Birthday wishes...

[RPetry 564]

Turned 55 yrs. yesterday. Got the best, most appropriate, and true card in all those years.

[jetstream1 18]

Happy late one may you have many more

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Happy Birthday Rick!!! :bday:

Beth

[StainlessDeal 16]

Sorry I missed your birthday, and I wish you many more happy ones.

I have that quote on a sweatshirt, Franklin was a genious, no?

[RPetry 564]

Hey Scott,

You Nebraska Cornhuskers makin' a fortune off of ethanol corn? Geeze, the shuckin's probably worth more than Florida real estate these days.

Thanks to you, Beth, and Jetstream for the kind wishes. Got curious on the quote, and the best I could find is that B. Franklin wrote that in a letter to a French economist in 1779.

Problem is ... it was about wine! Certainly figures, as old Ben was Ambassador to the French Court for 9 years. Disappointing, as those frogs still know nothing about beer!

But still makes a great card and even better sweatshirt. Most have no clue in this country of history so it's easy to fool 'em!

[StainlessDeal 16]

It's killing my hunting grounds!

The CRP program is suffering, as are other conservation attempts in the state. Because of the new ideas/pressures concerning ethanol, we now have rediculous piling up to ludicrous.

For instance, the county in the sandhills where I have my lease produces about 4.3 million bushels of dryland corn yearly. That is pretty good considering the availability of water and soil as opposed to sand there.

Yet, some charlatan has managed to sell the county and state on a tax incentive program, and partial matching construction funds to build a facility capable of processing 8 MILLION bushels per month into ethanol.

That still wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't one of these mega-stills popping up in each of our 92 counties, nevermind that the county I'm specifically speaking of is nearly 100 miles from the nearest Interstate highway, and has only one rail line transiting their territory, and that a part-time micro line serving local co-ops during the harvest.

Now add to that the fact that shelter belts and other cover (including farmsteads and small feed operations) are being bulldozed and burned to clear land for more corn production.

Add to that the large diesel and gasoline powered irrigators being sold like hotcakes to make barely marginal land partly arable, and the field-leveling etc. necessary to change the land use, and there is no possible way the ethanol produced can have an impact on fuel prices (or even supply).

In fact, the subsidies we aren't counting (unintended subsiies like higher food costs, etc) are going to increase disproportionately for the folks in rural areas, because they aren't able to compete for the cheap imported goods so available in larger metropolitan areas.

We can kiss our populated countryside goodbye in the near future. I hope the cities across the country are ready to absorb another mass migration of cheap labor, this time native.

Man! What a screed to put in a positive thread!:lgtear:

Sorry guys, here is a positive thought: We should be able to get any amount of grain vodka or corn whisky we want, wanywhere in the country, for next to nothing, very soon!