Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

Over the past many years the advice has been that one must secure some land 
in the country because soon all the retiring Gentleman Farmer Esquires will 
be 
moving to the country and drive up prices.

The current general fall in real estate prices not withstanding, high fuel 
prices have already begun to have an effect on real estate:

http://tinyurl.com/3vlp8k

Two summers ago I hired out to paint hotel rooms that were being converted 
from smoking to non-smoking rooms.  I'd worked at a lot of hotels and motels 
in 
my misspent youth and was familiar with all and sundry jobs there.  I got to 
know the crew in the trenches and was surprised the extent to which people 
commuted to these very low paying jobs.  I was being paid by the room, so low 
pay 
was my own dodge, easily avoided by some bestirring of myself.  But the rest 
of the people barely made ends meet and some commuted from 30 or more miles 
away.

If that weren't bad enough, the (typically) cheapskate management panicked 
over every dime of payroll and if someone were cleaning rooms or doing 
laundry 
and because of low volume were done in five hours, they were expected to 
clock 
out and leave.

We have handily rounded a corner where without a substantial increase in pay, 
these people simply can't show up at work.

Soon it will also take its toll on all the Gentlemen Farmer Esquires all of 
whom I've seen come and go are deeply fossil fuel dependent.

The exodus has begun!   </HTML>