AV Geeks Lunch 6-21-2022

so so so do do so so so oh boy everybody i'm skip alzheimer and welcome to the av geeks lunchtime streaming show where we watch old 16 millimeter films and that was uh some old home movies of um a military training school i'm not i didn't quite catch which one it was but it's the culver family that's all we really know um and towards the end i don't know if you saw the weird kind of texture that was um uh beginning of this is vinegar syndrome and kind of a crystallization of um some of the emulsion um which is does not bode well for the film um that means that it's on its last leg so we got a good scan of it prior to uh it going away um so let's see what do we got next we got so many things to watch uh let's watch some nasa i've been uh sneaking some more nasa into our daily diet at lunch uh here's shaping tomorrow hey this is the nasa johnson space center home of america's astronauts and control center for the nation's manned space missions [Music] it is also the center for team of highly qualified aerospace engineers who are shaping tomorrow [Music] but before we have a closer look let's see if we can answer a few questions like what is an engineer what does the engineer do at what point does the engineer start to specialize would the field of engineering decrease as more people study or go into the field what type of background uh and knowledge must the aerospace engineer have to obtain a good job with a place like nasa or mcdonald douglas what are the newer fields of engineering and what does a biomedical engineer do [Music] and doctors do but what about engineers let's talk to some engineers from nasa's johnson space center to see if we can find out how they became engineers and what they think is important about their jobs this is the atm science room during skylab we monitored the apollo telescope mount from this room this console monitored the white light coronagraph which was an instrument to look at the sun in the visible spectrum the coronagraph worked in such a manner that there was a disc which blocked out the full face of the sun and we were really interested in what was called the corona this was a big mass of material and we were able to capture with the fight like chronograph during sky lab we had to work with scientists across the united states and help them design scientific instruments which would study the sun we designed those instruments from an operational standpoint the scientists designed it from a scientific standpoint knowing what their scientific objectives were we got involved and helped them to design the instruments in such a fashion that they would be controllable from the ground we could look at the right type of data from the spacecraft and sit at the consoles and determine how the instrument is operating where to point the instrument what to do with it correct for any malfunctions that occur during the flight i got interested in engineering back during my high school days when i was influenced by my teachers my parents my father was an automotive mechanic and ever since i can remember i've been interested in mechanical gadgets uh repairing them taking them apart and i thought at that time i wanted to be an automotive engineer however during my senior year in in high school i had a research project assigned to me in a chemistry class which involved determining or finding out how a gadget word called a cyclotron during the process of that research i found out that this instrument was something used in the field of physics some magic field physics that split small particles atoms into smaller parts so i then became interested in this field of physics and decided to go to college and major in the subject of physics in 1963 i started working at the johnson space center with the group responsible for designing the lunar module the spacecraft which landed on the moon and later was assigned to a group to study the lunar surface and to try and find suitable landing sites for this lunar module in 65 i was graduated and at that time or during that time is when i sat at this console and monitored the skylab mission coming from a poor family my dad certainly couldn't afford to send me to school and the only way that i could go was if some way i would manage to get the money either through a scholarship or or through the military which is one of the areas that was certainly open to me and i went went ahead through school and i finally got involved in the classes such as math and science and physics and these are courses that i really enjoyed and the thing that distinguished the students that were in the math in the physics area you know this type of scientific type courses was that hey if you're taking these kind of courses you're able to say that you're different from the average type student which taking the related math courses or the easy way out through school and this this was a challenge to me to be able to say that i was taking the hard courses and was still able to get the grades and this was important to me as far as as a golden life i always wanted to to be able to do good in school and once once i got through my junior year in high school i had taken most of the courses that would make me able to go to college and i had always been interested in electricity and it kind of fascinated me and playing with radios when i was smaller had helped me to have respect for electricity and engineering as a whole and so i stayed with engineering all the way through school and finally when i graduated in 74 i came to work here at nasa and i've been here for now two and a half years working with with the electrical distribution system of the shuttle itself and we're in charge of making sure that the right amount of power gets to the right places now shirley chavalli works in the other section which is the equipment section they're in charge of the components themselves the testing of the components just to go through the chronology of what it takes to be an engineer here take one of my components maybe the remote power control we start out with a vendor coming in with the conception they they think they've got a design that's going to do all the great things for the space program so they come in and tell us about their designs well we have to look over the design so you have to have some engineering background and you have to keep up with state of the art because when people are coming in with something new it's really new you have to know the state of the art at that time so they come in with this idea we have to look over their design and say yep i think it will do what we wanted to and we go on contract to these people to maybe make us up some prototypes and they bring those prototype models in we take them on our laboratory and run evaluation tests and see if they really perform as they're supposed to once they get all the bugs out we go up to management and say these people have a real good idea it's going to save us money and it's going to save us space and weight which is you know our primary concerns on the shuttle well we have to attend design reviews to make sure they're doing all the things that we need to have done we have environmental requirements that are different from what the average industrial person might require and we have to know something about their manufacturing techniques because we kind of have to foresee any problems that might show up later on when we've launched something out in space we can't have any baddies happening so you have to have a pretty good background you have to know something maybe about a little business you have to know a little something about production and you have to know something about engineering so it takes a very background to do work here other nasa engineers are looking beyond the year 2000. i'm an electrical engineer here at the johnson space center in houston right now we're located in building 32 in a vacuum chamber this vacuum chamber here is probably the largest in the free world it's an engineering test unit designed to simulate the conditions in outer space it's approximately 120 feet high 65 feet in diameter and this door alone here weighs about 40 tons but for the moment i want to talk to you a little about how i got into engineering i grew up in a small town in central texas and my childhood experiences were very much different than what you have experienced as a kid i was a neighborhood bicycle mechanic got involved in other activities involving fixing carburetors on automobiles and so forth well my interest in engineering only flourished after i got into high school i had a high school math teacher who more or less explained to me what engineering was all about and encouraged me to pursue that field right now we're looking at systems which will collect energy from the sun bring it back to the earth and form a microwave energy and converge electricity to be used by people like you these systems are aimed at solving the problem we have in energy right now it gets us away from using coal oil and natural gas natural resources that are in short supply in addition to collecting solar energy from space in the future we're going to be looking at using space in other ways perhaps by the year 2000 to the year 2025 we'll have collins of people living and producing in space we'll have manufacturing uh production facilities in space at this point in time i probably won't be here or even involved but you will and these are going to be the kind of problems that are going to be left to people like you and your peers to solve let's talk to a biomedical engineer and see what that job's like at nasa i was really interested in the space program so that's what i started really working towards was trying to get an into nasa and working for nasa i was i took all the prerequisites for all the science and engineering courses in high school once i got into high school i took just mostly science courses my in my major was in biophysics that really uh is also made up of a lot of biochemistry i have a minor in chemistry and a lot of physics courses a lot of mathematics courses started getting interested into the engineering aspects of it when i started to look at nasa more seriously and when i started looking for a job with nasa i am currently taking courses at the university of houston as a graduate student in electronics and i think my field has really has come started to be more into electronics background now some of the things that i've been working here at nasa have been three cardiovascular experiments that had mainly to do with fluid shifts in the cardiovascular systems and the way that the blood circulated within your body in zero g now here before you see the lower body negative pressure device as a device just like this one was flown in skylab what this device did is that the person gets in it and the legs first and it seals at your waist then we reduce the pressure within the module in zero gravity since you have no gravity pulling down all the fluids in your body really collect around your thorax and your head well this puts a great strain on your cardiovascular system we'd like to be seeing what type of stresses the astronauts are exposed to we're taking ekg blood pressure and then we've got these capacitance bands that were put around the legs and these would measure the difference of cardiovascular effects both in zero gravity and here on the ground before an experiment is actually flown it goes through a series of tests some of the tests that we do is deployed in the zero-g aircraft this aircraft performs parabolic flight and it there's a state in the parabola where you are in zero gravity now in there which has similar equipment to this and other experiments in january of 1975 we had a space lab simulation in which cardiovascular experiments and other types of experiments like vestibular experiments rat experiments plant experiments where the hardware was tested out not only that we test out procedures we tested out the crew crew procedures the hardware itself and the timelines and power that it took for the experiment this engineer is working to see that when payloads are constructed for the shuttle they will fit and work well with the shuttle systems one of our prime responsibilities in the program office is to make sure that as the development of the space shuttle is completed to try to integrate various payloads into the space shuttle the space shuttle here shows a payload bay and the payloads are those pieces of hardware that have been developed out in the scientific community an example of some of the payloads that will be flying on the space shuttle are the space lab which is a carrier that is designed by the european countries and once the space lab is designed it will be flowing on the space shuttle i think that not only should one be good in the field of math physics or chemistry but he should also be good in english you know he should be good in writing because it is very important that one be able to communicate with people the ideas that he has been able to come up with and if he's not able to express i'll get his thoughts over to the person that he's trying to sell the idea the math and the physics in my opinion really doesn't help him so i think that if the person is good at changing all on his father's car if he's good in the field of mathematics if he's good with just doing things with his hands if he want to be a builder i think that this is an interest that was generated from within i think that that's the most important thing i think the most important thing is to be in an atmosphere whereby one can be exposed to the field and once he's been exposed i think it has to be left up to the student it has to be generated from within as to the kind of person that he wants to come [Music] building solving problems making choices only you know if you want to be an engineer but if you make that choice the doors are open to go as far as your imagination will take you [Music] in just 60 years mankind progressed from the first short flight at kitty hawk to the giant leap to the moon beyond that now to the routine access to space with the space shuttle this achievement was attained by a team of specialists who perhaps like you wanted to play their part in shaping tomorrow [Music] all that uh the earthworm logo um and i was as i've said in the past the other logo which they went back to uh which was a circular one they called the meatball and i think that they should have called that that the earthworm logo the spaghetti logo but that's just me um anyways so that's a film about stem uh you know teaching uh science and technology and math um before stem uh it was trying to reach out to the non-white man engineers and those considering that field and trying to get them others interested in engineering so it's really really kind of great fascinating uh so uh i got a film set up on the scanner and it is another film from craig baldwin and i'm not sure what it is i know that it's faded red that's all we got uh there was kind of a title taped to it called uh dustin's sun but i have no idea so um hopefully it won't get crazy or maybe hopefully it will get crazy so here it is dust and sun skills people with hands deft and sure that fashion and shape articles of beauty both for barter and exchange or for sale as a means of livelihood in a simple and uncomplicated way of life people with gay and colorful dress along the country road or on the city walks and do you notice the timid smiles lighting shy friendly faces for example here is pedro lopez oh pedro we affectionately called him perhaps we will never see this charming little man again but here are two constant reminders of an unforgettable personality a warm smile and the old man's sunday shoes symbols of vital elements in his daily existence sun and dust many roads lead to the fabulous land of sun and dust but three great arteries carry the majority of american visitors into the country our venture begins as we cross the rio grande river at laredo a final inspection reveals all the essentials including our tourist card the only document needed for a safe and pleasant journey our spirits high a ruling road invites us toward a distant horizon and our immediate destination monterey have you ever looked carefully at the national flag of mexico in the center is a symbol of a no pal cactus for cactus occupies an important place in the history and economy of the country we don't travel far until sites of cactus appear some straight and rigid silent sentinels of the desert [Music] some grotesque and bizarre bristling like porcupines with sharp defiant quills others colorful with brilliant flowers odd shapes and all sizes for there are 500 or more species identified with mexico cactus everywhere planned and planted by the hand of a kindly and benevolent creator who foresaw that human life could not long exist on these sandy sun part stretches without just such a wonder plan wonderful because cactus is capable of supplying man's daily necessities food clothing water and other useful items every cactus has some practical purpose for example look at that sturdy fellow serving nicely as storage no need for corn cribs here most prominent among the cactus is magay a source of rope that is often processed right along the busy highway the giant green leaves of this cactus are first cut and split to a workable size the blades are then beaten to loosen the pulp the bruised leaf is combed often with a crude nail studded board to remove the moist clinging pole leaving tough resilient strands to be flung on lines to dry in the hot mexican sun thoroughly dried the stringy material is then skillfully spun into serviceable strands later to be twisted into many thicknesses making cord rope and even thread for hand sewing much of which is done by older men as they pass the time of day on sunny pleasant streets toil worn fingers fashioning useful household articles the thin skin of the magay is also used to manufacture a kind of parchment paper some cactus is not so beneficial for the earliest history of cactus is said to be associated with one of man's oldest spices intoxicating liquors and beverages one intoxicating liquor called tequila is made from the living hearts of the tequila cactus cactus harvested from the fields is brought into processing plants the great cores are chopped into smaller blocks and roasted in huge ovens the juice is later extracted to make a powerful drink vinegar and even molasses is made from these hardy desert plants before we realize it monterey breaks into view [Music] this great commercial center is the industrial heart of mexico [Music] much of the colonial aspect of the city has disappeared with the changing times but the city blends charming mexican characteristics with comfortable american improvements the surrounding country invites exploration for example there is horsetail falls high in nearby mountains automobiles must be discarded in favor of the horsetail falls express all aboard and now if the express will just wait long enough for passengers to get aboard we'll be on our way [Music] a little rough but it beats walking it won't be long until the falls heard long before they are seen will be imbued [Music] guys [Music] [Music] on valley floors it's the plowing season dust filters upward from busy plows delicately veiling the mountainside with the gossamer haze west of monterey is wasteca canyon famous for its rocked rib gorgeous and fantastic rock formations sharing sharply up dwarfing all else in sight to the southwest a high road clings to the stony ridge of the sierra madres twisting curving descending to the city of orchids to the sea coast town of paputler hot low tropical do you know the species of orchids they are by far the most exotic blossoms of the human jungle land [Music] orchids are often called parasites this is not so actually they are true air plants that is they thrive best by simply clinging to a single stem or to the limb of a neighboring tree and do you know that one variety is edible and used almost every day in your home [Music] this commercial flower is found in only two places in the world on the far away island of madagascar and here in the region around papadlan the blossoms produce long aromatic beans called sticks and when ripened sufficiently are harvested and hauled into busy processing plants the sticks are seasoned three days in drying kills under evenly controlled temperatures they are then transferred to straw mats outside to finish drying in the warm brilliant sunshine to prevent molding in the moist sea air they must be taken in every night to produce profitably the orchids must be pollinated by hand a careful painstaking job each indian tribe is noted for some particular craft contributing to the economy of an agricultural people the commercial orchid process belongs to the totonakon indians the seasoned orchid sticks are finally brought into inspection sheds tiny bitter stem ends are clipped and the imperfect beans discarded the cured sticks are bundled packaged and exported to the united states to be made into america's most popular flavor [Music] if the cooks in your family use pure vanilla extract chances are they are cooking with the orchids of the pond besides the edible flower an infinite variety of orchids abound throughout this warm sun-drenched land unusual foliage lifting lacy fingers upward weave unfamiliar patterns against the faultless blue of summer skies there are countless blossoming plants in mexico for this land has no dormant season here the familiar vibe with the unusual ones that flourish only in tropic climbs gay and gaudy plants add splashes of color everywhere for the mexican cultivates and cherishes the beauty that is found on every hand in his native land the mountain village of 14 is noted for giant gardenias the ruiskolindo hotel is world famous for its gardenia pool every morning large hampers of sweet scented gardenias are gathered from local gardens and poured into the shimmering waters of the pool quite a bit different than the old swimming hole back home isn't it but the splash is the same say gardenias are not all that add to the beauty and the inviting waters of the gardenia pool in the midst of this lush country lies the charming little city of jalapa called the flower garden of mexico cranberries no chances are that you drank a brew made from the cured and roasted beans this very morning coffee strangely enough is a member of the evergreen family the plants do not bear well in the glare of the hot sun therefore they are planted in the shade of other trees coffee thrives best in rich sandy soil on highlands where the yearly temperature remains between 60 and 90 degrees the blooms which cluster closely to the stem are waxy white blossoms that fill the air with a sweet heavy fragrance the plants are often in flower and fruit at the same time the trees start bearing when they are three years old some of them will continue producing for a hundred years to ensure the best flavor the fruit must be picked at just the right time the processing plant is usually located right on the plantation when the berries arrive they are washed through many sluices to remove the leaves twigs and the light the berries then go into great hollers where they lose their bright cherry red coats the fruit is further processed to separate the twin seeds from the plump juicy barrett the freed coffee beans are channeled into fermenting bats to cure for a time then brought out and spread on immense cement platforms where they remain many days in the dry air constantly turned and raped you might say they are untouched by human hands each bean receives sufficient air and sun to ensure a well-seasoned crop the dried seeds are covered with a thin parchment-like outer coat which must be removed before roasting the harvested beans are now ready for shipment abroad mexican berries are sought for their delicate aromatic flavor the united states consumes more than one half of all the coffee in the world and every year our demand increases the highest most spectacular terrain in the country rises in the region around halapa and puebla some of the world's tallest volcanoes thrust their snowy cones up into the clouds the continent's most symmetrical volcano or zaba is over eighteen thousand feet high or zaba is higher than our giant mont whitney in california [Music] what do you do when you're out of gas and filling stations are out too start shopping stores carry it in barrels [Music] a few impurities maybe but that old felt hat is a wonderful strainer everywhere rugged peaks and rocky crags jut up into the sky press off and draped in trailing clouds of mist erode inches along steep inclines then plunges sharply into broad valleys below twisting and turning in a series of cut backs and hairpin curves the highway stretches off into the distance as far as the eye can see [Music] puebla situated in a broad glen is one of the great spanish-built cities of the republic puebla has done much to foster and preserve her early arts and traditions the first continental enclosed market is still in use serving now as art studios plays are still presented in the oldest theater constructed in the new world lovely senior readers still occupy this balcony the first ever granted permission to be built in the americas to people of a modern age pueblo means the home of brilliant finding indians learn this art well from time oral they were highly skilled clay workers the spaniards quick to see commercial possibilities imported highly experienced european potters to teach the native artisans the secret of making glistening televera tile and mosaics doesn't this look like a simple easy operation remember however this man has been playing his trade from childhood as did his father and his father's father for many preceding generations the artist swift and sure quickly fills in the rough outline of some chosen design the colors may seem drab and dull as they come from the paint pots but later the tiles come to life with vibrant color as they emerge from the intense heat of the kills the diggers the grave may expose a perfectly preserved body the strange phenomena is due it is said to the high dry climate and also perhaps to the peculiar mineral properties of the soil then for the brave and hearty tourists there is the gruesome gallery of the dead a never to be forgotten sight bodies stand strangely inanimate along a dark subterranean passage as if patiently awaiting entrance to another world the mexican union abounds in a great number of excellent spas and resorts each possesses individual charm and distinction the mineral-laden mountains agitated by deeply internal disturbances have produced numerous hot springs rich in certain mineral deposits that are both stimulating and helpful to man the indians themselves for countless centuries before white man's arrival knew and used these thermal springs to advantage perhaps san jose de perua is the best known of these resorts they are famous for the radioactive waters and the rejuvenating properties of its saffron colored mud packs the ladies eager to discover the secret of eternal youth plaster themselves with the yellow clay another resort comanhia nirwanawato supports no less than 42 boiling spring the perfect spot for a roadside lunch prepared without fuss on nature's outdoor cook stove a three-minute egg in two minutes time careful there mister that's hot other springs heat the swimming pools in fact all the hot water used in this area is supplied by these very springs beyond guanajuato on top of one of the highest mountains in the exact geographical center of mexico a modern stone shrine has been erected from this prominence the rolling fertile lands of four states can be seen melting into the horizon far away the massive symmetrical dome of the church is crowned with a heroic figure of el cristo ray christ the king the bronze statue with benevolent arms outstretched rises 65 feet above the dome many indians make pilgrimages to this shrine mexican indians in general are intensely religious the concepts of their faith often coloring every phase of their lives pilgrimages attract the faithful at various times of the year to many churches over the land some of these journeys like the holy trek to san juan de los lagos attracts six or seven thousand persons at once to pay travel expenses the devout travelers make and sell odd pieces of handwork or carry produce which they hope to sell coinciding with the pilgrimages enterprising merchants conduct annual fairs resulting in a time of excitement that eases for a few days the cares of life in fiesta did you ever see a house made of mud this one is a special variety of clay abandoned throughout the country formed into adobe the bricks are used to construct buildings for the wealthy as well as countless homes for the poor adobe is frequently employed as a material for stores and public buildings too the earth is dug up and mixed with straw the straw acting as a binder sufficient water is added to make a stiff doughy mass when the mixture is of the proper consistency it is shoveled into wood holes for shaping the bricks left to dry and bake in the hot mexican sun will be stacked later on so that air can circulate freely around them it is customary to coat adobe buildings with a protective covering of plaster with the plaster coating adobe is protected from the rains and the weather and will last for years guadalajara is the second largest city in the country and continues to expand as an important commercial center this native carrier is on his way to market with a product that attracts thousands of tourists every year the indians use great quantities of the plain unadorned vessels for cooking and these can withstand high temperatures but are otherwise fragile and easily broken however they are quite as useful and practical as the metal pots and pans used in modern kitchens the guadalajara region is especially noted for the decorative types of pot beautifully shaped urns and bases are shipped each year in great numbers to the united states to the tonal law indians belong the mastery of producing and painting these fine pieces guadalajara pottery is finer than most mexican wear [Music] nearly every indian pueblo supports its own pottery the more suitable clay is slightly sweet the women test it by tasting the soil [Music] when the proper clay has been chosen the job of drying is taken care of nicely by the mexican sun together with bits of broken pottery the dried clay is then ground into a powder later water will be added to form the moist clay to the potter's needs size shape and beauty determined entirely by the potter and his wheel spinning as we watched it seemed both a product of beauty and a lesson for life a homely wheel spinning turning a lump of clay shapeless broken two skilled hands both sure and certain the wheel spins swiftly the clay lays plant the hands work deftly forming and fashioning to a design a vessel of beauty or useful pre-shaped in the potter's mind how like our lives encased in clay a dwelling of beauty eternal when shaped the potter's way pottery the symbol of man's handwork in mexican village and city el salto falls a symbol of the creator's handle work on the mexican countryside el salto but one of many cataracts hidden from the site of the casual trapper whose waters gather in streams at great heights joining rivers racing through hollow canyons pouring over rocky ledges on a hurried race downward to the sea swift graceful green and magical too for where sweet water is scarce the thirsty soil seems nourished by the very sweat of our native sons but for life-giving waters flow barren land is transformed as if by magic into fields and meadows fair green and fruitful little-known el salto is off the beaten path not too distant from monterrey can you imagine a more delightful place to reflect on the sights and experiences of the last few weeks hair raising adventures of our early storybook friends el salto a pleasant stopping place to rest before the final drive home home to vivid memories friendly faces pleasant reminders of a never to be forgotten visit to that wonderful land sun and dust [Music] but of course the color is just red um yeah so x chrome man uh a cheaper film stock made by kodak and one that the color dies begin to fade to a amber or pink or purple color because the cyan and the greens and blues all disappear kodachrome of course doesn't have that problem it has its own color fading problems depending on what year it was made but uh not nearly as severe as what we just saw um but that yeah so that was like a travelogue um you know uh that guy potentially i don't know anything about this and i might have to look it up or maybe someone one of you guys can look it up in the comments um yeah like rich people would sometimes travel around and shoot home movies and then package them together and uh there was a whole thing burton holmes was someone who did this uh where they would tour around and they would show the films that they had shot and then they would live lecture so they were itinerant film presenters presenting the films that they shot while they traveled um and so there's a lot of fascinating stuff that was captured uh in the early 20th century of course it's all through the filter of the very wealthy um and so this is actually a very sympathetic view of mexico but i have seen others which were not so great um so there you go uh while we're thinking about it um wow that ran a long time but uh i can't leave you with just that uh man i had no idea it was gonna run that long so i apologize but um uh let's watch uh german film town how about that enjoy make sure i have the right one [Music] in the midst of fertile farmlands in bavaria southern germany lies the old town of nerdlingen it is a town of tradition hourly from dark till dawn the noctis the night watchman in the people of saint george's church sings out his password and when it is answered from the town hall down below it means that all is well [Music] the view the watchman has today differs little from that of his predecessors three or four hundred years ago the town huddled around the old daniel as the nerdlingers called their main church and enclosed by the same medieval defense walls even the houses have changed little although some date back to the 30 years war in the 17th century or even longer people still live in them the fortified walls and the towers are almost 600 years old they served a useful purpose in the days when nerdlingen was important as freistadt a free imperial city today it is just a quiet country town in tanner's street for that trade once prospered there is only one tannery left in operation and that may close soon for lack of demand today nerdlingen is more important as a market town once a month the farmers from the surrounding country bring in the cattle they wish to sell the animals are tied to bars set up on a wide street and the traders walk around and make their appraisals and offers when a sale is completed all concerned combine efforts to get the animal onto the buyer's truck the monthly hog sale is held in the market square buyers check pigs for liveliness as a sign of health they will buy them by the litter or in small lots and make their offers accordingly and the longer it takes the better they say a true bavarian farmer doesn't budge and before taking a penny less he would rather carry his pigs back home the country around nerdlingen is a wide shallow basin with well-tended fields rimmed by gentle hills and dotted with small villages where the farmers live this is the village of holheim it has a population of three hundred the typical farm dwelling is built around a yard with a small duck pond in the center is the manure pile barns are attached to the living area this is farmer abrahart his big watchdog rex has been guarding the farm all night during the day he stays locked in his kennel because he likes to roam around life on the farm runs on a strict schedule even the ducks seem to know when their feeding time is at hand after farmer abrahart has opened the gate he will look after his cattle in the meantime his wife feeds the ducks and the chickens and gets the two children ready for school the village of hoheim is much too small to have a school of its own so reiner aberhart and his friend helmut must go to another larger village three miles away where there is a rural school another boy walter joins them on the way often after a heavy rain they are slowed down by muddy roads but they still prefer bicycles to walking of course in winter they must hike there are two classrooms in this schoolhouse one for pupils six to ten years of age the other where reiner and his friends go for those eleven to fourteen their teacher had zimmerman places great value upon the development of memory paul galent is nifa gessen well memorized is never forgotten he says and if his pupils learn to recite long poems they will be able to keep other subjects such as history dates in their heads as well hepsimer doesn't even mind a little quiet prompting as long as they all do their best while the children plow through their poems their parents plow through the fields farmer aberhart and his wife prepare the ground for seed potatoes helmut's parents are planting a field to wheat in germany the farm woman must help her husband in the field more than ever because hired hands are hard to find horses and cattle are still commonly used to pull farm implements and tractors are still rare because many small farmers can't afford them this farmer works alone seeding his potatoes it is a slow process one by one they must be tossed and then pressed into the ground the aber hearts have more acreage and have hired some women to speed the work even the children join them after school and they like it they can't learn it early enough they'll have to do their homework after supper other children have to work much harder spreading manure with a heavy fork for a couple of hours is a hard task for this boy but his father works at something else and this is important and must be done too and it's for him to do it so he does it everyone must work only the very age it may rest and watch the summer come harvest time starts a new round of work late in summer in the apple orchards ladders are propped against heavy branches and everybody gets busy the children consider it a lot of fun at least the first day who wouldn't like to pick apples right from the tree their parents are used to it they have done it for many years but even for them the first day of the harvest means something special now they begin to see a reward for the season's labor if the weather stays reasonably dry until the whole crop is in they can hope for a good market some small farmers grow certain field crops just for their own needs and to fill small local demand harvesting beets in this manner may not seem very efficient but it is a task an elderly person can still usefully perform after all a cart load a day is all that is needed speed is not so important it is different with farmer abrahart who owns 50 acres a large farm for germany his 30 acre potato crop must be dug up quickly when the market is just right so a harvester is a good investment the dried cuttings have been piled up to be burned then with a smoke from many little fires drifting across the field the aber hearts and their helpers gather the dug up potatoes into baskets and buckets there will be a ready market for them the average german consumes 360 pounds of potatoes a year one woman has brought her small boy who learns what to do by watching reiner for a while when the baskets are full they are dumped onto a trailer that will take them to the farmhouse even with the crop all gathered the job is not finished the field must be raked clean so it will be ready for re-cultivation the fires will burn for some time yet but nothing must be left for tomorrow tomorrow it might rain the potatoes have been weighed and put into sacks at the farmhouse the next day they are taken to the farm cooperative office in nerdlingen where they are checked and her abrahart receives proper credit and with it he may purchase supplies or he can take the cash now that fall is here and the weather quite unstable the farmer must be on guard mature crops must be brought in before they can be damaged by a sudden rainstorm a good supply of feed for the cattle has been cut it must be under the roof before the day is over left in the field overnight it might get wet and rot rex has been waiting for his master he knows he will get some attention now abraham always has a few moments for his dog when he comes home the women drag the cart with the corn into the barn the day's work is over rex has been let out of the kennel and has found some milk at the cat's milk that is but the cat doesn't mind they're on friendly terms aber heart has received official plaques attesting to the good health of his cattle this is important for now he may freely send them to the market in nordlingen for sale the whole region had been under quarantined the two previous years when some cattle were found to be diseased but now that this is over trade is brisk because of higher local demand [Music] the hog market is doing well too the germans are prosperous and they spend more than a third of their earnings on food thus more money gets into the hands of the farmer [Music] it is supper time at the aber hearts ruth and reiner help their mother set the table their food is simple but plentiful and it is all from their own farm the tomatoes and the smoked cured ham the sausage patties and the pickles reiner's favorite only the bread was bought because there is no time for baking bread the place settings are simple a small wooden serving board and a knife for each person every morsel of food is carefully cut and thoroughly savored if reiner would only stop eating so many pickles his grandmother just smiles she is contented her daughter has a nice family life is good to them yes for the abel hearts all is well i'll tell you what that film needs that film needs some more organ oops i'm uh i'm kind of sitting hold on thanks everybody for tuning in today uh so for the next couple of days i'm gonna be on the road uh so we won't have a live show i don't think i don't know we'll see we'll see what my internet is like when i'm on the road but um thanks for tuning in today if you like what you saw hit the thumbs up button hit the like button hit the notification button hit the button the positive buttons don't hit the negative ones don't hit that um and uh we'll be back live uh monday definitely but everybody have a great rest of your day and if you want to buy us some coffee all those coffee beans being washed in mexico made me think wow i need some coffee ed so you can go to ko dash fi.com av geeks you can buy some coffee everybody have a great rest of your day and we'll see you soon bye you