Political Ramblings

[catdaddyfro]

"A lot of them" ? What is your source for this information?

MY OWN TWO EYES

I've not always been on the straight and narrow in my lifetime I been down in the trenches with some of the best trench dwellers so I could say it is from personal experiences for those of ya'll with wool over your eyes or just pure naive ne'er seers .



Jeff

 

[punk-a-doodle]

I rent. Most landlords have severely limited what can be done inside the house and in any yard space. Many locations did not allow plants to grow well in window boxes due to issues with lighting from poorly designed windows, etc. Watering gardens costs money, as does improving poor soil (or working with polluted, heavy metal laden soil), or supplemental lighting. When looking at rentals in my price range, I have run into slum lords. A bit poorer, or being inexperienced in how to go about renting/caught in one of many situations that would require renting without seeing a place in person, and I may very well have been living in one of the one room spaces, some lacking toilets, some with completely rotten floors, some lacking electricity, and many with no windows. If you are one of the people who are too poor to rent you may end up shelling out more in the long run by living in hotels (the book "Nickle and Dimed" explains this...or I've seen plenty such hotels driving through some areas), and will find gardening hard to do. I can also attest that if you live in your car...you will have a hard time gardening. This is especially true if you have no idea how to garden...or cook. I will have to try to find an article for it, but does anyone remember a project that provided homeless people with housing. The problem was, they did not understand that people would have to be taught how to live in that environment (and I'd imagine our gap on understanding mental issues didn't help). Many of the homes were ruined when the new residents did things like use the corners for urinals, try to light a trash an fire in the middle of a room for warmth, etc.

Did you know that in 2010 41 percent of SNAP participants lived in households where someone is employed? Have you tried working three part-time jobs, then coming home to garden? Or riding public transportation to a workplace that is far from where you live?

If people around you are abusing the system...please report them.

 

[MamaRoo]

"A lot of them" ? What is your source for this information?

Seriously.

I used to work at the county hospital. Walked home past 'the projects' - old style multiplexes, each with a bit of yard. Yes, a few of them were trash piles, but the majority had normal stuff, a beat up barbecue, broken plastic kids toys, a couple old lawn chairs, laundry draped over the fence to dry. These were normal people. A few were flower gardens. One that was right next to the sidewalk was an old man growing roses. He'd prune them, water them by hand. Once I saw him mowing his lawn - with a weedwhacker. Guess a lawnmower was out of his budget. A few were vegetable gardens. I guess they bought seeds with their SNAP cards, but how they paid for fertilizer, stakes, etc is unclear to me. Maybe they sold their free bags of out-of-date rice from the food banks. Also unclear how they dealt with the multitude of rats that infested the area. Fleas. Cockroaches. When someone would move out the (county?) would quarantine the apartment, seal it shut with plastic and bomb it with chemicals to try to get rid of the critters. There'd be a big orange sign on the door telling everyone what they were doing, so I'm not speculating.

I'd also go past the food bank. The line was always two blocks long before it even opened. Yep. Working the system. Standing in line for hours to get a bag of rice. Drat those freeloaders anyway.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I rent. Most landlords have severely limited what can be done inside the house and in any yard space. Many locations did not allow plants to grow well in window boxes due to issues with lighting from poorly designed windows, etc. Watering gardens costs money, as does improving poor soil (or working with polluted, heavy metal laden soil), or supplemental lighting. When looking at rentals in my price range, I have run into slum lords. A bit poorer, or being inexperienced in how to go about renting/caught in one of many situations that would require renting without seeing a place in person, and I may very well have been living in one of the one room spaces, some lacking toilets, some with completely rotten floors, some lacking electricity, and many with no windows. If you are one of the people who are too poor to rent you may end up shelling out more in the long run by living in hotels (the book "Nickle and Dimed" explains this...or I've seen plenty such hotels driving through some areas), and will find gardening hard to do. I can also attest that if you live in your car...you will have a hard time gardening. This is especially true if you have no idea how to garden...or cook. I will have to try to find an article for it, but does anyone remember a project that provided homeless people with housing. The problem was, they did not understand that people would have to be taught how to live in that environment (and I'd imagine our gap on understanding mental issues didn't help). Many of the homes were ruined when the new residents did things like use the corners for urinals, try to light a trash an fire in the middle of a room for warmth, etc.

Did you know that in 2010 41 percent of SNAP participants lived in households where someone is employed? Have you tried working three part-time jobs, then coming home to garden? Or riding public transportation to a workplace that is far from where you live?

If people around you are abusing the system...please report them.

It's called survival. You do what you need to do to survive.

 

[rufus]

Well, it sure looks like they will not be buying twinkies with their SNAP or EBT cards. Hostess is liquidating the company. This is their second bankruptcy within my memory. They underwent a previous bankruptcy in 2004.

The real losers are those two hedge funds that bought up the company debt. Boy did they back a loser this time. It sure would have been nice if the union had fronted up some of all that pension money that they supposedly had stashed away and bought a stake in the company. But I guess they knew that this time they had taken it too far. They had killed the company.

My best guess is that the company assets will be sold off and the brand names and over seas plants will be sold to a company like Gamesa. These products will probably continue to be made, but at plants in Mexico or the Philippines.

Sorry about that. I have a gut feeling that is just the start of a bad process. Other companies will go down also.

 

[rufus]

Good bye Blunder Bread!

 

[MamaRoo]

Also, I have a house and a yard. Very little grows in my clay dirt, and the veggies I planted in my raised garden beds (filled with expensive supplemental soil) have to be raised inside until about March and then transplanted. From 12 summer squash plants I got about six squashes. Beans produced nothing, Peas were 6 or 8 a day and I just ate them as I picked them. No carrots, beets. Even the lettuce didn't grow (or was eaten before I could see it). And this was a warm, sunny summer for Seattle.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

My point about working long hours is that you may find there is not room in the set 24 hour period to garden. I used to work alternating back to back 12 hour shifts with my husband. We were only home on Sundays. We had plenty of other things to take care of on that day, and we do not have kids to have to care for in addition. We have never been on welfare (I take that back, my husband was as a child...it helped his hard working parents get back on their feet), but I do not take that to be a badge of honor. Merely, I am thankful it did not come to that.

 

[rufus]

Punk a Doodle, I used to spent four hours a day on public transit. I did that for over thirty years. Two weeks after I retired, they put up a bus shelter at my stop. Just my luck.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Also, I have a house and a yard.  Very little grows in my clay dirt, and the veggies I planted in my raised garden beds (filled with expensive supplemental soil) have to be raised inside until about March and then transplanted.  From 12 summer squash plants I got about six squashes.  Beans produced nothing, Peas were 6 or 8 a day and I just ate them as I picked them.  No carrots, beets. Even the lettuce didn't grow (or was eaten before I could see it).  And this was a warm, sunny summer for Seattle. 

I give you an A for effort. At least you did try. Thumbs up to you for that. Some people don't even try.