Mick Fisch

Some view it as my personal quirk, harmless and eccentric.  (Don't let him get on the subject, he won't shut up).  My adult kids are at various levels of excitement/interest.  Being starving college students with young, growing families their plates are already full to overflowing. Most of my siblings are waiting to see the rubber hit the road.  Their thought is 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating."  My wife is conceptually converted and is willing to let me run with it as long as it looks ok and isn't too expensive or inconveniences her too much.  She is mostly interested in the food storage/medicine side of things.  

We just sold our house in southern Indiana and are buying a house in Cache valley in southeast Idaho.  Pretty stoked about it.

I was working down in the Silicon Valley around 1980.  Because of the massive influx of engineers and programmers there was about a 2 to 1 single guy/gal ratio at church.  I was a lowly tech.  I met my wife at a halloween party thrown by some young adults from church.  Everyone there was from that group.  They had paired me up with this pretty, nice gal with long red hair (I've always been partial to long hair, particularly when it's on redheads and blonds).  We were carving a jack-o-lantern and I happened to say something to this cute gal with short brown hair setting on the other side of me.  I made a comment, she responded and I guess I was a jerk because I kind of forgot about the redhead.  Sometimes you meet someone and know "We're going to be good friends".  The balance somehow feels right.  Anyway, after talking quite a while that evening, I asked her out.  I was soon in hot pursuit and, given the guy/gal ratio, I kept her evenings booked from then on.  I asked her to marry me a little over a month later.  (I had left one night open 3 days before I asked her to marry me and she went out with another guy).  Nine kids and almost 40 years later, it's still good.  She's my best friend and the balance is even better.

I love this idea!  I have a suggestion that might help.  If you allow the "gasket" between the pipe and the lid on one side to dry before you put the lid on, you can remove one end of the window clean out any moisture.  I view this as a real improvement over double paned glass, which if it gets moisture in there, you can't get at.  I would recommend opening the outside end on a very cold day (hopefully below 10 degrees F or -12 C).  The colder it is, the less water vapor the air can hold.  At about 10 degrees, there just isn't much water left (I think that's why snow flakes get smaller the colder it gets).  That way the air you introduce will be very dry.  Another alternative is to put some CO2 in it.  Rice could also work and if it starts to get moldy or something, pull it out and replace it.

I've heard an acopcryphal story about a guy who made long trips pretty often he rigged up an extension to his tail pipe that sat on his rear bumper (i envision a pick-em-up-truck).  The hot pipe would would slow cook his food, so after a few hours you had a hot meal.  I assume he insulated the cooking box.

When I was a kid we ate a lot of roadkill rabbit.  When a cottontail ran across the road my dad would try to go over it without hitting it with the tires (no wild swerving, but little turns).  Then we would stop and check it out.  If it was beat up too bad, we left it.  Often though the damage wasn't bad (rabbit got hit in the head) and we'ld take it home and eat it.  My mom usually would use it as flavoring, mixed with potatos, onions (make gravy, make a stew, pie, etc.).  

When I lived in Alaska, roadkill moose was seen as a huge windfall.  You called the troopers and got you name on the rotating list and they would call whoever was on the top of the list if a moose got hit.  If you answered and could come, it was your moose.  You were responsible for making sure the offal (guts, etc) didn't get left on the side of the road (it attracts bears).  There was a spot at the dump to take the waste.  In Anchorage area it was so popular that they restricted it to charities.  My church was on the list and I helped harvest a lot of moose.  Anyone who we knew was in need got meat.  Anyone who went out got meat.  The troopers kept a list of charities and a few times I had strangers call and come by for meat.  

When a moose was hit by a car, usually one quarter was bloodshot and ruined.  That still left 3/4 of a moose.  A couple of times we got called when a semi hit a moose and once when a train hit a moose.  In those cases, the moose died so quickly that there was no bruising, although some of the guts ended up in strange places, pretty much all the meat was salvageable.  Even the bloodshot quarter might be good for dogfood, although it won't keep that long.

I won't touch road kill that I don't know how long it's been lying there, but a fresh animal is nothing to turn your nose up at.

interesting little movie.  Lots of room for thought.  How small changes make major changes.  go to      

I think most of the time people look at the options represented by the people around them and assume those are the only options.  

We are in the middle of selling our house and the real estate agent told us that in his experience, most people lack imagination.  They have a hard time imagining the house in front of them with a good cleaning or a coat of paint or even with the outlet covers replaced.  How much harder to imagine a way of life you havent seen?

One of the problems is that we all are dealt a different hand in life.  Some are smart, good looking, tall, (fill in the blank), some are dealt a much poorer hand.  Some are born into a strong, supportive family, some not.  

Some work really hard, others just drift.  

I don't know how to fix this inequity and I don't think anyone does.

We have reached a point in western society where we try to provide a safety net where people can live in conditions that would have seemed wealthy a couple hundred years ago.  The problem is, we compare our situation with others doing better and realize we are poor and disadvantaged.  (If you were living in some 3rd world country you might feel rich, it's comparitive).

Maybe someone smarter than me has a better answer, but most of what I see is nothing new.  I think the besy answer is to change the mindset of the people.  Hard to do.

On acting in anger.  Several years ago I got a pretty bad concussion from getting hit by a tree.  I was pretty squirrely for at least 6 months.  (My wife said I was hilarious, because every guy has a monkey and an old man in his head.  The monkey was running the show for several months.)

I knew I wasn't really in my right mind and I had a bit of a temper.  I was very concerned about damaging relationships with my wife and kids, so l made it a point to stop and consider for a few seconds before acting.  I did this consistantly for months and it became something of a habit.  I'd stop and think "is this going to help, is it a proper response".

I had heard the count to ten thing for years but had really never tried it until my injury kind of forced it on me.  It is hard initially, bu it works!  It doesn't keep me from acting, but it helps me to act on my higher self and avoid doing the stupid things my inner monkey sometimes urges

As a side note,my older kids say I got more lenient and spoiled the younger ones, although I think every older kid thinks the younger ones have it easy.  (The sibling equivalent of walking 10 miles to school each day, uphill!  Both ways!)  My wife says I have become calmer.  (If you spouse is hot headed, I don't advocate hitting them with a tree, but.....)

Elle said,

Minorities look for organizations where they can share their experiences and try to collectively bring about change. Without getting my post flagged I'd wager to say it's unlikely a lot of the white people in the world have needed that. When white people want change, they just do it because they're in power.

.  White people and white men, just like everyone else find themselves in vastly different situations in life.  A few have power, most don't.  To group them all together is an example of exactly the kind of thinking this discussion is about.  

I worked with a guy a while back.  He also had a vastly overrated opinion of a 'power' of a working class or poor white person.  One day he remarked "If I was a white, I would be president of this country."  He made more money than me, he had a higher position than me.  My thought, although I didn't say it to him because I liked him and didn't want to hurt his feelings was "you're kind of an idiot, being white wouldn't change that".  The very rich are the ones with all the power.  Most of the very rich in this country are white, although by no means are they all anglo.  As a white man, that does me no more good than if I tried to draw money out of their bank account.  If you think they are looking out for my benefit, your wrong.  If anything, a lot of time their so busy pandering to the various other groups, they forget or ignore working class whites.

They have power.  I don't.  I have one vote, just like every other person.