- Joined
- Sep 14, 2006
- Messages
- 4,409
My wife and I bought some land for livin' on. Though I come from a rural background and she from rural parents, we'd both spent an awful lot of time in cities. We'd grown tired of that, so we started looking to get "out" again.
We didn't have to look at many properties before we found what we settled on. It's well-worn, but with lots of green. I think I can say without exaggeration that people have lived here for most of the last 8,000 years or so.
While the Native Americans left little more than some chipped rocks behind, I can't say as much for the white folks. This property had been in the hands of dirt-poor crackers for generations. The evidence for this can be found everywhere... broken piles of rusted machinery that no one could afford to fix. Old, slumping, tired buildings full of same. Bits and pieces of broken glass here and there, lots of bent nails in the dirt, underneath a lot of green trees and wind-blown pastureland.
It can all be cleaned up, and that's what we are about. It's worth the trouble, don't get me wrong, even if I do still get angry when I find what the others left behind. But I have to remind myself that the folks who lived here never quite noticed when the Depression came and went, because their lives had always been hard.
Recently I came across an old knife in one of the buildings here on the property. Here she is -
This old butcher knife is emblematic of the people who lived on this property for so long. Dirt poor and forced to keep on using and making do. Even the original tenants would pick up old flints and knap them back to life.
Look at the state of those scales - but the tool was still needed, so the owner did what he or she could, just tied them on. Someone with more means would likely have chucked the old thing; but the owner of this knife couldn't, evidently, afford to do that, so they made do.
I don't know the brand of this old knife. It's far too time worn and corroded. But what the hell. This property has long been reshaped for new purpose by new owners, so in that vein, I will do the same.
I wouldn't want the old girl to become presumptuous, so black leather scales and copper rivets will do. But though battered, the steel is true, and the edge came back sharp. She'll still slice with the best, and now has a new lease on life.
Andy
We didn't have to look at many properties before we found what we settled on. It's well-worn, but with lots of green. I think I can say without exaggeration that people have lived here for most of the last 8,000 years or so.
While the Native Americans left little more than some chipped rocks behind, I can't say as much for the white folks. This property had been in the hands of dirt-poor crackers for generations. The evidence for this can be found everywhere... broken piles of rusted machinery that no one could afford to fix. Old, slumping, tired buildings full of same. Bits and pieces of broken glass here and there, lots of bent nails in the dirt, underneath a lot of green trees and wind-blown pastureland.
It can all be cleaned up, and that's what we are about. It's worth the trouble, don't get me wrong, even if I do still get angry when I find what the others left behind. But I have to remind myself that the folks who lived here never quite noticed when the Depression came and went, because their lives had always been hard.
Recently I came across an old knife in one of the buildings here on the property. Here she is -
This old butcher knife is emblematic of the people who lived on this property for so long. Dirt poor and forced to keep on using and making do. Even the original tenants would pick up old flints and knap them back to life.
Look at the state of those scales - but the tool was still needed, so the owner did what he or she could, just tied them on. Someone with more means would likely have chucked the old thing; but the owner of this knife couldn't, evidently, afford to do that, so they made do.
I don't know the brand of this old knife. It's far too time worn and corroded. But what the hell. This property has long been reshaped for new purpose by new owners, so in that vein, I will do the same.
I wouldn't want the old girl to become presumptuous, so black leather scales and copper rivets will do. But though battered, the steel is true, and the edge came back sharp. She'll still slice with the best, and now has a new lease on life.
Andy
