Farmboy Engineering

Last winter, the handle had somehow broken off the dipstick of my son’s car.  We took it to Jack, who does all our repair work and asked about the cost.  He quoted us $65.00 plus a new dipstick.  This seemed fair, but was more than I wanted to pay. I can be very frugal (read: cheap) sometimes and suggested to Andrew that we could extract the old dipstick ourselves and save some money.  He looked at me as though my third eye was showing.  To make a long story short, we took his car to the Toybox, I drilled a small hole in the top of the remaining piece of the dipstick, and by threading a small screw into it, extracted the old dipstick.  After spending $17.00 for a new one, the problem was solved.

My son was amazed. He asked me where I had learned that trick and I had to think about it very carefully.  I didn’t have a clear answer.  I hadn’t taken a class, nor had I read an article about how to remove a broken dipstick.  What it came down to was that I watched people accomplish things and learned from them.  Working with my grandfather signaled the beginning of this training.  He taught me early on that if you stopped and thought about what you needed to do, there was always a way to get it done.  When we were building a barn and needed to stand vertical beams up that were way too heavy to handle, he figured out that with a rope and a horse, you could walk those timbers up to a standing position.  He also taught me (in a time when vehicles were much simpler) how to shut the engine off going downhill if you were short of gasoline and needed to get home. 

Following his training, I had the opportunity to work with a yard foreman in a Payless store. I honestly believe he could have moved anything with just a couple of rubber bands and a paperclip.  He had a lot of common sense.  He would sit back, look at a problem and then come up with an ingenious solution.  He was not a brilliant man, but he knew how to get things done.  My father in law was also that type of person. He would come up with ways to handle problems others would never consider.  For example, in his shop there was a small square hole cut in the wall. If the electricity failed, he could reach through the hole and pull the rope that released the garage door opener.  He was also the first person I knew to have a quick disconnect on his gas grill on the outside of the house.

I learned plenty from these folks and others about slowing down and thinking through a problem.  I guess it is my turn to move that on to new generations, namely my son and maybe someday, his son.  I heard a speaker say in the last few weeks that when you reach the age of 65, you automatically get wisdom.  I look forward to that day. I will enjoy feeling that I have at least gained some wisdom, and since my son will be over the age of thirty by then, I am sure I will have become much smarter than I was when he was sixteen.  Great things come with age.

I encourage you to look around for people in your life who make things happen, maybe even in ways you do not understand.  It may be the janitor at work who keeps things cleaner than you expect, or the person that serves you the most amazing hamburger at lunch.  It could be a friend, a spouse, or anyone.  Watch them, slow down and think about easier, smarter ways to do things.  This is the heart of farm boy engineering.  Relax, take some time, and figure out an easier and smarter way.

Ugly

Whenever I drive to the Toybox, I pass a new building which is going up. It is some type of government building which will house some type of support function.  I’m sure it will work well for what it is designed to do, but it is ugly.  Even though it isn’t finished yet, no matter what they do to it, I believe it will remain ugly.  I keep asking myself why someone would choose to build an ugly building.  This fall, in an architectural tour around Des Moines, the same challenge came from some of the design professionals on the tour.  Why build ugly?

I spent a great deal of my life in the building materials business and I will say that without question, the difference between an ugly building and a beautiful building is not significant.  Add a little extra trim to the outside of a building, broaden the eaves, or add some nice landscaping and almost instantaneously the building changes.  On the inside, you can change the species of door or add crown molding. Adding something as simple as wallpaper on one focal wall can change a room, and transform a house from drab to interesting.

In our daily lives, we really face the same challenge, though I believe this is a much more difficult task.   We all work to make the things we produce, whether writing, music, math or woodworking; beautiful.  We work to add things others like and find enjoyable.  In woodworking, I find this to be the challenge.  I have a tendency to think and work in right angles and straight lines.  Check out the article on Sam Maloof in Wikipedia.  You will find this picture of a rocker he produced.  There is not a single straight line in the piece - anywhere.  This isn’t what you see in my woodworking. Fortunately, I have found that in using contrasting woods and finishes, I bring beauty to my pieces.  As I continue grow as a woodworker, maybe I will find ways to add curves and variety to my work, but I seriously doubt that Sam, if he were still alive, would ever have to feel threatened by me.

As I think about buildings, work, and hobbies, I also think about what I do to add beauty to my life.  It doesn’t take huge changes to make a difference.  I can change the way I look by losing a few pounds or getting a haircut.  These are outer changes are usually noticeable to the world.  Inner change is much more difficult.  I have lived for almost 56 years and making changes to the basic way I interact with the world is tough.  But the payoff is worth the effort.  I’m fully aware of the areas in my personality and mannerisms which are weak and those are the things I want to work on.  It seems to me that 2013 will be a great year to work on transforming my inner self.

I began this blog thinking about ugly buildings, and by the end, I've begun considering new ways to become a person in whom ugliness will not reside.  I am going to commit myself to adding beauty wherever I can: the house where I live, the woodworking I do, and the person with whom each of you gets to interact.  Each day is a gift, and together we need to make the most of it.  Enjoying each other should be a big part of that enjoyment.  Join me on the journey and let’s see what beauty we can make together.