I'm new to these enormous engines, a rookie amount giants in the fields of a few recent tractor shows where I stumbled upon them. Not expecting to see such machinery, I was captivated by their style, design and the look back to a time when life was so very different. Since they are such amazing and unique pieces I just wanted to put them together into a short photo-blog listing and at the end of this post you can find links to my albums on Flickr, 500px, etc. Here are a few sites where you can find out more about the Frick Company.
This first batch of photos was taken at the Eastern Shore Threshermen's Association show held annually in Federalsburg, Maryland.
Please congratulate me for I have found the world's most annoying alarm clock. ** THIS CAN BE YOURS FOR JUST TWO EASY PAYMENTS OF $49.99 **
It all begins with a braying donkey-like sound which causes the user to bolt out of bed in a panic thinking that something is totally wrong or disastrous. Once out of bed you proceed onto the front door, believing that the braying indicated an urgent need for some creature to have access to the outside world IMMEDIATELY, only to discover when you get to the door that there is nothing there.
It's been six weeks since the idea was born for this event. People throughout the local area have joined in promoting, organizing and planning - no different really than many projects we've worked on before - except that I found out something a few weeks ago; Lt. Rennie Miles touched a lot of lives. He is someone that although I've never met, is beloved, admired and respected by many.
Today I set out to find some amusing images and greetings of affection and love for tomorrow, Valentine's Day. The other half is out of town and from time to time the way we show our devotion to one another is to post multiple greetings and silly, zany images for special occasions.
Tonight I'm thinking about choices; mulling over decisions which at one time were valued standards of our daily lives. These behaviors, once essential components of community and economics, center around an article I just stumbled across which has mesmerized me and drawn me to wonder; are we really better for having tossed such principles aside?
The words are resonating deep in my soul, almost as if the writer had observed the same changes I have witnessed. It comes as no surprise to me that their suggestions - once some of the cornerstones by which we lived, operated and took to heart - may instead now represent the very things which are slipping away from us. The three concepts discussed are:
- Support local food systems
- Invest in the local economy
- Participate in community building activities
These don't sound like terribly difficult topics, do they? I didn't think so, but when stacked up against the demands of today's fast-paced world, such ideas seem of little importance. To those with priorities that center around "doing more faster" and "saving time", such old-fashioned ideas probably seem insane or ludicrous even, and gradually our society raised on instant gratification began to be okay with shoving aside anything which seemed to get in our way. Why go to the family-owned grocery store when with the click of a mouse a box can appear on our doorstep? Even if we wished to get in the car and physically visit such a place, a small business may not be considered acceptable by today's consumers, who flock to the big retailers which cater to every whim and craving imaginable. After all, aren't we programmed to think that two options for a product might be unacceptable when one can now have eight? As it became "too time consuming" for us to visit a nearby farm for fresh produce and eggs, then the butcher AND grocery store too, did it also get too easy to just eliminate such steps from our lives?
Perhaps as we did so, rejecting the choices available in our own communities and instead leaving down to drive to the supercenter 40 minutes away, maybe we began to lose ourselves as well. No longer did we need to engage in conversation with neighbors and local residents as we had in the small local stores, because here we could just fade into the blur of faceless individuals. While circulating within these massive buildings surrounded by so many others, we'd found a place requiring even less effort on our part; we were now in the comfortable zone of the land where no one knows our name. And maybe, as we lost a need to engage with the people we live next door to, found ways to avoid talking to one another, perhaps that is when we began to lose ourselves.
Farm & Dairy | 1.17.17: "Restoring rural America: community building in the modern era"
