Sir:
I bought a cross cut saw on eBay and was wondering how one might sharpen and care for it. I was directed to a USDA Forest Service web site that has a 30 page downloadable document all about cross-cut saws, their use and care. And it is free! Supposedly it is one of the best resources around on this particular topic.
Kind Regards, – Jay
Jim,
The note from SF in Hawaii about the cost of barley versus the work to produce it made me think of one of my favorite tales from Laura Ingalls-Wilder’s book, “Farmer Boy“, about the boyhood experiences of her husband Almanzo. In this scene, Almanzo has been double-dared to ask his father for a nickel to buy lemonade. When he asks, his father gives him a lesson in the value of money that I have tried hard to instill in my children:
Father looked at him a long time. Then he took out his wallet and opened it, and slowly he took out a round, big silver half-dollar. He asked: “Almanzo, do you know what this is?”
“Half a dollar,” Almanzo answered.
“Yes. But do you know what half a dollar is?”
Almanzo didn’t know it was anything but half a dollar.
“It’s work, son,” Father said. “That’s what money is; it’s hard work. You know how to raise potatoes, Almanzo?”
“Yes,” Almanzo said.
“Say you have a seed potato in the spring, what do you do with it?”
“You cut it up,” Almanzo said.
“Go on, son.”
“Then you harrow – first you manure the field, and plow it. Then you harrow, and mark the ground. And plant the potatoes, and plow them, and hoe them. You plow and hoe them twice.”
“That’s right son, and then?”
“Then you dig them and put them down cellar.”
“Yes. Then you pick them over all winter; you throw out all the little ones and the rotten ones. Come spring, you load them up and haul them here to Malone, and you sell them. And if you get a good price, son, how much do you show for all that work? How much do you get for half a bushel of potatoes?”
“Half a dollar,” Almanzo said.
“Yes,” said Father. “That’s what’s in this half-dollar, Almanzo. The work that raised half a bushel of potatoes is in it.”
Almanzo looked at the round piece of money that Father held up. It looked small, compared with all that work.
“You can have it, Almanzo,” Father said. Almanzo could hardly believe his ears. Father gave him the heavy half-dollar.
“It’s yours,” said Father. “You could buy a suckling pig with it, if you want to. You could raise it and it would raise a litter of pigs, worth four, five dollars apiece. Or you can trade that half-dollar for lemonade, and drink it up. You do as you want, it’s your money.”
Regards, – Jason R.