Newsletter #252 2024 Mar 29 Friday
It's been a busy, busy week, and all about getting the Sawmill Services season kicked off.
Primal Woods
Sawmill Services
The first step is doing the pre-season maintenance on the Wood-Mizer; it started no problem after sitting for winter, and I performed the 8, 25 , some of the 50 hr maintenance. Works fine, lasts a long time. Then it was on to milling of the first log I had on-site since we ended the season last year.
The milling of that first log went fine, and yielded some nice 1” and 2” thick boards for Travis.
I literally just came in from the first off-site milling job, for Mary Anne down in Edwardsburg, MI.
It ended up being a much bigger job than I had anticipated, and I took some help, Monte, for moving the logs, and for stickering and stacking the lumber. The end result was a very nice stack of lumber; about 1,200 board feet.
Homestead Rebel Farm
Layers
Most of Golden Laced Wyandotte chicks are hiding behind the waterer, but we still have the original 12, and they are still growing fast
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Pigs
We will bring on 8 pigs this year; there’s still time to order one, or half of one. If you are one of those, please send an email to john@primalwoods.com, call me at 269-487-6365, stop by, or send up the smoke signal!
Oxen
I’ve got a lead on a wagon that is already set-up for oxen; I hope that comes through, then I can use the oxen to bring firewood down to the house.
News
Another light week on news, not that there isn’t any, but I just haven’t made the time.
Books
Okay, the The Devil’s Chessboard, I just want to share a couple of quotes.
…Mills wrote in his 1956 masterpiece The Power Elite, America was ruled by those who control the “strategic command posts” of society — the big corporations, the machinery of the state, and the military establishment. These dominant cliques were drawn together by their deep mutual stake in the “permanent war economy” that had emerged during the Cold War…Within this system of American power, Mills saw corporate chiefs as the first among equals.
Nineteen fifty-six (1956); has anything changed? Also quoted in The Devil’s Chessboard from Mills;
The men of the higher circles are not representative men; their high position is not a result of moral virtue; their fabulous success is not firmly connected with meritorious ability…They are not men shaped by nationally responsible parties that debate openly and clearly the issues this nation now so unintelligently confronts. They are not men held in responsible check by a plurality of voluntary associations which connect debating publics with the pinnacles of decision. Commanders of power unequaled in human history, they have succeeded within the American system of organized irresponsibility.
My emphasis added. We were warned. The first time is seems to me, was by Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America; the original two-volume work was published in 1835 and 1840.
What can I say. We have only ourselves to blame.
Online Presence
I made a commitment, and I’m breaking it; my humblest apologies. The new website is not live just yet. It’s all computer work of course…but it needs to be done.
Another big sawmill job is on the calendar for next week, and I’ve got 25 logs from George on-site for milling. The table is set you might say.
All the best, and may God bless you and yours,
John & Geri
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