tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269375347860213832024-03-16T13:14:47.930-04:00Upland<center><big><big><big><big>The Journal of One Gardening Pilgrim's Progress</big></big></big></big></center>Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-18869564150046663322019-06-23T11:03:00.002-04:002019-06-23T11:03:55.664-04:00Herrick Kimball Is Now Blogging At Heavenstretch<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV-F1Hv86BoaYlSYpn3QAL6AkPzzXKFMCFcCHWANu92LtI_EwArUALGslm0XsyT-GO12jF9P9N_bkFKtx0wdKfPbFVLNNvx9bvvfPIqK3IyZeGJUfLjMZi3t66cmtMcUpI5qoVjWj8DwU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-23+at+9.47.02+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV-F1Hv86BoaYlSYpn3QAL6AkPzzXKFMCFcCHWANu92LtI_EwArUALGslm0XsyT-GO12jF9P9N_bkFKtx0wdKfPbFVLNNvx9bvvfPIqK3IyZeGJUfLjMZi3t66cmtMcUpI5qoVjWj8DwU/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-23+at+9.47.02+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dateline: 23 June 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I've blogged on this Blogger format for 14 years. Blogger was a good place for me for most of those years. But it has become so problematic that I've been forced leave. My new blogging home is now at WordPress. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Seeing as I had to move to a new blogging format, I've taken the opportunity to create a new blog name. <a href="https://heavenstretch.wordpress.com/">Heavenstretch</a> is now my place on the web. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Barring any unforeseen circumstances, <a href="https://heavenstretch.wordpress.com/">Heavenstretch</a> will be my "<i>last</i> blog and testament." </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Please stop on over and see what <a href="https://heavenstretch.wordpress.com/">Heavenstretch</a> is all about...</span></span><br />
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-52921431086576177882019-02-28T08:14:00.000-05:002019-02-28T08:17:47.639-05:00Illinois Becky's Inspiring Minibed Garden<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Dateline: 28 February 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Please note: This is a cross post from </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">my new blog, </span><a href="https://thedeliberateamerican.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Deliberate American</a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD8GGAiyVv0Mt0d85aA61VdTvcJuTC63IQAPxcvsjwtgwxTSSAZDjfnbMzrPhBHcj0xJHxT7ymP4PrL-vBw0gEoUjXEsEOmJzb_DaO3JW9xJ8VmE971EvUdb1ZhdBLP7YP883uIjCWno8/s1600/IMG_20180619_092031-EFFECTS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD8GGAiyVv0Mt0d85aA61VdTvcJuTC63IQAPxcvsjwtgwxTSSAZDjfnbMzrPhBHcj0xJHxT7ymP4PrL-vBw0gEoUjXEsEOmJzb_DaO3JW9xJ8VmE971EvUdb1ZhdBLP7YP883uIjCWno8/s640/IMG_20180619_092031-EFFECTS.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Becky's Minibed Garden in 2018</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was late in 2016 when, after decades of trying so many other gardening methods, I developed a new </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">system </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">for gardening. At first, I called it Minibeds-on-Plastic. I now call it Minibed Gardening.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At first glance, Minibed gardening doesn't look like anything all that unique. The casual observer would only see plastic mulch and some small beds. So, what's the big deal?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Well, the big deal is in how the beds are laid out and managed. I call it <i>high-culture</i>. High culture is all about focused attention on the health of the soil, and providing optimum conditions for plants to thrive. There's a lot more to it than meets the eye.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For the past two years I have had a Minibed experimental garden. I have put my initial ideas into practice. I've seen them prove to be sound, productive, and profoundly satisfying.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But what is even more satisfying to me is seeing others take the Minibed gardening idea and put it to good use. Such is the case with the garden in the photo above. Becky M. lives in northern Illinois, about an hour southwest of Chicago (zone 5). She sent me that beautiful photo above with the following comment...</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"I bought your garden book and the first update and last year I converted my garden to minibeds. Wow. I had a few bumps along the road and I learned from them but for the most part, my 45 mini-beds were a huge success. I'm 66 with bad knees and the weeding my traditional row garden required almost made me give up gardening completely. I'm so glad I got your book and took the plunge!"</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Becky's Minibed garden puts my garden to shame. Here are a couple more pictures from her first year of Minibed gardening (you can click on the pictures to see enlarged views)...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW40fISdsjCpZ9Mqi5BHQQ2mKuyZn_w55tu6H1nBgSWSa5h2v06wKs9d7gSvsCdCDetiicucptAbxZ2ghU6xkrXjqqgWKeYksYKAElvtm2oWNq3e-LoXL2FhTcCjrGJUQVDO0-3MfNBmU/s1600/IMG_20180619_092008.jpg" imageanchor="1"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW40fISdsjCpZ9Mqi5BHQQ2mKuyZn_w55tu6H1nBgSWSa5h2v06wKs9d7gSvsCdCDetiicucptAbxZ2ghU6xkrXjqqgWKeYksYKAElvtm2oWNq3e-LoXL2FhTcCjrGJUQVDO0-3MfNBmU/s640/IMG_20180619_092008.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5SoZqaEM_7YBt1x5GiSTUVY9i1IB5y8nCpKD9uE4OjAOMp1Cg_D2kAEvkjt-EpFq-ZNkMmdkeMfRLqmPeqepfwUIu1IHkKRBjrFB-w9w7aw6qjNb532EHI44Yh5p2IOTvEsnZCBqOjw/s1600/download_20181031_121759.jpg" imageanchor="1"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="1008" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5SoZqaEM_7YBt1x5GiSTUVY9i1IB5y8nCpKD9uE4OjAOMp1Cg_D2kAEvkjt-EpFq-ZNkMmdkeMfRLqmPeqepfwUIu1IHkKRBjrFB-w9w7aw6qjNb532EHI44Yh5p2IOTvEsnZCBqOjw/s640/download_20181031_121759.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here are some "before" photos of the same garden in the spring, after getting the plastic and Minibed frames in place...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And here's a final photo from Becky...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ASUJxZlL5PHOiKgTps5CzlzWXwjcU6Hz5RB3oAOHfvEEZFN8zpub3UMVL-RmGO1LLN80YHAexD-uFr5b350i2IESiNarMy3dOURpSgEAt7fbSt2uee-MhY3f9CLsH0LGzjh0kGBfUxc/s1600/IMG_20181001_102934_960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ASUJxZlL5PHOiKgTps5CzlzWXwjcU6Hz5RB3oAOHfvEEZFN8zpub3UMVL-RmGO1LLN80YHAexD-uFr5b350i2IESiNarMy3dOURpSgEAt7fbSt2uee-MhY3f9CLsH0LGzjh0kGBfUxc/s640/IMG_20181001_102934_960.jpg" width="512" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Now, if all of that doesn't inspire you to get gardening this spring, I don't know what will. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The way I look at it, gardening is one of the most positive and productive things you can do in a world full of such craziness and uncertainty. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With your Minibed gardening success and satisfaction in mind I have recently (just </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">yesterday) put together a new Minibed gardening resource...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Minibed Gardening Trilogy is a collection of my yearly Minibed gardening reports (2017-2019). It has 130 pages and 250 photos. It explains the history, the theory, and the best practices of my Minibed gardening system. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This new resource is formatted as a pdf download. The price is $17.95. <span style="color: red;">But I have put it on sale until March 16 for only $12.95</span>. </span><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/i/yhlr" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Click Here to order</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If you want to learn more about the Minibed gardening system before purchasing the Trilogy, <a href="https://minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/">Click Here</a> to go to the Minibed Gardening web site.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">NOTE: If you have purchased the previous yearly reports from me, you already have the first two thirds of this trilogy, and you should have received and e-mail with information about purchasing just the 30-page 2019 Minibed Gardening update (priced at $2.95). If you did not get the e-mail, contact me at <a href="mailto:herrick@planetwhizbang.com">herrick@planetwhizbang.com</a> and I'll send you the details.</span></span><br />
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-86804764711902064892017-05-15T08:09:00.001-04:002017-05-15T08:09:45.346-04:00Announcing..."This Agrarian Life"(My New Vlog)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Video blogging is now where it's at with savvy online marketing. Whether it's the marketing of ideas or products, more people will pay attention to you if you make a movie and put it on YouTube. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">I've come to terms with that reality, and have now launched a new vlog titled <i>This Agrarian Life</i>. And, of course, every vlog must have it's own web site: <a href="http://www.thisagrarianlife.net/"><span style="color: red;">www.ThisAgrarianLife.net</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">This new vlog has been a long time in the thinking. But my thinking was that I would <i>not</i> video blog. The reason being, my lack of technical and stage prowess, along with the amount of time it has taken me in the past to make the few YouTube videos I've managed to crank out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Written words have always been my strong point anyway. They have served me well. I'm <i>comfortable</i> with words. I'm not naturally inclined to put my live self into the medium.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">But I've been feeling that I need to be a little less introverted. And then it occurred to me that the prospect of video blogging was overwhelming to me because I was complicating it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">What if I just filmed real short clips (less than 3 minutes) of various small-subject things that I've done, or am doing, here on my little homestead? With a single-take, short, focused video, I could eliminate the time-consuming production work of putting the video together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">And, instead of adding a "proper" introduction, with music and all of that, I would just have a 3-second introductory title frame. That would save me even more time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">And, with my spotty, low-bandwidth internet service, I might be able to upload a short video to YouTube in only a couple of hours (instead of overnight, and then some).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">So, I made 7 short vlogs last Friday and uploaded them to YouTube over the weekend. With my scaled-down approach, the videos were easy to shoot and produce. And they uploaded to YouTube so much faster than previous (longer) movies I made.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Initial viewer response has been pretty good. I'm encouraged.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">I have not thought this vlogging journey out too far into the future. I'm just taking it a vlog at a time. But I hope to make a lot of these mini-movies in the days ahead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">I invite you to join <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoPQU_j5bbwnO3BSTaqnzhg"><span style="color: red;">My YouTube Channel</span></a> and watch all the episodes of <i>This Agrarian Life</i> as they come out. You will find all my YouTube videos at that link. </span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-4459750883551777362017-05-01T07:20:00.000-04:002017-05-01T07:25:21.120-04:00Making Whizbang Solar Pyramids (A Most Excellent Garden Cloche)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 2 May 2017</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A single tomato plant, thriving inside a solar pyramid.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />I've had a lot of gardening ideas. Some seem clever at first, and hold promise, but end up disappointing me. Then again, some actually work pretty well. Take, for example, Solar Pyramids. They are an idea I developed several years ago, and they work amazingly well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I explain the story behind my <i>Whizbang</i> solar pyramid idea in my <a href="http://whizbanggardening.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: red;">Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners</span></a>. For people who don't have the book, and who don't want to spend the money to buy a copy, I sell <a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/new-how-to-make-and-use-solar-pyramids.html"><span style="color: red;">the chapter about solar pyramids as an inexpensive PDF download</span></a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I am more enthused than ever with my solar pyramid idea after realizing that the unique solar cloches integrate perfectly with my <a href="http://minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2017/01/introducing-minibeds-on-plastic-new.html"><span style="color: red;">Minibeds-on-Plastic gardening idea</span></a>. The one difficult aspect of the solar pyramids was that they had to be sealed around the bottom perimeter with soil, but it turns out that is not necessary with minibeds. The minibed frame anchors and seals the bottom of the pyramids just fine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The solar pyramids that I made, as I'm about to show you (with sewn seams), are no worse for wear after five years of use. The ones that I made by trying to fuse the plastic together with a hot putty knife have not held together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The translucent superstrong woven poly from <a href="http://northerngreenhouse.com/"><span style="color: red;">Northern Greenhouse Sales</span></a> is remarkable stuff. It's incredibly durable and long lasting. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if these solar cones lasted me for more than 20 years. The plastic is UV resistant and it is only outside for a couple months in the spring.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">So, I decided to buy a 10'x 12' piece of the superstrong woven poly to make more pyramid covers. I paid $69.60 for the piece, plus $15 for shipping. Total cost: $84.60.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>However</i>, to my surprise, the good folks at Northern Greenhouse Sales actually sent me a 12'x 12' piece. And I'm glad they did. I was able to get exactly 8 solar pyramid covers out of the 12' x 12' sheet, and I would have gotten only 6 covers out of the 10' x 12' piece. The point being, if you want optimal yield, order a 12' x 12' sheet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In the picture above you can see the roll of superstrong woven poly, tape, scissors, and my pattern. I tell how to make a pattern in my <i>Idea Book For Gardeners</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I made that particular pattern back in 2012. When I was done with it, I rolled it up and stuck it in the rafters of my shop. It was pretty dusty and dirty but was still useable, as you can see in this next picture...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The only place I had to lay this all out was on my kitchen table (my workshop is too crowded). I taped the pattern in place...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Then I traced around the perimeter of the pattern with a Sharpie marker...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I proceeded to do that seven more times on the sheet of plastic, then I cut the shapes out with a pair of scissors...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The woven poly does not unravel after you cut it. Not at all. It's fused into a solid piece of superstrong material. After the eight pieces were cut out, my wife sewed the seams...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Here are the eight covers all sewed up and ready to use...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Here's a cover on the frame in my kitchen...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Here's a picture of one of the solar pyramid cloches in a Minibed...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Here's a picture of some snow-covered solar pyramids in my Minibeds-on-Plastic garden...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">But, while the weather outside was frightful, the environment inside those solar pyramids wasn't so bad at all...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I have all kinds of seeds planted under the solar pyramid cloches.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Stay tuned for more details...</span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>P.S. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I invite you to read about how I think Thomas Jefferson actually invented solar pyramid cloches back in 1812. <a href="http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2016/02/i-have-solved-200-year-old-mystery-of.html">CLICK HERE</a> to read the story.</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-37591265078679814992017-04-30T13:03:00.002-04:002017-04-30T13:03:44.107-04:00Planting Into A Cover Crop In The Spring<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 30 April 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">This blog post may be the most useful gardening revelation I have ever shared....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">If you have read my garden writings for long you know that I became interested in no-till gardening last year, and that I started growing some cover crops in my garden. The picture above is an example of what I mean. The garden bed on the right has a cover crop of oats and the garden bed on the left has a cover crop of mustard. As you can tell by the leaves on the ground, that picture was taken in the fall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I did not have time to get any cover crops into my Minibeds-on-Plastic experimental garden last year. But, as I explain in my <a href="http://minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2017/01/blank-15.html"><span style="color: red;">Minibeds-on-Plastic Report</span></a>, cover cropping and no-till gardening will be an integral part of my whole approach to minibed gardening. So, please keep that in mind as you read this post.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">If I were to till a cover crop (like you see in the picture above) into the soil at some point, that cover crop would be a "green manure." But with no-till gardening I'm not interested in expending the effort to till the green manure into the soil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Rather, my objective is to grow roots underneath the soil and leave them in place. While the plants are alive, the soil ecology interacts with the roots, resulting in a healthy, LIVE soil. When the plants die, the roots in the soil die also and feed the ecology, while the biomass above can be utilized as a mulch, which protects the soil—again promoting life and biological activity in the soil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Now, the other thing that a cover crop as I've just described it does, and the thing I want to emphasize here, is that it GREATLY improves soil tilth. It makes the soil more "mellow," which is to say, it is more easily worked. And when garden soil is easy to work, especially at planting time in the spring, it is a real joy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">This delightful reality was my recent experience in that oat-seeded bed you see in the picture at the top of this page. Here's a picture of that same bed during a thaw this past winter...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">And here is a picture of the oat bed as it looked this spring...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">If you look close, you can see some full-size leaves that were captured by the stand of oats in the fall. And I should mention that, as the oats were getting started, I sprinkled some shredded leaves between the rows. So the bed had the benefit of growing oats, along with some leaf mulch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">This next picture shows me digging a furrow into the same bed to plant some onion sets earlier this spring...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">What you are seeing in that picture is a soil that is incredibly mellow and easy to dig in. In this case, a picture really doesn't tell the story like I wish it could. Suffice it to say that I have never had a spring-planting soil that was so easy to work in. I simply parted the oat-and-leaf cover and used my Whizbang pocket cultivator to fork a planting furrow under the string line. NEVER have I planted a bed of onions in the spring so easily. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The soil tilth is far, far better than if I had just put a leaf mulch over it for the winter. I think there is a synergistic soil tilth result that comes with this sort of cover-cropping and no till gardening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Here, for comparison, is another bed in my garden that had no cover crop, no mulch, and not even an occultation cover. This picture was taken on the same day as the picture above...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">That barren bed is hard from exposure to rain and snow for the past few months. It needs some rain to get the pretty-much-lifeless soil into shape so the bed can be cultivated for planting. It will require a lot of WORK on my part, as compared to the bed with the oat cover crop.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The lesson here is clear and powerfully compelling. Cover cropping improves and maintains soil structure. It allows for very easy, no till gardening. I am persuaded more than ever that a system of simple cover cropping, along with no till gardening, in manageable minibed "islands", surrounded by an ocean of black plastic mulch, will make for a very successful Minibeds-on-Plastic gardening system. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">But the proof will come with my Minibeds-on-Plastic experimental garden as I commence to plant and tend the beds this first year of the experiment. Stay tuned for that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Before I end this post, here's a picture of my garden taken a couple days ago. It is actually a picture of one of my elderberry bushes that I have bush-planted, as explained (for raspberries) in my <a href="http://whizbanggardening.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: red;">Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners</span></a>. There are strings tied from each elderberry cane to the post.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The onion bed I wrote about above is visible in the background. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I have planted three other beds (including that one with the hard, dead soil) to spring cover crops. One to oats. One to rye. And one to mustard. I am experimenting with each cover crop. I can cut them down and plant into the bed at any time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Also, you can see some minibeds with <a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/new-how-to-make-and-use-solar-pyramids.html"><span style="color: red;">Solar Pyramids</span></a> in the background of the picture (some of the minibeds on the right have not been positioned and staked in place yet).</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-13757945950151269032017-04-26T20:38:00.000-04:002017-04-26T20:38:05.926-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 11)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dateline: 26 April 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">This essay is part of a series about Ralph Borsodi and his book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It</i></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">. </span><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-1.html" style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Click Here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> to go to the beginning of this series.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Conclusion...</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Some Final Thoughts</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Ralph Borsodi was incorrect. The "worst financial disaster in history" did not come to America after he wrote his book, or even in his lifetime. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">But, make no mistake about it, Americans have been hammered by inflation to some degree since Borsodi warned about it. And, as we all know, government debt has soared to levels that can never be repaid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">The hyperinflationary day of reckoning Borsodi predicted may still be ahead of us. And like every hyperinflationary crisis in history, most people will be ill prepared to deal with it.</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-68083278762391573462017-04-21T18:36:00.000-04:002017-04-27T06:40:53.469-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 10)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 21 April 2017</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">This essay is part of a series about Ralph Borsodi and his book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It</i></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">. </span><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-1.html" style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Click Here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> to go to the beginning of this series.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In <a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-advice-for-surviving_20.html">the previous part of this series</a>, Ralph Borsodi urged Americans with money in the bank to withdraw it and convert it into tangible and productive property. In this excerpt, he provides many examples...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">After this part of the book (of which there is more than I have shared with you here), Borsodi discusses the matter of what a family should do with its stocks and bonds in order to avoid their becoming worth less and less as inflation comes. His concedes that in a time of inflation, good quality stocks in companies with a record of profit can pace inflation. However, his advice is best summed up in these excerpts...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">From the subject of stocks and bonds, Borsodi moves into the matter of life insurance. He is not opposed to having life insurance, but he is opposod to purchasing life insurance policies that have "compulsory investment elements" in them. He advises that such policies be cashed out and the money used to purchase productive property (as outlined above). Then, purchase Term life insurance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I'll share Ralph Borsodi's final words of advice from this book in the next part in this series.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-advice-for-surviving_26.html">CLICK HERE</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">To go to Part 11 (the conclusion) </span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-43576804006819985882017-04-20T19:08:00.001-04:002017-04-27T06:39:20.308-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 9)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">This essay is part of a series about Ralph Borsodi and his book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It</i></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">. </span><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-1.html" style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Click Here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> to go to the beginning of this series.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Click on the above pictures to see enlarged views.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">As you can see, Ralph Borsodi was a prepper before prepping was cool. In the next installment he gives suggestions for how to "invest" all that money you take out of the bank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-advice-for-surviving_21.html">CLICK HERE</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">To go to Part 10 of this series</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-62520656330942925542017-04-17T14:22:00.000-04:002017-04-17T14:24:56.551-04:00Futureman Turns Five<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 17 April 2017</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Futureman Meets <a href="http://chickenheaddoorknocker.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: red;">The Chickenhead</span></a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Futureman, our one and only grandchild, has been visiting us for a few days. It was five months ago that he was last here. There is no telling when we'll see him again, so we make the most of it. He turned five this month and we are more cognizant than ever of the "memory machine" that is at work in his mind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">One of the things he wanted to do while here, that he remembers from before, is make carrot juice. So we made carrot juice...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Beyond that, he wanted to ride in my tractor. We did that too. But, better yet, I let him actually drive the tractor in our field, at a low speed, sitting on my lap. He did a surprisingly good job of steering...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In addition to doing familiar things, I decided it was time to start teaching him how to use some tools. A <a href="https://www.lowes.com/pd/HAMMERHEAD-Circuit-Sensor-Lithium-Ion-Li-ion-Cordless-Screwdriver/1000107813"><span style="color: red;">$20 cordless screwdriver from Lowes</span></a> proved to be a worthwhile birthday gift.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I showed Futureman how to use the screwdriver, along with clamps and a coping saw. Making something at this age is not important. Just having a workbench, some wood scraps, and some basic tools is sufficient. I showed him how the tools work and let him occupy himself with them while I worked nearby. I could see a progression of proficiency as he busied himself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">When my boys were little, they occupied themselves at length with the same tools (less the battery-operated screwdriver) and used a LOT of masking tape to assemble wood scraps into various things (mostly guns). I gave Futureman a roll of masking tape, but it didn't entertain him as much as I thought it would.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I also showed my grandson how to use a bench vise. I helped him clamp lengths of fallen tree branches from the woods, and he then cut them short with the coping saw. Then we used them in the woodstove. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Making simple little memories, and learning simple skills will, I do believe, bear fruit in years to come. That is our hope.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Oh, Futureman and I also counted out some <a href="http://pluckerfingers.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: red;">Chicken Plucker Fingers</span></a>, just like old times...</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-64702780856651792482017-04-16T07:59:00.000-04:002017-04-27T06:38:36.542-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 8)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 16 April 2017</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is one of Borsodi's "globe" coins. These, along with paper "constants" were part of an inflation-proof currency he started in the 1970's in Exeter, New Hampshire.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">This essay is part of a series about Ralph Borsodi and his book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It</i></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">. </span><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-1.html" style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Click Here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> to go to the beginning of this series.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">After explaining the importance of land to survive an economic disaster (see <a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-advice-for-surviving_15.html"><span style="color: red;">Part 7</span></a> of this series), Ralph Borsodi presents three more areas of preparation...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Borsodi gives the idea of creating an emergency scrip a couple of pages of explanation in this book, but I don't really understand it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">However, it is interesting to note that in the 1970s, near the end of his life, Ralph Borsodi actually developed a stable medium of exchange known as the "constant." This experiment in local currency was an ambitious effort that met with a surprising degree of success (in my opinion) but came to an end when Borsodi died in 1977 at 91 years of age. <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/13266703/3-09-Ralph-Borsodi-Constant-Currency"><span style="color: red;">CLICK HERE</span></a> if you would like to read an article about Borsodi's debt-free, inflation proof currency.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">That bit of advice is somewhat cryptic. Did Borsodi think that the coming hyperinflation would wipe out the industrial age and bring us back to an agrarian-based mercantile economy? Yes, I think so. Let's move on...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Okay. But really, how do "we" <i>prepare</i> leaders for this coming crisis? I'm sure that we don't do it with the public educational system as it now exists. And I'm sure Ralph Borsodi would agree with that 100%. But this suggestion is kind of abstract and beside the point. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In this next excerpt, Borsodi gets back to reality...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">That right there is a sobering commentary. Borsodi foresaw utter economic collapse, bordering on dystopia. His hope was that he might wake a few people up. His last sentence is epic, and it may be prophetic. It deserves to be repeated...</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">These individual homesteads and enterprises, these groups and communities, may then become islands of security, demonstration centers, and eventually the leaven which will permeate the whole of suffering society with the knowledge of how to lift itself from the chaos into which it's faith in centralization has plunged it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In the next installment of this series I will continue on through this book and provide excerpts of advice from Ralph Borsodi about "what a family should do NOW with it's savings and bank deposits." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-advice-for-surviving_20.html">CLICK HERE</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">To go to Part 9 of this series.</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-6101430974941555252017-04-15T08:39:00.001-04:002017-04-27T06:37:42.737-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 7)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 15 April 2017</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzeZ7GVb5i0ZaGpm19TXYe9jk1vN_W4_7wrN5Fn6jTOMDkQPDzwPZ4H8UZwstBKFQoT9e_6JYYeTx3otUSmedyouxFWXUev9AzXYrpTTw_piDF1nPzGAD5-_v247646hT9B9k2SMpeeiE/s1600/Homestead+Plan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzeZ7GVb5i0ZaGpm19TXYe9jk1vN_W4_7wrN5Fn6jTOMDkQPDzwPZ4H8UZwstBKFQoT9e_6JYYeTx3otUSmedyouxFWXUev9AzXYrpTTw_piDF1nPzGAD5-_v247646hT9B9k2SMpeeiE/s640/Homestead+Plan.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/self-reliance/self-sufficient-homestead-zm0z11zkon?slideshow=2">Photo Link</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />This essay is part of a series about Ralph Borsodi and his book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It</i></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">. </span><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-1.html" style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Click Here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> to go to the beginning of this series.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">As noted in a previous part of this series, Ralph Borsodi felt that land should be accessible to all people. He saw the private ownership of land, especially by speculators and corporations, as a bad thing. This is evidenced by his mention above of a "God-given right of access to land" as being one of the rights of man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Do all people have a God-given right to access of land? That's a new way of thinking to me. I'm not sure I agree with it. But I'm not firmly opposed to the concept as Borsodi presented it. It wasn't a socialist vision he had, because he believed that people had a right to ownership of what they built and created on the land. He just wanted to make land, and the security and freedom that can come with land, more accessible to the masses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">What we have in America today, with the government supporting so many people with so many giveaways is socialism. And we are becoming more socialist all the time. Socialism never ends well for the masses — especially those who rely most on the government for their sustenance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">If I understand correctly, Borsodi wanted government to restructure land ownership to a more equitable system of land tenancy. In so doing, all the citizenry would have access to land on which they could live less dependent and more self-reliant lives. Then, all the government social support programs could be eliminated. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">If properly utilized, land will support families and communities, much more securely (and with an amazing measure of sustainably) than any basket of government giveaways. All people would have the means (land) to support themselves. Responsibility for their support would be transferred from government back to the people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">But this is all theoretical and not likely to happen. It's just not the nature of governments to simplify and downsize. And precious few citizens value self reliance. It's a whole lot easier to vote people into office who will give them more things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">That being the case, those who see the folly of reliance on Big Government (and the eventual collapse of such a system) need to get themselves onto a section of land that can be made productive. That is step one. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">You can't live a self reliant lifestyle without land. Your chances of surviving any kind of serious economic disaster are significantly diminished without land. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-advice-for-surviving_16.html">CLICK HERE</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">To go to Part 8 of this series.</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-26990137219515589432017-04-14T14:34:00.002-04:002017-04-27T06:36:51.773-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 6)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 14 April 2017</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ralph Borsodi in his elder years.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">This essay is part of a series about Ralph Borsodi and his book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It</i></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">. </span><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-1.html" style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Click Here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> to go to the beginning of this series.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Those words are, in my opinion, spot on and profoundly wise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-advice-for-surviving_15.html">CLICK HERE</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">To go to Part 7 of this series.</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-44143063616573613472017-04-13T14:12:00.001-04:002017-04-27T06:35:52.641-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 5)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 13 April 2017</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">An illustration from, "Inflation is Coming And What You Can Do About It."</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">This essay is part of a series about Ralph Borsodi and his book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It</i></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">. </span><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-1.html" style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Click Here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> to go to the beginning of this series.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In previous parts of this series I have introduced you to the economist, Ralph Borsodi, and his book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It</i>. I've also spent some time expanding on Borsodi's vision of creating a network of small, intentional, communities of homesteading households on the land. Borsodi saw life in small communities as a "normal" way of life, as opposed to people living in cities, which was part of the industrialized "Ugly Civilization." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The first half of this book is about government debt and inflation. Borsodi attempts to bring the subject down to terms that would be understandable to the layman, using historical example and recent (first half of the 19th century) history. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The bottom line is that inflation is caused by government overspending. Borsodi likens the ever-expanding debt, and the inflation that is created by irresponsible government debt to an enormous dam. He says the dam will eventually break, and wipe out all those people who live downstream. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Borsodi says that government can not and will not ever fix the problem. He asserts that people should not assume or depend on the government to be able to fix the problem it has created. Rather, those people who live in the path of the flood waters should get themselves and their families to higher ground.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The funny thing about Borsodi's debt numbers and the danger they presented is that they are so incredibly low compared to our day. For example, he notes that America in 1941 had <i>"a national debt of the staggering sum of $367.68 for each man, woman and child in the United States."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">That is, of course, laughable when you consider that our current American debt burden is something around $200,000 for every man, woman and child. The debt dam has had some significant inflation leaks since Borsodi's book, but the dam hasn't broken.... yet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Borsodi's book was written in 1945. The inflation rate in the US that year was 2.3%. In 1946 it jumped to 8.3%. Then in 1947 it spiked to 14.4% before dropping. Then, in the 1970s, inflation spiked up again. This chart shows the yearly inflation from 1968 to 1992. The yearly averages are the numbers down the column on the far right of the chart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Those yearly numbers represent the percentage of systematic theft of hard-earned and sacrificially saved money from millions of Americans by government economic mismanagement. When compounded over the years, the theft is staggering. It's immoral. It is criminal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">But, as I noted, Borsodi's inflation dam has not yet broken. America has so far managed to avoid hyperinflation and the subsequent total-destruction of our paper money. We have most certainly experienced destruction in purchasing power, but not total destruction of the currency. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Many people postulate that the American dollar has managed to survive only because of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944 that made the American dollar the world's reserve currency. That special privilege has enabled us to continue to expand our debt to an astounding amount. But there are worldwide rumblings of discontent with the American dollar. It was a stable currency (backed by a stable and prosperous American industrial economy) back in the day. That is, however, no longer the case.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">At this point, everyone is wondering how long this sort of debt bubble can continue. Can it go on perpetually? Will there ever be a harsh day of reckoning? Will that reckoning be hyperinflationary? Or will it be deflationary?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Well, we may find out soon enough. Or, maybe the bubble will expand for a few more decades. No one really knows. Borsodi was a smart man. He was right about inflation, but not the timing of the end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">What I've just written is all I'm going to say about the subject of inflation from Borsodi's book. In the rest of this series I will share with you some of the specific things that Ralph Borsodi recommended for Americans who could see that the inflation dam was eventually going to break, and who wanted to save themselves from the worst financial disaster in history.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">What Borsodi recommended back in the late 1940's was pertinent then and it is pertinent now. I dare say, it is probably much more pertinent now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-advice-for-surviving_14.html">CLICK HERE</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">To go to Part 6 of this series</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-51875200008181434722017-04-12T05:50:00.000-04:002017-04-27T06:34:49.353-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 4)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 11 April 2017</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">This essay is part of a series about Ralph Borsodi and his book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It</i></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">. </span><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-1.html" style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Click Here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> to go to the beginning of this series.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large; text-align: left;">Before I delve more into Ralph Borsodi's book about inflation and how to prepare for it, I want to further introduce some of Borsodi's accomplishments and ideas. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">As explained in the previous essay, Ralph Borsodi was a man who put many of his ideas into effect, and one such idea was that of establishing small communities.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The most famous of these communities was known as the School of Living in Suffern, New York, which Borsodi established in 1934. "Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It" was published by the School of Living. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">My internet searching on "The School of Living" turned up a blog titled <i>New School of Living</i>. If you would like to learn more about Ralph Borsodi and his life, I don't think you will find a better biography than has been written by Bill Sharp at that blog. These three essays in particular are loaded with details and insights...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://newschoolofliving.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-life-of-ralph-borsodi-unsung.html#comment-form">The Life of Ralph Borsodi: Unsung American Back-to-the-Land Pioneer</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://newschoolofliving.blogspot.com/2013/07/ralph-borsodi-and-school-of-living.html">Ralph Borsodi and The School of Living</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://newschoolofliving.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-school-of-living-and-community.html">The School of Living And The Community</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">One of the things I like about Ralph Borsodi's philosophy was his view of education. Borsodi wrote a book on the subject of education and I think I would like to read it someday. This excerpt from the second article linked above gives some perspective...</span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">"The two volumes of Education and Living are split between a detailed critique of “mis-education,” and a new model of “right” education. “Mis-education” is merely indoctrination. It feeds tyranny. He was critical of Dewey’s progressive education and the centralization of education. He strongly disagreed with the school taking over many of the social functions of the family."</span></span></blockquote>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">From what I understand, the Borsodi children were homeschooled. This was back in the 1920s. Borsodi's School of Living evolved from the homeschooling of his children.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Now, having explained that, I would like to also say that Borsodi's concept of a school being the center of a small intentional community kind of bothers me. What about the spiritual dimension? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">All educational systems and programs are built on a presuppositional worldview. These presuppositions are faith based. Where did we come from? Does God exist? Who is God?How did the world come into being? Why are we here? What is reality? Where will we go when we die? How do we define what is good (and bad)? The answers to these questions actually have a lot to do with the direction of education. Thus, all education has a spiritual dimension.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The traditional model communities of New England and Europe that Borsodi wanted to emulate with his communities were not united by secular schooling, but by a Christian church. The people shared common religious beliefs and traditions, including, by the way, numerous festivals through the year (Borsodi was a big advocate of bringing back festival traditions in communities).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">On the one hand, I can understand why Borsodi would NOT want a church to be the central community institution. In American culture, churches are often, sad to say, divisive institutions as much as they are uniting. The problem being, minor doctrinal divisions, religious pride, and unbridled human nature. A nation of so many church-hoppers would likely translate to a lot of failed communities if they are built around a church instead of a school.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">So there is a conundrum in this for me. Although I would like to see a church as the central institution of any intentional community I was part of, I can see the danger of such a thing. I should point out that Borsodi envisioned that churches would be part of his community ideal (just not the central institution). But I don't know if they ever actually were.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Moving on...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Here's an interesting excerpt from Ralph Borsodi's writing, as provided by Bill Sharp in his Borsodi essay...</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">“The three most important occupations in my considered view are neither governing nor engineering, as most men believe today, nor business and money-making, as most men believed yesterday. The most important occupations are educating, homemaking and farming; the first because it is the educators of mankind who either humanize or fail to humanize both man and society; the second, because it creates the environment in which the young are either rightly or wrongly prepared for living like normal human beings, and the third because it [encourages] collaboration with Mother nature, for man’s co-operation with the living soil, the living plants, and the living animals of the Earth.” </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Now, I like those sentiments. But I am always suspicious of people who put emphasis on <i>Mother</i> nature. Perhaps I'm being too semantic with this, but you will never hear me use the term, "Mother earth" or Mother nature." I'm not about to attribute one iota of the glory of God's created order to an entity known as "Mother nature." But that's just little old opinionated me, and</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"> I digress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Suffice it to say that I think Ralph Borsodi was onto something important with his vision for creating intentional homesteading communities. And </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I'm pleased to report that Borsodi's writings and ideas about community live on at the </span><a href="http://www.schoolofliving.org/" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">School of Living</span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"> web site.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">One last thing about intentional communities and Borsodi's School of Living... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">At some point in Borsodi's history, he handed the reins of the School of Living over to Mildred J. Loomis. Mrs. Loomis was probably the most avid acolyte that Ralph Borsodi ever had. She was up in years when the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s blossomed, but she was part of an old remnant (along with Scott & Helen Nearing). And she was an anarchist!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Now, if your image of an anarchist is a window-breaking, bomb-throwing Marxist, you're going to be utterly confused by Mildred J. Loomis. She was a dear old lady.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">It turns out that there is a peaceful branch in the anarchist tree. There are even <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_anarchism"><span style="color: red;">Christian anarchists</span></a>!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Here is an introduction to Mildred Loomis...</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-advice-for-surviving_13.html">CLICK HERE</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">To go to Part 5 of this series.</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-37100378693340709942017-04-11T07:36:00.000-04:002017-04-27T06:33:45.678-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 3)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 10 April 2017</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ralph Borsodi (1955)<br /><a href="https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/56971">Photo Link</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">This essay is part of a series about Ralph Borsodi and his book, "Inflation is Coming And What to Do About It</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">." </span><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-1.html" style="font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Click Here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> to go to the beginning of this series.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Who Is Ralph Bordsodi?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Ralph Borsodi was not only a brilliant self-educated economist who warned of the Great Depression, he was a visionary who put his economic and social ideas into practice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">One of Borsodi's passions (closely tied to economics and inflation) was creating intentional communities of like-minded people on land where they could live a lifestyle of self-reliance. The land was held by a non-profit corporation. People leased their section of land but owned (and could sell) their homes and places of business that were on the land. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Ralph Borsodi's experiments in creating such communities were an important part of the evolution of what are now called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_land_trust">community land trusts</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">But I think that some of what passes as a community land trust these days is not what Borsodi had in mind. His vision was not so much to preserve land from development, but to create genuine communities of people who shared a common, land-based lifestyle and ethic. They were not communes. They were communities. There is a big difference.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">It is worth understanding more about Borsodi's thinking when it came to these communities, and he provided some foundational insights in his 1974 <i>Mother Earth News</i> interview. Here are a few pertinent questions and answers from that interview...</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Question:</b> I think I should point out for our readers that when you speak of "homesteading," you're actually talking about the founding of self-sufficient communities ... rather than splendidly isolated little farms. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Borsodi:</b> Yes. I'm certainly not an advocate of what happened almost only in the United States . . . and almost entirely only in the U.S. Mid and Far West. When that part of our country was settled, see, it was done under the original Homestead Act. This legislation allowed you to locate on 160 acres — a quarter section of land — and gain title to the property merely by sticking it out and living there for four years. So what this did, of course, was to sprinkle our West with literally millions of people living on isolated homesteads. And back in those days, when you only had horses with which to travel, you might not see your neighbors for days. You went to town probably once a week if you went that often. Now this kind of living is just as unnatural as packing people like sardines into the boxes of New York City. Man is a gregarious animal. He's not supposed to live in isolation. He should actually live in a community, but a community does not necessarily have to be a city. There's all the evidence in the world that the building of cities is one of the worst mistakes that mankind has ever made: For both physical and mental health we've got to be close to Mother Earth.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Question:</b> So where does that leave us? </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Borsodi:</b> The normal way to live — and I've discussed this endlessly in my books — is in a community of what I call "optimum size." Not too large and not too small. A place where, when you walk down the road, everyone says, "Good morning" . . . because everyone knows you.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Question:</b> And that's the kind of community you decided to establish after you left Dayton? </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Borsodi:</b> Yes, and I immediately saw that the center of such a community should be a school where everyone — not just the children — could study the most enormously important subject of all — the philosophy of living. I think that philosophy, as it's taught in the academic world, is a completely meaningless discipline. Philosophy as a way of living, on the other hand, is just enormously important. Abraham Lincoln once said that the future of America depends upon teaching people how to make a good living from a small piece of land. Now this is the technology we must study . . . how to make a good living — not just a Spartan existence, but a good living — on a small piece of land.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Question:</b> I suppose you began your new community, then, with one of these schools? </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Borsodi:</b> Yes. I established a School of Living back in Rockland County, N.Y., during the winter of 1934 to '35. Before long about 20 families began coming out regularly from New York City to spend the weekends at this school. How they scraped up the money to get there I don't know. It was the middle of the depression, you see, and some of these people didn't have any source of income. I remember when we got ready to commence building our first community. I told them, "I'll begin if there are enough of you who will put up a little money with which to start." Do you know how much those 20 families could raise? Two hundred dollars. The whole batch of them. They laid the money on the table and I gave them receipts for it and that's all there was. It was up to me to go out and find a way to buy the land we needed.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Answer:</b> I very carefully divide the possessions of mankind into two categories: one I call "property" and the other "trusterty". Now property, by definition, is anything which can be owned . . . legally owned. But you know there are some things that can be legally — but not morally — owned. For instance, slaves used to be legally owned. The statutes of our states and the Constitution of the United States made it legal to own human beings . . . but no amount of legalizing made it moral. I feel the same way about the natural resources of the earth. When you make something with your own labor you have, so to speak, frozen your labor into that thing. This is the way in which you create a moral title to that thing, by producing it. You can sell it to somebody else and, in return for what he pays you, you can give him your moral title to whatever it is. But no man created the earth or its natural resources. And no man or government has a moral title to the earth's ownership. If it is to be used, and we have to use it in order to live, then it has to be treated as a trust. We have to hold the earth in trust. We can enjoy the fruit of the land or of a natural resource, but the land or the resource itself must be treated as a gift. A man who uses the land is a trustee of that land and he must take care of it so that future generations will find it just as good, just as rich, as when he took possession of it. A trustee is entitled to a return for administering his trust . . . but he must never destroy the trust itself. The moment you lay down this simple moral principle, of course, you make ducks and drakes of our existing method of treating the natural resources of the earth. The history of America is just one gigantic land exploitation . . . and very few people realize that this creates exactly the conditions which make individuals — in desperation — turn to socialism and communism. So long as land is available as the ultimate resource to which you can turn to support yourself, nobody can exploit you. It's only when all the land is expropriated by speculators or by people who are living on it that it's impossible to turn to the earth as the ultimate source of employment. Not everyone has to be a farmer, of course, but so long as land is available to those who want to work it we'll have none of the desperate unemployment that finally led Marx to propose communism as the solution to the problems that capitalism has created.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Question:</b> But we've never done that in this country. As a matter of fact, few — if any — cultures have.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Borsodi:</b> Well, let me put it this way: The only worthwhile histories that have ever been written have been histories of civilizations. Histories of single nations are what Napoleon called a "lie agreed upon." National histories just aggrandize the story of a country. Histories of civilizations, though, are something different. Toynbee, you know, has written an account of 21 civilizations . . . and the interesting point about them is that every one of them died. As Toynbee explained it — and he does in historical terms — they were challenged by some problem, some crisis. Toynbee called these confrontations "times of troubles" . . . and if the civilization wasn't equal to the challenge, the whole thing simply collapsed. Now this is what we face. Have you ever heard of Spengler and his big book, The Decline of the West? Well it made a tremendous sensation when it appeared, because he predicted exactly what is taking place today. Spengler's thesis is that what every civilization seems to do is to pile up all the wealth and all the health in big cities . . . where they finally decay. And then there's a collapse and an overwhelming population decline and the people who are left are forced back to the land. Now it seems tragic to me that we do not listen to men like Toynbee and Spengler. They've shown us what can happen. We now know . . . and, instead of waiting for a crash to drive us to a better way of living, we should use all the wits we've got — all the technology we've got — to develop that sort of living before the coming collapse takes place.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">One quote from Borsodi's comments stands out to me: <span style="color: #660000;">"</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="color: #660000;">So long as land is available as the ultimate resource to which you can turn to support yourself, nobody can exploit you."</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">That right there is part of the reason Thomas Jefferson advocated (after America's independence from Great Britan) that this country reject the European industrial model and embrace the wisdom of maintaining an agrarian Republic, as I explain in my essay titled, <a href="http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2009/03/vv.html"><span style="color: red;">The Jeffersonian Solution</span></a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Well, that's enough of Ralph Borsodi's decentralist and agrarian philosophy to chew on for now. In my next installment of this series, I'll tell you more about the </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">School of Living</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"> community and introduce you to one of Ralph Borsodi's most devoted students... a decentralist anarchist by the name of Mildred Loomis.</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-20019035388563835302017-04-09T10:14:00.000-04:002017-04-27T06:32:44.043-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 9 April 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In<a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-1.html"> <span style="color: red;">Part 1 of this series</span></a> I introduced you to Ralph Borsodi and his 1948 book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What To Do About it</i>. My plan is to provide a series of scanned excerpts from the book, like you can see above. If needed, you can see a larger view of the scanned image by clicking on it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I will also follow a few rabbit trails along the way. Here is another excerpt of significance from the beginning of Borsodi's book...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In the next installment of this series I will show the short excerpt from the book titled, <i>Who Is Ralph Borsodi</i>. I will then expand on that subject by revealing some of Borsodi's contra-industrial beliefs and contra-industrial accomplishments. He was, in my opinion, a keen observer of history and industrial civilization. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">As noted in Part 1 of this series, I was first introduced to Borsodi back in the 1974 <i>Mother Earth News</i> interview he gave (when he was 88 years old, and I was 16). His thinking resonated with me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Then, years later (the late 1990s), when I read <a href="http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2009/03/christian-agrarian-writings-of-howard.html"><span style="color: red;">Howard Douglas King</span></a>'s series of Christian-agrarian essays in <i>Patriarch Magazine</i>, I was re-introduced to Ralph Borsodi. Those <i>Patriarch</i> articles <i>really </i>resonated with me. As I've written in the past, King's essays on Christian agrarianism served to help me refocus my thinking and lifestyle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In fact, I dare say it was first Borsodi and then Howard King who influenced my contra-industrial worldview and eventually led me to start my long-running blog, <a href="http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: red;">The Deliberate Agrarian</span></a>, which was a celebration of Christian-agrarian life and thought.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In Howard King's essay titled <a href="http://www.anemergentagrarian.com/patriarch/2007/03/machines-and-families.html"><span style="color: red;">Machines And Families</span></a> he wrote the following...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">"To date, no work has appeared (to this author's knowledge) which provides an adequate defense of Christian Agrarianism. Until this occurs, I know of no better critique of industrialism available than <i>This Ugly Civilization</i>, by Ralph Borsodi. Published in 1929, just before the Great Depression, this book clearly pointed to some of the problems which created the greatest economic downturn in our history. It is a wide-ranging, thorough-going and utterly damning critique of the causes, nature and ultimate results of industrialism."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In retrospect, I see my journey of thought and conviction regarding the wisdom of Christian-agrarianism as a divine orchestration of events.</span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-3.html">CLICK HERE</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">To go to Part 3 of this series</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-30122326922098423682017-04-08T08:28:00.006-04:002017-04-11T07:56:36.074-04:00Ralph Borsodi's AdviceFor Surviving Economic Disaster(Part 1)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 8 April 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I received an order a few years back for <a href="http://whizbangplucker.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: red;">chicken plucker parts</span></a> from a man with the last name of Borsodi. It's not a common name, but it's a familiar name to me because I've read the classic 1928 book, <a href="http://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/0303critic/030302borsodi.ugly/030302borsodi.ch1.html"><span style="color: red;">This Ugly Civilization</span></a>, by Ralph Borsodi. Prior to that, way back in 1974, I had read <a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/Homesteading-and-Livestock/Dr-Ralph-Borsodi"><span style="color: red;">the Plowboy Interview with Ralph Borsodi in Mother Earth News magazine</span></a>. And, more recently, I had read about Borsodi in Allan C. Carlson's fine book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-Agrarian-Mind-Decentralist-Twentieth-Century/dp/0765805901/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491648816&sr=8-1&keywords=the+new+agrarian+mind"><span style="color: red;">The New Agrarian Mind</span></a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Borsodi was a relatively famous economist and big thinker in his day, but in a decidedly contrarian way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">So, I asked the man who bought the plucker parts if he was related to Ralph Borsodi. Come to find out, he was. Ralph was the man's grandfather.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">As I recollect from the e-mail exchange, the grandson was recently retired from a career in academia. He was not optomistic about the economic future of America, and he was taking steps to be more self reliant. Thus, the chicken plucker.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Perhaps economic pessimism is a genetic disposition in the Borsodi line. Or, more likely, the grandson had read his grandfather's writings and realized the wisdom therein. (I hope my grandchildren will one day read my writings and find value and direction in them.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Mr. Borsodi, the younger, had only a couple of early memories of his famous grandfather, but they were not warm or special memories. I got the impression that the elder Borsodi was a cold codger, more focused on saving the world (so to speak) than he was on being a grandfather to his grandson. That is a sad testimony.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">If you read about Ralph Borsodi's life and his "philosophical" beliefs, you will find that he was a bit of a socialist in his thinking. Socialism was fashionable among many of the thinkers of Ralph's era. They were appalled at the social destruction wrought by industrial capitalism and the self-serving oligarchical plutocracy that dominates in such a system. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">It has been my observation that socialists in general are adept at identifying societal problems, but not at recommending valid and workable solutions to those problems. Their problem being, that they desire more centralized government control over private property and the economy in an effort to alleviate human suffering. Thinking people these days realize full well that more government control <i>always</i> results in less personal freedom and greater human suffering. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">But here's the odd thing about Ralph Borsodi... While he was sympathetic to some socialist thinking, he was a staunch <i>decentralist</i>, and that is most certainly NOT a socialist thing. That's what you call a paradox. It may have been that Borsodi was more of an anarchist. Maybe it would be best to just say the man was a Decentralist, and leave it at that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">What I like most about Ralph Borsodi is his decentralist <i>solutions</i>. The man offered genuine solutions to the problems of industrialism. And they were agrarian slutions. It so happens that decentralism is fundamental to the agrarian ideal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Ralph Borsodi's personal and public philosophy borrowed a little from Christianity, but it was not Christian, at least not in a true Biblical sense. He was, at root, a humanist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Nevertheless, Ralph Borsodi had more than a fair share of good, down-to-earth sensibility, as you'll see in this series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Specifically, I'm going to share with you from his self-published book, <i>Inflation is Coming And What To Do About It</i>. The cover of the rare and pretty-much-forgotten book is pictured at the top of this blog post.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I paid a generous sum for the book a couple years ago and I have been intending to share excerpts from it with you, my faithful blog readers. Some of you may recall my 6-part blog series from 2013 titled <a href="http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-get-through-coming_19.html"><span style="color: red;">How To Get Through The Coming Hyperinflation</span></a>. If you haven't yet read it, I recommend it to you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">There is an uptick in chatter and concern about inflation these days. As a small business owner I can tell you that I am seeing inflation. No doubt about it. The cost of materials that I regularly purchase are all going up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">As I've noted in my past writings, inflation is an insidious form of theft. Hyperinflation is beyond theft— it is the wholesale destruction of wealth. Or, I should say, it is the destruction of <i>paper</i> wealth. Which is to say, wealth that is in dollars, or dollar-denominated assets, as opposed to wealth that is put into tangible personal property (a.k.a., <i>things</i>) and personal skills.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Borsodi's <i>Inflation is Coming</i> book was first published in December of 1945. My copy is a 5th printing from March of 1948.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I should make it clear right from the start that Ralph Borsodi predicted the Great Depression before the Great Depression actually hit America. And his prediction about inflation coming in this book (that I'll be sharing with you) was spot on. <i>However,</i> the degree of inflation he expected did NOT happen. The post WW2 years were not, as he warned, <i>"The Worst Financial Disaster in Hisotry!"</i> Not by a long shot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">So, it turns out that Ralph was more wrong than right in his prediction. That is so often the case with those who espouse dire economic prognostications. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">But sometimes these people are correct. After all, we know from the historical record that no paper-based economic system has ever lasted. They have all eventually crashed and burned. And <i>most</i> of those people who have had to live through the crash-and-burn phase have suffered horribly. The current hyperinflation in Venezueula is but one example. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I respect the lessons that history clearly teaches us about fiat (paper) money systems. So, frankly, I have confirmation bias when it comes to Ralph Borsodi's old book. Even though he was specifically wrong, I still think he was fundamentally right. He was only wrong about the timing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">What I especially like about Borsodi's book is his practical advice for dealing with the storm of inflation he saw coming. Even if hyperinflation does not come, Ralph's advice is pretty much still economically sound.</span><br />
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<a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/04/ralph-borsodis-inflation-primer-part-2.html" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">CLICK HERE</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">to got to Part 2 of this series</span></div>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-38404752500579833432017-04-06T13:11:00.001-04:002017-04-06T13:16:20.264-04:00Out With The Old,In With The New<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 6 April 2017</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0K-swSRjwT8sbbDqidWEzTI9EMh4Mt2DUzINfTZeLRAM_kCqCw6mM8zTFwrJaAhvqsJN9aTsw0J2Giod4bTWgkYoNUawOKTUhBAtFBFcHseOh1MIDG5OFaX3quYUOLo-jTxOWB6EqCBQ/s1600/IMG_3191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0K-swSRjwT8sbbDqidWEzTI9EMh4Mt2DUzINfTZeLRAM_kCqCw6mM8zTFwrJaAhvqsJN9aTsw0J2Giod4bTWgkYoNUawOKTUhBAtFBFcHseOh1MIDG5OFaX3quYUOLo-jTxOWB6EqCBQ/s640/IMG_3191.jpg" width="604" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I bought that stove 32 years ago. Got it second hand. I think I paid $400 for it. It looked a lot better when I first bought it. The stove is a Vermont Castings, Vigilant. Back then, the parts were actually cast at the factory in Vermont.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">That relic of a woodstove has heated our home for decades. We never had a breakdown; never had to call a service technician for repair. We just loaded it with wood and it kept us warm. Well, it kept us warm enough. If you've relied on a woodstove in snow country as your only source of home heat, you know that it can get cold at times. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Mornings are especially cold, until someone (whoever gets up first) gets the fire going and gives it some time. And we've found that when it gets below 20° here, with a stiff south wind, that stove never got the house warm enough for comfort. When that was the case, we would go to our backup heating source.... sweaters and sweatshirts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">After <a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/02/found-our-retirement-home-in-town.html"><span style="color: red;">our recent foray into buying a house in town</span></a>, Marlene and I have come to the conclusion that we'll stay right here in Upland. I'm in the process of getting our house siding finished, as this recent picture shows...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYgIbBf1lPVFB3NuW8AJFR0HXlqTPkGa_3EMI6zmft4LIqgCy5CEZhDvmWKxdPdI9VD3ioFydCqqLefq-fnqH5FL9gB7J1MtkLT1NcJR9muX5U2k8TTJhf15Iq8g5CfSPqmhIy3aZBnhY/s1600/IMG_3033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYgIbBf1lPVFB3NuW8AJFR0HXlqTPkGa_3EMI6zmft4LIqgCy5CEZhDvmWKxdPdI9VD3ioFydCqqLefq-fnqH5FL9gB7J1MtkLT1NcJR9muX5U2k8TTJhf15Iq8g5CfSPqmhIy3aZBnhY/s640/IMG_3033.jpg" width="546" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Later this year, or next, we hope to put an addition on the west end of the house. It will give us a first floor bedroom and bathroom and some added living room with a southern exposure. We are thinking of accessibility in our older years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The addition will have a propane-fueled stove to heat the house. That will allow us to leave the house unattended in the winter months. We don't have that luxury now. When my <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2006/02/what-my-grandmother-did-for-me.html"><span style="color: red;">Grandmother Kimball</span></a> </span>died in February of 2005, and we went to Maine for the funeral, we had a friend live in our house while we were gone. Someone had to keep the woodstove going.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">When I was growing up, my parents heated their old farmhouse with <i>two</i> woodstoves. Years later, as they were getting up in age, they still had only the two wood stoves for heat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">One cold winter day I got a call from my stepfather. He and my mother were sick with the flu. They were so sick in bed that they could not get up the strength to tend the woodstoves. In a weak voice, my dad asked me if I would come to the house and get the stoves going.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I had no idea they were sick. They lived only three miles away. I was there within five minutes of hanging up the phone. The house was really cold when I walked in the door. No fire at all in the stoves. Not even any hot coals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">After that experience, my stepfather had a propane furnace installed in the basement. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">We don't have much of a basement here. But a propane-fired stove in the addition will keep the house warm. That's our plan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">For now, and for the foreseeable future, we are still able and willing to continue using a woodstove as our source of heat. But I've been thinking that we should get a new woodstove for the past couple of years. I tend to think on things for awhile before I actually do them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Fortunately, I know Bob Rozonni, owner of <a href="http://www.holysmokesfc.com/info.htm"><span style="color: red;">Holy Smoke</span></a> in Dryden, NY. I haven't seen Bob in years but we have a sort of kinship because went through the Y2k buildup together. We were part of a close-knit group of people who met regularly and took the matter very seriously. We helped each other learn new skills and acquire supplies to be better prepared for the collapse of modern civilization.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Bob has been in the woodstove business for forty years. He knows woodstoves. I knew that he would steer me into the best woodstove for my situation. Simply stated, I trust Bob.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">So Marlene and I made an appointment to visit Bob and check out his woodstove showroom. Bob's showroom is by his home, way out on a lonely country road. He sees customers only by appointment. When you have a good reputation, you can run a business like that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I had done some internet research on woodstoves. I was thinking that I wanted to get a soapstone stove. Price was less of a factor than performance, and I was persuaded that a soapstone woodstove would offer the performance we needed. Besides that, I liked how they look.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Bob had soapstone stoves in his showroom but he discouraged me from getting one. He told me that a <a href="https://www.regency-fire.com/Products/Wood/Wood-Stoves"><span style="color: red;">Regency</span></a> stove would be far better for my home. He knew we heated only with wood and that I wanted a stove that would dependably last for at least 30 years. We looked at the other stoves he had, but Bob kept bringing us back to the display Regency, which had a fire in it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I said I liked the idea of the soapstone soaking up heat from the fire and releasing the heat slowly when the fire cooled down. He told me that I could put soapstone slabs on top of the Regency to achieve the same effect. I could even put soapstone in place of the firebrick inside the Regency stove.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Bob sold us on the benefits and practicality of the Regency. He has one in his own home. Both of his installers have the Regency in their homes. There are more attractive wood stoves, but Bob assured me that the Regency is a remarkably good stove.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">So we bought one. Bob and his crew installed it a couple weeks ago. They hauled the old Vermont Castings out and put it on the dock of my shop. I've given it to one of my sons, to use, or sell, or give away. It still has some value. I understand there are people who disassemble and clean up and restore old Vermont Castings stoves. Bob says it's not worth the trouble. The newer stoves are better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">After it was installed in place of my old stove, the new Regency stove didn't look too bad. It actually fit the corner hearth better than the Vermont Castings. One of Bob's installers told me that I would find the Regency to be a far better stove that what I had. He said it was like a Ferrari compared to a Volkswagen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Here's a picture of the Regency in our living room...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfR2yE3ktMK3RabDYjyKbAGiwXzrzEjkyR7vuvtukHmTCTG2Yv2h_MZTBGVvpNdCQuZ5VeYJ41R5yhTYz0Zsq28loJp4a2R-yBsyxAyHjHGnEQi-P4y0lTwiqAxFUTUt-Ko3OjrZpF3M4/s1600/IMG_3190.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfR2yE3ktMK3RabDYjyKbAGiwXzrzEjkyR7vuvtukHmTCTG2Yv2h_MZTBGVvpNdCQuZ5VeYJ41R5yhTYz0Zsq28loJp4a2R-yBsyxAyHjHGnEQi-P4y0lTwiqAxFUTUt-Ko3OjrZpF3M4/s640/IMG_3190.jpg" width="605" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The fake z-brick on the wall is kind of dated. I plan to replace it with <br />ceramic tile someday. There is a 1" air space behind the facade. <br />My brick hearth has held up very well over the years.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">If you look closely, you will notice there is a slab of soapstone on the front surface of the stove. Another slab will fit on the back surface, around the stovepipe (I'm waiting for it to arrive). So, I actually do have a soapstone woodstove, sort of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Bob told me that once I realize how nice this new stove is, I'll wish I had gotten it years ago. He was exactly right about that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">It is now easier to start the fire. It is easier to control the fire. It's easier to load the wood in. The wood burns more completely. There is no smoke in the house when the door is opened. There is an ash bin underneath. And it </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">really pumps out the heat</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I never would have believed a wood stove could work as nicely as this new stove does. It is an absolute joy to use. Our old woodstove truly was like a Volkswagen compared to this Ferrari. I'm almost looking forward to next winter now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The only thing this new stove lacks is a more traditional look. But in the final analysis, I'll take function over form any day.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoOSVz_ve0W0zcqF75nuEnumuTn-Jje5Dl40PyRpc1r9h07QXVradKWv8Bm5L28AzXyBt7UPJXFVVV8SwZgCGZvJIO8reU1DB2V6C-4VcbyLPQ0Bdooyn3wPB0MV75GyND_bns_diOQvY/s1600/IMG_3198.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoOSVz_ve0W0zcqF75nuEnumuTn-Jje5Dl40PyRpc1r9h07QXVradKWv8Bm5L28AzXyBt7UPJXFVVV8SwZgCGZvJIO8reU1DB2V6C-4VcbyLPQ0Bdooyn3wPB0MV75GyND_bns_diOQvY/s640/IMG_3198.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">And now we get to see the fire too.</span></td></tr>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-54824387980895039292017-04-05T15:43:00.000-04:002017-04-05T15:43:16.317-04:00New...How To Make And UseSolar Pyramids<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 5 April 2017</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoN2xlMC_Ii0P3tUB6aG4xq7fI0ETaR6qTwW29bTw07lI2J-70f5Ys6yuOQ4ySfB6R8iqTLyTmAnSYyl2eMzE_K7ztrlZy7mLxC40VSjd1Q3cNTz0KrpDJY4ZEDFEsCI0vhyphenhyphen-1qarMbRI/s1600/solar+pyramid+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoN2xlMC_Ii0P3tUB6aG4xq7fI0ETaR6qTwW29bTw07lI2J-70f5Ys6yuOQ4ySfB6R8iqTLyTmAnSYyl2eMzE_K7ztrlZy7mLxC40VSjd1Q3cNTz0KrpDJY4ZEDFEsCI0vhyphenhyphen-1qarMbRI/s640/solar+pyramid+cover.jpg" width="486" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">My recent post titled <a href="http://minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2017/03/solar-pyramids-in-minibeds.html"><span style="color: red;">Solar Pyramids In The Minibeds</span></a> generated an astonishing number of views. It must have been mentioned by a popular internet web site. Thank you, whoever you are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">That kind of interest got me to thinking that I should create an inexpensive PDF report all about the solar pyramids. If someone doesn't want to part with the money to buy a copy of my <a href="http://whizbanggardening.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: red;">Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners</span></a> in order to learn all about this amazing gardening appliance, they can just buy the report.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">So that's what I've done. The 11-page report has an introductory page, a couple preliminary pages from the book, and then the 6-page solar pyramid chapter. I tell how I came to invent the solar pyramid and how you can make and use your own solar pyramids. Then, the last two pages of the report have several color pictures of the solar pyramid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I have been using solar pyramids in my garden for the last six years. They are well suited for germinating seeds and jumpstarting transplants. I think they can also be utilized for season extension too, but I have not tried that yet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I am putting the PDF report on sale for the next 4 days. Sale price is only $1.75. After that, the price will go up to $2.50. Here's the order button...</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&cl=222218&i=1535961" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a><br />
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-77532562711698528822017-04-04T21:18:00.000-04:002017-04-04T21:18:22.157-04:00Small Farmer's Journal,And The Decline Of The Periodical<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 4 April 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">My thanks to Pam in Vermont for letting me know about the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/818091909/small-farmers-journal-jump-start?ref=nav_search"><span style="color: red;">Kickstarter campaign to help Small Farmer's Journal</span></a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">It's a great magazine. I have subscribed, off and on, for decades (and I have stacks of back issues to prove it). I have also advertised in <i>Small Farmer's Journal</i>. But I am currently not subscribed, so I was not aware that they had gone through some troubles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Please go to the Kickstarter campaign and check it out. I believe it is a worthy effort to preserve this down-to-earth publication.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">As you probably already know, people are not reading newspapers and magazines like they once did. Me included. I used to be an avid daily newspaper reader, but I let the subscription lapse more than ten years ago. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I don't think that young people read newspapers at all. It's probably just a few old timers who still subscribe. The newspaper business is pretty much doomed. And to think, I once dreamed of operating a small-town newspaper.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Magazines are in the same boat. The magazine business is not what it used to be. Some years back, when I was writing articles for <i>Fine Homebuilding</i> magazine, interacting with various editors, and visiting their headquarters, it was evident to me that the Taunton Press (publisher of that magazine, and several others) was a very prosperous business. The magazines they published were fat with advertising. Taunton had tapped into a vein of publishing gold, and they were skilled at mining it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I was witness to the glory days of magazine publishing, just before the internet changed everything. My Taunton Press book, <i>The Kitchen Consultant</i>, was the first Taunton book to publish web site addresses with the various listings in the Resources chapter at the end of the book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I recall having dinner one evening back around that time with the then-editor Kevin Ireton at the Sherwood Inn in Skaneateles, New York. He had driven up from Connecticut to shoot some pictures for an article I was writing for the magazine. The internet was a topic of discussion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I remember Kevin telling me that Taunton was greatly concerned about the internet's impact. No one really knew what to expect, or how to adapt to the internet and utilize it to make a profit. The problem being, the internet is loaded with information that is pretty much all free.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Well, they were rightly concerned. <i>Fine Homebuilding </i>magazine has managed to survive, but it is no longer fat with advertising. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I had a Uline sales representative stop by my workshop last year. He used to work for a magazine distributor. He told me that the internet has devastated the magazine publishing industry. There was once big money in the magazine business, but not anymore. He confirmed what I had seen for myself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">And to think, back in the day, inspired by the success I saw at Taunton Press, I started a national newsletter called <i>Professional Kitchen Craftsman</i>. I dreamed of developing it into a magazine. That little entrepreneurial effort pretty much shriveled on the vine. It was the biggest business failure of my life. An expensive lesson, in many respects.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I used to subscribe to nearly 10 different magazines. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">But now I subscribe to only three: </span><a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Mother Earth News</span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">, </span><a href="http://www.finehomebuilding.com/issue" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Fine Homebuilding</span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">, and </span><a href="http://www.ligonier.org/tabletalk/" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;"><span style="color: red;">Tabletalk</span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The internet has been, and continues to be, an epic social and economic game changer. How many people saw this coming? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Personally, the internet has allowed me to develop a home business and break free from wage slavery. I see that as a very good thing. And the free flow of ideas and information is also something that I think is good, particularly in the political realm. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">But the heyday of print publishing (especially periodical publishing) appears to be over. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I just hope the electricity stays on.</span><br />
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-5208471772016004802017-03-31T12:18:00.000-04:002017-03-31T12:19:53.616-04:00My Son's First Garden(Part 2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 31 March 2017</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2R-UDcc_hlJnkL1Thh5Jne2fA6wEHcEeoEQDMZDWlTptcGENNA6bYzNvzXkXtgO9RCUf2s4kap1zGE-kKShYLi5mmcFHzk-Qp6lVtDLNV6eOhpihe_kBaFrQJKPUeF7kVyP6BKNNcQLw/s1600/IMG_3140.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2R-UDcc_hlJnkL1Thh5Jne2fA6wEHcEeoEQDMZDWlTptcGENNA6bYzNvzXkXtgO9RCUf2s4kap1zGE-kKShYLi5mmcFHzk-Qp6lVtDLNV6eOhpihe_kBaFrQJKPUeF7kVyP6BKNNcQLw/s640/IMG_3140.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It's a recycled Bella Rosa Wines billboard tarp!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2017/03/my-sons-first-garden.html"><span style="color: red;">Click Here</span></a> to go to Part 1 of this series.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The 14' x 40' billboard tarp arrived yesterday, and there was minimal wind, so Robert and I commenced to get it in place after he got out of work. We had two perimeter sides buried before I thought to take the picture above.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Robert's wife, Danielle, is looking forward to getting some zucchini out of the new garden. She wants to make a zucchini relish that her mother makes. Excellent! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Zucchini (and other summer squashes) will grow great in a minibed-on-plastic. One (maybe two) plants in the center of a minibed will grow to overfill the space very nicely. Maintaining the minibed will be a cinch (a little natural mulch will keep weeding to a minimum), and there will be no encroaching weeds from around the bed to deal with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Zucchini roots will be able to get the moisture they need from capillary subsoil moisture retained under the sea of plastic-cover surrounding the minibed. If there is a drought year and the zucchini plants show any sign of wilting, the bed can be easily deep-watered once a week using the super-simple <a href="https://youtu.be/0tnLF-hh2VI">Whizbang Bucket Irrigation</a> concept I developed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">So, get your mom's recipe, Danielle. This will be the year you make your own zucchini relish!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Here's a picture of the garden area covered with the billboard tarp. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">As you can see, the edges are nicely tucked into the earth all around. Wind will not be able to lift and displace the large sheet of plastic mulch. And Robert will be able to mow around the outside of the garden without shredding the plastic edges. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Now the garden is ready for minibeds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Stay tuned....</span><br />
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-1057875979013124812017-03-29T19:26:00.002-04:002017-03-29T19:26:23.486-04:00My Son's First Garden<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 29 March 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Robert is my middle son. He is 26 years old and works for the town highway department. He lives with his wife, Danielle, in the rural farmhouse where I grew up (from 9th grade on), which is only about 3 miles from where my wife and I now live. That's Robert and me in the picture above.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Robert expressed an interest in having a <a href="http://minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2017/01/introducing-minibeds-on-plastic-new.html"><span style="color: red;">Minibeds-on-Plastic garden</span></a>. I like that. He wants to grow cucumbers (lots of cucumbers), onions, summer squash, sweet potatoes. I suggested lettuce? No lettuce.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Robert told me he was willing to spend around $50 for a piece of <a href="http://minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2017/02/recycled-billboard-tarps-for-minibed-on.html"><span style="color: red;">billboard tarp</span></a> plastic. So I ordered him a 14' x 40' piece of the material. The price was $45. There is an added cost for shipping, which is kind of a bummer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I'm going to see if I can find a billboard company not too far from us and ask if they have used billboard plastic for less... or free. For now, we bought the plastic from the internet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The billboard tarp is not here yet but this afternoon we dug a trench around the perimeter of the garden. You can see the trench in the pictures with this blog post. The trench is 13' x 39'. That will allow 6" of material to be buried around the perimeter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The land where the garden is going is behind Robert's house, on the edge of his field. He has big trees around the house so the garden needed to be out where it can get full sun for most of the day. That's pretty much rule #1 when you put in a garden.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The soil will NOT be cultivated. The plastic will go directly over the field grass and weeds that you see in the picture. After the minibed frames are in place, and the plastic is cut out of each one, I'll show Robert how to use a digging fork to "crack" the earth and loosen the soil. Then, the grass and weeds in the beds will be pulled. Any cultivation after that will be shallow. This will be a no-till garden, just like I explain in my <a href="http://minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2017/01/blank-15.html"><span style="color: red;">Minibeds-on-Plastic Report</span></a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">At this point, I think there will be two rows of 10 minibeds on the plastic. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">20 minibeds is not too small for a first garden. In fact, I think it is just right. 20 Minibeds can be very productive if properly managed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">For now, the objective is to get the plastic in place while the soil is wet and easy to dig. Then Robert can make the minibed frames. He thinks he can round up some used lumber to make the frames. If not, he can make a few at a time as he gets the money. Or, I see no reason why some flat rocks couldn't be used around the minibed openings. There are plenty of rocks around here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I hope to chronicle Robert's progress with his garden, along with the progress of my own experimental Minibeds-on-Plastic garden. And if Everett Littlefield on Block Island can get me some pictures of his Minibeds-on-Plastic garden, I'll post them here too. I welcome pictures and comments from anyone else who wants to try this experimental (for now) gardening idea this year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I should point out that I'm helping my son get his garden infrastructure in place. And I'll help him with the planting. But it will be up to him to take care of his own minibeds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I'm confident that he will not be overwhelmed with this gardening project (as often happens with first-time gardeners and a conventional garden). He's a busy guy but the whole minibeds-on-plastic concept is geared for easy manageability.</span><br />
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-66040831771655758072017-03-27T19:46:00.001-04:002017-03-27T20:00:04.932-04:00Going OverCarpenter's Falls<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 28 March 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">My recent post about <a href="http://uplandgardener.blogspot.com/2017/03/introducing-whizbang-un-bungee-cord.html"><span style="color: red;">Un-Bungee cords</span></a>, and some discussion of knots, brought to my mind one of the more daring things I've ever done in my life (probably second to <a href="http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2008/02/getting-started-finding-my-way-part-6.html"><span style="color: red;">my whitewater canoe trip down the Lamoille River</span></a> in Vermont, which nearly killed me). I'm not much into risk taking but I always had a hankering to do some rappelling, and my opportunity came in the early 1980s.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I was working for Clancy Edmonds, a local contractor, doing carpentry and remodeling. Clancy hired a guy named Dan to help one summer. Dan lived in a nearby city and was a machinist by trade, but had been laid off from his factory job. Dan turned out to be a hard worker and a great guy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">One of the things I recall about Dan was that he rode a Harley Davidson motorcycle to work, and he owned (and often carried) a .357 magnum hand gun. In fact, the first handgun I ever shot was Dan's. And it was Dan who encouraged me to get a handgun permit. He told me that getting a permit in our county was so easy, but someday it would not be so easy. Well, I did get the permit, at Dan's urging, and he was absolutely correct... getting a handgun permit these days is nowhere as easy as it was when I got mine (Marlene got her permit at the same time). But I digress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Dan had a buddy named Chip. The two of them had been best friends since they were kids growing up in a public housing project in the city. Chip was into rock climbing. I told Dan that I always had an interest in rock climbing and rappelling. Dan said that he could get Chip to teach us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Somehow, the idea of rappelling over Carpenter Falls came up as a good idea. Carpenter Falls is in Niles, New York. That's where my family moved when I was in 9th grade. Carpenter Falls was only a little way from my house. I didn't know it was there until one day, shortly after moving, while I was exploring down the creek across the road and... Wow, there it was!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">It was just me and the falls. No tourists. No hikers. Just me and that beautiful place. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I didn't have experiences like that in the suburban housing project we moved away from.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">So, Dan got Chip to show us how to rappel over Carpenter Falls. We met there on a Saturday, and another friend of Dan's named Tim showed up too. These days <a href="http://fllt.org/preserves/bahar-preserve-carpenters-falls/"><span style="color: red;">Carpenter Falls is a land trust nature preserve named after Hu Bahar</span></a>. I actually met Hu (Hushang) Bahar and his wife, Dawn, once. They attended a small church group that Marlene and I went to for awhile. Hu was the first president of <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.suny.edu/campuses/tompkins-cortland/">Tompkins Cortland Community Colleg</a>e</span>. He was an accomplished man, and a genuinely nice guy. But, I digress (again)...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">We didn't ask anyone's permission to go rappelling off of Carpenter Falls on that day. We just did it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The falls was a popular party place on weekends back then. More than a few people fell off over the years. Some lived... barely. Some died. I've heard one person fell directly into the pool at the bottom and was completely unharmed. It's a 90 foot drop.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Chip had a couple long lengths of climbing rope, and a couple harnesses, and some carabiners. He wore a t-shirt that said in big letters: <i>Question Authority</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Chip was pretty relaxed and gave us an assuring pep talk. He showed us how to tie a figure-eight knot. He told us how important it was to learn the figure-eight knot. I distinctly recall Chip saying that every rock climber has to know how to tie a figure-eight knot behind his back while drunk. I never reached that degree of proficiency (I've never been drunk).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">After the little lesson, Chip tied the two ropes to a small tree back about ten feet from the top edge of the falls. I questioned whether the tree was big enough to trust. Chip wasn't concerned. If you look at the picture at the top, you can see the tree. It's on the right side. That's where we went over the edge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Chip went first. He stood on the edge, with his back to the drop-off, and leaned backwards. Then he started backing down. I was harnessed up and standing next to him, holding tight to my rope. I watched what Chip did and followed. Marlene, and my boss and his wife were at the bottom of the falls. Somewhere I have a couple pictures that Marlene took.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In an ideal rappelling situation, you have something solid to kick off from and let out some rope. You do that repeatedly, all the way down. But at Carpenter Falls, after you get down a few feet, there's nothing to kick off from. It's just a drop. So I let out a little rope, dropped a few feet, and repeated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Chip got to the bottom way ahead of me and watched. Everything was going good. I was about halfway down. I was comfortable with the procedure. I let out some rope, thinking I would drop a good distance more, but I went a short ways and came to an unexpected stop.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Unbeknownst to me, the lower part of my t-shirt had fed up into the mechanism and jammed. I tried to lift myself and extract the t-shirt, but I couldn't do it. I was stuck. Chip told me to hang on. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">He hiked back to the top of the falls and dropped down beside me. We locked legs and he used a jackknife to cut my t-shirt out. With the problem solved, I finished my descent. It was a thrill. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I stayed at the bottom and watched Dan and Tim go over the edge and to the bottom. They were thrilled too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I went over one more time, without incident. And that was all the rappelling I ever did.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The first part of this next video gives you an idea what the falls are like at the top, and over the edge (makes me a little uneasy just watching)...</span><br />
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-61696133572473696762017-03-27T17:05:00.001-04:002017-03-27T17:05:33.251-04:00Solar PyramidsIn The Minibeds<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">It's a rainy, overcast day here in upstate New York. There is still snow in the hollows, but my Minibeds-on-Plastic experimental garden is clear. So, today, in the midst of so much wetness, I set up some Whizbang solar pyramids in the minibeds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">As you can see in the picture above, the solar pyramids fit the minibeds perfectly. And the plastic flaps on the pyramid covers fit under the minibed frames right nice. I didn't have the solar pyramids in mind when I decided on the minibed size last summer. So this is a pleasant surprise, indeed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">If you have read my <a href="http://whizbanggardening.blogspot.com/">Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners</a> (and visited the special hidden web site I created just for readers of that book), you are familiar with my solar pyramid idea. But for those of you who have not seen these unique garden devices, here is a picture I took several years ago that illustrates just how remarkable these solar pyramids are...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In the picture above, you can see a tomato plant inside a solar pyramid, and you can tell that it is a good size. In the background (on the right) you can see some smaller tomato plants. Believe it or not, <i>all the tomato plants were transplanted into the garden on the same day</i>, and they were the same size when planted. The tomato plant in the solar pyramid was in a totally ideal growing environment, while the others were not. That made all the difference.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">It's not a pyramid-power thing. It's a solar thing. And, as I explain in my book, this idea came from Leandre Poissson's excellent <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Gardening-Vegetables-Year-Round-Independent/dp/0930031695/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490641361&sr=8-1&keywords=solar+gardening">Solar Gardening book</a>. Leandre made solar cones using an expensive rigid plastic. My solar pyramids are made using a much-less-expensive (but very durable) woven plastic. Here's a picture of Leandre Poisson with one of his solar cones...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The diffuse light inside the cone is ideal for plant growth. And the dynamics of the open top on the cone (with the bottom being sealed) play an important role in maintaining optimum growing conditions. The growth inside one of these things is nothing short of amazing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">It is much too early to plant anything in the garden, but I have been reading about <a href="http://lagniappemobile.com/start-winter-sowing-now/">winter sowing of garden seeds</a> (thank you, Scott Cooper). I have a feeling that I can vary the common winter sowing approach and simply plant seeds directly in the earth inside the solar cones. When the soil temperature and environment in the cones is right (long before it is right outside the cones) the seeds will get themselves started.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">If I can start tomatoes from seed, directly in the soil, in very early spring, here in upstate NY, and have them be at least as big as the usual transplants at the usual planting time, that would be quite an accomplishment. Same goes for some other crops that are not usually planted this early.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I've wanted to try this for a few years and haven't done it. This year will be different. I now have an <i>experimental</i> <a href="http://minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2017/01/introducing-minibeds-on-plastic-new.html">Minibeds-on-Plastic</a> garden!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Stay tuned...</span><br />
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-426937534786021383.post-60931631332051041922017-03-25T08:24:00.001-04:002017-03-25T08:26:55.448-04:00Introducing... The Whizbang Un-Bungee Cord(A Useful Homestead Tool)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dateline: 25 March 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I'm old enough to remember what life was like before stretchy, hook-ended bungee cords were invented. Back in those days, people used rope to tie things down.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">My introduction to rope for tying things down goes back to when I was a kid and accompanied my stepfather to the local dump on weekends. We went to dispose of our household trash but would spend some time ranging over the landfill, looking for good things that other people had thrown out. We almost always brought home something, and it was often too big to fit in the trunk of the car. So, out came the wooden roof racks with big suction cups, and lengths of rope. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">As a Cub Scout and Boy Scout I had a particular fascination with rope and knots. I taught myself to whip rope ends, splice rope, and tie various knots. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Thus, my love of rope (string and twine of all kinds too) goes back many years, and when I first saw bungee cords I found them kind of offensive. Nevertheless, I bought and used them. Then, a couple years ago, I came up with the idea of Un-Bungee cords, just like you see in the picture above.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I bought an inexpensive 50-foot length of braided nylon rope, cut it into 5-foot sections, whipped the ends with waxed leather-stitching thread, melted the frayed fibers beyond the whipping, and tied a loop on one end. That is how the Un-Bungee cord was "invented"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">My Un-Bungee cords proved to be incredibly useful for all kinds of small tie-down purposes. Being short, they don't get themselves into a frustrating tangle. They can be tied together when a longer length is needed. They're just downright handy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I keep some Un-Bungee cords in my truck. I keep a couple in the tool box on my little tractor. I have several hanging (by their loop) on a nail just inside the door of my workshop.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">If you live a busy homestead lifestyle, make yourself a bunch of these Un-Bungee cords. Anywhere between 5-foot and 6-foot is a good size. You will find all kinds of ways to put them to work.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFqjVC0-OmhaZVbwuB8UHNZWJBOT9UPc0SyKfefMzDwewyQkeu1nYYiYSrZCth7LUVgY3b6TXm16p7IB1PNSyzL2RHq_NfqTDmMAUVFrd42TUfjweTlxKhPcBnO5D0fWOWrCI9pPRGnOQ/s1600/IMG_3124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFqjVC0-OmhaZVbwuB8UHNZWJBOT9UPc0SyKfefMzDwewyQkeu1nYYiYSrZCth7LUVgY3b6TXm16p7IB1PNSyzL2RHq_NfqTDmMAUVFrd42TUfjweTlxKhPcBnO5D0fWOWrCI9pPRGnOQ/s640/IMG_3124.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A simple example of how an Un-Bungee cord can be used.</span></td></tr>
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Herrick Kimballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116051416696885647noreply@blogger.com4