I LIKE HOBBIT SIZE HOUSES

Hobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Their housing is funky and habitable, yet small.


I like small funky houses.Why? Because if you find the right one you can transition it into a warm cozy cottage. Unfortunately, the house in the photo above is not for sale right now. But it would be an ideal candidate to turn into a hobbit  place that I could move into.


I think the angular jutting out of gables and shed roofs adds a playful feeling to the place. It is probably only one room on the first floor with a small add-on mud room and kitchen. The upstairs is probably one big bedroom. I would guess the entire house has about 500 to 600 square feet plus or minus. The porch although sagging a bit could easily be repaired.


What would I do if I could live in this house? First I would paint the exterior all over with a dark leather brown paint and replace the front door with an old door painted a dark eggplant. I would put some shutters on a few of the windows, probably a dark pumpkin color?  I would plant a wild patch of various sunflowers and tall golden cosmos around the house -- hundreds of them and just have a dirt path winding through them to the front door. I would put two old metal chairs on the porch (painted a dark eggplant) and invite a good friend over for coffee or tea. I would swing a circle of natural wood fencing around the whole place.


I would have my grandchildren call my lttle place -- the hobbit house


Do you ever fantasize about what kind of house you would like to live in?


I just did about this house. Being retired, I would like somewhere to live that is easy to care for and sweet to enjoy. I do like the house I live in now but it requires a lot of work to keep it in shape. Too much for this little lady. 


Maybe in the future I will find a place like the one in the photo and trade out this house for a cozy hobbit sized house. It might not be in Middle-earth but it would hug Mother Earth.

THE PRESIDENT AND LEADERSHIP

Group of unemployed New York City workers holding up 1914 newspaper -- "The Voice of the City"
Library of Congress

Here is an article recently published and wrote by Robert Reich. Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations

I admired what he had to say. Maybe you do or don't but it is something to think about

I'm sharing it with you in its entirety as follows:

The President’s Jobs Plan (Not)
TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011
What did the President do in response to last week’s horrendous job report — unemployment rising
to 9.2 percent in June, with only 18,000 new jobs (125,000 are needed each month just to keep up with the growth in the potential labor force)?

He said the economy continues to be in a deep hole, and he urged Congress to extend the temporary reduction in the employee part of the payroll tax, approve pending free-trade agreements, and pass a measure to streamline patent procedures.

To call this inadequate would be a gross understatement.

Here’s what the President should have said:

This job recession shows no sign of ending. It can no longer be blamed on supply-side disruptions from Japan, Europe’s debt crisis, high oil prices, or bad weather.

We’re in a vicious cycle where consumers won’t buy more because they’re scared of losing their jobs and their pay is dropping. And businesses won’t hire because they don’t have enough customers.

Here in Washington, we’ve been wasting time in a game of chicken over raising the debt ceiling. Republicans want you to believe the deficit is responsible for the bad economy. The truth is that when the private sector cannot and will not spend enough to get the economy going, the public sector must step into the breach. Cutting the deficit now would only create more joblessness.

My first priority is to get Americans back to work. I’m proposing a jobs plan that will do that.

First, we’ll exempt the first $20,000 of income from payroll taxes for the next two years. This will put cash directly into American’s pockets and boost consumer spending. We’ll make up the revenue shortfall by applying Social Security taxes to incomes over $500,000.

Second, we’ll recreate the WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps — two of the most successful job innovations of the New Deal – and put people back to work directly. The long-term unemployed will help rebuild our roads and bridges, ports and levees, and provide needed services in our schools and hospitals. Young people who can’t find jobs will reclaim and improve our national parklands, restore urban parks and public spaces, recycle products and materials, and insulate public buildings and homes.

Third, we’ll enlarge the Earned Income Tax Credit so lower-income Americans have more purchasing power.

Fourth, we’ll lend money to cash-strapped state and local governments so they can rehire teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and others who provide needed public services. This isn’t a bailout. When the economy improves, scheduled federal outlays to these states and locales will drop by an amount necessary to recover the loans.

Fifth, we’ll amend the bankruptcy laws so struggling homeowners can declare bankruptcy on their primary residence. This will give them more bargaining leverage with their lenders to reorganize their mortgage loans. Why should the owners of commercial property and second homes be allowed to include these assets in bankruptcy but not regular home owners?

Sixth, we’ll extend unemployment benefits to millions of Americans who have lost part-time jobs. They’ll get partial benefits proportional to the time they put in on the job.

Yes, most of these measures will require more public spending in the short term. But unless we get this economy moving now, the long-term deficit problem will only grow worse.

Some in Congress will fight against this jobs plan on ideological grounds. They don’t like the idea that government exists to help Americans who need it. And they don’t believe we all benefit when jobs are more plentiful and the economy is growing again.

I am eager to take them on. Average Americans are hurting, and their pain is not going away.

We bailed out Wall Street so that the financial system would not crash. We stimulated the economy so that businesses would not tank. Now we must help ordinary people on the Main Streets of America — for their own sakes, and also so that the real economy can fully mend.

My most important goal is restoring jobs and wages. Those who oppose me must explain why doing nothing is preferable

COUNTRY PLANTATION HOMES -- CENTRAL KENTUCKY

Paint Lick Area, Kentucky --  Greek Revival Style Influence
Early 1800s

Greek Revival Influence
Paint Lick Area, Kentucky
Early 1800s

Georgian Influence

Early 1800s

Central Kentucky

LOST JOBS

MEN IN LINE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS -- 1938

DORTHEA LANGE -- PHOTOGRAPHER

Unemployment benefits aid begins. Line of men inside a division office of the State Employment Service office at San Francisco, California, waiting to register for benefits on one of the first days the office was open. They will receive from six to fifteen dollars per week for up to sixteen weeks. Coincidental with the announcement that the federal unemployment census showed close to ten million persons out of work, twenty-two states begin paying unemployment compensation. -- Library of Congress

Unemployment figures

2009 -- 2011
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

How will we ever recover when U.S.companies

are giving jobs, that were once located here, to other countries?


.

FARMERS MARKETS ARE NOT A NEW IDEA

Farmers markets in our country have been around for quite a while. It's an old idea that serves the community be it urban or countryside. Below are some early urban markets that offer up farm agricultural products. They were all busy markets and were essential to urban folks. The Detroit Publishing Company accumulated these photos and they now reside in the Library of Congress. Nice that we have the opportunity to view these early years of farm commerce. 

Great sign on this warehouse "AGRICULTURAL WAREHOUSE."  Apparently in this photo the vendors are setting up their spaces before the market opens. Photo taken in Boston, Massachusetts at the old Quincy Market, 1904.

City Market, Kansas City, MO, 1906

Close-up of the large bushel baskets and crates used to display produce. When I blew them up they got a bit fuzzy but they still are interesting compared to today's types of marketing display pieces. Close-up is taken from bottom left hand corner of Kansas City Market above.  

Every age appears to be involved in these great urban markets. Delightful photo of children at the French Market in New Orleans, LA, circa 1900 -1910.

Close-up of the "market kids" from the French Market above.  

This busy market place in New York City was called the Ghetto Market.

Open wagons of produce line the streets in New York City at the Italian Neighborhood Market, 

circa 1900-10. Ethnic markets were popular as immigrants flooded into the U.S. during this period.

New York city had a multitude of Farmers Markets across city neighborhoods. Here in 1900 is one called Mulberry Street Market.

.

Farm markets have a long history in our country and thankfully for us they have had a resurgence replicating the market places in both urban and countryside places. 


GREAT RESOURCE SITE FOR LOCAL FARMERS MARKETS
http://www.localharvest.org/

GRAY TREE FROG -- MEMBER OF MY EVENING CHORUS

Gray Tree Frog -- Hyla versicolor

Since early April I have been serenaded by tree frogs. Their melodic croaks begin as dusk turns to night. For awhile I timed when the Carolina Wrens stopped singing in the evening and when the tree frogs started up their chorus. It was interesting that within minutes of the wrens signing off the frogs started up. It was almost as if they had an agreement to keep nature's songs in the air.


Of course with a good rain shower during the daytime the frogs belt out a few crocks.  


In the above photo you'll notice the small Gray Tree Frog sitting on the ledge of my outdoor electrical outlet box. He sat there yesterday, very still, yet his eyes appeared watchful. 


The tree frog is native to the United States and is only about 1.5 to 2 inches at maturity. The female does not croak -- only the male. (yes, one could get several jokes out of that last statement)


Frogs eat a diverse diet of both beneficials and non-beneficials in our gardens. Some of their favorite foods are algae, amphibians, insects, spiders, mites, plant lice, harvestmen, and snails.  


Frogs depend on bogs, swamps, and lakes for their life cycles. All of nature benefits from healthy streams, bogs, swamps, and lakes. And, as we are nature, so is the Gray Tree Frog. Both depending on healthy water.

RESOURCES:


1) University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Tree Frog


2) eNature.com Gray Tree Frog Croak

FARM HELPER

"WORKING BULLDOG" 

KENTUCKY FARM TRUCK

HISTORIC UNINCORPORATED COMMUNITY -- KIRKSVILLE, KENTUCKY

MAIN STREET -- KIRKSVILLE, KENTUCKY

Unincorporated Kentucky communities are places that are rooted in tradition and/or history. . They are places where the residents know the boundaries. They have no formally organized government. 


Kirksville is an unincorporated place that is surrounded by historic farms. Older homes along the curving main street reflect a rich texture of country living.


I could not find  population statistics for the community and maybe that is the way it should be. Everybody knows each other and everybody counts so there is no need for  official data..