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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

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Behind The Black
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Dusty Lumber Company – No talking just precision carpentry

An evening pause: This proves the value of having the right tools. Even so, you have to use your brain and know what you are doing.

It works to run this at 2x speed, by the way.

Hat tip Cotour.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

9 comments

  • David Eastman

    I’m not sure if I’m more jealous of the tools, the workshop, or the quality of the raw lumber. A lot more time and effort goes into that than is shown in that video, getting all those pieces to fit together that nicely is a lot of work. Of course, the more experienced and detail-oriented a craftsman you are, the less extra work it is, and there were a few things in that video that made it clear he’s very good indeed.

  • Chris

    Very nice tools. $$

  • Phill O

    I wonder where he gets his lumber!

  • pzatchok

    That all looked like standard lumber store 2×8’s 2×10’s glued together. Notice the labels stapled to the ends. Expensive none the less.

  • Diane Wilson

    Brings to mind the old saw: “Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, and cut it with an axe.”

  • Andi

    Can’t believe that breathing in all that sawdust is healthy.

  • Don C.

    And he isn’t even using thin leather gloves. Or as the Germans say “splinterkeepinouten”

  • Allan

    Andi: I believe if the blades are sharp on those saws and routers the particle size of the sawdust is big enough that it wouldn’t make it past your nose hairs. The sanders, I see, are connected to a vac. The aroma of fresh cut lumber is invigorating. The master uses other safety gear when he deems it appropriate (ear protection and eye shielding).

    Don C: I had a barn/garage built this summer by a Mennonite building company. None of the young men used any gloves through the whole process which included demolition of an old structure. They knocked the old barn down with a skid then threw all the splintered old pieces, full of nails, into two large roll-offs. Never a splinterkeepinouten was worn. They sure did build a nice barn. Amish and Mennonites are excellent carpenters.

  • pzatchok

    We used to buy all our lumber off of the Amish and Mennonites. It was the best way to get dried hardwood lumber. Cherry oak

    We never used gloves because around equipment the gloves added to your chance of getting cut badly. Gloves get caught in machines and pull in your fingers. Skin doesn’t pull you in. I would rather loose one finger than three.
    And with well milled lumber there was little chance of splinters.

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