Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On May 31, 2008, at 10:20 AM, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> I'm looking forward to the days when there is a cultural shift to  
> where we
> don't need to personally own a motor vehicle at all, . . . .

Some here will recall that my teen dream was to own substantial  
acreage on which four or five close friends lived as a community,  
helping each other with big projects and sharing costly tools. I am  
resurrecting that dream. One or two vehicles might well serve several  
families.
> And seeing if we can cut that back to ONE trip per month.

My biggest flaw in this regard is being impatient, getting focussed  
doing a project, then needing some item to finish the project, so then  
driving the fourteen miles into town for that item. Sure, I also get  
the mail from the post office, buy whatever groceries have been  
listed, and anything else I can think of, but I still consider it a  
bad habit to be overcome. Planning ahead for projects, visualizing all  
possible needs, not starting the project until all supplies have been  
accumulated, that's the fantasy to be made real.

The down side to that is the disease of accumulating more electrical,  
pipe fittings, nails, bolts and such than is really needed. I am  
certain that I am not the only one here who has a mini hardware store  
on premises. The best way to rationalize the expenditure is to  
consider that all prices are headed upward, so, as in, um, help me out  
here, that book from the seventies that advocated accumulating tools,  
toothpaste, toilet paper, aspirin, booze, gold and silver to be  
prepared for hard times.

It will come to me just as soon as I hit the Send button.

Ah, The Alpha Strategy.