What is a "tiehacker"?

"Tiehacker" is a term originating in the Ozark hills of southern Missouri. It referred to a class of people from WAY back in the hills that made a living cutting trees into ties for the railroad. I first heard the term from my wife shortly after we married. I had been working outside all day and was dirty and stinky. When I came inside, she told me I looked like a "tiehacker" and had to get cleaned up. She had learned the word from her father, and thought it just meant "a bum". Never having heard it before, I looked it up. Although I am not really a bum, I thought it was interesting, and I do have a life-long love affair going with the Ozark hills, so ... there you have it!

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

This past week has been, well, ....

I haven't posted anything in quite awhile. Mostly, I guess, because I really haven't had anything to say that I wasn't already blathering on about on Facebook. But, I'm going on three days free of Facebook. Detoxing, if you will. So, it's starting to kind of back up in me. So you, dear reader, are the beneficiaries (or victims?) of the overflow. So here we go ...


SUNDAY, Nov 6, 2016
The applesauce I made yesterday turned out well, Really surprised me how much the apples cooked down, though. It was easy enough to make. I peeled and cored and chopped enough apples to fill a full-size crock-pot. The "Back To Basics" brand gadget the Debster has had since forever did a great job.
Image downloaded from Cutlery & More's website
(Ours is green, not red, but otherwise identical)
I added a little water, about 1/3 cup each brown sugar and regular granulated sugar, a few healthy shakes of cinnamon, and a little nutmeg. Set on "high", and let it set for about five hours. I stirred it a couple of times, and then used a mashed-potato masher to squash the apples up fine and make sure everything was thoroughly mixed. Tasted great! The 4-quart pot-full yielded about 2-1/2 pints, maybe a little more.
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OK. It is now late Sunday afternoon. Watched Fox news for awhile. Listened to Hillary go on and on about the need for jobs programs to put our people to work rebuilding our infrastructure. Hmmmph. Didn't we hear almost exactly the same thing eight years ago, with Obama prattling about "shovel-ready" projects?
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I've never been a fan of Steve Martin, and I really detest John Candy. So wouldn't you know, I'm forced to sit hear and listen to "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", which the Debster is watching and laughing herself silly over. I'm hoping that maybe a home invader will break in and steal the TV, or shoot me, or something.


MONDAY Nov 7, 2016
Well, the dead continue to vote in the good ol' People's Republic of Illinois. But for an unusual twist, this time it was downstate, not Chicago, and by a Republican, not a Democrat. An 88 year old Republican election judge was nabbed for forging her late husband's signature on an absentee ballot and sending it in. She claims that her late husband, who had died in September, had fully intended to vote for Trump, but the absentee ballots arrived a couple days after he died. 

Just gonna say this: I'm glad I'm not on Facebook these days. I'd be willing to bet it is going nuts over this. The Trump people twisting in knots to justify what she did, and the Hillary crowd jeering at full volume. Yeeesh! 



TUESDAY Nov 8, 2016
A friend posted this picture this morning.
I couldn't agree more.
WEDNESDAY Nov 9, 2016
Well, I guess what I'm afraid of actually happened: one of the two candidates actually won.
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Interesting, in a train wreck sort of way, watching Hillary Clinton & her minions making nice-talk about wishing President-elect Trump well and calling for healing of our national rifts and divisions. My prediction is all that good-feelings stuff will last, at most, a week.
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I have to confess that I did not vote yesterday. I could not stand any of the major Presidential candidates. I would have been happy to support Gary Johnson, but his Libertarian Party platform is pro-abortion. There is the Constitution Party, but I don't think they were even on the ballot. Write in for Ted Cruz was a possibility, but also a waste of time. Maybe he'll mount a primary challenge in 2020. Can only hope so.

As for state and local candidates, I'm generally anti-incumbent in principle. I much prefer frequent turn-over in order to prevent any individual from becoming too entrenched and powerful. However, the non-incumbent was almost always someone just as bad if not worse. Hence, no one to vote for there, either. (On a side note, I did find it a little interesting that Republicans ran the table in all the state-wide races in Missouri.)
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I just read an interesting post on "The Cripplegate" blog, titled "Commander In Chief". I very seriously recommend this in-depth examination of the seemingly-simple phrase "The LORD reigns", found in 5 places in the Old Testament, once in 1st Chronicles and four times in  the Psalms. Eric Davis discovers ten distinct truths about our Almighty God: his certain identity, his exclusivity, his aseity (means self-existence), his sovereignty, his activity, his universality, his majesty, his potency, his certainty, and his eternality. Great stuff! Check it out. Even though it contains a lot of really deep concepts, it is written in an easy-to-understand style.

FRIDAY Nov 11, 2016
Saddened but not surprised by the reports from around the country of mass protests, rioting, looting and other violence in response to Trump's election victory. 

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It's Sunday morning, and time to post this. More coming next week. (Hopefully <grin>) Stay tuned!

God bless
Ron (& the Debster)

3 comments:

  1. I worked in a small sawmill east of Cassville (Barry County, MO) in the early 1980s. The main source of revenue was shaping ties, but I do not recall hearing about tiehacking. Alas, maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention (again).

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    1. I was born, raised, and lived most of my life in the Saint Louis area. I've always loved the Ozarks, and have camped and hiked them all my life. So it is ironic that I'd never heard the term either, until I married an Illinois girl, and moved to south-western Illinois for awhile. (Now back in Missouri to stay, though. Thankfully!)

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    2. Oh, so it is an Illinois term. It makes sense, though. For way back when, RR ties were hacked into shape with an ax (preferably a broad-ax).

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