DIY Thread - Let's see your "Inventions".

[Blooie]

Well, since I am a Navy wife I think in 26 years I managed to figure out that the typical (back then) role playing had no place in our lives. I had to be able to change a diaper and change the oil - usually in the same hour. I had to be able to either troubleshoot appliances or get royally shafted by repair people who had no issue taking advantage of knowing I was stuck without a man around to oversee. I can put dinner in the crock pot before dawn, grab my .50 cal muzzle loader and head up on top of the Big Horns for a day of hunting - alone. I can find it, I can shoot it, I can tag it, I can gut it, I can drag it, I can load it, I can hang it, I can skin it, I can butcher it, I can cook it, I can eat it and I can do the dishes afterwards. I had to teach our son the rudiments of baseball so he could try out for a team, and be able to drop everything and take him fishing.

It was a joke. No more, no less. But a lot more is being read into it than is necessary. If I could delete it I would.

 

[Beekissed]

Some of us live where gender roles are less...shall we say...grey? I can understand Miss Blooie's perspective more because I live in such a place and was raised in such a home. Now, the women could do all the men type work~except drive the tractor or run the chainsaw

not because we couldn't, but because we were not allowed at the time~but the men never lifted a finger for any "women's work". Having been raised in such a home and still living in such an area, our ideas and stereotypes may be much more deeply ingrained than maybe other places and person's would be.

Every time my mother and I see a poorly designed piece of equipment, car, roadway, building, parking lot, etc. we will simultaneously say, "Must have been designed by a man." To some folks, that would sound like the worst male bashing in the world, especially since my Dad was incredibly good at building things and doing them sensibly. We got used to that and also to our own faculties for making things easier to work with, use, access, etc. Simple designs that are optimal for easy use.

But, after watching the bulk of things outside our world become more and more ridiculously designed, built, manufactured...and knowing it's not often women in those roles of design, building or in control of manufacturing in our area....we feel pretty comfortable in lamenting the fault in being in the lap of some man~likely some very educated city fella~ who has never, nor will ever, use the actual tool, building, roadway on a frequent basis, etc. However wrong that assumption may be, we are still comfortable in it.

Call it bigotry, call it what you will, but we aren't often wrong about it when it comes down to finding out who actually created the mess that makes life more inconvenient for all concerned in these parts. And, we get enough of that directed our own way when we set out to do "men's work" around here...repair machines, build things, design a fix for something....but that's soon silenced when we actually repair, build and design just fine. That road runs both ways....we run into the same skepticism about doing man's work as we feel when we view the men's ability to do so-called women's work. I'm always shocked and pleasantly surprised when I meet a man who likes to cook, clean, can up foods, sew, bake, etc., and actually does it well. It's such a complete and total rarity in my life that it's like finding a unicorn in a field of goats...usually that man is a confirmed bachelor.

I, for one, laughed when Miss Blooie described the riding vacuum....and felt it was a perfect summation of it all. From my perspective, anyway.

Around here, women like Miss Blooie and my mother and I are a complete oddity and are ostracized by both men and women for our duality in so called gender roles. Men seem to resent a woman who can do what they do and women resent it even more, in fear their men will expect them to take on more jobs and muddy the gender specific roles.

 

[Blooie]

And right now Ken is gearing up to the do the holiday baking. I don't bake - I hate it. He makes everything from the cookies the kids decorate to his amazing peanut brittle, for which he usually has a long waiting list. Last year he made and mailed out 60 pounds to folks all over the country, in addition to what he hands out locally and to family. I love to cook, he loves to bake. I couldn't take care of granddaughter Kendra without his help.

 

[Big Cluck]

I didn't invent anything, but wanted to show an example of how I reused plastic pellet bags to winterize my run. If anyone has any use for plastic pellet bags but doesn't have any PLEASE private message me and I will get you some. I have hundreds of them. It's difficult to find places that will recycle them.

 

[RonP]

I, for one, laughed when Miss Blooie described the riding vacuum....and felt it was a perfect summation of it all.

Ok, I will readily admit I am stereotypically described in this conversation.

Raised in a typical Italian household, only son with 3 sisters, I am useless when it comes to typical housework.

I have 3 grown children and have never changed a diaper...

Alone now, don't say it, I know I deserve it.

House is a mess, but I am learning...

Miss Blooie, I laughed also with your comment. You hit the mark describing me...

Necessity is the mother of invention, now designing and building an iRobot Roomba on steroids

 

[Beekissed]

Funny, Ron!

My dad had 9 children and never fed or diapered a one. Never even wiped a mouth or a butt. He just worked and worked hard. And that's okay...that was his job. Older sibs helped Mom with the younger and life goes on. Nobody got hurt by all those lovely and well defined gender roles and any deficits in skills were learned later on out of necessity. There truly is no "can't" but many a "won't" when it comes to acquiring skills for living.

 

[Blooie]

Looks like I managed to de-rail an entire thread with a simple one liner that a stand up comic would have been appreciated for.....my apologies to all....I'm just gonna mosey on out now. Dissension, chaos, mayhem - my work here is done.

 

[Beekissed]

Not derailed at all...plenty of DIY converse still going on!

DIY comedy, DIY role adjustments, DIY vacuum tweaking, etc.

 

[scottcaddy]

Looks like I managed to de-rail an entire thread with a simple one liner that a stand up comic would have been appreciated for.....my apologies to all....I'm just gonna mosey on out now. Dissension, chaos, mayhem - my work here is done.

I for one, will sorry to see you go!

Scott

 

[aart]

I thought the 'riding vacuum' in a house was funny too....picture that!

Was just stating my perspective on gender roles and the bigotry it engenders(hahaha).