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how in the heck are we supposed to live these days

Cool! Have fun at Greyfields Farm!
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We are "lucky" enough that we have a train rail system and stop, in our city. Since my husband works in Boston and we live in North Central MA. But the cost for the "T pass" is already $250 a month and will more than likely be going up with the gas prices.

I told him last night that unless he can get his bosses to hire me to work from home either seasonally or permanently. That I will not be able to work a part time job at $8.50 an hour AND pay for child care. Since daycare here is already at $4 per hour and many providers are raising their rates!! So it will be me working the local WalMart during the school day/year and then quitting for the summer months. If those jobs are even around in another few months.

As it stands right now we have a "garden" on our porch. Will be adding more veggies this weekend. And are getting chicks that will provide us with eggs. Am also now thinking if it gets as bad as I think it will be getting of adding meat birds and building a separate coop for them. So maybe I wont get so attached. Dam my neighbors if they complain. My family wont be the ones paying tons for food and or not having any at all.

Sad thing is.. so many people out there think that the November elections are going to be a "magic pill" for the gas and economic ills in this country. That suddenly the fuel prices are going to stop growing and even fall. That jobs will be available again. And that all this mess will be a bad memory. So they continue to hold onto their large trucks, their SUVs and such. Speeding down the roads and highways. Ignorant to it all.

A friend of mine, who is an older gentleman and I used to talk about this happening just 3 short yeas ago. He and I had a lot in common. We both went to Aggie schools. Granted some 30 years apart. LOL But I went before the emphasis was on computers doing so much of the work. He once told me that it was folks like him and I that would be the ones others began to count on to "save the country" because we werent afraid of getting our hands dirty or blistered. We were the hardy ones that would and could survive. Dare I say that all of us here are going to be very popular over the next few years?

Also.. anyone else see this "non" recession turning into something worse??? Like a "non" depression? I know there are safeguards in place.. but how many of those are gone now with the way the country has been being run and how dependent we are on other countries oil, money and goods? Heck I am thinking of getting my fire arms license again. So I can protect my family and what belongs to us as crimes grow here. Police and Fire in my city just lost nearly 50% of their budget. And all the morons around me can whine about is the fact the library is only going to be open 3 days a week going forward!


*shaking head in disbelief*
 
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Thats what my mom drives. It ran out of gas twice in the same month.

I assume you meant that she drives the Suburban and not the Plug-in Hybrid Prius.
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Otherwise, she'd have to drive over 3000 miles during that month to run out of gas twice!

It currently costs me over $100 each time I need to fill my tank, so I really feel for your mom having to fill that twice this month. That has to hurt.

We purchased the Suburban because we camp in our little trailer. My husband's folks live 1200 miles away and being able to make that drive and stay inexpensively in the trailer allows us to see them more often than we would if we had to fly, rent a car, stay in a hotel, etc, etc.

Although it's 8 years old, it has just 70,000 miles on it, which isn't bad considering how many trips we've made to see them. All to say that we really put minimal miles on that gas sucker. Our other car is a 17 year old Honda Accord that gets much better mileage than the Suburban, and I use it when I can while hubby rides his bicycle the 7 mile roundtrip to work.

As long as our energy policy is set in backroom deals without accountability or even revealed for scrutiny, as long as it is a massive for-profit system and the folks making the deals are the ones benefiting from it and getting TAX CREDITS (which makes me mad that YOU and I are paying folks who're already making record profits), and as long as good solutions are bought out kept from production, finding our own way to get around this is our only option.

Truth is that there is no ONE solution to get around this. What works for me in So. Cal may not work for someone else in Maine. We need bold leaders who'll take us down a new path and we need to realize that the path will have some bumps before we get there. Although Jimmy Carter was lambasted for his energy policy recommendations 30 years ago, had we followed even some of them, we might be in an entirely different place than we are today.

The good thing about tough times (and believe me that others have it MUCH tougher than we do here) is that perhaps we'll actually make a change this time. In the meantime, I'm enjoying this discussion about how we're all seeking ways to cope with this. I hope that something truly meaningful will come of it.
 
We keep giving up stuff and we were frugal to begin with! I will have a big garden, but we have a short season and deer etc...I am determined to rig up a greenhouse or growing pit
this summer somehow.
 
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Well, I'm in PA and the Walmart down the road has a horse and carriage parking area (Amish country). So I don't see why it can't be done. There just needs to be a demand for it.

I think it is a good idea. I would rather put money into a horse than oil companies.
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horses aren't cheap folks.. please please check in to it before you go out and buy one.


If nothing else, park those suburbans and find yourself a used 30mpg car.. they're getting harder and harder to find but usually you can pick one up for $2,000. Change that $100 fill up to $50.
 
Someone work out the math on when it would actually pay to ride a horse to work! (when the price of gas hits . . . ) I like the idea, but I think you need sufficient pasture-land. Not many of us do. Anyway, I'm just sitting here waiting until I can justify owning a horse!
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That's not laughing at the idea, that's laughing at myself because I've always wanted a horse, but could never justify it.
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I used to joke about it being Henry Ford's fault that we're in the spot we're in. Before he invented the car, the farmer stayed home and grew his food and took care of himself and his family. Then he decided that he needed a car so he could go to town, but when he needed to buy gas he had to get a job. Then, because he didn't have time to farm for his food, he had to go to the store, needing more money and more gas. So then Mrs. Farmer had to get a job too, and they had to hire a baby sitter, and they needed a second car. Well, you get where I'm going. But, it's just a joke, right?
 

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