The Death of Retail?

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Just last week JC Penny announced that it would be closing stores and offering early retirement for F6000 employees, Macy's announced they would be closing some of their stores, Family Christian Stores are closing all of their locations. Sounds rough right, well that is only the beginning. Sears/Kmart close a few more stores every single year and Lowe's is laying off full-time employees in an attempt to "restructure" their staffing model.

After all of these announcements I saw a blog article entitled "Retail Apocalypse". Now I will be honest I didn't read it, the title alone was enough for me to just smile and move along. But there is a question out there that is worth answering. Are we seeing the death of retail? Sadly this is not a new question. Just a quick internet search renders lots of people proclaiming the death of retail. I'm not just talking about fringe blogs here either. Forbes in 2014 posted an article entitled "The Death of Retail--And Perhaps a Resurrection", The very next year Forbes had an article entitled "Don't Buy the Death of Retail Story" So the same publication contradicted itself in the period of a little over a year. Which is true?

The Changing Consumer

There are really two primary types of shoppers. Those shopper types are the things that determine their method about a purchasing decision. There is the efficient shopper and the experience shopper.

The Efficient Shopper

The efficient shopper really is all that worried about the atmosphere. As long as it is safe and clean that is really all that is required. The efficient shopper does all of their research ahead of time, limits their options to only a couple and then wants to go somewhere that they will be able to compare their product finalists. For these people shopping is a chore not an adventure. Shopping really is about getting the things they need or want in a timely manner. These people hate having to spend hours out shopping. They are more of a get in, get it, and get out personality.

The efficient shopper is the least important to the retail corporations. They are typically the ones who spend just enough money to get the items they want. I am pretty solidly in this group as is my wife.

The Experience Shopper

 The experience shopper is the one retailers love. The search and discovery of an item is part of the joy of shopping. These are the people that will dedicate an entire day to getting a new outfit. For these people it is relaxing and even rewarding to spend hours looking for this or that. I have known people that spent time each week for over a month looking for a pair of shoes. There is an emotional component to their search. If they don't have an emotional reaction to the item, they won't buy it.

The experience shopper is the group for which malls and shopping centers were created. They are also the ones that sales were created for. If they want a new pair of shoes, but are unwilling to spend $100 for the ones they want, a simple sign of 15% of can be enough to sway them.The emotional part of them is convinced they got a bargain. This is true even if the price went up a week before the sale and they really didn't save very much at all. All that matters is they think they have saved money.

Division of Shoppers Within Each Type

I am going to further talk about shopping habits here and how they have an impact on the retail market. The following list of sub types of consumers that you will find in both the efficent shopper and the experience shopper.

Price Only Shopper

The price only shopper is one of the biggest problems for the retail market. If they were to look at 2 products that have the same function, say on is $3 and one is $10. The less expensive one is made of cheaper material and will honestly last about 3 years. The one that is $10 is made of much more durable materials and is likely to last say 15 years. The price only shopper will automatically go to the $3 item. Very little consideration is given to quality or longevity of the product.

The Value Shopper

This is the area that I try to be in most of the time, but I will admit that I bounce back and forward between price only and value. The value shopper is one who is willing to pay more for quality. The quality must be consistent with the increase in price. It must meat the ratio of product life expectancy to price. It must be a superior value. For example if a $5 item will last one year and a $10 item 2 years eccetera there is really not enough motivation to purchase the higher priced item because the value is the same.

T-shirts are an excellent example for this. I can go to the local big department store and purchase a t-shirt for $5. It is made of very thin material, it may have a cool design on it, but for regular use its life expectancy is at most one year. However I have t-shirts that I spent $12 dollars for has lasted me over 10 years. That is value.

The Prestige Shopper

These are the people that are logo/name brand focused. They have to have this designer or that. Some of these people even get part of their identity from the brands they buy. These are the people that are catered to by the upper end retailers and are honestly the primary target of the sales. Each group can benefit from a sale, but the prestige shopper is the primary target. These people are proud of spending large amounts of money on items because they have a designers name.

Both Types of Shoppers are Changing

With increased access and familiarity to online shopping has come a major shift of behavior for all of the customer types and sub-types listed above. The more online shopping improves the more pressure that will be placed on brick and mortar retail sellers. Online retail will continue to grow.

Convenience

There is something just really cool about being able to shop in your pjs anytime you want. No need to get up, or dressed or anything. When you add the benefits to online programs like Amazon Prime, which provided free 2 day delivery for most items, it is difficult to argue against online shopping. We personally love Amazon Prime.

Selection

The average brick and mortar retail location can have between 50,000 and 125,000 items on site. The same retailer may have in excess of 3 million items available online. Rather that driving all over the place and looking for "the item" sometimes even visiting the same store just different locations. You can fine whatever you want online with a few clicks of your mouse.

Price

In general online shopping is going to be less expensive. The reason is quite simple, OVERHEAD.
The companies that are exclusively online are always open, 24 hours a day 7  days a week. They don't have the expense of location scattered across the countryside. They don't need as many employees. Utilities costs, insurance costs, labor costs, really all of the costs of operating a business are much lower. These lower costs are what make lower prices available online.

How Does This Effect Us

Obviously if we work in retail our jobs are less secure that at any time in history. If not, we will be being pushed to online purchases. All online purchases are traceable so there will be greater data available about our purchasing habits.

There is no doubt that retail is changing, and companies that can change with the trend will do well. I do believe that we will see lots more store closures, but at the end of the day retail will not go away but it may change forms.

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Is Self Reliance Becoming a Crime?

It seems as if every week there is another news report about someone getting into trouble for trying to be self reliant. Farmers having their pig herd slaughtered because they were not an approved breed, gardens being ripped up because they are against HOA rules, homes being condemned because they are considered unsafe simply because they are not hooked to the grid. At times it feels like there is an all out war on self reliance. Rather than give examples of this phenominon, there are examples everywhere, we are going to look at the rationale behind why self reliance is considered so strange. This post is not intended to be political in any way. If it winds up being so I promise I will pick on both sides equally.

I know this sounds like a wild, pie in the sky, or even a conspiracy theorist question, but seriously what if being self sustainable became illegal? Does this seem far fetched to you? It really isn't that far off base. In fact there are many areas where being selfish sustainable is very difficult, if not due to laws then due to social pressures.

Why would being self reliant be frowned upon?

I really have to stretch my thinking in order to understand the rationale behind those who want everyone dependent on the system, but after you get to the point where you do understand it makes a distorted sort of sense. We are going to look at a few of the reasons homesteaders and preppers are considered so weird.

Big Business

If you owned your own business would you ever get to the point where you decide that you have enough consumers? A point at which you are making enough profit and no longer wish to expand? You might just get to a point where you only wanted to maintain your level of business, as a small business owner that can be an option. For small and micro businesses there comes a point at which it would be difficult to service additional clients without expansion of workforce. Many professionals in the medical field will do this. Doctors will regularly refuse to accept new patients. Most other businesses are constantly looking for new clients.

Clients and customers have a constant ebb and flow. The number of customers you have will be constantly changing. You may lose one here and gain two there.

Businesses that have stockholders are not only interested in their profits, they are also interested in keeping their stock prices high. This added pressure calls for increased expansion.

Now let us say that we have a big business. Hundreds or even thousands of employees, scattered around the world. We have stockholders as well. If we post a lower than normal earnings report, our stock price goes down. That means it will be more difficult for our company to borrow money. I want to make something clear here. We did not have a loss, we only had lower profits that we projected. We have a decent product or service, we advertise, heck we may even have celebrity endorsements. Somehow though we are not gaining enough new customers to keep our profits growing at the level our stockholders expect. What are we going to do? Enter our friends in government. If what we make is something that a person can make themselves, let's have some regulations passed that deems homemade items unsafe. Yeah that is where we will start. That will discourage people from making their own and from buying any from someone other than a recognized brand.

As soon as we get these homemade versions deemed unsafe, we will start an "informational" campaign on how our product is the safest. We will get bloggers who are easily bought to tout our product and make homemade versions socially unacceptable. Everyone who is anyone buys our brand product.

We will let it go on like this for a while. We don't want to appear too aggressive in the public eye. But this will help us for a while and with a certain percentage of the population.

Look at Monsanto, this company is massive. They had 14.3 Billion in sales in 2014. As concern over GMOs continue to increase so has their strangle hold on their areas of power. What other company will go to extremes of collecting samples from farmers and having them tested to see if their patented genes show up in the competitions produce? There is a massive problem with that. Pollen cannot be contained. Corn is primarily pollinated by the wind. Anywhere pollen lands from a GMO strand cross pollination will occur. Those genes will show up. They are using nature to sue those who refuse to use their products.

The Government

Governments are started for several reasons. Most were started to consolidate power, some were to provide stability to an area, in the United States the government was set up originally to ensure freedoms were not infringed.

At one time the federal government actually encouraged self reliance. This was especially true during both world wars. Resources were tight and the government was actively involved with encouraging self reliance.

Sadly this is no longer the case. In many areas and instances the government is actively discouraging self reliance. I would go so far as to say that in some ways the US government is a little schizophrenic when it comes to self reliance. There are a few agencies that are actively promoting short term self reliance, agencies like the CDC and FEMA. But even they don't agree on how much self reliance is necessary.

The sad truth is most if not all of our politicians are owned by someone. These owners include companies and special interest groups. There has been a growing awareness of GMO genetically modified organisms and people have decided they would like to know if any of these foods are showing up in their diets. Several states have tried to pass laws requiring labeling of foods containing GMOs. At every turn there seem to be politicians that are fighting our right to information. If it stopped there I would be okay, we can dig for the information we want, but it doesn't. It appears that most in government are actively involved in withholding information from people.

Even the programs that appear to be promoting self sustainability have strings attached. If you want to take advantage of tax credits for home-based solar power systems you should be aware that there are requirements that these systems be grid tied. There are several more examples.

Every time you add a layer of government, you add laws and regulations.

Governments do not want people to be self reliant for several reasons. First is decreased tax revenue. It is very difficult to tax something that a person makes or raises themselves. Exterior trade makes taxation easy. By having to purchase everything from an organized business there is a paper trail that can be followed, so taxes are naturally collected at the point of sale. If you buy something from a neighbor, unless it is something that has to be registered, there is no way to collect taxes on that transaction.

The second reason governments do not want people to be self reliant is control. If a person or community is self sustainable there isn't much this side of violence that will make that person or group follow the predesignated path that government wishes.

Society

Society is a strange beast. Social programming occurs every day. Almost everything is acceptable in the name of diversity and tolerance, but don't be found guilty of moving against the desired direction.

Right now we have a perfect example of this. The Confederate flag has effectively been banned from all public places and many businesses because of a prejudicial past. It is there, not for everyone, but there are those who used the St Andrews Cross in the name of racism.

The hypocrisy of this move is made clear by the fact that you cannot purchase confederate flag items through Amazon but there are several Ku Klux Klan items available. Really?!?

The strange thing about society is that it will embrace anything in the name of tolerance except anything that requires personal responsibility.

Think about it, if you want to see just how far tolerance will go, just make a stand and believe that something is wrong. You will find out quickly that standing for something will make the tolerant people hate you.

That is enough of my rant. 

Just look around. Anything to do with self reliance is ridiculed on every turn. Municipalities and HOAs make it very difficult. There are some areas that are very difficult to do anything that improves your self sustainability. Gardens, solar panels, water catchment, and even wells are becoming illegal in many areas. If you aren't dependent on the system, you can't live there. They will condemn your property. 

There have been rumors of anti food hoarding laws, but as of yet I have not been able to prove them to actually exist, but civil forfeiture is a real concern. Have we gotten to the point where self sustainability is so foreign that people would feel justified in taking what you have worked so hard to provide for your family? Sadly, I think we have. 

I would like to hear your thoughts on this subject. Let me know either in the comments or on the forum.

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Really!?! You Must be Kidding

Just having some fun with the photo!

I am increasingly surprised by how many things we as a society have forgotten. I am saddened by how many basic skills are being lost. The reason for this post is simple. One of the people I follow on twitter has a regular post on DIY home cooking. Normally these links are to things like gravy, stews, and things like that, but today the link was for homemade lemonade. I followed the link just for curiosities sake. Ingredients: lemons, sugar, water, and ice. My first reaction was really, have we fallen that far? But as usual when I go off the deep end my wife is there to draw my back. I have been making things homemade since I was a kid so I just have trouble understanding the need for such basic instructions. My wife had to explain that just the fact that this information is out there is proof that there is a growing interest from people in learning to do things for themselves.

This has been working in my heart for a while. Only a couple of weeks ago my wife and I were at the grocery store someone in line had a bag of ice. The slogan on the bag was "Better than home made". The cashier actually asked how you make homemade ice. This young person is in their 20's and is engaged to get married. There is no wonder that the ready made food business is booming. We have gotten to the point were millions of people both male and female do not know how to cook anything. These people do not even realize that they have lost a large part of their control over their own lives. If you control the food, you control the people.

Not too long ago a man at work paid $10.00 to have a  lamp assembled. I tried to tell him how easy it was to put together but he would not listen. He just said "I am not very handy". I talk to people weekly who have no idea how to do things that I think would be basic. Some people want to learn, but sadly most don't.

I just saw this, this morning. If the photo does not illustrate my point nothing will.

Arrows to show you where to open the cheese?

So how do we work to change the direction of our community, generation, and even country? First and most important is be sure we teach our children. Everyone should know what lard is, how it is made, and how it is used. I am going to have to do some cooking with lard in the near future. If we only do that ,we help assure that our decedents will not fall prey to rampant consumerism. We educate anyone who will listen about organic or natural gardening. We spread the word about GMO foods. Learn and spread the work about living frugally, recycling, and re purposing. Demonstrate how to make things from nothing. Encourage those that you have influence with to stretch themselves.

Remember to work toward making a reality your
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DIY or DIFM
Helping a Friend and Teaching My Sons
Why Skill Development is So Important
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Is Gardening Becoming Essential for Survival

The picture above looks just like our local grocery store on a daily basis. We have stopped even walking in the building because we know the attempt at buying almost anything there will be futile. The management keeps telling everyone that they are trying to change warehouses. This may be true, but in the meantime everyone is having to go else where to get even the necessities. This started me thinking. What if we couldn't just go a couple of miles to another grocery and get the things we need? What if prices jump suddenly and we couldn't afford enough to provide the things we are used to consuming?

If you have anything to do with buying groceries around your place you have no doubt noticed price increases. On some items these increases have been quite dramatic. Beef has gone up a good bit in recent months and promises to continue to go even higher.

I cannot tell you the number of times I have heard "I spent too much at the grocery store today" or " I spent $70.00 and really didn't get anything". What do you do to off set the ever increasing prices of just eating?  This is one of the expenses that there is no way for you to get rid of. If you were to try to stop eating you would not live for very long.

Gardening going viral?

I have heard more and more people lately say that they wanted to produce 100% of their own food. While this is an incredibly honorable goal, I do not think this is very possible. Let me explain. We live on the edge between agricultural zone 7 and 8. There are several fruits that we like but are either too cold or to warm to produce. If we wish to continue to enjoy these fruits we will need to buy or trade for them.

We live on 1/2 acre so we do not have room to raise cattle or pigs. We do have a small laying flock and are planning on raising broiler chickens, but that puts us pretty close to our limit due to space.

My goal this year is to produce at least 30% of our food for the year. This will actually not reduce the amount of money we will spend on food. This will however free up some money we were going to spend anyway for higher quality items like beef or pork.

This year I am starting all of my plants from seed. Depending on where you live you could either put your seeds straight in the ground now or start your seeds indoors. Even if you only get a weeks head start you will still be ahead of the game.

My decision to start everything from seed is purely economics. Many plants you buy are $3.00 each or more. For less than $2.00 you can get enough seeds to start many plants. If you learn to save seed, your expenses really go down to next to nothing. My germination rate on tomatoes is nearly 100%. Jalapenos about 90% and Belle peppers about 75%. Not bad. I will be sowing squash, zucchini, corn, and really everything else straight in the ground.

If you have a knack for growing plants you can start a cottage business with a very small greenhouse just by starting seeds a couple of weeks before you can safely transplant outside. Start more that you will need or want and sell the rest. Even if you sell the plants for $2.00 each, the people that buy from you will be saving money and you will be earning a little extra with very little additional effort. This will help not only you, but your entire community.

Making it till you get a harvest.

Many folks have to worry about today while preparing for tomorrow. Many states have a program so those in food stamps can use them at the local farmers market. This gives people of limited income access to better quality food while they are learning and starting to produce their own.

Our church has become a pickup point for One Harvest Food Ministries. One Harvest is not a hand out. It is group buying. You are basically buying your food at whole sale price. Each month One Harvest has different menus you can choose from ranging from staples to just meats. While this option does not deal with the problems of chemicals used in growing the food, it can provide needed relief from food costs. Everyone can use a little help with food costs.

I see promise.

We live in an area that would best be described as semi rural. Very few HOAs, most everyone has a little space they can call their own, and there are very few if any restrictions on what you can do on your own land. The other day I came home from work early. Early enough in fact that I was able to pick the children up from school. On my way home from picking the kids up from school I noticed that somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the homes were preparing a garden spot. This is great!

I work at Lowe's Home Improvement as my primary occupation. I see people everyday buying vegetable seeds or plants, fruit trees and berry bushes. I am able to talk to many of these people and about 20% say they are putting in a garden for the first time. Some are gardening due to the fact they are concerned about the quality and the amount of chemicals that are on the food at the grocery store. Others are trying to save money. Some even say that if you want to eat you had better grow it yourself.

The tide is slowly turning back toward more self reliance and I am proud to be able to say that.

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What to do if You Cannot Grow a Garden
.Becoming a Homestead Ambassador
Backyard Farming on an Acre (more or less) This Title available on The Rural Economist Amazon Store

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The Difference Between a Prepper and a Homesteader

The other day I was talking to someone about a generator. In the course of the conversation the guy asked me if I was a prepper. I told him no, that I was a homesteader. Then came the question. What is the difference? I told him that in my opinion a prepper is getting ready for a specific event and a homesteader is just striving for a more self sustainable lifestyle. I have had this question several times recently. When I have the same question repeatedly in a short period of time it is something that needs to be covered.

When I decided that I was was going to write this blog I reached out to the members of my facebook community and the members of the forum on self sufficient homestead www.sshomestead.com . I asked them for input and a consensus was quickly realized.

A homesteader is concerned with being self sustainable or self sufficient. A prepper is more concerned with being self reliant. Now it is time for a some Rural Economist definitions.

Self sustainable - being able to produce enough of a variety of products to be able to trade for anything that is not produced. If I produce all of my own fruits and vegetables and I produce an excess of fruits or vegetables I can use these items to trade for meat or fabric or whatever I think I need.

Self sufficient - being able to produce almost everything you need no matter what it is. In my opinion it is possible for a community or extended family group to be self sufficient but it is extremely difficult for a person or immediate family to be so.

Self reliant -   a persons ability to utilize surrounding or stored resources to make it through an acute short term or prolonged crisis.

A homesteader is always trying to cut costs and improve results. In this way an effectively ran homestead's methods can seem similar to any business. There is one crucial difference between a homestead and a business. Most businesses try to specialize so as to decrease cost of production. A homestead wishes to diversify as much as possible to produce the maximum number of different things that their family needs. A homesteader constantly tries to find ways to use the things they already have on hand and reduce the number of things they throw away. If you will just search the Internet there are hundreds of ways to use an old soda bottle as a planter. A true homesteader is trying to do everything they can for themselves and their families with little or no impact on their neighbors (corporate agriculture will spray pesticides and herbicides with little regard to how it truly impacts the environment).

Both homesteaders and preppers are concerned with food storage. It has been my experience that someone who is purely a prepper relies on inventory i.e. stored food, water, and other items to provide some semblance of normalcy. Some preppers will have up to a couple of years of food stored. A homesteader is interested in storing enough food to make it from harvest to harvest and for a bad season.

A prepper can be a homesteader or a homesteader can be a prepper. There are a lot of overlapping thought processes and each group can learn a lot from the other. We share some of the same goals.
There is one major difference that I have noticed. Some of the hardcore preppers that I know will be seriously disappointed if some type of collapse does not occur. A homesteader does not care if everything stays so good that everyone is riding unicorns and eating rainbows or if everything goes to hell in a hand basket, or as a Phillipino friend of mine used to say a in tin bucket "it gets hot on the bottom faster".

I hope this clears up at least my thoughts on the difference between preppers and homesteader. I do not intend on offending either group.We are all working to be able to take care of ourselves. With the way the world is now anyone who wants to do that should be applauded and has my support. I invite you to share you comments.

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The Low Down on Compost

Over the past several years there has been a growing interest in composting. Compost can produce a good organic fertilize for your plants. As well as reduce our dependence on chemical companies for fertilize and soil treatments, it will greatly improve the soil over time so that plants are less susceptible to disease and even common plant pests. Composting can and should be easy.

Just like everything else when there is a growing interest in a subject a lot of people try to find a way to make money off of people who are just getting started. There is every kind of compost bin, tumbler, and there is even a bio booster "designed" to speed up the composting progress. The truth is you can spend as little or as much as you want and be as basic or as fancy as you want. In fact, when I first started composting I just used a pile. Guess what? I ended up with  rich dark compost. All I did was add kitchen scraps when I had them and a shovel full of composted manure that I got from a neighbor. So if I could do that anyone can.

What You Can Compost:

Really you can compost ALL of your kitchen scraps except meat related scraps. The reasons you do not want to use meat byproducts are several; 1) meat byproducts smell 2) meat byproducts tend to attract unwanted insects 3) and they can induce disease into your food source. Everything else in the form of kitchen scraps are good to go.

You can compost a lot of the things that we throw out in the trash. Newspaper pages, not the glossy ads, shredded, paper bags, the kids old homework, old cotton clothing torn into shreds, even human and pet hair. All of these things can be included in your compost. These things add what compost geeks (hey I am one so don't judge) call brown ingredients.

Other things that can be composted include grass clippings, garden  byproducts (corn stalks or old plants) leaves, and herbivore manure. No carnivore or human manure should be included. These manures can be composted, but must be composted in a different manner to ensure that cross contamination. We have greatly reduced the amount of things that we put out with the garbage by composting. Simply put, composting can slow the growth of land fills.

Compost Method:

Compost Tumbler

The tumbler is the quickest method of producing compost. You have to mix browns (carbon heavy items)and greens (high nitrogen). Browns would be dry leaves, egg shells, tea bags, coffee grounds, or wood chips. Green items include things like grass clippings, left over lettuce, onion cuttings, and herbivore manures. These should be mixed half and half then watered to the point that the bulk is thoroughly damp, but not soaked. You will also want to add a shovel full of completed compost or compost starter. Once all of this is done, you will need to turn the tumbler a minimum of 3 times per week and if possible everyday. The tumbler is perfect for small areas. They can be made in something as small as a 5 gallon bucket. The output would be adequate for a small raised bed or several containers used for garden plants.

Compost Bin

Next step up in production is a compost bin. This will produce more than all but the largest compost tumblers, but the time from start to completion is increased as well as the amount of labor. In a compost bin it is more important to properly mix or layer the different types of ingredients. Remember the two types of ingredients are greens and browns. These terms have little to do with the color of the ingredients, manure looks more brown, but is a true green. The greens are items that are rich in nitrogen and the browns are primarily carbon. I would suggest if you are going to use bins have at least two. You will want to turn the bin about every three days for quickest results. You will still want to add a couple shovels full of either completed compost or rich soil to get the process started. During dry times of the year your bin will need to be watered. You want the bin to be moist not wet.

Compost Pile

The largest method we will cover is a compost pile. In order to achieve optimal temperatures in the center of the pile one would want the pile to be at least 3 feet high and 3 feet wide at the base with the same mixture of browns, greens, and rich soil or compost. Ideally these ingredients should be accumulated all at once and be turned or the pile moved from one place to another every 3 days. Moving the pile increases airflow in the pile and keeps it "cooking". These piles have been known to produce enough heat to keep a greenhouse warm enough to prevent delicate plants from getting too cold. All of the same rules apply to the pile as did the bin as concerning moisture. The only difference is a matter of scale.

Vermiculture

The last method we will discuss is the method I use. Worm compost or vermiculture. This can be done either directly on the ground or as a raised worm bed. I place mine directly on the ground. Do I lose some of the worms by them going down into the ground? Yes. Do I really care? No. Why? Because they are working the ground for me. Improving both the soils fertility and the aeration. I also move my vermiculture bed around my garden. This softens the ground where ever it has been placed. I add kitchen scraps nearly daily. I add all the new materials to one side. When I want to harvest some compost, I change the side I am placing the new items on. As the food (new items) are used up the worms migrate to the new food side. After a day or two I remove the compost from the old side collect the worms that are in the compost and either put them back into the system or go fishing. I still occasionally mix the pile, but it is not as labor intensive as the other methods. For me this is the best option.

Tools for composting:

If you choose the bin or pile methods you will need a compost fork. I do not advise trying to turn a compost pile with a shovel. You will work yourself a lot harder than need be. You will also need a source of water.Lastly, you will need time.

Now that I told you all of this, if you do not wish to manage your compost, just pile it up and wait. Nature has been doing this ever since it was set in motion. It will take a LOT longer without management, but it will still work. Compost can and should be another step toward getting chemicals out of our food.

Working toward a traditional Rural Lifestyle.

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It is cheaper to repair than replace?

At one time the statement "It is cheaper to repair than replace" was true about almost everything.Not so anymore. Why is that?

Prior to the 1980's we repaired almost everything. There wasn't a large community that did not have a radio and television repair shop. I remember taking things to be repaired and walking around looking at all the tubs and even a few solid state boards. I even dug a couple trenches for the satellite lines, for the dishes, the really big ones.

Some time in the late 70's or early 80's there was a paradigm shift. It was slow to take over and actually started much earlier. People stopped going to the shoe repair man. Most shoes were no longer made to last. The tops wore out way before the bottoms. The components of electronics cost more than the product itself. If your television went out you bought another without any thought of having it repaired.

Slowly the shoe repair shops, the watch and clock repair shops, and yes the radio and television repair shops started closing. These small business owners are all but extinct. Recently I had a window air condition unit go out. I reacted the way my grandfather would have. I started calling repair shops. I left a message on every answering machine asking if they worked on window units. I called nine shops. Only one called me back. I explained and asked if he would work on a window unit. He said he would if I would bring it to his shop. I told him that was what I expected.

When I unloaded the unit, we started talking. He said that he didn't see very many window units but was willing to try. He checked out the unit and found that the control panel had gone out, so he pulled out a catalog and looked for the the part and found that it would cost $275 to repair. When he told me that, I asked what the most expensive part was and how much it cost. He looked up the compressor and it also was around $300. The unit only cost about $298. We rigged it to work and it works great.

The generally accepted principle is when the cost of repair is 50% of the cost to replace, you would replace. Keeping that in mind when the cost of repair is 90% of the cost to replace there is no reason to even take repair into consideration. This is a truly sad state of affairs.

Now my question is, how does a single part cost as much as the whole? Answer: It isn't possible. That tells me that the culture has had such a violent change that no companies are producing aftermarket parts. This is an intentional move to push people to more consumerism. Diminishing our ability to be frugal and encouraging credit use. Think about what you do and remember to "Keep It Rural".