FauxPseudo

My place isn’t paid off but it is cheap enough that I can say what would change and, importantly, what wouldn’t.

My monthly payment is just under $700 a month. About $400 of that is the actual mortgage. The rest is basically property taxes and insurance. I’d save $400 a month but would still have to pay $300. Assuming I didn’t decide to just earn $400 less a month then that $400 would have to go back into the property. I need a new roof. I need a new HVAC (AC died three years ago). A new roof and AC would cost almost a quarter of my original mortgage. So in the end not much would change financially.

An important thing to remember about home ownership is that on average you are going to spend about 1% to 3% or a dollar a square foot on home maintenance each year. I had to replace my septic system months after buying the place, 7.6% of the home price. I had to replace my water heater a few years ago. Fortunately it’s located outside the building so no water damage and I was able to do that replacement myself so instead of spending $1800 for someone else to do it I did it for $450.

Once I have even a little spare money I need to do some roof repairs, not pay someone else to do it.

I’ve been using a vegetable julienne slicer to make my own. Better than a shredder for more consistent sizing. It’s saved me a fortune by using raw potatoes instead of buying the bagged stuff.

Only if they see you

If they’re not tormenting you, they’re not doing their job. That’s their niche. They have one job.

Yes and no. They are much cleaner than ducks and they can be exclusively fed on grass once they are feathered out. This makes them unbelievably awesome in addition to their guard dog ability. In the springtime you get giant goose eggs. Which is a big perk. Since we got our first two geese we have not lost a single chicken or duck to hawks. Which is why we got them. We were losing 1 to 3 a year just to hawks.

The downside is that like all birds they poop everywhere And their poops are more undigested grass than runny stuff. And in the spring when you get those giant eggs the geese can become extremely aggressive. This means separating them from the other birds to prevent injuries and it means learning how to wrestle geese in a safe manner. And it means always being on guard. You will not be safe on your own property.

But for me the benefits far exceed risks. They pay for themselves. They give giant eggs, they stop hawks, they mow the yard, they require no feed.

18 chickens, 7 geese, 6 ducks, 11 cats, 3 fosters, two dogs.

Today I turn on one foster kitten, the rest leave next week. Not sure if they will give me more when I drop off the one today. But if they have something extra spicy I’ll probably get it.

Basically multiple types and the number is fluid. We’ve lost two chickens and two geese this year.

Ducks are the grossest birds. Anything is better than ducks. I have 6 ducks.

I worked in IT for 20 years. I became a handyman and have 7 geese.

I have power tools. I had like 7 batteries for them. I saw that they offered a USB adapter so I could charge my cell phones. $20. I quickly stopped using wall warts and standard battery packs. 5 amp hours, hot swappable, always a battery in the charger so I could never run out of power. Power tool batteries are built to higher specs than typical cell phone chargers so they didn’t die after 10 chargers. The batteries are rugged so a drop doesn’t destroy them.

My tools were stolen. I replaced all my Makita with Harbor Freight Hercules brand, their premium brand. Half the cost of Makita and actually better designed in a lot of areas. I quickly bought the USB adapter because I could never live without it again.

If you have power tools and always use them, I’m a handyman, then a USB adapter is a must.

I’m doing my part.

My tag line is “I am from the internet. I’m here to help.” It comes with certain responsibilities.

I had a winmodem issue on a laptop that Acer forgot they made that dogged made for 2 years. No answer available. And then one day the answer just popped up. I had to go back and find my original posts and edit them to include the solution.

Back in the days of usenet if I had a Linux problem I would carefully research the issue while composing a post asking how to solve it. I needed to make sure I covered every possible option so that people would know just how odd the problem was and that I had taken every reasonable step to fix it. And this was how I hardly ever had to post anything because this process almost always found the answer.

She was dating my ex girlfriend. They split. My ex recommended she ask me out because she thought we might be a good fit. It’s been 14 years.

Having a previous significant partner that I split with on good terms has always been a great strategy for getting a new partner.

As a person that changes out a lot of electrical outlets and switches I have to agree.

Definitely. At the last corporate job I had I was told at the very beginning of the interview that I was overqualified and that the only reason I was there was because their trainer (a former coworker of mine) said they had to interview me.

I got the job. I was thinking about quitting when they fired me because I didn’t park my car on the property because I was following the rules.

I was thinking about quitting because the place was a total mess. The first clue was during the interview they warned me they didn’t have KPIs at this call center job. When I actually started working I noticed that I had no one person to report to, massive inefficiencies, I could have spent a day or two creating from scratch their much needed IVR and that after three months on the phone not one person I started with had had a review of any kind. I had 20 years of call center experience and 20 years of Linux administration and I was fighting back every urge to rearrange the furniture because this major company was a complete shit show. I was over qualified. I should have never taken the job. They should have never hired me.

I haven’t seen the data on all but the nonstick is trash in a way that shows zero potential for their other stuff. Crap materials, uneven heating, etc. The very worst in almost every category.

We can add Made In pans to this.

Memes belong to the people. They are fungible assets that do not belong to any one person and are not transferable yet are infinitely transferred.

I feel seen