We bought a new place in the country and had a shop built and had plans to buy a tractor, but that is becoming just a thought now. The idea of a tractor to keep the creek cleaned up and make life a little easier here in the country was a plan I had until fuel started going up even more. WE are selling our place and moving back to Colorado from Missouri. The oil companies are controling our economy have destroyed any of my thoughts about having a tractor. The price of the tractor and not to mention the fuel to run it is getting over my head. This bussiness of raising fuel every week and sometimes several times a week is getting me upset and is driving our economy into the ground. The United States is going to be place where only the wealthy can enjoy and have the things like a nice tractor to help keep your property up. It's getting expensive to buy just food not to mention the gas for the cars and a tractor on top everthing. I don't know where it is all going but I have had enough so I will try to live in town and close to things where I don't have to buy their fuel. I will only buy what I need and cut back where I can so can. Their not going to break me if I can help it. Congress won't do anything and the President won't do anything. Heck the president is probably getting rich off oil to just like the oil companies. They don't seem to care who they hurt as long as they can get away with robbing us. I read that the oil companies won't pump more oil because they did want their profits to go down. It's all about money. I had enough and am going to reduce the price of our home for a quick sale and move before it gets any higher and I stuck in the country. I can't live here without a tractor, it's just to hard on me and so are the fuel prices. Am I wrong to think this way.
country life just a dream
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txdon
Super Star Member
I feel your pain. I retired and moved to the country. Then the price of gasoline went UP $1.20 a gallon, diesel $1.80. But I look at the larger picture. In the city I felt no sense of community, out here everyone helps each other. everybody knows me in the store, post office etc... Just yesterday a neighbor's burning brush pile got out of control and everyone helped to put out the fire. So if I have to pay an extra five dollars to run my tractor 3 hours it is well worth it to me.
This weekend I had to move some dirt with my FEL it took 20 gallons of diesel or about $36 dollars MORE than two years ago. HOWEVER on the process I uncovered and moved about a half pallet of landscape rock, which I needed, and which sell for $350 a pallet. So I got $175 of rock for $70 of Diesel. You can always work the numbers for the things you love to do!
This weekend I had to move some dirt with my FEL it took 20 gallons of diesel or about $36 dollars MORE than two years ago. HOWEVER on the process I uncovered and moved about a half pallet of landscape rock, which I needed, and which sell for $350 a pallet. So I got $175 of rock for $70 of Diesel. You can always work the numbers for the things you love to do!
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Why on earth do you expect Congress or the President to impact prices? What happens when someone else wants whatever you make or sell regulated? I have no doubt that someone somewhere thinks you make too much money. When did this country become so focused on hating wealth? And who are "the wealthy"? Please define that group, "the wealthy", that you say will be the only ones to have a nice tractor. Is that people who make $40,000 a year? $50,000? What makes a person "wealthy"?mechanic said:
Times get tougher and times get easier....it's the cycle of life and often of economics. Simpy tossing out little blame bombs somehow doesn't seem at all productive, nor does it indicate a good understanding of all the real forces at play in an economy.
DocHeb
Veteran Member
In a word, Yes.
Are you dreaming of the "good old days" of $1.00 gas a gallon? Based on inflation, the $3.50 dollar a gallon gas of today was the same as $1.00 a gallon in 1975. You're getting it for essentially the same price as the "good old days."
See Cost of Living Calculator
Are you dreaming of the "good old days" of $1.00 gas a gallon? Based on inflation, the $3.50 dollar a gallon gas of today was the same as $1.00 a gallon in 1975. You're getting it for essentially the same price as the "good old days."
See Cost of Living Calculator
jeffinsgf
Veteran Member
Mechanic, I don't know where you are in Missouri, but if you think that you're going to move to a town in Colorado and decrease your cost of living, you just don't have a handle on reality. Just about everything is higher in CO than it is in MO -- fuel, land, housing, utilities... the essential stuff. I think you need to look at some hard numbers on how you're going to move to town and save money.
As for leaving your country place because you can't afford a tractor, there are lots of guys on this forum that worked their properties for years before they could afford a tractor. There are even more who scraped the money together for a used tractor and keep the thing going with baling wire, duct tape and faith.
I think what the oil companies are doing right now is wrong on many levels. The sheer greed that is being displayed is mind-boggling. That said, it sounds like you're blaming them for a move you probably shouldn't have made in the first place.
As for leaving your country place because you can't afford a tractor, there are lots of guys on this forum that worked their properties for years before they could afford a tractor. There are even more who scraped the money together for a used tractor and keep the thing going with baling wire, duct tape and faith.
I think what the oil companies are doing right now is wrong on many levels. The sheer greed that is being displayed is mind-boggling. That said, it sounds like you're blaming them for a move you probably shouldn't have made in the first place.
jeffinsgf
Veteran Member
txdon said:
Don, what tractor are you running? I couldn't burn 20 gallons of fuel in a weekend if I ran WOT 24 hours a day.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
I think there are two people that are controling the price of oil more then anything else. It's not the oil companies or anybody in our government either. Just watch the prices and what heppens every time the price of oil begins to drop.
Hugo Chavez and Ahmidinijad in Iran are taking turns creating issues to distabalize the market. Gasoline was down to $2.69 a few weeks ago, then Chavez decides to pretend like he's going to war and the price of oil shoots way up. If it's not that wacko, then it's the Iranian who does the same thing. He never actualy does anything, he just comes out and starts threatening the West or Isreal, and the price of oils shoots back up again.
If I was just a bit more paranoid, I'd think that they are doing this on purpose so that they can make more money on selling crude oil!!!!
Eddie
Hugo Chavez and Ahmidinijad in Iran are taking turns creating issues to distabalize the market. Gasoline was down to $2.69 a few weeks ago, then Chavez decides to pretend like he's going to war and the price of oil shoots way up. If it's not that wacko, then it's the Iranian who does the same thing. He never actualy does anything, he just comes out and starts threatening the West or Isreal, and the price of oils shoots back up again.
If I was just a bit more paranoid, I'd think that they are doing this on purpose so that they can make more money on selling crude oil!!!!
Eddie
warhammer
Gold Member
While those two yahoo's are definitely trouble I put more blame on the mismanagement of the US economy and the resulting plummet in the value of the dollar for the steep price increases we are seeing on commodities.
Jeff
Jeff
EddieWalker said:
dooleysm
Platinum Member
I use my tractor for moving dirt, tilling, drilling holes, mowing, and a variety of other tasks. I don't feel like I could live without it, but all the same, I burn less than 50 gallons of fuel per year. The cost of diesel does not affect me in any major way and certainly doesn't come close to pushing me out of owning a tractor.
ctpres
Gold Member
If things really crash, how much help can you expect from a small city lot. Fire wood, a garden, some chickens and livestock, water and maybe solar. A lot of folks can nearly live off the land, but not a city lot.
MossRoad
Super Moderator
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Well, the reason gas costs so much is because people pay that much for it. Study after study after study shows that WE Americans have not significantly changed our driving habits or our love for large vehicles. It is our own fault and nobody else's.
Case in point... I am looking for a used Suburban. I have given my name and number to half a dozen used car lots and told them what I am looking for. The salesmen tell me I should call them back often to see if they have any in stock. I tell them, "I just gave you my phone number. Why don't you call me when you get one in?" To a tee, each one tells me they don't have to work that hard as large SUVs sell themselves. They litterally jump off the lot on their own.
Case in point... I am looking for a used Suburban. I have given my name and number to half a dozen used car lots and told them what I am looking for. The salesmen tell me I should call them back often to see if they have any in stock. I tell them, "I just gave you my phone number. Why don't you call me when you get one in?" To a tee, each one tells me they don't have to work that hard as large SUVs sell themselves. They litterally jump off the lot on their own.
Tororider
Veteran Member
warhammer said:
With respect I believe a large part of the devaluation of the U.S. dollar has to do with a large amount of people taking mortgages they couldn't afford and when their ARM came up they couldn't pay the new rate. The government has been trying to keep as many of those people as possible from all going into forclosure and losing their homes, for better or worse. I think a large part of the devaluation of the dollar can be put on the American people and their decisions, not all of it, but a good chunk of it.
WayneB
Elite Member
The price fo gasoline and diesel at the pumps upsets most, if not all of us, but it is what it is. This morning they are talking about gas prices increasing another thirty cents a gallon this month! Our diesel prices are around $3.799 a gallon and I purchased regular gasoline the other day for $2.999 a gallon.
As for driving a tractor and the amount of diesel it uses I just have to bite the bullet and buy the fuel. With the size of tractor I have it isn't all that bad, but I walk down to the mailbox now instead of taking the tractor or car. (it is about 1800 feet away) During our last snowstorm I went through about 7 gallons before it was all cleaned up.
What upsets me the most is the price of home heating oil. We had a delivery this last week and the price per gallon was $3.589. (if we pay early we get ten cents off per gallon)
I just cannot figure out why it is so expensive? No highway taxes on heating fuel, it isn't refined like gasoline, but the price per gallon for home heating oil is higher than high-test gasoline. This year I shutdown a portion of our home and we are heating mainly with wood. It reduces the area we live in, but last month we only used 35 gallons of oil and mostly for heating hot water. No washing clothes with hot water in this house!
We have friends that live in a larger home and only use oil heat. They are consuming approximately 400 gallons a month to heat their home. They did lock into a cheaper price by prepaying for oil, but still it is a big chunk of change to put out for home heating.
As for driving a tractor and the amount of diesel it uses I just have to bite the bullet and buy the fuel. With the size of tractor I have it isn't all that bad, but I walk down to the mailbox now instead of taking the tractor or car. (it is about 1800 feet away) During our last snowstorm I went through about 7 gallons before it was all cleaned up.
What upsets me the most is the price of home heating oil. We had a delivery this last week and the price per gallon was $3.589. (if we pay early we get ten cents off per gallon)
I just cannot figure out why it is so expensive? No highway taxes on heating fuel, it isn't refined like gasoline, but the price per gallon for home heating oil is higher than high-test gasoline. This year I shutdown a portion of our home and we are heating mainly with wood. It reduces the area we live in, but last month we only used 35 gallons of oil and mostly for heating hot water. No washing clothes with hot water in this house!
We have friends that live in a larger home and only use oil heat. They are consuming approximately 400 gallons a month to heat their home. They did lock into a cheaper price by prepaying for oil, but still it is a big chunk of change to put out for home heating.
FredWalter
Bronze Member
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WayneB said:
400 gallons a month > $1200/month to heat their house!?!?!
They spend more per month on heat than I spend for the entire winter!
Of course, I have a small house old farmhouse (< 1200 sq.ft.), and I use primarily wood heat with electric backup.
riptides
Super Star Member
IMHO the current collapse of the housing market and all those who speculated in it, is and will be the problem for the foreseeable future. Not Oil.
That American dream, and the piggy bank it use to represent are collapsing. The government, well parts of it, just dosn't get it.
It will not get any better across the board until banks start lending cheap money again. That includes Mortgages. And that may be - never.
-Mike Z.
That American dream, and the piggy bank it use to represent are collapsing. The government, well parts of it, just dosn't get it.
It will not get any better across the board until banks start lending cheap money again. That includes Mortgages. And that may be - never.
-Mike Z.
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