Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Saturday, April 9. 2022

Life in America: Making changes, and too much STUFF


 Simplify?


There is a difference between Old and Antique. Nobody wants late 19th C/early 20th C brown furniture, regardless of how pleasant. It's fuddy-duddy, one of my daughters says.


Luckily, our Columbian painter's family loves our dining room table and chairs which were quite valuable decades ago but are unwanted orphans today. It is formal with all sorts of nice inlay like the tables in the White House. You can either donate them to Good Will, or pay junkers to take them away. Glad somebody will love it all because the kids will not.


We are replacing them with our 1960's amazing Danish slate table and some country-style chairs.  I am no decorator, but Mrs. and her decorator pal can figure it out. 




I will never get rid of my real antiques - Queen Anne bureaus and table and 1830's American stuff. They can do that when I die. 


In the same vein, Mrs. BD has her cleaning helper going through all of the closets. Tons of nice stuff that she will never wear again. Dated, or whatever. Well, our energetic Polish helper wants all of it for her family and relatives, so that's great. 


Come to think of it, I have too many firearms too.  







Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:00 | Comments (18) | Trackbacks (0)

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Too many firearms? Sorry. Having trouble wraping my head around that one.
#1 Hayden Goseek (Link) on 2022-04-09 13:03 (Reply)
You can never have to many firearms.
#1.1 rocdoctom on 2022-04-09 22:34 (Reply)
I volunteer to help you out with disposing those firearms.
#2 Rupert Smedley Hepplewhite on 2022-04-09 13:10 (Reply)
Ditto #1 and #2.
#3 Frank on 2022-04-09 13:13 (Reply)
Re: the firearms. I can't remember who was the mid-South presidential candidate who came up here to NH, and when asked about how many guns he had said "More than I need, but not as many as I want." Lamar Alexander, maybe. That went down well here. Remember that even Howard Dean said "I come from Vermont, where even liberals have 2-3 guns." That was the end of his national campaign, I fear. (Not "The Scream," which was all the media could understand.)

As for the furniture, you have done the right thing in seeking a good home for it rather than sending it to a landfill. A bit more effort on your part, but a blessing to someone else. Alas, it does not always work, especially in New England where we have lots of old stuff. My wife hates to give up books, but has done pretty well when she focuses on the Good Home aspect. I got over that years ago myself. I grew up treating anything bound as holy, but it's not anymore. Not since 1900.
#4 Assistant Village Idiot on 2022-04-09 14:36 (Reply)
Furniture goes in and out of style, but Heaven help your wallet if you need to buy chairs. My big score last year came a day or two after I spotted some problems with kitchen chairs that needed repairs; lo and behold, a neighbor's yard sale offered a complete replacement set at a ridiculously low price. Not only did I buy them on the spot, I donated my old set to her yard sale. Which my neighbor sold before noon.

Books? My neighborhood Little Free Library is a great place to drop off the culls every couple of weeks.
#4.1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2022-04-09 14:55 (Reply)
Books? My neighborhood Little Free Library is a great place to drop off the culls every couple of weeks.

My neighborhood Little Free Library locked it up to be "safe" during COVID/Wuhan Flu, and later removed it .
#4.1.1 Gringo on 2022-04-10 19:26 (Reply)
A thought BD: Those who start by throwing out their past will end by throwing out their future. The walls close in.

p.s. I completely agree. Anything bound is Holy. Well, most things bound are Holy. If you really must dispose of books, let me know. I'll take them. At least as many as I can.
#5 Michael Scott on 2022-04-09 14:50 (Reply)
I live in Mesa, AZ, also known as God's waiting room. Every week there are auctions and estate sales. Beautiful china cabinets fail to draw any bid. Grandma's pride dining room set? $100. Patio furniture sells well. Sterling service for 12 does fine, because it's light and valuable. I have seen decent China go to the VA PTSD clinic, for exactly what purpose you would expect.

Barely used living room or bedroom sets for $30. A friend said she could get me a good used washer and dryer for $400. I got a heavy duty, oversized pair for $40.
#6 Gordon Scott on 2022-04-09 16:11 (Reply)
Heresy. Plain and simple. Too many pieces? Sheesh!

You could cut the fellers what been sittin' in the back of the safe unshot for years.

2 shotguns
3 pistols
5 rifles
------------
10 firearms

I could get by on that. Wouldn't want to. I could get by on 1 of each--I really wouldn't want to.

For you hoplophopes that think that multiplicitous firearms ownership is atrocious, you must keep in mind that it is tough to carry more than 2 or 3 guns at a time, and realistically, you can only shoot one at a time.

You need 2 firearms near at hand at all times. Again atrocious? Read the Local section of your local rag. You can get it online, if not gratis, it is usually cheap. If they ain't dropping' like flies, you must live in northern Idaho.

Body count climbs every day. It is hard to believe that we are living in the 21st Century. We are moving retrograde pronto. Enjoy the show.

If you actually need the 2 firearms you will thank me for this sage advice. If you need 'em and don't have 'em, you might not be around to dispute this wisdom.


Selah
#7 Southern Man on 2022-04-09 21:09 (Reply)
I am almost 70 and live in NH, where the violent crime rate has been low since colonial times. I have never needed a gun. I don't mind if you want one, to hunt, to protect the home, or just because you like to go out and make noise. Fine by me. If I lived in a more dangerous area I might need one. But there's lots of things in life people think they need, but don't.
#7.1 Assistant Village Idiot on 2022-04-09 21:19 (Reply)
AVI:

I am not a regular poster, but am a full time lurker. I appreciate your intelligent insights.

I lived in The ATL for 40 years, 25 of which required a firearm at my job. No way I would travel there now unarmed.

I reside in the rural countryside now where crime is unbelievably low. Everyone has a gun in the house. Not many home invasions or burglaries here.

If you need a constable in a hurry you may have a problem. Big county--few officers.

Read up on the Alday Murders if you don't think a firearm is in order. https://the-line-up.com/alday-murders

I do not think I need a gun. I don't think about that at all. After 25 years of handling one daily it becomes a part of your life.

I have no contempt for your decision to go about as a man should be able to go about. In today's world a lot of things are not as they should be.
#7.1.1 Southern Man on 2022-04-10 01:21 (Reply)
When I read about that lovely furniture I think of Neal Stephenson's rumination in his book Cryptonomicon: "I had heard people talk about Gomer Bolstrood furniture. Women, in particular, seemed to speak of it in hushed, religious tones. Their factory was said to be up in some New England town where they had been based for the last three hundred years. It was said that loose curls of walnut and oak from Gomer Bolstrood’s block plane had been used as tinder beneath the pyres of convicted witches. Gomer Bolstrood was the answer to a question I’d been ruminating over ever since Granny’s funeral, namely: where does all of this high-quality grandma furniture come from?"
#8 Linda Roberts on 2022-04-10 08:11 (Reply)
Can you explain what you mean by “too many firearms”?

If such is in fact the case, you could probably hand some off to relatives or something.
#9 Dave on 2022-04-10 09:51 (Reply)
Our little town's thrift shop does a humming business, which supports half a dozen local churches and many charity operations. It's where we all take clothes we've grown into or out of, and where many of us go to buy perfectly serviceable clothes dirt cheap. There are also lots of kitchen goods and quite a lot of solid furniture.

None of my relatives want old furniture; I have a garage full of it in case we should ever build a cabin and need to outfit it. Both my husband and I love the stuff. The first worker who shows up here and appreciates it will probably be encouraged to cart it off. I think of it as shelter puppies.
#10 Texan99 on 2022-04-10 09:55 (Reply)
I believe Phil Gram from Texas is credited with saying he had more guns than he needed but fewer than he wanted.
#11 Michael (Link) on 2022-04-10 10:25 (Reply)
Foolish Bird Dog. You can never have too many guns.

We moved around so much the last few years, we got rid of all but the few sticks of furniture and kitchen stuff we still need to be comfortable. We had lots of beautiful things, but like you said, the kids didn't want any of it. So now we have some hand-carved occasional tables with clawfoot legs and some old, old beautifully painted hurricane lamps. When we're gone, it'll be the kids' job to get it rid of it and, maybe, to regret some of the things they could have had but won't now.
#12 RebeccaH on 2022-04-10 13:17 (Reply)
You spend the first half of your life acquiring stuff, and the second half trying to give it away.
#13 Pod Hamp on 2022-04-11 18:43 (Reply)

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