That's It for This Year!

From this....

 And this...

 to this...

 And this... in only one week!

The snow is almost gone. Yeah!!  The mattock took out the bulldozer humps and buried trees. The quad and harrow leveled off the final rolling bumps and turned the humus into the soil. All that remains to do now once it dries up a bit is to move the free firewood out and toss down some hayseed. Did you get that? FREE firewood...donations accepted declined. I almost forgot. Burn the stumps and roots next winter.

All ready to go!

Spring is just around the corner and to get ready, three saddles were cleaned and polished. This one is a used one that we got 7 years ago when we first got the horses.  If bought new, it would likely be in the neighbourhood of $2500.  We got it for  $400 and it has a good many years life left in it. We got one saddle new when we got Biz and it is the most comfortable one we own ( at least for me). It came from EBay all the way from India for a grand total of $250, or about 10% of what the saddle would cost if bought in North America. It was amazing to receive a western saddle from India of all places.

The saddle above was made by Rocky Mountain Saddlery right here in Alberta, and is at least three steps above the one made in India as far as quality goes. Cost was the major issue in buying off shore. Would I do it again? 

When I look at what is available, used, but not abused, I probably would not. There are several reasons for this. 

First is the issue of whatever you pick up, chances are it's made offshore at pennies on the dollar. This is a concern to me as we seem to be battling  high unemployment when a lot of this stuff could ( and was) at one time, be made in Canada, or the United States. The big corporations, being mainly driven by greed, and the attempt to show generous dividends, will get it made where it's cheapest to do so. If this isn't a wake-up call to Unions and Governments, I don't know what it will take to reverse it. Perhaps having Iran cut off oil to Britain and France will set the example of what can happen if an offshore supplier decides they don't like you much any more.

Second is the issue of quality. I remember when Made in Japan meant cheap and shoddy. Then made in China meant the same thing. It continues on through Korea, India, Bangladesh and the rest of Asia.  They caught up and surpassed North America very quickly in quality. It seems that we can't compete in cost or quality on a global basis anymore.

I own an Indian saddle, and own a Korean car, but in future, I will be looking at how to get quality at a reasonable price, with a Made in Canada, or Made in U.S.A. label on it.

I expect that one of these days, our governments are going to equalize the playing field and we will find our dollars worth 60 percent of today's value. Then we can put people back to work in North America.

FWIW

Obsolete and Not Aware?

The other day I had to go and pay a speeding ticket ( The first one since 1972). It turns out that the court house was closed, motor vehicle registration wanted $10 to process it and asked "why not mail it?" What a novel idea! Down to the post office I went and paid my 65? cents and the job was done. Now the other options were to use Paypal or Visa online. While standing in line I kind of asked myself "Why am I mailing this?" The other options were free. This caused further thoughts such as " In hard times, why does the P.O. still exist?" And , "If it were to disappear tomorrow, would I miss it?" The Government is always looking for ways to cut costs. Is this not a candidate? Our mail is mostly flyers and bills (which are paid automatically, so would we miss it? Not sure!

How about you? Is the post Office a near-extinct function?