Spring Is Sprung

And my thoughts turn to things homestead related. Getting my yard and garden in order, planting, fertilising, mulching, cutting the grass, watching the kids play outside and all the things that go along with that. The grill has been used more of late than the stove, (altho, to tell the truth the grill gets used here year round, even in the deep snow) and will continue to be the most used cookery implement in our arsenal throughout the Spring and Summer. The asparagus is up and being consumed, the first things from the garden are a'sproutin' (the heirloom French Radishes) and long bouts of yard work allow me something that is often missing. A bit of extra time to think.

Puttering about I get to thinking about all sorts of things. How the state intrudes on even the simplest of activities and infringes upon my life at every turn, was a big one this weekend. One might think that gardening and tending to your homestead would be a symbol of freedom, (it is). Growing some of your food, tending to your own yard, doing something for in the name of self sufficiency. But, even in these simple activities the intrusions just get hammered home.

The fertiliser I spread this weekend is regulated to death because of the ingredients in it. The gas my lawn tractor uses has the filthy fingerprints of the state all over it, from the draconian over regulation of oil to the onerous taxation imposed on me every time I have to purchase more. I had to pay taxes on everything I used and will use from my seeds and manure to my shovel and wheel barrow. State and federal departments of agriculture had to approve my purchases and shipping of live plants. And, despite my repeated requests many of my products were placed in the incompetent "care" of the US Postal "Service". My iTunes were taxed and regulated, from the iPod itself, my net access, computer components to the tunes in my playlist.

Taxes, regulations, permissions and so many other intrusions along the production lines that it's impossible for me to list. And that doesn't even include the book length list of things that government forbids me to purchase, like DDT for my fruit trees and crawlspace. Gods forbid some asshat from the EPA shows up after a rain and declares a puddle out back a "wetland". I can't help but feel like Peter in "Office Space" , where government is concerned.

Peter Gibbons: And here's another thing, I have eight different bosses right now.
Bob Porter: Eight?
Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

There's seemingly no escape where Cthulhu government is concerned, but I'll keep on trying. At least they won't be able to lay an additional tax on what finally comes from my garden or the German White Bier my wife brewed up yesterday. Not yet, anyway....and, as I don't drink the latter does me no good at all.

So, someone explain to me...again...that this is a free country? Is it? Or are we just revenue sources for the government?

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