Way out in the back country. Eastern Oregon if I recall correctly. I was on a less than optimal dirt road myself when I saw this place. Cattle country.
A long way from nowhere.

What toil to build such a home? What hopes and dreams? What tales? Did they raise a family? Did they have ranch hands? Did they grow crops? Hay at least seems likely. Vegetable garden?
No signs of any of that but plenty of time for such to have disappeared "back to nature"

One didn't settle this land for the sake of just finding a place. There must have been water, grass ... a place within reasonable distance for supplies. A typical homestead was 160 acres - ½ x ½ mile. Several plots could be obtained or free-range* for cattle.

The building is old; made of logs ... perhaps from the hills in the background. I would suspect late 1800s to 19-teens. A well with hand-pump sits by the right front of the main building. The roof shows signs of red tarpaper covering what appear to be the original shingles. The extension at the rear looks to have had corrugated tin roofing - again, over what appears to be the original shingles. One of the windows appears to have glass remaining. It looks like a large groundhog hole - or some other critter - in a corner of what I'll call the mudroom.

There is slight evidence of what must have been a road coming from the left to the house. there appears to be a foundation to the left of what is presumably a barn or simply a large shed . A single post of some sort - bigger than a fence post - appears to the left and some distance away from that. Barely visible some distance to the right and rear of the house is what appears to be a barbed wire gate - fenced off now with another fence running along. Far to the left is another cluster of fence posts enclosing an area perhaps 10x10 or 15x15.

There doesn't appear to be any electrical connections; there is nothing to indicate any vehicle having visited the site for many years. No tire tracks, no bare dirt. No old tires or rusting car bodies as is not unusual for homesteads dating into the 40s. The construction appears older than that.

I find these places occasionally. A place to stop and wonder about lives and times past. What a different world these people of not really all that long ago must have lived.

*Side note: I've not seen them back east but out here in open country, one may see signs stating "Open Range". The practical meaning is that if you hit livestock in open range territory (no fencing required), you are responsible for damages. I happen to live in open range territory even though I live in a "subdivision (of sorts).

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Honey, how many burgers do you want for dinner?

Two sounds good.

But you're having corn and salad and some leftovers from last night. Isn't two too many?

Then why do you ask?

You'll have to eat it tomorrow.

Wouldn't give her up for the world ...

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Excerpts from ZeroHedge, Sept 3, 2025
"Is The Fed Setting Up Trump To Be The Scapegoat?"

It should be obvious the answer is "Yes".
Not that I'm pessimistic or anything.

When the SHTF ... coming soon to wherever you be ... it will be unlike anything we've ever seen.
The US won't escape this time - the US will be the target.

There will be no proper prepping, there will be no planned "safe place"; when it comes - signs seem to indicate soon - there will be only luck, fate, the grace of God.
God may have mercy on our souls but there are no promises for our corporeal selves.
My suggestion? Live life as if it's normal. Don't worry, don't "prep" beyond normality, just enjoy what you have and where you are.

And when the time comes (which no man knows of) ... ?
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Examining the US price Index from the year 1800 to 1913 reveals a period of continuously falling prices. The price index was down by more than 40% by 1913, as compared to the starting year 1800. By some estimates, this fall in prices was even higher as the product basket was continuously becoming better and not even strictly comparable. Most major innovations we can think of – telephones, automobiles, airplanes, computers, mass production, modern medicine, military hardware, etc – happened during this period. The transition of the US from an erstwhile colony of the British Empire to the dominant superpower also occurred in this period. If falling prices had caused the Great Depression of 1929 to 1946, as is popularly believed, or as the Phillips curve implies, the entire 19th century (1801-1900) should have been an extended depression. Instead, what we actually witnessed was a boom of unparalleled proportions in modern history, except for what has happened in China starting in 1990 to date.

The mainstream media narrative even today is that Trump wants to lower interest rates to achieve even higher growth rates, from already what is the “best performing economy ever”. On the other hand, Powell intends to hold the rates steady to protect the purchasing power of the US Dollar. The economic truth is that both narratives are flawed.

Even a 0% rate today cannot prevent a bust of the financial systems that is floating on a sea of asset bubbles – an AI bubble that dwarfs the NASDAQ 2000 bubble; a housing bubble that is far bigger than the 2008 housing bubble; and a US bond bubble that is bigger than these two bubbles combined. The bust at this point is inevitable and imminent – the timeframes would be a few months and not a few years.

The current rate of 4.25% to 4.5% is way too low to contain price inflation meaningfully. The National debt is increasing at an even higher pace than before, and monetary inflation is a natural outcome, indicating that the rates are very accommodative.

For more than 50 months in a row, the core inflation rate – the Fed’s preferred measure – has been above the target 2%. The June 2025 number was 2.82% and under normal conditions, the US Fed would have aggressively hiked the rates. The only reason why they do not do so is “Fiscal Dominance”.

In effect [what] they are doing is the equivalent of putting the National Debt on an Adjustable Rate Mortgage System (ARMS)

Trump is unwittingly setting himself up to be the fall guy for what has essentially been the blunders of the US Federal Reserve.

It would be uncharacteristic of the Fed not to utilize the opportunity and pass the buck, as it has almost always done.

What about the supposed critical issue of the Fed’s Independence?
Truth to be told, the independence of the Free World’s monetary system was eliminated in 1913 with the formation of the Federal Reserve.
The Independence of the Fed was effectively abolished in 1971 when Nixon closed the Gold Window.

Sigh ...

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When I lived near the US50/I-70 corridor (anywhere from San Jose to Denver) and had to travel to East US when not in a rush, I'd try to avoid the interstates where feasible which usually meant taking US34 across Nebraska or US36 across Kansas.

About 50 miles east of the Colorado line in Atwood Kansas is this funky little motel. I've not been by in a number of years - US36 is far off my path now I live in Idaho - but it was a pleasant and inexpensive place to stay during those times I was caught in a Kansas snowstorm.

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