Labor Day of 2023
It sure felt like a repeat of a Sunday morning with the light traffic and a smattering of pedestrians in and around the downtown, and I'm sure the rising temps kept all our pampered ones from venturing outdoors. Yes, today's heat likely broke another record in North Iowa.
I had another errand to run out of town, and while driving there, I noticed several fields of corn completely picked, and a few others with their headlands harvested. I dare say there's never been a time I can remember when farmers were picking corn on the 4th of September. I did visit with a farmer yesterday who mentioned it'll be a given that our area's corn and soybean yields will be noticeably lower than in recent years. As I mentioned before, it's best we prepare ourselves for spiking food prices this Fall and winter.
Before it got all the hotter, I spent a good two hours weed-whacking and trimming, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get everything I wanted done, so that'll get saved for another day. There were black beans and San Marzano tomatoes to pick, so I got that little chore done before it was time to head indoors for the remainder of the day.
Besides the amount of time I wasted with my putzing over at my little/big project, I finally managed to get that door capital completely stripped of paint. My gosh, I couldn't believe the multiple layers of paint which was sticking to it like glue. I had to laugh to myself again when realizing that capital weighs at least half as much as it did when I took it down. Most don't realize how much heavier many layers of paint can make doors, windows, woodwork and everything else in between. A number of years ago, I tackled an antique set of four dining chairs which had multiple layers of paint on them, and to this day, I still can't believe how much lighter they turned out to be.
In these times, almost all those in our younger generations, have absolutely no clue in regards to the many hours of work it takes to bring back to life some of the best built pieces of furniture, and instead, they run out and buy composite furniture that'll be falling apart before they have their installment plans paid off. When are they ever going to realize that new isn't always better. Every time I get involved with selling an estate home, I just want to shed a few tears over the amount of really good and well kept vintage furniture ends up at Affordables, Salvation Army, Goodwill, 43 North Iowa, and even the landfill. Yes, I've seen some really good pieces ending up in drop-off dumpsters. Like I've said, "Willful waste will sooner or later, bring woeful want." Before I gift any pieces of furniture, I have a really good talk with the takers before I hand over those items, and only because so many of them haven't a clue regarding quality built solid-wood furniture.
About six years ago I went to a tag sale at a home belonging to a prominent Mason City family, and as chance would have it, I arrived on the second day where everything was half price. The one piece of furniture which caught my eye, was a Duncan Phyfe sofa which had a number of boxes sitting on it, and when I got a better look at it, I was in near shock to find that it had been re-upholstered with an expensive fabric, and looking as if it had never really been used. The real zinger for me, was after getting an even better look at it after the boxes were removed, was discovering it was likely a near- perfect match to the one our family had in our living room on the big farm.
Little does anyone know how absolutely comfortable those sofas are because they seat higher and they're much more firm than the junk we find in furniture stores. As much as I wanted it, I just couldn't picture in my mind where I'd put it because my living room wasn't big enough to house two sofas. Well after some deep dickering, I ended up purchasing it, and as chance would have it, when I got it home, I found that it fit perfectly in my solarium. Oh how the memories come rushing back whenever I'm seated on it while reading or simply enjoying the natural light and pleasant outdoor views. It's too bad my mother had already passed when I bought it because she would've been shocked after getting a really good look at it. Yes, it was definitely a fortuitous event the day I decided to stop at that 1/2 price tag sale.
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I can definitely say this Labor Day of 2023 ended up being memorable in many ways, and especially regarding the high temps and hot southerly wind. Even the birds must've been hiding in the shade of tree branches, so we'll see if they start coming out once the sun is on the horizon. I'm definitely keeping my bird waterer filled because there's likely not a puddle or pond anywhere in the vicinity. I'm still haunted by the words of that old gent telling me his creek had completely dried up after the many decades he'd lived there and always seeing water flowing in it. Kinda creepy isn't it? The only reason I can think of, is the water table in his vicinity has likely dropped which is definitely not a good thing going forward in time.
Late last night, a client of mine forwarded me an article from the Institute of Justice website, and wouldn't you know, Orange City which is out in western Iowa, made headlines in 2021 with their city being taken to court over an un-Constitutional ordinance they created where they gave themselves the power to inspect rental dwellings without the consent or knowledge of the tenants, which I thought to be the most over-the-line ordinance a municipality could've ever enacted. But then I realized, this new vacant building ordinance our illustrious city has placed into effect, is basically the same thing, and especially when there's no valid reason for them to be targeted. Ok. I'd understand it if there were unlawful goings on in those buildings like manufacturing drugs and the like, but not when there's no due cause. Keep in mind, we the citizens of this Country have got to make sure our Constitutional rights are not being trampled upon by government bureaucracies . If you want to read the article for yourselves, here's the link.
Tonight's One-liner is: It's those little bits of things that fret and worry us, as we can dodge elephants, but we can't dodge flies.
original post ... https://niowarealty.net/life/2023/09/04/labor-day-of-2023/