Charles Maxwell, Hubbert's Peak, $15 gallon gas and our retirement.

[flipstress]

...I really want to take part of the yard and convert it from a grass growing/lawn cutting exercise to more food production... Maybe I'm a little crazy, but I just don't see much use in growing and cutting grass (unless its the wacky tobaky kind )

I love seeing and smelling flowers but at this point, if I am going to spend sweat and time in the yard and garden, I'd rather grow something I can eat, so I agree with you.

I'll check out the stuff ladelfina recommended. In addition, here are 2 books that I've added to my reading list:
Food Not Lawns
Gaia's Garden

 

[DblDoc]

Heh. The cheapest crap at the grocery store is about $15 for a 30-can suitcase. There are about 11 cans in a gallon. So even the cheap stuff is $5.50 a gallon or so.

Where are the torches and pitchforks?

Even for those of us who brew our own the prices have gone up markedly for ingredients. There was already a worldwide shortage of hops starting about a year ago and since then prices for malted barley and wheat have also skyrocketed due to supply:demand issues. I'd rather they plant barley for drinking alcohol then corn to burn in my MC

DD

 

[windsurf]

Here is the 3 year chart for Molson Coors. I should be buying the stock instead of the beer!

 

[ladelfina]

I love seeing and smelling flowers but at this point, if I am going to spend sweat and time in the yard and garden, I'd rather grow something I can eat, so I agree with you.

Some types of flower plantings can help in a kitchen garden (IIRC marigolds repel some kind of pest). I haven't gotten that much into it as I have little sunny space and so no big plans... Some flowers are edible, and the smell from the flowers of our potted lemon and orange trees is awesome! Rosemary gets covered in blue flowers, squash has great huge orange ones, and the chives have very cool purple spheres right now. Roses are used around here at the end of vineyard rows because they are more susceptible to some kind of fungus, so they function as the canary in the coalmine and alert growers as to whether they need to apply fungicide, traditionally copper/sulfur.

Thanks for your other book links.. There is really so much for us to (re-)learn.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Consider moving to a foreign country where there is proper public transportation and the cities are pedestrian-oriented. We found Denmark to be such a place. The income tax rates were somewhere around 50%, IIRC, and they wanted to know about 'foreign assets' as I believe they taxed them, too.

Venezuela still has $0.25/gal petrol. Of course, there may be a few negatives. (Did we ever hear from the folks who were going to visit Margarita Island?)

 

[TromboneAl]

I got 30 cans of Keystone Light for $12.99 (at RiteAid), which is only slightly more than the $11.99 that I paid a few years ago.

Cost Per Dinner:

Beer (12 fl oz): 43.3 cents
Milk (12 fl oz): 25.3 cents
Wine (6.7 fl oz): 71.8 cents

 

[REWahoo]

I got 30 cans of Keystone Light for $12.99 (at RiteAid), which is only slightly more than the $11.99 that I paid a few years ago.

Al, I cannot believe you admit to drinking Keystone Light. I suppose I need to remind you once again how Coors produces the stuff:

"Keystone is brewed by parking a tanker truck loaded with water in the brewery parking lot overnight. Contrast this with Keystone Light, which is brewed by simply driving a truckload of water through the brewery parking lot."

 

[Nords]

Al, I cannot believe you admit to drinking Keystone Light.

You're forgetting the submarine force's motto [-]"Run Silent Run Deep"[/-] "Cheap beer can't be all bad"...

 

[FIREd]

Being in spain right now I am reminded how pleasurable it is to be able to walk to almost anywhere you need to go. The supermarket is right down the street, many restaurants nearby, a big shopping mall a few blocks away, a pharmacy right around the corner. And for those days when walking gets old, a first class public transportation system that takes you anywhere you want to go for cheap. Seriously, If I ever moved back to Europe, I'd do away with cars altogether... Plus parking a car here is a nightmare.

 

[Zoocat]

Consider moving to a foreign country where there is proper public transportation and the cities are pedestrian-oriented. We found Denmark to be such a place. The income tax rates were somewhere around 50%, IIRC, and they wanted to know about 'foreign assets' as I believe they taxed them, too.

I don't think that this is a realistic alternative for most people. Most of us wouldn't want to live so far away from our families. After all, with energy costs going higher, who knows how long airline travel will be affordable? That's why I'm doing some traveling now.

There are lots of USA cities with public transportation. Think like Ha Ha, live in the city center, walk to stores, etc., entertainment, take a bus to farther places. Or living in one of the older suburbs just outside the city center that have good access to public transport.

Electric cars and taxis are in our future. In suburbs where there's not a lot of traffic, moto-taxis or even bicycle taxis like in other countries might be useful. Think about your neighbor's teenage boy with his bicycle taxi giving seniors a ride to the doctor's office as his after school job.

I noticed while driving on the freeway last weekend that no one was driving 70 mph even though that's the limit. Everyone had reduced their speed.

Growing food is probably a losing proposition in a climate with cold winters. Not many of us have the space for a big enough garden or the time and energy to cultivate it. But I have a summer garden and will enjoy the fresh produce and hope to put away some "nuts" for the winter.

 

[barbarus]

"I noticed while driving on the freeway last weekend that no one was driving 70 mph even though that's the limit. Everyone had reduced their speed."

This is REALLY bad news for the state and municipal governments should the practice catch on. They depend on speeding violations as a significant source of revenue and have stepped up enforcement in a number of localities to goose up the bottom line as other income streams, such as taxes, continue to contract.

It would be a grand joke if every driver absolutely obeyed all traffic laws for, say, the next month.
Politicians, bureaucrats and police officers would be livid!!

 

[Leonidas]

It would be a grand joke if every driver absolutely obeyed all traffic laws for, say, the next month.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to come about.

 

[Nords]

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to come about.

Our kid's had her learner's permit for nearly three weeks.

For that entire time we've been driving below the speed limit, coming to a full stop behind the stop sign's white line, yielding the right of way, not trying to beat the yellow light, signaling for turns, and generally following [-]every freaking rule I can remember[/-] everything she's learned from the driver's manual.

It's driving me crazy.

 

[HFWR]

Bully for her! Hopefully, she remain one of the 0.00001% of drivers who do those things...

 

[cashflo2u2]

On CNBC (gag) this morning this fellow When Tom Petrie talks, oilmen listen (Dealscape)

said he has no quarrel with oil coming to $200-$300 barrel and that Peak Oil theory is real, here and starting to be reflected in the price of oil. Everybody will soon be yakking about peak oil. He said the Saudi's were fooled by the oil companies 40 years ago, when the Saudis understood little about own oil, and the oil companies told them they had so much oil that they could never run out. That is why the Saudi's always still act like they have lots of excess oil.

 

[Telly]

The Saudis lie lie & lie. Up until 1978, ARAMCO (the ARab AMerican oil COmpany) was a US/Saudi joint ownership company. Production and field details were published to meet US financial requirements. After the Saudis nationalized it (now Saudi ARAMCO), it became secret. And with no significant exploration, they magically did a major increase to their "proven" reserves (this after many years of oil production). It is all political.
The Saudi house of cards will crumble once the world see's that they can not significantly increase production, because their super giant field is following the curve of all oil fields. Nothing lasts forever, no matter how much spin is used.
The future looks bleak for Saudi Arabia - Declining oil production, rapidly increasing very young population without enough jobs for them, most people are poor. They heavily subsidize oil products for their restive population to try to stay on top of them. A cooker for terrorism.
It ain't gonna be good when it hits the fan...