What happens if all of us are wasting our time?

Heineken · **Posted:** Sun Nov 25, 2007 9:51 pm

Ludi wrote:

Heineken wrote:

Ironically, since I've been a country boy I've been dependent on powered vehicles and mowers, along with a few other motorized devices.

You need more animals if you're still having to mow. Some chickens in field pens, sheep, or goats. Maybe a horse, cow, or steer.

We never mow except to line-trim a little path through the grass when we have people over for a picnic. Of course we don't have a tractor or rototiller either.

We need to do some mowing, otherwise the vegetation literally takes over our immediate living area and creates a fire risk. Our buildings would literally disappear under the mass of vegetation within a handful of years. I mow as little as possible.

I'd have more animals if I had more people to take care of them. I do agree with you in principle, Ludi.

I have as few powered machines as possible, and I never did get a rototiller.

threadbear · **Joined:** Sat Jan 22, 2005 1:00 am **Posts:** 7917

PrairieMule wrote:

threadbear wrote:

I wonder how much energy it actually takes for shit to hit a fan. Also, can you rely on the electrical grid to power the fan? Things are just going to get so slow. It might be a bit of a relief. People may actually start to share more, and party more, too. What if a gradual power down turned out to be kind of fun? (Oh, am I going to get it now) :lol:

Will our children's children refer to the early 21st century as when "The Shit Hit The Windmill"?

I hope so. Correct green speak, would be, "When the Night Soil hits the Windmill" There.... now that's killing two turds with one stone.--ba ba ba boom.

Blacksmith · **Posted:** Sun Nov 25, 2007 10:20 pm

Have you ever considered burning your yard rather than mowing it?

Madpaddy · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:00 am **Posts:** 2151

Heineken wrote,

Quote:

(I also have a leaf blower, but I don't use it much.)

Ahh Heineken, as one of my favourite posters on this site, please say it aint so.

Leaf blowers are my symbol of how we have become such a fat heap of techno dependent, lazy, useless bastxxds.

PS: I used to own one myself in my shameful past.

Heineken · **Posted:** Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:50 pm

Madpaddy wrote:

Heineken wrote,

Quote:

(I also have a leaf blower, but I don't use it much.)

Ahh Heineken, as one of my favourite posters on this site, please say it aint so.

Leaf blowers are my symbol of how we have become such a fat heap of techno dependent, lazy, useless bastxxds.

PS: I used to own one myself in my shameful past.

I despise leafblowers too, friend Madpaddy. I use mine only to blow the leaves out of the gutters, off the porch, and out of and away from the barn-like garage. We're talking maybe 1 hour of total use per year.

Our property is large and I'm the main (often only) source of labor, so I need the occasional crutch. As it is, I'm drowning in farmy work; trust me, lazy is the last word in my vocabulary. I've worked so hard over the years that the bumps on my elbows are strangely enlarged, like Popeye's.

Heineken · **Posted:** Mon Nov 26, 2007 1:02 pm

Stratovarius wrote:

I was one who was expecting things to "start happening" at $100 / barrel although nothing much has happened...at all. Black Friday brought in 20+ billion bucks, people are still camping out after Thanksgiving to get the goods at Best Buy / Wal-Mart etc. I haven't seen any news stories about unemployment up to 20% or food shelves at HEB going dry. Like Heineken said, a balloon can stretch quite a bit before it instantaneously pops at a breaking point. I think, the "collapse" or whatever you want to call it will happen like a balloon being blown up. People seem to be finding loose change in the corners and under couches and doing a little handyman work to readjust their lives a little. Point is, we're more than well-off as it is now and it will take a while to reach the critical breaking point.

What's the breaking point? I don't know. I guess it would be the point where spending money exceeds income with most (almost all) luxuries cut off.

Or it could be a lot sooner I dunno.

Anyway, preparing for PO would be like reverting to a simpler life style away from the suburban life style of the suit-and-tie 9 to 5 desk job downtown which is absolutely loathsome to me. Preparing for PO would just be doing what I've always wanted to do...How could I lose?

I think quite a lot is happening NOW, Strat. Under the surface and away from the phony face of the mass media. We could easily start a list of all the monstrously bad things that are happening NOW.

People are dying prematurely out there. Plant and animal species are vanishing. Oil is peaking, with NG soon to follow. The climate is deteriorating visibly. There's a permanent water crisis. Food costs are soaring. The US government has utterly abandoned its charter. Health care is wrecked as a viable system. We're bankrupt. The middle class is getting squeezed out of existence. On and on.

There is no recovery from many of these changes. There are virtually no countervailing trends.

The final descent is thus merely a matter of time. A critical mass of crap will be reached, and then collapse with a roar like a dump truck depositing its load of rubble. It won't be fun and we won't be sitting here writing about it.

Madpaddy · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:00 am **Posts:** 2151

Heineken wrote,

Quote:

We could easily start a list of all the monstrously bad things that are happening NOW.

This is a good idea. I can think of at least a half dozen major cases in my own country.

BTW; Heineken, I'm sure that you have rationalised that your one hour use of the leafblower saves you many hours of otherwise tedious and unrewarding manual labour. My gripe is with suburbanites with postage stamp lawns using them. Where I used to live winter Saturday mornings sounded like a Marine Amphibious Brigade was coming ashore at Normandy. Mind you I did see a good show where inventors used leafblowers to make a hovercraft.

oowolf · **Posted:** Mon Nov 26, 2007 4:37 pm

Yeah, glad I got paranoid about bird flu back in 05 and bought a ton of flour at $16/100#; the same flour is now $56/100#.

How can it EVER be a waste to plant fruit and nut trees?

No one who plants trees can be a total pessimist.

Even an uberdoomer.

Heineken · **Posted:** Tue Nov 27, 2007 7:47 am

Mad: I know just what you mean about the suburban leaf-blower symphony. It's amazing how people tolerate that endless racket. I guess that, as a group, they'd rather endure the noise than rake.

oowolf: I'm a pessimist who plants trees, etc. I know with conviction that the situation is hopeless, but I do it anyway just for the sake of doing it. I can't seem to stop my body from going through the hopeful motions, despite what the brain is telling it.

kadoomsoon · **Posted:** Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:29 am

Walnut trees esp english walnut should have lots and lots of them.

kadoomsoon · **Posted:** Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:31 am

Always make efficient use of your time.

What happens if all of us are wasting our time?

Who is online