Hard lesson we must admit now

a reply to: ganjoa

Shop and Home Ec were required parts of the middle school curriculum. In 7th grade, shop was split equally between metal working and wood working while home ec was split between sewing and cooking. In 8th you chose between home ec and shop. I chose shop. Then shop was split between drafting and shop. The final pro;ect was to draft and build what you drafted.

a reply to: JAGStorm

It's funny because when I was in school there was time for those subjects without missing out on the more scholastic ones. I believe in most schools they still offer Home Ec. and vocational classes as electives (though choices in vocational classes have been reduced drastically).

Even funnier is the fact that we also had time for Civics and Economics classes (they were required for graduation back then) but now they claim there is no time. I think cutting out those classes has been a travesty! How are young people whose parents don't educate them on government and the Constitution at home supposed to know their rights without someone to teach them?

originally posted by: ketsuko
I think at this time, textbooks would be useful, even if they were in e-book format.

Do you have an Apple device? I'd recommend the CK-12 Foundation offers.

Might even be worth buying an iPad or an iMac just for the books you'll have access to. It's what I'm doing when I'm not on the boards or out at the range.

Currently lost in the Harvard Classics. Set me back all of a dollar ninety-nine for a 71 volume collection.

ETA: One of our final jr. high shop class projects was to build a wall with a window in it. We also had separate classes for mechanics and metal shop (life-long love of mine) in high school. Home Ec was mandatory in 7th grade. The other classes mentioned were graduation pre reqs (except for girlz). Also wise, was participating in an after school sport, so you didn't have to take PE during the middle of the day. Civics was also mandatory ... and now I don't even think it's an elective.

a reply to: Snarl

We had to take so many credits of PE no matter how many sports we were in both in middle and high school. I participated in basketball, cross country, and track although I only did cross country the one year for track training purposes and to help the distance girls form a full team.

I still had to take the full complement of PE credits.

But by the time you reached high school, home ec and shop were elective tracks. I do know that the shop track took you to where the final senior pro;ect was building a full house, wired and plumbed and all. I actually wanted to do that, but there was no way to fit it in with the college readiness track and the athletic readiness track.

Truthfully, there really weren't many things I wasn't interested in at least trying when I was in school.

a reply to: DoctorBluechip

A life long "gardener" here and I agree. It is not as easy as it looks.

Who was the guy who said just throw some seeds in the ground with some water and walk away? That is the perception most urban/suburban Americans have.

Growing your own food is rewarding and much tastier than the store/restaurant. But it takes effort to learn. It take effort to learn to preserve. It takes effort to learn to cook meals.

Too many now-a-days simply feel if they throw money at a problem, that's good enough. Sad.

a reply to: JAGStorm

The bulk of our food must be grown and processed here. Sending chicken to China for processing is nuts and dangerous.

All essentials and basic should be grown, manufactured, and processed here. We should only be importing luxury items or supplementary items to our basics.

This of course will change our way of life considerably, because manufacturing and processing of good is nasty, dirty, and a pollution factory. This means we will have make do with a lot less. We have to produce for our needs while protecting our water, air, and soil.

It can be done, but green production calls for a more unified, and less selfish mind set.

a reply to: DoctorBluechip
Wholeheartedly agree with your post. Massive panic seed buying and suddenly everyone thinks "I'll just throw these in the ground and have instant food".. yeah..uh..doesn't work like that. At least it sure didn't for me!
Try to help someone though and they think it's automatic or they will watch 1 youtube video and have it down. Ah well.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

It may mean going to back the days before manufacturing in a break date so they can sell us another.

Items might have to become repairable by either people in the home or others instead of disposable.

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
a reply to: JAGStorm

in order to return " home ecconomics and shopping " to the school sylabys - ayou proposing :

a - lengthen school day

b - cut time from other subject[s] - if so which

perhaps in in depth study on how we who are in our 50's were able to accomplish such tasks, and all without computers...

a reply to: DoctorBluechip

One of the greatest myths is raised beds . You want a massive job of watering everyday ? Get some raised beds put in , at cost to your pocket , space and productivity . Get some irrigated beds , now the ground is growing things , not you.

I would have to disagree with you on that..

Raised beds equal less weeding, less stress on your back, being able to wire mesh the bottom of the beds to save your plants from gophers, etc.

As far as watering, can you say drip irrigation?

My "watering" for the year consists of putting the nozzles on in the spring and turning a spigot, in the fall taking the nozzles off and cleaning the lines out with compressed air.

Hmmm where do you live.

I have two boys, one is second year college with a major in electrical engineering, and the other is 11th grade. We live in the NW in Washington near Portland and they have had wood shop, metal shop, welding, small engine repair, band, football, pastries cooking, cooking... not to mention AP classes. My oldest had two AP calc classes before he started college.

I'm a Boomer, so when I do things like change my car oil, got 4 cars, they are right there too. All these classes has molded them a good deal as they do things like completely tear down their mountain bikes and rebuild as they save 1000s from taking them to a store. My college boy still likes to cook pastries. I remember when they were like 7 or even 8 all the kids had flat tires on their bikes, and I was like why in the hell does everyone have flat tires, except my boys. These kids would ride around all day with flat tires and when they came over I would show them how to pump them up and they would look surprise in how easier it was to bike... geez..


My wife is basically an immigrant and so it is nothing but home cooked meals from scratch for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not only do we have a high end Japanese rice cooker which means perfect rice available 24/7, but my wife has a high end sewing machine, and she has made about 100 masks with all kinds of cool designs that young people would find cool to wear...just saying

a reply to: DoctorBluechip

It's just plain simple old gardening right ?
Wrong .

No joke I saw a lady plant cilantro one seed to a big pot.

a reply to: Lumenari

I would have to disagree with you on that..

Raised beds equal less weeding, less stress on your back, being able to wire mesh the bottom of the beds to save your plants from gophers, etc.

I agree and disagree with both. Some crops do better in beds, some directly in the earth.
The best is a combo of both.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

True , but all you really need to know about soil chemistry is that you can't grow brassica s ( brocolili cabbage , kale : that family ) , on chalky alkaline soils very well. That said , the cabbage white butterfly is so prolific nowadays that without chemical or net protection you'd be looking at ruined leaves and dismal final crops as the caterpillars eat them down rapidly . A better choice is spinach , particularly perpetual spinach.

a reply to: Lumenari

Sounds like you're doing it properly , but you might be using more water than strictly necessary : no matter for now. The most productive gardens are either sunken or planted near watercourses , but every circumstance is different .
There's also a tradesman's saying : do it properly or not at all.

a reply to: ABNARTY

You learn to walk away from customers that insist on setting the agenda . With work from here to timbuctoo , who needs bigots that look down upon the 'simple' ? Best to arrive and leave with a

not a : not everyone's money's the same

originally posted by: DoctorBluechip
a reply to: Lumenari

Sounds like you're doing it properly , but you might be using more water than strictly necessary : no matter for now. The most productive gardens are either sunken or planted near watercourses , but every circumstance is different .
There's also a tradesman's saying : do it properly or not at all.

My water is coming from a natural spring... what I don't use flows down to the river.

And yes, circumstances are going to be different for every property.

I chose my property with gardening and an orchard in mind.

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
a reply to: JAGStorm

in order to return " home ecconomics and shopping " to the school sylabys - ayou proposing :

a - lengthen school day

b - cut time from other subject[s] - if so which

i would like to see a more stream lined education where reading, writing, math, civics, and science are prioritized.
classes like art, home economics, wood shop, metal shop, and automotive could be handled as electives. where the child sign up for classes that interest them. i enjoyed the time in shop class.

a reply to: subfab

where the child sign up for classes that interest them. i enjoyed the time in shop class.

I would have never signed up for shop, it ended up being one of my all time favorite classes.

Hmmm. This is a pretty decent thread I can get behind. I think probably the only way out of this hell we've dug ourselves into is for society (grassroots) to take the initiative for a gradual, incremental move towards (at least) family-level independence. As long as the ideal remains a nice comfortable house in the suburbs with an HOA and a wage slave job with a retirement fund, this is not going to happen.

People would need to find a way to give themselves the freedom and the knowledge to live outside of society. Which is actually almost illegal in many places. But also, people would need to find the common sense and the willpower to breed (and not breed) intelligently instead of impulsively.

As an aside... Perhaps when this is all over there might be some public support for outlawing the health insurance mafia. These people are the reason Americans are getting shafted every which way. All they care about is money. All they ever cared about was money. They never wanted to help you with anything at all. They're just friggin parasites.