Posted on 01/14/2014 10:16:23 PM PST by dennisw
Hard physical work is still a requisite for a sound outlook on an ever more crazy world. I ride a bike; but such exercise is not quite the same, given that the achievement of doing 35 miles is therapeutic for the body and mind, but does not lead to a sense of accomplishment in the material sense — a 30-foot dead tree cut up, a shed rebuilt, a barn repainted. I never quite understood why all these joggers in Silicon Valley have immigrants from Latin America doing their landscaping.
Would not seven hours a week spent raking and pruning be as healthy as jogging in spandex — aside from the idea of autonomy that one receives by taking care of one’s own spread?
On the topic of keeping attuned with the physical world: if it does not rain (and the “rainy” season is about half over with nothing yet to show for it), the Bay Area and Los Angeles will see some strange things that even Apple, Google, and the new transgendered rest room law cannot fix.
We have had two-year droughts, but never in my lifetime three years of no rain or much snow — much less in a California now of 39 million people. I doubt we will hear much for a while about the past wisdom of emptying our reservoirs and letting the great rivers year-round flow to the Bay to restore mythical 19th-century salmon runs and to save the Delta three-inch bait fish. As long as it was a question of shutting down 250,000 irrigated acres in distant and dusty Mendota or Firebaugh, dumping fresh water in the sea was a good thing. When it now comes down to putting grey water or worse on the bougainvilleas in Menlo Park, or cutting back on that evening shower, I think even those of Silicon Valley will wonder, “What in the hell were we thinking?”
I do all the yard work on my three-acre home site and putter around the surrounding 40-acre vineyard. Mowing, chain-sawing, pruning, and hammering clear the head, and remind us that, even in the age of the knockout “game” and nightly TV ads for Trojan sex devices, we still live in a natural world. In the rural landscape, you are responsible for your own water. So you must know about what level resides the water table, and how deeply exactly your pump draws from, and the minutia of well depth, casing size, and type of pump. You know roughly how much sewage you’ve deposited in your cesspool and septic tank, and whether your propane tanks is half or a quarter full. There is no “they” who take care of such things, no department of this, or GS9 that to do it for you. Those who help you keep independent — the well drillers, pump mechanics, cesspool pumpers, asphalt layers, and assorted independent contractors — remind you that muscles and experience, not always degrees and techie know-how, are still important in extremis.
Even if he were a city boy, which he isn’t, VDH would feel much better off doing what he does than hiring someone to do all the dirty work while he rides a bike or watches other people pretend to live a REAL life on TV.
Just as there are city elitists, there are also “country elitists” who mock those who want to get their hands dirty, their muscles sore, and learn some of the old skills, even if it’s only a few acres not far from a city. No one is admitted to the club unless they were born on a cattle ranch or a farm and worked it from birth.
beautiful article
This is an excerpt, it should be noted, and not the full piece. Hit the link and read the full article, folks.
God bless Hanson for pointing out one of many values to good hard physical work. Arbeit macht das Leben sues.
The spandex crowd thinks their only expense is paying the yard man. No, they also pay for their gym membership and their “sports” wear and their equipment. That’s four times what it would cost them to get into shape by doing their own yardwork. It takes less time to mow a yard than it does to drive to the gym. Setting out a few bushes and flower pots with the kids much more valuable than shopping for new spandex. Face it, most “landscaping” is done for the benefit of the HOA rather than personal enjoyment.
“Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice.” by Henry Ford
People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results. ~Albert Einstein
The highlight of my week is to be able to go to my land and cut down dead oak trees and turn them into firewood logs. After a long week dealing with ass clowns in my office it soothes my soul.
The only thing Obama ever swung was a golf club.
Arbeit macht das Leben süß —— “Work makes life sweet” German expression
Homestead is usually considered separate from producing land or woodlands.
We have 80 acres. We consider the homestead to be 4 acres. However, we keep some of the surrounding land mowed just so we can enjoy it as well as keep the tick habitat down. I’d guess we mow paths and clearings of perhaps another 6-8 acres. We have 14 acres tillable (old fashioned standards were 34 acres tillable)and the rest woods.
VDH is not a city boy. He has a 40-acre producing vineyard and he is no longer young.
I hear dat! Back on the farm, all we had was a 2-bottom plow, a tractor with no cab, no umbrella, a hard metal seat (no air cushioned seat like now), no radios, Walkman’s were yet to be invented, any small radio was a luxury, stick clutch (no hydrostatic drive), and hundreds of dusty acres to turn. Days of back and forth barely seeing any gain on the job. Of course, my “pay” was just being part of the family. I knew it had to get done. No options but to grind away with similar jobs—tending the livestock, harvesting, etc. It had to be done!
That prepared me in so many ways for being successful now. It is what I call, a “basis of appreciation” that has pushed me through challenges after leaving the farm for college and my future. While I, for the most part, hated it then, I look back now and appreciate that experience in so many ways.
Yes it is.
good testimony!!!
It is largely because riding a bike in spandex is a self centered activity, and that is fine, just don’t impede traffic in your “smart shorts” but don’t kid yerself, you aint doing it for anyone but you.I remember those guys. Traffic moving at a crawl and not a John Deere in sight. I hung back 'til the last car passed so I could see what it was. Couple of bike-tards riding side-by-side blocking the lane during rush hour.
Definately Lima beans!! LOL
Odd that they call the mental component “intestinal fortitude”
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