We seem to live in a throw away world now days. We have inexpensive,cheaply built products that for the most part are cheaper to throw out and but a new one than to try to fix them. I for one can remember the days when if the toaster broke you got out the tools and repaired it. Yes it might have taken a little time and patients and s little swearing thrown in just for good measure but you could keep an item for more than a year and you also learned how to work on things along the way.
Knowledge like this was passed from father and mother to their children. This was also a bonding experience between the two. I still remember the first time my father had me help him sharpen the blade on the lawn mower. I felt so empowered by this as though my father was imparting the meaning of life to me and I was the only other one on earth to know it. My Mom showed me how to sew by hand and to fix things that got torn. This came in real handy when I went into the Army as most of my Platoon had no idea how to even sew on a button. I became very popular very quickly.
I guess where I am really going with this is that we need to start fixing things rather than just throwing them out and go down to Wal-Mart and buying another one just to do the same thing in six months. Learning the skills that will be necessary some day and having the skill and knowledge to make things work. Passing them on to the next generation is also very important. We need to do this before the knowledge is gone and no one remembers how to do them. I have made a personal commitment to fix things until they are no longer fixable and to then strip the item apart and use it for it's parts. I have started to show my youngest son how we used to do things and I am surprised by his interest in learning this kind of stuff. He is 17 and about 6 months ago he sold his computer and has been spending most of his time outside working on things and helping me fix the things that need repair around the house.
As he told me not to long ago that he needed to learn how to do these things so that he is ready for when he will really need the skills. I am more than willing to pass on what I know and if I don't know then we go about learning how to do it together. YouTube is a great resource for this kind of research and we use it all the time. .
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