It’s raining. We’re Flu…ing.

It’s pouring here….and the kids have the flu.

That’s rough.

I’m not sick….but Jenny feels like she’s getting sick….so….I better not get sick.

Jenny’s better at taking care of everybody than I am.

I can rise to the challenge if everything hits the fan, though.

We have a new chicken and rooster on the porch….and the rooster is crowing…so…one of the sick kids will probably wake up soon.

The new chicken/rooster combo wandered into the yard….and didn’t get along with our other chickens (the two that Appa didn’t “love to death”) …so….Jenny put them down in the downstairs porch/laundry room area.

Now the rooster is crowing.

Appa is barking in what was the garden (before he pooped everywhere)….and the rooster is crowing below Nate’s room.

Freaking noisy animals.

I did our taxes yesterday.

Did I mention that it’s raining?

I’m going to make some coffee and watch a movie with the sound turned all the way down.

Sunday….and the rain… and the flu.

Here we go.

“I need 3 2×4’s….”

This is pretty nuts….totally automated.

We have a small circular blade sawmill up the road from us where I buy rough sawn wood ocasionally….but it is nothing like this.

This is an outfit out in Washington state.

Here’s another video of a smaller sawmill operation run by the Amish.

This guy’s getting slab wood to burn in his woodstove.

the brakes…that’s the breaks

The brakes went out on the Mail Jeep yesterday.

Pretty much completely.

It wasn’t just a “bad pads are scratching and grooving my rotors” kind of issue….it was a “why am I pumping and pushing the pedal to the floor and I’m still going forward” kind of thing.

So (after a nervous effort to get the thing stopped and off the road) I called work to tell them that I wouldn’t be able to make it in.

I called.

And called.

And….called.

I got the fax machine every time.

What the heck?

Then….because I didn’t have any other numbers, I called a co-worker who was at the PO already and told her what was going on.

I guess that’s as far as it went because later I got a call from management and got blessed out for not letting them know that I wouldn’t be able to make it in a car without brakes.

We stop a lot (because of the mailboxes)…so….(go figure?)…it would be impossible to do the job without killing everybody if I couldn’t stop.

I don’t call in very often.

I try to be as low drama as possible.

Maybe I should call more often so that they’d be used to scrambling to cover my route?

Who knows?

Anyway….it turned out that one of the wheel cylinders had exploded and instead of being a “closed loop” the brake fluid (that is supposed to push everything in the right way when you step on the brake pedal) was just pouring out and soaking the shoes and drum on one side of the vehicle.

That’s not something that you can fix out on the route.

But…I can fix it in the driveway if I have the parts and the sun is shining.

I can fix my own problems….usually.

I guess that it’s nice to be needed.

I’ll call directly next time (if anyone will answer the phone), too.

This “middle man” thing never works very well.

old school lumberjacks….

Here’s some crazy footage….lumberjacks doing it “old school”.

Before all the heavy equipment and power tools we have now, it really must have been a different world to do this kind of work.

You’d have to eat a couple of piles of flapjacks in the morning to make it through a day like this.

Buy a bunch of stuff….by the pallet!

Man.

It’s bad enough when the stuff trickles in.

You’d have to have a way to sell all this weird stuff.

Surely, you couldn’t buy a pallet of this crap and then just store it in the backroom.

That would be bad.

This guy sells the “Amazon Returns”….on Amazon.

That’s pretty weird.

He gets a pallet of Amazon Returns….and then ships them back to Amazon and sells them through the “fulfilled by Amazon” part of Amazon’s business (FBA).

So…you are getting a chance to buy something that someone returned because of…..whatever reason….and give it a new life.

These things get a second chance!

How about that?!

Did you know that might be where your FBA product was coming from?

Who knows what you’re getting when you shop anywhere.

I wondered what FBA meant.

It’s a crazy world.

He’s buying these pallets from an outfit called bulq.com .

Old Hickory….cheap and good

We have a couple of these knives in the kitchen….and I wondered about these for a “bushcraft blade”.

What do I know about bushcraft blades?

That’s why I was wondering about them.

I know zip.

These knives are pretty inexpensive…but they’re good.

Pretty tough….easy to sharpen….hold an edge.

I don’t take ours out in the woods.

We use them to chop stuff in the kitchen.

But….maybe I should?

I wonder how that would go over?

 

52 years!! 52 years!! What a Mailman!!

This guy seems like a good fellow.

It’s good to have a mailman like this….and good to work with a mailman like this.

Of course, I don’t work with a mailman like this.

There’s nobody that old working at my Post Office.

Maybe I’ll keep working until I’m really old?

Maybe I’ll keep working until I feel really old?

That wouldn’t take long to get to the “feel” level.

Check out how he preps to go out on the route.

That’s what I do every day.

52 years is a long time.

I hope that he gets to enjoy a very, very….very….long retirement.

He’s earned it.

360K on 1.5 Acres? 360K on 1.5 Acres!! Neversink Farm

Here’s a guy who said that he doesn’t raise pigs to make money….he has the farm to make money.

He raises pigs to have meat that he knows where it came from…how it was raised.

That’s such a side issue in the whole story…but…I guess an important point.

He makes his money with a highly productive farm that supports all the other things that his family wants to do.

They originally moved to the country to homestead….not to farm….but now the farm supports the homestead.

Now that they’re making money….they can have bees…and chickens….and all the other things that a typical homestead has.

He’s made a situation for his family that supports a lifestyle.

It’s easier when you have an income.

Still hard to create an income….but easier than doing it all (the homesteading) without any money.

This is an inspiring story….and I’m glad I had a chance to get to know about this farm and how they did all this….and….to “meet” this guy.

He seems like a pretty good dude.

The name of the farm is Neversink Farm….and you can find out more about them at www.neversinkfarm.com .