The Manual of Life

I have been thinking the following for a while and have come up with.....There has to be a Manual floating around for people to subscribe to as well as chapters specially written for some individuals. What I have observed is if there is a way to do something the most difficult/time consuming/backwards/inappropriate way then this manual has all the information ready on hand for you.

Can I give some examples?....I know a bloke who is 80 and lives on a hobby farm. When he uses his Weed Wacker to knock the grass down he cuts it about 200mm high....? He also has a slow combustion stove for cooking so has to cut wood. He goes out the back of his place about a kilometer away cuts down a dead tree (species doesn't matter, he even cuts Argyle Apple) then drags it back along a gravel road to cut it into 1200mm sections to cut again on a circular saw (which is blunt)driven by an ancient tractor PTO then a chain drive. He is 80 remember, he will do this in the heat of a day.

I know another bloke, hobby farmer, that when he has cows to go to market has a quad runner and will rev and raw the quaddy at speed to push the animals into a shabby set of pens to load. He then wonders why the animals shoot away from the direction he wants them to go making him have to rev and raw after them to get them back.

I am sure that you can attest to knowing someone who has this Manual and is a devotee of the particular chapters.

Feel free to add any information you have on these perpetrators.

we brought the cow into the yards with a molasses lick-block, but they had to be conditioned to do this

Is it any different to watering, fertilizing, weeding the lawn then sweat on a mower, edge trimmer and blower vac to make it short and pristine to start all over again with water and fertilizer, etc, etc

or, cut down trees so we can plant more trees

or, smoke ourselves into cancer and blame it on the cigarette companies

or, make ourselves slaves to all the "gotta have that" way of life and whinge because we are time poor working to achieve something that we want to pay the cheapest price for but be paid the biggest dollars to do as little as possible and wonder why life is a grind.

In the case of the 80 year old, dont begrudge his days achievement, he is motivated and probably satisfied with his efforts

The hobby farmer, its his hobby, so......

But yes, I do agree with you, some people do make life harder for themselves

3 kinds of people in the world, the ones who make things happen and the ones who wonder what happened and the the ones who don't know whats happening

What's wrong with weed-whacking the grass to 200mm height? We do too...

Not making any smart a'd comments here, but the old guy's methods make sense to me so I am asking why anyone would think it's "the hard way." :?

The point I suppose I was making with the whippy-nippy was that he goes to the effort of using the thing but leaving it long so it needs cutting more often.

Yes Ray when you put it into writing the "art" of lawn manicure does look a little absurd.

On a big job I was on once the team of brickies numbered about 12. Most were Aussies the rest were Poms. But there was also a fella from Turkey. They had him doing guts work with the rest of the team for a long while then the Foreman got him to do a small wall for a cleaners cupboard. The Foreman was watching him work on this wall as I walked past. The Foreman commented "He makes it look like hard work doesn't he". And he was right. The others brickies were very fluid in their action and made the job look effortless but not the Turk. I can't remember what happened to him. He may have been moved on.

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Originally Posted by chambezio

On a big job I was on once the team of brickies numbered about 12. Most were Aussies the rest were Poms. But there was also a fella from Turkey. They had him doing guts work with the rest of the team for a long while then the Foreman got him to do a small wall for a cleaners cupboard. The Foreman was watching him work on this wall as I walked past. The Foreman commented "He makes it look like hard work doesn't he". And he was right. The others brickies were very fluid in their action and made the job look effortless but not the Turk. I can't remember what happened to him. He may have been moved on.

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When I was in the Army, I worked with a soldier who specialised in making easy tasks appear difficult when the officers were watching. They used to lap up his act and thought that he was the best and most talented one amongst us. He would get all the praise and accolades in the world.

Eventually an officer who had previously a digger was put in charge of us and he saw through this act and those who did the difficult things and made them look easy started to get some recognition.

Cheers

Doug

Isn't it interesting that with most big purchases you get some sort of warranty and an instruction manual. Yet after waiting almost 40 weeks a person/couple can have a baby which comes with no warranty or instruction manual.

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Originally Posted by Handyjack

Isn't it interesting that with most big purchases you get some sort of warranty and an instruction manual. Yet after waiting almost 40 weeks a person/couple can have a baby which comes with no warranty or instruction manual.

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Not really. They made that baby themselves. Therefore they should know all about it. THey provide their own warranty as the manufacturers and should know how to operate it. They should be able to write their own manual if necessary for the guidance of others who may have to interact with it.

Cheers

Doug

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Originally Posted by doug3030

Not really. They made that baby themselves. Therefore they should know all about it. THey provide their own warranty as the manufacturers and should know how to operate it. They should be able to write their own manual if necessary for the guidance of others who may have to interact with it.

Cheers

Doug

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If only it was that easy.
There are no guarantees in life, only death and taxes.

My profession is as a systems analyst/business analyst/whatever the hip new recruiting term is now. If people were at all logical in their actions I'd soon be without a job. In general my observation is that people like routine, and are addicted to process, even when it makes no sense, creates waste, whatever. We are all guilty of it to some degree or another. The old guy probably has his own infallible version of logic that makes this process the only thing that will ever make sense to him. To everyone else it might be insanity, but that is totally irrelevant. The big lesson I've learnt is that if people don't see the need for change themselves, it is folly to force it on them.

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Originally Posted by chambezio

The point I suppose I was making with the whippy-nippy was that he goes to the effort of using the thing but leaving it long so it needs cutting more often.

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Huh? I reckon the old bloke has it 100% correct.
Leaving weeds longer slows weed growth and this requires cutting LESS often.
There's lots of other reasons for leaving lawns and weeds longer than we generally do
Have a look here Cutting height questions, shorter makes lawn grow faster? | LawnSite

I won this argument with my wife a few years ago and I halved the lawn moving by doing it.

In my version of logic, a whipper snipper is what you use when the roundup has run out ;)