"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”

Henry D. Thoreau

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Tuesday
Feb062024

Planned Obsolescence – part 1

by George Klassen

For a long time, I didn’t believe that planned obsolescence was a thing. Recently, I read that it was a thing, as early as the 1920s, albeit not by that name.

Planned obsolescence is a policy of designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design, so that it becomes obsolete after a predetermined period of time upon which it ceases to function well, completely ceases to function, or might be perceived as unfashionable.

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Tuesday
Jan302024

My Journey Without Alcohol

by Elbert Toews

The use of alcohol was never an issue in my growing-up years. Being from a poor family with an invalid father, the purchasing of alcohol was never entertained, at least not to my knowledge.

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Wednesday
Jan242024

Crafting with Wool – Where to Start

By Leah Bouchard

People have hand-crafted with wool for centuries. The beautiful aspect about traditional handwork is that you don’t need a ton of special skill and expensive equipment to get started.

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Tuesday
Jan162024

My Pursuit of Truth

by Gary Martens

My New Year’s resolution was to change my mind about something with the intent of getting closer to the truth. When I did find new information about something, hopefully I would then change my mind.

First, I had to ask myself, “What is truth?”

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Tuesday
Jan092024

Durability - Things that Last Longer

by George Klassen

I enjoy repairing toys, appliances and other items that assist our work and play. Because spare parts are not available for many repairs, I depend heavily on tin, steel, copper, aluminum, brass, wood, plastic, rigid and flexible tubes of various sizes, nails, screws and bolts, epoxy, wood glue, and different kinds of tape. I’ve even used thread locker to hold small screws in place.

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