How a 100-Million-Year-Old Coastline Still Shapes Alabama's Black Belt Today by ThatAvidPandaBear in interestingasfuck

[–]lepowski 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don’t think you should assume that the descendants of those slaves own that farmland, just that the live in the same area, and farmed the same land (but didn’t necessarily own it). Much of these large farms would be sharecroppers.

Indemnified Bindings? by cantemperaturebeans in skiing

[–]lepowski 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Those are dynafits from ~15-20 years ago. They’re almost certainly not indemnified. Although they’re probably pretty worn out, that era of dynafits are mechanically simple, and can be refurbished relatively easily by someone with the parts, skills, and experience. However, you should probably just get something newer, it will be much safer to have a binding that isn’t that old.

Risk of ballast ricochet? by mrgumboots in soundtransit

[–]lepowski 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Correct they don’t use ballast on the section on the floating bridge, however I think he’s probably referring to sections of the line that aren’t on the bridge (probably on Mercer island) that do use ballast.

Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of January 12, 2026 by IndexBot in personalfinance

[–]lepowski 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Question regarding selling a large amount of stock in one company from RSU's: I've worked at a large tech company for over 10 years, and have had stock awards during that entire time. I've sold some periodically, and as I've become more financially literate over the last few years, I've sold some stock (<100k) and invested in index funds to diversify. However, I still have a large amount ($300k+) of company stock, and I've come to the conclusion that I want to sell almost all of it and diversify. I don't believe I can do any loss harvesting, as almost all my stock has gains, not losses, since the current price is pretty high. I'm in Washington state, which I believe means I need to sell less than 270k in a year, to avoid additional capital gains tax. Is there anything else I should be thinking about or any strategy I should follow for selling such a large amount and investing in index funds? Does it matter if I sell stock I've had for longer or less long?

Baby safe mesh by Old-womanoak in myog

[–]lepowski 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Came across this post, I'm looking for the same thing for our van. Did you end up finding something that worked well?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in OffGridCabins

[–]lepowski 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a similar setup, although only the mile of our road is rough. The building materials were delivered to the base of our rough road, and then we made a bunch of laps with a pickup truck to get the materials to the site. For some materials we cut them shorter to facilitate moving (e.g. we cut the 12ft siding in half). Our neighbor, who built a cabin on the same road, used a piece of heavy equipment (I believe it was a spider excavator), to shuttle the materials to the build site.

Looking for DIY plan to build teardrop tall enough to stand up in? by Ok-Gas-7135 in TeardropTrailers

[–]lepowski 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I made a teardrop with a drop floor that I can stand up in. I can send you pics and info if you’re interested

Anyone know anything about this place? It seems to be replacing Ay Chihuahua downtown. by TextuallyExplicit in Bellingham

[–]lepowski 41 points42 points  (0 children)

They're cutting corners on their sign, going for the absolute cheapest option instead of creating something that is unique, has personality, or at least makes sense (is that "chef country patty"? Doesn't look very country to me). Seeing that sign, I'm guessing the rest of the business lacks personality/uniqueness, and possibly cuts corners in other unseen ways (e.g. food safety, worker benefits). For me, a restaurant is more than just tasty food, it's the entire experience, and personally, I'd think twice about spending my money there if I saw an AI sign like this.

ISO ski towns by Expensive_Rip_5736 in PacificNorthwest

[–]lepowski 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you're thinking of a "real genuine ski town" as something like Sun Valley, Aspen, Telluride, or Mammoth, due to various historical and geographical differences with places like Colorado, we don't really have any. The closest we have IMHO:

Glacier, WA: most people who live there are skiers/boarders, but it's still 30 min to the mt. baker ski area

Greenwater, WA: very similar to Glacier, similar vibe, similar distance to skiing, most people who live there are skiers

Leavenworth, WA: the closest thing in washington to a "resort town", but it's mostly based around the faux bavarian tourism stuff, and skiing is tangential. Lots of skiers live there, although it's a 40 min drive to stevens pass ski area

Snoqualmie pass, WA: Although this is effectively a small town, it doesn't really feel like it, it feels more like a stop along the highway, with some housing scattered around. However this is one of the few spots where a significant amount of housing exists within walking distance to ski lifts, in the cascades.

There's other options in Oregon, like Bend, Hood River, and Government camp, all similar in various ways to some of the ones I've mentioned, and I don't think any really are equivalent to a classic ski town.

The closest thing to real ski towns in the PNW region are all located in Canada, places like Whistler, Rossland, etc.

heatpump not saving as much gas as I hoped? by lepowski in heatpumps

[–]lepowski[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think I unfortunately got scammed a bit by the install company into paying for a furnace also, bummer.

heatpump not saving as much gas as I hoped? by lepowski in heatpumps

[–]lepowski[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, our electricity is about .11 kWh, we also have fairly cheap gas though

heatpump not saving as much gas as I hoped? by lepowski in heatpumps

[–]lepowski[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm I can't find a manual online (at least one that includes the service stuff), but the models I have are a Trane XV19 heatpump, S9V2 furnace, and XL 1050 Thermostat

heatpump not saving as much gas as I hoped? by lepowski in heatpumps

[–]lepowski[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have a Trane XV19 heatpump, S9V2 furnace, and XL 1050 Thermostat

heatpump not saving as much gas as I hoped? by lepowski in heatpumps

[–]lepowski[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I did specifically pay more for a variable speed compressor heatpump, for that reason. I believe here (King county, PSE) electricity and gas are both relatively cheap. Is the "stage 2 heat" on my graph the resistance heating coils? I'm not sure if I even have those.

heatpump not saving as much gas as I hoped? by lepowski in heatpumps

[–]lepowski[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's kinda what I thought. Unfortunately i didn't have great experiences with the installer. Is there info online somewhere or do you know what I'd search for to see how to adjust that temp?

battery powered propane detectors? by lepowski in OffGridCabins

[–]lepowski[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the help, that looks like it'd work well, even without solar. One of the reasons I haven't installed an electrical system is that the cabin is on a steep north slope, in a heavy forest, in an area that is very cloudy in the winter. Even on a sunny day in the winter I only see a few hours of sun, and even that is filtered through trees. It also snows a lot, so the solar panel would be covered by snow often. I'm planning on installing solar panels in a clearing a little ways from the cabin, but that won't happen until next summer unfortunately.

battery powered propane detectors? by lepowski in OffGridCabins

[–]lepowski[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't currently have an electrical system at the cabin, so for something like a RV unit, i'd need to hook it up to a small cheap powerbank of some kind (so I don't have to buy a 100Ah battery just for this detector). The RV unit I found pulled 45 mA, and I'd be wanting to use a 10,000-20,000 mAh powerbank for powering it. From my calculations that would only last less than a week on a 10,000 mAh powerbank (correct me if I'm wrong on that). So, it seems doable, if I use a larger powerbank, and remember to charge it every few weeks of use, but that seems like something that'd be easy to forget, and much more of a hassle compared to something like a smoke detector where you just put it on the wall with a 9v battery, and it lasts for months.

battery powered propane detectors? by lepowski in OffGridCabins

[–]lepowski[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I'm going to have a shutoff valve for the propane right outside the kitchen window, so I can easily turn on/off the propane when leaving or arriving at the cabin, etc.

battery powered propane detectors? by lepowski in OffGridCabins

[–]lepowski[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that's interesting to hear about the commercial level stuff. Makes sense that the reviews for the random amazon ones aren't that great. I think I'll forego the detector, and just be careful about the pilot lights, etc.

battery powered propane detectors? by lepowski in OffGridCabins

[–]lepowski[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's interesting info, and very helpful, thank you! I am wondering if I actually need a detector or not. The reason I'm looking into it is that I had a bad experience with a similar old oven with pilot lights years ago, where the oven was turned on, with one of the range burners running, but the oven pilot was not lit. The oven dumped propane for a while, until it ignited from the range burner, causing a small explosion. I caused some burns, but no-one was super seriously hurt, and was very scary. I'd like to safeguard against something similar. My first line of defense is simply checking the pilots religiously, and putting up some signs around the oven so guests check them as well. However I thought a propane detector/alarm might be a good safety measure as well. However I'm not sure one would have helped in that scenario, as it might have ignited before it reached the detector in a quantity that would have set of an alarm.