04-23-2020, 02:52 PM
On the money thing. I didn't have to train horses anymore when they told me I had to stop. Financially, it's done little to speak of to me. I hate, absolutely hate, what it's doing to my neighbors that they can't work right now. Most are farmers who have to keep these off- farm jobs just to keep the farm steady through the winter & early spring months. The real hurt is on the three Dairy's nearby. Their milk sits and spoils right now, and the kids can't go to their off farm jobs to help out. It's hell here, & $1200 doesn't do shit for people. A month, or just a little more, does a lot.
Others, my closest neighbor, fear to come home from their "essential" job. She is staying in a rats-nest of a motel right now because she cleans the hospital room where one of the confirmed cases is staying and she has kids she loves. She gets minimum wage through this, nothing more, and she's paying for the motel.
In the village, the little shops and diners have no business even if they could open. They never operated at much of a profit, no Mom & Pop ever does, and this could do them in easy. The local Feed store is open, he's Essential, but he has nothing left to sell right now. Most of his grain comes local, and we know the local story. Besides, the last of what he had he was giving away. He knew folks couldn't pay, and he'll last longer than they will, but how much? Folks have to go to the city for everything already, including essential work other'n the water department & highway. The Sheriff went on vacation. The village couldn't pay him this coming month. If May stays like April, it'll be a real bad spring.
I do what I can to see that a couple older folks are helped out, but..
sw
