Most of my neighbors are good people as well as related to me. But there’s a trailer park across the woods. Kids always starting fires in my woods and I have to chase them off.
There was a string of robberies on mu road and we were one of the hits.
We used to let people fish at the pond until I noticed someone was casing my house so we banned everyone we didn’t know personally.
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Good thing I have a field that floods across the street. 
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Went to Menard’s for supplies today. Guy was marking up the PVC fittings quite a bit. I asked him what was up with that. He said the suppliers were claiming there was a plastic shortage. They had signs up at the pipe racks warning of shortages. What next?
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Could be short term from having the cargo ship stuck in the canal in the middle east a while ago. But I thought that was mostly the trade route from China to Europe not the USA.
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I suspect that these supply chain disruptions are going to ripple around in strange ways. I remember early in the pandemic I went to store to get an ABS fitting, and the shelves were stripped bare. Now there is as much as you could ever want again. We come to expect everything we want to be available whenever we want it, but if you stop and think about what a well-oiled machine it takes to make the logistics of that work out, it is shocking that there are not more shortages. I read somewhere that a modern car can have thousands of microchips in them - and I guess the auto manufacturers are going to sit out a lot of revenue due to that shortage.
I suspect a lot of smart people are going to be tasked with looking into the idea of re-shoring a bunch of manufacturing when all of this blows over. I sort of doubt it will bring many jobs back, since automation is the only way to make it economically viable. It will be interesting to see what happens.
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Drywall is up in price around here. Gypsum mined here in Indiana and made into drywall in Indiana plants by the big names. All building supplies are up. They must think they need to get on the band wagon.
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The nutball in me wants to say they’re just finally adjusting for all the inflation we’ve accrued.
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Not too nutz there Cody. Since the massive money printing that went on last year has way further diluted the value of a dollar, which is the definition of inflation, and since the government wants to keep reporting ridiculously low inflation rates, it’s easier to hide the price increases for everything on pandemic caused shortages. If they are short of plastic they should take some skimmers out into the ocean.
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Few neighbors busy county road . Farmer from across road came over to talk after seeing me out with tractor . Never any problems . Am now Grandparent . His name is Alexander
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Prices are set based on money in circulation. It has no inflationary impact for the federal reserve to print money and hand it to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk so long as they don’t take that money and buy all the flour the price of flour will stay constant. Which is largely what the federal reserve did in 2020 they pumped money into wallstreet. Now the hedge fund managers are using that money to buy homes which is inflation on that one market but not changing the cost of fuel for example. Diesel fuel hasn’t changed in value to reflect the increase in the monetary supply because Elon Musk can only buy so much jet fuel for his private jet.
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Well locally I can say much of the pricing UP compared to pre-COVID is merchant uncertainty.
Dictated Closed . . . allowed limited Open . . . then slammed shut Closed again . . . then m-a-y-b-e limited allowed open again.
And this has rippled back onto their supplier chains too. Primary source manufacturers were forced shut down too.
IF retailers can get it they are getting no pricing, volumes discounts, seasonal wholesale pricing concessions at all.
They have nothing to help them keep prices down.
Already they have lost huge annual incomes in not able to sell. Limited amounts to sale.
So what they can get to sell, when they are allowed to sale they must conservatively get enough profit to carry them through forward for every 12 months… They can no longer bank on 9 months minimal profit boosted by 3 months of high sales volumes.
Uncertainly; Rules now.
Actually this has now gone back to the way I remember things Rural offered back in the late 50’s and early 60’s.
The only thing really cheap back then was gasoline and seasonal perishable over productions. Oh. Still WWII/Korea military surplus hardware. And beer-can tin toys from Japan.
So . . . a new normal?? Maybe for a few years. Will it ever go back to the previous pre-COVID normal? I do not think so.
Steve Unruh
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I am interested to see how different countries who handled covid differently end up in a few years time. I think this will show the benifits and costs of different approaches to the same peoblem by governments. India definitely could have benifited from a shutdown during their festival season.
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There was just an article on the NY Times about how the recovery in Europe is lagging behind the US due to all the money we pumped into the system. The author did point out though that part of that has to do with how much more inequality there is in the US, and how much more expansive the European social safety net is. It will make it a little hard to disentangle the facts, and say with any certainty “This is how it should have been done.”
I do think what we are currently seeing is simply the effect of supply and demand. Shutting down an economy for public health reasons caused supply issues, but the demand was still there. And the fact that the production capacity was not damaged as it would be in say a massive flood or hurricane, means that once given the OK, things could start right back up. Of course a machine as big as the global economy does not just start and stop on command. There is a whole pipeline, and we have sent shock waves traveling back along all those “pipes”, and they are bouncing and reflecting off each other like ripples in a pond.
I think the price volatility is going to be temporary, because there are always other options and always competitors trying to get more market-share. If building materials prices stay elevated long enough, eventually fewer people will want to build, and the production will catch up to demand. I suppose there is a chance that demand remains high for the foreseeable future, in which case the current prices will just sort of get baked in as the new normal. I sort of hope that 50$ for a sheet of plywood does not become the new default - but if it does, maybe I will start using more sheet metal roofing - which is currently cheaper by the square foot than plywood!
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An attempt to make a different video.
Looking back I notice 90% of my pics are chunks and 90% of my videos are steering-wheel. This time I just turned the camera on wating for wife at the grossery store. Not much content. Good thing I never tried to earn a living as a photographer 
I guess the video represents Life goes on.
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Glad to hear you feeling better!
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I got a $33.69 power bill . I used 475 kw and supplied 308 Kw . I used roto tiller today , I feel like I am beating myself up for nothing . I had used this plot two years ago between a fence and a concrete pad , best soil . Plan to plant beans but no allowed to eat beans . Grew tomatoes in small raised bed grew too many tomatoes basically tomatoes is only thing allowed to grow and eat .
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Hello JO .
I see you also get no attention in public .
One in a million but still no one notices 
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Look what followed me home today! These have been sitting out back of a local gas station for years. When I inquired they said if I got rid of them I could have them, score! I see a heat exchanger and hay filter in the rough 
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Feeling smug…cut my first 2x4s with the band mill today…then saw the price increase at Menards, and am feeling uneasy.
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Thank God it was negative on the test JO. I bet that puts you mind at ease.
I love to watch people. Could this be the first people watching video in a parking lot in Sweden in a Gasifer truck? I think so. You are the first JO In One In A Millon. Great video.
Bob
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