On a more serious subject, I am in total agreement with PrairieFarmer and Drsjunky about a sustainable economy. Yes, of course companies (including the one I work for) need to be profitable to maintain jobs–but buying as locally as possible, DIY as much as possible too, is just as beneficial to the economy.
We just bought a house, which is almost impossible to do “away from the grid” and the hoops we had to jump through were ridiculous. For example, we had to sign a document stating that we are not terrorists and have no associations with terrorists. Because true terrorists, of course, would refuse to sign that document, right? So it’s somebody’s job to process all those documents which add nothing but lip service to homeland security. I’m glad I’m not the person who has that drain-on-our-tax-dollars waste of a job.
We grow a garden–it saves us a lot of money over buying inferior products at the grocery store, even taking into account the seeds, supplies, power for the freezer, that all add to the economy. The extras go to the local food bank–which reduces, in some small way, our tax dollars going to food stamps. We belong to a chicken co-op–same thing. When my horse’s tack breaks I repair it myself with my needle and thread or “speedy-stitcher-awl” that I bought, adding to the economy. I buy and sell stuff from my company’s private classified ads, and off local craigslist. All this takes a bit more work and effort than “shopping-for-entertainment” at the mall, so we stay fitter, healthier, happier, and more in touch with the true proportion between work and value.

On a more serious subject, I am in total agreement with PrairieFarmer and Drsjunky about a sustainable economy. Yes, of course companies (including the one I work for) need to be profitable to maintain jobs–but buying as locally as possible, DIY as much as possible too, is just as beneficial to the economy.
We just bought a house, which is almost impossible to do “away from the grid” and the hoops we had to jump through were ridiculous. For example, we had to sign a document stating that we are not terrorists and have no associations with terrorists. Because true terrorists, of course, would refuse to sign that document, right? So it’s somebody’s job to process all those documents which add nothing but lip service to homeland security. I’m glad I’m not the person who has that drain-on-our-tax-dollars waste of a job.
We grow a garden–it saves us a lot of money over buying inferior products at the grocery store, even taking into account the seeds, supplies, power for the freezer, that all add to the economy. The extras go to the local food bank–which reduces, in some small way, our tax dollars going to food stamps. We belong to a chicken co-op–same thing. When my horse’s tack breaks I repair it myself with my needle and thread or “speedy-stitcher-awl” that I bought, adding to the economy. I buy and sell stuff from my company’s private classified ads, and off local craigslist. All this takes a bit more work and effort than “shopping-for-entertainment” at the mall, so we stay fitter, healthier, happier, and more in touch with the true proportion between work and value.

That is an awesome story! I hope you have horses!

I actually once took a mouse that my cat had caught and played with for a while to the vet to be put down. They told me they would do it (I’ve never been 100% certain about the method used, but I remain optimistic) and they did not charge me. It was 100 degrees out, the poor thing was obviously not going to recover, but it would not die, it just laid there panting. My husband was not home to dispatch it, so I put in it a box and drove it to the vet. Damn cat…

I am a massage therapist, and also working on my Master’s degree in Applied Psychology with a research focus on massage therapy. Where is your information/evidence coming from that chiropractic and massage are “hocus pocus/pseudo-science”? I’d love to read all about it. On the contrary, I would be happy to send you dozens of peer-reviewed, evidence-based research articles that state the documented effects of both for various conditions. Heck, I’d be happy to send you my own research when it’s concluded at the end of the semester, and invite you to the research conference in Seattle next May (Highlighting Massage Therapy in Complimentary and Integrative Medicine”) that I’ll be attending and presenting at. The same techniques that are used on humans are also applied to horses, and there is no reason to believe those same techniques used on the same structures would not have the same effect. Please refrain from spreading false information. Thanks!”

Well, the Trekkies and Scientologists have conferences as well. LOL !

People who hire massage therapists to scratch their horse’s itches and give them some routine lovin are just too lazy and/or soulless to do it themselves, cuz thats all it amounts to. I prefer to do it myself. Women horse people tend to be stupid suckers for all the gimmicks, including animal mind-readers. LOL! The latest gimmick I’ve seen these stupid suckers fall for are the $40 insect repellers with a magic RF chip in them that supposedly picks up the horse’s electromagnetic field and causes it to emit RF frequency waves that repel flies and mosquitos…the horse wears this thing like a large price tag on its mane. All of the horses that I’ve seen wearing these “price tags” have flies crawling all over their faces. LOL ! but the stupid owners keep them on because they don’t want to admit they’ve just thrown away $40 on a worthless scam !

I just realised, now that he’s gone I never have fruit or vegetables. I made sure I had them all the time for him! All this for a hamster.