End of article.....
“The average American used to be able to borrow to buy a home, send their kids to a good school [and] buy a car,” Davidowitz says. “A lot of that is gone.”
Going forward, the veteran retail industry consultant foresees higher savings rate and people trading down in both the goods and services they buy - as well as their aspirations.
The end of rampant consumerism is ultimately a good thing, he says, but the unraveling of an economy built on debt-fueled spending will be painful for years to come.
[One comment of the 7,800 comments...granny]
A few days ago I would say that this guy is way off base. Then today I saw someone stop their car to pick up a road kill rabbit. Last year dead deer would rot by the roadside, not any more.
http://www.bearridgeproject.com/2009/02/tractor.html
The Bear Ridge Project chronicles my journey to move from a consumer based existence to an off-grid, sustainable lifestyle.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Tractor
I picked up an older model 20 house power garden tractor on ebay a couple of weeks back. It’s a four speed that has the throttle on the dash, I prefer this over automatics. The tractor pulls great and the first gear is a “granny” gear which allows me to pull some decent loads up the ridge. Here are some of the uses I have planned.
Living on the north slope of the ridge creates a problem with snow pack. Even though we have been getting relatively warm temperatures the snow remains somewhat shaded and refuses to melt. With a small blade attached to the front of the tractor and some chains on the rear tires the driveway should be kept clear with little trouble.
The hot dry summers leaves the house surrounded with dry, oily sage brush that burns like paper. Part of my fire mitigation plan is to remove as much of the dead brush as possible. Clearing brush by hand is a hard and unpleasant job. With the tractor and blade it should take a fraction of the time to remove the dead brush and deposit it in the runoff ditch for erosion control.
The new garden will need some rich top soil mixed in with it. A truck delivers the soil to the roadside and I carry it in a wheel barrow up to the garden beds. With a small trailer attached to the tractor I save time and the sore back muscles.
That same trailer can be used to haul firewood from the wood pile to the house. One trip on the tractor equals ten trips for me up the icy path. I hate falling down when my arms are full of wood.
Plus you never know when you might need to pull a float in a parade.
Posted by BigBear at 5:56 AM