Multi-use Machine!

Sometimes I find that things from the past can get the job done much better than the so-called modern conveniences of today.  Equipment was just made better back in the day.  Items were sturdier and many had multiple uses without added gadgets that had to be stored and then attached.  Things were just much better designed.  Take for instance, the coffee grinder.  I have written before about the old wall hung grinder that Pop used each morning to grind the beans for the best pot of brewed coffee that I have ever tasted.  The old grinder was also a handy alarm clock since there was no possible way of sleeping through that racket!  Now, a different coffee grinder.  Several years ago, my sister called and wanted to know if I wanted an antique grinder from an old store.  Someone was tearing down the store and everything had to go. Sure, I would take it and add it to all of the other weird and wonderful things that are housed in the Little Bayou House.  She lugged the huge grinder to my house and it has sat on the floor in the living room for years.  Over those years, it has been used to pulverize just about everything imaginable.  When we had an overabundance of pecans, my sons would grind them (hull and all) to feed to the chickens.  They would grind oyster shells for the chickens to use as grit and also to put in the garden.  Probably the weirdest thing ever ground in the machine was plastic Christmas light covers.  Yep, that really did happen.  My oldest son had the bright idea of grinding those to bits and them melting them on the grill.  Whatever for still remains a mystery!  That was the very same time that the grill was engulfed in flames causing a huge fire.  I was inside making jelly when my three kids had decided to try this dangerous feat.  Darling daughter (who was the ripe old age of four) came in and calmly asked for some water.  Thinking she wanted a drink, I handed her a cupful and away she went.  When I inquired where she was heading, she then proceeded to calmly tell me that the grill was on fire.  ACK!!!  FIRE!!  Yep, when I raced out to check, fire was shooting about six feet in the air!  After closing the grill to put out the fire, I demanded an explanation. "I was going to melt the plastic to make a stained glass window!"  Ok..so perhaps my crafting had rubbed off on my son.  Turning to Elizabeth, I asked why she merely asked for water and did not scream "FIRE!"  She sensibly answered.."Well, you always told us not to panic."  How can you argue with that?

Anyway, back to the coffee grinder!  Today, that old thing was put to use once again.  I had a fifty pound sack of whole corn seed that at one time was being used to feed the few deer that strayed into the yard.  My idea was to feed them in one area to keep them from devouring my garden.  I think the deer have moved on to "greener pastures" as I have not seen evidence of them lately.   Since it is a tad hard for the birds to eat whole corn, I ran the whole kit and kaboodle through the coffee grinder.  Ta dah!  Cracked corn was just the thing to feed those hungry doves!  Playing with the set screw on the turn wheel, I found that not only could I crush the corn to something birds could eat but I could grind the kernels to a fine meal! If ever I grow enough corn to dry, I can make my own cornmeal and even grits!  That amazing tool has so many uses!  My old blender would have died after the first quart or so but this old iron mill went through the fifty pounds with ease.  All it took was some good old elbow grease to keep the wheel turning!  (Who needs a membership at the gym?  I have a coffee grinder!) Yep, I do believe something was lost with all of the technology that supposedly improved things.  It seems to me that our ancestors might have been far ahead of us in so many ways.  As crazy as it sounds, I am so on the verge of chunking most of my "modern appliances" and going back to the old ways of doing things..the better ways of doing things.  Going back to the time when things were made to last.  Going back to a time when none of these "time-saving" gadgets took up so much of my day!