Fundraiser – FL4TFEST Overland Adventure

I am participating in an event in about a week and a half that is a fundraiser for a couple of Wisconsin based charities.

This is a Subaru specific 3 day event called the FL4TFEST 2021 Overland Adventure. Approximately 30 Subaru owners will be adventuring on backroad trails through Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and camping somewhere new each night.

Their goal is to raise $15,000 for 2 Wisconsin based charities.

The 2 receiving charities for this event are the Dane County Humane Society and the American Family Children’s Hospital.

I would love it if I could bring in at least $200 for the charities.

If you would like to donate, please visit this page and find my name (#12 – Chad Davis): https://register.cheesewheelinc.com/events/fl4tfest-donations/

Donations are done in increments of $5 (minimum amount). If you wanted to donate $20, you would simply change the quantity to 4

And if you don’t like me, but still would like to donate to the cause, just pick any other participants. ;)

Thank you for reading this far, and a very big thank you if you choose to donate.

A little back story about me and why I’m involved with this. Last November I bought a stock 2012 Subaru Forester from the online car sales vendor, Carvana. Over the last 10 months, I’ve been modding it to turn it in to the adventure mobile that it has become. Subarus in their native form are very capable, but I wanted something that could take me just a little bit further. This last week, I had my first real multi day adventure and was part a small group that traversed across the Upper Peninsula of MI on mostly backroads and camped in 3 unique locations. It was an incredible experience and completely justified all the work I did to the car (even though there was a bone stock Crosstrek that handled every obstacle we faced). The above event will be my second multi day event and I cannot wait to see what the roads less traveled bring!

Over the course of 2021, I have had a lot of day trip adventures around Wisconsin visiting many state parks, and I do share quite a few photos on my Instagram account, which can be found here, if interested: https://www.instagram.com/cdaviswi/

My K-Cup Review Log

Keeping track of the different brands and flavors of K-Cups that I try.

BrandFlavorRatingNotes Purchase
Tim HortonsOriginal Blend8 / 10Very goodAmazon
Cafe FairMorning Blend7 / 10This is the brand of of ground coffee I used daily, wasn't as good as the ground, but still decent.Steep & Brew
Seattle's BestHouse Blend8 / 10Surprisingly goodAmazon
Caribou CoffeeVanilla Hazelnut Dreamstate5 / 10Smells good, and initially tastes good, but weird aftertasteAmazon
McCafePremium Roast7 / 10Better than expected, and pretty mellow.Amazon
Door County CoffeeVanilla Creme Brulee6 / 10Was worried as this was brewing. The smell was not appealing. But overall wasn't bad.Door County Coffee

My cryptocurrency mining computer

Currently I dual mine Ethereum and SiaCoin.

I’m no expert on the topic, just a long time tech geek that likes to try stuff and see if I can get something to work. The setup I use works and is currently generating .05 ETH every 5 days and 500 SiaCoins every month. Those numbers are relevant as they are the minimum payout amounts with the mining pool I use.

Mining Computer Build (with the prices I paid for the part)

MotherboardBiostar TB250-BTC102.99
CPUIntel 7th Gen Celeron43.98
MemoryBallistix Sport LT 4GB52.99
PSUCorsair HX850i 850W164.89
SSDADATA 128GB49.99
NetworkingCanaKit Wireless Adapter - Already had this laying around0.00
OSWindows 10 Pro0.00
GPUASUS GeForce GTX 1060 3GB214.99
GPUASUS GeForce GTX 1060 6GB298.98
GPUASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB499.99
AccessoryVICTONY 6-Pack Powered Riser Adapter Card45.99
AccessoryElectop 2 Pack PC Power Cable5.29
AccessoryBelkin Conserve Insight Energy Use Monitor31.69
CaseJust built something out lumber I had laying around0.00
Total1511.77

Regarding the OS, I had an extra Windows license available, so that’s why it shows zero dollars.

The computer runs headless and connectivity is over WiFi, so the only cable going to it the power cord. I use a remote support app when I need to log in to it and do anything.

Software and services:

Software:

I use the Claymore Dual Miner software for Windows to mine both SIA and ETH. In order to mine, you need a location to send the payouts. I use Exodus for the ETH wallet and Sia-UI for the SiaCoin wallet.

Mining Pool:

At the moment and for the last couple of weeks I’ve been using nanopool.

Alt coin trading:

Right now my current strategy is to mine ETH, and then trade that for other types of alt coins and build a large portfolio of alts, hoping that something goes to the moon! I’m doing my alt coin trades using Binance. An easy way to get started buying, BTC, ETH, LTC, or BCH, is with Coinbase.

FAQs:

Q:  How much power does this draw?

A: According to my usage monitor, it averages around 400 watts.

Q: What is the hash rate achieved from this setup?

A: The total for my 3 GPUs averages 61 Mh/s. The breakdown would be 1060 3GB: 16 Mh/s, 1060 6GB: 20 Mh/s, and the 1070: 25 Mh/s

Q: Would you do anything different?

A: If money were no object, I’d go all high end GPUs. However, I would avoid the 3GB 1060’s altogether. It seems for the little more money that the 6GB cards are, the improved hash rate will prove more profitable in the long run.

Q: How long will it take to break even on the cost of this setup?

A: Based on today’s ETH price, and taking in to consideration the power expense to run this, it will take approximately 6 months to pay for itself.

Again, I’m no expert and this isn’t a howto, just listing out what I use to mine. Post any questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.

Photos of the setup:

Finally used the Instant Pot

I ordered an Instant Pot from Amazon last month when they had them on sale. When I received it, I took it out of the box and put it on the shelf, where it sat…until today.

While perusing some instant pot recipes on Pinterest, I came across an extremely simple cooked carrot recipe that claimed it only takes 4 minutes. Looking at the ingredients (carrots, chicken stock, butter, and salt), I had everything so I decided to give it a shot for lunch.

I was certain there’s no way the carrots could be cooked to my preference in only 4 minutes. To my surprise, in only 4 minutes, I found that not only were they cooked and extremely hot, but borderline overcooked. I’m now searching for the next thing I want to cook!

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Be careful if the Kenosha News has your email address

Either the Kenosha News customer database was hacked or they sell customer info. I wouldn’t be surprised by either one. This is the second email I’ve received in last week from someone that has a malicious attachment. I know it’s from my Kenosha News account as I use custom email addresses for any service I sign up for. As you can see in the screenshot the email that it was sent to.

While you should practice safe email procedures all the time, just be extra diligent if the Kenosha News has your email.

So far so good with the Roku

A few weeks back I announced I was going to get a Roku Ultra as I’ve grown tired of the piece of crap Apple TV 4. Well I didn’t get a Roku Ultra, I instead got a Roku Premiere+, which is the step down from the Ultra. And I didn’t replace my 4th gen Apple TV…..yet. I decided to install the Roku on my bedroom TV and replace the aging 2nd gen Apple TV I’ve been using. I really do like Roku. It’s nice having Amazon Video has a choice. The remote control is superior over the Apple TV remote. And the fact that I can plug headphones in to the remote is a nice tough.

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And if you didn’t know, there is a Roku app for your smartphone (at least for ios, not sure about android) that allows you to control the player as well as making it way easier to type in text. And it also will pass through audio if you have headphones plugged in to your phone.

Another nice feature that I discovered by accident was that I could stream the Youtube video I was watching on my iPad to the Roku. Not sure if works with other media apps, but does work for Youtube.

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Hopefully soon I can replace the other 2 Apple TV’s in the house.

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