Full Spiral

 It is interesting how things come around again and again. Look at fashion, I'm now seeing the second round in my lifetime of the 1960's styles. Not quite the same, but very similar. This makes me think time and other things run in a spiral, not a circle. You are at a similar place, but not the exact same place, and never can be again.

 In my early adult life, I was very, very poor. I grew much of my food to be able to eat, had no car and lived in a small town where you pretty much had to drive to get anywhere. Moving to Austin changed both environment, and circumstances. Income went up slowly, then faster, but we spent it as fast as we made it. The ex used much of it to pay for his girlfriend, but I didn't find that out until much later. After I divorced him, I was back to the poverty of the early adult days, starting over at 39.

 I remarried, and S had a lot of debt, but we slogged our way through it and got it paid off. He's got an ok job with insurance and benefits, and they pay for college, so he's finished an associate degree and is looking at a bachelor's. The debt we racked up in the early days trying to survive is finally gone, and we are almost down to nothing but the house payment. Sounds good, right? Well, not so much.

 Thanks to living in the most expensive city in the state, the taxes and insurance have now actually exceeded the house payment. The ex refi-ing the house twice didn't help things. So the house takes up nearly half of our income. Not giving it up however, there is no way we could buy another house in a similar neighborhood for what we owe on this one. And having the house also gives us income in the form of housemates if it comes to that.

 With the Great Recession heading back into full swing after a brief lull, more and more people are turning to the skills lost a couple of generations ago. I learned these skills in my youth, probably one of the last generation to do so, at my grandparents' knees. Being able to sew, crochet, cook and can/preserve/grow/raise my own food has always been a pretty constant source of income for me. With more people losing their jobs, taking pay cuts and bills and expenses continuing to go up, they are learning to do these things for themselves. Great for them, not so much for me.

 Food expenditure is one of the few reoccurring bills that you have much control over. So back to raising my own food. Not sure if we will raise chickens again, altho I do miss the eggs, I don't miss the hassle. Veggies tho, those we will be raising. We've got tomatoes already started, and peppers are next. With the drought heading into its third year, we have decided to grow in containers instead.

 Interesting how it has come around to this again. The world has gone from self sufficiency to total dependency, and is slowly creeping back to self sufficiency. And the more people become less dependant, the more the government is trying to tighten their grip. Self sufficient people scare them, and don't believe their lies like good little sheeple.