We didn’t have electricity on the farm until I was ten years old; before that we were kind of like the Amish..
Mom did have one modern convenience, a washing machine that was driven by a gasoline engine. On washing day she would run the flexible exhaust pipe out the basement window, check the oil, fill the tank with gasoline and tramp on the pedal crank until the engine started. The engine didn’t have a muffler so it was really loud. The machine had a clutch lever that you had to engage to start the agitator and then you could turn another lever to start the wringer. And because it was in need of some repair it produced a lot of smoke. When mom was washing I couldn’t play under the porch because of the exhaust..
In the winter the clothes were hung in the basement to dry. In the spring, summer and fall the clothes were hung out on the clothes line.
We had an old gas range down there that produced a lot of heat when you lit the oven and since we had a gas well on the farm and free gas we could use as much as we needed. We also used the gas range to heat the water to wash the clothes. When you were finished washing you ran the wash water down the drain in the cellar floor. The water that was used to wash the clothes came from a spring that was up the little valley from the house. It was piped into the basement and ran into a barrel. When the barrel was full it over flowed and the water ran out the floor drain.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
Cider and Apple Butter
We had an apple orchard on the hill next to the house, I guess grandpa must have planted it when he bought the farm. Anyhow, we always had lots of apples when I was little; Northern Spies, Winesap, McIntosh, etc. One year, it must have been in 1940 while we still had the Buick, Dad picked a lot of apples and loaded the car full and tied a 55 gallon barrel full of apples on the back bumper. He took me along with him and we went to Alcola to a fellow who owned a cider press. The press was a big tub like device with a big screw and handle that mashed the apples. We had enough apples to fill the barrel with cider. When we got home Dad put the cider in the basement and we had all the cider we wanted to drink for along time. After a while the cider fermented and got a fairly high alcohol content. Mom was not to pleased, but dad seemed to like the idea. I remember him telling the hired man to stay away from the cider or he would be fired.
I think it was in 1941 that we made a big kettle of apple butter. Dad connected up a gas burn to the gas line that ran from the well to the house. He put it on the yard next to the kitchen. He then built a tripod and hung the copper kettle on it. (That is the kettle that we have in the basement.) He filled the kettle with apples and cider and lit the gas. Well it took all day to boil down the apples. Someone had to keep stiring the mixture so it didn't stick. I was too small to get involved with that. I guess they added sugar and maybe some other spices. When they had reduced the apples to butter, they poured it in big crocks and covered them over with cloth and waxed paper. We must have had 10 gallons of apple butter in the basement. It was really good on home made bread. I don't think we had any jam or jelly that winter.
I think it was in 1941 that we made a big kettle of apple butter. Dad connected up a gas burn to the gas line that ran from the well to the house. He put it on the yard next to the kitchen. He then built a tripod and hung the copper kettle on it. (That is the kettle that we have in the basement.) He filled the kettle with apples and cider and lit the gas. Well it took all day to boil down the apples. Someone had to keep stiring the mixture so it didn't stick. I was too small to get involved with that. I guess they added sugar and maybe some other spices. When they had reduced the apples to butter, they poured it in big crocks and covered them over with cloth and waxed paper. We must have had 10 gallons of apple butter in the basement. It was really good on home made bread. I don't think we had any jam or jelly that winter.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Being little
I spent a few minutes today thinking about being little. That is; I was trying to remember life on the farm when I was very small. A few things come back but not very much for as long as the days seemed. Time moved slowly. An hour was forever.
My aunt Marcy (Marcella) and Grandma live on one side of the house. Grandma was old and not very well. Marcy took care of her. Grandma die, May 20, 1941 and I was not yet 4 years old. I used to go to their side of the house to get Marcy to read to me. She was kind of a second mother to me. I don't really remember that much about Grandma, other than seeing her sit in her rocking chair. After grandma die Marcy went to the convent and became a nun.
One of my earliest memories is from the summer of 1940. The family decide to have a picnic up on top of the hill behind the house. Dad got stuff together and made a fire up there to roast wieners. He own a 1929 Buick at that time and I got ride to the top of the hill in the car with grandma, Marcy, mom and dad. The other kids had to walk. It was a big deal for me to get to the top of the hill and be able to see so far. Dad said that I could see the hills on the other side of New Bethlehem and that was a long way in my book.
Mom was not very well when I was little and one time she had to go to the hospital in Pittsburgh. She was there what seemed to me to be a long time. While she was gone, Dad hired Veral Aaron to keep house and take care of us kids.
My aunt Marcy (Marcella) and Grandma live on one side of the house. Grandma was old and not very well. Marcy took care of her. Grandma die, May 20, 1941 and I was not yet 4 years old. I used to go to their side of the house to get Marcy to read to me. She was kind of a second mother to me. I don't really remember that much about Grandma, other than seeing her sit in her rocking chair. After grandma die Marcy went to the convent and became a nun.
One of my earliest memories is from the summer of 1940. The family decide to have a picnic up on top of the hill behind the house. Dad got stuff together and made a fire up there to roast wieners. He own a 1929 Buick at that time and I got ride to the top of the hill in the car with grandma, Marcy, mom and dad. The other kids had to walk. It was a big deal for me to get to the top of the hill and be able to see so far. Dad said that I could see the hills on the other side of New Bethlehem and that was a long way in my book.
Mom was not very well when I was little and one time she had to go to the hospital in Pittsburgh. She was there what seemed to me to be a long time. While she was gone, Dad hired Veral Aaron to keep house and take care of us kids.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Development
I've been diverted from puzzling over nothing to puzzling over development. It may be the same thing. I hope not.
You see if I look back to the county where I was born, and the time when I was born, that area was "underdeveloped." We lived on a dirt road and had no electricity or indoor plumbing. When I was born the farm belonged to my grandmother. Dad bought it in 1941. In order to make a living he farmed and worked as a driller on the gas wells. While we didn't have much we were better of than many in the area. Over time things changed in the community. Farms like ours got consolidated into bigger farms of they were left to grow-up in brush and then trees. There were about 3000 farms in the county in 1940, by 2003 there were about 400. Along with the loss of farms the county has lost population.
While it was a center for mining, timbering, brick and tile production, and natural gas production, these were extractive industries and the extraction process is almost finished (except for natural gas which is experiencing a boom). I don't mean an explosion, prices for gas are rising and more drilling is occurring.
People in the county currently work for light industry (trailer plants and fiber board plants), for the University, for local or state government, for retail (Wal-Mart), or the service industries.
Since I graduated from highschool young people have fled the county to find employment. We were lucky we had some place to go. And those who stayed had sufficient resources among them that they could maintain a standard of living that was not to bad. I guess that the area is developed to the extent that the resources support the population that remains.
I think the difference between my experience, the county's experience and what happens in the LDCs is that I could get an education, had the freedom to migrate, and had someplace to go.
In the LDCs, there is little opportunity for either an education or migration and unless capital moves in , or the opportunity to migrate is opened up, population growth is going to put greater pressure on already scarce resources.
You see if I look back to the county where I was born, and the time when I was born, that area was "underdeveloped." We lived on a dirt road and had no electricity or indoor plumbing. When I was born the farm belonged to my grandmother. Dad bought it in 1941. In order to make a living he farmed and worked as a driller on the gas wells. While we didn't have much we were better of than many in the area. Over time things changed in the community. Farms like ours got consolidated into bigger farms of they were left to grow-up in brush and then trees. There were about 3000 farms in the county in 1940, by 2003 there were about 400. Along with the loss of farms the county has lost population.
While it was a center for mining, timbering, brick and tile production, and natural gas production, these were extractive industries and the extraction process is almost finished (except for natural gas which is experiencing a boom). I don't mean an explosion, prices for gas are rising and more drilling is occurring.
People in the county currently work for light industry (trailer plants and fiber board plants), for the University, for local or state government, for retail (Wal-Mart), or the service industries.
Since I graduated from highschool young people have fled the county to find employment. We were lucky we had some place to go. And those who stayed had sufficient resources among them that they could maintain a standard of living that was not to bad. I guess that the area is developed to the extent that the resources support the population that remains.
I think the difference between my experience, the county's experience and what happens in the LDCs is that I could get an education, had the freedom to migrate, and had someplace to go.
In the LDCs, there is little opportunity for either an education or migration and unless capital moves in , or the opportunity to migrate is opened up, population growth is going to put greater pressure on already scarce resources.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Zero
Wow! It is cold today. Just got back from the store. Nice to be inside.
The hawk is gone. I guess there were no little birds here and it decided to hunt elsewhere,
I'm still filling my head with nothing. The Greeks seem to have had a rough time with the concept of a void. They couldn't admit that nothing existed, because if it existed it would be something and if it is somehing then it can't be nothing.
The Indians appear to have been quite comfortable with the concepts of nothing and infinity. They established the idea that 0 times a number is 0. And a number divided by zero is infinity. If we subtract infinity from infinity we still have infinity.
In 820 AD, Al-Kharizmi from whom we derive the term algorithm established the practice of writhing numerals in groups of three seperated by comas as in: 1,000,000.
Gilbert of Aurillac (945-1003), elected Pope Sylvester II in 999, was the first euopean to use the Indo-Arab system outside of Spain. Remember that the Arabs controlled Spain and used the Indo-Arab number system.
The hawk is gone. I guess there were no little birds here and it decided to hunt elsewhere,
I'm still filling my head with nothing. The Greeks seem to have had a rough time with the concept of a void. They couldn't admit that nothing existed, because if it existed it would be something and if it is somehing then it can't be nothing.
The Indians appear to have been quite comfortable with the concepts of nothing and infinity. They established the idea that 0 times a number is 0. And a number divided by zero is infinity. If we subtract infinity from infinity we still have infinity.
In 820 AD, Al-Kharizmi from whom we derive the term algorithm established the practice of writhing numerals in groups of three seperated by comas as in: 1,000,000.
Gilbert of Aurillac (945-1003), elected Pope Sylvester II in 999, was the first euopean to use the Indo-Arab system outside of Spain. Remember that the Arabs controlled Spain and used the Indo-Arab number system.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Editing
I just finished reading the "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" and I shall try to avoid the misplaced coma from now onward. And it seems that I must remember that it's is a contraction, not a possesive. Also you're going to be careful with your punctuation.
Enough of that. I'm going to go and read about Nothing.
Enough of that. I'm going to go and read about Nothing.
Grandpa starts anew in Oct 2004
Well here it is Friday and I'm publishing my first Blog. Seth came home a week ago today. And came to visit grandpa and grandma on Wednesday. It didn't take him long to start to travel. Beth, Will and Lou got him a Park Passport and I suppose his parents will soon have him on the road.I'm looking forward to Will and parents coming to see us the first weekend in November. Maybe we can get the entire family to gether. I always like that.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Grampa's Grumbles
Wednesday 15 months later
Well I started this 15 months ago and then forgot about it. It must not have been a high priority for me. I will start again and see what develops.
During the past year I've been reading a lot. Right now I'm re-reading the Book of Nothing. I'm learning about zero and vacumns. You might say what is there to learn about nothing. As it turns out, quite a lot. The Indians (from the subcontenant) were the first to use o as a number in about 495 AD.
More about this later.
Well I started this 15 months ago and then forgot about it. It must not have been a high priority for me. I will start again and see what develops.
During the past year I've been reading a lot. Right now I'm re-reading the Book of Nothing. I'm learning about zero and vacumns. You might say what is there to learn about nothing. As it turns out, quite a lot. The Indians (from the subcontenant) were the first to use o as a number in about 495 AD.
More about this later.
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