Happen Films is a great New Zealand documentary film company. Their latest is “The New Peasants,” which follows a family living mostly outside the money economy. Worth watching. The opening of the film, where they imagine their peasant ancestors, is something I’ve been thinking about lately.
Made a small table out of a piece of firewood and some kindling (black walnut, I believe) that I’ll use when I have fires in the backyard. It’s the first project where I’ve made significant use of an axe and sloyd knife.
Speaking of the Amish, you all know I have an interest in them. I realized the other day that I don’t really know much about the Anabaptists as a whole. So I have a couple of ebooks checked out: The Naked Anabaptist and The Anabaptist Story. Other (non-scholarly) recommendations are welcome.
Thanks to some past discussions here (can’t remember who or when exactly), I’ve been intending to get my beloved Timberland Chelsea boots re-soled, rather than replacing them. I took them into Crane’s Leather shop and he said my boots were built only to be disposed. Can’t re-sole them. Disappointing.
I asked him to show me a few that could be, and I settled on a pair of Chippewa. I considered some Red Wings but they would have been at least $50 more and, in the end, I’m cheap. So at least now I have myself a pair that can be repaired rather than replaced. And if Crane’s ever goes out of business, there’s always the Amish.
Well that was a discouraging day. Just when I felt like I was getting the hang of the new job, I screwed up half a dozen ways in a single day. I told one of my co-workers, “I promise I’m a good accountant!” 😂 I just ate my weight in taco salad so things are looking up.
Opening line of a 2015 book: “It is becoming undeniably clear that Western civilization has entered a post-Christian age.” That didn’t age well. There seems to be a revival in America of both (on a large scale) nationalistic pseudo-Christianity and (on a smaller scale) more serious, engaged Christianity.
A nightly benediction
Growing up, I watched my dad check the door locks every night–and I picked up the habit from him. I’m probably worse than him, actually. I have my theories about why we each acquired this compulsion, which I won’t get into here. And though I don’t know where the clinically compulsive line is, I’m probably too close to it. Besides, it sucks as a nightly ritual. This morning it occurred to me that this whole thing needs a reframing.
The look on Rachel’s face when I said, “I just subscribed to Plough magazine”…
“There’s a whole magazine about plows? And you’re subscribing?” 😂
Been having a good time working on a rough table for outdoor, fireside use. This is a piece of firewood that caught my eye. Used a hatchet to trim off the bark and then a sloyd knife to clean it up. I think it’s black walnut? Creamy sapwood and chocolate brown heartwood.
Christopher Schwarz making his woodworking books freely downloadable really is an extraordinary thing.