Early Retirement Extreme Forums

In some northern European tribes outside the reach of the Roman Empire: When a person or couple came of age, a council of elders assigned them a section of land to farm/garden. No mortgage, no taxes. The tribe stayed in one location as long as fertility of the land was good. Members of the tribe wer...

Milkweed pods are starting to come out in my area. I picked a dozen small pods, about 2“ in length. Boiled them for 10 minutes. The flavor is excellent, a cross between green beans and sweet corn. I will try to collect a bag full, cook and freeze for addition to my daily veg-bean soup recipe.

You are doing very well if you can recoup your expenses the first year. Hopefully, once your initial investment is paid off, your margins will be more profitable. There is always a slow start to that kind of business, but word of mouth travels quickly. Some people take time to warm up to buying. I t...

I have heard the place to go is Lake Atitlan, near the city of Panajachel.

There is a section of bike trail that I ride frequently with raspberry bushes along the trail for about a quarter mile. Yesterday, I did not see any ripe berries, but today they are starting to ripen. When I rode past today, there were dozens of people stopped to pick berries. I was able to pick and...

You could take a floating object such as a bottle or piece of foam, tie a line to it, wrap the line around it and tie the other end of the line to your battery box. Assuming the water is not as deep as the length of line, if the box goes overboard to the bottom, the floating object will unroll and b...

Which source do you use for air quality information?

I have been using iqair: https://www.iqair.com/us/

8. Entryway Display. Someone coming to your door will learn about you from the things that are visible from your entry door. Arrange and display things visible from the entry door in a way that reflects how you would like to be seen. 9. Telescope. If looking at the big picture of clutter seems daunt...

7. Invite guests and prepare your home for a visit.

That is a good one, I suspect true hoarders never want anyone to see their collection of junk. There may be a psychological connection between self-isolation and hoarding.

6. Observation. Walk around and look for things that need to be taken care of and cleaned up.

Virtue: A desire for the serenity and harmony that cleanliness brings.

I had an indoor hydroponic lettuce "farm" for some time. The only problem I had was tip burn. Growing lettuce takes a lot of time and space. After research on nutrient density I switched to broccoli microgreens. If I were to restart a microgreen system, I would do an in-tray vermiculture s...

In order to learn gardening, you need land. One way is to buy land. Another way is to ask others if they know of someone with unused land that you could garden on.

4. Checklist. Keep a written list of things which need to be done, and refer to the list occasionally as a reminder. No need to think or worry about what needs to be done, just write it down and check the list when you have time to take care of things. The list may include one time tasks or recurrin...

I had an old HEPA air filter that we set out for sale at our last garage sale, thinking it was old and just in the way. I asked my wife today if she sold it, she said no, and found it way back behind other stuff on a shelf. I was able to order a new filter, so I cleaned it up and we now have a HEPA ...

I was zeroed out in 1999. My wife and I owned a bakery which was well known for birthday cakes and wedding cakes. One night an employee closed the bakery but left a hot plate on with some syrupy stuff in the pot. This caused a fire which destroyed everything in the building. We lost a business with ...

Finding ways to increase your income while still living your current low cost life might be the fastest way to become financially able to own/obtain a home.

My current, uninformed practice is to stay inside if over 150, and do not exercise above 100. I am researching air filters for inside the home. I don't know what is recommended, this is just my naive attempt to reduce negative impacts. The nearest data I have is a sensor about 30 miles from my locat...

When it comes to regular organization of things (rather than a full on death declutter), I observe the following techniques that trigger the motivational spark to start picking things up and organizing or disposing clutter: 1. Disgust. When one looks around and decides that this area is just too dis...

As I drive around, I occasionally see houses with yards full of stuff, old cars, various equipment, household items, yard furniture, outdoor toys, hobby things, etc. In some cases the things are clearly unused. The result is a house that is surrounded by what looks like trash. The yard becomes impos...