CW writes:

techniques.
Somebody on here (wish I could remember who) once stated that things weren't
necessarily made better 150 years ago, it just seems that way because the
only ones that have survived long enough for you to see were well made. The
lousy ones (of which there were many) fell apart long before they could ever
achieve antique status.

True. Same holds for old houses. The dumps, the shacks, the hovels have all
collapsed, while the beautifully built Victorians and others have survived to
be revamped and modernized to survive for another 100+ years. I've lived in
houses built in the 1830 that were not as well made as the barns built the same
year or the year before...but those barns were built for often life-giving
protection for property that was precious to the farmer. His comfort, his
family's comfort, came second, so the house went up with whatever wood and
nails were handy, while the barn was built with mortise and tenons and pegged
joints.

Hell, both sets of my grandparents lived on farms that were built like that.

Charlie Self
"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use
our power the greater it will be." Thomas Jefferson