Just a quick Sunday afternoon report. The open house at Clear Spring School was successful. My wife went and reported that student weavings were prominently featured in every classroom. On Monday I plan to make some knitting spools as I believe that would be another craft that would interest the students.

Lucy's team lost in the first round at the state soccer tournament. It was kind of a relief as winning would have required more middle of the week trips to Little Rock. they played well and were defending their goal for most of the game. And it was exhausting since they only have 13 members and that provides for only two substitutes. All this has very little to do with the hands but does remind us all that education is about much more than the brain.

I have been spending the day filling out the kinds of forms that self-employed craftsmen in America are tormented by. There is a vast conspiracy against the creative self-employed artists and craftsmen of America. It is called "the government."

You will notice that when the government talks about small business, they are talking about companies that are under several hundred employees in size. They want to encourage those companies, blah, blah, blah. But the greatest potential growth in our economy is in the very smallest companies and the plethora of confusing filings is a serious deterrent to growth for those of us who would have to hire accountants to manage them.

With encouragement to hire help, we would. With provision of health care benefits from the government to our employees we would take on greater responsibility. But the swamp of paperwork is too great for most self-employed Americans to deal with. We are forced to either stay small or hire expensive professionals to help us with the flood of documents we are required to file in a timely manner...

Please forgive the rant, but the challenges of making a living as a self-employed craftsman in America are large enough without the confusion presented to us by state and federal government, and since I've had to spend a good part of my day with this stuff instead of being productive in the work shop, I figure at least a few people should know about it.

When the Republicans in office claim to be on the side of business, please remember they are talking about "big" business" and when they are talking about supporting "small business," they aren't talking about craftsmen.