From fall to winter
The midwest has enjoyed an unusually warm stretch of weather which was accompanied by a good bit of rain. It was a nice rain to soak into the ground before the winter considering the fact that the fall has been quite dry. An arctic front pushed through yesterday dropping the temperatures and changing the rain to ice and sleet. Tonight's forecast suggest a significant snow by morning.
Over thanksgiving, I finished a few fall projects that I had not gotten around to. I spaded up my flower garden and separated some iris bulbs and planted some tulips and crocuses. I also put some insulation board on the ceiling of the hen house. The chickens have enjoyed the mild weather, scratching around to find some seeds, grass, and a few bugs that resurfaced during the recent warm spell. Our 42 hens are netting us between 30-36 eggs a day.
A friend of mine gave me a few books written by Eric Sloane, a New Englander who wrote about early AMerica in the 40's - 60's. He was a pilot/meteorologist who wrote fondly of past days and early American traditions. I detect in his writing an individual wired very much like myself. How could I help but to select "A Reverence for Wood" as the first one to read?
I was especially amused by these paragraphs on p 45: "During the period of the Civil War, the upheaval of American society resulted in much ugliness and some detioration of taste. Before that time, agriculture and the preservation of tradition were a cherished part of the good life, but from then on the philosophy of "change for the sake of change" became a dominant force in American thinking.
Hardly were the battles over when the iron factories, which had been making the hardwares of war, began seeking inventors and inviting them to set their sights on peacetime production. For a while there were born countless intricate machines devised to do any job faster and poorer. By 1865 there were four hundred and fifty two all metal apple-parers invented, yet the old timers preferred the paring knife. William Morris recognizes his age, remarking that the great achievement of those postbellum days was "the making of machines which were the wonders of invention, skill, and patience, used for the production of measureless quantities of worthless makeshifts."
Today we build additions and garages for people to store their measureless quantities of worthless makeshifts. People gather before store fronts hours before they open so that they can buy the latest round of electronics that are obsolete by the end of the year. Shopping carts are full of worthless goods that the buyers actually can't afford and end up purchasing on credit. There will be a flurry of gifts opened in a few weeks, to be looked at and discarded for something new in a few weeks. The credit cards will be maxed out but the closets will be full.
I like trinkets and gadgets. I just purchased Rachel a Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook and a pasta attachment so that we can make our own breads and pasta. I have also ordered a grain mill so that we can grind our own grains to make our flours and meals. Not only is there much nutritious value in preparing your own foods, there is something very enjoyable and wholesome in laboring with your hands to use God's creation to make something useful.
Let us not lose sight of the word "labor." It takes time to plant a garden and trees, to tend and nurture them, to preserve the food, to do the chores, gather the eggs, and butcher the meat. Yet there is a wholesome enjoyment in laboring with your hands, exercising dominion over God's creation by taking raw materials and transforming them into usable entities. It gives the kids an opportunity to do chores and to learn how to create.
A friend of mine who used to work in the grocery store industry told me once that at any given day, there exists on a two to three day supply of food on the shelves of the stores. Due to the conveniences of the modern age, we have become wholly dependent upon what we presume to be the immediate and exhaustive supply to the point that it is rare to find someone who stores goods for a rainy day. While the early American labored the whole summer to set food by for a long winter, we assume that nothing could possibly happen to our economy, our dollar, and our system of goods and services. If we were to wake up one morning and find the shelves at the store empty we would be in immediate trouble. We have placed a child like faith on the availability of electric power, available food, etc. As I consider our society, I am often reminded of the children of Babel. What would happen should God be pleased to visit our proud and defiant culture with the rod of adversity?
Over thanksgiving, I finished a few fall projects that I had not gotten around to. I spaded up my flower garden and separated some iris bulbs and planted some tulips and crocuses. I also put some insulation board on the ceiling of the hen house. The chickens have enjoyed the mild weather, scratching around to find some seeds, grass, and a few bugs that resurfaced during the recent warm spell. Our 42 hens are netting us between 30-36 eggs a day.
A friend of mine gave me a few books written by Eric Sloane, a New Englander who wrote about early AMerica in the 40's - 60's. He was a pilot/meteorologist who wrote fondly of past days and early American traditions. I detect in his writing an individual wired very much like myself. How could I help but to select "A Reverence for Wood" as the first one to read?
I was especially amused by these paragraphs on p 45: "During the period of the Civil War, the upheaval of American society resulted in much ugliness and some detioration of taste. Before that time, agriculture and the preservation of tradition were a cherished part of the good life, but from then on the philosophy of "change for the sake of change" became a dominant force in American thinking.
Hardly were the battles over when the iron factories, which had been making the hardwares of war, began seeking inventors and inviting them to set their sights on peacetime production. For a while there were born countless intricate machines devised to do any job faster and poorer. By 1865 there were four hundred and fifty two all metal apple-parers invented, yet the old timers preferred the paring knife. William Morris recognizes his age, remarking that the great achievement of those postbellum days was "the making of machines which were the wonders of invention, skill, and patience, used for the production of measureless quantities of worthless makeshifts."
Today we build additions and garages for people to store their measureless quantities of worthless makeshifts. People gather before store fronts hours before they open so that they can buy the latest round of electronics that are obsolete by the end of the year. Shopping carts are full of worthless goods that the buyers actually can't afford and end up purchasing on credit. There will be a flurry of gifts opened in a few weeks, to be looked at and discarded for something new in a few weeks. The credit cards will be maxed out but the closets will be full.
I like trinkets and gadgets. I just purchased Rachel a Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook and a pasta attachment so that we can make our own breads and pasta. I have also ordered a grain mill so that we can grind our own grains to make our flours and meals. Not only is there much nutritious value in preparing your own foods, there is something very enjoyable and wholesome in laboring with your hands to use God's creation to make something useful.
Let us not lose sight of the word "labor." It takes time to plant a garden and trees, to tend and nurture them, to preserve the food, to do the chores, gather the eggs, and butcher the meat. Yet there is a wholesome enjoyment in laboring with your hands, exercising dominion over God's creation by taking raw materials and transforming them into usable entities. It gives the kids an opportunity to do chores and to learn how to create.
A friend of mine who used to work in the grocery store industry told me once that at any given day, there exists on a two to three day supply of food on the shelves of the stores. Due to the conveniences of the modern age, we have become wholly dependent upon what we presume to be the immediate and exhaustive supply to the point that it is rare to find someone who stores goods for a rainy day. While the early American labored the whole summer to set food by for a long winter, we assume that nothing could possibly happen to our economy, our dollar, and our system of goods and services. If we were to wake up one morning and find the shelves at the store empty we would be in immediate trouble. We have placed a child like faith on the availability of electric power, available food, etc. As I consider our society, I am often reminded of the children of Babel. What would happen should God be pleased to visit our proud and defiant culture with the rod of adversity?
posted by bob | 3:50 AM
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