Hello Darlings,
I am 'blogging' from my brother's cabin up here in the wilds (sorry Darlings for the sake of my brother's privacy I can't tell you exactly where).
My brother always needs to be in touch with his business even when he's on vacation, although he knows the business runs almost on it's own, he's set it up so well.
We're right on the lake, and there is a stream that runs near the cabin that you can hear it, but this drought is very bad, the lake is so low that my brother had to run his boat out onto a floating raft and we can walk through the low water to it. Where the raft is the edge of the lake drops down deeply, but still one can see the effects of the drought
Lois my sister in law, has planted native plants that deal with this type of weather very well.
They've done a marvelous job of re-decorating the cabin with their finds from the White Elephant sale. The lovely cowboy painting over the fireplace gives it a perfect finishing touch.
It's so relaxing up here, even Princess is enjoying it although it is warm, I had her fur trimmed down just enough so she's not too wrapped up in her fur, and I've put down wet towels for her and she is in the shade, with lots of water. And a fan for her. I stay in the shade as well, I'm so fair skinned, that I would burn before any tan.
Juanita is on vacation as well visiting family all over, I have a bonded house sitter staying at the house while we are gone. Although Juanita has told the house sitter that she will be coming back from time to time to check on things. That's why I love her.
Although I love to go into the city to keep up with my investments, there is something just so decadent being up here. It gives my mind a chance to relax and percolate as well with ideas.
My "Business Ladies Who Lunch" e-mail me with ideas although they are also planning vacations as well.
I know, who can plan a vacation when gasoline is so high---well for one thing---let someone else do the driving. One lady I know has had for over 18 months reservations to stay at the Ahwanee Hotel in Yosemite, so she and her husband have taken the train and the bus shuttle to the lodge, they rent bicycles there or take the tram to the various spots. Now they were planning to drive to Yosemite originally, but when gas hit $4.00 a gallon they starting thinking, so a friend drove them to the station and they were off. When they get back they will call a taxi.
In the long run it will cheaper.
That's is one way----you, my Dear Diva's will have to put on the thinking caps---because there are other ways as well.
I have to admit I drove to my brother's but then I wanted my car to be available to go anywhere at anytime. But it is no trouble to ride a bicycle around here to go to the store or anything. My brother made sure that the bikes were heavy duty and have baskets to carry groceries, including insulated bags for ice cream---I'm going to pay for this at the gym, but maybe not, it's usually Lois and I cycling to the store together so maybe with that exercise I won't need to.
Today is the First Day of Summer---and we are seeing a number of people on the Lake, my brother always worries that someone will have an accident. That is why he has a red, yellow orange bouyes around the raft and boat, and a blinking beacon on at night. "People don't use proper caution or their eyes" he says.
My nieces and nephews have been here and gone on their trip.
But they will return in August.
My brother has been directing some cleaning team to make sure that all the dead fall and dried shrubs have been removed to avoid any fire hazards. A friend of his, who lives up here year round who is a member of the fire dept. showed my brother what he needs to do. Fortunately a lot of work was done last year, a ceramic roof, vents screened, pine needles swept away, some natural firebreaks created and a water pump system to wet the area should the unthinkable happen, now it's just maintaining it.
Lois said that should a fire start and we have to leave the one thing she's going to grab from the house is the painting. Everything else is replaceable she says but that painting is one of a kind.
As a matter of fact my brother and sister in law are planning to retire up here in a few years.
Lois told me that they will just sell off everything at their San Francisco home, all they need is their family pictures "Everything" she said " was bought both to use, admire and as an investment, we can sell it all, and give to the children anything they want. We accumulate so much, that as one gets older one has to see what is really important in life"
What she told me has given me an idea for a future blog which I'll address at another time.
But right now Darlings there is something I want to pass on to all of you.
My brother has been following this story, and even I had noticed it back in 2007.
There is a venture company called LS9 in the Silicon Valley area---just Google in LS9 and you'll find the stories---it seems that they are developing nano-bacteria that will turn garbage into oil, or as my brother calls it "they poop oil". The only draw back is to develop a refinery to create enough oil to meet the U.S.'s current needs would require an area the size of Chicago. However, there is no need to use trucks to transport this oil---it can travel through the current pipelines that we now have.
My brother is watching this development very carefully, right now LS9 is privately owned but with the right breakthroughs, it could become the future "Apple Corp" to invest in.
I have to agree, anything that is reasonable that can produce oil at $50 a barrel and is less hazardous is worth investing in especially if it can take our garbage and "Poop oil" and get us away from foreign oil. As 'Mean Kitty' told me when I told this to her---"anything to stick a stick in the Foreigner's eyes".
So Darlings, watch for the future investing in energy, there are companies out there, check the latest Forbes and Fortune magazines for suggestions. But energy development is going to be a new wave of investing.
And that is one to put your thinking caps on my Dears.
For now this Diva is going to enjoy a nice ice cold Lemonade drink and relax.
Until Annon Darlings, Kisses.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
More Budget Ideas....
Hello again Darlings,
I am happy to say that I am making excellent although slow progress, last Sunday I was able to take my little Darling Diva Princess for a walk, granted it was only two blocks, but it was a start.
I am hoping that the weather will warm up mildly; I’ve had just enough of the chill and the wind for one winter.
The other evening I had a wonderful telephone conversation with my Brother Tom, he has invited me and Princess to join him and his wife up to his cabin in the mountains for a few weeks, the grand children will be up as soon as school lets out, they spend a few weeks up there, then off to see a fantastic place like Zion National Park, or historic places, then they come back and spend August with the grand parents. But part of their arrangement as encouraged by their parents is to write a two page essay about each of the places they saw and how it historically created our society. I was very surprised to hear what their parents are doing but they told me it was to help expand their education and awareness---of course they will go to Disneyland, that is their treat for keeping their grades up, poor grades no Disneyland. I think it’s a fair deal.
But even I have found it to be so restful out under the stars, which is why my niece and nephew love to go camping with their children and have them see historic places as well. Good education they say, and I have to agree.
But interesting enough my brother and his wife are going up and staying there for a while because of some legal business, not that he is having trouble but he’s decided to make sure the Homestead on his property is up to date and he is having the land re surveyed to make sure the property lines are still correct.
Then he informed me that he was going in to buy the timber, mineral and water rights as well as any other rights to his land where the family cabin is located plus making sure that the right of way is correct. He told me that the rights were still available, but many people do not realize that when they buy property they forget all these other property rights and the homestead option to protect their holdings.
Especially if you are buying land in the country, by having the homestead and all these rights, no one can get the land out from under you, if nothing else they will be forced by law to pay fair market value, and they will have to pay you for the rights or to lease the rights from you. I don’t know all the ins and outs of this but to you my Dear Diva’s and Diva’s in training one other person to add to your people to assist you is a real estate lawyer or property lawyer.
Never assume that your property is going to be safe, not with the government trying to condemn the land right out from under you and then giving them over to private developers.
Always Darlings protect what is yours, never surrender it without a good fight and then make sure they pay dearly for it.
Hetty Greene, whom some people referred to as “the witch of Wall Street” was a very sharp investor, her policy was buy cheap and sell dear, invest in something that there will be a demand for. The thing of it is, what is it that they will want, that is the trick.
Personally I’ve been looking at food products and products that people will always need, a child will always love to eat Mac and Cheese, so who makes a good product that sells well? Then find out who owns it, and then find out who is the ‘parent company’, that would be the best one to invest in for the long term. Other products as well such as toilet paper, Supermarkets, commodities. But go in for the long run, the sustainable run, not a quick profit.
Gold besides being used for jewelry is used in electronics, dentistry, and other applications, that will always go up. But I also invest in Silver as well.
And how are all you Diva Darlings doing?
I hope you are all doing well. Especially with all the sticker shock that is going around.
My “Business Ladies Who Lunch” and I had a gathering this last week and had been talking about the economy.
We do agree that part of the problem is the cap on oil production with demand increasing especially in China and India. As well as the useless and dangerous concept of using Corn for a Bio-Diesel fuel.
As one of my Ladies said “We can’t all convert to Bio-diesel or buy a Hybrid or Electric Car. Our current budgets simply don’t allow such purchases and there are places we want to go where such resources of that type of fuel, or plug in’s are not available. So we are stuck with gasoline/oil.”
Another said that the use of Corn, a staple of most food products, is financially dangerous, “We should look into other products such as sugar cane, or a form of sedge grass that seems to work well, even soy---something that grows fast, is quickly renewable and is not the foundation of the food economy, even reusing cooking oil from our homes or restaurants, didn’t they do something like that during World War II (yes they did as an oil/glycerin substitute). Looking into what Brazil is doing is important.”
I have to agree but for many people who have cars that run on gasoline, if they do not have a vehicle that runs on diesel such a conversion is not possible, the only thing is to hope for that more people will buy diesel engines, run on bio-diesel and in turn lower the cost of gasoline because the demand will be less.
And currently the investment return on Hybrids would be a long time in coming.
Another of my ladies said that Bamboo is an excellent wood crop for floors, plywood, furniture, and even paper products, etc., it’s fast growing, strong, and quickly renewable
“Cissy” mentioned that she re-discovered her LP collection when she was given as a gift a combination record-player with Radio, CD player and Tape player recorder. She loves it because it looks so old-fashioned.
She began to look over her unused Long Play 33 1/3 speed vinyl records, especially the classics, so carefully cleaning her records she began to play them and tape some of her favorites so she could play them over and over again without wearing out the records, and she tapes some of her favorite songs off the radio. Granted she has to put up with a brief bit of commercials but it’s worth it and again a saving instead of buying the entire CD she gets the music she wants---“later on” she said “I’ll buy the best of ‘so and so’ but I’ll save up my cans and plastic for that.”
Other suggestions were ~~~~
Plans your meals in advance, see what you already have in your pantry and then only shop with a grocery list; avoid impulse buying at the Supermarket or anywhere. Make a check list of your pantry so you’ll know what you have and what you’ve run out of, and only buy store brands if possible and be sure to use coupons.
If you simply have the urge to shop then go to Garage or Yard Sales, but also go with a list, only get what you need. Another suggested Holding a Yard sale at least twice a year, “cleans out the closet and you make money, then what is left over I list and donate and get a tax write off.”
The concept of cans and plastic for money was also brought up---Crush them (cans) so you can store more, but be sure to spray for ants and such, they get attracted to the sugar.
One of the ladies said that she was sure if she saved the money from turning in the cans and plastic she could save up for a nice vacation.
Another said that when she bicycles she carries several bags with her to collect the cans she finds (wear gloves as well). She also is fairly close to her grocery store, so she bicycles there, she found a place that sells second hand sports items and she found what she calls a tag-a-long, mostly people put their kids into them, but she found that it works well to carry her groceries, especially that she uses the recyclable cloth bags from the store. It works very well but put a flag on it so people in cars can see it since it rides low and follow all the vehicle laws, don’t just blast through a stop sign and stay to the far right of the road.
She saw someone who didn’t follow the rules, run a stop sign and got hit by a car, she told the police that the bicyclist was in the wrong, which ticked the bicyclist off, but as she said---he broke the law.
Several of the ladies said that the idea of Ipods and other portable electronic equipment are “…just useless” with the exception of the cell phone, “… there are times when you have to be in touch with the office and your clients…or if the car breaks down….emergencies…..if you can write if off as a business expense that would be good, check with your tax person…it’s stupid to use that at your main means of communication with friends to just ‘chat’ that’s what e-mail and land line phones are for…..I still need my lap top for my job but to write that off in taxes would be good.”….this was all the round-robin talk on electronics.
But one of the ladies mentioned a news article that appeared in the May 25, 2008 issue of the Los Angeles Times that said that the old services that most people had abandoned are coming back, railroads, Steel Companies, mining concerns, and agriculture, what is old is now new again.
All the tech. industry has offered things that occupy our minds and entertain us but it seems that in the long run people are now running back to that which you can hold, whether its cotton, cooking oil, or metals like copper or steel or fertilizer for food crops. In comparing U.S. Steel to Microsoft, Microsoft has flat-lined while Steel has shot up 1,000% in recent years.
Now I had told the ladies several years ago just after the dot coms had deflated that in time the old-fashioned tried and true will become the new wave of the future, I had been saying one needs to look to what is China demanding, what China demands is the wave of investments of the future.
I kept my U.S. Steel stock because it was given to me by my grandfather and I held it out of sentiment and just allowed it to grow and do what it does, granted it’s fortunes have been up and down and when it was down is when I bought more stock, and just let the funds come in.
Yes there are towns in the mid-west that are dying, but they can be re-vitalized with the new demands in solid tangibles, mad cow disease be damned. Although it could be at the expense of the coastal areas, unless one invests in shipping or Ports, the U.S. can increase its export potential.
The only problem is that job growth in these sectors is slow and in some areas jobs have been lost. The ladies believe that it’s because of improved ways of farming that use less labor.
But it’s much more---If any of you can, do read this article from the May 25, 2008 Los Angeles Times it is written by Peter G. Gosselin, and he’s right---one just needs to look at the raw materials demands of China, India and Brazil which the U.S. is rich in.
That may be the wave of the future and a possible bull market for 20 to 40 years, even if the U.S. dollar maybe slow to bounce back.
In the meantime, the ladies and I are still looking for ways to budget and cut back, another thought is overextended consumerism.
One of the ladies is going to try for a year to only buy food, medicine, hygiene products, just pay bills, insurances, purchase only what is needed for the upkeep of her car, and see about getting for free her magazines, books, DVD’s and CD’s at the Library and avoid buying clothes. Of course she does need to maintain her hair cut, and she will get her shoes re-heeled and such. But she’s going to try to put some of our suggestions into action and see what happens.
As a matter of fact all of us are going to try to do the same, it will be interesting to see how much we can save.
But in the meantime I’ll also be packing and selecting my clothes for my little vacation, it will be nice to be out under the stars and enjoying peace and quiet.
Until Annon Darlings, Kisses.
I am happy to say that I am making excellent although slow progress, last Sunday I was able to take my little Darling Diva Princess for a walk, granted it was only two blocks, but it was a start.
I am hoping that the weather will warm up mildly; I’ve had just enough of the chill and the wind for one winter.
The other evening I had a wonderful telephone conversation with my Brother Tom, he has invited me and Princess to join him and his wife up to his cabin in the mountains for a few weeks, the grand children will be up as soon as school lets out, they spend a few weeks up there, then off to see a fantastic place like Zion National Park, or historic places, then they come back and spend August with the grand parents. But part of their arrangement as encouraged by their parents is to write a two page essay about each of the places they saw and how it historically created our society. I was very surprised to hear what their parents are doing but they told me it was to help expand their education and awareness---of course they will go to Disneyland, that is their treat for keeping their grades up, poor grades no Disneyland. I think it’s a fair deal.
But even I have found it to be so restful out under the stars, which is why my niece and nephew love to go camping with their children and have them see historic places as well. Good education they say, and I have to agree.
But interesting enough my brother and his wife are going up and staying there for a while because of some legal business, not that he is having trouble but he’s decided to make sure the Homestead on his property is up to date and he is having the land re surveyed to make sure the property lines are still correct.
Then he informed me that he was going in to buy the timber, mineral and water rights as well as any other rights to his land where the family cabin is located plus making sure that the right of way is correct. He told me that the rights were still available, but many people do not realize that when they buy property they forget all these other property rights and the homestead option to protect their holdings.
Especially if you are buying land in the country, by having the homestead and all these rights, no one can get the land out from under you, if nothing else they will be forced by law to pay fair market value, and they will have to pay you for the rights or to lease the rights from you. I don’t know all the ins and outs of this but to you my Dear Diva’s and Diva’s in training one other person to add to your people to assist you is a real estate lawyer or property lawyer.
Never assume that your property is going to be safe, not with the government trying to condemn the land right out from under you and then giving them over to private developers.
Always Darlings protect what is yours, never surrender it without a good fight and then make sure they pay dearly for it.
Hetty Greene, whom some people referred to as “the witch of Wall Street” was a very sharp investor, her policy was buy cheap and sell dear, invest in something that there will be a demand for. The thing of it is, what is it that they will want, that is the trick.
Personally I’ve been looking at food products and products that people will always need, a child will always love to eat Mac and Cheese, so who makes a good product that sells well? Then find out who owns it, and then find out who is the ‘parent company’, that would be the best one to invest in for the long term. Other products as well such as toilet paper, Supermarkets, commodities. But go in for the long run, the sustainable run, not a quick profit.
Gold besides being used for jewelry is used in electronics, dentistry, and other applications, that will always go up. But I also invest in Silver as well.
And how are all you Diva Darlings doing?
I hope you are all doing well. Especially with all the sticker shock that is going around.
My “Business Ladies Who Lunch” and I had a gathering this last week and had been talking about the economy.
We do agree that part of the problem is the cap on oil production with demand increasing especially in China and India. As well as the useless and dangerous concept of using Corn for a Bio-Diesel fuel.
As one of my Ladies said “We can’t all convert to Bio-diesel or buy a Hybrid or Electric Car. Our current budgets simply don’t allow such purchases and there are places we want to go where such resources of that type of fuel, or plug in’s are not available. So we are stuck with gasoline/oil.”
Another said that the use of Corn, a staple of most food products, is financially dangerous, “We should look into other products such as sugar cane, or a form of sedge grass that seems to work well, even soy---something that grows fast, is quickly renewable and is not the foundation of the food economy, even reusing cooking oil from our homes or restaurants, didn’t they do something like that during World War II (yes they did as an oil/glycerin substitute). Looking into what Brazil is doing is important.”
I have to agree but for many people who have cars that run on gasoline, if they do not have a vehicle that runs on diesel such a conversion is not possible, the only thing is to hope for that more people will buy diesel engines, run on bio-diesel and in turn lower the cost of gasoline because the demand will be less.
And currently the investment return on Hybrids would be a long time in coming.
Another of my ladies said that Bamboo is an excellent wood crop for floors, plywood, furniture, and even paper products, etc., it’s fast growing, strong, and quickly renewable
“Cissy” mentioned that she re-discovered her LP collection when she was given as a gift a combination record-player with Radio, CD player and Tape player recorder. She loves it because it looks so old-fashioned.
She began to look over her unused Long Play 33 1/3 speed vinyl records, especially the classics, so carefully cleaning her records she began to play them and tape some of her favorites so she could play them over and over again without wearing out the records, and she tapes some of her favorite songs off the radio. Granted she has to put up with a brief bit of commercials but it’s worth it and again a saving instead of buying the entire CD she gets the music she wants---“later on” she said “I’ll buy the best of ‘so and so’ but I’ll save up my cans and plastic for that.”
Other suggestions were ~~~~
Plans your meals in advance, see what you already have in your pantry and then only shop with a grocery list; avoid impulse buying at the Supermarket or anywhere. Make a check list of your pantry so you’ll know what you have and what you’ve run out of, and only buy store brands if possible and be sure to use coupons.
If you simply have the urge to shop then go to Garage or Yard Sales, but also go with a list, only get what you need. Another suggested Holding a Yard sale at least twice a year, “cleans out the closet and you make money, then what is left over I list and donate and get a tax write off.”
The concept of cans and plastic for money was also brought up---Crush them (cans) so you can store more, but be sure to spray for ants and such, they get attracted to the sugar.
One of the ladies said that she was sure if she saved the money from turning in the cans and plastic she could save up for a nice vacation.
Another said that when she bicycles she carries several bags with her to collect the cans she finds (wear gloves as well). She also is fairly close to her grocery store, so she bicycles there, she found a place that sells second hand sports items and she found what she calls a tag-a-long, mostly people put their kids into them, but she found that it works well to carry her groceries, especially that she uses the recyclable cloth bags from the store. It works very well but put a flag on it so people in cars can see it since it rides low and follow all the vehicle laws, don’t just blast through a stop sign and stay to the far right of the road.
She saw someone who didn’t follow the rules, run a stop sign and got hit by a car, she told the police that the bicyclist was in the wrong, which ticked the bicyclist off, but as she said---he broke the law.
Several of the ladies said that the idea of Ipods and other portable electronic equipment are “…just useless” with the exception of the cell phone, “… there are times when you have to be in touch with the office and your clients…or if the car breaks down….emergencies…..if you can write if off as a business expense that would be good, check with your tax person…it’s stupid to use that at your main means of communication with friends to just ‘chat’ that’s what e-mail and land line phones are for…..I still need my lap top for my job but to write that off in taxes would be good.”….this was all the round-robin talk on electronics.
But one of the ladies mentioned a news article that appeared in the May 25, 2008 issue of the Los Angeles Times that said that the old services that most people had abandoned are coming back, railroads, Steel Companies, mining concerns, and agriculture, what is old is now new again.
All the tech. industry has offered things that occupy our minds and entertain us but it seems that in the long run people are now running back to that which you can hold, whether its cotton, cooking oil, or metals like copper or steel or fertilizer for food crops. In comparing U.S. Steel to Microsoft, Microsoft has flat-lined while Steel has shot up 1,000% in recent years.
Now I had told the ladies several years ago just after the dot coms had deflated that in time the old-fashioned tried and true will become the new wave of the future, I had been saying one needs to look to what is China demanding, what China demands is the wave of investments of the future.
I kept my U.S. Steel stock because it was given to me by my grandfather and I held it out of sentiment and just allowed it to grow and do what it does, granted it’s fortunes have been up and down and when it was down is when I bought more stock, and just let the funds come in.
Yes there are towns in the mid-west that are dying, but they can be re-vitalized with the new demands in solid tangibles, mad cow disease be damned. Although it could be at the expense of the coastal areas, unless one invests in shipping or Ports, the U.S. can increase its export potential.
The only problem is that job growth in these sectors is slow and in some areas jobs have been lost. The ladies believe that it’s because of improved ways of farming that use less labor.
But it’s much more---If any of you can, do read this article from the May 25, 2008 Los Angeles Times it is written by Peter G. Gosselin, and he’s right---one just needs to look at the raw materials demands of China, India and Brazil which the U.S. is rich in.
That may be the wave of the future and a possible bull market for 20 to 40 years, even if the U.S. dollar maybe slow to bounce back.
In the meantime, the ladies and I are still looking for ways to budget and cut back, another thought is overextended consumerism.
One of the ladies is going to try for a year to only buy food, medicine, hygiene products, just pay bills, insurances, purchase only what is needed for the upkeep of her car, and see about getting for free her magazines, books, DVD’s and CD’s at the Library and avoid buying clothes. Of course she does need to maintain her hair cut, and she will get her shoes re-heeled and such. But she’s going to try to put some of our suggestions into action and see what happens.
As a matter of fact all of us are going to try to do the same, it will be interesting to see how much we can save.
But in the meantime I’ll also be packing and selecting my clothes for my little vacation, it will be nice to be out under the stars and enjoying peace and quiet.
Until Annon Darlings, Kisses.
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