Bacon & Eggs, Anyone?

A friend sent us a link to an article about tainted pig food.

It's the same food recalled from the pet stores... Unbelievable!

"Salvaged pet food from companies known or suspected of using a tainted ingredient was shipped to hog farms in several states for use as feed"

You'd think the feed companies would destroy the recalled pet food when they found out it was poisoned... Nope, they just passed it on to the hog farmers real cheap - they (the manufacturers and farmers) don't seem to give a damn if a few animals die if they think they can save a few dollars and get away with it. The sick part of all of this is that they won't release the names of the companies that knowingly purchased the food and now have tainted pigs - guess they don't want us to know which companies are in the practice of buying the lowest quality (or known tainted) feed for animals that are key to our food supply. Criminal if you ask me - and it shows just how corrupt the system is. These farmers will hide evidence faster than you can say "Where's the beef?!?" if they think it will cut into their profits. Proof is in the article:

"SOUTH CAROLINA: Urine tests done on some of the 800 hogs now quarantined at a farm have tested positive for low levels of melamine. None went to slaughter. According to the state veterinarian, none of the suspect feed was fed to the hogs. Federal tests on the feed have come up negative. The positive urine tests could not be immediately explained, although contaminated feed could have escaped detection during tests, the FDA said."

They couldn't find any contaminants in the pet food they found on site, but they found it in the hogs themselves... Maybe they were not being shown the feed that was being fed to the hogs? I mean - if I was one of these greedy farmers and wanted to save my ass and not lose any money you bet that the moment I found out that my fellow greedy farmers were having their tainted feed inspected I'd store the tainted feed off-site until the heat went away - then go right back to feeding it to the hogs. Even cheap tainted pet food costs money and they are not going to lose a penny on that tainted food they got a deal on. It's going to keep coming up over and over again... If they can't feed it to the hogs they'll sell it to Mexico or wait for it to rot and use it as fertilizer on their corn feed fields - it's completely corrupt to the core.

Remember the mad cow disease breakout where cows were destroyed because they were believed to be infected? They found out that they were getting infected because the cows were being fed body parts in their feed (a common practice to help fatten them up I hear). Well, guess where all that infected feed went when we found out? You betcha, most of it was given to the chicken farmers here in the US... Guess that they figured that chickens couldn't get mad cow disease - but then how the hell do WE end up with it if it's only a cow disease? So, eat your eggs and bacon from Wal-Mart and other discount stores. That's what leads to this kind of wholesale greed... and don't ask a lot of questions about where your cheap beef, chicken or pork came from or you might just decide to raise your own food or eat from only local farmers...

Our food supply is controlled by folks that only care about money and how much profit can be made. I wouldn't be surprised if someday they find out that most of the "unexplainable" diseases that attack our central nervous system are caused by GROSS NEGLIGENCE by our agricultural mega-businesses here in the US. I for one want some company names so I can be an informed consumer and never shop from them again... Of course they'll just change their names or shift the tainted food to one of their sister companies (just look at the list of pet food distributors that all get their food stocks from the same sources)... The gross practices that have become "standard" in the industry because they've gotten lucky for so many years have got to stop or we'll just see repeat after repeat of this kind of news.

Impressions of life in Brownsville Texas

I can't help but bitch a bit about the people here in Brownsville. Of all of the places I have ever stayed, this has to be one of the least friendly and most wasteful of communities... Coming from a fairly progressive community as far as recycling and living "green" goes, it's a shock to see absolutely no effort at all to even fake an interest in the environment here. It's really sad.

The entire town seems to be built around a "me, me ,me" mentality. There's an abundance of rude folks that cut in front of you any chance they get and some of the worst drivers I have ever seen. Outside of the retirement community of the RV park where we're staying I feel very much like an outsider. Our several trips to Mexico have helped me to understand the local population of Brownsville a bit better. There is quite a bit of "spill over" of attitudes and lifestyle from both sides. Unfortunately, it seems that both sides have decided to take the absolute worst possible traits from each other...

Water heater problem

I haven't really felt like posting lately. Lots of absolutely nothing happening...

Today I went to light the hot water heater and noticed that there was some water staining on the side of the RV. I figured that the drain valve or possibly the blow off valve was leaking, so I opened everything up to take a look. Turns out that the tank itself is leaking from inside the heat chamber. Nothing I can do to fix it. I took a look inside the trailer to see if any of the water was making it inside the compartment and sure enough, the insulation and floor of the compartment was wet. There were a couple of valves inside the compartment on the back of the hot water heater for bypassing the tank, but only one of them worked (kind of) and the other was broken off inside and rusted solid... Ahh the joys of old crap... So, I spent an hour or so draining the tank, removing and re-routing lines to bypass the entire hot water heater so we could at least have running water in the RV.

I have the water heater removed from the plumbing system now. something is still leaking - I'm hoping that it's just left over water from the tank, so I have a couple of pieces of aluminum foil acting as catch pans to figure out where the water is coming from.

This is the second suburban hot water heater that I have had to remove and replace in my relatively short lifetime. I find that most RV appliances are very poorly constructed and more or less designed for occasional use. In a way I am glad that it crapped out. These junky hot water heaters go through propane at an alarming rate and are about as inefficient as you can design something...

That being said, we like having hot water and I really don't want to live without for very long. I did some searching on the internet for a better solution and after about 2 hours gave up. There seems to be a ton of crap out there that is overpriced and underdesigned. I was really hoping to find a solar hot water heater (or something similar) for RVs. We're hanging out where it's 80+ degrees during the day and sunny for at least part of the day every day. So, I guess it's up to me to design a solution. I like experimenting, so at least I won't be bored all day for the next week or so.

I'd like to build a solar hot water heater. It has to be passive (or at least make use of the existing water pump). It has to be light weight and built to outlast the RV. I am OK if it's only useful on sunny or slightly overcast days. Free hot water at any time is better than paying for propane or huge amounts of electricity...

Hopefully nothing else will crap out until I get this project done. Next project to tackle is figuring out a better way to refrigerate than our unreliable Dometic gas fridge... I want to be able to get off the grid again...

Life in a border town

We've finally gotten into a rhythm here and the days seem to be getting shorter and shorter. The saying "time flies when you are having fun" seems so true right now.

We have our own little spot in the RV park near the pool & recreation hall. The girls have a pretty regular schedule of cartoons, cleaning, homework, playing outside, swimming and then movies in the evening. Becky and I have our own routines. Most of the time is pretty relaxed. We all have switched over to sleeping in and staying up late. It stays light outside until very late, but the sun doesn't seem to come up until 7:30-8:00, so there's no reason to get up early.

The pool is very nice. The water is usually warm at around 82-84 degrees. It's wonderful to hit the pool when it's 85+ and humid outside - nice and cool. The palm trees surrounding the pool provide a lot of shade in the afternoon, so we can hang out in the pool and hot tub until our fingers are good and wrinkled.

The weather here is pretty nice. We've only had to put on long pants a couple of times, so most of the time it's shorts, thin shirts or just swimming suits and flip-flops. There is an almost constant breeze off the gulf which is only about 10-15 minutes drive from here, so despite the heat and humidity as long as the air is moving it feels great.

We've been to the Gulf of Mexico a couple of times now. The first visit was on South Padre Island. The sand here is very fine and feels soft and wonderful on your bare feet. I am used to the northern beaches of the Pacific Ocean where the sand is coarse and rocky and the water is relatively cold. Here the water feels like it is in the mid 70's or so... The tourist season is over for the most part, so we have had the beaches almost entirely to ourselves. I hear that it gets crazy again during Spring Break, but we'll likely avoid all of that anyway.

We walked down into Mexico for an afternoon a few days ago. That was an interesting experience... We should have gone with a group of folks that had already been there. I really need to learn some Spanish so I don't feel so out of touch. People were friendly enough and accommodated us despite our obvious discomfort and lack of experience. We were pretty obvious tourists. The biggest difference for me was that there were few sidewalks and you had to dash across the streets in odd places to keep from having to walk right in the road. Cars park wherever they feel like it (including across the sidewalks) and as far as I could tell, no speed limit or other rules of the road were enforced very strictly. I really felt like we had to pay attention at all times to where the cars where or run the risk of getting run over even when on the sidewalk . Right across the border was a bit scary. Lots of folks that made me uncomfortable hanging around at the boarder crossing, but once we got 7-8 blocks down the road, the town seemed a lot nicer. Cute shops and very old looking homes mixed together. You got the feeling that you didn't really need a car there. Everything is mixed together so that there was a shop on every block where you could get the things you need. We of course tried to shop in one of the stores outside the market and quickly found that you must speak Spanish in order to shop at the local stores. Once in the tourist market though, everyone spoke at least some English.

Fingers crossed

I am dumbfounded at the cost of housing these days... Becky and I are trying to find a piece of land where we can escape, but are quickly realizing that now is the absolute worst time to look at any property. I have been researching a bit on housing prices and the housing bubble and came across this very entertaining video that sums up the current housing/lending situation in an easy to understand way.



We are waiting patiently and building up resources for when the time is right to move.. What goes up must come down and the higher it goes the farther it must eventually fall. My feeling is that not only will it come down, but it will fall flat and leave millions of middle class Americans upside down and screwed. The federal government has made bankruptcy an option only slightly more appealing than suicide now. In my opinion the decision to make bankruptcy harder was done to give lenders the green light to loan money to those that really couldn't afford to pay it back. All so that the economy could continue to appear "healthy" while we as a country dig ourselves into a bottomless pit of debt that I don't believe we even plan to repay in the future. The stage is set for one of the greatest financial disasters of all time... Too bad that our current idiot in chief (the one that made this all possible) will not be paying the price for it. That's the American way these days - the folks in charge are the least accountable.

Hang on to your hats folks. Rich or poor, we all have a front row seat on this roller coaster and it's not built on a solid foundation to begin with... If you have not been preparing already, you'd better start paying attention. The morning news is not going to tell you what's really going on behind the scenes these days. They don't have the time or resources to leave their cubicles anymore and they are scared to report anything that has not already happened and been offically approved. Listen to the individuals that are in the field living the nightmare already. Listen to the ones that have already lost everything...

I am really afraid these days. Afraid to speak my mind... I am afraid of what is coming. We gave up our rights and handed over our freedom for a false sense of security and "the american dream". I didn't do enough to stand up for myself then and now I fear it is too late...