I am not alone. For years I have harbored a concern that I have kept largely quiet. I discussed it with my beloved around 1991 and we made some rather significant lifestyle changes based on those discussions. Then I forgot, I lost focus. I just went along as though everything was peachy.
A month or two ago I was dialoging with my dad and he brought to my attention an article by a research analyst that really caused me to refocus. As I have been researching and preparing since then I found something comforting, I am not alone.
This idea of being alone didn't bother me all that much except that the vast majority of America would disagree and think that I was a total crack-pot. And that might be the case. But I feel like Roy Neary (played by Richard Dreyfuss) in Close Encounters. Poor Roy just can't help himself, he sees this image in his mind and he can't get it out. He leaves his home and goes to Devil's Tower and finally sees the aliens arrive. But, it is at a great cost and in the end there are only a few people who actually see the aliens.
Our economy is my Devil's Tower. I have been convinced for years that things are about to get really, really bad. I don't know when, I don't know how bad. But things are starting to indicate that the economy is going to get a real shake up. Today I heard that housing sales plunged 4.1% last month and available houses for sale have reached the highest levels in 30 months with indications that this is just the beginning. This could be a big indicatory of the coming depression.
Today I was selling to a woman in a small town in Western Kentucky. Nice lady. As we were talking she said that they moved there recently because they wanted to get out of the city because of "an uncertain future". Her husband could also see the writing on the Wall Street and decided that it was time to relocate.
I certainly don't recommend that anyone do this, but I am sure glad that I did. 95% of the people that I know personally live in a suburban location (which is tons better than living in the city). If everyone were to abandon their homes and move to the country it would start to look like the suburbs and that kind of defeats the purpose of living in the country!
I read a lot from experts, pseudo-experts, and crackpots like me. The more that I read the more that I come up with a few conclusions. First, 99.99% of the people in America don't have the first clue as to what our economy is about and they will be toast if they are without a paycheck for more than a couple weeks. Second, there are some really scary people out there who lay awake at night worrying about everything from aliens to invasion by the Chinese. Finally, there is so much to prepare for, and I haven't begun to scratch the surface.
So much of what we are doing on the ranch just makes sense in so many ways. Take for instance our ability to make our own bread. Most of the world would think that we had converted to become Amish because we make our own bread (grind own own wheat, mix up a recipe, bake it). If costs us something like 50 cents a loaf and we have fresh bread. The alternative is to spend $2 a loaf and have something that has been made in some factory hundreds of miles away. Or how about our honey. We just bought 6 gallons. At the end of the day we got it in bulk for about 1/3rd of the cost that they pay at the local grocery store, and it is fresh and local. This just makes sense.
A month or two ago I was dialoging with my dad and he brought to my attention an article by a research analyst that really caused me to refocus. As I have been researching and preparing since then I found something comforting, I am not alone.
This idea of being alone didn't bother me all that much except that the vast majority of America would disagree and think that I was a total crack-pot. And that might be the case. But I feel like Roy Neary (played by Richard Dreyfuss) in Close Encounters. Poor Roy just can't help himself, he sees this image in his mind and he can't get it out. He leaves his home and goes to Devil's Tower and finally sees the aliens arrive. But, it is at a great cost and in the end there are only a few people who actually see the aliens.
Our economy is my Devil's Tower. I have been convinced for years that things are about to get really, really bad. I don't know when, I don't know how bad. But things are starting to indicate that the economy is going to get a real shake up. Today I heard that housing sales plunged 4.1% last month and available houses for sale have reached the highest levels in 30 months with indications that this is just the beginning. This could be a big indicatory of the coming depression.
Today I was selling to a woman in a small town in Western Kentucky. Nice lady. As we were talking she said that they moved there recently because they wanted to get out of the city because of "an uncertain future". Her husband could also see the writing on the Wall Street and decided that it was time to relocate.
I certainly don't recommend that anyone do this, but I am sure glad that I did. 95% of the people that I know personally live in a suburban location (which is tons better than living in the city). If everyone were to abandon their homes and move to the country it would start to look like the suburbs and that kind of defeats the purpose of living in the country!
I read a lot from experts, pseudo-experts, and crackpots like me. The more that I read the more that I come up with a few conclusions. First, 99.99% of the people in America don't have the first clue as to what our economy is about and they will be toast if they are without a paycheck for more than a couple weeks. Second, there are some really scary people out there who lay awake at night worrying about everything from aliens to invasion by the Chinese. Finally, there is so much to prepare for, and I haven't begun to scratch the surface.
So much of what we are doing on the ranch just makes sense in so many ways. Take for instance our ability to make our own bread. Most of the world would think that we had converted to become Amish because we make our own bread (grind own own wheat, mix up a recipe, bake it). If costs us something like 50 cents a loaf and we have fresh bread. The alternative is to spend $2 a loaf and have something that has been made in some factory hundreds of miles away. Or how about our honey. We just bought 6 gallons. At the end of the day we got it in bulk for about 1/3rd of the cost that they pay at the local grocery store, and it is fresh and local. This just makes sense.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home