Homestead mailing list

[SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>]

Blows one's mind to realize what slow learners humans can be.  Or wait.  
Greed again!

I admire innovation and using what's at hand as much as the next guy, 
but a person really has to wonder about setting up these enterprises in 
an area historically devoid of resources.   To me, it's never made 
sense.  It's like trying to drill for oil in Manhattan.

Someone who knows:  was/is there any reason for these endeavors than the 
desire to make money?  Or am I missing something?  Is it a power/control 
thing?

To me, it's basic:  when I was looking for a place to homestead, I 
counted water, both groundwater and historically adequate annual 
rainfall, to be at the top of the list.  Then I considered other 
environmental factors, average and extreme temperatures and so on, then 
general demographic factors such as social attitudes, markets, etc.  Why 
would I have tried to manage a flock of goats at 501 Whatever in Some 
City, even if there were hundreds of spinners and knitters there to buy 
my product? 

I think I might have lived in the williwogs for too long.

SJ, in Maine


Don Bowen wrote:
> > Rob brought this to my attention. Consider that California produces
> > about twenty-five percent of the country's food. Then consider farmers
> > having to sharply cut back the number of acres planted.
> >     
>
> It is said that 80% of the water used in California is for agriculture.  The
> number one agricultural country in the US is Fresno County.  I heard
> recently that in 1950 90% of New York's fresh produce came from New Jersey,
> now 90% comes from California.
>
> California's growth has placed farmers and developers in conflict.  This
> conflict is eased somewhat when farmers were allowed to sell water at huge
> profits to developers but it is still there.  Developers want to make
> suburban lawns that look like back east.  They also want huge golf courses
> to lure spenders, golf courses that use more water and chemicals per square
> foot than any farm.  Only home owners use more.
>
> Southern California is a desert with less than 10 inches of rainfall average
> per year.  If every drop of rain that fell on San Diego County were captured
> it would provide less than 5% of the county's need.  One casino tribe is
> building a huge golf course and the wells are drying up important water
> sources near and have lead to several houses burning because there was no
> water.  Another tribe is pumping ground water and the ground is subsiding
> causing houses to crack.  The tribe claims no responsibility as a sovereign
> nation.  
>
>