Foggy, Misty, cloudy and warm here this morning. The grass is covered with dew so thick you almost need to put on your rain boots to walk around or your feet will be soaked. Not much worth doing around the place until the dew dries off so Mrs. PP and I decided to get Breakfast, hit the Farmer's Market, a yard sale or two and then the hardware store to replace my lost wrenches.
Truth is I was hoping to replace my wrenches at one of the yard sales but no such luck. When it comes to anything homesteading, farm or shop related these days my primary purchase of choice is second hand.
There are several advantages to the second hand method and in my opinion now is one of the best times in history for that type of purchasing strategy anyway.
For one thing, this may only be my personal opinion but I believe there are many out there who agree with me, I think manufacturing quality of tools and machinery peaked in the 1950's and 1960's. I think metal quality peaked in the 1930's and 1940's though but was still very good for a few decades after. When it comes to most things I use around the Small-Hold I much prefer the old stuff. Especially in hand tools but also in my tractors and implements as you have noticed.
Us Generation X'rs are in a unique position in life. We were the smallest generation (percentage-wise) born in the US from it's founding. We were the one's who were handed the bill and used as the lab rats for all the social engineering, cushy pensions, White guilt and affirmative action bull shit the Greatest Generation and the dreaded Baby-Boomers could think up. We got the dregs and leftovers from the Government employment and middle-management boom and were expected to do all the dirty jobs since all the good one's were already taken. By the time the Greaters and Boomers began retiring we were then told we were too old for the open positions as upper management turned around and re-hired the retirees so they could double dip. Guess what they meant was too old but not old enough.
On the up side we got to enjoy the new found wealth all this debt opened up to our parents and grandparents back in the 70's and 80's as children and young adults. We never really had to fight a war other than the cold one, We made good use of the sexual revolution before Feminism ruined it and although we were full of shit thinking the future was going to be so bright we got to live hard as youngins. For a while we even got to enjoy our first amendment rights before PC speak got totally out of control.
The real losers of all this generational theft in my opinion is going to be the Millennials but more on that at another time. This is about us Gen. X'rs.
We Gen X'rs are an important link in the chain that will pull our society through the collapse that is coming. It is mostly our generation that can bridge the gap between the old and the new as no other generation lived on the cusp of change like we have.
One of the treasure spoils I found this morning at a yard sale was the hand cranked drill you see in the picture above. I bought it for $2.50. As I was carrying it around looking at other old tools for sale on the table a teenager there with his parents actually asked me what it was.
By the time this long slow decline eats us away to a full collapse I imagine we Gen X'rs will be too old to fight, colonize or labor in the fields, but like the cut off monks and priests in Ireland during the dark ages it will be our job to preserve the light and bridge the gap for those younger than ourselves.
Until such time that it falls on us to carry the torch keep in mind as the older generations now begin to hit really old age we are the ones who need to identify and preserve the treasures of old. The opportunity is there to find these old gems and acquire them as they will be needed as things continue to decline. Dismissed as oddities by the younger generations who have no understanding of how they work or why they were ever needed, we Gen X'rs understand what truly is at stake and just how far things can fall. We recognize the value even when those younger than us do not.
Be ready to jump on any old tools and machinery you come across. I have been noticing an increase in the amount of old tools and other hand implements hitting the sales of late. As small farms are being eaten up by large corporations, housing speculators and government buy outs fewer and fewer are living a rural life so there is little competition to buy all the stuff that is being sold. The younger generations (and most of us X'rs to be honest) want to live in the cities now but before this collapse is over they will be back. Best to have the tools already stockpiled rather than needing to make em all over again.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!!
I am at the end of the boomers though I don't admit it in public as they are not something to be proud of. Anyway a fellow boomer laughed at me after learning that I have old tools that are to be used after a collapse. He says that he has been around the world and there are no signs of a collapse. HA HA HA what an idiot I am. I suggested that he look at all of the civilizations that are no more and look into a little thing called the dark ages. If he thinks that it can't happen again he is kidding himself. I haven't heard any more from him. So anyway the old tools are better made and can be worked on if bad things happen. I really prefer using a chain saw but I have the old manual saws sharpened and practiced with in case something strange happens. It may be that one will want to cut wood without letting everyone for miles around know you are out there. I use had tools that my grandfathers used, pre greatest generation guys, now they knew how to work.
ReplyDeleteSf - I know from a number of people's perception there is no decline nor a collapse on the horizon. Those areas that are tapped into direct government funds still have it good these days. The ones without that tap well they are showing the signs ans it is spreading. Look at consumer spending, shipping etc. which of course you know about as well as I do. I believe this decline when it accelerates into a collapse will have many Nero's fiddling all over.
DeleteI know you are the master at old tools and how to use them. I have gotten so many ideas from your posts.
BRAVO! BRAVO! BRAVO! me, jam and you think exactly alike. you know that he is always digging through people's garbage, finding old tools and things and fixing them up to use. he'll come through the door with a rusty, old-looking piece of metal and say "see babe. i found a (fill in the blank)." and i'll be all - that's a rusty,old piece of metal. then he'll take to the basement, clean it, fix it and bring it back and say "look. it works perfectly". he swears by old tools especially hand tools.
ReplyDeleteme, on the other hand, spent the last 10 years getting every encyclopaedia set i could get my hands on. old farming magazines. old classic books. dictionaries. you get the drift. i am terrified that when it all goes to heck and we are in true grid-down - all knowledge will be lost because there will be no google. even tho we don't raise animals, i have about 60+ books just on that subject. i have books on homesteading, farming, gardening, permaculture, maintaining forests, fruit trees, berry patches - blah-blah-blah.
you nailed it with this post PP - and i say BRAVO! sending much love. your friend,
kymber
Kymber - Gonna be a lot of work too. We are going to have to start actually paying for the debt.
DeleteThanks you. I know Jamby is the master at refurbishing and reusing stuff.
older tools are the best. I can't afford to buy a lot of books but do go online and print out the stuff I think is useful. I scroung the village dump and old abandoned building, wit permission of course, for metal and whatever. It is amazing what people throw out.
Deletedenis - you are following the right path for sure! congrats! (you'll be one of the ones trying to save this world after the crash! thank goodness!)
DeletePP,
ReplyDeleteWhat a laugh for this old Boomer. I have lost and given away many tools as you describe and still have plenty to use. And I know how to use them all as well. But I am not going to be around all that much longer.
Another friend, also old and in the way like me, was an HVAC tech (I worked as a Journeyman Carpenter). We agreed that we were the people who built most of what is/was good about California and when we croak we wonder who will come next since most have no clue and our tools are so specialized nobody even recognizes them any more, let alone what to do with them.
As we watch, the wheels are coming off the cart.
Winston
Winston - No doubt about it and although I will bash the Boomers until the day I die especially for their caving into the social engineering crap as long as those who came after them paid the real price and the massive debt. I will not call most of them lazy. Boomers did work and did build some great stuff. Of course it is a bit easier to be motivated when the money they pay ya with hasn't been De-valued by 95% and there is all kinds of room left on the credit card to get what ya need.
DeleteYou have a very valid point though about how many of those old tools and knowledge will be lost and the wheels are certainly coming off.
GREAT post pioneer p!
ReplyDeletei am all over the old tools although i buy new top-tier from canadian tire when 70 % off - their bast stuff is pretty good... but when our washer dies, i am looking for something 40 years old that is all metal with parts i can work on.
as for being gen X, you are more generous than i - i have worked with boomers and millennials in IT for 20 years, the ones holding it all together are gen Xers .. the same goes for most of the infrastructure of the modern world... although many boomers are the old men with the skills - the newest ones? they only know gps not nsew.. bent over the "device" 24-7
when we get too old to keep it going, the wheels will fall for for certain!
Jamby - I prefer old for the quality as you say but also just to keep from making or leaving a trail. I hate being tracked.
DeleteI still think the gen Y and Millennials are the one's getting shafted worse than anyone. At least there were still some good jobs left for us Gen X'rs not so for those who came after us. They are going to get the lion's share of the debt and are given the smallest boundaries in their jobs too. Many of them don't know much outside a narrow range because no employers will tolerate paying them even the minimal amounts to learn any of it.
Getting close to 70 here. I still have my grandfather's crosscut, rip, two man and bow saw. I prefer the Stihls, but if gas goes away I'l still have wood for heat. That's assuming I still have the energy, course I can always trade elk meat for labor. Send some of your tractor girls up this way when that happens.
ReplyDeleteMV - I am still saying at least five more years until we hit enough of a collapse to actually effect all the people. Maybe even 10 at the rate we are going. Which is kinda my point by that time the early Gen X'rs will be where you are at now I imagine. Or so it seems at the current slow grind anyway. I reserve the right to change that time line as circumstances dictate :)
DeleteIf you can keep up with em you are doing better than I am. That many tractor girls would kill me off in about one afternoon so I would send ya all I could :)
I'm 69 going on 70 and most of the tools you mentioned are ones I used in my first career as a carpenter. You have the brace but you need some bits to go with it. I bought my first one back in the early 60's and inherited another from my father. You have the experiences of your generation and I have much different experiences growing up on a farm with no indoor plumbing (much less hot water plumbing) and an outhouse a short walk behind the house....and in Minnesota yet. I remember the first milking machine we got and the first elevator for corn and hay storage...life was labor intensive. And everything paid in cash....a far cry from the credit economy of today. Many do denigrate the idea of an economy crashing but a credit implosive can collapse an economy in days. Just ask the PIIGS, Venezuela, or the latest Puerto Rico. One generation did not create the problem. Perhaps it was Lincoln doing a Federal power grab, or Wilson doing an income tax and Federal Reserve grab, perhaps a progressive TR pushing Federal parks and forests not accounted for in the Constitution, maybe his cousin FDR mandating social security and other social welfare programs. And since JFK and LBJ instituted race laws and even more welfare laws and the myriad of new government departments approved since then...where did the voter fail? What generation failed? You could say that every voter who approved any law or politician they voted in since Lincoln has failed. There is little doubt we have a ruling elite and they will not listen...look at how much they disapprove of a Trump who does not color between the lines. There will be a solution but it is not going to be pain free.
ReplyDeleteIndy - Well I don't know about spreading the blame over more than one or two generations. It's pretty simple to see when the debt exploded and what it was spent on. Not that it condemns every Greatest and Babyboomer out there, far from it but I will say that the Boomers especially seem to have no clue how those who came after had it. I don't get that vibe from other X'rs or Y's however.
DeleteMy real point wasn't that Gen X'rs know these items any better than Boomers, in fact I would say the opposite is the case, but the X'rs will be the ones still around when this finally comes apart. Yes debt issues can act fast but no other nation has had the fed, petro-dollar or reserve currency like the US has. That is a hard outer shell that is going to take more time than usual to crack.
OH ya. I actually already have some bits for the drill. It's been kinda a holy grail search for me the last few years. I knew if I held out long enough one would turn up for me.
DeleteIt's not just tools and equipment, it's everything! Lumber and building materials, nowadays, are crap! I recently discovered I'm not the only one who has quit buying stuff because of the quality. I refuse to buy a new drip coffee pot every six months or a new printer for the computer every year. Looking for alternatives and learning to live without are the only other choice, and that's us.
ReplyDeleteBTW, here's my take on the Baby Boomers (of which I am one). Most of our parents and grandparents went through the Great Depression. Over and over we heard, "we're never going to let our kids go through what we did," which is why we were over-indulged with material goods and the pushed to go to college to have an easier life. We all knew something was wrong with the system and blamed "The Establishment". That was what sparked the Back-to-the-Land movement (of which I participated). Trouble was, living off the land requires a lot of hard work, and hard work was one thing we were spared of. We were taught no work ethic, and a lot of that generation didn't want to work. Those were the ones who decided they could make a difference and change the system by going into politics. And they did. They are the ones responsible for all the social changes we've seen in the past several decades. Trouble is, they never stopped hating The Establishment and continue to blame The Establishment for all their own social engineering failures. They are quite clever at that, as anyone that actually knows how to think has probably already surmised.
DeleteAnyway, that's my theory, FWIW.
Per the debt: one of the fail safes of capitalism is that people don't pay the debt. That is certainly going to happen with us. In fact 2008 was a good start to it. The problem is that when too many people do it at the same time you get a huge downturn. Given that China (and the Brics in general) are having their fun bubble pop, the world is likely going to be in it a while.
ReplyDeleteTo my mind, it will be the combination of diminishing returns on technological advancement, combined with issues of resource extraction - and possibly bonus problems with eco - climate issues, that make the continuation of that cycle problematic.
Potentially, you it can be derailed by political turmoil (fascism - communism), but the today's wealthy world is an older world and I don't see us going that route.
I now get stuck in with boomers, but I am demographically in the trough before the Gen X so it doesn't really make sense. Seems like most of the fun stuff was made illegal or became too dangerous (Herpes first than Aids) to see that I got much of an advantage from the boomers. But other than that, I would say your dead on. The millennials best hope is that they can fill in some of the positions of the retiring boomers.
As a boomer, one of the last that gets mixed in with generation X or what ever it is, I was part of the back to the land idea. Helping those who need help is not a bad thing, the problem comes when we have a society that believes it is there right and they do not have to work if they are able. We all have to blame our warrior culture, not the soldiers, airmen, and sailors. All the b.s. wars we have fought have done us no good. Look at that cost and blink. Good tools and the knowledge to use them is being lost to generation that want the easy way. It will not work.
ReplyDeleteDennis