2012 : World War 3, billions dying in several hours

Here's one posted Oct 16, 2008.

Linky?

Can we go back 2 years?

I can't remember when I last updated my assessment so here goes:
On the micro level I got a little guarantee of some salary through a small gov contract. I've made good improvements to my place over the last year, new, covered wood storage, some new fences, rebuilt stove for the shop, changes to the hay and calf barns and improved raised beds in the kitchen garden.

We sold a good amount of alfalfa and have piles of grass hay in the barn and lined up outside as well.

Also, we have both our kids' families living within driving distance as well as a nephew and his family now living a couple of miles away.

On the down side we had a dramatic increased mortality in our calves - we lost more in the last 4 months than in the previous 4 years - not sure why is the worst thing, perhaps the weather was a contributor. And we only have 25 head going into winter.

Hopefuly the changes we made to the calf barn and weaning pen arrangement will help.

Also increased costs for feed, milk replacer and such and the drop in feeder prices hurt us.

On the Macro side, since we have no mortgage, little in the bank and only one credit card for use basically in the winter; iow, we haven't felt much of the economic crises to this point.

Our cash flow, like every one else and somewhat more than some depends on the ratio of general economic activity to commodity prices and the big run up in commodity prices have hurt us both on the input and output side this year. Of course the crappy economy in CA where we get most of our cash graphics work has had an effect.

Bottom line assessment:
Things will be tougher for us next year on both sides of the ledger, not Armageddon, just slimmer. I think the retail environment will go down further before it doesn't go down more and that is about the best we can hope. and we'll need to work our chores a little harder.
Not to mention we may get caught in the credit squeeze since our one card tides us over the winter.

Plans:
We are working up the garden a little more this fall.
We'll plant a bigger variety of staples next spring including more field corn for pigs.
We had some winter wheat drilled a few days ago.
We are raising 2 pigs instead of one and keeping back a steer to butcher for the first time.
We are going to cut more cord wood (I promise SCF) and try to make our 200 gal of propane last till spring.

One big move is to plant corn in the alfalfa field next year. The record rains this spring drowned out about half the field and since you can't reseed alfalfa and it adds N to the soil, which the weeds like, a corn crop will suck out the N and the next crop will be cleaner. If we get a decent crop of corn we'll fill the bin with our half and have feed for several years.

The plan is changing as to execution and timing and with my new knowledge but not really in basic form I guess.

Most entertaining would be all the bold predictions that have already been shown false.

One that I just remembered:
The Fan and the Slide

Hey, Pops, I don't mean to moderate the moderator, but how about just a one-sentence quote?

Today Im thinking I should pay a little more attention to the Fan and a little less to the Slide.