Ngl, that line about the seller knowing exactly what he was doing hit home. I bought a used air compressor off some guy once, worked fine for like 45 minutes then started smoking real bad. Pretty sure he just cleaned it up enough to sell it. Sucks when you think youre being smart with money and it just backfires.

Yeah my first batch took almost 4 months before I felt good about burying it. The timing in the instructions is a lie if you live somewhere cold or your bin gets below 70 degrees. I started putting a seedling heat mat under mine and it cut the time down by like 3 weeks easy. Another thing that helped was grinding up eggshells and coffee grounds finer before tossing them in, and adding a fresh sprinkle of bokashi bran every time I added a thick layer. That sour beer smell is normal though, it means the lactobacillus is doing its job. You just need more warmth or more bran, or both.

Yeah exactly, I stopped tracking every single purchase about a year ago and my savings rate actually went up. I just set a monthly spending limit and check in once a week to make sure I'm not way off track. It takes way less mental energy and I'm not constantly feeling guilty about a $4 coffee.

You said "mostly just for speed" - that's how I thought when I first switched. But after seeing a batch of compressions crack in one morning, I'm thinking the cold does mess with them more than people realize. Those plastic bodies get brittle fast below freezing.

Right? Mine crapped out before I even got the timing light to the truck.