phade

Not a bad idea by any stretch, but the "problem" per say is that some people don't have liquid means to repay. Not saying right or wrong, but saddling someone with 50-100K in debt for a teaching job or similar that pays $30-40K upfront makes it challenging with housing costs and what not. Again, not saying its right, but I think it's more about the payment size and debt load overall. Alot of the voting block this panders to, are people who took out SLs for community college and didn't finish or have some low-paying job with a basic two or four year degree. No perfect answer here if there is any type of debt relief. Short of paying back what you owe, of course. Novel idea, but I think that one is off the table.

Farming is not an easy job by any stretch. Tough life. But in some respects I think there are pros to job satisfaction. You probably deal with fewer people that you don't like, don't want to be around or work with, etc. Being around farming a bit, relationships still matter and people are Uber helpful to one another for the most part in the industry. That to me, sounds like something one would enjoy in a profession. Our farmer had a tire go down on one of his smaller tractors this weekend - was pulling out some walnut trees for woodworking. Stuck in an interior wood trail. We had a Li-Ion compressor. Saved him hours of work and he was super excited and appreciative. He went out a bought the same model that evening and let us know, lol. Farmers are good people in large. I think we'll be working a plot on Sunday and fertilizing the ones that went in two weekends ago. Oats maybe if we decide to plant instead of LD weekend.

I wonder if something like a match plan would have been better? IE Up to 10k relief with a 100% match of funds paid down on principal. So if you had $20K in debt, you could pay $10K and be done with a $10K match from the government. I don't know, throwing out ideas for the sake of consideration, but the washing of $10K up front just seems like inflation will keep going. It's like gas on a fire I guess.

They should be as debt relief is usually taxable. I'm sure however, they'll create some code that allows it to flow free.

I'm pissed because I'm going to have to write a check in January to pay the damn thing off. Been letting that money earn some interest since the freeze. It's a hard answer for when people are in or out because you'll never please everyone. I do agree that the cost of college has become untenable and the gov't backed loan system created hyper-inflation of tuition costs. There should have been some structure around it somehow to prevent it - no idea what that would be, but it went unchecked for a long time. Now people are shunning college as a growth opportunity in volume that we haven't seen. It puts kids in a bad spot if they're not going into the job market or trades - I would love to think I was smart at 18, but I couldn't tell a good deal from a bad deal at that age. All I knew was I needed to go to college because I didn't want to do trades for a living (nothing wrong with it, was a preference). Thankfully I've netted positive ROI but it still stinks for those who chose other paths, don't qualify for programs, etc. The in or out slice is just a facet of life and taxes, lol.

I'll be in a stand on 9/24 if all goes well. One month from today. Going to the state fair this weekend with the wife. Everything is a balance.

Dang the bad luck I guess. I have student loans still that I've been sitting on with the freeze in hopes of cancellation. Not going to help me with the income cap. I don't have issue with repaying debts but one must also be realistic if it is enacted that if you quality and don't take advantage of it, you're doing you/your family a disservice. $125K for a family income is one of the worst limits I've seen in a while, esp with inflation and wage growth in past 12 mos. The limits for many other programs are higher at the family level. What that tells me is that he knows his voting base.

You want to talk about inflation impact - treestand costs are up big time. Since most come from China, the support is generally driven by the middle man company in between the retailer and factory. 1.5 stands like the Hawk lineup generally get good reviews, but they all make noise and you need to spend time to set them up and sound proof them. I've owned or sat in nearly every price range of ladder and they all suffer from that same malady. It's just the nature of those types of stands. Black electrical tape, vegetable oil, and some extra nuts & bolts can go a long way. You may need one or all of them to make the stand quiet.

This right here. Corn loses major flavor and sugar content the longer off the stalk. Key is proper harvesting time and quick to table preparation. 24 hours is an eternity. Most of the local corn we get is picked and eaten same day and usually within a few hours.

Nikon makes good glass, but that particular model level ATB is a bit lower in their lineup than where competitors of the Diamondback HD, Endeavor ED II, and BX-2 would be. So you'll see improvement. Alot of tech development really has been in weight, ergonomics, coatings, and the prevalence of ED or extra low dispersion in low-to mid market optics. I've had three main pairs of 8-10x42 in the past 15 years. Crossfire, Diamondback, and Endeavor ED. I really like the Maven line but hard to get rid of the ED - mostly because I got them for $65 at the time on closeout. I think most people would agree that if you buy a quality set of binos, you can go a lifetime with them and not really be missing the newer tech. That type of glass is not cheap by any means. I rarely carry my 10x42s into the stand however. If I bring them in during hunting season, it's usually in a blind covering ground or an observation stand. Otherwise, I run smaller compact binos that can fit into a cargo pocket if need be. Most of my use for the 10x42 is from the truck or buried into a hedgerow, etc. for summer glassing. 10x42 take up a ton of space in a pack and I prefer to go in light.

Search a bit and you will find them under 300, like amazon, ebay etc.

Vanguard Endeavor ED II would be my first choice under $300. Vanguard owns their factories.

LOL a bot posted this and it's now two pages.

We put in a few hasty plots in Ohio this weekend. Four plots, technically, so we will see. We got about four hours of sun after spraying/seeding/fertilizing, and the skies opened up with rain that evening, overnight, and in the morning. I think we'll be fine with rain there. Much different - dry but they're getting rain when needed. Ag fields on the whole look much better and more consistent there than here. Would have been nice to work the ground formally, but I think we'll be OK given the seed to soil contact being good and mostly going with radish and clover, with some larger seeds in a mix spread about. It was very hot there, lol. Hopefully this pays off come in-season. We also set several cams, although not near as many as planned due to Sunday morning being a rainout. Also, for the record, I bought my first WGI product in a long time. A feeder. Go figure Cabelas outside Cleveland had none of the good feeders in stock despite advertising the heck out of them. We put it together yesterday AM and it's tall and has the eliminator spinner plate. Hopefully keeps the coons out. We don't hunt over the feeders much but it's a great place to get inventory along with minerals there.

Caledonia, Leroy, Avon, in that order. My personal opinion, lol.

Salt. Salt. Salt. That is how they flash cook at those high temps. Might as well call the coroner.

For use in a blind I believe? If so, there are good options out there but my experience has taught me those are the pairs where you probably want to spend a bit more money on the lens quality in your situation. Generally you'll get the same good bino construction across similar price points (one not being better than the other), but the lens at the 25-28 objective size will be a factor because you want to get as much light transmission and ED is the way to go to help with low light viewing and aberration. Again, opinion, but I think aberration is worse in a blind IMO because of the way light is inside - it's either bright or dark, and that can cause issues with clarity and use. For whitetail hunting, if I had a pair of 8x42 or 10x42 and an 8x28 or 10x25, I would put more more funds toward those small ones because of use frequency. That is my personal opinion. I too run Nikon for my small pack binos - I got a steal on them due to closeout. Maven, the Athlon Midas, and the Sig Sauer Zulu 3 are probably the ones I would look at if I had to replace these Nikon. I would consider open bridge style to help reduce weight and profile as you noted. Keep in mind I do more stand hunting than blind hunting. If I were you, I might focus more on the lens as noted, which probably puts the Maven at the top of those three. JMO. Sig Sauer is making a name for themselves in the low to mid market across scopes, binos, and RFs. I've sold a ton of them and people rave on them.

A trick to note if you're trying to balance crispness with soft dough on the inside. Set a small amount of water inside the oven or grill on a cast iron skillet, etc. Right next to the pizza. About five minutes before completion. It'll put in just enough moisture as the crust seals up at the end.

Lite/reduced recoil have been pretty rare in my journeys this past few months. Seen more of the Hornady and Remington lines than the Fusion in particular. I hope you find some.

Dang, I could have got them for you a bit cheaper as I have an account with them. Nice glass. I know a few people like them alot - they remind me of Vortex back in the early days of their business before turning into a mass/big box effort. I don't run any of their stuff personally, but I've moved a fair amount. Their scopes are good too for the money. Most of my optics are Sig Sauer, Bushnell, Vanguard at the ED level. I really like Maven but I can't justify the price gap between them and some of the legacy lines like Zeiss. The Argos line up is good though.

Since we changed our strategy a few years back, I think we're at a happy medium with plotting. One season we spent entirely too much time, effort, money on plotting and didn't get done the other things we needed to get done like stand prep, moves, glassing, etc. 'Twas a crap season. After that we agreed to keep plotting to a minimum of days/time investment. I believe this year we'll have 4-5 work days into plots across May-August, with 2 of them being "full days." In alot of instances we touch a plot 2x and are done, and sometimes it's a 1x of seed, fert, spray, or disc seed fert. We've had no noticeable drop in plot performance or huntability. I still think in alot of instances the plotting efforts are not an overall positive ROI. Hard to really determine whether we make a difference or not in success. Without a doubt there are times, like early/late, but it's not a magic button. We hunt in higher ag areas so that likely is a factor, too. I went over my wall - I have one buck shot on a plot. That's it. Late regular season I think. Looking at misses - my FIL missed a 5.5+ on a plot 2x (I was with him in the blind), and at passes - several encounters with 2 and 3 year olds. So I guess it does help, but certainly a tail off of encounters with 4.5+ bucks that I can recall over the years.

It's a sweet sauce. We find that most people really like it. I'd say the sauce throws 1 out of 25-30 people for a loop because they don't like sweetness. It's an original recipe dated back to the 40's/50s. But it's extremely unique - I haven't yet found anything similar across all of my travels. We do find people are very loyal to it since it's not replicated elsewhere. People from the towns where we have shops - who move away and come back to visit family - often make it the first meal as a pilgrimage of sorts. Pretty humbling for the family. It's also not cheap. Premium pricing due to ingredient cost.

https://www.pizzalandinc.com/

We make our own as our family has a few pizza shops. 65-75 years running and won Best Pizza in Rochester running away the one time we entered. Got to the finals and doubled the vote count on the #2 finisher head-to-head. Sugar and Lemon juice....

I’m sure I’ll still do that at some point. Elk and maybe a ram hunt. But once those trip hunts are done, the money is too. Land will always have some value to cash back in if truly needed on some level. As Nomad said you’re transferring asset classes.