Raw milk scare

[ninnymary]

@ninnymary in your area, what would it take to buy a house, car, etc.?

Had an opportunity for a new job at Morton, IL. Looked at houses, starter home was $100,000 that in Indiana we would have torched and started over. Taxes--cheapest was over $2,000/year. Said no thanks. In KY where folks retired, a $100,000 Indiana house was valued at $50,000. Jobs in that area had terrible pay also. 90% of county was on government aid of some sort.

Housing is very expensive here. I'd say a 2 bedroom, 1 bath in Alameda is around $600,000. Some wages here are higher but certain jobs are still low. I've read an article where restaurant employees in S.F. like dish washers were living 10 to a 1 bedroom apartment. Rents are also very high here.

Mary

 

[bobm]

Just a few miles down the road as the crow flies into the San Juaquin valley from Mary, our 20 acre horse ranch with a 3000+ sq ft home with 2 acres of grounds , also with 8 horse stall ( each at 12' x 24' ) barn with all necessary chutes , breeding dummy etc, for artificial insemination. Four years ago we put it on the market at $1.2, now we could be lucky to get $600,000. Due to the passage of no horse slaughter in the US which caused horse values to CRASH as well as the passage of the return of the Salmon run to the San Juaquin River which has been dry for over 80 years as the water from the mountains has provided irrigation to make the desert bloom and now quite a few of the orchards and vinyards are dead or dying and the tumbleweeds are returning. Many land owners are loosing their lands and the legal and illegal farm workers are on welfare. Still not a single Salmon has returned.

 

[Smart Red]

I am not against legal immigration, although, I am against passing a flat law to legalize those who broke our law to enter this country. There was a time when migrant workers legally entered to work. Why can't some sort of work visa program be run to allow that again?

 

[seedcorn]

@bobm what kind of horses commanded that kind of money? Here in Amish land, horses values haven't skipped a beat except for common riding horse.

 

[thistlebloom]

I have Canadian friends who became citizens. It was a long process and expensive, as NYboy stated. What a slap in the face to those who come here legally and get in line and make sacrifices to become a citizen, to just give it away to the ones who break in.

 

[bobm]

@bobm what kind of horses commanded that kind of money? Here in Amish land, horses values haven't skipped a beat except for common riding horse.

Back in the '80s we bought a daughter of the undefeated 1980 World Champion Stallion at Salon du Cheval, Paris, France, who 2 years later sold at public auction for $ 3.2 million. She is also out of HIS OWN mother. What a mare !!! Today,quality horse values are worth a pittence and a shadow of yesteryear. *** The $$$ numbers that I posted was for the values of our ranch now and still no tackers.

 

[seedcorn]

So what is this horse good for? Show, riding, racing, working, looking at? As you can tell, I'm not a horse person. So I don't understand the desire to pay those kind of prices unless it was something of value for a purpose. Obviously the rich don't agree with me. As I've heard of bantam roosters going for $10,000+---I don't pay past $10....

 

[Smart Red]

I once owned a mare whose grandfather sold for $3,000,000. Meant nothing other than she was a nice gaited ride, beautiful, and very sweet.

Probably meant less than nothing as the grandfather perished in a mysterious stable fire. I fear insurance scamming was the reason for the high price.

 

[thistlebloom]

Racing, then as a broodmare more than likely.

 

[bobm]

Well, that stallion won quite a few stakes races, set several race records, undefeated as a show horse at halter, sired a world champion stallion as well as numerous race winners, hunter/ jumpers, show winners, has hundreds of offspring all over the world at $10,000 ( 1980s $ value) stud fee each. Also, in addition to his stud duties, he was a saddle horse for 5 of his owners' kids. He paid back the owners' investment many times over.