Thursday, April 16, 2009

The US Mint Comes Through

I am unimpressed by the US Mint for a couple of reasons. Although I originally requested 3k $1 coins, they only sent my 500. I assumed that I had misunderstood their limits. Well, today I received the remaining 2500--almost a month after I ordered them. They never once corresponded with me concerning the order being filled in two increments. Second, I thought it was a little wasteful for them to ship them for free in the first place. Well, the coins I got today were shipped next day air! This package weighes a good twenty lbs, and Uncle Sam was happy to pay for that. Why do we need all these new coins in the first place?
Nonetheless, I am happy to have the rest of my coins and this financial scheme is now more worth the effort. Making $30 out of the process doesn't really take any more work than making the $5. I will only burn more calories carrying more coin to the bank.


Monday, April 13, 2009

Bees!

Uh oh. I may be putting too many irons in the fire. I just spoke with a bar owner from Waldo Ohio, and agreed to send a $74 check in the mail today in order to secure a 3 lb package of bees that I will pick up on the 22nd. I was turned on to backyard beekeeping quite a few months ago, but it was too cold outside then. In the past few days, the blossoms on the trees around here have been begging for bees. I have to answer that call. Now, despite some advice, I plan on building a Top Bar Hive. It will be a much smaller investment, and is supposedly much more natural. I am pursuing this as more of an adventure and teaching opportunity than a way to get cheap honey, so efficiency is not a huge deal.

I am quite excited, but a little nervous that I have given myself a deadline... I need to have a hive built in just over a week! Say some prayers for me, as well as the bees that will be ours!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Bring on the coffee!

So, I made a significant investment. I purchased 130 pounds of Kenya AA. At $2.75/lb, it wasn't cheap, but by I saved $.25/lb by buying the whole sack. It arrived at Harvest Moon on Friday, and I couldn't wait for Thor to get up so we could go get the sucker. I underestimated the size of the thing, so a kind man helped me carry it to the car. It came in an awesome burlap sack as pictured below>
Everyone who has seen it, asks if they can have the bag when I am done. The answer stands at "no", so don't bother asking. I plan on selling fresh roasted coffee to friends for about the price of Folger's. This way everyone wins, and I can reinvest the profits into our roaster. In the past week, we have roasted around 5 lbs and it gets better every time.












But, as you can tell by the picture of our roaster below, it is quite rudimentary. The thin scraps of metal welded together to make our frame, as well as the piece of crap stock pot drum do not stand up to the heat very well. They both warp, and expand at their leisure with no amount of predictability. As a result, we have had to adjust the machine--meaning hit it with hammers, and bend it with a crowbar-- whenever something goes wrong. There are two problems that have reared their ugly head.

1. The drum expands, the the box shrinks, so the gear motor locks up. BAD.

2. Beans fall out of the machine like a sieve. ALSO BAD.

These complications have had Andy and I thinking, and today he had a wonderful revelation. it is pictured below. Pardon the quality, I took it with my phone.


What is it? That is the cursed wood burning stove that started the fire that destroyed my in-laws old house... It lay in the ashy muck of a basement for a month after the fire, and has resided in a patch of trees at the back of their property ever since. This picture isn't complete--we had already stripped it down a whole lot. Anyway, it will make the PERFECT shell for our full sized final roaster. Andy thinks he can secure a huge piece of pipe that will become our drum. If he takes care of that, I confidently believe that for less than $200, we can build a roaster that will effectively rival commercial roasters that retail for about $10k. I wish you could have seen Andy and I's faces as we removed the sheet metal sides to expose the perfect answer to our prototype woes. I can hardly contain my excitement.

Nonetheless, our prototype does the trick. So, if you live in or around Canal Winchester, I will sell you FRESH roasted top quality Kenya AA for $6/lb. Of course, you may try before you buy, so give me a call, or pay me a visit. I will roast at your request and to your preferred roast. Thanks for reading!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Identity Theft? No way.

Days after receiving my first batch of coins, Stephanie gets an invitation to open an account with Capital One. Imagine that, a credit card offer. They offer no interest for 12 months. So, I go online and fill out all of the info. A few days later we receive the card. Stephanie was asleep so, I went ahead and called them to activate the card. In a world with an increasing transsexual population, I didn't think my male voice would be a problem. Listen to the lines of security protecting this card from the wrong hands:

1. Phone number - They use caller ID to make sure that you call with your home phone number.
PASS

2. SSN - They asked for the last 4 digits of Stephanie's SSN.
PASS

3. Zip Code - Billing zip code
PASS

At this point, I think you would usually have jumped through all of their hoops, but my voice not fitting the name Stephanie had them suspicious, so they kept going.

4. Previous Address #1 - This was multiple choice. They asked what city a previous street she lived on was in... Strangely, the street was "Joshua". She never lived at a Joshua - I loved on a Joshua Trace!? Anyway, we got it.
PASS

5. Auto Loan - They asked how long the terms were for Stephanie's auto loan.
PASS

6. Previous Address #2 - They wanted her parent's entire address.
PASS

7. Driver's License Number - I had to dig into her wallet...
PASS

8. Ridiculous previous address details - They asked me to, "Name a street that intersects 'St. Paul'" (her parent's house) I gave them three.
PASS

9. Family!? - "Do you have relatives in Crookston, MN?"
"My in-laws are from there."
"Can you give me a name?"
I proceed to name my mother, and sister
PASS

10. A woman with a man's voice?
FAIL

So, they still were not convinced, but apparently could not point out the obvious reason they were not. So, they left me with one final test.

11. Go to a bank with the CC, Driver's License, and Social Security Card, and have someone call us to verify your physical identity!
PENDING

Note: Stephanie woke up to feed Thor half way through this conversation, so I could have just handed the phone over to her. She was helping with the answers throughout the last half. But, seeing how far this would go was more important than activating the stupid card so I could capitalize on the US Mint and their introductory rate.

Capital One, I am impressed.

Financial Scheme

A few weeks ago I was pointed to the US Mint's direct ship program. In order to get $1 coins into circulation, they will ship them to you at face value. Why would I be interested in buying $1 coins $250 at a time? Because it is essentially a free cash advance that even earns Cashback bonus! I experimented with my Discover card this month. The limits are confusing and for some reason my $3k order was reduc ed to $500, but they have raised the limit to $5k now. So, this week, I will deposit the coins into my checking account and pay off the debt. Now, this may be a lot of work for a whopping $5 in cashback. But, with an introductory rate of 0% for 12 months and a creidt limit of $10k or so, you get a free $250 or so! This leads me to my next post...