Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Nice beans Slevin. I tried growing favas for the first time this year and it looks like I'm going to have a good harvest! pods for lentil fritters Please describe or post a picture/basic recipe. Pods look like they are pretty tough, so didn't really think of them as edible, but I guess sugar snap pe...

I second @WRC's suggestions on internet radio and live music. Given that I like a wide variety of music, have no real desire to hear things over and over and don't want to buy/own anything (or deal with ripping, uploading etc) I have been listening to internet radio pretty exclusively for a few year...

To bring it back to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'... This is like the part when McMurphy (aka the fake oku) has gotten the lobotomy (aka become a legitimate member of the nuthouse team) and Chief Broom (aka the real oku) has to decide if he is going to put McMurphy out of his misery with a pillo...

I don't know why, but this all reminds me of One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest. They thought Oku was Chief Broom, turns out he is McMurphy. Be careful Oku, Nurse Ratched won't put up with McMurphy disrupting the ward for long. It's great you stood up for yourself, but I don't think this is your playground...

@Slevin - Nice work! I have been using up an old redwood swing set for various garden structures. The 8-9foot 4x4s are now a blackberry trellis, bird feeder posts, bottom support for a row of rain barrels and (cut shorter) the base of a potting/seed starting bench. The 4x6 top beam is the base of a ...

I upgraded when AT&T brought fiber through our neighborhood maybe 6 or 7 years ago. 1G - $70/mo 'limited time offer! will never go up!' So far it has not gone up. Questionable whether I am seeing 1G though. I checked around not long ago and there were no better deals to be had. I've never tried ...

Ocracoke is one of my favorite places, and Autumn is probably my favorite time to be there. That was a brutal cold front that blew through on Halloween, though. Hang in there another night and I think you'll have some great weather for a while. Enjoy!

@ether since you are in Jacksonville and you mentioned the deep south these are some observations on pine forestry in the Southeast which may or may not be applicable to other areas: Anyone selling timberland knows the value of the timber on it, so the cheapest parcels are ones that have just been c...

that's a nice looking ride! Looking forward to update on it. This thread has me thinking...

The views, namely On a recent hike on the top of a particularly majestic mountain, DD says 'I wish I had to poop.' Huh? 'This would be a great place to take care of business and contemplate all this.' And then DS chimes in about some great outdoor poop locations he's experienced and we go down a st...

I think it is important to have a clear, strong vision driving you. Why do you want to be FI? Around the forum this is commonly encountered as 'freedom from/freedom to' discussions. When I first started out I had a strong 'freedom to' vision which helped me set a really good financial base, make goo...

I think most basic quinoa recipes use way too much water, so you might want to play with that to improve texture. A 1.25/1 water/quinoa ratio is pretty good, and I generally do less than that, pushing 1/1. My basic method is - boil water with salt and a little oil, add quinoa, boil about 5 mins, cov...

it's definitely time and temp. A thigh is pretty thick and has a bone right through the middle. The bone (less dense) is fighting against you to get to the right temp (165F, quite a bit higher than even a well done steak...) in a reasonable amount of time. In an oven you have relatively gentle heat ...

Not sure what constitutes edible for you, so not sure what you are looking for, but I have a couple of approaches to chicken thighs. If I want to keep the skin crispy, I'll sear in a pan (with oil) over med high heat until the skin is nice and browned. It doesn't hurt to lift it up and check. Heat s...

This summer I have been doing some fermentation of the harvest. So far I've made a couple of krauts and some chimichurri. Pretty easy and interesting. Consumption results, though, have been, um, unusual? I've consumed significant portions (1/4 cup?) of the various items 3 times now. A few hours late...

I've been getting things going in the garden. I have challenged myself to double the yield from last year. Last year was a disappointing 75lbs or so. I had higher hopes, but I can't count what the deer, rabbits and squirrels ate, can I? So I have a plan for that and I also changed up some scheduling...

I had a few drinks here and there around the holidays and a some this past weekend. Although a couple of drinks with friends and family at the holidays was nice, a couple of times drinking just because -hard day, stress, whatever- reminded me why I quit back in September. Being conscious about alcoh...

Nice score on the truck! My older neighbor has an early 90's era Ford Ranger that I have had my eye on. He is 82 but shows no sign of wanting/having to give up the keys, though.

I'll admit I am just playing in the garden. I have no illusions of being able to extract myself from the global food system. There are a lot of lessons and value to be had, though, and one day I suppose S might HTF, play time will be over and I won't have a choice. Until then I'll just try to create...

@gp That looks like urban foraging at its finest! I am actually kind of jealous. I continue to pick up pecans, but sooner or later I am going to have to crack and clean them all. All you have to do is pop open those packages and enjoy!