Brad’s Take

Coming out of a local restaurant tonite, I noticed the front plate on a truck. “Oklahoma Dressage Association”.

Dressage (I was told, something like “training” in French) is about riding a horse. Riding in a standard-sized arena. Riding standard test patterns.

The competition test might include various gaits – the walk, the trot, the canter. Maybe a variation on speed – a relaxed trot, a working trot, an extended trot. Maybe a change of direction – and accompanying change of “lead” – which leg moves forward first, on the horse, in the given gait. It matters, in circles, in corners, etc. The horse is much less likely to stumble over its feet or miss a stride if on the correct lead – which is the rider’s responsibility to train for and command.

But – Transition? This “rich people” exercise of buying expensive horses, buying expensive feed, hiring teachers and trainers, renting stable and practice space? Learning to work with livestock, understand “what goes in, must come out”, understanding that nutrition and practice are essential to get the expected results when you climb aboard?

To learn about finding feed, dealing with people that know hay from supplements from complete feeds, to meet people that understand large animals as livestock, as companions, and as competitors.

You might never use a horse as transportation. But being able to raise, train, and work horses takes a lifetime’s experience – and learning can start in a couple of months. Working horse farms depended on the adults knowing how to care for their horses and other livestock, and we are sadly poor in this tradition. By learning the discipline and precision of dressage, we prepare our children, and ourselves, for thinking “outside the car”. If and when the need comes.

At the least, dressage teaches the rider precision, respect, consistency, caring for the horse and learning they are dependent on the comfort and communication to and from the horse. By striving to achieve, riders learn to apply effort, overcome problems – and meet their test.

The local store/deli I eat at – Snyders Chicken and Catering, 3151 W. North Ave., Ponca City, OK – has gotten more expensive. The chicken is just great – the best in town. The meal I get most often, though has gone from about $4.50 last fall to $6.10. That makes a 35% jump in inflation.

It is happening at Wal-Mart, too. Beanee Weanees, the short can, GreatValue store brand, have gone from 58 cents last summer to 86 cents this week. For me that is an inflation of 48%.

Everything is going up. Let’s not talk about Propane and gas prices, on their way up again, both.

And that “incentive” tax credit? Up to $800 for $20,000 earnings? That seems mostly like 4% – much less than inflation since last November by any count.

Fedex, UPS, and the Post Office keep raising their prices – which ripples through to affect everyone once or twice over as companies absorb extra costs – and taxes, and costs of borrowing money – and raise their prices to recover some of those expenses.

The story at Wal-Mart is even worse for me. I like the 10 cent Great Value brand Ramen Noodles. Only they aren’t available any more – off the shelves, no space for them. Only the Ramuchen at 13 cents. GreatValue pudding four-packs at 88 cents? Gone. Only the Hunts at $1.00 so far. That looks like 30% and 12% inflation right there. The Sam’s Choice plastic wrap? Gone. And that was a really good weight, easy to use dispenser box, at a moderate price.

AT&T bought out Southwest Bell telephone service here. And my bill went up from $59 a month, gradually, to $71 last fall. It still climbs by nickels and dimes, but I changed to a long distance company that charges less ($4.64 last month, vs. $34 with addons and fees).

I work part time at the local theatre. Until the minimum wage went up last summer I was making $0.80 more than minimum. Not I get $0.30 more, and expect to lose that in July when the minimum wage goes up next time.

That is – Barack Hussein Obama is going to have to do a hell of a lot more to repay me what he has cost me this far. And he should keep in mind that the KGB is predicting the US comes apart and unglued by June next year – well before the next elections. The rationale is that the government goes broke, and the states stop sending money in to be wasted. That scenario was apparent to Moscow 9 years ago – why the Democrats don’t see the danger this week is a moral and political conundrum (puzzle, that is). Seriously – Pandarin’s map shows the states divided 6 ways, and each group dominated by a foreign country.

I got some more garden seed ordered yesterday – some oilseed sunflowers, for salad oil. I found this writeup on hulling the seeds and extracting the oil. If I can find some sugar beet seed, I want that for horse feed (the beet pulp). I don’t plan on competing with sugar companies – yet – but the beet pulp will help with the livestock, that and the vegetable oil. That and the half dozen chicks growing in the barn, I am starting to plan for the future.

Yep, our president is a mighty handsome man, and he will tell anyone how smart he is. It is the graft, corruption, kickbacks (like giving Chrysler to the UAW), and ignoring the needs and rights of working Americans I detest. I like a cartoon I saw yesterday, “Obama has the *pork* flu – keep him unconscious, every time he wakes up he spends a trillion dollars!”

But I’m not bitter.

Transition. When you believe that change is coming – real change. As in, losing the ability to afford electric utilities. As in, losing easy access to nationally distributed food and supplies. As in, reducing your carbon footprint.

But what about your footprint?

In times past most shoes were made of leather, not plastic and other petroleum products. Shoes that expected to wear out the leather soles – and have them replaced. Several times. Shoes with cord, maybe, for laces – but maybe leather lace, too. Shoes that you polish with Kiwi or other waxed blackener or brown color, or even clear. A shoe brush that lasted for years and years, a rag for applying wax and buffing to a shine that reflected your pride in appearance, and indirectly a mark of character.

So, what shoes will you buy, next, if you are building your pantry to last through the beginnings of the end of cheap transportation? And have you identified someone in your neighborhood that works leather and can provide the leather necessities when plastics all run out – or have you started lining up leather supplies, tools to work it, and the skills to be a resource for your community?