I believe this

[larryshoat]

What if we just all helped our fellow man"? Ron, he helped you. gs

I guess I feel the same. I think I would go pay the mans water bill, that is the thing you know about. You can't finance the mans whole life but, sometimes it helps by knowing that people care. Our schools and Churches do a lot, especially at Christmas, it's amazing how that encourages people, I guess they feel less alone. As a person of faith I believe in praying for people that are in need and this man will be in my prayers.

Larry

 

[boondocks]

What if we just all helped our fellow man"? Ron, he helped you. gs

I guess I feel the same. I think I would go pay the mans water bill, that is the thing you know about. You can't finance the mans whole life but, sometimes it helps by knowing that people care. Our schools and Churches do a lot, especially at Christmas, it's amazing how that encourages people, I guess they feel less alone. As a person of faith I believe in praying for people that are in need and this man will be in my prayers.

Larry

I agree. Just bought and delivered a big load of fuel pellets for a friend fallen on serious hard times this winter.
Inyati, consider putting up a little fundraiser for your roofer's water bills on gofundme or kickstarter, and post the link here? I'd chip in a few bucks, for one.

 

[Nesikep]

We recently bought an old dodge pickup from an old man, we gave him a fair offer, and he was reluctant, we said "think about it for a week", he said he used the truck to get firewood, but since he's about 80, we didn't think he'd really be making much firewood... We called him a week later and he agreed, and we picked up the truck... and brought him a load of firewood too. The truck was a '92 diesel with 300,000 miles in great mechanical shape, and a little rust... we figure we can get 10 years out of it with a little body work.

I am not really a person of faith, though I can't say miracles never happen... I will say that if as much energy was spent actually helping as praying for help, I think more would happen, that's just me though.

 

[inyati13]

What if we just all helped our fellow man"? Ron, he helped you. gs

I agree with that. Just a quick story. Robertson County has no industry. It is unique even in Kentucky as being almost totally agriculture. I am on the County Beef Cattle Association, last year we did a heifer program. This year we are doing a Goat/Lamb program; knowing it would be cheap. I donated $100. I thought after I gave it that I was being cheap. We met in January and she announced that four months into the program, we had $280.xx. Wow! Sad! 4 months into the program and my $100 is almost a third of the total sum. Says something about how well our farmers are doing!!!!

I appreciate some of the thoughts expressed above. This guy has a great sense of humor. He reminds me of a hillbilly version of "The Cable Guy". I have never seen him that he was not laughing. I was told that because he has donated labor to the County in the form of fixing things, the county wavied his water bill for 2013 but he is already in debt for 2014. It is not just this guy. I know a guy who comes to my farm wanting to fix fence, spray weeds, etc. to earn money. I have paid him to do a number of chores but it is sad to think he is trying to support two kids in high school. Thankfully, his wife works for 3M in Cynthiana and I know she is doing the heavy lifting.

Here is a real heartbreaker. I stopped at Road Rannger to fill my transfer tank with diesel. It has a good size quick stop with the hotdogs that rotate all day on a grill. Probably the cheapest hotdogs on earth. Like the kid said in "Sling Blade", made from penises and azzholes. Sitting in an old beat-up pick-up next to me is a man and I assume his wife. They are eating these hotdogs. I could not hear what they were saying but the thought went through my mind that people are getting their supper at a gas stop. They looked exhasuted. They were probably 45.

I have a good retirement and have been lucky with my investments. I don't need a government cost of living estimate to tell me inflation is 20 times higher than the government is reporting. You can go to Wal-Mart and buy shoestings and Mary Janes and it will cost you $70. How are people going to live? And my brother recently found out, you don't come out ahead raising your own. This is funny. He wanted his own pork. So he raised two Yorkshires to about 250 pounds. He joked and told me he could have bought a side of beef for what he had in those two pigs.

 

[Nesikep]

You know what's funny.. I just came back from a speech from an economist specializing in small communities... and he took a look at many of them and tried to find where they were "bleeding" money... like St Lawrence county in Upstate new york.. Apparently 100,000 people, 300,000 acres in farmed land, with 250,000 acres of usable land that isn't used. The county had about 3,000 cows, and were importing 2500 cows per year in food, they grew no chickens, but ate 2,000,000 of them (WOW?!). It's not hard to see where a lot of money is being lost from the community.

The funniest thing is that he said his first speech was in KENTUCKY, where 2 people showed up and one had to leave early. Now I certainly don't put a lot of faith in economists, a third of them are crooked and probably the reason we're in the whole mess, another third make fancy projections on ideal models and they contribute to the mess, and the last third are just not bright enough to see much of anything, they've been told we're in a mess and they'll run with that.
He made a few good points, but fell short of being enlightening or really drilling down to the root problems. Lets take St Lawrence county for starters.. Why do they import 2 million damned chickens? Could it perhaps be that corporations have bought up all the quota, making the price of chicken quota $70 a piece?, then making it illegal to grow chickens without quota?
How about the general population being encourage to go so deep into debt that they're paying a greater percentage of their disposable income towards their mortgage now at record low interest rates than they did in 1981 when wages were lower and interests were 20%? Isn't that a great way to force people to have to pinch a penny so hard that they cannot afford the better quality of a locally (OK, even a domestically) made piece and are forced to go buy garbage from china that has a 500% corporate markup?

The fellow tried to offer solutions to a problem without getting to the root of it to begin with

FYI, his name is Micheal H. Shuman, and has written several books about "going local".. his site is http://locatopia.wordpress.com

Sorry if I've got a little off topic..

 

[branguscowgirl]

What if we just all helped our fellow man"? Ron, he helped you. gs

I guess I feel the same. I think I would go pay the mans water bill, that is the thing you know about. You can't finance the mans whole life but, sometimes it helps by knowing that people care. Our schools and Churches do a lot, especially at Christmas, it's amazing how that encourages people, I guess they feel less alone. As a person of faith I believe in praying for people that are in need and this man will be in my prayers.

Larry

Both very good thoughts! I love it, and agree. You are both very good men!