[mitchmaine]

hey guys, my dad told me once, if you have a friend and want to keep him, don’t lend or borrow money from him if you can help it, but above all, don’t talk religion or politics with him (or her). this thread seems to wander off that way sometimes, so even though i feel strongly about it and can sound so sometimes, its just my opinion and i value everyone elses too. reading over it, i wonder if we differ that much fundamentally.
anyway, snow squalls this morning, so pen and i got up early and moved the hens around to the south side of the house, close to water for the winter. we are ready.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

pure science is a wonderful thing. we create marvelous things just because we can. i don’t blame the scientist either (it is his job). how we alter the plants genetic make-up is the job of the scientist. who’s job is it to ask “if” or “should” we be doing it. morally and ethically, should we be tampering with something that john points out, could come back to haunt us with disasterous results. we seem to jump in too quickly (again with the money), to recoup and satisfy the investors, long before we know for sure what’s gonna happen next.

[mitchmaine]

right on, geoff. the svalbard global seed bank, 800 miles from the north pole on sptitzbergen island, northern norway, high and dry, 400 feet under permafrost on a permanantly stable tetonic plate, exists as a safety net anticipating the loss of diversity in the traditional seedbanks around the world. tens of thousands of strains of thousands of different plant forms from around the globe safe for the moment in case of disaster.
what kind of a disaster?? someone tampering with our food. food, water, oxygen, shelter, our real needs are actually small, but pretty important, wouldn’t you say??

if it works, don’t fix it. they want to own the food. its about power and money. plain and simple. i will never trust them. grow your own food.

[mitchmaine]

@Carl Russell 22569 wrote:

I miss that frickin’ Vermont. God those were good times. People were so real. I grew up tagging around behind men like that. Man, it makes my soul hurt to the bones watching that. Life gone by. Thanks for posting that again Phil.

Carl

don’t suppose it’d matter much what i’d give, but i’d sure like to be ten again and go back and see the maine i remember, too. great memories.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

andy, i have to ring in on the side of natural selection. all or most of our lives here have been lived under the threat of nuclear war, because we split the atom and it was going to benefit mankind greatly and change our lives forever. they got that part right. it took us 100,000 years of evolution to develop our brain and mind. and we always seem to be one step behind it in managing what ever it seems to dream up. transportation, electronics, communication, climate change, you name it, we are always in trouble. 500 years ago, you had to look the man you were about to kill in battle right in the face as you committed the act. very honest. he’s trying to get you too. ever get a feelin’ you was born too late?

mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey carl, up in northern maine, you had to be careful buying a horse. if a man told you “he don’t look so good” that might mean he was blind.
the old wives tale about woods and pulling horses was that some would pull themselves blind. don’t know any truth behind that one.
a friend was having troubles getting his single in shafts. so we doubled up a grainbag and stuffed it into her bridle and tucked it in and blindfolded her. she walked into the shafts and we drove her around for an hour or so that way and she went great. that is the only experience i have with a sightless horse but what an act of faith. horses really amaze me sometimes.

[mitchmaine]

sounds like the senate blew it and voted on the food safety bill with language about money involved. only the house can appropriate money, so the senate passed a bill it couldn’t or should not have voted on. so now the house has no alternative but to defeat the bill, so it can go back to the senate that, after new years, will be mostly republican. so we can expect a different outcome, maybe……………………………yahoo!!!!!!!!

[mitchmaine]

sorry about that one,geoff. poor attempt at humor, i guess. please forgive me.

[mitchmaine]

well said, carl. you can’t work with your hands full of reins. lines on the ground are dead lines, and the horses should get it. it’s a leap of faith and seemingly poor advice to tell someone to drop their lines but the other side of that hurdle is great. when you are free to hook up equipment and so on is very important. someday you will need both hands to do something. there are ways of teaching this in short safe ways, like heading the team away from the barn, or inside a fence or someway to let your lines go but somewhere where the animals can’t get into too much trouble if they go. build a little trust at a time til you can get to a place where you feel you can let go. hard to describe but worth it if you can figure it out. mitch

[mitchmaine]

the recipe for chicken soup around here is take a rock and put it in the bottom of your kettle and just cover it with water. add your vegetables and skin out the chicken, cut him in half and place him in the kettle. boil for two hours, simmer for three more. pour off the soup and vegetables, throw away the chicken and eat the rock.

[mitchmaine]

Hey geoff, your sled looks like what they would have called a pung up here. Light sleds for a horse or two with the second tongue between sleds. Bob sleds might have been bigger but had the cross chains like you said. They crossed or made an x between the two sets of sleds and if you turned right the rear sled turned left and you made a tighter turn. Oddly, the bigger sleds pulled easier sometimes probably due to runner length and width. Plain runners had steel shoes the same width as the runners, half moccasin were 4” wood with the same shoe and full moccasin was 6” runners with two inch steel and the wood was beveled back. They floated and turned really well. Don’t know where the name came from. Twenty years ago you could still find piles of old runners and irons rotting away in old grown up logging camps. Harder to find now steel prices went up so.
What I meant about the lobsterboats was you could tell where a boat came from by its shape and size (novies and jonesporters, etc). boats offshore were deep and beamy and more stable than the bay boats that were light and fast, but all had there purpose as long as you stayed put. Same with sleds, each blacksmith had his own patterns. Anyway, I’m ramblin’, must be late. Good luck with your sleds. We found a mountain of old Lombard log hauler sleds once in a gravel pit up in rangely. Huge sleds pulled by a steam tractor. With ten and twelve foot runners and six foot bunks. Meant to haul eight cords to a set of sleds with dozens of sleds hooked end to end like a train on frozen roads. Ever feel like you was born too late? mitch

[mitchmaine]

the senate passed that bill today by a vote of 73 to 25. now it goes to the house.
the good news is that although not perfect, there is some strong language protecting the small farm and farmer. thanks to everyone who contacted their senate and congress men and women.

[mitchmaine]

[ATTACH]1466.jpg” />

[ATTACH]1467.jpg” />

[ATTACH]1468.jpg” />

My understanding was that bobsleds were like lobsterboats. Unique to their locale. A bunch of blacksmiths all making sleds on their own patterns designed to fit the country where they came from. I have a bunch of sleds and irons that are kinda the same but all different. I’ve rebuilt some but always backwards. Filling in the wood to fit the irons, instead of wrapping new iron around patterns I made. These sleds here are different in their bunk irons. Heavy cast iron rockers that let each runner run independent of the other. Take a good look at the irons and if you see them in a junk pile somewhere and wonder what they are, grab them. My pole and rolls are rotted through along with the racks which never last long so that’s my winter project.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

@Mark Cowdrey 22361 wrote:

Coupled with the Comcast glitch of last evening it serves as a good reminder that as valuable as this online community is, we are way, way out on a limb taking the digital world for granted. Neglect your analog community at your own peril!
Mark

you don’t know what ya got till its gone

mitch

[mitchmaine]

fine looking country you got there. best wishes and welcome, mitch

[Author]

Posts