Goats

On Friday, April 11, 

R Farm welcomed our four new Nigerian goats: 

Beauty, Sunshine, Max, and Dandy.

Beauty and Sunshine sharing snacks at the milking stand

It's been a bit of a zoo around here

so I chose to put up the photos I have handy now

with more to follow as we get settled. 

Sunshine and Beauty browsing after milking

Are we losing practical life skills?

Tim read this blog aloud to me Are we losing practical life skills?

Our own lack of real life skills upon leaving college is one of the reasons we homeschool and acquiring human capital for ourselves and our family is one of the things we appreciate about learning to farm.

I wanted to share an excerpt here. 

Only the wealthy can afford to have someone else fix their bicycle, walk and wash their dog, change the oil in their car, repair their house, etc. Practical skills enable an individual or household to lower the cost of living to the point that savings (capital accumulation) is possible. 

Practical skills are human capital, which is the means of production in a knowledge economy.
The Knowledge Economy's Two Classes of Workers (March 29, 2013)
 
In a very real sense, those with few practical skills are doomed to a zero-capital life unless they earn enough to pay somebody else to do everything for them, i.e. a minimum of $150,000+ a year, i.e. a top 10% household income. Even at that income level, people who can't do anything for themselves may not be able to save any money.
 
Poverty and lack of life skills are causally connected.
 
Science fiction author Robert Heinlein famously listed the skills of the generally competent in his book Time Enough for Love:
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
 
I propose amending Heinlein's list for the modern era: The marginally competent person should know how to: 

1. Look up how to fix something on the Web
2. Use WD-40
3. Get a bicycle chain back on the gears
4. Apply superglue without gluing their fingers together
5. Change the oil in a car
6. Replace a lockset
7. Troubleshoot network connections on a PC/laptop
8. Make a stir-fry meal using multiple fresh ingredients
9. Compose coherent instructions that explain how to do something useful
10. Keep a variety of plants alive and producing fruit, vegetables or flowers

This is obviously a very short list, but we have to start somewhere. 

Out of the 31 skills listed, I can do a little less than half with varying degrees of competence.

How about you?  

Farmacology

Farmacology: What Innovative Family Farming Can Teach Us About Health and Healing by Daphne Miller MD is an excellent, thought-provoking book.  Since my own journey to farming has a lot to do with my desire to healing, I found this particularly inspiring. 

If I start with quotes, I'll go on and on.  
Put it on reserve at the library- well worth a look.

Melt in peace

Before the Super Storm buried it again, 

I took a photo of our clear driveway.  

Asphalt!  Who knew?

Tim had been out breaking the three-inch thick sheet of ice into chunks small enough to shovel every day for a month,

culminating with 8+ hours last weekend.

Tuesday the propane delivery driver successfully 

navigated the narrow curve and filled our tank with enough propane to last through summer, 

ending our fears of empty tank and frozen pipes.

Tim breathed a sigh of relief and put his shovels away.

Super Storm, do your worst.  

We can wait for it all to melt in peace.

Like James Bond's martini

I used to think that the big machines out grading dirt roads were intentionally making the washboard pattern for increased traction. 

Why else would there be perfectly even waves in the road?

In fact, the machines scrape and loosen the dirt breaking up the wave pattern which gives us a nice smooth ride for a day or two.

Here's an explanation

Here's another

Tim's approach is confirmed by Myth Busters (Episode 58)-

 driving faster is smoother.

However, as I drive slower to accommodate my old tires, 

I've wondered if it could shake cream into butter. 

Nothing so helpful has occurred to date.

Tim and Abbi

 Cute, color-coordinated,
and no longer allergic

 

Tim's become a cat person

or at least an Abbi person.

I'm not dead yet

Tim says this tree reminds him of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

 

"I'm feeling much better.

I think I'll go for a walk."
 

"I feel happy!"