1/07/11 FALLING OFF THE WAGON AND TAKING THE PLEDGE

THE FERRY PLOWS THOUGH THE ICE AND SNOW

THIS NORNING'S MINI-BLIZZARD

Friday, 8:30 AM.  7.5 degrees and falling.  Wind WSW, gusty at times.  It is snowing moderately, fine dusty flakes which will drift and lodge everywhere.  It has been sort of a mini-blizzard, and the barometer predicts snow, which I shoveled about three inches of.  But, all in all it is a pretty day. 
    Andy and Judy are at their farm for a few days and they were over for dinner last night. We had a nice time catching up on what has been going on in the last two months.  Joan tried out a new soup, with chick peas and Swiss chard as the main ingredients.  Very nice. I would think it impossible to survive Bayfield winters without homemade soup.
    The ferries are struggling mightily to get through the ice, and I think if this keeps up the wind sleds will replace them in a week or two.
    While in Columbus last week I finally decided on a pair of rubber knee boots for casual winter and wet garden work and for shallow stream fishing and beach combing.  I have looked in vain locally, in Duluth and Wausau for American made boots but its either Chinese or nothing.  You can get American rubber pull on boots but they are extremely utilitarian work boots exactly like I wore in my ditch-digging days, that haven’t changed in over fifty years and are uninsulated.  I have always been fussy about my foot gear and still buy quality  American leather boots from Red Wing and Columbia, but that’s about it.  So I ended up with the Muck brand, a very comfortable, breathable waterproof knee boot that I am pleased with but unhappy about their place of origin.  So, now that I have fallen off the wagon yet again, I am taking this pledge: I will not buy anything that is not American made on Mondays in 2011.  This is tokenism, I realize, but one has to start somewhere.  How about making this pledge with me, keeping track of the results and problems, and reporting your experiences in the blog comments from time to time? Maybe it will start a trend, who knows?  We desperately need manufacturing jobs, we need more of our dollars to stay here at home and we need to reduce our trade and fiscal  deficits.  Buy only American on Mondays or not at all.  We are pretty much inundated with stuff in the attic, closets and garage anyway.  I just read that Polaris is moving its last plant to Mexico (watch your heads, guys) and Amana appliances have left Iowa for China.  So the blood lettitng continues. When, like George Washington, will we simply give up and die?