Just the stoves, as you can put it onto the chimney vent of a stove…….an open fire as you will know would barely work with one and be very expensive to install.
Morning Bob
Wow! Great stories! You are an excellent writer.
We had a lot more freedom in those days, including the freedom to do things that were a little dangerous. If we paid the price and ended up killing ourselves, I suppose we were free to do that. We didn’t have to worry about endless beeping if we chose not to wear a seatbelt, kids rode in the back of pickup trucks. The nanny state, hell bent on keeping us safe, had yet to arrive. I hate it when someone tells me that it’s for my own safety. I can usually figure out what’s safe for me or not. It reminds me of government inspectors who issue permits. If they sign off on a permit and say things are good; if things end up not being good, they are never held accountable. Why do we need them?
We were encouraged to think critically and take personal responsibility for our actions. Seems there were a lot fewer attorneys. We trusted government for the most part, although that trust is now at least partially responsible for our downfall. The media reported news, rather than telling us how we should think about it.
Ferret asks about things that weren’t good in those times. I’ve been trying to think. One thing, having grown up in Los Angeles, the smog was a lot worse back then. 🤔
Maddog, so you could still have an open wood fire without a metal tube?
Is the tube just for a combustion stove? I built a large wood fireplace in my cottage in Gloucestershire when I extended it in the eighties. The trick is getting the dimensions right for the updraft, as you know. Putting in a tin tube almost anywhere would destroy the air flows. It wasn’t a bug hutch though, terracotta tiles, so that wouldn’t have been a problem.
Gold Train
CN inherited the Duluth, Missabe,& Iron Range railroad
that brings raw iron ore to Minntac or United Taconite mills
where it is processed with limestone into concentrated ore
pellets called Taconite. Then the RR hauls the taconite back
thru Proctor yard and down the hill to the ore docks at Duluth where it
is loaded onto Great Lakes ore boats for shipment to the steel
Mills. Most of the iron production in the country comes thru here.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/917135/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/917134/
ferrett
Everywhere is getting infected by government regulators who do nothing but create needless regulations…….I have a very old house which was designed to be heated by open fires burning wood and coal.
There are huge chimney breasts that go up to the Chimneys, they got warm from the fires and heated the upstairs….You can easily install a multi fuel stove….a lot do…..they too heated the Chimney breasts…so the bureaucrats created a regulator for the stoves….who decided that for ‘safety’ reasons a metal tube must be installed up the Chimney……result the breasts never get warm, the top of the tube is very hot, so hot they are now actually a dangerous fire hazard in a thatched roof and must be cleaned twice a year and have driven up insurance costs, so much that most thatched houses have abandoned them.
If you burn wood and coal it creates an impermeable lining inside the chimney, that no gas will get through and as long as it is swept, will not burn……so no need for the metal tube.
Good one, eeos. But it demonstrates what we’re up against in Oz,
as all that is illegal here unless it’s performed by a qualified electrician. Anyway, what I do is run a 2kW inverter off the car alternator, uses about 2 gallons US per day of Diesel on tickover, plugged into the house socket circuit and a link from the socket circuit into the lighting circuit so we have everything except cooking (BBQ) or hot water (cold shower never hurt anyone). Will also run on waste veggie oil, but then it smells like a BBQ.
Daughter was quoted $8,000 to have two air conditioners installed. Not including the cost of the units. Just pure, govt. permitted extortion. Borrowed a mate’s tools, $250 for some pipe and a day’s work for me. $40,000 per week!! Shoulda been a sparkie.
ferrett’s post reminded me to put this video up
This guy, Will, is brilliant, and he has a free ebook I’d recommend. I think this is an amazing system right here in this video if you want backup power, especially if you build a pergola for your solar panels or buy a rack that holds them; that’s probably best. This is the greatest way in the world to live off-grid for cheap. The best part is that he tells you every little thing you need to know and he shows you the exact tools and links it all right below the video. I’m going to build one of these because I can’t stand being without power for long periods of time in the winter, no dice. If you install the panels on a pergola you don’t need to worry about roof leaks hail damage and having to pull them off to reroof, And you don’t have to have a professional install it, that’s where they separate everybody from their money when it comes down to solar power. I believe this is a UL-rated system too.
Buygold, Bob, Mr.C, I keep trying to think of what was bad about the country we grew up in.
Surely it can’t have been the golden age we recall without there being some things which we look at today and go “yep, glad we don’t live in the fifties and sixties any more”. Maybe it’s because we are old that we can remember the days without the internet; without credit; without petabytes of regulations impossible to know but likely to be prosecuted for.
“for a root of all evil is the fondness of silver” as Paul wrote, and indeed in those days money still had silver in it. It is almost an honest sort of evil, a fondness of silver, because at least you have the silver! But now people crave debt. Instead of swopping silver for a new car, holiday, kitchen etc. they just wave a piece of plastic and they swop their earnings in 2038 for instant gratification. Debt is a very dishonest form of evil, as people hardly realise what they are doing – most people can see how we idolise assets, whether it’s silver, Ferraris, houses, works of art and so on, but few would think that debt is something that is idolised, even though that is the root of the asset idolatry.
Queensland has a particular style of housing architecture called “a Queenslander”. These range from a one bedroomed cottage to six bedroomed mansions, built purely of timber, raised off the ground on stumps with a tin roof. They are mobile too, it was a not uncommon sight 35 years ago to see them being moved from one site to another, usually at night. Nobody builds them anymore because they are hot in summer, freezing in winter, loved by termites and should really have sprinkler systems installed because fires take hold immediately. And so, our house will be illegal in January, when statewide regulations come into force requiring us to install fire alarms throughout the house. Except, of course, we don’t have a Queenslander. We have a low maintenance, concrete slab, double brick house which nobody has ever smoked in. We don’t have massive lithium batteries in cars or solar banks. We don’t have gas cooking. We’ve never had a termite inspection. I’ve been through the roof and rectified the dangerous wiring( also illegal for me to do) that was installed by a licensed electrician. I’ve done everything bar replace the roof timbers with steel to minimise the fire risk but now we have to pay to install fire alarms! Which for many households means more debt. This is symptomatic of the cost of bureaucracy and the grip that it has on our everyday lives. And it wasn’t there in the good old days. Nor can I yet think of anything bad about back then.
Abolish debt.
The site will have an upgrade on 18 November….see below
Upgrade Details:
– Date: November 18, 2026
– Time Frame: About 15 minutes, between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. PT
Buygold
Buygold said: “this isn’t the country we grew up in”.
I’m Canadian and can also make the same claim, knowing that English-speaking North America share a great deal of cultural and moral values.
Here’s an article I wrote that reflects the degree of that change, though demonstrated in action and perspective.
https://bobbones1.substack.com/p/riding-the-rails-adventures-in-recklessness
Mr. Copper
Thank you. That’s really kind of you to say.
We probably all have bits and pieces of the truth, but I think one thing us older guys can agree on is that this isn’t the country we grew up in.
Buygold @ 10:04
I agree with all that, no, you are my senior, I appreciate all your valuable posts.
scum
take offense if there’s any gains whatsoever and feel compelled to re-test recent lows time and again!!!
Cue up the head banging against the wall. Hasn’t changed in almost 20 years!
Shouldn’t the shares be getting hit harder?
Metals too.
Just sayin’ 🙂
edit: did I hear somebody say “just give em’ time? 🙂 🙂
The dollar is on fire!!
Gimme some of them US bucks.
Bob – I haven’t watched your video yet, but West Side Story was filmed in 1961. We were coming off one of our greatest decades in the 1950’s. Then the military industrial complex was just gaining steam as Eisenhower warned the country. The CIA getting more out of control. The start of the Vietnam war, the Bay of pigs in Cuba, Kennedy assassination. The decline of our culture with the hippie movement and women’s liberation, the massive expansion of government with the welfare system that largely destroyed the black family by Lyndon Johnson – one of our most corrupt presidents ever. IMHO the decline of the empire began then – although some will argue it began with the Federal Reserve in 1913. The complete destruction of the U.S. went on steroids after 9/11/2001.
Mr. Copper may have a different take, and since he’s my senior I will defer to him. 🙂
deer79
All this rehypothecation business will hit a brick wall at some point. Then the sparks will fly!
Barrick Announces American Barrick and S-1 Filing for Proposed Initial Public Offering
TORONTO, Nov. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Barrick Mining Corporation (NYSE:B)(TSX:ABX) (“Barrick” or the “Company”) today announced that its planned new publicly listed company, which will hold Barrick’s North American gold assets, will be named American Barrick Gold Corporation (“American Barrick”). The Company is moving forward with the proposed initial public offering (“IPO”) of American Barrick common stock.
https://ceo.ca/@GlobeNewswire/barrick-announces-american-barrick-and-s-1-filing-for
ipso
- You hit the nail on the head. Exactly why Gold ( and Silver) have to be held in check.
Bill Murphy of GATA was talking about how high the ratio was between loaned out Gold vs. the real amount held, 20+ years ago! And the sophistication of the algorithms makes this whole scheme play out that much easier!
I’m truly gobsmacked how long this whole charade has been playing out……