Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT dtnspeed.net>]

Don writes:

<<So how you structure your survival portfolio depends entirely how you 
expect things to turn out.  I have always said if we have TEOTWAWNI, I want 
to be in the middle of a huge junk yard.>>

No kidding. In past, sparse times we kept ourselves mobile for cheap through
the bounty of junkyards. Now that the head engineer has joined the heavenly
choir -- well, I do the best I can. 

At least I'm living in an area where most adult men understand how the
physical world works and many of these men were my husband's friends and
understand that if they tell me how to do something, I'll actually
understand it. Jim -- that would be the head engineer -- used to say that in
Chicago he was regarded as a wizard because he could do simply wiring and
car repair, but here he just knew a bit more than everyone else did. 

So, I stagger onward but with help. It's been a great PR bonanza that I
built a very nice chicken house (with Jim overseeing the project) a couple
of years ago that the local carpenters came out and admired before Jim died.

Oh, and my mother has an electrician working for her as a hired man (don't
ask... it's a sad story) who will come over and do wiring with me and
explain the stuff I don't know.

If I were designing middle and high school curricula, I would include
practical courses for all kids in home repairs and auto maintenance. I don't
think kids learn from their parents as they used to do 30 years ago, but
it's a skill we all need. I mean, really, do you want to call an electrician
every time a fixture fails?

Marie