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At the house we moved into about 3 months ago we have a Canadian geese problem in our back yard that borders a small pond. Up until three weeks ago the problem was minor, with only a few geese in our yard. We now have 50 -100 of them during the daytime and they make a big mess in the yard. Their...

We recently moved into a house that is heated in part with propane (has a heat pump too) and has a buried 400 gallon propane tank. This is the first home we have owned that uses propane and I don't know much about shopping around for the best supplier. There are several where I live. The tank is...

DW and I are looking to purchase a new home in the Winston-Salem/Greensboro North Carolina (Piedmont Triad) area and plan to visit the area as necessary to find one. If you know of a good realtor that is familiar with the area, please reply with his/her contact information. Also looking for...

Here is the article: https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/tom-farrell-obit Condolences to Mr. Farrell's family. This is another reminder we need to live our life to its fullest before and during retirement.

We're looking at houses and are seeing many that are all electric and heat with a heat pump. This is in building climate zone 4 (the mid atlantic states) and house size is about 2500 square feet). I've only had one house with a heat pump long ago (mid 1980s) and all I remember is I did not like...

This has to be one of the worst days of our lives. We drove 175 miles to look at a house for sale. We met the realtor at the house. The homeowners were present. DW and I looked at the inside of the house while the homeowners stayed outside on their deck. Then we went outside to look at the...

DW and I are looking to buy a new home in a new geographic area and I would like to know what are some of the not-so-apparent items that should be researched and/or looked into prior to purchase. I want to develop a checklist I can use to lessen the likelihood of purchasing a home that has...

I received a 1099-Misc that includes taxable and nontaxable income in Box 3 (other income). No other income is shown. When filing my taxes, how do I report/include only the taxable portion of this income, knowing the IRS is receiving a copy of my 1099-Misc? Here is the history behind this...

We are looking at houses in the Richmond Virginia area and found one we like and plan to see it. Scanning the satelite view in Maps (per the screenshot), I noticed that the neighborhood this house is in is half a mile from the edge of a large stone/aggregate quary (the quary is northeast of the...

I RE'd July 2019 and DW and I moved to the Winchester, VA area that fall and bought a house in fairly new 300 house development. Our house is on one of the outter-most streets. Behind our backyard there are about 200 feet of woods. Outside our subdivision and 400 feet from our house and through...

The Valley Health System and Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield have reached an impasse in terms of contract negotiations for the renewal of their 5-year contract, which expires December 31st. This means that if not renewed, all services provided by this Network of about 6 hospitals and various...

I'm concerned that if the pandemic gets worse (and all signs seem to indicate it will), critical replacement parts for home systems and cars will be unobtainable. I perform all maintenance and repairs on everything in our house and cars and am seriously considering purchasing replacement parts...

A few days ago I received the email in the screenshot. Have any of you that are purchasing medical insurance through Healthcare.gov/your state's insurance exchange) received this email? At first I thought it was a phishing email because my name is not used and it contains clickable links. What's...

40 days ago we bought a new Dyson V10 (cordless) vacuum and the trigger linkage has failed and it won't turn on. Up until the failure we really liked it and it did an excellent job, but are learning Dyson cordless vacuums have reliability issues and that Dyson customer service can be quite...

I am getting estimates to have a fence installed around the perimeter of by back yard and to build a stairway for an existing deck that is 10 feet above the ground. Both of these projects require an application (with plans) to be submitted to my Homeowner's Association and of course, HOA...

5 months ago we bought a 16 cubic foot chest freezer and it was finally delivered about a week ago (big delay due to the pandemic). DW is having a heck of a time figuring out how to organize it to allow us to easily find items and know what we have on hand and how long it's been in the freezer...

Heads up for anyone with ACA subsidized medical insurance transitioning to Medicare, Do Not cancel your ACA coverage before Medicare coverage begins. This seems like a no brainier, but somehow DW did just the opposite, thinking she set up a seamless transition to Medicare. ACA cancellation is...

DW and I purchase medical insurance through the Insurance Exchange under the Affordable Care Act and have elected to apply our approximately $20,000 yearly credit through reduced premiums. We expected our reportable income to be about $45,000 from DW's SS and CD interest. Last week I received a...

For the first time I am growing Zucchini and they have an abundance of male flowers on them. I read that you can batter and fry the flowers for a tasty nutritious treat. Some even consider them a delicacy. I'm not one to try odd new foods, but if convinced battered and fried zucchini blossoms...

Yesterday, while looking for something else in my garage I founed an unopened box of 125 nitrile gloves I bought a couple of years ago and forgot about. I want to give them to the hospital, first responder, etc., with the greatest need. How do I identify who really needs them and how to get the...

I fired at 58 last July after working at Mega Trade Association as a standards developer. I planned to wait until 62 to retire to accumulate what I believed to be an adequate 401k balance. But two things happened that moved my fire date 4 years earlier: 1) Although I really liked what I did...

I am a new resident of Frederick County, Virginia as of October 8th (2019). The house I bought was a cash purchase, so there is no mortgage company involved or escrowing. Yesterday I received from the County a real estate overdue tax notice which included a 10% late fee and interest for a month...

Hello everyone. Well today was it, the culmination of 35 years of work. Up until 2 months ago I never really considered retiring just shy of 59; here's how it happened. For the first 25 years I wo*ked, I made little headway in terms of retirement savings and never really thought about retiring...