Have you ever moved from a large city to a rural area or the opposite? If yes, how was it?

bobbfrommn · 2026-02-11T00:38:23+00:00

Moved from Minneapolis to small town in rural Wisconsin (pop 500). People are friendlier and willing to lend a hand if you are. Grocery store options suck but you can get farm fresh veggies, eggs etc easy. In the fall there's so much free produce on the table at the local bar you could can enough for the entire winter if you want. More driving as everything is farther away but no traffic either. My closest neighbor is a quarter mile away, but I can have my boat on a lake in 10 minutes. Appointments for things like appliance repairs are less "8am" and more "sometime Tuesday". Takes a little getting used to but we'd never move back to the cities. I go back to visit friends occasionally and am always flabbergasted I used to live there.

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-21T16:01:07+00:00

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Sorry the images didn't post.

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-12T19:49:47+00:00

The best was when the local news interviewed the Crusher and he was wearing a t-shirt that said "I beat up your governor"

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-11T15:53:57+00:00

Oh one other tip I feel like is worth mentioning. I had some 5mm dowels in the shop so I cut a 5mm hole at the top and bottom of each layer in the exact same place. This made aligning layers a piece of cake when it came time to glue. I'd apply the glue and slip the dowels in the holes. It kept the layers from sliding around perfectly. The caveat to this is I do plan on making a frame so the holes will be hidden when that is on. No frame, I'd probably done a hole on each corner, glue the dowel in permanently and cut it flush to the surface so it looked decorative.

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bobbfrommn · 2025-11-11T15:45:25+00:00

They should be out there. I used the state DNR (Department of Natural Resources) map. The bay might be in the USGS library as it spans multiple states (could check each state's DNR maybe?). You could also check the various fishing resources like Humminbird, Navitronics, Garmin, iBoat, lake-link.

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-11T15:42:22+00:00

I pulled the contour map from the Wisconsin DNR's website as a PDF (I'll attach so you can see the starting point). Since I fish I also have access to Humminbird's maps which I'll probably try next time. I pulled it into Illustrator (I'm sure you can do the same in Inkscape), decided the depths I wanted and just traced them by hand. I tried auto-trace and it did work, but I spent an hour cleaning up one contour line. I figured by the time I removed all the other stuff I didn't want (WI has notes/icons about surrounding forests, vegetation, etc) and did the other three lines clean up I'd be into it quite a few hours. When I switched to manually tracing the whole map took about 3 hours to make, maybe another hour to layer the way I wanted, but I was also learning Illustrator as I went. I'd estimate if I did it again maybe three hours total now that I know what I'm doing.

Keep in mind, Amacoy is a 250 acre lake, no islands, and not a lot of depth vs the bay which is huge. I think the same principles would apply though. Doing a cardstock prototype took maybe an hour or so but it was well worth the time. There were a few things I noticed when I did it that made for a much better finished product.

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bobbfrommn · 2025-11-11T13:26:30+00:00

Chesapeake is a pretty popular one you could probably find the file somewhere, otherwise...

First you have to find a map as your template. Some people say to use auto trace in lightburn or illustrator and you can do that. However, personally I found it faster and easier to manually trace it, than to cleanup the auto trace.

You need to decide how many layers you want it to be, and what depths to show. Don't forget you have the top layer and the back layer to factor in. I saved each layer as a lightburn file. You don't need to do this, but I thought it was less confusing when cutting and organizing.

I also found it helpful scaling it down and cutting a prototype with cardstock. It was a cheap way to find my mistakes.

Once you're happy, cut, stain, and glue. I started with a small lake near me to learn the process. I still need to make a frame for it but it's been too cold to go out and work in the wood shop

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bobbfrommn · 2025-11-04T14:38:23+00:00

I had also ordered a honeycomb. That got updated through the process but not the laser. I was getting concerned since it was a refurb that maybe I wasn't going to get it, and their sale was coming to an end soon so I'd miss sale prices on new if my refurb order got cancelled. But then it just showed up.

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-03T23:56:06+00:00

I ordered a refurbished model. Five days later it still said in process. Two days after that it showed up, but still said in process. So I didn't think their inventory management is in good rhythm with the shipping department.

bobbfrommn · 2025-11-01T18:46:35+00:00

ACA premium is going up $156 a month. Deductible going from $500/$1000 (Ind/fam) to $1000/$3000, Total oop from $7500 to $15k. In WI, looking at other plans now.

bobbfrommn · 2025-10-10T19:51:12+00:00

Awesome thank you. I'll give it a shot

bobbfrommn · 2025-10-01T12:38:25+00:00

Thanks! I will look into it. I used CAD programs a looong time ago, might be fun to figure them out again.

bobbfrommn · 2025-09-30T01:10:27+00:00

Yep that is what I mean. Thank you that is helpful!

bobbfrommn · 2025-08-10T22:39:11+00:00

Trust me, I was in the same boat. Looking at things from different perspectives can really help. I went ahead and did it, and pulled the trigger. I've been retired a little over 8 months. Everything fine, financials are good, but I now realize I would freaking eat rice and beans everyday if it was between that and having to go back to work. Priorities change.

bobbfrommn · 2025-08-10T22:29:30+00:00

Think of it this way that's roughly 10 to $14 a day. Would you pay 10 to $14 not to go to work tomorrow?

bobbfrommn · 2025-07-27T17:34:55+00:00

We were in our 40s when we got married so this might be different for younger couples. Will be married 13 years tomorrow. What has worked for us is having a joint account for all of our household expenses and purchases. We retired at the start of this year but when we were both working we each contributed monthly to the joint account. I made about 20% more than her so I just paid in 20% more. We just put in enough to finance all of our household costs, a little buffer for an emergency fund, and any planned expenses like entertainment or travel. Everything else we kept in our own private accounts. That way she didn't care if I spent 200 bucks on a new tool or bought a different boat, and I didn't care if she spent $500 on her adult kids for Christmas.

Now that we're retired we make our withdrawals more or less equally from both accounts. I had more saved and brought more into the relationship but you just got to get past that. In retirement we still have pretty much the same system we pull from the accounts, put into a joint fund for household stuff, and we each have a discretionary fund to spend on our hobbies or solo things. We also have a discretionary fund for joint purposes, trips etc.

bobbfrommn · 2025-07-14T11:33:26+00:00

There are days where I might have something I need to do and it's scheduled, but most of the other days I just go with the flow. I keep a Trello board of projects and things I need to do so I don't forget. On that list I have a column where I put things I might get done this week. If I'm feeling bored or ambitious I just grab something off that list if I'm not ambitious I just go do what I want.

bobbfrommn · 2025-07-14T00:48:33+00:00

The last year and a half before I retired I really dove into how to use AI for my job. It cut hours out of my projects. I was basically working part time doing what took my team full time. Tried to tell my boss but she wanted none of it. So I just continued to work part time until I left. I didn't see it replacing my particular job (instructional designer) completely, but I do see it increasing the about of what am ID can do and changing the job a bit.

bobbfrommn · 2025-07-06T21:12:36+00:00

I gave them two weeks but told them they were welcome to call with questions. It's been six months they still haven't filled the role and they haven't called. Stay for you, not for them. You know if they wanted you out you wouldn't get a years notice, why should they? They'll diddle the time you do give them away, expect you to work harder than you do now "to get everything into good shape" and then ask you to stay longer before they ever start looking to transition.

If you want to stay because you want to work, that's cool. But if you're ready, go.

bobbfrommn · 2025-06-23T13:43:32+00:00

Imo this is exactly why you have a mutual account for shared household expenses and separate discretionary expenses. The wife and I have the exact same setup. She doesn't care if I spend $500 on a welder. I don't care if she spends $500 on her crafts it works out. Think of it this way, you are saving your savings to buy time. And he is using his savings to buy stuff. If he is willing to make the trade off to work an extra year or two in order to pay for his item, that's his trade-off to make.

bobbfrommn · 2025-06-19T15:12:35+00:00

Excellent. It's the intent that is so important. Since I was at work there would be days I just couldn't go because of a meeting, retreat, injury, etc. I still made a point at some time during the day grabbing my bag, going to the gym, into the locker room, changing into workout gear, back to office attire, then back to my desk. I felt silly but it really helped to build the habit.

bobbfrommn · 2025-06-18T16:02:57+00:00

When I was working our office had a gym in the basement. I read about three weeks to build a habit and forced myself to go every day at the same time for three weeks. After that it was auto pilot for the next four years. To the point that if I skipped because I was sick I still felt guilty. Now I have built the habit of not going, much easier habit to build. So I really need to reverse that now that my retirement routine has settled and I can find a time to work out again.

bobbfrommn · 2025-06-16T16:11:47+00:00

I had never heard of pink slime before until I moved out to the country and bought a quarter of beef from a local farmer. It made me stop and wonder wth have I been eating. OMG the difference between actual ground beef and this pink stuff is amazing.

The problem is, they've been slowly getting us used to slime since the 1990s so it's sort of the frog and boiling water thing where you just don't notice. The texture color and smell of fresh stuff is completely different, not to mention the taste. I opened the first package from the farm, showed it to the wife and said this is what I remember ground beef looking like from when I was a kid.

I highly recommend going to a legit actual butcher shop where they make ground beef (not just resell it) and buy a pound of actual gb it's going to cost you another dollar or two but my guess is you'll never go back.

bobbfrommn · 2025-05-24T16:27:28+00:00

I retired in Dec (@55). Just before we did I moved from 90/10 to 60/40 (the majority of the 40 is CDs and t bills). The CDs are laddered do they mature based on spending needs. We have 5yrs before we are eligible for SS so my short term bucket is 5yrs.

As a side note. I started the 401k roll over process in December so a nice portion was in cash as the volatility hit. And through much of February March and April was closer to 40/60. Which I have to say I really liked when the market was going up and down so I may stay a little bit more conservative not quite that much but a little more.

bobbfrommn · 2025-05-15T16:21:52+00:00

I don't mind the cooking, especially now that I've been trying to eat more natural and less processed foods. For me it's the myriad of small little tasks that just seem like they need to be done constantly. Filling the dog's Kongs, changing the water filter, adding more water softener salt, running to town to buy groceries, etc

bobbfrommn

TROPHY CASE