I haven't seen any discussion of CEF for quite a while. As I recall, some here were unhappy with its acquisition by Sprott a few years back. Does anyone here still hold it? What is your current thinking on this fund?

And for those who would otherwise wonder, this is how a post count increases by an average of 212 posts a week.

But then again, who could possibly have predicted that they'd manage to kick the can down the road this long? It could just as easily have happened that equities crashed, bonds surged, and gold went "to da moon," as many predicted it would. The thing about gold, however, is that there's a ...

Barrett, I misspoke. Sorry. It's "bonds," plural, amounting to about $15K. As an aside, the majority of my bond allocation is in Wellesley (VWIAX). Wellesley's managers, of course, are constantly churning their holdings, so in that sense I am getting some exposure to new, higher-yielding b...

Could we possibly revisit this question again? I've now lost greater than one-third of the original value of my 1.8 percent bonds, and today's action (plummeting stock market coupled with plummeting LT bonds) gives me no reason to believe that long-term bonds have any remaining purpose in my portfol...

Selling bonds at higher and higher rates (as demanded by new purchasers, and financed by massive printing) and allowing holders of old bonds to take a haircut. Sounds like a default to me.

I will soon be using this comprehensive, detailed article to guide me in building my first bond ladder. Treasury bills / bonds only, of course! Vinny How To Build A Bond Ladder https://www.theretirementmanifesto.com/how-to-build-a-bond-ladder/ Vinny is there a particular reason why you'd like to op...

Well when you're through giving each other hugs, maybe we could have a discussion about when eccentricity, narcissism, obsessive-compulsive behavior, and the need to dominate (not to mention whatever political motivations may be at play) become abusive of, and destructive to, the forum. Is the night...

I never thought I'd come out in favor of posting limits, but you're right--this has become both tedious and abusive. It has driven off many of the better posters and has caused the overall IQ of the board to descend by at least 50 points. It was clear to me over two years ago that there was an agend...

We need a thread for freezer meals. Pictures or it didn't happen.

How many freeze drying runs do you expect to make with this machine per year? Out of curiousity. And what items do you plan to eat routinely as opposed to building up an emergency food stash? So far I've been doing a batch every couple of days, so at this rate, maybe 150? I confess I've been dippin...

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It takes about 30 seconds of Google (or DuckDuckGo) searching to find out that NaturalNews.com is not a useful and reliable source of...well, anything. . . I'm aware that they often get their facts wrong. But this is a thread about freeze drying. It was just to add a little flavor and snark to the ...

At 20 amps / 110 volts and at my cost of electricity a total cost of $4.00 in electricity would be running it only 5 hours for that batch. But why should we care? California has just decreed that everyone gets unlimited electricity for $20 a month. Under the new plan, you’ll pay just $20 / month if...

With freeze dried meat, (whole pieces or strips, not ground) do you just open the package and eat it like jerky? Or throw it in stews? Or what? So far I've dried ground beef and chicken/turkey shreds, but never strips or whole pieces of meat. However, there are plenty of YouTubers who are doing it....

At 20 amps / 110 volts and at my cost of electricity a total cost of $4.00 in electricity would be running it only 5 hours for that batch. Mine doesn't run at 20 amps. It is on a dedicated 20 amp circuit, but it maxes out at 16.1 amps. Moreover, the amperage is not constant. During the freeze cycle...

My back-of-the-napkin calculations say that a single run costs about $4.00 in electricity. Add $1.00 for mylar and O2 absorbers, and you're looking at about $5.00 a batch. This is a REALLY rough comparison, but Provident Pantry #10 cans of chicken (24 servings, they say; roughly 1 gallon?) are runni...

The negatives: (1) The Harvest Right freezer dryer (which appears to have cornered the market for home freeze dryers) is large and heavy. It is about the size of an apartment-sized refrigerator, and it weighs 112 pounds. It can be placed on a rolling stainless steel cart if it is sufficiently sturdy...

Yes Maddy, tell us more! How is your freeze drying experiment coming along? Interested to hear if you think it's worth it to reduce your freezer space needs. Have you considered fermenting vegetables? Those also can store indefinitely and don't require refrigeration if you do it right. It's definit...

It seems to be a pretty efficient way of putting away lots of food in a short period of time. It's food that doesn't have to be rotated or otherwise fussed over. If the electricity goes out, I won't have the worry of trying to save it. With the medium-sized model, I can do four dozen eggs at a time,...

Has anyone else bought a home freeze drier? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNqSpuExyhQ After seeing more and more of my homesteady friends get them, I finally did it! Normally, I'd view something like this as way too extravagant, but considering last year's dress rehearsal with supply chain issues,...

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I don't know whether such a thing would actually be legal today. Can people with moderate to late stage yet not immediately terminal Alzheimer's consent to assisted assisted suicide? So yeah, tomorrow's political issue. Isn't assisted suicide presently legal in Oregon? I would think that if a perso...

My heart goes out to the few who take on this herculean feat. And I have all the respect in the world for those who do.

Juries love sob stories. whats the reason victims would be under-compensated. Insurance company donations to judges? Car accident victims seem well compensated, even when fault isnt totally clear. It is not judges, generally, who determine the amount of damages in a jury trial. (An exception is whe...