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[Don Bowen <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

At 5/22/2007, you wrote:

> A third thing:   the real estate/debt crash under way.   It isn't just real
> estate but rather all assets are inflated in value, it's only the great 
> amount
> of imagined wealth tied up in real estate and the uncollectable loans that
> inflated its value.

I think things like the collapse of the housing bubble to be mostly noise 
that could have severe consequences if allowed to continue.  Overall credit 
was too easy because so much of the US economy is dependent on consumer 
purchases.  Real property has a real value but the RE credit bubbles 
inflated the land based on not what it was intrinsically worth but on what 
one person's emotions and another's greed thought it was worth.  The dot 
com bust left a lot of money with no place to go so it went into real 
estate.  Now that the Real Estate market is bust you see the money running 
into the stock market and into the fund companies.

The Bush tax cuts have transferred a lot of money to the wealthy as has the 
huge deficient spending binge.  That money has to go somewhere and there 
are only so many upside down airplane stamps one can buy.

> Do you find it curious that the the proffered reason for the increase in
> gasoline prices is the bottleneck of refinery capacity and yet no service 
> station,
> mega store, convenience store, no one is actually short on gas?  No pumps
> have 'out of gas' signs on them?

That has been a favored whipping boy for several years now.  "We do not 
have enough because the environmentalists won't allow us to build more 
refineries."  "Hurricane Katrina destroyed a large segment of out refining 
capacity."  and so on.  Several years ago I read a report on just that and 
the report's conclusion was that because of the cost of crude and the 
profits in motor fuel refineries have significantly improved the yield thus 
there being no need for new refineries.  There was an attempt to close one 
owned by Valero in Bakersfield, CA.  Mostly because the large local oil 
field was declining and the cost to import crude was too high.  After much 
political wrangling it is still open.

A significant amount of motor fuel is refined near the sources of crude and 
imported into the US.

As of today we have a 21.0 day supply of gasoline on hand as compared to 
22.4 a year ago.  We import more than 1.5 million barrels of gasoline a 
week.  Our total usage  for the week ending 5/12/07 was 9.404 million 
barrels compared to 9.327 for the same time last year.



Don Bowen              Awl Knotted Up                       KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com
My travel journal
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html

I am omnivagant.  
> From billj AT harborside.com  Tue May 22 14:55:00 2007
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Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 11:54:58 -0700
From: Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>
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Subject: [Homestead] Feeding Ewe Dam Sheep
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Well, as usual I got my little flock of 4 unaffordable miniature "lambs" 
that can barely take care of the pasture there is now, when all goes 
well.  They weren't as advertised, since one gave birth!!!!  Actually I 
should be thrilled, in a way, since she had no problems at all, unlike 
the giant fat ewes I've heard of; it's great to think that some day when 
I do have a perpetual flock, that they'll be able to take care of 
themselves so well on their own.  And there'll be a fifth snout grazing.

Anyway, these sheep are always so skittish and so intensely flocking 
that it's impossible to feed just the dam, especially with the complete 
lack of facilities here, so I ended up with 3 fat pigs, one skinny ewe, 
and waist-high grass.  So I've wondered a lot about how to get feed just 
to the ewe.  The other day I soaked some fava beans, and it's working.  
They're so large that it only takes a few to quiet her hunger, they 
rattle in the bowl like grain (unlike tortilla pieces), and I can grow 
them in large quantities over the winter.  She's aggressively ravenous, 
so it's easy to toss them just to her.  I've thought about trying thick 
slices of cooked potato or parsnip (or walnut halves as a special 
treat).  I've wondered whether parsnips contain the same 
hunger-suppressing compounds as fennel seed, since I always feel so 
satisfied after having a bowl of parsnips and cream for breakfast, or 
any meal involving parsnips.  Fortunately they also grow like crazy over 
the winter here.

Advice would also be appreciated on how to fashion a lamb creep quickly 
and economically from things like fence posts, or whatever; it's still 
impossible to feed just the new lamb.  I saw the dam kick it away 
yesterday, so at this rate I don't have to worry about its growing too 
big to fit through the bars!

Bill
S. Oregon coast