Althouse: At the Empty Wagon Café...

December 12, 2014

At the Empty Wagon Café...

... you provide the content.

41 comments:

Laslo Spatula said...: "... you provide the content."

Don't tempt me.

I am Laslo.; 12/12/14, 9:05 AM
TosaGuy said...: Drove to work from my place in the country today. There was a hard frost last night and the white trees were beautiful against the low, gray sky.; 12/12/14, 9:07 AM
chickelit said...: California is getting some much needed rain which should put a damper on further protests.
__________________
1423 was my pass code for this comment. I'm not sure what happened that year in history -- probably something plague related.; 12/12/14, 9:17 AM
Humperdink said...: Spouse and DIL into horses now. Looks like the hay wagon would hold about 200 bales.

Horses, for the most part, are a gender thing.

Women = horses.

Men = lugging hay.

Not a fan.; 12/12/14, 9:19 AM
chickelit said...: During the plague, they would load carts like that with bodies. Surely that must have seemed like end times.; 12/12/14, 9:19 AM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: What is the wagon normally used for? Must be something with low mass density.

Some resemblance to cotton trailers - now no longer used since cotton is now field-packed into 'modules' or the even new round-bales.; 12/12/14, 9:23 AM
traditionalguy said...: Amazon probably sees California rain storms in the time of droughts as an opportunity to build resevoirs that catch runoff and sell the water when the drought returns.

Sneaky capitalists. The California Government never saw any need to spend money on public works like that to meet needs. But Gimme Those High Speed Bullet Trains to Nowhere at a trillion dollars per track.; 12/12/14, 9:25 AM
Curious George said...: "TosaGuy said...
Drove to work from my place in the country today. There was a hard frost last night and the white trees were beautiful against the low, gray sky."

What I hate most about Wisconsin winters is not the cold, or the snow, or the duration. It's the gray skies, day after day after day.; 12/12/14, 9:31 AM
TosaGuy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/12/14, 9:31 AM
TosaGuy said...: Hammond,

Most hay bales today weigh about 800 pounds and are deposited in the field and then picked up later with a tractor.

This hay wagon is used for bales that are about 55 pounds. They are ejected by the baler into the wagon and about 150-200 will fit in there.

Back in the day, these hay wagons didn't have sides and one hired some farm kids to pick the bale from the baler and stack them neatly. In the '80s when I was a teenager, I got $4/hour plus a couple of beers for baling hay.

Such hayracks still require farm kids to unload and the current rate is $10/hr...don't know if they still get the beer.; 12/12/14, 9:32 AM
TosaGuy said...: "What I hate most about Wisconsin winters is not the cold, or the snow, or the duration. It's the gray skies, day after day after day."

I grew up in SW Minnesota and winter were colder than WI, but the days sunnier. Milwaukee is dank all winter and it drove me nuts. My new place is far enough from Lake Michigan that its 50/50 sunny or cloudy on any given winter day.; 12/12/14, 9:36 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Humperdink said...

Horses, for the most part, are a gender thing.

Women = horses.
Men = lugging hay.

In my experience it was:

Women = Horses.
Men = Paying for horses. Paying for hay. Paying for grain. Paying for vet. Paying for chiropractor. Paying for farrier. Paying for saddle. Paying for tack. Paying for hoof coverings. Paying for ankle wrappings. Paying for riding clothes. Paying for riding boots. Paying for helmet. Paying for riding lessons. Paying for riding shows.; 12/12/14, 9:36 AM
Meade said...: Hey, I could be very contented adding content to that empty wagon, Alfalfa.; 12/12/14, 9:38 AM
campy said...: Is that the Badger bandwagon?; 12/12/14, 9:40 AM
Humperdink said...: @IiB. The only pleasure I get from these expensive critters (aka 4 legged money pits) is watching them run across our open pasture ... which I can get from any western film.; 12/12/14, 9:42 AM
TosaGuy said...: A weekend neighbor has a pair of horses in the pasture across the road. They come running when my wife and I walk the road so they can get their ears scratched and fed some the greener grass on the other side of the fence. It's a good way to have horses.; 12/12/14, 9:46 AM
etbass said...: Ignorance said

"In my experience it was:

Women = Horses.
Men = Paying for horses. Paying for hay. Paying for grain. Paying for vet. Paying for chiropractor. Paying for farrier. Paying for saddle. Paying for tack. Paying for hoof coverings. Paying for ankle wrappings. Paying for riding clothes. Paying for riding boots. Paying for helmet. Paying for riding lessons. Paying for riding shows."

Amen brother. Horses are a black hole for money. You left out the horse trailer, insurance, repair, ...; 12/12/14, 9:46 AM
Humperdink said...: One of the goofball steeds got into the grain bin and binged. Could have OD'd. Who knew?

Emergency call to the vet. Poured mineral oil down the offending horse's throat, shot in the rump. Pull out the checkbook. Shakes head.; 12/12/14, 9:53 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: etbass said...

You left out...

I figured if I tried to list everything I would crash the internet. The tubes are only so big.; 12/12/14, 9:55 AM
Wince said...: Proverb: Empty wagons rattle loudest.; 12/12/14, 10:07 AM
buwaya said...: One day this country will be in need of tumbrils to take the aristocrats of Washington and New York to the guillotines. At the moment the tumbrils, in the thousands, are sitting empty by country roads, waiting for their grim moment in history.; 12/12/14, 10:16 AM
Meade said...: How to get revenge on a man: give his daughter a horse.; 12/12/14, 10:20 AM
FullMoon said...: Holy Shit!

Drudge:

Obama team lines up behind Elizabeth Warren...

Ex-CIA director defends rectal rehydration...; 12/12/14, 10:34 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Here's a chart showing the average % and number of hours and days of sun in winter in various places including Madison. Michigan is less sunny in winter. Minnesota averages 2 more days that are clear. Many states have fewer clear days. Michigan has only and average of 10 clear days in winter. Madison has 20. Only 5 states have more than 30, and they are all in the south. And Florida isn't even one.

That said, I think the lack of sun problem is the shortness of the days. If it's a sunny day, better get out there before it's over. Also, get up before dawn, like I do.; 12/12/14, 10:39 AM
TosaGuy said...: Interesting chart. The number of clear days isn't too different in the surround states, but the percentage of sun on any given day has a wide difference.; 12/12/14, 10:45 AM
Unknown said...: They make the most noise.; 12/12/14, 10:47 AM
Hagar said...: Before we leave the scandal of the week.

The argument that "enhanced interrogation techniques" are not torture because we put certain of our own armed forces personnel through courses employing the same techniques, including waterboarding, in order to prepare them to resist interrogation in case of capture, will not wash.

In todays world, there are all kinds of "unconventional" sexual practices that are considered acceptable between consenting adults, but you most certainly will be charged and prosecuted if caught doing it to a non-consenting adult or - Heaven prevent - a minor.

And "rectal rehydration" sounds like sodomy rape-rape, as Whoopie would say, to me.; 12/12/14, 10:49 AM
Unknown said...: Humperdink, that happened to a friend. Spooked, the horse broke through the fence and was finally found in a neighbor's barn almost a mile away. He got into their feed and gorged.

My friend's remedy...castor oil - it comes in quart-size bottles - and keep the animal moving.; 12/12/14, 11:01 AM
Unknown said...: So horses are like boats...better than owning a boat is having a friend who owns a boat.; 12/12/14, 11:05 AM
FullMoon said...: PALIN: 'Stinks to high heaven'...; 12/12/14, 11:06 AM
roger said...: Bring out your dead!

A man comes out with a dead-looking old man in a nightshirst slung over his
shoulder. He starts to put the old man on the cart.

Man: Here's one-
Cart-master: Ninepence.
Old Man: (feebly) I'm not dead!
Cart-master: (suprised) What?
Man: Nothing! Here's your ninepence....
Old Man: I'm not dead!
Cart-master: 'Ere! 'E says 'e's not dead!
Man: Yes he is.
Old Man: I'm not!
Cart-master: 'E isn't?
Man: Well... he will be soon-- he's very ill...
Old Man: I'm getting better!
Man: No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment.
Cart-master: I can't take 'im like that! It's against regulations!; 12/12/14, 11:19 AM
Hagar said...: In the sandhills of Nebraska many years ago, a man who bore a grudge gave the children on his neighbor's ranch a pair of geese for pets.
The neighbor retaliated by return-gifting a pair of goats.
The goat problem was finally solved with the aid of a .270 Remington.; 12/12/14, 11:20 AM
roger said...: its against regulations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs; 12/12/14, 11:20 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: That wagon is NOT empty. It's full of Obama's promises--you just can't see them.; 12/12/14, 11:32 AM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: Ah! a haywagon. Rails don't look stout enough to keep in bales. Would have thought loose hay, maybe.

Back in the early '50's, I used to make a pest of myself at Henry George's dairy farm down the road.

There was the time 'helping' the men pitch bales onto the hay trailer. I do remember riding on top of the bales. Then I remember waking up under the trailer with a bunch of very worried guys looking at me.

The part about falling off, hitting the ground, and getting knocked unconscious, not so much.

And those times with a pitchfork in the silo, knee deep in molasses chipped corn.

Growing up in the Berkshires. Those were the days!; 12/12/14, 11:41 AM
Anonymous said...: I am former mid-westener now living on the Gulf coast. It rarely gets below 32 degrees in my new home city. When I tell the locals that 20 degrees is my favorite winter temperature--no slush, no pollen to make me sneeze, sometimes frosty trees--the ones who only know mild winters think I am crazy.; 12/12/14, 12:23 PM
Coconuss Network said...: Well I'm a runnin' down the road
Tryin' to loosen my load
I've got seven women on my mind
Four that wanna own me
Two that wanna stone me
One says she's a friend of mine

Take it easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels
Drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
Don't even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
And take it easy

Well, I'm a standin' on a corner
In Winslow, Arizona
Such a fine sight to see
It's a girl my Lord
in a flat-bed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me

Come on, baby, don't say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love
Is gonna save me
We may lose and we may win
Though we will never be here again
So open up I'm climbin' in
So take it easy

Well, I'm a runnin' down the road
Tryin' to loosen my load
Got a world of trouble on my mind
Lookin' for a lover
Who won't blow my cover
She's so hard to find

Take it easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels
Make you crazy
Come on baby, don't say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love
Is gonna save me

Oh we got it easy
We oughta take it easy

The Eagles - Take It Easy Lyrics | MetroLyrics; 12/12/14, 12:25 PM
Humperdink said...: CHopkins said "Humperdink, that happened to a friend. Spooked, the horse broke through the fence and was finally found in a neighbor's barn almost a mile away. He got into their feed and gorged.

My friend's remedy...castor oil - it comes in quart-size bottles - and keep the animal moving."

Yeah, we had to keep the horse moving. And then make sure horse excrement was generated. I am beginning to resemble Oliver on Green Acres.; 12/12/14, 12:28 PM
Big Mike said...: @Althouse, it would have been more appropriate if you had photographed a manure spreader instead.; 12/12/14, 3:45 PM
Hagar said...: To Flekkefjord to carry manure.
This was the first of the three annual treks. They traveled to Flekkefjord before they did the spring planting at home. This was a trip the old ones did not talk much about. A man from Jerstad said it was not hard work, but they got nothing but scorn and ridicule afterward.
Many people in town had byres and cows. They had crop fields outside town that were not accessible by road. The fields needed manure, and it had to be carried long ways in baskets. They carried the manure on their backs in homemade baskets. Emptying a basket of manure demanded skill. They did not take the baskets off their backs, but bent forward and twisted to the side so that the manure fell out. It was only dry cow manure, but it had to be hard on the knees up the steep hillsides to Lilleheia with a heavy burden on their backs.
The employer checked on the loading. They had to load full baskets, or they were told off or got run off. There was competition for the work. Grown men got kr. 1.50 per day, and the young and inexperienced got kr. 1.25. They had to go to town anyway, and the money came in handy. It was money well earned.; 12/12/14, 3:53 PM
virgil xenophon said...: It looks almost, but not quite, something built to transport sugar-cane.; 12/12/14, 6:37 PM