Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Thanks everyone for all the great responses! Sorry it took me a while to reply. I have little free time these days. I will reply to a few of the comments where I have something to say. The solution I'm pursuing right now is: 1. Streaming online radio when I have wifi 2. Investigating buying CDs and ...

For those that aren't familiar with them MMM HQ appears to be a makerspace aka a hacker space. These are in many mid sized and larger cities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace

A makerspace is a type of "third place": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place.

The situation is to pick a car that's more fun/cool for road trips than reliable for commuting or shopping since we don't need a car for that. What does a road trip mean to you? One hour drive or drive from Chicago to southern California? One trade off with simpler, more repairable cars is that Eva...

I'm not sure I completely understand the situation or question but I'll give my 2 cents anyway. Best car to work on is a car that is not rusty (so it is easier to disassemble and reassemble) and common (so there is lots of info and parts available) and has no fatal flaws that can't be dealt with (do...

Where do you get music? For a long time I had pirated mp3s on my computer. As I wanted variety I would clean out my cheap mp3 player and add new songs from the computer. Then I used free streaming services like Pandora, Google play music, YouTube, and Spotify. The free versions of these services hav...

Anyone try to propagate fresh herbs from the grocery store into new plants? I had some extra rosemary and thyme so I just put it in water to see if roots will form.

Can we talk about fruit tree pruning (and health)? I'm in love with my lime tree. Once or twice a year I prune my fruit tree (not a lime). I follow a guide I found online published by my local university extension office. The general shape is already there and follows what the guide recommended. I ...

I worked on a temp sensor in an oven once and if I remember correctly there was a way to test it with a multimeter. I think it was supposed to read a certain resistance (ohms) at various temps. There was a table to use. Some ovens have a way to offset the temp reading to make the oven think it is re...

I will add my two cents: 1. Knife sharpening was mentioned. I have some knowledge of this as a business. Can sharpen other things too. Can offer money making add ons like pick up and drop off, sharp or extra sharp. Can do the work any time. Connect with kitchen equipment shops to get customers and h...

One avenue for research is "socially responsible investing": https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sri.asp

There are products that are intended for those that need something bigger than what Jacob is talking about but not as big as the $150k that was mentioned and are also not used from Craigslist. Example: https://cnc.tormach.com/cnc_mills

What kind of soil did you use? I dug a shovel or two of soil out of the ground and put it in the bin to hopefully add some helpful bacteria, etc. Is that what you are asking about? I also added a couple scoops of dry leaves. The primary purpose of this bin is to consume kitchen scraps so lots of ve...

I bought a steel garbage can and turned it into a composter. I went with this one https://www.behrens.com/product/31-gallon-trash-utility-can/ for about $34 from home depot. I drilled roughly 100 3/16" holes all over the sides and bottom. The problem with this was that it basically made the ins...

(assuming the forest fires come from climate change). It seems like fires can be attributed to some proportion fire suppression and some proportion climate change. It doesn't seem like this is an exact, settled science though. https://www.niskanencenter.org/megafires-climate-change-or-land-manageme...

Jean wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 29, 2023 12:26 am

maybe move where the forest already burnt?

The smoke is often coming from more than 1000 miles away.

Some thoughts: You can program many smart thermostats to run the fan for part of every hour to circulate air through the filter even when heating cooling is not being used. Similarly, some smart thermostats have air quality monitoring built in. I don't know the details of what they measure or what i...

Did anyone end up making a trash can composter? How did it work out? I'm thinking about buying a galvanized steel can and drilling holes in it. There is a version I could buy but it isn't very big and is expensive. https://www.acehardware.com/departments/home-and-decor/trash-and-recycling/garbage-ca...

Just this summer i was driving through Yellowstone in our old Prius with my wife and two kids. ... I had to do something similar but I made the fix with tape. Always a good idea to keep tools, tape, zip ties, wire (good for exhaust repairs) in the car. Another good tip is that if you car air condit...

I didn't know this was a concern but it looks like between eating dairy and a multivitamin I am covered.

Is it obviously a bad idea to try to grow something there, or otherwise please could you point me to a page on this thread where it was discussed, or elsewhere? What part of the situation are you concerned about? At my house I have avoided growing food next to the road and in places where the soil ...