Lets say I go out and get a $20,000 grant to buy and rehab a piece of property.

That’s about the gist of the sales talk I heard the other day.  Of course, this company wanted to get a fair share of the money to be made for helping you get your business going.  It sounded great, until I started wondering about the grants.  After all, I like money, too.  I’d love to be rich and I’d love to make a few million in the property market.  There’s a lot of money to be made now.  So, lets look at it closely.

I add to the community by hiring people to work on the house, so that’s good.  I provide decent housing for the community, so that’s good.  I make money, lets don’t underestimate how good that is!  So, what’s the problem?  I don’t have to pay it back!

So, where does grant money come from?  Our goverment hasn’t been working in the black for years, so the grant money is borrowed money.   Borrowed in the name of the people of the United States of America.  And, yes…somebody is going to have to pay back that $20,000 .  Who?  The taxpayer.  My children, your children, all of us.  So, what’s the big deal?  It’s only $20,000 after all.  But, it isn’t only $20,000.  It’s millions, billions…even trillions.  As it is, they’re giving away borrowed money.

One day that money is going to come due and here’s the worse part.  All those years it’s waiting to be paid, that debt is growing.  It’s seeped into every nook and cranny of the government…one department keeps track of it, the other dispenses it, the other finds more to give away, and one (our beloved IRS) sucks it out of each and every taxpayer. 

All that government overhead does nothing but build up more debt and I want no part of it. 

Not such a good deal anymore, is it?  More like, really bad karma.

I Love Money!

I’m turning this blog post over to Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret) because I believe our country is in a dark place right now, and it’s important to let people know what’s important about the Second Amendment.  Don’t miss his post.  It explains things perfectly. 

The Gun is Civilization, 

By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)

|

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and
force.

If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either
convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under
threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two
categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact
through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social
interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is
the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use
reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your
threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on
equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal
footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal
footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun
removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between
a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad
force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more
civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm
makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course,
is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed
either by choice or by legislative fiat — it has no validity when
most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by
the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of
a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a
successful living in a society where the state has granted him a
force monopoly.

Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal
that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is
fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are
won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on
the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks or stones don’t constitute
lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come
out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes
lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not
the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an
octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply
wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal
and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight,
but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means
that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m
afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the
actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the
actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the
equation… and that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

God Bless America

Starbucks Bird

If I hadn’t looked down at the beautiful flowers at the drive-thru…If the flowers hadn’t been found by this little bird… I would have simply bought my coffee and moved on down the road.  Instead, I got to watch this little guy enjoying his feast of seeds, and it made my day so much brighter.

Thank you little bird.

So, now we have eight little pullets.  Or seven pullets and a rooster…it’s a little early to be sure about one of them.    They seem very content with their little yard and water-girl.    And, it looks like we got them just in time for the cicada invasion.  The 17 year cicada are beginning to arrive.   At least, I think it’s the 17 year ones.  Could be one of the other batches…I can never remember.  At any rate, we’ll have more of them soon.  The chickens love fighting over the more vocal ones!  

 Now we look forward to fresh eggs…as do our neighbors.  In the meantime though, we’re enjoying watching “our girls” chase bugs.

Talking About How Old Everyone ELSE Looks

Nerd Table (every reunion has one)

Can you guess who was first to realize we graduated in 73 and this was our 37th reunion?

Vickie Carrico (google her) along with Andy Conners gave us some “Proud Mary”.  Great stuff! 

After 37 years, we had a lot of catching up to do.  So, what does all this have to do with feng shui?     Not a darn thing.  Just sharing a little fun, and reminding everyone that time flies.   Keep up with those who knew you way back when you didn’t know yourself.   There are important things to learn.

Thanks so much to everyone who was involved in planning this.  I was thrilled to meet so many great people.  Lets do it again soon!

My job is to tell the people how to access the good stuff and avoid problems with the not-so-good stuff.  Not all houses can be cured, and not all houses need to be.   A house with good feng shui should just feel good.  Very simple.  If you aren’t comfortable in your home, it could be the feng shui.

If you think your house could do a better job of supporting you and your family,  let me know and we’ll check it out.

 We say horses who are nervous or jumpy are “spooked”.  Well,  those horses are literally being bothered by “spooks” in one form or another and I’ve had great success getting rid of them.   One horse was impossible to ride, another just difficult.  One “spooked” at one spot in the pasture, while another showed extreme animosity toward his farrier.  All these horses had something very real bothering them, and all are much, much better now that those things are gone.

Today the clouds were fluffy and the horses were gorgeous.   I’m thankful to be able to enjoy such a day with some of the most beautiful animals on earth.      But, what I really love is being able to do something that will keep those beautiful animals from hurting their owners or the farriers who work with them.

Lexington Kentucky

If you have a horse who is hard to manage, or a horse who has changed from being gentle to being dangerous, please call.   My fees are very reasonable, and you don’t pay until the job is done and you are satisfied.   

859-492-0582

When I was a little girl I often went to visit my grandparents in Barbourville, KY.  Their farm on that same Cumberland River was a showplace.  The back porch looked out over a beautiful river bottom where every year the floods would come and replenish the land.  Backwater in spring meant fertile land for good crops in the coming summer. 

Back then there was very little flood control.  The levee protected parts of the city, but for the most part the town was prone to flooding every spring.  People looked at floods as a natural risk when you lived on the river.  I remember going to visit a neighbor who had his house on the riverbank.  In the ceiling there were hooks where he would hang his furniture when the water got high.  He would never dream of moving.  For him, life on the river was worth it.

Nowadays we are used to having control of our environments.  We flip a switch to turn night into day, push a button to regulate the temperature in our homes, turn a key to drive anywhere we want in perfect comfort.  We can have tomatos out of season, even fruits and vegetables delivered from all over the world.  There seem to be no limits to our control.

Then nature speaks and we must listen.  The city of Nashville will heal, and as it does it will grow in strength and beauty.  And, people will remember for a time what happened that day nature showed us all who’s in charge.