I came across this expression as a second-year undergraduate student of economics way back in 1980. In the late 19th century, the French economist, Léon Walras, developed a theoretical model that described a situation in which all the markets in an economy were in equilibrium simultaneously. The model assumes that all economic agents have perfect information about the prices of goods and services, an assumption which begs the rather crucial question of how this perfect information is acquired. Here the theory relies on an imaginary auctioneer that seamlessly coordinates the flow of information. The text book which I was reading at the time referred to the auctioneer a “deus ex machina”. I read and remembered this phrase but failed either to grasp or research its meaning. Who was it that said that education is wasted on the young? It was only many years later when I was a postgraduate that a friend (the English student who studied the work of Shelley) enlightened me over a coffee in the Covered Market in Oxford. Ancient Greek playwrights would often employed the device of using a a crane-like machine to lower a god onto the stage in order to resolve a conflict or bring an unlikely resolution to the play - hence "deus ex machine" or "god from the machine".
While I am happy to accept that resolutions to conundrums of economic theory are usually overly simplistic, convenient or downright contrived, this is categorically not the case with life on the land. Indeed the solutions to problems on the farm are generally particularly satisfying. So it was that earlier in the new year two huge pallets arrived at the farm (as mentioned in "A cracking start ... posted on 13 January), bearing our Christmas presents - a log-splitter and a shredder/mulcher - in what can only be described as the world's largest flat-packs. Ikea has nothing remotely as heavy or as challenging as these two monsters.
A rather large flatpack
We soon we had the shredder/mulcher up and running. It is an impressive machine, as I discovered somewhat alarmingly on my first outing with it. I was using one of our Tassie oak veneer logs to prod the material to be shredded down the chute when I accidentally pushed too far down. The blades ripped the log out of my hands and spat the splinters out the other side in the blink of an eye. It was a salutary reminder to be extremely cautious. Yesterday we spent a very pleasant morning driving south down the Huon and collecting some seaweed. On returning home we put some of it through the machine and received some glorious shredded strands of seaweed which we are now keeping in a compost bin to use as an additive when planting.
The shredder
The assembly of the log-splitter was a bit more involved. The machine weighs about 300kg so the tractor had to be employed to lift some of the components out of the packaging. It took a while but with very little stress and no dissent we managed to get the beast fully assembled.
Assembly in progress
The hydraulic cylinder or ram that drives the splitting wedge delivers 40 tons of force to the log and even knotted hardwood finds it difficult to resist that kind of power. The only remaining problem is that very often the rounds cut from big trees are too heavy to lift comfortably. A neat solution is to use the bucket of the tractor to lift the rounds to the correct height and then simply transfer them to the splitter. We now have a pretty good stockpile of wood for the winter and it will be very interesting to monitor how long this stash actually lasts. Suffice it to say that our experience with our Christmas presents has been extremely gratifying. They may be machines but there are no "deus ex machina" arguments to be made here.
Dealing with heavy rounds
A good stash for winter
Our next major project will be to get our veggie patch underway. We are expecting an excavator on site in a few weeks to level out the area we have chosen. After that we will need to fence the area and start building our planting beds. Tomorrow we are driving up to the north of the State to visit a property whose proprietors have constructed a greenhouse of the type that we want. That is another major project which awaits. Of one thing I am pretty certain and that is there will be no Devine intervention, no cameo from a "deus ex machina" to bring about a miraculous resolution to this building enterprise. It's just going to be more hard labour ...
Yet another great sunrise
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