Fixin' Junk
The less machines one owns the better. One thing about small scale, debt free farming is most of the time you farm with junk. Don't get me wrong, I like my junk, I just hate fixing it. In this business one has to be a "jack of all trades, master of none" sort of a guy. Everyones better at something or another, but you need to be able to do everything at least a little. I fancy myself a pretty good "cow man". Thats my area of expertise. Fixing stuff and turning wrenches is my least favorite part of farming. I still like it, just would rather be doing something with the cows. You gettin' this? Strange post, I know. My mind is shot. Probably from changing knives on the haybine. Around here theres an order, a way things work. See, my dad breaks the knives on the haybine and I get to fix them. Yesterday was one of those days. While I was replacing knives, father pulled up with the flail chopper to let me know the bad news. The wheel bearing on the right side went. Now the moron who designed this thing, an engineer I'm sure, made it so you have to disassemble half the darn thing to get to the stinkin' wheel! Anyhow, thats todays project. While I'll be setting out in the farmyard working on my junk...... bloody nuckles, grease, and gunk, I'll have a smile from ear to ear, and not cause the wife is bringin' me a beer, well mabey......if I'm lucky, I'll stop the rhyming now. I'll be smiling becouse no matter what, this beats having a "real job" any day of the week!
posted by Scott M Terry @ 5:04 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I'll be smiling becouse no matter what, this beats having a "real job" any day of the week!
Yeah it does!
Oh, and thanks for the money links. I'm starting to get really interested in that. Do you have any problems spending the coins, or do you even try?
As far as Liberty Dollars, I don't own any. Have thought about it. You would need to have community that backed it for it to work. I do own some gold and silver. This is for savings, at the moment. I am very interested in alternative forms of currency but have not ever used any. Jon C gave a link to something called "gold grams", I think, which was endorsed by Sanders. I don't have it handy now, but if Jon reads this he can tell us the URL again.
Franklin Sanders has a blurb about GoldMoney at his website's entry page ...
http://www.the-moneychanger.com/entry.phtml
... which links to his GoldMoney articles ...
http://www.the-moneychanger.com/goldmoney/table_contents.phtml
The GoldMoney site is ...
http://goldmoney.com/
I still haven't jumped in. It offers the opportunity to store your savings in metal, but still be able to convert to FRNs overnight (they can deposit the spot value of your holdings into a checking account using the ACH -- automated clearing house). The transaction fees are fairly low to buy from vendors who accept GoldGrams directly. The purchase premium is less than 3% over spot (about 1% if you purchase at Kitco.com, rather than directly through GoldMoney.com).
Although physical possession is best, digital transfer makes for ease of transaction non-locally, and Franklin Sanders indicates that he trusts the man who put this whole thing together.
Again, I haven't jumped in yet, but it certainly is worth examining the concept.
(And about Liberty Dollars -- I have no gripes with anyone wanting to provide a real-money alternative to fiat currency, but I still think that 1 oz. silver dollars are a better alternative than paper certificates backed by 1 oz. silver. Why hold paper, when you can hold the coin, and the coin -- despite a premium -- is still cheaper than the paper certificate backed by silver. Just my opinion.)
JFC
“The less machines one owns the better.”
Amen!
The difficulty that you describe in replacing the bearing is rarely due to an engineer. Rather, it is management that imposes cost and other constraints that force the engineer into a design corner that he neither desires nor enjoys.
Jeff
engineer by day (for now), homesteader by night
“I am advised to abandon these lovely hand tools whose efficiency has evolved through many generations of users, and do my garden work with a polychrome, shiny gadget which is without character, and to me very objectionable, being noisy, evil smelling, and undependable. To think of choosing to have such a contraption between me and the soil, blotting out the song of birds and the river, and the sweet fragrances of spring. It would mean loss of independence, because gasoline has to be brought out from town for it, and if it needs repairs, a specialist must be brought in. The cost is considerable, too, and the acquiring of money is slavery, for me.”
~Harlan Hubbard, Payne Hollow Journal 1945
Jon
Thanks for the info. I agree with you on the coin vs. paper. If I got any LD's they would be the coin version, but one is probably ahead just getting silver eagles or something I suppose.
Jeff
Great quote! Sorry about the engineer jab, :) I'm sure it wasn't their fault.
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