Blow That Dough! - 2020

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Out-to-Lunch They are very difficult to get here in the midwest.

FWIW, they are frequently available at Costco here in the Ohio/Kentucky area. I love 'em too.

[RobbieB]

Yes we are coming up on crab season and good ones should be at the grocery regularly.

[Out-to-Lunch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmm99 The Dungeness crab used to be my fave crab as well, until I overdid it when I lived in the bay area in CA. When I found out that I could pick a live Dungeness crab out of a tank and have it steamed at Ranch 99 (having it steamed was free), I kept on going back for more. I think it cost only around $20 for one Dungeness crab of a decent size (enough for one meal for me). It may cost more now as that was at least 5 years ago though, but probably not by much.

Yup, it was Ranch 99 I was referring to earlier. I didn't know you could get them steamed!

Maybe it was a good thing I didn't know about Ranch 99 and Dungeness crabs when I lived in the East Bay many years ago! Only learned of Ranch 99 on recent visits.

[Finance Dave]

DW didn't like carrying the vacuum downstairs to sweep the basement...so we bought a second vacuum. Nice to have the luxury of being able to do things like that.

[corn18]

Just dropped $2400 on a new telescope. 10" goto Dobsonian. Will be nice to view the Jupiter Saturn conjunction on 21 Dec. If it comes in in time.

[RobbieB]

I gave my 10 inch Dob to my brother in law and just ordered up this 5 inch Mak for its size and good performance on planets and moon.

[jollystomper]

One of projects of interest is tracking temperature/humidity inside and outside of our home. My requirements were to monitor at least 6 different areas and feed the data into my home computing center to apply my desired analytics. I debated the "build your own" option using raspberry pis, sensors, and connecting components, or a more "out of the box" solution. But in true "Blow That Dough" mindset, I realized, "why not both?"

So, for my "out of the box" solution I purchased the Ambient Weather WS-3000 monitor with 8 sensors (description at https://ambientweather.com/amws3000x8.html). The 5 sensor model was about $30 cheaper, but adding one sensor that brought the price to around $10 less than getting it with 8 sensors. The sensors run on batteries, which gives more flexibility for where to place them. The WS-3000 can record the collected data on a SD card. But, folks have figured out how, via its USB interface, to directly collect the data, and code is available for Linux (node.js Javascript or python) to do this. Both the hardware and programming setup was simple, and all is working so far.

This gives me time to play with the "build your own" option as a self-education project, and not feeling "rushed" to get something working. It will be interesting to see how the costs compare..., but no worries, Blow that Dough!

[corn18]

Bought a set of Denkmeir binoviewers with 3 very nice pairs of eyepieces for my new telescope. All in about $2k.

[ArmchairMillionaire23]

***Not retired yet***
Just spent $6500.00 on replacing the roof on our house. In August we spent $5500.00 replacing all the 110 year old cast iron sewer lines with PVC piping throughout the house and all the way out to the city sewer line under the street. In April we spent $2800.00 having a carport installed in the driveway in front of the garage.
Oh, well. Due to Covid we couldn't take any vacations this year anyway. Might as well get the house in order.
(Also - last year in November we had a new furnace installed and I also replaced the roof on the garage by myself - which is why I paid someone to re-roof the house this year )

[music-and-ski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jollystomper One of projects of interest is tracking temperature/humidity inside and outside of our home. My requirements were to monitor at least 6 different areas and feed the data into my home computing center to apply my desired analytics. I debated the "build your own" option using raspberry pis, sensors, and connecting components, or a more "out of the box" solution. But in true "Blow That Dough" mindset, I realized, "why not both?" So, for my "out of the box" solution I purchased the Ambient Weather WS-3000 monitor with 8 sensors (description at https://ambientweather.com/amws3000x8.html). The 5 sensor model was about $30 cheaper, but adding one sensor that brought the price to around $10 less than getting it with 8 sensors. The sensors run on batteries, which gives more flexibility for where to place them. The WS-3000 can record the collected data on a SD card. But, folks have figured out how, via its USB interface, to directly collect the data, and code is available for Linux (node.js Javascript or python) to do this. Both the hardware and programming setup was simple, and all is working so far. This gives me time to play with the "build your own" option as a self-education project, and not feeling "rushed" to get something working. It will be interesting to see how the costs compare..., but no worries, Blow that Dough!

I’m using a Hubitat hub linked to WirelessTag.net sensors. Not so much blowing dough as blowing time tinkering with it.

[music-and-ski]

That seems cheap for a sewer line all the way through to the service!

[ArmchairMillionaire23]

Quote:

Originally Posted by music-and-ski That seems cheap for a sewer line all the way through to the service!

Luckily (sort of) the city was replacing the storm sewer lines and had the road and half my front yard scheduled to be torn up this year so I had the sewer guy work it out with the city so he had minimal excavation to do and so everything could be tied in while the yard and street were already torn up. Plus, I was supposed to be responsible for re-seeding the front lawn after the sewer replacement but after the city put in new curb/gutter and sidewalk, they re-seeded my entire front lawn for me so it worked out really well.

[tb001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jollystomper One of projects of interest is tracking temperature/humidity inside and outside of our home. My requirements were to monitor at least 6 different areas and feed the data into my home computing center to apply my desired analytics. I debated the "build your own" option using raspberry pis, sensors, and connecting components, or a more "out of the box" solution. But in true "Blow That Dough" mindset, I realized, "why not both?" So, for my "out of the box" solution I purchased the Ambient Weather WS-3000 monitor with 8 sensors (description at https://ambientweather.com/amws3000x8.html). The 5 sensor model was about $30 cheaper, but adding one sensor that brought the price to around $10 less than getting it with 8 sensors. The sensors run on batteries, which gives more flexibility for where to place them. The WS-3000 can record the collected data on a SD card. But, folks have figured out how, via its USB interface, to directly collect the data, and code is available for Linux (node.js Javascript or python) to do this. Both the hardware and programming setup was simple, and all is working so far. This gives me time to play with the "build your own" option as a self-education project, and not feeling "rushed" to get something working. It will be interesting to see how the costs compare..., but no worries, Blow that Dough!

Curious how you’re going to use the data. I’m a bit obsessed with home automation, but don’t have weather integrated yet.

[music-and-ski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finance Dave DW didn't like carrying the vacuum downstairs to sweep the basement...so we bought a second vacuum. Nice to have the luxury of being able to do things like that.

Cordless dyson stick gets a lot of use around here, no-one wants to lug the “big” vacuum around anymore except for big jobs.

[skipro33]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbieB Yes we are coming up on crab season and good ones should be at the grocery regularly.

Commercial crab season is delayed until Dec 1st this year along the California coast. Recreational is still available and opened last weekend.

[RobbieB]

Bummer, the fresh local stuff is the best, but we'll still get good stuff from Washington / Oregon.

Just ordered up 5 pounds of fresh Chestnuts -

[Starsky]

DW and I are looking at 5-10 acres of raw land in the desert for a personal shooting range and off-the-grid getaway. Not interested in developing the land, just using it for an adult playground, family 'ranch', and place to park our ORVs and camp out when the weather is good.

[Gumby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starsky DW and I are looking at 5-10 acres of raw land in the desert for a personal shooting range and off-the-grid getaway. Not interested in developing the land, just using it for an adult playground, family 'ranch', and place to park our ORVs and camp out when the weather is good.

I hope you'll build a good backstop, since a 10 acre square is still only a little over 300 yards from corner to corner.

[Helen]

Just dropped about $2k on Christmas gifts for 74 kids who don't have stable housing. I hope it makes their holidays a bit brighter. I will imagine their faces when they see their gifts, that will make my holiday. Now I am hunkering down to avoid covid.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gumby I hope you'll build a good backstop, since a 10 acre square is still only a little over 300 yards from corner to corner.

Ideally they could find a 10 acre piece that is 140' wide. That would allow a 1000 yard high power range with a 30' high berm with a 2:1 sideslope at the end.