09 Oct 2005
Full-Serve Lingers in Self-Serve World

I take the new truck to a full serve only station in Thorntown, Joe's, but I only pay about $0.10 more per gallon than the local self-serve emporiums. Why, you might ask, do I do this when gas is such a vital component of my business? A couple of reasons, actually.

First off, Joe's a customer - two dozen every two weeks and the occasional steak or rump roast. It's a local business, not owned by some chain out of New York or Chicago. Profits made by Joe buy my eggs and beef. Secondly, Joe controls his sources of gas very carefully. This means the octane rating is consistent, and that there's no added ethanol. The latter has become very important to me - it seems as though all is not as rosy as some folks would have you believe with ethanol as a fuel additive.

To think that using ethanol (and to a lesser extent, soy based biodiesel) actually saves energy is fallacious: the modern farmer uses much petrol in plowing and harvesting the fields, and the production and distillation of alcohol from grain is also energy expensive.

But worse, alcohol is a much stronger solvent than straight gasoline, and sloshing some around in a tank not designed for such powerful chemicals can work rust and other debris (pieces of the tank lining) loose, clogging the fuel system. Because of the way the used truck I purchased had been stored, the gas tank was not exactly in premium condition. One fill up at the local self serve cost me a new gas filter.

So I'll keep taking it Joe's, as long as he's able to stay open.

Los Angeles Times - Like many motorists, Albert Menaster has watched with alarm as gasoline prices zoomed past $3 a gallon.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Home | 2 comments | permanent link

Some Blog Housekeeping

I made a few changes here today and I wanted to note them, especially the new blogroll entries. But first, note that I've added a banner to the "bumper sticker" section advertising my own farm! Kinda weird that I'd not done that before, but hey: things get busy and I get distracted ...

I added a new blog from my good friend Kathryn, this one is devoted to her knitting hobby, and is subtitled 'A Homage to Hestia'. Now, I don't knit, and I don't follow the gods of ancient Greece or Rome, but I do raise sheep, sell fleece and follow the Gods of the North, among whom Frigga would the closest goddess in attributes to Hestia. She's the guardian of hearth and home - and a Google search for information on her led me to Kathryn's original blog, since shut down. So things have come full circle: welcome back, Hestia!

The other day I discovered that MacRaven had been blogrolled by Asahel's Search for Meaning, a blog by a fellow Heathen who had some very nice things to say about my rants here. I can only reciprocate: Neediness of the Gods, or Arrogance of the Asatru? is a rant I wish I'd have written!

The other new entries on the blogroll come from reader comments: Sugar Mountain Farm is a very nice (and relatively new) blog by a fellow smallholder in the great state of Vermont. Dvalin Darkdale is another Heathen blog with some very interesting musings on life as an Asatrurar.

00:00 /Home | 2 comments | permanent link

Borrower, beware

We're not becoming an "ownership society", we're mortgaging our future. And when the bill comes due, who whole economy will be paying through it's nose for this period of "painless" borrowing.

There's a lot of debate in Washington these days about plans to spend big money on cleaning up after Katrina. This, on top of the promises President Bush has made to continue to push for more of his "ownership society" in the form of further tax cuts and other inducements to save and invest.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link