Ok no one has addressed whether the cost of supermarket food is the real cost of producing good quality food. It's not. The price tag at the supermarket doesn't include the cost of land degradation by conventional agriculture, pollution by driving or flying food long distance, inhumane treatment of animals, and the fact that farmers and farmworkers don't get a living wage. Yes, it's possible to produce inexpensive flavorless tomatoes that are picked green by machines, gassed, and trucked thousands of miles. It's possible to produce ecologically devastating monocultures of genetically modified corn cheaply enough, especially when you can put high fructose corn syrup into every processed food on the shelf. It's possible to produce chicken to sell at 99 cents a pound if you cut off their beaks, stuff them into tiny cages with lights on 24/7 and "harvest" them at 6 weeks. What you calculate for your home garden costs (and you should add your labor) is pretty close to what it really costs to produce high quality healthy food. And it is worth every penny. Food is one of the basic necessities of life, yet Americans have been taught to consider that it should be the cheapest thing in our budget. The average American spends less than 10% of their income on food (the world average is around 30-40%; probably 50% in the developing world). This is false economy. I don't object to paying the real cost to get as much of my food as possible from smaller scale diversified local farming (including my garden).

I spoke w/ my sister yesterday and asked if her if she really wanted me to give my honest opinions even if she may be upset at them and she said yes. I floated the opportunity of having Sue come here w/ us for a month for a lifetime - whatever she wanted and needed. I told her that if she felt it would be good for Sue to please discuss it w/ the psychologist. I really tried to press her more about other things as I just wanted to try and expand her thinking and options. Like I said, my sister is a follower where as I knock down doors asking questions looking for feedback and answers. My sister does not. I guess that's what big sisters are for. If the younger one can't do it we assist in clearing the path to help them walk it a little easier. I really tried to drive home the 'Family Counseling' and how would they manage that? If BIL is on the road how will ER set up the family counseling to adapt to that? How will they individualize it for that because him not working isn't an option and working means being on the road. I tried to impress upon my sister that it's not just Sue's problem but that the family as a whole needs counseling as well as my sister and BIL in regards to better parenting alternatives as to what they currently do. I attempted to drive that point home to her that if they don't work as hard as Sue then nothing that they do will amount to a hill of beans. I let her know that mandatory family counseling w/ Sue was a great pro about ER and something that I could not offer them because I think that Sue has to be a participant. I also mentioned that even if Sue weren't a factor in this whole thing that I still thought they needed counseling as a whole. I asked her if she just sat back and listened to what the psychologist said and if she asked questions. She said that she did ask questions but when she told me what the questions were they seemed to be on the 'follower' side of things. I asked her to think outside of the box and ask more probing questions. I told her to think of it as if she were diagnosed w/ a potentially deadly disease and what would she do. She said research and ask very pointed questions. She would want to know the Dr.s background, how often had they treated the deadly disease, how would they treat it and why specifically that way? What was the success rate w/ of recovery w/ the Dr.s pts.? Did the Dr. only ever refer pts. to 1 specific place and if so why? And so on. When I posed it to her that way a light bulb seemed to go on in her head. I told her not to be afraid and to try and find a chunk of quiet time to write her questions down and go back to the psychologist w/ them. I pointedly asked if she ever thought about counseling for the 2nd daughter and she said 'No. Why does evryone think that she has a problem. She's fine w/ us." I told her to carefully think about that statement and ask herself why others have said that. I left it at that. She cried and asked me to talk to BIL that he needs to hear what I've said and just talk w/ me. I asked her what point she would like to see come across if I spoke w/ him so that I could gather my wits about me. DS has tried and always keeps trying to do the right thing for Sue, I just think that many times DS doesn't see what she's doing herself. Funkyart - no need to feel uneasy - we all have perspectives and thoughts and come from varied backgrounds always giving a different viewpoint. I guess I am just of the being that we do what needs to be done, don't look back and take it day by day. Once we set a realistic goal ther is no quiting - we try every way possible to finish the task at hand. We try to raise our children that way. Ever since I was in the Marine Corps I always told myself "Only God can can stop the end of the day from coming" and it always made me feel that no matter how hard a task was that eventually I would see the other side - that a task could not go on forever, I just had to be strong. Nobody or nothing humanly possible could stop me.

Sue36: The assets of the estate have to fulfill the debts of the estate first and the wishes of deceased second. As I have stated earlier, my parents want their sons buried in the six family plots on our St. Sava Eastern Orthodox Church property in Libertyville, Illinois if possible. They knew that marriages, distant lives, and other situations may not make that possible. Even if my brothers objected to the prepayment of funeral expenses,which they have not, I would move to carry out the request with all the power, assets, and will to make it happen. It is a nonissue with my brothers and not something that has ever been a consideration with my brothers wives, ex-wives, or children. The point you make about giving too much money to lawyers on this matter is a good one because the matter and the estate would be at greater jeopardy and suffer a reduced value if anyone wanted to fight the relatively low cost of prepaid funerals compared to the high cost of infighting with attornies. It is simply a nonissue because my brothers know anyone not buried in Libertyville will simply be allowing our church to retain the funds. Our cemetery does not give refunds or allow you to resell grave plots once you buy them. You either use them or surrender them back to the church with no compensation. It is a nonissue. The matter of right of first refusal for the heirs is not for the purpose of reducing or deflecting my fiduciary obligations, but will be a part of the process so that my brothers will have a chance to buy a solidly built all brick home at three-quarters of the price of the highest offer because they have a one quarter interest already built in. I have already stated that unless I strike gold somewhere, I am in no position to purchase the house at any price. My oldest brother and my second youngest brother could. My youngest brother, who is currently 51 years old, is an irrepairable drug addict who will probably blow his share of the estate on drugs if one of his associates doesn't kill him for it. I sold my parents last home with the help of an estate attorney and did not pay any brokers and I don't feel a need to bribe someone that is supposed to be working for and being paid by their clients who are looking to buy a house. There will not be that many "looky-loo" types because the terms for the professionals will be too "lame"?, and the escorted tours will be too short and too few per day for the penniless dreamers. Thanks for the concern, but the last time around I got good advice from a good lawyer and it cost us about $500.00 for his services to sell the home in West Allis, Wisconsin. I know the lawyers fees will be higher this time around, but as a percentage of the selling price it will probably be less. Joobee: At least your opinion is with the majority, but realtors value is highly overrated by those not smart enough to talk to a real estate attorney. A regular auction would bring less money for the home. Dianemargret: Why do I get the impression you write to penpals in prison for henious felonies? I will not be running a fake Dutch auction that will stop at a certain price, but one that will go on until the house is sold. On that basis, yes I want to get the highest price possible but if it is not a high price, it doesn't matter. It is not a matter of the house going to the less advantaged, but simply a desire to have interested parties start accrueing money if they wish to get involved. This will put more interested wannabe homeowners in the pool. A lot of people who do not have substantial assets at hand may have the ability to get financed and the advance notice will give them time. Sorry Dianemargret, I am old school and I have not given you or anyone permission to insult me, so why waste my time answering questions that are not important to me. I do find your behavior toward me interesting, but not surprising in a world with so many "politically correct" wussy men. Minibim: Responding to opinions and questions hardly constitutes attention seeking. Maybe we read different books. If I live long enough to execute this plan, I will be back to advise anyone still around about the results, and I will be honest whether I win, lose, or draw. Thank you for the well wishes. Ruudman

That would certainly explain the difference between your experience carding cotton and plllog's. Seeding cotton has to be one of the worst jobs there is. Also, I was a small child. I was at my great-great-great aunt's house ... and she moved in with us when I was in 1st grade (no kindergarten, so I assume I was 6-7 years old). I have this image of them stuck in the house and taking the seed corn out of the walls where it was stored (if that part is even right). What I remember about the books was that, how excited the little girls were to get one tin cup to share between the two of them, Yes, I remember that too -- but I'm not clear on whether I remember it from the books or the TV series. I remember that they had a narrow "compartment" in the back wall of their house -- a false wall -- and the corn was stored in that. Thinking about it now, I don't know why anyone would have gone to so much trouble for seed corn. I mean, farmers didn't have the technology to build anything except small houses, so why would you use any of your precious living space for seed corn? My family has been on the same property since the 1700s, and we have more sheds "than you can shake a stick at" ... some of them open, some of them quite secure. Seems to me that seed corn would've been kept in one of the secure sheds. that she rode around with her fiance for years Now that part I remember clearly: Laura had been hired to teach school in a neighboring town, and she "boarded" with a family who didn't like her much /she didn't like them much. The mother of the family didn't like living in the West and threatened suicide, saying she'd go home one way or another. I remember being genuinely afraid for Laura staying in that house. At the end of her first week with them, Laura was dreading the weekend /no escape to school ... and suddenly Almonzo appeared (unannounced) at the door with his light sleigh, saying he'd arranged with her father that he'd provide her with transportation home for the weekends. She literally ran to get her things. It was clear from the first ride that Almonzo was interested in Laura, but she didn't catch on for a while. Re scullery maids, that's why I said at the same economic level. Most of us here at middle class. Granted there was hardly any middle class in the 18th Yeah, the hardly-any-middle-class-existed and few people were rich ... that is why I said most of us would've been the scullery girls. Has anyone here watched those videos that were popular a decade or so ago in which a modern family posed as an 1800 (?) family ... and another in which a small group of people posed as American pioneers and lived for a time using those skills? I just read on Wikipedia that Eli Whitney was commissioned to make the gin, and was inspired to the method by watching a cat trying to pull a chicken through a fence. I've no idea if it's true, but it's a great story. Some people say he didn't invent it at all; rather, it was a slave on the plantation who invented it, and since neither the slave nor his female owner (was the husband dead?) had any way to market the creation, they claimed that Whitney -- the children's live-in tutor -- had invented it. I'm not purporting this as truth. Obviously, I have no personal knowledge, though it does seem that a slave would've been closer to the cotton-work and would've had time /motivation to think on how to do it better. It's just something I read or heard somewhere. Well, it was the boy--he didn't want people eating up his seed wheat so he made a hidden bin in a wall. In the book Pa Ingalls notices the inside of the room is too small for the outside and finds the wheat that way. Yes, that's what I remember too ... but he not a boy; Almonzo and his adult brother were sharing a cabin and were essentially "hoarding" the seed corn, and when Pa Ingalls confronted them, they said, "We didn't realize people were starving," and they gladly shared it. I'm thinking I remember this from the TV movie. They really did "play up" Pa as hero-of-all-things, and he did solve all sorts of problems about town. In real life, Pa didn't make such good choices for his family; I remember studying these books as a part of a Children's Literature class in college, and I really "saw" Pa for the first time through adult eyes -- he was a bit of a disappointment. I think Almonzo was a better husband; he and Laura floundered a bit /were beset by serious troubles in their younger years, but then they found "their place" and stuck to it through thick and thin. Pa Ingalls always had his eyes set somewhere else. It's not that I'm obsessed with these books I was obsessed with them as a child. Now I'm a literature teacher, and I have a very good memory for books -- even things I haven't read in years.