Weeds and the Chinese

For most gardeners and homesteaders, weeds are the bane of our existence. Not for me. I absolutely LOVE weeds.

I will admit, I used to HATE them. Then I decided that $3.50 per day for a bale of hay for billies separated from the herd (to prevent unwanted and untimely breeding) for 90 days or so could be improved upon. I had to cut the weeds anyway. Now I do it for about 10 minutes per day, load them all into a large trash can and dump the proceeds in the goat stall on top of the hay feeder. Now, MAYBE I go through 1 bale of hay per week... maybe even 10 days... and the goats are the equivalent of "grass fed" for those not going back to the herd (if you catch my drift).

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Read this excellent article and interview with a former Chinese Central Bank advisor.

My bet is that trade will collapse between the U.S. and China and that that will be the vehicle that brings international monetary imbalances BACK into balance.

More soon...

“All the good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow." - Grant Wood, American artist

I grew (or raised) every thing in tonight's dinner with exception of the mushrooms in the spinach. That was my first garden sweet potato.

I love "going out for milk & eggs". Its my own form of protest. I paid no "sales taxes" on the food or the gasoline to get to the store. As one of our commentators once said about my post Its a Cold, Cruel World "It a Help's me keep in touch with my inner John Galt" (I used the first person).

(Today's milk and egg haul)

Once you have the chickens and the cow, nature provides most of the rest. I have 21 laying hens that are over 1 year old, and they are still giving me an average of 16 eggs per day. I have another hundred or so birds at various stages of growth, all of them free rangin' and doin' it. Yea, the layers are headed for the soup pot soon... but they had it really good while they had it... and there is no such thing as hospice for livestock. Better to go quick.

Especially for a good cause... and to a "Better Place"... my freezer.

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OK, so I feel pretty good about this self-reliance thing... well, sort of. The fact is that while am not at all reliant on food distribution, I am totally and utterly dependent on our coffin freezer t0 preserve our meats. Fresh milk and eggs show up daily, no refrigeration required... potatoes and corn meal and flour keep for months... tomatoes lend themselves to easy canning... but 600 lbs of pork and beef is whole other story.

Anybody have any ideas for a backup plan or other methods of preserving? I am all ears. I guess I could salt the pork and smoke hams... but I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it...

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The U.S. equity market appears to be completely unafraid of December's crude Oil deliver price of nearly $83. Maybe they are right. I wouldn't bet on it with my hard earned money. If you are a trader, that's different... the "trend is your friend", but you gotta know how close 'em out.

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I pray that both those who opposed the government's recent foray into the U.S. healthcare system AND those who supported it will read this article AND the link to the flow chart - though I doubt people that supported it will read it or bother to understand it. They just wanted "something". They got "something". What they got is going to make the "War on Drugs" look productive, fair, and rational.

"Johny O"

"It is indeed a singular thing that people wish to pass laws to nullify the disagreeable consequences that the law of responsibility entails. Will they never realize that they do not eliminate these consequences but merely pass them along to other people? The result is one injustice the more and one moral the less." – Frederic Bastiat

Before I get onto Oil...

We bought an Irish Dexter Bull to be our new herd sire (BTW, I have added a new job description to add to my very varied bio - "Cattleman". Kinda catchy, don't you think?)

I have been considering miniature cattle for a while. In researching, I found the Dexter's are about the same size as the Miniature cattle breeds, but are not miniaturized. This is how they were developed over the years in Ireland and Scotland. They are said not to need any shelter (all cattle need shade), are entirely grass fed and require ZERO grain, and a 600 pound cow will still provide over 2 gallons of milk per day on a grass only diet.

I can tell you that a family of 5 just cannot eat an entire full sized bovine in a year, so the smaller size makes sense on that account as well as being easier on the fencing. Fence repair just ain't that much fun.

I name all of our farm animals from people in my past, and have granted the name "Johnny O'Donnell", Johnny O for short to this bull after my ski and surf partner of my youth. Here he is laying next to our family milk cow, Bonnie. As you can see, he is about 2/3 her size and weight - and Bonnie is a small cow as American bovine go.

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WTI crude oil topped $80 in futures trading this morning.

Siad another way... by MY estimate, Oil is less than 12% from a price that would begin to bring the economy down again, hard (which would also mean that energy demand would decline, bringing pressure on prices... so this is not advice to go long Oil here). $80 WTI used to be the price that the U.S. economy could simply not withstand... but its is MY opinion that with the recent decrease in Oil imports the price will have to go up by a commensurate amount to have the same effect. We shall see.

Me? I am long Exxon and Nat Gas, but not Oil (at the moment).

I just checked the futures market... Oil is now over $81 for the front month, and over $82 for November and December delivery. That these prices are even possible given the state of the economy and unemployment and with the US$ above 80 on the Dollar Index is indicative of the reality of the U.S. Oil import paradigm. Evidently, that paradigm's elasticity is being sorely tested... why else $81 Oil and high inventories? Clearly, the U.S. is no longer the Axe in the price of Oil.

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Read this excellent article on the state of Social Programs for the non-working population in Israel.

Note to American Left: Its not a race thing. Its not a social class thing. No country can withstand a growing population of tax receivers and a declining percentage of tax payers.

Note to American Right: No country can withstand the military costs associated with empire.