Shortages

[Baymule]

That is so true! Funny and humorous but sadly true at the same time.

Another version could go, the ant refused to give up his home and defended it with his 30-30 rifle. SWAT teams were called in, Homeland Security and the ant was declared a terrorist. The FBI and the new, armed IRS agents came to the party. It was a standoff until a FBI agent stumbled and his gun went off. Immediately all the letter agents fired upon the ants home. Under heavy fire, the ant tried to surrender but was shot to pieces. The barrage of bullets blew holes in the gas stove, it caught fire and the ants Home blew up. The press defamed the ant, calling him a subversive shadowy figure, home grown terrorist and insurrectionist. His death was ruled a suicide. Nothing more was ever mentioned about the ant. The grasshopper was warned to never speak of this again, given a new identity and moved to an undisclosed location.

 

[Mini Horses]

And people wonder WHY I WANT to just live on my farm, love my animals, grow my garden, preserve the foods, share with neighbors, and tell the questioners to get lost!!

When gas was 29 cent a gal, min wage was a few dollars and financially things were tight but ok....we didn't have people running around just shooting things up! There was respect, rules and families.

Yeah...things changed!

 

[SageHill]

I got this off of a different forum under "jokes"

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
************************************************************
MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS,MSNBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

The ant loses the case. Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin say justice has been served.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't
maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote!

Funny, sort of only because it’s too true.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I raise my animals. I grow and preserve some foods. I try to live frugally. I've learned some 'old timey' skills - butchering chickens, canning everything I can shove into a jar, scratch cooking, etc. Many of the 'prepping' things are out of my reach financially (root cellars, massive water storage contraptions) or just out of the question for me since the only horsepower on my 'farm' is my own back.
When I happen to use the word Farm to describe my home and people ask what I raise, I like to tell them my farm produces peace, and comfort, and the desire to worship & praise. That I grow friendships and provide knowledge (where I can).
I like to think (again, naively) many many many folks got through previous hard times - hard decades even - with little to no prepping. They just made-do with what they had, traded with friends & neighbors for what they didn't have.

THIS! A gazillion likes! No blame, no excuses - just doing what needs to be done!

 

[farmerjan]

I KNOW it's completely naïve of me - and one day I'll probably be cold & hungry & wishing I'd been more involved/informed... but I just can't stand to watch/listen/read the 'news' anymore. It's probably been 2-3 years since I've tuned in for more than the weather - and then only when a big storm is expected. Every source has an agenda and presents the 'facts' in a skewed way to promote the conclusions they support.
I raise my animals. I grow and preserve some foods. I try to live frugally. I've learned some 'old timey' skills - butchering chickens, canning everything I can shove into a jar, scratch cooking, etc. Many of the 'prepping' things are out of my reach financially (root cellars, massive water storage contraptions) or just out of the question for me since the only horsepower on my 'farm' is my own back.
When I happen to use the word Farm to describe my home and people ask what I raise, I like to tell them my farm produces peace, and comfort, and the desire to worship & praise. That I grow friendships and provide knowledge (where I can).
I like to think (again, naively) many many many folks got through previous hard times - hard decades even - with little to no prepping. They just made-do with what they had, traded with friends & neighbors for what they didn't have.

Basically I agree with much of what you said.... EXCEPT ...... the last paragraph... that many people got through previous hard times with little or no prepping.... I agree they made do and did alot of trading.... BUT.... most had a previous generation in their household or closeby, that kept them grounded on needing to prep and store and put back any and everything they could to be able to provide for their future. They also were not of the "run to the store 4 times a week" generation or of the "instant gratification" I want it now generation either. The sad thing is that the generations from the 50's-60's-70's when things got a little better, all said they did not want their kids to go through what they went through and they did TOO MUCH for their kids and made it too easy and the kids did not grow up with much sense of having to work for what they had because mommy and daddy would just give it to them or provide it for them. There was no sense of having to be responsible. It has mushroomed to the gov't thinking that they should step up and make up for all the social ills that were created and now we have 2 and 3 generations of kids/people that have never had to take responsibility for themselves and it keeps on mushrooming.....

It is going to take a very hard lesson and some real suffering before we can get back to being a more moral and responsible society..... churches took care of the poor instead of the gov't.... and hard work was respected and revered instead of those being looked at as fools and stupid when it can get handed to someone for doing nothing. Playing the system today is the name of the game for a great percentage of the ones that don't want to work for anything.

 

[Mini Horses]

It is going to take a very hard lesson and some real suffering before we can get back to being a more moral and responsible society..... churches took care of the poor instead of the gov't.... and hard work was respected and revered instead of those being looked at as fools and stupid when it can get handed to someone for doing nothing. Playing the system today is the name of the game for a great percentage of the ones that don't want to work for anything.

I'd like to volunteer to give some hard lessons!!

We all shop frugally and today in WM for dry cat food...empty shelves, but I can get from back stock at one of my Dollar Gen ....I looked at prices, as I normally do. Eggs -- you need your banker with you and I can laugh because it's not an issue for me, I've given away $60 worth this week. Yep...$8.32 for 18 plain whites. Brown, free range (yeah, right! A window to look out) were 8.99 a dz. Bread. Plain old white, WM brand, $3.82 a loaf???! Butter $5 a#. Meats, keep the $$ man along. NO not paying that. No....I just refuse.

Now I'm thinking I might bring home a couple feeder pigs next month -- when goat milk is flowing. Been 2 yrs since I did that. As much as I hate the butchering, meat chickens could be a consideration. Even a goat , I mean there's no shortage of that red meat here! Of course, I'd need to buy another freezer cause the one I have is full and I can't eat it up that fast. A downer.

Just do not see any of this changing for a long time and I like things stocked, so I plan ahead. Gardening will be more serious this year. Heck, might even sell some! Could stick a sign out "eggs 4sale, $4dz". Might need a traffic cop for that one!

I'm just not wanting to adjust to these prices!! . And I'm not even needing to buy any of it -- it's just the principle of the situation! So angrily annoying!

Wow -- feel better. I can step off the box now.

 

[CLSranch]

I'd like to volunteer to give some hard lessons!!

We all shop frugally and today in WM for dry cat food...empty shelves, but I can get from back stock at one of my Dollar Gen ....I looked at prices, as I normally do. Eggs -- you need your banker with you and I can laugh because it's not an issue for me, I've given away $60 worth this week. Yep...$8.32 for 18 plain whites. Brown, free range (yeah, right! A window to look out) were 8.99 a dz. Bread. Plain old white, WM brand, $3.82 a loaf???! Butter $5 a#. Meats, keep the $$ man along. NO not paying that. No....I just refuse.

Now I'm thinking I might bring home a couple feeder pigs next month -- when goat milk is flowing. Been 2 yrs since I did that. As much as I hate the butchering, meat chickens could be a consideration. Even a goat , I mean there's no shortage of that red meat here! Of course, I'd need to buy another freezer cause the one I have is full and I can't eat it up that fast. A downer.

Just do not see any of this changing for a long time and I like things stocked, so I plan ahead. Gardening will be more serious this year. Heck, might even sell some! Could stick a sign out "eggs 4sale, $4dz". Might need a traffic cop for that one!

I'm just not wanting to adjust to these prices!! . And I'm not even needing to buy any of it -- it's just the principle of the situation! So angrily annoying!

Wow -- feel better. I can step off the box now.

I truly wish I could've/did bought land years ago. Then I had the money to but not the credit. I'd love to have some goats again to butcher a few every year. I built a smoker/cooker for my wedding with the intention of doing a whole hog and a goat once a year. Obviously not at the same time but more than big enough for either.
Land has quadrupled since I first tried to buy. Doubled in the last 2 years.

 

[farmerjan]

Bringing this thread back to the forefront..... BECAUSE.... if anyone keeps an eye on it the stock market dropped nearly 700 points yesterday and another 100+ today last I heard. Feds are talking now that they will raise the prime rate 1/2 point at the next meeting instead of the 1/4 point like the last time; because inflation is not slowing down like they "said it was".....
I haven't had the best of credit so my credit cards have high interest for the most part..... and I don't use them alot and pretty much pay them off every month so am basically using their money for nothing for 30-45 days.... the thing is one that I use occasionally, because it has helped to improve my credit rating over the years to have several that I do not carry a balance on but shows I have "available credit".... the statement came with a balance of like 55 that I had used last month.... and the interest rate percentage has gone to 31%.......most were in the 19-22% range when I took them out..... I nearly fell over when I looked at the bill and all....
Needless to say I will probably only use it once a year to keep it active and pay it off before the due date on the bill, if I use it at all.....
I did transfer a couple over to new cards that had introductory rates of 0% for 12-18 months.... and they will get paid off before the introductory 0% rate expires.... I keep an old fashioned ledger with every single monthly bill and every cc listed with the interest rate and due date and what percentage they rebate for things like groc and gas... and use them for those things and then pay them off when I get a paycheck and SS check etc. I often save $5-25 a month just doing that.

The other thing is there was an article in the "Atlantic" magazine... on the bird flu and how it is getting into mammals and such and the effects of it across the world. Haven't read it all the way through as they are requiring a trial membership... free for 30 days then you have to cancel it or get charged.... $60/yr.... I would probably forget to cancel it unless I put it on a reminder note in front of the computer. Still, I want to read it so might just do it and then try to remember to cancel it.
But the thing is.... it is important enough to make it in that magazine... shows that this is getting to be of a bigger "problem" ( more like a disaster) than they had let on.... something for everyone to take note of.

 

[Baymule]

31%!!! Wow. That is quite a hit.

 

[Mini Horses]

But if pd in full by due date, it's zero.