52\u00a0 bar rises 29.94\u00a0 2mph NW\u00a0 dewpoint 20 Beltane, sunny<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Gibbous Hare Moon<\/p>\n
Nope, this isn’t about naked pagans dancing under a full moon.\u00a0 Sorry.<\/p>\n
Rather, it’s about those things we do.\u00a0 In spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Mickman’s guy just left.\u00a0 “Charlie,” he said, “We came through the winter pretty good.\u00a0 Just one dead sprinkler.”\u00a0 He handed me a sandy, wet plastic sprinkler head, smiled and went on his way.<\/p>\n
Kate bought her annual supply of, well, annuals.\u00a0 Alyssum, impatiens and coleus.\u00a0 She’ll go back for a few more.<\/p>\n
We prepared and planted new beds, cleaned old ones.<\/p>\n
The furnace last ran in April, but, unlike most years we have not turned on the air conditioning yet.<\/p>\n
The dogs spend more and more time outside, just like we do.<\/p>\n
The guy who cleans the gutters and does the outside windows will show up after the cottonwoods disperse their seeds.<\/p>\n
We moved the snowblower to the back of the garage bay and the riding lawnmower to the front.\u00a0 These are his and hers machines.\u00a0 Snowblower–his.\u00a0 Lawnmower–hers.<\/p>\n
We have all of these mechanical\/electronic servants.\u00a0 Instead of a gardener, we have a sprinkler system and a riding mower.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead of servants working mechanical fans we have an air conditioner.\u00a0 Instead of a summer kitchen we have Vent-a-Hoods.\u00a0 Instead of the post office we have e-mail.\u00a0 Instead of shopping in real world stores we have Internet retailers.<\/p>\n
These\u00a0are sophisticated technological devices and they replace human labor of the domestic variety with skilled human labor.\u00a0 The skilled folks make more money because they work in several locations rather than just one.<\/p>\n
I find though, that when I work in the garden, I prefer hand tools:\u00a0 a spade, a spading fork, pruning saw, trowel, rake.\u00a0 In general\u00a0 I allow only one mechanical tool into my work on our grounds.\u00a0 The chainsaw.\u00a0 It replaces labor I’m not sure I could perform even if I had the time.\u00a0 On occasion I’ll rent an industrial strength chipper, but only after many hours cutting down trees and brush, then delimbing.\u00a0 I plan to rent a stump grinder sometime this spring, but that’s a very special purpose piece of equipment.\u00a0 Otherwise it’s shovel and pick, adz and drawknife.\u00a0 Small sledge hammer, wire cutters and bolt cutters, Japanese weeding knife, serrated sickle and unserrated sickle.\u00a0 A tool in the hand is worth two in the bush.\u00a0 Or something like that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
52\u00a0 bar rises 29.94\u00a0 2mph NW\u00a0 dewpoint 20 Beltane, sunny \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Gibbous Hare Moon Nope, this isn’t about naked pagans dancing under a full moon.\u00a0 Sorry. Rather, it’s about those things we do.\u00a0 In spring.\u00a0 The Mickman’s guy just left.\u00a0 “Charlie,” he said, “We came through the winter pretty good.\u00a0 Just one dead sprinkler.”\u00a0 … Continue reading Rites of Spring<\/span>