Need to know basis

Tax Avoidance = GOOD. Tax Evasion = ILLEGAL

You may wonder why I have been coy about identifying the type of livestock I picked up a few days ago. 

For the most part, it is to not lay a trail of crumbs down that make it easy for the government to tax or control me. Most people are inherently lazy. They will make a show of doing their job. They will first go after the people who are flaunting their illegal activity. Then they will go after the low-hanging fruit.

Random factoid: The Inca Empire levied a tax of Head Lice on a very poor tribe that had no gold. The tax collectors did not want other villages to be encouraged to pursue the same tax-dodge. So the villagers had to constantly comb through their hair to collect enough head-lice to fill the required levy to be delivered twice a year.

Yes, governments can be that petty. 

I don't know where this was recorded 

In Michigan, tents, CONEX containers, storage pods and other "structures" that are rest on the surface and not attached to foundations are not liable to building codes. If you can pick it up and move it with a fork-truck, it is considered "personal property" and not a building

The man shown in the video was cited and fined by the county zoning commission based on footage shot from an aerial drone.

The man was lucky. The judge dismissed the case and vacated the fine when the county official admitted that they had not sent anybody to visit the site.

The judge called it an unconstitutional search because the drone data was collected and used "without probable cause". The entire case was poisoned by the county's inability to demonstrate that the structure met the definition of "building" that required a permit and the a priori issuing of fines assuming that it was.

Given how indescribably nosy the government is, wanting to know EVERY detail, and given their rapacious greed...why would I hand them any information on a silver platter. That would put me into the category of low-hanging fruit or giving the appearance of blatantly not-conforming to their "authority".

Tax Avoidance is GOOD!!!

Taxes are not "all about revenue". The tax code is often used to modify behaviors and to guide culture.

Owner-occupied housing is considered desirable because people tend to take better care of their home if they own it. Consequently, the US tax code allows individuals to "write-off" the interest they pay on a mortgage. That is a write-off that does not apply to virtually any other form of interest.

Agricultural land is considered desirable from the standpoint of national food security. The property tax rates on agricultural land is lower than on residential or industrial property.

From the standpoint of the citizen, the first dollars of government revenue are spent on the core tasks of government. The last dollars of revenue are spent on stupid, counterproductive and outlandish stuff as every department focuses on "burning out the bank" to ensure their funding is not reduced in the future. 

Bonus image

A rare photo of me and fellow blogger John Wilder

In case you were wondering how regulations can strangle agriculture

Bob Greiff, 85 years-old at the time this photo was taken

Link

Bob farms 160 acres in Spokane County, Washington. He rotates alfalfa, oats, hay, and barley. His fields are evenly split by a road—two 80-acre tracts to the south and north of the ribbon. The property has been in the family since the 1930s and their water-rights (totalling 136 acre-feet per year) date back to 1949. In 1953, Bob's father ran a pipe beneath the road so he could irrigate the higher field which was flatter and had higher quality soil.

Bob uses rotation to break-up disease cycles and to minimize the money he spends on fertilizer.

In 2019 he was fined $121,000 and a lien was filed against his property because he was using some of the water on the OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD from the parcel that was listed on the paperwork granting the water rights. Furthermore, he had to cease using the water on the better half of his property.

Bob has been contesting the fee based on how long he has been using the water on both sides of the road and the fact that they are contiguous properties AND HE DID NOT DRAW A DROP MORE THAN 136 acre-feet, EVER! He hired an expert. The expert found out:

“The research showed Bob’s water rights don’t cover south of the road. Ecology doesn’t seem to register the significance of irrigating in plain sight for decades, but I found an explanation for it. In 1968, Bob filed to irrigate both north and south, and it was approved in 1975. But when Ecology certified the right in 1983, they left out the south part, possibly in error.” 

The board verbally agreed to withdraw the assessment and liens but then changed their minds. 

As it stands, Bob has to take out a reverse-mortgage to pay the fine while it is contested.

List of the Water Conservancy Board for Spokane County, Washington

Sort of makes you wonder if anybody on the Irrigation Board has a nephew in real-estate. 

Hat-tip to Coyote Ken 

A few thoughts on the price of beef

The US cattle herd is at its lowest level since 1976. At that time, there were 216 million people living in the US. There are now approximately 340 million. On a per-capita basis, in 1976 there were 50% more cows per person than there are now.

I was surprised that the mass culling of cattle herds is not considered a major reason for the reduced number of cattle. Those actions primarily impacted dairy operations and the price of milk.

Rising costs to running a business are the primary drivers of the smaller cattle herds.

Cost of land

The cost of land in the Rocky Mountain states is at a historical high. It takes between 2000 and 10,000 acres to have a viable ranching operation in Wyoming. With costs running approximately $1800/acre for non-irrigated land, that means that you need to spin-off enough cash EVERY YEAR to pay the interest on a $3 million loan.

If you have a ranch near the low end, say 2000-to-2500 acres, you better have some water-rights so you can grow some irrigated alfalfa. That is going to bump the price up even more. 

It probably comes as no surprise that much of the land is being bid-up by people who made their fortunes in California and cashed-out their house in Silicon Valley or Los Angeles. THEY don't need to run an economically viable ranch so bidding "more than the land is worth" from a cash-flow perspective is a non-issue.

Another reason they don't typically try to run a viable cattle operation is that it consumes a huge amount of time and is often under brutal weather conditions. 2000 acres seems huge to somebody who lives in a suburb (it is, after all, more than three square miles) it is too small to pay for a professional manager. So the new owner might keep a few head of cattle around as animated lawn ornaments but will not keep the property alive as a viable business enterprise. Ergo, no calves sent to market.

Side note: Not all rich people do that. I have heard good things about Beau Turner (Ted Turner's kid). One nice thing about having an external supply of money is that he can experiment with different kinds of livestock and iron the kinks out of the system. 

Cost of interest

Interest impacts more than just the true-cost of the land.

Except for horses and camels, there are no other domesticated animals that take longer from birth-to-market than cattle. Furthermore, there is a long time-lag between when a heifer-calf drops and the age at which she can safely give birth to her first calf. Additionally, cows very rarely give birth to more than a single calf.

Together, that means that there is a very long time-lag between when economic signals trigger "expansion" and the actual number of carcasses being delivered to the meat-packers increase.

The rancher has to walk a fine line. If he holds back too many heifers he is foregoing revenue. If the increased prices are temporary he will have walked away from money on the table and be stuck with more mouths to feed after the prices tank. He bears the brunt of the carrying-costs of maintaining those animals and high interests rates makes that a brutal situation.

Cost of feed

A typical "value chain" for beef is that an operation in the Rocky Mountains runs a cow-calf operation. At a weight of 600 pounds the calf is sold at auction and purchased by a feedlot which feeds it a diet designed to first add muscle to the frame and then to add enough fat to meet the markets' demand for marbling. That diet is rich in grain and soy products.

If the price of grain and soy goes up, then the prices the feedlots can afford to pay at auction goes down.

Even though the ranchers in the Rocky Mountains feed very, very little grain to cattle, they know the dynamics between the cost of corn/sorgham/barley and the prices they will get at auction. When they read that Canada (for instance) is passing laws to limit the amount of fertilizer that farmers in Manitoba, Saskachewan and Alberta can use on crops, they know that the domino effect will cause a permanent rise in the price of grain in the US.

 

Fine Art Tuesday

Ernst Erwin Oehme was born in Dresden in 1831 and died in 1907.

Most of his work is done in heavy, dark colors or are overlaid with a hazy murkiness which remind me of winter in southern Michigan. Maybe he had cataracts.

A tip of the hat to Lucas Machias for suggesting this artist

Results oriented people need to know when to abandon their schedule

 

Skip ahead to the 2:55 mark to get to the meat of the video. I have been watching this guy's videos and I think he has his head screwed on straight. He is plain-spoken and doesn't seem to be interested in blowing smoke up anybody's pant-leg.

Today did not go as planned. Quicksilver insisted on dressing in a frilly dance outfit, so we did not go outside.

Then an opportunity to pick up some livestock popped up. Not only was it a species that is on my list, but it was the breed I was looking for and they were only ten miles away. Did I mention that they were at a VERY attractive price and it included three females and one male?

The only fly in the ointment is that I did not have housing set up for them because I hadn't been actively looking for them.

I reached out and made the deal. Drove over and collected the animals. Then they sat in the driveway while I cobbled together some housing.

Today's goal was to put together housing and a run that will contain them. Tomorrows goal is to make it predator proof and make it easier to maintain them.

Presented without comment

 

Rust, rot and depreciation are the agents of entropy

Much of what I am doing right now is either "not exciting" or involves activities that don't need to be advertised.

Not Exciting

The sides of my light work-coat were splitting out at the pockets.

I stitched them up today in an effort to get a few more months out of the coat. This and the previous picture are of the left side.

 

The right side was more involved and had been previously repaired.

More right side.

More more side.

Double-thread, #69, waxed, black polyester thread.

Not pretty enough to wear to the prom but plenty good enough for cutting wood with only the Blue Jays and squirrels for company.

The bottoms of the arms are the most tattered. I don't know if this damage is worth repairing. It is unsightly but doesn't impact the function of the coat.

The ability to milk a little more life out of old equipment is a valuable skill-set. Like all skills, it is perishable. I need to keep using them so I can be sure those skills will deliver when I really need them.