Plant your garden

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Yesterday we closed on the land that will someday support Leah’s Red Hen Pottery (good Lord willing), and also bought half interest in Richard and Wilhelmena Walker’s Red Rock Store, both in Belmont, Texas.

The Belmont Social Club across the street from these properties continues to do good business. Their primary fare is barbecue and burgers during the day and steaks at night. Fridays there’s all you can eat catfish. They have a stage with live bands every Friday and Saturday night and occasionally at other hours as well. The building is rustic, maintaining the façade of Goss’ store, but you’d never know it was the same place once you enter the doors.

I am pleased to announce that Matt King is scheduled to play Saturday night, March 26. I hope to attend and I am issuing an invitation to anyone that can make it to the event. Belmont is a special place and Matt an astounding musician. (Don’t tell Ronny Trash Matt’s coming around or we might all get kicked out of the place for being less than respectable.)

Like the rest of you, I’ve been following with concern the events in Japan subsequent to the awful earthquake that recently waylaid the place. Now would be a good time to be in the business of selling potassium iodide. I couldn’t find any.

I’m guessing (my crystal ball is no clearer than yours—hell, I don’t even have a crystal ball) that while the release of radiation from melting nuclear reactors is ongoing and tragic, the release of radiation will probably be contained to a degree and prove to have little effect on the North American continent. The economic effects are sure to be felt the world around. I think this puts an end to the building of new nuclear generators in the short term, and maybe forever.

The Bank of Japan has drawn a page from Bernanke’s Fed and hallucinated $350 billion dollars worth of Japanese Yen into existence over the last three days to effectively stop a Nikkei stock market meltdown. I am revolted by the fact that a few bastards will get extremely rich off of this calamity. Can you believe some Keynesian economists are saying this will prove good for Japan’s GDP?

As someone astutely suggested at Zerohedge, the people don’t need Yen. They need clean water, food, bricks, steel, cement and fuel. If calamities present opportunities for growth, how long til a Milo Mindbender motherfucker comes along and realizes he can get rich and save fuel by bombing his own country and getting the enemy to bomb theirs rather than wasting time and effort transporting this shit across the ocean? (Come to think of it, perhaps this idea already occurred to a few twisted souls…)

Ah well. Corn is planted and up. Water is running where we can. Orange top cane is also planted and growing. Manuel is preparing fields in Balmorhea. Closer to home, weeds rear ugly heads and I need to get my ass out of this chair and chop those heads off.

Plant your garden.

And then care for it so you'll have something to eat.