Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Yes, he's an eye-opener and there are others. At least he gets down to
specifics which is more unsettling than broad forecasts that don't get so
personal. We caught up with him last year and got his book. We could see
some angles a little differently. Nuclear is DOA. Among other things it
takes 15 years to go from concept to grid, and we don't have that kind of
time - or the financing. And the immediate problem is cost of utilities
already - millions pay too much now and electric is going up. Heating oil
is no better, nor gas. Even our local firewood is going up. It's like his
insistence on switching to railroad building (horribly expensive), mass
transit, and other good ideas that need massive financing. We have to
consider the big picture, price inflation, rising unemployment, economic
hardship, federal debt for wars, climate disasters, food shortages, and
growing state movements for secession. And just when the boomers are
retiring and medical costs are through the roof. A lot of things are about
to change and it's going to be messy. Grow food. 

Someone once said recession is when your neighbor loses his/her job;
depression is when you lose yours. Reading what you said, Kathy, we could
add losing a house. When it hits us it hardly matters if they call it
recession, repression or whatever. 

No matter how right Kunstler is about the suburbs, most people can't get
out of the suburbs or out of a big city. But on the other hand, some live
too remote for reliable grocery distribution - as we've heard already on
this list. Are we safer living minutes from a small town that's minutes
from a big city? I don't know. We do know gas is going up and we rely on
vehicles to get our produce to farmers markets, among other necessary
trips. We try to find friends nearby who are do-it-yourselfers, food
growers, scroungers, animal raisers, people with practical skills. And
especially people with large piles of aged manure we can haul off ...;-) 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. 
--Henry David Thoreau 

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 1/14/2008 at 2:21 PM Kathy wrote:

>Thank you for posting this Doug. I have passed it on. This is the most
>important piece I have read lately. As a victim of the housing mess
>(foreclosure)I can certainly relate.
>Kathy
>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  From: Douglas Willhite 
>  To: Douglas & Hillary Willhite 
>  Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 11:44 AM
>  Subject: [Livingontheland] The "housing bubble" implosion
>
>
>  The following is an opinion from James Kunstler, author of "The Long
>Emergency." Kunstler is alarmed about the state of our economy, but in the
>second half of the article offers some reasonable measures for us to
>consider.
>  Doug
>snip