and that new job of his is guarding your house. :3

Well, that too.

This might become a thing. Now do a flamingo!

and some bunnies!

Look out! If giant mushrooms the size of Volkswagens start sprouting in the Grove, I will Not claim responsibility.

no, but maybe sell them to champignon soup makers. :)

Mmmmmm! That might make an interesting cartoon. A small, magical creature like a Fairy or Brownie is lamenting, "Things got so bad, I had to EAT my house."

and maybe a road sign, "Harrisburg 10mls" or something. for those who still remember.

Hmmm... "Allentown" might be better, and it has a catchy song too.

Allentown had a meltdown, too? 0.0

Kinda. The economy tanked in that town after the steel mills shut down.

aw, that happened everywhere.

except in china, where they shut down a steel mill, and a year later they realized they needed it... and found the whole building stolen. all that was left was the concrete base...

SERVES THE RIGHT! They bought the entire Bethlehem steel plant in Fontana in 1989 and most likely turned it into steel products sold at Walmart. But it wasn't the Economy that killed California Steel. The plant was "AQMD'ed" to death.

ouh, what was AQMD again?

Auch. Entschuldgen Mich bitte. AQMD Stands for "Air Quality Management District." A Bureaucratic office created by the Government to control Smog by regulating the amount of pollutants released into the air.

sounds elegant. german steel mills simply died when foreign steel became cheaper than german steel, and all the taxes, union problems, and everything else like pollution control and energy ate up the rest. some buildings are still there, along with the villages the big companies and mines built for their workers when they realized giving them room to live and all necessary commodities paid out way better in the long run with loyal, healthy workers. in some cases up to three generations worked for the same company.

politics is usually pretty "interesting". when Angela "The Boss" Merkel decided to make true of the "energy change" and suddenly supported regenerative energies (very suddenly, even) it cut into a time when energy companies wnated to replace outdated power plants running on coal, oil, and gas, with newer, way more efficient ones... and suddenly that was bad, because pollution. instead old nuclear power plants and these oudated coal burners had to continue being dangerous. and up on the north sea shore they built a wind mill park, without the wires to distribute the energy across germany as planned... and the plan to get the areas to set up the wire masts were so shady every soil owner shooed them away, some even threatened them with lawsuits should they try to press it through.
meanwhile, the north sea currencies flushed the wind mills' bases free and threatens to let them topple over in a year or two.

if this is the solution I'd like to have my problem back.

Wise words Anbessa. I had a crazy idea as I was reading your reply though. With Solar Panels and some folks being able to produce enough extra energy to put some back into the grid, would it be practical for each property owner to have their own power generation station? I know it sounds far fetched, but I believe if every citizen was in part responsible for their daily/weekly energy, there'd be fewer problems such as those "Not in my Back Yard" situations.
Heck. Every Welder I know personally has a generator to power their Arc Welder that can provide electricity for up to two houses or a small farm at least.

I seems like a terrible waste to let all that equipment rust away into ruin. There's some places here in California where sections of large wind farms have been abandoned. The unused turbines are denoted by those not turning, or missing blades.

in germany those solar panels only see distribution becxause the energy companies have to buy the electricity for a higher price than the regular juice out of the socket. this leads to people producing energy most solely for someone else, not themselves.
solar panels in usable size are still expensive, especially the mounting on a roof. (a while ago a farmer put panels on his barn's roof. three nights later someone stole it all, without anyone noticing...) so there won't be much going without help from the government I guess.
but, there could be a panel on the roof on any house in the more sunnier states if only to power the AC during the day. that would lessen the power consumption a lot, and help by shading the roof itself, too.

as for wind farms, many here are erected to milk the state of tax money. some places fight them tooth and nail, for not only standing around uselessly, but also they spoil the landscape, and endanger birds with their fast moving blades.

funny idea. :) "Build-your-own Gnome" ^^

That might go over better than painting up a bunch of bricks. Some of my friends are persuading me to try and patent this as the new "Pet Rock."

can one plant parsley in it, too?

Hmmm... Parsley isn't as catchy as Chia, but maybe I van try something like this on a small, clay flowerpot Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Parsley...

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaah...

a flower pot with garden gnomes, ancient greek vase style? that woulde be awesome. :)

"THis is madness!"

"No, this is PARSLEY!"

Now I need to find the proper flower pot!

There is an idea, paint a vase on it and call it Generic Pottery
Paint a blue ball on it and call it Compton (or another local bad neighborhood) Gaze Ball
Draw a mentally challenged Pokemon and call it PoorKomon Go

You get the idea, sell them at a local flea market. If you sell one for $10 that's $10 more than you had.

That was one of Schirm's ideas. Maybe by the November or December Flea Markets I'll produce enough to sell at those venues. People seem to like that artsy-craftsy stuff.

For some reason he reminds me of the engineer from TF2. Maybe it's the toolbox...

Actually, that's supposed to be a bucket, but I like your idea. Why can't there be Mechanically inclined Gnomes? Traditionally, they're miners and tinkers.

That's great.

...Glad you like it.

It's a great bit.

I love the idea. They re actually less creepy than the plastic ones.

Yes, I agree. They're better made from cast concrete or carved wood. The blow molded plastic ones seem so tacky and cheap, and I'm not certain about the weathering and fading issues the cast resin ones could have.

seems to be in good company.

Yes. The Dragon and Foo Dog ward off evil, and protect the good, but it can have a cost.

Love it!

Thanks. But would one think I could sell a graffiti-ed up brick for $20.00?

I think it's a great idea! I think you should be able to get ten or twenty bucks. You'd have to find the irresistible price point... I totally think it's worth trying.