I needed to re do the clothes line this year so I went to Lowe's to get some new line and while I was there I found this....
What is it you ask? Well its a clothesline tightener by a company called Blue Hawk, but I think its exclusive, and heres how it works. You pull the button out as you thread your clothes line into the tightener. There are ball bearings inside that tighten around the line when you let go of the button.
This is a picture of the back of the package but as I soon found out, the picture is wrong. If you install it with the button out like it shows, your line will pull out when you add tension to the line.
The line goes through the button and I am holding the end in my right hand. I am holding the line that you hang the clothes on in my left hand. The metal loop is to hang it on the post like this next picture....
The best part of this system is when the line is not in use, you can pull the button out to release the tension and keep the line from stretching out, or when you need to hang something heavy like towels or jeans, just pull the end of the line and it tightens the line up.
I really like this and so far it seems very strong and I got them for under $3.00 each.
Its raining here so I was searching the web for all things farming and came across this commercial for Chipotle that I guess was one of their Super Bowl adds. I don't remember seeing it so I thought others might have missed it as well. Its kind of sad to think that this really is the way we get a lot of our food these days.
My three year old daughter watched this commercial with me just now and when she saw the pig go into the barn and farmer put up the last wall she said "Oh no mama, the piggy's trapped" Then a little later on when the pigs are vended into the factory she says "The poor piggies. Their sad" All is right again when the farmer lets the animals out of the barn and she is happy once more.
Its kind of funny to think that in her short time on this earth, she already understands that animals are not happy living like that. If a three year old can see the point this commercial is trying to make, it makes you wonder what happened to the rest of us. When did we learn to suppress the feelings of wrongness that allowed this type of farming to become the norm?
I remember when as a kid, my family and I would travel all over the US and Canada, and us kids would always want to eat at a fast food restaurant (we never got to eat it much, so for us it was a treat) and our parents would say, "we have one of those at home, why don't we try something else" It wasn't until many years later that I realized what they were saying with out really knowing it, was that a fast food burger in Michigan tastes the same as one in Florida, as one in Texas, Maine, Ohio, California, and Canada. Why is that?
This is not the fault of the farmers, they are really only doing what we ask them to. They are going to grow or raise what sells and right now we consumers want the burger in Alaska or Japan to taste the way it does back home. At that point its not about growing food anymore, its about producing a product that is consistent. This will continue to be the norm until we, as consumers, can come to terms with not having fresh tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the middle of January.
In this world of pink slime infused meat and beetle enhanced red colored foods, we need to revisit the norm and ask if we are okay with this current food system.
You don't have to have a farm or grow all of your own food to change things. You have more power than anyone as a shopper. They are only going to produce what we tell them we want and we do that by buying some things over others or not buying something at all.
Shop your farmers markets or buy a share in a CSA, learn to can/dry and store food for when its out of season. Learn to shop local and cook in season and you will help change the current food system.
