Jeff McFadden Profile picture
May 20, 2021 5 tweets 2 min read Read on X
No, seriously. These are tools I was using today.
2. Step 1, oak seedling, marked with steel post, surrounded by a clump of grass I have been unable to mow.
3. Step 2, cut away the grass clump with the sickle to give the seedling light and air.
4. Step 3, pull up the steel post and replace with wood post. Drive wood post in with hammer.
If the wood post gets knocked down by cattle or deer, it won't tear up the mower.
5. In clumps where the seedling had died, I cut away the grass, pulled up the post, planted a different seedling (shellbark hickory, persimmon, blackhaw, or hazelnut, on this day) and then drove in a wooden post.
Hammer, sickle, shovel, stakes, seedlings, all on donkey cart.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Jeff McFadden

Jeff McFadden Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @JeffAndDonkeys

Aug 27
I used to write about climate change. I went about 5 years, writing a thread at least 5 days a week.
Although the global ecosystem is massively degraded and losing functions, I believe it still would act towards a restoration of a livable climate for the current biosphere if.
2. If, that is, we would let it.
If we would quit degrading it.
Yes, I am aware that there are over 8 billion of us. As it is today, roughly two billion of us extract and reduce to trash at least 8 to 10 times more resources per unit of time, per person, than the other 6 billion.
3. We have all these excuses. People would starve if they couldn't get from zero to 60 mph in under ten seconds, people would starve if we couldn't commute by personal jet, a thousand miles one way.
It's all bullshit.
The other 6 billion aren't starving. Lots of them are hungry,
Read 22 tweets
Aug 4
So ...
What have I been doing in the earth shattered heat wave?
I bought a new guitar. New to me. Made in 1956. It's a ten string non-pedal steel guitar, and the most fascinating instrument I've ever encountered.
2. I'm consuming resources to operate it.
It's electric.
I have an 8 watt (maximum) Boss Katana Mini amplifier which runs on 6 AA batteries. My Peterson tuner is lithium ion rechargeable.
As kilowatts go it's a fairly low end consumer, but it's all energy.
Image
Image
4. This thing was designed by a man named Elbern H. Alkire, known professionally as Eddie.
Eddie's objective was to create a non-pedal steel guitar which addressed the same playability issues that pedal steels were invented for.
The Alkire Eharp was Betamax to pedal steel's VHS.
Read 26 tweets
Jul 16
Good evening, my friends. Tonight, if you'll tolerate a garrulous old man, I'll tell you a story from my life.
As of today I have been drawing breath, air of Earth, for 77 years. As some of you know, I have spent the past 6 or so of those years writing about an alternative life,
2. a life in which humans, yes over 8 billion humans, could live reasonably comfortably, warm, dressed, well fed, hois d, and gainfully employing our hands and brains to making the ecosystem which supports us better, not better than we found it but better than we have made it.
(that mystery word is "housed.")
3. We could do this by eliminating wasted energy in the forms of speed and resultant wasted motion.
It would look a lot different. It would not satisfy our current demands for speed and stimulation.
But that's for another day if ever. Done that.
Read 34 tweets
Jul 10
I've met some of the best people in the world on here.
I met Cindy my wife on here. Susan, below, has been my friend over a decade.
I'm going to write a thread tonight. Here. I've been thinking it all day.
May take a while to get it done.
1. What I wish would happen, next, in the real world.
As always, I write from the perspective that there is no thing more important to humans than a living ecosystem able to support humans.
As it turns out, humans have the exact same requirements as a vast swath of the biosphere.
2. I also write from the perspective that the living ecosystem which we require is undergoing rapid degradation, and that if it has to drop to a lower productivity level we will have far less resources available to us than we do now.
I think that's on the road we're traveling.
Read 23 tweets
Jun 16
I posted this recently.
You can see from the comments how much people hate me for it.
I'm used to it.
I'm going to tell a story here, about my past.
I sincerely hope this will be my last ever Xcreet.
I keep checking back to suck up all the hate, but it's obviously stupid.
I was born in Kansas City, MO, in 1947, to a WWII non-combat veteran and his wife.
My dad had an LLB, a type of law degree which no longer exists. Before the war he had been an attorney in private practice in Council Bluffs, IA. The war left him in KC.
3. After the war my dad took his degree and went to work for the VA, administering the newly passed Veterans' Bill. He was a mid-level federal bureaucrat. We weren't rich but we were comfortable. One older sister, standard Ozzie and Harriet family.
Read 23 tweets
Jun 12
Much - probably most - of the increasing ecosystem catastrophe often referred to as climate change is a result of the exhaust gases which come from burning fossil fuels.
But.
Talking about halting fossil fuels is the stupidest and most useless topic in the world.
I'll explain.
2. We do not have any means except fossil fuels to do most of the things we do.
We can do less than 20% of all our activities as developed societies, modern societies, first world societies, without fossil fuels.
This is an absolute fact.
That's why we burn them. To do things.
3. There is, and has been for over 40 years, the pretense that "we have the technology" to do all the things we do without fossil fuels.
This is a lie.
We have designed technology which, if we had it, if it had been built and installed, would let us do about half of what we do.
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(