. I think we're clear now, we've both apologized to each other!

Well, I know what you're referring to re your grandparents. I grew up on a non-electric old fashioned farm in North Carolina. True, it was a harder life physically, and that's what those large families were about -- you needed a work force to grow the family's food! It's only us, the generations since the 1960s, who have gotten so soft. In my situation, I carry water as part of what I do every day without really thinking about it. I do laundry by hand and don't even have a wringer, but I wouldn't turn it down if someone handed me one!

When I said whiners I was thinking of people who would always be looking backward to this era we live in, which is just the tiniest pocket of about 60 years in the whole history of humankind. That's why I've found Baggywrinkle's info so helpful, helping to re-educate us to other ways of doing things.

Peace, M, no bad feelings here.

Originally Posted by doodah

Well, I know what you're referring to re your grandparents... True, it was a harder life physically

... to other ways of doing things.

I read somewhere about somebodies multi-generational
family farm. In the barn was a hoe that had seen duty
through three generations. It was worn down to a nub...
They had hoed this entire eighty acres of row crops for cultivation by hand...

I'm not suggesting that hard work become a religion.
Some of the old ways are dead and gone - good riddance.
But some of the old ways are elegant and
have not been improved on by "modern" technology.
If you do not know they exist you cannot use them when
you need them. If your combine does not work for lack
of parts what are your options to harvest the corn, a corn
knife and your two feet? What if you never heard about a
corn knife, what will you do then? Pull the corn all by hand?

Gene Logsdon didn't use a flail in his book about growing
your back yard wheat. He used his son's plastic baseball bat.
Another small holder uses his feet. These problems
have already been solved! Rather than tossing your wheat into the air
for the winnowing you might be very happy to build or buy a
fan mill if you can find one.

All scythes are not created equal ( so I am told).
The American scythe used by your grand fathers had a nickname.
It was called a misery whip! In contrast, the european scythe is a joy to use.
The american scythe is heavy and sharpened with a grind stone.
The european scythe is feather light and sharpened by peening.
That is also how it is made.
Talk about dying art! The european blade is only made
in a small area of eastern europe where they are still made by
black smiths using techniques which are centuries old! These blades are
works of art - each hand
made!

Thank heaven they are still there! This is a perfected technology.
If you think spending a day scything is bad what might doing the same task
stooped over with a grass sickle (if you have one) or some other less desirable
cutting instrument might be like. Talk about
misery whip!

Take Dilbert out of his office cubicle and set him in a field
with a knife "borrowed" from the kitchen. How long will he last?
How many times will he reinvent the wheel before he gets to the
point of working back up to the misery whip? If he lives so long!

Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it!
Up close and personal.

The collapse is happening folks. How far will we fall before it is over?
How deep is the abyss? Third world
is still light years away from stone age. That steel hoe
might look pretty high tech next to a deer horn hoe
such as was used by Buffalo Bird Woman only one
hundred years ago. Hate to break it to you, but you are
only a factory closure away from being back to that point!

WAKE UP!