Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Sevices vs Production

When I grew up, folks did things for their own damned self.

If Uncle needed a patio poured, the brothers, BILs, and nephews all came over and started shoveling cement and gravel into the mixer, while others floated and troweled and got it finished.

Needed a new haybarn? We all got together and it was up in a day or two.

If Grandpa needed power to the barn, we went over and planted a pole, fitted a meter base, installed a service, and wired the barn.

If one of us needed an engine swap in a rig, we pulled it under the shade of a tree, and swapped out the motor.

Then we would tear the old one apart and rebuild it in the shed.

Need a septic system? Rent a backhoe and have the guy deliver a tank. Pay and Packs sells everything you need for the installation.

You're hungry? We went home and fixed a damned meal.

Now folks think they have to pay a plumber to fix a damned leaky faucet, or snake out a sewer, or an electrician to change a light socket.

Fug, people pay other people to put drinking water in a bottle and cook their food as a matter of habit.

We won't even start on butchering a beef or hog and throwing it in the freezer.

I was talking about a home generator at work a couple days ago. 22KW to run the whole house. Someone said they knew a guy who sells them and does installation.

The guys at work about schitt when I said "I don't need anyone to install the SOB. It ain't brain surgery. It's just an additional breaker and moving some stuff around in the main, out on the pole."

"Oh my God, you're going to burn your house down!"

Rant over.

What are you Amish or something?

No Jim, just a poor country boy.

Hell fence building, and branding, and concrete pouring, and barn raising were fun family get togethers complete with pot luck dinners, watermelon, and ice cream churns. The kids loved it and we learned valuable life skills.

We live in the world of instant gratification.
Some of that stuff pays and some doesn't. I own everything from excavators, to CNC machine equipment, to logging equipment along with the knowledge to run it all efficiently. Some days it still pays to hire it done. There are only so may hours in a day to take care of a person's own stuff. I've already missed out on too much of life by being stubborn.

I must confess, old age is putting a crimp in my DIY lifestyle. It hurts today, to do what I used to do for fun.

I have a pickup in the shop right now getting work done that I would have done at home after work twenty years ago.

Plus, autos, and pickups are a lot harder to work on.

I gladly paid over $500 to have spark plugs changed in our 2006 F150.

Most people think that a major nation can run on a "service economy". They may soon learn otherwise.

I think you’re exactly right.
We had a brief respite from that flow direction but it’s now back and full speed ahead.

My dad did the shade tree engine swap...

My question always was if you put the block and tackle on a sturdy branch...
Do you just use another rope to pull the engine where you need it?
say an adjacent truck bed...

I never saw anyone do it.

I sometimes feel like I'm part of the tail-end of the people who grew up in a can-do world. I'm in my early 50's and did things like rebuild an engine for my car when I was 19, do my own brakes, wheel bearings, most of my own welding, fixing and on and on. I'm not saying that I'm a pro at stuff (except for plumbing and HVAC), but I learned by watching my Dad that there's a lot that a man with a good mind and a bit of courage can do for himself and his people.

We always had a roll away gantry and a cable 1 ton come-along. Don't trust my life or even my fingers to a tree limb.

When your lift apparatus is not mobile, you take advantage of the wheels under the vehicle.

Pull the engine, roll the car out of the way. Back a truck under the engine and lower it into the bed. Reverse for installation of new engine.

It's a brave new world out there.

For some folks it is better to have someone fix stuff right the first.

As long as they don't work for hawkeye's gas company.

When the house needed new pipes i could no longer get under there,so i hired it done.

Whole house plumed with PEX with new valves for a little over 3 grand.

It was money well spent.

Same goes for waterwell work.while trying to save money pulling a pump,the slips broke and it fell downhole about 160ft.

It could not be retrieved.All to save 185.00.

Cost me over 3,000 to fix it.

Stuff i can do i still do but after getting gutted i have found that the list is getting shorter.

Same goes for gardens.

How many you know still garden, put up in the freezer and / or can?

I drove 800 miles last week, one of my brothers drove 300 miles. We helped another brother put in 1/2 mile of four wire barb wire fence. Then we burned off three large CRP fields for us and neighbor cousin. Took 2 1/2 days. Could have hired all of done.

I performed so much of my own needs because I could, but mainly couldn't afford to pay others to do it.

A boo boo on budgeting for retirement. No biggie but paying others now for things I never paid for in the past. Had the oil changed in my SUV last week. Thinking the second time in my life that someone else has done that for me. I can still do it, but between the weather & having covid I was glad to pay a third more for the service. Doubt they found & greased all the fittings, but crawling under one anymore is just not fun.

Big water line leak last month. A small backhoe owned by a buddy & a $300 bill for him & a helper wasn't budget breaking, but 10 years ago my own back & hands would have fixed the problem, not my wallet.

My health & abilities have changed, & feel it strange to pay others to do for me. But it seems that many operate this way & think nothing of it, or expect it.

I grew up dirt poor also and we all learned at a tough age the value of working with our hands. We built our own houses, dug our own well, fixed our own vehicles, cut our own wood, raised our own food, hunted, fished...... It was all about providing for and take care of ourselves. It's what men did. We relied on our own ingenuity and took pride in not taking any handouts.