New Year's

We have certain routines for New Year’s at our place.

On New Year’s Eve, if I have not done so, I am compelled to do some bookkeeping for my business. Mostly things I can do at the desk on the computer. Close out all last years records and total them up, then get new spreadsheets started for next years business activities. Computers sure do make this job easier.

We make it a “general habit” to stay home for New Year’s Eve, for several reasons. First, it has been a long time since I cared one wit about seeing the clock turn to midnight! I have probably seen it nearly every night this week, but not by choice, which makes it very likely I will be up at the change of the year, but it won’t be on purpose. Second, I hate to be a on the roads after mid-night on New Year’s Eve. Despite the fact that drunken driving awareness is better than it used to be, it still only takes one ‘nut’ to kill you or your family. It we needed more reason, tonight appears to be a ‘nasty’ one in MN. In our area we have rain, snow and wind picking up later with falling temperatures, that makes it even harder for an intoxicated person to keep to their side of the ditch! I will just stay home, no as though I would be up to a “party” this year to begin with.

New Year’s Day dinner at our home for the past 15 years or more has been a “primitive meal”, meaning, the main courses are wild meat, home grown vegetables, and early American foods. Served up on cast iron and primitive plates. Most often we dress in rendezvous clothing and use candlelight to top off the atmosphere.

I don’t think we are going primitive tomorrow unless the weather makes it necessary. They say we have a change of losing our power due to ice and heavy winds over the next 24-36 hours. Makes little difference to me, except in my weakened condition I am having trouble staying warm.

This should bring a smile to someone. I was so cold, at my noontime nap, I moved my quilt and electric blanket to a folded out futon, right in front of our big soapstone woodstove. Cranked the heat up on the blanket and commenced to nap. My wife was concerned that I was going to case problems by making an obvious fever worse, while my claim was that I could break the fever if I could get warmed up. J I am sure that will drive my medical friends nuts, but it was only a low-level fever, which I have been fighting for months.

After my nap I woke up, somewhat wet, but aware that I felt warm and much better and was sure the fever had broke. While laying there being warm for the first time today, I was thinking about what I might do if the power fails us and I don’t have my electric blanket. My half-awake mind pictured a Baker style lean-too tent set up over the futon, right there in the living room!

If you are not familiar with a Baker, or sometimes referred to as a Whelan lean too tent. They are designed to be open in the front to catch heat from the fire and closed on both sides and back, to hold the heat.

One thing is certain, it would work right there in front of that big woodstove. The only problem being, I fear my wife and child might go on some kind of war-path if I tried to “hog up” all the heat, if the power was out. But we always have plans to handle a power outage by closing off the upstairs bedrooms and “camping out” downstairs anyway. In fact it is generally easier for us to manage a power failure in the winter than it is the summer, due to the freezer being on a ’mud porch’ that is not heated and will keep good in the cold, but poorly in the heat. Hopefully the power will stay with us.

This evening I will at some point sit down and closely look at the things we have done this year and years past and reflect on what the future might be. As I have said elsewhere, I believe it better to reflect, for learning purposes and enjoyment, and look ahead with a degree of realism and expectation. But most of all, Enjoy the Day and be Thankful, We don’t know how many we have left to us.

Hopeing all have a safe New Year’s Eve and a Happy New Years Day!

Hospital's are Good Things

Having made a short explanation as to my sudden “disappearance” due to illness, I’m guessing parts of the sordid story could contain details that might have entertainment value.

If at all possible, one should avoid going to a MN hospital anytime before June or after August, otherwise you are in for a ‘chilling’ experience. It was really only the ER care area that I was put in that was a virtual ‘icebox’, (and that could have been 70° for what I know, but I thought I would die of hyperthermia before I got out of there) once I was in a private room they were good to help me out, by turning the thermostat up to 76° and piling me high with heated blankets! God Bless them, for I felt more like my life was in danger from hyperthermia, than anything else at that point.(That was probably just fever too, but the feeling is the same; frozen.)

It is somewhat interesting to me that two other times that I can remember being in a MN hospital during the month of September and April. Both of those occasions were ‘chilling experiences’ also. I was in once in the month of June and don’t recall that I was cold that time. My guess is the reason for freezing in hospitals has more to do with your state of near nakedness, than anything else, not to mention, my personal thermostat having gone overboard at some point. I was certainly surprised that on this last visit, they actually allowed me to wear my insulated underwear under their famous ‘hospital gown’. That raised their ‘kindness index’ a fair bit in my eyes.

Aside from freezing to death, there are some of the various other unpleasant experiences that await anyone so foolish as to stumble into an ER on Christmas afternoon.

To start with, I was loath to do such a thing. We had some plans for the next day that even the “scrooge” wanted to participate in, like seeing the grandchild. Then, just thinking about the poor people having to work the ER on Christmas Day, I hated to make their life more complicated with reduced staffs and all other factors involved.

But as it worked out, by mid-afternoon, I had to swallow my pride and let my wife drive me the 23 or so miles to the hospital. Who, was almost ready to call an ambulance, because she really thought I was having a heart attack, which I did not believe at all, or at any point, because the pain was not in line with that well know event. My particular pain was too “pointed” to one area of my belly to be a “heart situation”, at least in my untrained opinion.

What was not beyond my “untrained opinion”, was the fact that the pain was growing and showed no signs of letting up, so we ‘traveled’.

Hospitals and medical procedures, in general, are probably the most humbling experiences most of us face. At least if you are “normal”. I don’t consider it ‘normal’ to enjoy being poked, probed, bled half to death, starved and deprived of water. Anyone who enjoys such things need to see a different kind of doctor!
Speaking of water. I have a dear friend that I have sat with in various hospitals over many years and many different times, due to heart disease. I have watched his suffering for a “sip of water” time and again and felt so sorry for him, but now the feeling is different. I had the “pleasure” of finding out what it was like to be on the “waterless list” from about 5 PM Sunday until near noon on Tuesday, after surgery. Of course I was on IV for liquid and pain meds. An IV does not in any way, resemble a nice glass of water! Even if they mostly achieve the same purpose. What misery! All of Sunday night, Monday, Monday night and part of Tuesday, all I got was a little sponge to dip in lukewarm water to wet the inside of my mouth. J I ought to get some mileage out of that little story. But me being me; I have to make a confession. Sometime during the night Sunday, I was able to go to the bathroom on my own. They had left a cup there. You know the rest of that story! (Just one good gulp, die or not!)

In my own self-defense for that one drink of water. They had already said they would not be operating on Monday. I had always been of the understanding that the “waterless period” was generally 12 hours before a surgery and in my ‘water starved mind’, I could see no reason to suffer if they were not going to chop on Monday. I lived. After Monday morning, I stuck to the rules, even with that glass sitting there in plain sight while I was parched.

Since I am tiring on this post, I just want to add my utmost respect, once again, to our American Medical System. I hope it is not destroyed over politics. To all doctors, surgeons, and the most important in the medical army, nurses. You deserve far more than patients can ever pay, but you will always have a friend in Ernie’s World. You have literally saved my life more times than I care to count. May God Bless all of you who work in that Army of Medical Professionals!
　
　
　

Medical Leave

I did not plan on leaving this blog unattended as long as I have. But I ended up taking some unexpected "medical leave".

Since I am not up to a full explanation, I will make this short. Christmas afternoon I had an attack of pancreatitis due to gall stones. Needless to say I was not a "happy camper" and ended up spending a few days in the hospital.

They were able to "chop" out my gall bladder on Tuesday, I  came home on Wednesday and continue to improve, but am not very coherent, so I will leave this post be. Prayers much appreciated.

Irrational Creatures- People

Not that it matters, but now I don’t know if what snow we got last night will qualify for a “white Christmas” or not. If the sun shines much tomorrow, it won’t be on the ground come Sunday. We only got a ‘dusting’ and part of that melted today from an intense sun, even though it remained cold. Instead of a “Brown Christmas” or a “White Christmas”, we might have a “mixed bag” with a few spots ‘whitish’ and the rest brown. Maybe everyone can be happy then!


Weather patterns aside, it is a fact that millions of Americans will be traveling this weekend. I hope those on the road with me, will be paying attention to driving and not ’texting’ or otherwise doing distracting things that, not only puts themselves in danger, but also puts me in danger! According to the ’ladies’ who ride with me, we are in plenty of danger without anyone else’s help, just because I’m driving. Why is it that some folks are so ‘excitable’ over little things, like looking off into the woods and heading for the ditch? Don’t they know I will be able to “feel the drop”, if I actually leave the pavement? Then, presumably, I would come out of my “coma” and very gently get back on the roadway. I say “very gently” because the worst thing one can do if the leave the road is to “jerk” the wheel to get back on the pavement. That is called “overcorrecting” and could lead to a loss of control and bad consequences.

This reminds me that people in general are irrational creatures. There are lots of people who would not dream of doing some activity because they deem it “dangerous”, but think nothing about getting in an automobile and driving down the road at 60 MPH within a few feet of cars coming in the opposite direction at a comparable speed. Now that is “dangerous living”! It all comes down to the fact that we get “used” to something and lose our “fear” of it, when in reality it is far more dangerous drive on the road than doing almost any form of “dangerous sports”.

I, like many people, don’t like to fly on airplanes. I am not particularly ‘afraid’ to fly, I just don’t like it. But as far as safety is concerned, flying has a better record than driving. I think. It is rather hard to get good statistics, simply because the numbers of people on the roadways are overwhelming compared to those who are flying at any given time. It is true that when an airplane “falls from the sky” and takes the lives of a couple hundred people, it makes major news headlines. I have not seen a daily “tally” of the number of people killed daily on the highways of our country. I suspect it would be staggering to know the facts, as well as discouraging. But that is our way of life and we don’t often think about it, but do be careful if you are out and about and I will certainly try to do the same.

Speaking of “irrational”. As I stated, I don’t like flying on airplanes, but I would like to, just once, skydive. As in, ’jump out of an airplane’. My wife says there is something “loose in my head”, for she knows I don’t like to even cross a high bridge, but yet, there is something compelling about the ideal of floating from the sky, like a bird, that I find inviting. But like many things we “think about doing”, I have never gotten serious enough to actually just go pay what it would cost and jump from a plane. Maybe someday I will just do it and tell my wife later. I think that is what she as told me in the past, she would rather hear about it after the fact. And I wanted her to get a picture of me landing. J

Unless something comes up “interesting”, like WW III or such, this blog will likely be quiet for a few days over Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all!

Odds and ends of a normal day in Ernie’s World.

It has been another nice day in central MN. For the first full day of winter it is mild, 16° this morning with bright clear sunshine. It got to the upper 20’s in the afternoon. I am glad to report that our ground is still brown! I think this will be the year for a Brown Christmas, at least I am optimistic. Some folks are beginning to get “concerned” about the dry weather, and not without good reason. If we go into January without snow cover we stand a good chance of having some serious freezing problems with septic systems and underground water lines.

It is remarkable how deep the frost will go in dry ground, if there is not some snow to insulate it. I have known of water lines freezing that were buried 8 feet in the ground. The only hope is that, if we don’t have some snow cover, we don’t get extremely cold. But we are almost sure to have -20 or -30 sometime in January or February, or March for that matter. I will never forget the time we had -30 on March 17^th. I don’t recall want year it was, but I know it was the 17^th of March because that is my birthday and I was grading lumber in the great outdoors. We expect temperatures like that the first couple months of the year, but by mid-March we are generally done with that kind of deep freeze cold.
This year we have barely reached 0 so far. The saying in MN is; “we are going to pay for this”, meaning we can expect some very nasty long spells when it finally does turn “winter”. However it turns out this winter, it will be much shorter, no matter what. Only 9 weeks until March! But, if we turn to sub-zero cold with wind and snow, a week can seem like a long time, so we won’t be celebrating spring anytime soon.

For me it was a normal winter day of shop work. That means getting a fire going to heat up the shop first thing in the morning. Then drinking a few cups of coffee and reading while the fire does its work. Then I spend most of the day working on whatever project I have going. Today it is another dresser of a slightly different design than what I normally make. That gives me something different and interesting to work on. Since I don’t work from prepared plans, it also forces me to pay close attention to my design work, or I will end up redoing a lot of work because of a flawed design, that is no fun, nor is it profitable, however, it happens more often than I would like to admit.

Last winter I had two mission style beds to build at the same time. So working under the impression that it is faster to build two at once than one at a time, I had them both assembled before I realized I had made a mistake in my dimensions. That is when I learned, if you going to build two pieces at a time, you best be sure you are doing the job right! In that case I had to do a lot of extra work to fix two projects. The worst of that deal was that my wife had questioned the width of those beds as I was putting them together. Her comment was that they looked too narrow. I explained to her that they just “looked narrow” because they were not queen size beds, but one was double bed and the other a single bed. I should have stopped and checked my measurements right then. But it was not until I was almost ready to start the finish work that I discovered they were both 2 inches too narrow. Live and learn everything the hard way, apparently. However, since I know a lot of furniture makers, I can take some consolation in knowing I am not alone when it comes to making mistakes on projects.

I mentioned that mistake to a full-time cabinet maker and he just laughed and ask me if I needed any “odd sized” face frames. Stating that he had a whole room full of frames that at one time or another, he had miscalculated the measure on and just kept them in hopes of needing one that size at some point, even though it never seemed to be the case.

There is always the stories of people who build projects in their shop, only to find out that they can’t get them out the door! I know of one fellow who build an ice fishing shack in his garage only to find after he had it all done, painted and the whole works, it was 2” higher than his garage door! I really enjoyed that story, since it was not me! He came up with a “unique” plan to fix the problem. He took house jacks and jacked up the front of his garage enough to get the shack out the door. J
　

Buckskinner's Version-The Night Before Christmas

One of our family hobbies is black powder guns. We attend a few black powder shoots during the summer months, during which we set up our old style white canvas tent, dress in early American clothing and participate in different competitions having to do with the Mountain Man era rendezvous. The sport is called “Buck-skinning”, a term that came from the buckskin clothing the mountain men wore. I say that to introduce the “Buckskinners Version of the Night Before Christmas”, rather irreverent to the season I suppose, but for the sake of humor and a smile I give as I can recall how it goes. Again, I don’t know who the author was that wrote this, but I get a laugh every time I think of it and of course, repeat it to my daughter every Christmas Eve.

T’was the night before Christmas, and all through the hall;
Not a critter was moving, for they all hung on the wall.
With Ma in her calico and me in my skins,
I had uncorked the jug, tomorrow I would pay for my sins.

When outside the cabin I heard such a clatter;
I grabbed up on Betsy to see what was the matter.
I snapped back the frizzen and dumped powder in the pan,
For out by the fence was a jolly fat man.

As the moonlight glistened on the new fallen snow,
I saw eight set of antlers, they all looked aglow.
Them’s long hunter bucks I yelled to my wife,
And sighting down the barrel said, ‘get my skin’en knife!

Don’t shoot! Cried the Elf, oh how he shook,
These be my reindeer, are you as dumb as you look?
With a wink and a nod, he touched his finger to his cheek,
Then he reached in his sack and dumped my presents in the creek.

Now up Dasher and Dancer and the rest of his herd,
He called, as his sleigh rose in the air like a bird,
Merry Christmas to everyone, even to you,
I waved back, but kept thinking; “there goes my venison stew”.

Surprises

I assume most children are no different than my 11 year old daughter about now. Only 5 days till Christmas and she is about to “bust”! At least I hope most children have that anticipation, no matter how small the surprise may be, for a child, it is enough to have the excitement, just knowing they are going to receive some gift of which they have no ideal what it will be.

Personally, and I also assume most people my age have a similar attitude. I feel like I have had “enough surprises” in my lifetime. I say that with a smile in that most of the real ‘surprises’ we get as adults on not in the form of a ‘gift wrapped” package.

This Christmas season we have been pleasantly surprised with MN weather. It is on the tongue and thoughts of everyone. Today it reached almost 40 degrees here in the center of the state. I looked at the 10 day forecast (MSN internet) and nothing much is to change over the next week. Everyday had a 0% chance of precipitation. That is fine by me, I am still rooting for a “Brown Christmas”, to the discuss of many women and children. Give me a break is all I say, I have lived here 24 years and it will be a first, if we see the ground bare on Christmas day. Parts of the state do have snow, but where we are, we are experiencing a “winter drought”, rare, but welcome.

Here is why I think I will pass on “surprises”. In the year 2000 we received the biggest surprise of our lifetimes, speaking of me and my wife. You see, we were 43 years old. Our “only child” had grown up and left home in ‘97. Three years of freedom from raising a child really did me no harm, that I could see. Then in March of 2000 my wife informed me that she would need a “pregnancy test”, that was her mild way of trying to break the “news” to me. I tell you, some things in life are hard to accept as a possible reality, I assumed that was “impossible”. As history proves, my assumption was as wrong as it could be. No matter if I live to be a hundred, I will not receive a bigger surprise than that was!

My friends enjoyed the news far more than I did, at first anyway. A child is the next most precious thing to “grand-children”, no mistake. But it does take some time to adjust to the “ideal”, at least when you thought it could not happen. It took me until she was every bit of 1 minute old, to “adjust”, then everything was alright in my world.

Our tradition is to open gifts on Christmas Eve, that gives parents the ‘possibility’, of not being rudely aroused from bed at 4 AM on Christmas morning. This year, Christmas morning falls on Sunday. Since we are a church attending family, it will make Sunday morning a lot easier than if we had a gift opening ceremony before breakfast.

Speaking of which, and I don’t want to spoil the holidays with politics, but me being “me” I can’t let “one opinion” pass. Every Christmas over the last few years we are barraged with missiles from the “militant atheist” crowd, as if the very sight of a ‘nativity scene”, in some way “harms their fragile atheist faith”.

There is a irony in Christmas. There are some Christian churches who also are ‘anti-Christmas’, but on different grounds from the atheists. The ‘anti-Christmas’ Christians say, since Jesus was probably not born on Dec. 25, people should not celebrate his “birthday”. They point to lots of other arguments too, which I don’t have time or patience to ramble on about and I am sure, my readers don’t have the time nor patience to read it, even if I did. But here is the irony. In spite of all anti-Christmas and anti-Christ movements throughout history, come next Sunday, all over the world and most especially since the “internet” has now gone to nearly every corner on earth, people will “have to” acknowledge that Jesus Christ lives in the faith of millions of people. On that one day, in all developed countries and in the world generally, the thought of “Jesus” enters peoples mind, whether they consciously like it or not.

My conclusion on the matter is this. It does not matter how or when Christmas came to be celebrated by so many people on earth, the lesson we ought to lean is this, say and believe what you will, but, JESUS ALWAYS WINS!
　

Adventures in the Wilderness

Today while going about my shop work, my mind kept wandering to ‘spring plans’. Not work related plans, but plans for another trip into the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area), which is a 1 million acre designated wilderness area. It contains thousands of lakes and many miles of portages between these lakes. The charm of this wilderness is that it is a ‘primitive area’, meaning no motors allowed, other than on some of the lakes that border the BWCA. Once you are past the first portages, all travel is either by foot or canoe. Even airplanes are limited as to how high they must be to fly over this wilderness.

Some folks are offended by a designated wilderness that cuts off modern means of transportation. My opinion is that in a country as big as ours, there should be room for everyone to enjoy their chosen sports without infringing on other people. Thus there should be areas where the ‘motor heads’ can take their motorcycles or 4-wheelers and explore the back country. There are state forest trails in other areas that are designated to horsemen, this is as it should be. My chosen sport for such outings is to travel by canoe and portage to reach the deep woods and find some solitude and on occasions, even catch some fish.

I have a fond memory that reoccurs whenever I think of trips into the BWCA. It was around the Memorial Day holiday of 1987, that my wife and I took our first real trip into the BWCA. We went as far as a small lake called Koma, which was about a day and a half of travel by canoe and portage. On our first afternoon of fishing, we were out in a light drizzle and as I cast a huge rubber perch replica minnow under the overhang of a pine tree, that had partly fallen over the water, there was a great rapid swirl on the surface and the bait disappeared. In a flash, my line was singing off the reel as the fish made a long run. It was the single largest northern pike that I had ever caught. It was a wonderful battle between me and “Moby Dick”! Landing a 20 pound northern pike in a canoe is a very exciting affair. As is common with big fish, it would not go in my landing net, other than its head. The battle lasted a good 20 minutes or more before the fish was finally worn out enough that I could get my hands on it to “flop” into the bottom of the canoe. Then it came to life again and trashed, flopped and generally made a “scene” fit only for a backwoods brawl.

Such a fish under those circumstances is better released than killed. To start with there was no way to keep it fresh to take to a taxidermist, for it was many days before we would be back in civilization. There was too much meat to eat in a day or so, besides the big fish are not the best eating anyway. So after a couple pictures that turned out poorly, I revived the fish and watched it swim away. That was 24 years ago and I have yet to catch another fish that big, but the memory of such an experience will stick with a fisherman as long as he lives.

I have since made the trip in one day on several occasions, but would hate to think of doing that again! The portage trails in that country are not exactly “walking paths” like you think of in a state park or some such place. The terrain is such that you meet up with low places that can only be described as “swamps’ and other spots that requires you to take off, straight up over slippery rocks, mud and various other obstacles which are prone to ‘trip you up’. Doing this with a backpack or canoe on you shoulders makes the trail even more interesting.

Last spring, me and a friend made the trip into Koma at the same time of year, on Memorial Day. It was a lot different than the ‘87 trip, but also left memories that won’t be forgotten. In contrast to the great fishing that we had in ‘87 that included a lot of fish besides ‘the big one’, this last trip barely provided enough fish of one meal. What makes this trip a grand memory is the “challenge” of it. Rain, wind and waves can make a wilderness trip very ‘memorable’. To be totally honest, I am not sure which memory I cherish the most. Whether catching the fish of a lifetime in my relative youth, or meeting a serious physical challenge in my mid-50’s.

It was almost one year to the day after having a full knee replacement that we made this most recent trip into Lake Koma. Calculating the portages according to the rods listed on the Fisher maps, and considering that each portage is covered 6 times on a round trip, we covered 9 miles by foot from Monday morning to Wednesday evening. Two thirds of which I either had a 68# canoe or a 30# backpack on my shoulders. Besides the work of traveling, we had to contend with serious winds, reports were of steady winds at 40 MPH during part of our trip.

The trip in was not bad as far as wind was concerned. We had light rain, but nothing serious, that was a Monday. On Tuesday we planned to fish and make the return trip in two days, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Things went according to plan for a little while. But by mid-morning on Tuesday we had to get off the lake because the wind made fishing rather miserable and the canoe hard to control. As the day wore on, the winds picked up and the rain started. By dark the winds were in a good ‘roar’. I remember looking the trees over near my tent very carefully that night, calculating whether any of them were likely to reach my tent if they came down. I judged correctly and woke up Wednesday morning to the continued roar of wind, but no trees had invaded my tent during the night, for which I was thankful. I looked across to see if my traveling partner’s tent was still free of treetops and was glad to see that he had ‘made the night also’.

As our schedule was, we were compelled to travel that Wednesday in spite of the wind. The fortunate thing for us was that we were traveling on fairly small lakes and much of it was on a small river, so the wind could only kick up serious waves in a few places. Another helpful thing was that as we reached our last lake, which ran northwest to southeast and was several miles long, the wind was generally at our back. This made a very exciting and easy paddle to reach the landing, that is, as long as we made sure to keep the canoe “upright”. Which we did.

The biggest challenge that day was on the portages. During the night of ‘raging wind’, many trees had come down over our portage trails, making a stiff legged fellow really struggle to climb over them with a canoe on his back! I remember being stopped at one spot, stupidly looking at this tree that was over the portage and trying to determine if I could get my ‘bum leg’ high enough to clear it, all the while I had the canoe on my shoulders that I was afraid to set down because I did not think I would be able to get it back up if I let it down. It is very funny now and was “somewhat” funny then, but I am glad there was no video camera rolling while I stood there, like a frozen stump, staring at this tree, which was not in a place that I could go around it, due to huge boulders on each side of the trail. It reminds me of an animal in the headlights, they are blinded and stand still as if they cannot decide the best course of action. That is how I felt looking at this obstacle of a downed tree. When I finally came to my senses and realized that every second I stood there with that weight on my shoulders, I was using up valuable energy that I needed to clear that tree, I executed my plan of approaching it in such a way as to swing my ‘bum leg’ up and over the tree first and follow it with my good leg, to my relief the plan worked, but it is one of those memories we create when we get out of our normal routine and go off on some adventure, if that qualifies as an ‘adventure’. That too is a relative term, depending on what stage we are in our lives. What can be called an adventure at ‘late mid-life’ might not qualify as such for young folks. One of my favorite quotes on the term “adventure” came from Louis Lamour, he defined ‘adventure’ as a romantic name for “being in a lot of trouble”. I have thought of that definition many times and it never fails to cheer me up whenever I have gotten myself into a difficult situation.

Now we are making plans for another spring trip into the BWCA. So far, we have not been as ambitious in choosing a route that requires a lot of portaging, and as long as I am the one packing the canoe, we aren’t going to either! Not yet anyway.
　

Ernie's World and Society

I am certain that I am not alone. But sometimes I have to wonder if I am “nuts”. Here is the problem. I am torn between two worlds. One is “Ernie’s World” where I live, work and which constitutes the essence of who I am and what I do. The “other world”, consists of “society”, or maybe better stated, the “nation” called the United States of America. These ’worlds’ appear to be diametrically opposed to each other. But here is the catch. The only real opposition I can see comes from the national media and how they report to me about what is happening in the USA. When I talk to people, which I am compelled to do on a regular basis J , I find that the people I live and work around are not any different than I am. We all have the same basic human values. Most of us want to live our lives civilly among our various communities and are willing to help each other and anyone else we see in need of our assistance, without discrimination as to color, religion or nationality.

What this all leads me to believe is that our national media outlets, TV, radio, internet and the common news sources, are not reporting “news” as much as they are trying to redirect the “common values” we have come to live with in the USA.

Examples of this are easy to come by. Just glance at any news headline page. They are cluttered with ‘conflict’ stories. No matter if it be violence, politics, business, international relations or a local story. The media’s emphasis is on every detail that would tend to “separate” people from a civil relationship to each other.

So the “conflict” in my own mind is this. I really believe that most of us would be better off to ignore the media. But, in that case, we would be effectively ‘sticking our heads in the sand’ and disconnecting from what is going on in the nation and world at large.

I do know people who apparently never listen to the “news” or read “news” stories. They seem to be content, but at the same time they have no ideal what is taking place outside their front door, things that can greatly affect them personally. This is the catch 22. In any ‘battle of values’, which is what our country is in right now, how are we to “defend” ourselves if we don’t even know the “war is ongoing”?

It only takes a casual glance at any polling data to see that we are in a great struggle in our society about basic “values”. By ‘values’ I mean, moral, economic and political values. As in the fact that the U.S. way of life that we have come to believe in is “on the ropes”. Put there by our elected officials and the media that props them up.

For instance, when did it become ‘fashionable’ to “hate capitalism”? Have we Americans become so brain-washed that we don’t realize that ‘capitalism’ is the very foundation of a free society. Here is why; ‘capitalism’ is a free market system, based on the ideal of private ownership for the production and distribution of goods. The only alternatives are either dictatorships, where a “king” is in control of everything and everyone, plus, everything else is considered “property” of the king. The other alternative is “communism”, where the philosophy is that “no one” owns anything, but “everyone” shares equal ownership in all things.

Our nation fought the Revolutionary War to free us from the dictates of a king. The experiment of communism has failed miserable in the last hundred years, due to the simple fact that people will not produce if they don’t receive due compensation for their own production. The Soviet Union was a historic example of such a system, it did not work out very well. The peasants soon learned that the “talking heads” were using a bigger dipper in the common pot than what they allowed the commoners to use. Thus, over the course of only 50 years or so, everyone either became corrupted or the capable people just “quit producing”, then the pot dried up. The “Empire” collapsed around their heads. Since then, many of the countries of the old Soviet Union have been at war with each other and nearly all, are struggling just to survive.

The core issue in our current struggles comes right back to the beginning. Are we going to continue being a “free country”, respecting the rights over everyone to “own what they earn”, or are we going to slip into a communist/socialist system, where “Big Brother Government” will take everything by “taxation” and split it up as they see fit? This seems to be the language coming out of Washington and the media. How can some “tongue wagging politician” even use such expressions as I have heard over and over, in recent times? It goes like this; “how do we (Congress/Washington) PAY for a tax cut”? Just think about that. The only money Washington is “supposed” to have comes from tax revenue in one form or another. To use the term, “pay for a tax cut” is either ignorance or arrogance. They really act as if they “OWN EVERYTHING” and a tax cut is something they have to come up with “more money” to pay. No, a “tax cut” would simply mean they were not confiscating as much money as they are, there is nothing for them to “pay for” there. The language they use betrays their views!

Now to be fair with Washington, “we the people” must bear a fair share for the reason we are living in a “bankrupt” state. That being the overwhelming number of “citizens” who are “feeding at the federal, state or local feed trough”.

I don’t know the percentage of “paychecks” that are coming from “tax revenue”. But all the signs indicate that it is “too high” to sustain. Nor are my criticisms directed at any particular “jobs” that obtain their money from taxation sources, it is the overall picture that is choking us to death. It is simply impossible that “everyone” can be employed by the “taxpayer”. The reality is, if you have a balanced economy, the number employed by government must remain in the minority, otherwise the tax burden becomes so heavy on the producers that there is no motivation left for them to produce.

A few days ago I wrote down a quote, shamefully I did not write down the source, but the words struck me as being very true; “Modern life is a thin veneer covering historic survival. Basic living skills of agricultural peoples cannot die, without the death of a civilization.” The thin layer of veneer that is currently propping up our society, is capitalism and free enterprise. It seems obvious that there are “forces” in our own government and especially in our media and universities, that are out to destroy “capitalism”.

Let me make a plea that Americans get over “abuses of the capitalist system”, for corruption in society is not in “the system” but in “people”. Anyone who claims that “freedom” is to blame for our troubles, are ignorant or dishonest about the real problems we face. It is a moral failure in ‘individual people’ who abuse the free market by dishonest means. It is a moral failure by ‘individual politicians’ who will spend more money than the nation has, just so they can be re-elected to their office. It is a moral failure by ‘individuals’, not a failure of capitalism or a free market, that has gotten us in this mess that our children and grandchildren are going to reap the actual consequences of.
How can it be a “help” for the USA to give up the free market capitalist system? That very system, is what made this nation the richest on earth. That very system, capitalism, is what has brought us the technology to have a “standard of living” far beyond any civilization in history. Even what the government calls “poverty level” (I qualify big-time, by their standard), live a ‘rich life’ compared to generations even of recent history. That very system, is why I can sit in the woods and communicate anywhere around the world in a matter of seconds. Etc, etc, etc!

I do resent so called “Americans” who whine for the “government” to take care of them, whether it be bankers on Wall St. or bums on the back streets of St. Paul. Our nation did not become what it is by having the printing presses of the Federal Reserve “creating wealth”, but by everyday American citizens picking themselves up and going to work. Producing, inventing, creating businesses founded on the principle that they would be able to enjoy the fruit of their labor in a free country.

I saw a headline this past week that Congress or the Senate, or maybe both, had passed a trillion dollar budget for next year. We are 15 trillion in the hole now, much of that trillion they are spending will go only for interest on our debt. Somewhere, sometime there will be a day of reckoning. This is where “Ernie’s World” finds a great conflict with “that world”. I don’t want to be sunk by the downdraft of the sinking Titanic. I am not sure that this is possible to avoid, but “Ernie’s World” will keep a close eye out for floating ’ice burgs’ and try to avoid them.

Success and Failure

Nothing perks my interest like a good tale of outdoor adventure. I have been occupied over the last few evenings reading a book titled “Skywalker- Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail” by Bill Walker. This gentlemen provides a lot of entertainment, by describing his straight through walk on the 2,175 mile Appalachian Trail in one season. That is a lot of hiking! It is remarkable that someone in their mid-40’s as he was, who had never spent a night ‘sleeping outside’, thus having no camping experience whatever, would have the fortitude to endure such an undertaking.

Besides being a good read for outdoor minded people, his story once again reinforced a theory that I have about what makes people tick. I have observed many times that in almost any field of activity, the people we often judge to be the least likely to succeed, are the very ones left standing at the end of the day.
My personal work life has brought me into the presence of a lot of sawmills, where, no matter which one you choose, there are some hard jobs. I have seen time and again some young, tough looking fellow, show up full of confidence that he can outwork anyone around. By the time mid-day arrives the fellow has fallen very quiet, but stays with it for the day, then never shows up again. I have often puzzled about that kind of thing and wonder why some people who seem ‘fragile’ can outwork the ‘tough guys’ nearly every time.

Take soldiers as another example. Those who are familiar with the extreme training required for many special forces units, know that it takes more than pure physical fitness to successfully finish one of those courses. There is an element of mental toughness that is required, which is beyond the average person.

As I grow older it becomes more clear what makes the difference in people, who otherwise might be equal. It boils down to ‘desire’ and the mental ability to accept death itself rather than failure. That means there must be a ‘fire in the belly’ to successfully accomplish something that otherwise would seem impossible under normal circumstances.

Bill Walker did not fit the profile of a “hiker”. The man is 6’11” tall to start with, that is why he had the nickname “Skywalker”, plus he was totally inexperienced as an outdoorsman. I am not getting commissions off his book either, in fact I got it free as an e-book from Amazon. I would imagine many public libraries might have the book. It would only be of interest to people who enjoy outdoor adventure stories, or study human nature.

In many ways people are like some animals in their psychological makeup. The biggest common breed of dog, the St. Bernard, are known for their mild manners, while many ‘little dogs’, my little beagle included, are willing to take on the whole world, if given a chance.

In most things we go about doing, attitude makes all the difference in the world. It is the ‘desire’ to do something that makes or breaks us, generally. Maybe that is why I have never been a very good mechanic. I hate working on vehicles, I have a mental block about my ability to successfully fix most things, automotive related. Not that I have not tried on many occasions and sometimes it works, but most often, after I have spent a day or two under the hood, even a “real mechanic” can’t fix what I have done!

Wood is different. Wood is my friend. I am not the best craftsman in the world, but if I need a piece of furniture I can build it to suit my needs. I even like working with wood, most of the time.

Some abilities we are born with. A good example of this is an artist. There is an art gene evidently. No matter what training might be available, some of us could not draw a stick person very good, I’m in that group. I marvel at the ability of our oldest daughter, who is an excellent artist; she did not get the ‘gene’ from me, for certain, I have trouble drawing a straight line with a ruler!

This shows us that certain realities exist. One is, just ‘desire’ alone is not enough to make us successful in everything we would like to do. Our ‘desire’ must be peppered with a degree of reality. There are some things that we simply cannot do, due to physical and scientific laws of nature. But there are many things we could do if we really wanted to bad enough, and are willing to pay the price in time, pain and pure grit. There are some people who appear to accomplish marvelous things without effort, but my observation is that most ‘success stories’ are of people who had to reach deep inside for the motivation and fire to achieve their goals.

One of the outstanding features of American life has been in the number of people who have been so successful at inventing and creativity. Without question much of the credit lays in the fact that Americans have lived in a country that allowed them the ‘freedom’ to reap the rewards of their own hard work. There is no force so destructive to ‘motivation’, as taking away the reward for successful ventures. It was not until the 19^th century, when Americans believed in private ownership for all, that the great inventions of the automobile, modern communication and thousands of other useful items came into existence.

If anything reveals the mystery of modern marvels and how they came into being over the last couple centuries, it is the realization that the freedom to either succeed or fail, is the foundation of all our advancements. This is why socialist and welfare ideals are so destructive to a society. For countries or individuals, to achieve outstanding results they must be free to try, reaping the rewards, whether it be failure or success. The ideal of “welfare” was to give those who were down and out a “lifting hand”, not a “handout” to an easy “way of life”.

It should be safe to say, that nothing will destroy motivation to succeed as fast as an “easy out”, such as the welfare system has come to be in many instances. We humans are adaptable, if nothing else. It is much easier to adapt to a low standard of living, if we don’t have to lift a hand to provide it.

On the other hand, nothing will motivate a human like “hunger”. For the thousands of years in which we have recorded history, peoples of all nations have realized that the “struggle to survive” is a great motivator. Remove that motivation by giving “handouts”, on a continual basis, and you destroy the ‘desire’ God gave man to lift himself up, no matter what the struggle. There is no moral hazard in allowing a healthy person to starve to death.

It is not without benefit, that we have the history of our countries early struggles, to be freed from the British king. That young nation had a collective “desire” for their ideal of freedom, a desire that motivated them to risk, not only their own positions and wealth, but their very lives to be free. That is why Ben Franklin is reported to have said, “Gentlemen, either we stick together or we hang one at a time.” They knew the risk they took for freedom. We ought not to forget their motivation. It can be found in any history book of the times. Freedom was a dream that would not die, nor do I believe it will ever die, now that we have seen the results of a free people and what wonderful accomplishments they have delivered to the world.

Dreaming of a Brown Christmas

We have lived in MN since 1987 and it has not happened yet, but I am hopeing for a “brown Christmas”. Not ‘just because’ I am a ‘scrooge’ when it comes to holidays, but I am very happy with a dry frozen ground. Although we did get a light covering of slushy snow last night, that should evaporate in a few days.
I can’t help but remember what the “wooly worm” told me back in the fall. Kind of hate to bring up that “old wife’s tale”, but according to the legend, so far he is still right. According to his coloring we were to have a mild first part of winter, but then a nasty spring. It I very rare that we make it to mid-December and have not even had a decent snow yet in our part of the state. I think the twin cities have had more snow than we have. We have only had a couple dustings at our location. In fact we are in a fall drought and it was only yesterday that we had enough moisture to risk burning some brush piles that needed the torch.

One mild winter we did make it to Dec. 23 before getting snow that made for a white Christmas, but that is as close as we have come. At this point we have had such a mild fall that it is hard to think of complaining about any bad weather. Compared to what is “normal”, if there is any such thing, we have been in extreme ‘high cotton’ this year, so far. Only one day did we work outdoors that was even mildly uncomfortable and that was mainly due to a roaring wind, more than the actual temperature. I think we have only had a night or two that reached zero. We have seen much colder weather than that in early November, so we are a month past due to begin with.

After seeing many winters that can only be described as “hard”, it has been a great blessing to have had this mild year. The only thing that would have made it better, would have been to know this in October! We surely could have put off a lot of work that we rushed to get done before the snows hit, or at least have taken our good old time at preparing for them. Even the firewood pile still looks healthy, compared to what it generally does this time of year.
While we bask in the nice weather it is practically certain that soon we will forget all about this and be wishing for spring. It is remarkable how the human mind works. It will only take about a week of sub-zero weather to make us think we have been cold “forever”, especially if it hits us quickly as it is likely too this year. It takes a few weeks of cold for the body to adjust to the ideal and get the blood flowing properly. This year we have not had enough cold for our body to even realize it needs to ‘adjust’. We had a few days of cold a week or so ago and my body went into protest, I could not stay warm. That is why it is better if we get cold and just stay cold, once you endure a few days of it, you are acclimated and are able to go about your normal activities with very little attention paid to the temperature.

Speaking of staying warm. We heat with wood. That means at night, either someone gets up to put wood on the fire or the house is rather chilly by morning. It used to not be a problem, either me or my wife would be up and feed the fire. Somehow as we have aged, neither of us want to make the trip down the stairs to feed the fire, consequently it is in the 50’s when we get up in the morning. This is normal life for people in our part of the country who heat with wood, no big deal. I know plenty of people who prefer to keep their house cold most all the time, I just don’t happen to be one of them. Since middle age has crept up on me, I stay cold most of the year! The joke has been that “old men” in MN never shed their long underwear, expect maybe for the month of July. That used to be funny, but not anymore, I can quickly see that time approaching for me. I have to endure a lot of abuse from “Nordic types” on account of this too, but it make no difference, if I am cold, I’m cold.

Last week my wife bought me an electric blanket. Now that is a luxury I wonder how I have lived 50 some years without! My image of an electric blanket was the style that was common years ago. I remember seeing such a thing and it seemed heavy and stiff. I wondered how it could have been comfortable to sleep under. But the ones on the market now are a lightweight fleece type that is soft and hardly more bulky than a sheet. This blanket covering a light quilt makes my night much more comfortable, I don’t care how cold the house gets! Oh yes, our daughter has one too, so no one has to be cold during the night, unless the power goes off, then I can either get up and put wood on the fire or get my heavy wool quilt back out.

What this has to do with a “brown Christmas” I have no ideal, but such are the ramblings that goes on in “Ernie’s World”.

Environmental Regulations

That was a dumb thing to do. I spent some down time this afternoon reading up on some of the latest environmental regulations, that will directly affect my small wood business since we use a lot of electricity, at least by my standards.
The EPA clean air standards that are coming into effect at the first of the year are going to be the death knell for many coal fed power plants. Of course the environmental movement has cloaked the whole debate in “clean air” language, that makes anyone who questions their “high and holy wisdom” sound like they want nasty chemicals spewing into the air. But here is the kicker. The same people also do not want us to build nuclear plants. Seems the only form of power that is acceptable to them is power we don’t yet have the technology to produce in quantity, nor at a cost that is feasible to run a nation. Ok, I had that “rant” yesterday, so I will let it go.

However, the electric needs are not something that can just be dismissed, not if we intend to keep our modern way of life. In an article I read about MN’s power supply, it was pointed out that many of our power plants that operate from coal are over 50 years old. It would seem reasonable that these plants need to be updated to more efficient technology and at the same time, sill use coal as a good alternative power source. I contend that coal is a good power source for several reasons. The major one being, we don’t have to buy coal from Arab countries that would like to destroy our western way of life, replacing it with a “rag-head” radical Moslem theocracy. (Yes, I am aware that this statement is “unnecessary” and politically incorrect, but reading and hearing some of the things those folks say and do, I don’t have much patience with bleeding heart stupidity, that says I should be ‘sensitive’ about hurting their feelings.) My point, Moslem jabs aside, is that the U.S. has lots of coal that is much cheaper to turn into electricity than using gas or other sources, these could be better used to power transportation and other types of energy using equipment.

I wonder if anyone else remembers what our current president said during his campaign back in ‘07? My memory is not the best in the world, but I recall clearly candidate Obama saying, that under his administration the coal industry was likely to go “bankrupt”. What amazes me is that people in coal producing states still voted for him. They must not have believed he was serious. But then it is not only the coal industry that stands to go “bankrupt” under the combined weight of government environmental regulation. Many industries that are dependent on electric, at a reasonable cost, will follow suit just as soon as their electric rates double as the “clean electric” comes online.

It should be understood that most Americans do not want to destroy the environment and would not do things that they knew were harmful. On the other hand, much of the radical environmental movement has demonstrated that their “end game” has more to do with politics than actually “saving the planet”. If anyone doubts that there is a political agenda underlining a great deal of the environmental movement, all they need to do is some online research into websites that promote environmental causes. A lot of what is claimed to be for the “good of our environment”, turns out to be ‘good for certain politicians’, along with some industries that have a lot of money invested in the fad of “green energy”.

What we have ended up with is a lot of money going into the swamp of the so-called green energy industry, with very little to show for it. This, at a time when the nation as a whole and many as individuals are for all intents and purposes “bankrupt”. The latest count I have heard is that we are now $15 trillion in debt, with a large portion of our tax dollars being used just to pay the interest! Insanity.

My question is this: How is it going to help our nation to get back on its feet to continually ‘bankrupt’ whole industries? Can it really be true that Americans have lost the desire to remain a free people? Or are we so distracted by our everyday struggles, that we do not care what is going on in the halls of legislation?

In less than a year we have another national election. All next year we are going to be inundated, with politicians and the news media, telling us who will be the best to lead our country. All the while, Washington is going to continue to fleece the American taxpayer to pay for all kinds of foolish spending, while at the same time, they pass more regulations that are bound to kill jobs, kill businesses, kill freedom, and finally kill the ability of everyday people to produce the things necessary to keep this nation going.

When I go to vote next fall, I can’t say who I will be casting my vote for, but it will be for whoever I think is “less likely” to destroy American enterprise. I don’t believe anyone in Washington can do anything to help the economy grow, except- “Get Out of the Way”! The “Federal Regulators” remind me of some employers, who will give a person a job to do, a task that they are fully qualified to perform, then stand over their shoulder and criticize every move they make. Anyone who has seen that situation, knows that the job is not going to get done very efficiently.

Right now our nations needs jobs, jobs, jobs. But small business, who creates most new jobs in this country is being crushed under the weight of “Federal Regulators” to the point that many capable people are just throwing in the towel, walking away from enterprises that could and would bring more jobs, except “Big Brother Government” is leaning over their shoulder saying, “you can’t do that, you might harm some unknown specie of insects”, or regulations that have the same effect.

I am not opposed to all government regulation and common sense environmental policies, but I am opposed to heavy handed hypocrisy from politicians and certain “special interest” groups, who either don’t have a grasp on reality, or want to destroy our way of life.

Iran and the Strait of Hormuz

Whenever I come across some phrase that catches my eye or ear, I jot it down as something to think on at odd hours, as I go about my work. Recently I heard or read, don’t remember which or where, that “if you don’t think things can get worse, you lack sufficient imagination.” It brought a smile to my face because of the many times it turns out to be true, when little things happen that never occurred to me when making plans for some project.

Just today I was almost to finish one of my wood projects that has been ongoing ‘forever’. All I needed was to put on some little hinges that I had picked up from the hardware store last week. Everything was measured and set to go, when I opened the package only to find that what I had purchased was not hinges at all, but some little flat brass braces, that were hanging among the hinges in the store. So much for that plan, the project will have to wait another couple days until I find my way to a hardware store to get hinges.

This example is nothing of consequence, but there are times when we think things are as bad as they can be, only to discover that they could get much worse, in short order.

Today Iran was practicing ‘war games’ to see how it would go if they decide to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 40 percent of the worlds oil must pass. That would be about a “charming” situation in light of the fact that the world’s economy is on the rocks to begin with. Just imagine if crude oil suddenly jumps from $100 a barrel to $200 or even more as some predict if Iran was to succeed in such a move. It would effectively take the world into a depression (as if we are not already in one).

There is little question that such a move on the part of Iran would lead to war in some fashion, whether only to keep the passage open or all out war between Iran and its many allies and the U.S. and our few allies. That picture is not very nice under any circumstances. It takes us right back to the core issue concerning the whole middle east “mess” that has been ongoing since the second world war. All because of oil.

What is so frustrating about oil and the middle east is the fact, that it is so unnecessary that we be ’held hostage’ by their energy. It boils down to “politics and stupidity” combined in our own nation, along with a large dose of environmental hypocrisy.

We have the resources, between the gulf of Mexico, the continental U.S., Alaska and Canada there is more than enough oil and natural gas to supply our needs for many years. I know there is a debate about how long that supply can last us, but since I have no way of really knowing which side of that debate is true, it becomes a useless exercise to worry about how much we actually have. When the truth is clear that we have a lot of oil and gas that is not being tapped for political, economic and environmental reasons.

So what we get is a never ending string of wars to be fought by young American soldiers under all kinds of disguises, but the investigation always leads us back to the “black gold” or “Texas Tea”, as it has be called, crude oil.
Here are some facts that ought to be considered by us who vote, and by our nations leaders. Even the attack on 911 is very unlikely to have occurred or been possible, had it not been for US dollars that went into the hands of the Moslem extremists. Osama Bin Laden and his bunch did not get to be billionaires, or come from billionaire families at least, by selling “desert sand”, it was from oil plain and simple.

Most of us know the politics involved. For starters, we have the environmental movement that has enough influence in our national politics to stop us from extracting and producing our own energy. They attack any source of energy that is actually feasible, nuclear, coal, gas and oil. They would have us believe that we can harvest so-called “clean energy” from the sun and wind. What they fail to admit is that we do not yet have the technology to produce “enough” energy to keep our nation going, much less meet the needs of national growth in the coming years. Then they argue that we can’t use nuclear energy because it is to “dangerous”, since nuclear accidents can occur. We can’t extract coal and oil because we destroy some “paradise” in Alaska, because it is home to a few birds and their food, mice! Ok, maybe that is a bit of exaggeration on my part, but the reality is that the wildlife is not going to be made extinct by oil extraction. They used the same excuse when protesting the Alaskan pipeline of the 60’s and 70’s, but that turned out to be a great help to the caribou, in that it actually gave them more food sources, by keeping the ground warm enough to grow grass for a much longer season along that pipeline.

Here is the part about the environmental movement that irks me. They are a gang of hypocrites, with a capital H! All the while they rage about us developing our own oil resources because it might harm the environment, they do not, rid themselves of their automobiles or turn the electric off to their homes, offices or businesses. In fact, I highly suspect that my family uses far less energy than most environmentalists. What I resent is the hypocrisy of these loud mouth idiots, who also are the same ones who protest “war”, when their very own political influence helps make war inevitable, by preventing us from using our own resources. Has insanity gripped a whole nation?

Washington seems clueless about the realities of the “real world” most of us live in. They also seem to mistake our plea for “sanity” as a plea for more and bigger government. Instead of more government interference in private affairs, what about rolling the clock back a hundred years on government regulations, many which have no real basis in common sense or real science. How many of the regulations that suppress the development of ‘private enterprise’ are really important, when compared to a nation that is stagnate and paralyzed by over regulation in areas that make very little difference to the overall well being of a nation?

For example. In most of our state, people cannot even remodel their house without going to the expense of “updating” their septic systems. The “update” demanded by the state, usually involves expensive mound systems that are prone to freezing during deep cold, plus they are of questionable value as far as the environment is concerned and depend on electricity for a lift pump. If your power fails, so does you septic system. Consequently many people who would otherwise like to make improvements to their homes, just don’t because of “government regulation”.

We live in an area that have a lot of Amish folks. Their way of life is greatly hampered by ‘government regulations’ on the sale of fresh produce and farm products. Case after case could be pointed to where our nations economic activity could be greatly increased if it were not for “regulations” by “big brother” in one form or another.

The so-called “deregulation” on the 80’s, which brought about the recent boom that has now “busted”, has gotten a “bad rap” by self-serving politicians and media. When the truth is that much of the banking crisis was brought on, not be deregulation, but rather by the “regulations” that were put in place in the early 90’s. These in effect “forced” the banks to loan money for many home mortgages to people who could in no way afford the homes they were being sold.

The same old story is still taking place in banking. Regulations are forcing “private banks” to loan money to some farmers in our own area, who the bankers say cannot afford to pay back the money they are borrowing, but by “regulation” the banks have no choice but to make what they consider “bad loans”, or face penalties by the government.

This is what happens when ‘free countries’ are “nationalized”. In any “big government” situation, those who have the “access” to the influence of politicians will get the “goodies” while the “common people” who prefer to go about their lives without paying any attention to politics end up paying the bill in taxes or in the forfeiture of freedom. All in the name of ‘progress’ of course.

This leads me to another one of those sayings that caught my ear; “just keep doing what you are doing and you will keep getting what you have been getting.”

As long as our country keeps buying oil from the middle east, we are going to be in constant conflict in that part of the world. Either accept the cost in lives and expense of endless warfare, or change the way we get our energy. For now, the only answer is to use our own oil, until such a time that we develop the technology necessary to change form fossil fuels to useful alternatives.

One thing is certain. If we don’t change our policies, we are going to stay “on edge” about our energy supply and be help hostage to people who don’t like the USA.

How is it that our current administration will not allow a simple pipeline to be built from Canada to Texas? Politics and insanity!
　

Simple Living-Recreation

Continuing with one of my favorite themes, ‘simple living’, consider recreation and its many facets. Americans, common people I am speaking of, work hard and generally put in a lot of hours on the job. But we have learned the benefit of recreation, our generation has made it a major industry. I will not claim to have saved much money on my chosen forms of recreation, but since money is so important a commodity in a simplified lifestyle, the question begs to be ask, “What kinds of recreation is found compatible to a simplified life?”

Since this is “Ernie’s World”, I am expressing my own ideal of recreation and the ways I go about enjoying those pursuits. Some forms of recreation is just plain unsuitable to someone who has chosen a life, whether by choice or circumstance, that does not produce a high income. Many things that Americans consider ‘normal recreation’ are just too expensive for my pocketbook, even if they appeal to my appetite. These days travel is a great recreation and enjoyed by a large number of people. I traveled a fair bit in my younger days, but seldom for pure recreation. I find the tourist “traps” to be expensive places to visit and more often than not, turn out to be a letdown in that the hype was more than the reality. No matter how you go about traveling in these times of high energy costs, it is a costly undertaking.

If one lives in a city and practices a simple living philosophy, there are lots of low-cost activities to do for recreation. I would be found in a library pouring over the oldest books on the shelves, libraries are free for public use and great places to visit.

Living in the backwoods calls for other forms of recreation. First, it costs us a considerable amount of money just to make our necessary trips to town. I have given up the recreation of local runabout trips. Where we currently live there is not much to see, when you have seen one farm, you have mostly see the what represents a central MN farm. They don’t vary very much, even in details.
When we lived 50 miles north of here, we were in the lake and forest country. There was always something to do close by. Lots of good fishing lakes and rivers. Thousands of acres of state and paper company land within walking distance of our house that was free for the exploring, hunting or hiking.
Ruling out leaving home, our forms of recreation are somewhat limited, but only by our imaginations. My main activity that can be described as recreation is conducted from early September to mid-November in the form of deer hunting with bow or rifle. I won’t claim it is a “cheap” sport, because if the truth is told, what hunters spend on license, bows, guns, clothing etc., adds up to enough money to buy a lot of meat, if that is the only consideration. The facts in the case are that very few hunters are hunting for the “meat”. Rather we are hunting because we simply want to be in the woods. Bow hunting requires a lot of time in the woods, since any shot must be up “close and personal”, the bow hunter will have a lot fewer opportunities to take a deer. On the other hand, he will see a lot more deer than those who only hunt the rifle season, due to the amount of time spent in the woods and the undisturbed conditions of the wildlife.

My ideal of hunting has changed over the years. No longer do I enjoy “suffering” the cold and stiffness that results from sitting in a tree stand for several hours every day. To cure this, I built what we call a ‘hunting shack’, it is really a glorified ground blind, but since it is built for comfort we call it a shack. It is fully insulated, including the floor and ceiling. I have installed a box stove that once fired up will turn the small space into an oven, if I get too free with the wood. I don’t have a recliner, because that might make too much noise if I want to position myself for a shot out one of the 4 windows built for the purpose. Instead I found a swivel rocking chair that is quiet and I can still prop my feet up on a stool for maximum comfort for the “grim vigil” as I call the hunts. Of course to make the time more enjoyable, I also take along something to read. Usually my little Acer netbook that I have downloaded hundreds of free books on. Now that is recreation!

Since my business is mostly conducted at home, the only escape I get from seeing work to be done is to get out of sight. Woodworking used to be one form of recreation, but that got ruined when I started building furniture for income. Somehow, at least some of us, when we turn our recreation into income producing affairs, we lose something. No longer is it relaxing to turn wood into something useable and nice, it becomes “work”. I have determined that the only difference in building a piece of furniture for our own use and building a piece for profit, lays in my subconscious. For a piece to be sold I expect a minimum number of flaws, whereas pieces for our own use I feel less pressure to make a “perfect piece”, which, incidentally, has never been made in my shop.

There are other forms of ‘homegrown recreation’ that is compatible with simple living and does not ‘break the bank’.

My wife combines her love of gardening with the necessity of producing good food. Now I used to enjoy garden work. But the garden lays too close to “my job” for me to find any relaxation in leisurely puttering in the garden. For, all the while, my eyes roam to the woodshop or lumber yard that always has some work a-waiting. I find that I barely make time to even see the garden during the season that it is most interesting. That would be just before the harvest work begins, when the plants are young and thriving but not yet producing “more work”! I can make “recreation” out of ‘consuming’ the products from the garden however, but since the over consumption of food is also a “hazard” not to be overdone, I am not sure where the boundary is between eating a meal and ‘recreational eating’, I am thinking it is somewhere between beans and watermelon.

In our household there is no question that we find more recreation by reading than anything else. We don’t have TV, but all three of us are bookworms. I find it nearly impossible to sit through a movie, I would much rather read than observe, but that is only a personal taste.

Other forms of recreation that are easy on the wallet include; writing, which is one area that I am working on. Some of us go through our whole life being readers and just naturally think of writing “someday”. Since time waits on no one, it has become clear that if I am going to do any writing, I best get with it before my brain gets any weaker, this blog is my “test” and I have already learned that it takes a degree of discipline to force myself to sit down and write a post, but once I get started if is a form of recreation. Whether I will write anything beyond this blog and my daily journal for my children and grand children is yet to be seen. Then there are hundreds of outdoor things that we can do in a rural area that can’t be done outside a city ‘backdoor’. Like shooting our Blackpowder guns or modern rifles.

Speaking of shooting rifles, I will close this blog entry out with some humor about shooting. It was not very funny at the time, but it is now. We raised two hogs for meat this past summer, something we do every year or two. We have never had any trouble at all with the ‘health’ of the pigs we have raised, until this year. For one, it was a rainy summer and one of the hogs got pneumonia. Now pneumonia in a hog is not what one might expect. There is no sign of sickness except the pig will go “off its feed” and just not grow. No sign of hard breathing or anything, one of them just would not eat. After some research and then medicine, it was ok. But then one day me and our daughter was shooting our Blackpowder rifles and shot for an hour or so. For several days after the event the pigs we off their feed again and both of them seemed to be ‘sick’ or at least did not act like a normal rambunctious pig. They finally started eating and we did not know for some time what the problem was that time. Until the early goose season opened. My wife was out feeding on morning. The pigs came bouncing out of their house like normal to get their breakfast when some goose hunters let loose with a string of shotgun blasts. The pigs took to their house and would not come back out to eat all day. That is when we discovered that they were “gun-shy”! I have been around hogs much of my life and never heard of one being “gun-shy”, but these two surely were and that explained why they went off their feed when we were target shooting, which was right close to their pen to begin with. It must have been a horrifying experience for the poor dumb creatures. I have know many dogs that were “gun-shy” and a few people, but never a pig! Just goes to show that living in the country is always a “learning experience”, if nothing else.
　

Solitude

Solitude. Just the word will bring about different emotions in various people. To some, the thought of ’solitary confinement’ comes into their mind and the ideal of solitude is a term of torture. Something to be avoided at all costs. But to others, I include myself in this group, ’solitude’ carries the ideal of quiet and peacefulness.

It occurs to me that people are very different in their natures, not that there is a “right” or “wrong” when it comes to what we prefer in our social lives. Some people thrive on lots of social activity and just love interacting with a crowd. Personally, a lot of socializing wears me out and leaves me exhausted. I am not alone in my reaction to a lot of social mingling. Maybe this is why I have been called a “hermit” from time to time. I am not offended by the accusation, even though it is not true in reality, it might be somewhat true in ‘personality’. By that I mean the very thought of living a solitary hermit’s life does not offend my sense of social responsibility.

When people think of hermits, they generally imagine a religious monk living in some sort of cave, in filthy conditions, having fallen over the edge when it comes to mental stability. That is the common image we get from Hollywood and most literature on the subject.

There are lots of reasons why some people withdraw from society, not all of those reasons can be considered “bad”. I suppose it depends on the perspective. In fact, the first Christian hermits are thought to have been in Egypt and they withdrew to the desert in order to escape severe religious persecution. Evidently some of them came to like the solitary places and just stayed after the danger had passed, or else, as is sometimes presented in history books, they went insane and were not fit to return to society. Maybe ’solitude’ is a way to test the stability of a person?

There is however, a big difference in “periods of solitude” and “permanent solitude” as in those who are true hermits. Often people who have lived alone in wild parts of the world are called hermits, when in fact they were not hermits at heart, but only people who are able to adjust to long periods of solitary work.

I doubt that there was ever a piece of great literature written in a crowded room. Any of the great writers I have learned of, always needed a quiet place to do their work. That is solitude, even if it is only a few hours in a day or a few days a week.

The true “hermit” on the other hand is a person who feels the need to remove himself or herself from all society, for whatever reason. Sometimes it is a mental condition, at other times I suspect they find the society of the natural world more desirable than the society of humans. After all, there is a lot less complications dealing with a ‘block of wood’ than with another person.
I have met some people who really should have been hermits, they we so contrary to associate with, one is hard pressed to figure how they could function among other people.

I find some solitude to be a healthy thing. It can do us no harm to take personal stock or read a good book in a quiet uninterrupted environment. Some people act as if they are “afraid” to be alone by themselves for even a few minutes in a crowded room. I don’t know if they are actually fearful of meeting ‘themselves’ or if they need ‘attention’ at all times, but when I meet people like this, I pity them, for they are so overbearing, that the very thing they crave, society, avoids them because of their self-centered attitude. We usually call these people “narcissist” in that they not only admire themselves above all others, but they expect everyone else to admire them too.

As in all things, a balance is the healthiest for our welfare. Man was not created to be alone at all times, that is not built into our genetic makeup. It is an anomaly in humans to be ’true hermits’ that abhor other people altogether, but it is also just as abnormal for a ’narcissist’ to demand constant attention from everyone around them.

Thankfully we live in a country that allows us to choose where and how we live. It would be very difficult for me to live in a large city and be constantly elbow to elbow with people. It would be hard to imagine myself being content with all that noise and motion, with no place to escape, even for a little while.
I could not describe myself as a “hermit”, but I do like some solitude.
Here is a poem that I have seen in different places that sums up my feeling for some solitude, I don’t know the author or I would give them credit.

“Sweet clean air from east to west, and room to go and come, I loved my
fellow man the best, when he was scattered some”.

Excuses

Friday, December 9, 2011

Ok, no posts for several days now. Here is a list of excuses:

1) Too busy with various projects, that I don’t even have the imagination to describe. To put it bluntly, a couple furniture projects that I have been working on for months and think they will never end.

2) It has turned cold and it takes all my brain-power to stay warm.

3) Bad attitude in general. What that means is I am tired, overworked, underpaid and whining about it. Hey, maybe I should join the “occupiers”? Think not, at least I have some self-respect left intact.

4) Have you ever tried to write anything when you are ‘wiped out’? It does not look very good. I wrote a post yesterday, it rambled worse than a blind man in the woods, so I deleted it forever!

5) Its Friday again! How can a week go by that fast? I know most people look forward to Friday, but since I don’t live by “normal” rules, the only day I can expect not to work is Sunday, most of the time.

6) If those excuses aren’t enough, I will fess up to the truth: I’m too lazy. There, since that is cleared up; have a great weekend!

Pearl Harbor Day

President Franklin Roosevelt declared it to be a “day that would live in infamy”. That is Dec. 7, 1941, the day that Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Today marks 70 years since that fateful day that claimed the lives of 2,402 American sailors and wounded another 1,282.

That attack did not happen ‘out of the clear blue’. There had been war raging around the globe for a few years already, but the American public supported a policy of “isolationism” and was opposed to us getting involved in another European war. That’s understandable, since it had only been a little better than 20 years since the terrible events of WW I had ended. Yet, the forces at play on the world scene practically assured that, at some point, the U.S. would have to be involved in this 2^nd World War.

On that day the scales were tipped! Overnight the American public went from ’pacifist’ to ’screaming eagles’. The pride of a great nation cannot allow over 2,000 of their citizens to be slaughtered without serious consequences.
One has to wonder what possessed the Japanese to believe that even if they succeeded in destroying the Pacific Fleet, they would be able to contain the giant nation that they had prodded as with a sharp stick? Someone in the Japan leadership had a flawed premise, big time!

This is a personal opinion based on a lifetime of historic study of history and the interaction of various cultures. It is my belief that people, in general, forget that other cultures do not think in the same way that “we do”. It was very similar to the mistake the U.S. would make in Vietnam, again dealing with an Asian culture. Americans wanted a quick victory and an end to hostilities, but the North Vietnamese had learned “patience” from their Chinese friends. They “knew” that all they had to do is “wait” and the U.S. would eventually leave, which is exactly what happened. The Japanese obviously knew that the majority of the American people were totally opposed to getting into another war, but their mistake was in misjudging the “fickle mind” of the American public. Some cultures have a more even keel than us Americans. We are not a nation that can be “counted on” to react with “predictability”. In fact we are much like a half-trained lion you see on circus shows. That lion or tiger is trained by his master and appears to be under control and will do all kinds of amazing tricks; but then one day just ‘out of the blue’, kills and eats his master. This is more like the American public.

On Dec. 6, 1941 if Franklin Roosevelt and Congress had declared war on Japan, the American public would have removed them from office. But two days later on Dec. 8, that war was declared with the full support of most American citizens. The attacking and killing of Americans has a tendency to stir up the lion.

This whole event should be a lesson for us to think through in a rational manner when comparing it to our own days. Right after the attack on the Twin Towers on 9-11-01, the “public” was all in favor of us “making war” on “somebody”, or maybe we should say “anybody”! But now, 10 long years later we have “forgotten” and are all about 2^nd guessing the wisdom of the wars that the Twin Towers attack brought us in to.

I find no usefulness to the ‘chatter’ about these current wars and how we are to end them. But there is a lesson here that I believe is greatly missing from our national discussion. That is in the way we went about WW II verses the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

What has doomed us today is “politician correctness” or at lest stems from that whole philosophy of how we are to deal with everything from child behavior to national attacks.

I will explain. When we ended World War II, how did we go about rebuilding Japan? It was not by picking some influential Japanese person and setting them up as a “puppet” leader! We put “Military Governors” in control of all those nations until such a time as the chaos of war died down to a point in which the ‘subdued nation’ could form their own government and then we slowly pulled out.

Contrast that to what we did in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Before the war even began, political correctness demanded that we avoid any appearance of “occupiers”, thus we picked some “leader” to immediately set up as a figurehead government. The net result was/is that the belligerents have never had the “agony of defeat”, but we go about it as if we can pacify some misbehaved child into reforming their inborn nature without a clear picture of the consequences of their actions.

I firmly believe that this is the reason we have never actually been successful in any war since WW II. We don’t believe in “winning” wars anymore. Our allies are stuck in the same chokehold of “politician correctness” that we are, thus, even if the U.S. wanted to defeat the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan and set up a “foreign military governor”, the rest of the world would scream “bloody murder”. So we stumble about, like a drunk in the dark, trying to pacify every enemy of freedom, without the will to defeat them and go on our way.

Here is something I find ironic. The “greatest generation” as they call the generation who fought and won WW II, is the very generation that brought us this current state of ‘political correctness’ which forbids us to truly defeat our nations enemies. I don’t believe, for one minute, that it was the troops in the trenches and jungles, personally, that led us into this frame of mind. Those soldiers knew what victory meant, but it was of their generation that the “thinkers” of political correctness emerged. These so-called “great compromisers” who are educated beyond their intelligence, don’t understand that other cultures mock and scorn a mighty nation that shows weakness by refusing to be strong.

It was another Roosevelt, Theodore, that said, “walk softly but carry a big stick”. These modern day “thinkers” must assume that Teddy meant to use that stick “only” as a threat. Having read about Teddy Roosevelt, it is certain that he also meant to use that stick with “conclusive results” if the circumstances demanded it.

In a mere 70 years have we truly lost our love for freedom and security to the point that we, as a nation, no longer have the fortitude to stick to the fight until it is conclusively finished?

There are a lot of shadows in this current struggle. One arm of the Moslem world is determined to rule that world as a “dark age theocracy”. Many U.S. citizens do not seem to understand the struggle. Half of our citizens want to bury their head in the sand, as if it is our own fault that Moslem extremists want to bring down the once great U.S.A. Some Americans are not willing to give up our freedom so easily, and will die before we are subdued by some mullah telling us that we have suddenly became a Moslem, just because they are now in control of politics. Meanwhile our national leaders appear to be a bunch of self-serving idiots that don’t have a clue as to what is really going on in the nation or the world. Throw into the mix the American media, who plaster the daily headlines with such ’heart touching stories’ as a rescued cat, as if they don’t have the fortitude to report “news” that is relevant to a world that teeters on the brink of WW III. No wonder we have some people who’s most important mission of the year is to get that one item at a 20% discount, even if it means killing or injuring a fellow American! Insanity.

Dec. 7, 1941 was truly a defining moment in our history, but as we approach the year 2012 we ought to have learned by now that the world is not a safe place for freedom and liberty. Thus, we must constantly be on guard that we do not lose the vision of “freedom” and what that means to a world gone mad. There is no other nation on earth that has ever allowed its citizens the power that ‘we the people’ possess, but one thing is certain, if we do not use that freedom with responsibility and moral clarity, we will not keep it for much longer. Already the axmen are chopping away the foundation of our country, from within and without, as a people, we will be the ones to make the final choice. Conquer and divide is not a new tactic. For two hundred years the nation has pulled together during times of crisis to overcome inside or outside forces, let it be no different today in our current crisis.

On two fronts we have a ‘crisis’, even if we are not willing to admit the fact. One, is the threat of extremists from the Moslem religion. If we judge their motives by what they claim, it is this; ‘they claim to want to conquer the world by force if necessary, for Mohammad’. Deny their statements if you want, but “they say” that is their goal. It does make the war a ‘religious war’, at least from their perspective.

Here is a “final solution”, I hope that does not sound too much like Hitler, but I believe there is a way to solve our middle east threat. Dill our own oil!! Between the U.S. and Canada we have enough oil to turn the middle east spigot off. This would accomplish two things at once. First, it would relieve us of the necessity to keep that flowage of oil open at the cost of American blood. Second, and this might be of more benefit than anything, it would dry up the flow of money into those countries who want to destroy our way of life. If the Arabs did not have so much oil money they could not buy all weapons to wage war and terror on the rest of the world.

I know this is not going to happen anytime soon in the current climate of world economic greed, but it would go a long way in suppressing the flow of blood for oil. Besides that it would also create in our own depressed economy a great boom in oil production and the thousands of jobs that go along with it.
The other ‘front’ in the war on freedom is from within. It is in the realm of political philosophy. The left in this country believes that our U.S. Constitution is an outdate model for a nation. They would have us believe that we would be better off to scrape the Constitution and Bill of Rights and start over with something that looks, feels and smells like a socialist/communist form of government. The theory, is that only “Big Government”, is capable of running our individual lives and “giving us” the things ‘they say’ we have a “right” too. The implementation of so many of these principles since WW II, is what has brought us to the verge of bankruptcy now, but the trend is to have the national government spend more money (which we don’t have), with the net result that they gain more detailed control over the country, starting with the states and working their way down to every township and small village. Always disguised as “helping” of course. Anytime the Federal government sticks its fingers into local affairs, with a off to “help”, rest assured it is going to cost us money and freedoms. Mostly what they want is our vote and then they can extort our tax dollars to spread around buying more power and influence.

The solution to ‘government’ being a threat to freedom is not so easy to find, but before 2012 ends the American people will have the “power” to change the game at the voting booth, but will we? Or, even more cynical is the question; will we have anyone to vote for that will make a difference?
　

Embarrassing Events are for Humor

At times we all have experienced embarrassing moments, it is one “inevitable” thing that will happen to everyone, at some point in their lives, or at many points for some folks, often directly related to the number of children we raise. Some events are more embarrassing than others, just as there are some people who are more easily embarrassed than others. Personally, I have done so many “dumb” things in my life that I have become somewhat ‘callused’, but only an idiot is beyond embarrassment.

Since we know humor is healthy, I am happy to be spread some cheer by making a few embarrassing events of my own life public knowledge, not that most of them were “secret” anyway, since the very nature of embarrassment generally involves an ’eye witness’ of some; what shall we say? Less than shining moments in our lives. Obviously, at the time of our discomfort we find nothing humorous about the incident, and sometimes we never find the humor it. But there are plenty of embarrassing events that make people smile. I don’t make it a practice of sharing someone else’s discomfort, but only my own, since I don’t feel all that victimized by the things I am willing to reveal.

Most recently, this past summer, I had my 5^th wheel lumber trailer behind my 1 ton pick-up truck. At the end of a long day I went to turn the truck around in order to get loaded with lumber, but where I usually make a U-turn there was an old trailer (even older than mine) sitting in my way. I was distracted by the load of slab wood that they had on this old trailer, I recall thinking to myself “someone is going to have a mess, if that thing breaks apart going down the road”, it was seriously overloaded and hanging off the back of the trailer. While I am thinking of the “disaster” that this would make on a highway, I am also in the process of backing my truck up to turn around since I can’t make the U-turn. I was so intent looking at that trailer, I did not even think about what I was doing; UNTIL the back window of my truck came crashing in on top of me! Yes, I had managed to jack-knife my trailer so that it hit the corner of the cab on my pickup and ‘exploded’ the back window. Wouldn’t you know that just at that moment, the sawmill owner happen to be driving by and witnessed the whole thing, of course not knowing what was going on in my mind, that made the whole event very ironic. There is a lesson there somewhere, but it is beyond my ability to articulate it clearly, but something to the effect that we ought to be more concerned about the “disaster” we are about to make, than the one that someone else “might make”.

It is fortunate that many of our “embarrassing moments” happen when no one is around to witness them. It can also be that we happen to “think” no one witnessed something, only to find out at a latter date that there was indeed an eyewitness to some ‘mishap’.

Many years ago I lived in southwestern KY. I had rented some land on which I was raising some cattle. My fence was electric and each day as I checked on the place I would take a fence tester and check this electric fence. On this farm there was an old broken down trailer house that a farm hand lived in, on this particular day there was no sign that old Jim was anywhere around. As I went about my chore of checking the fence, somehow I was not paying very close attention to what I was doing, I put the hot end of the tester on the fence and went to push the ground end into the dirt, however I did not have a proper grip on the ground and when I pushed it into the ground it gave me a ‘shock’ not soon forgotten, I am not sure if it was the electrical shock or the surprise but I jumped a couple feet straight into the air, about like a cat that has had its tail caught in the door!

I had totally forgotten about the incident when a good two weeks later me and old Jim were in the local country store at lunch time. All the local farmers would gather there to get a sliced bologna sandwich and stand around a big pot bellied stove to eat, while catching up on the local gossip. Jim was not much of a talker, but on this day, seeing he had a good crowd of people, he spoke up. “Ernie” he said, “how does that electric fence work?” I was surprised to learn anyone had seen the incident, but old Jim really enjoyed telling everyone that I could, and did, jump 2 feet straight up into the air. It was all in good fun, but also embarrassing to find out “someone was watching”, at least old Jim enjoyed the event, I sure didn’t.

One more electric fence story. This one I can blame on my wife, maybe? It was on that same farm in KY. I had to go all the way to the back of the pasture to work on the fence and wanted my wife to stand by the fencer box to turn the fence on and off at my signal, which was to be the beep of the horn on my truck. When I would blow the horn, she was to either turn the fence on or off, depending on which position it was at the time. I drove to the back of the pasture and saw a spot I wanted to work on, so blew the horn for her to turn the fence off, which she did. I commenced to work on the fence and had to do some rather extensive repair work. In the meantime, I did not paying any attention to what might be taking place on the road going by the farm, but I was concentrating on the job of unwinding some electric fence wire to make the repair, when to my surprise I heard a car horn blow out on the road. It did not dawn on me that my wife would hear a horn blow and do what she was suppose to do at the sound of my truck horn. Another shock! I have another electric fence, but am extra careful about testing it or having a “helper” turn it on and off.

Then there is automobile repairs. Most men who have ever tried to do some of their own repair work, might identify with me in this area. Especially, if they have no more mechanical ability than I do. Now I can do common things, like change oil, tires and such on vehicles. But when it comes to serious things I find it is best to call upon a ‘real mechanic’, I have learned this the hard way. Like when you take apart something that seems not to be working properly and find that the buggers are “spring loaded”! Little parts, springs, odds and ends go flying through the air like insects on a summer night. Then you know, you have to gather up all the parts you can find, put them in a box and take it to a mechanic. If your mechanic is “polite”, or else knows my habits, he will just smile a little and say he will take care of it. But you just know that when the door closes behind you, he is doubled up with laughter. Like I say, at least someone benefits from the dumb things we do.

So the next time you are embarrassed, just think of it as having brought some “cheer” into someone else’s day. I doubt that it helps you complexion, but it might make you feel better.