Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Of Posts & Peace
Today’s view comes from the front porch (instead of the back porch), because I have been installing a railing around the porch for insurance purposes. Last week, for the first time, I began installing the posts on the corners of the porch, drill bit, lag screws... not too difficult. Then the rails (ready made) were also fairly easy to add, used a level. At first it seemed wobbly and I wondered if it would come down with the first wind, or child running into the rail.
Well its been a few days since then and the wind hasn’t knocked it down, and somehow it seems quite strong now.
Yesterday was the real challenge. Putting in the two posts at the bottom of the stairs for stair railings to hang on. I had to dig into the ground, finding almost as much slate as dirt and clay, until I could sink the cement post blocks into the ground. Then leveling the blocks in both directions...putting slate chips under this side and that... there is one value of the slate I dug up... Finally, level.
O, the block wasn’t aligned with the upper stair post. Pull out the block...grunt...dig some more, now measure the post parallel to the upper post, now level, both ways, and recheck the post parallels - this took a few passes. Finally done. On to the post for the other side of the stairs.
Dug the hole, sunk, paralleled, and leveled the block both ways...didnt take much effort the second time around. Then the realization, is this front post height-parallel to the first front post I just prepared? The ground slopes about 4 inches and so this meant I had to dig the first post block another 4 inches deeper.
So, pull up the block (now I’m using rope under the posts to make it easier to lift out of the hole, got out the ‘claw’ (the small 4-pronged hand-rotor tiller) to make quick work of the slate digging where the shovel stopped working, dug the 4 inches, leveled the block both ways, paralleled to the upper post, and yes, now height-parallel to the post on the other side of the rail.
It occured to me this may be more challenging than trying to figure out how to achieve world peace. Perhaps if we get some professional deck installers to sit at the peace table, they may be able to consider a lot more angles than those already at the talks.
Organic Moo Milk
On another topic, Sunday I drove down the road (5 minutes) to my neighbor’s organic dairy and bought some raw organic milk. Ayurveda says to boil it first to kill the bacteria. The farmer and the neighbors all look at me like I’m crazy, ‘Why do you want to boil raw milk? We drink it raw all our lives.”
On another topic, Sunday I drove down the road (5 minutes) to my neighbor’s organic dairy and bought some raw organic milk. Ayurveda says to boil it first to kill the bacteria. The farmer and the neighbors all look at me like I’m crazy, ‘Why do you want to boil raw milk? We drink it raw all our lives.”
So now in fact, I too wonder why.
But I am enjoying the boiled milk. Next I’ll make yogurt and paneer (boil milk, squeeze lemon, skim the curds, and cook or fry and voila...paneer
Maybe if we serve organic raw cow’s milk and paneer at the peace table...
