Lund Explorer

Last year's wait time was bad at all! As far as baitshops, PM will be going out real quickly.

I have read both of your posts and from what I can see, renting IS your best option right now. Let's look at the facts as you have given them. 1. Your wife only has two part-time jobs that pay very little but has to make payments on three loans between her auto and student loans. Does she make enough to cover all three of these loan payments by herself, or do you pay for them? 2. You have a full time job but state that it doesn't pay a lot, along with at least two loans you're paying on and possibly five loans. 3. From your other post you said "I got preapproved for up to 110k but my wife has terrible credit so they said she wouldn't be able to be on the loan." This sounds a lot like the loan officer/broker/whatever may have approved you by ignoring everything dealing with your wife which would include a bad FICO score, the little income, and the three loans which you might be paying. Did this lender take those other loans into consideration? 4. You said that you guys are living with her Dad, but she doesn't want to do that anymore. It would be interesting to know what Dad thinks about all of this. He obviously knew that "The Kids" couldn't afford to be out on their own when you moved in, so does he think you can make it now, or is he tired of all the company? If I was your Father-in-Law, here's what I would say. I'd look at all of the things you said about your situation, and this Dad isn't really sold on the idea of seeing you two dig another hole for you to climb out of right now. You'd be better off staying put until a few of those loans where paid off, my Daughter found full-time work and her credit rating improved, and you saved up enough to buy the home that makes her happy. Now if the only thing that is going to make that little girl happy is to move out on your own, then it's safer to rent. You're going to dig a much smaller hole entering into a 12 month lease than you will by signing on to a 30 year mortgage. Ironically, I would also expect to see your old bedroom being turned into a hobby room once you've left. That is exactly what I did up here when I went through much the same thing!

My thoughts exactly! Too bad the Big O isn't part of our family tree because I'll bet he'd look good with a viking helmet added to that outfit!

Lots of good advice on here, so I'm only going to chime in with one last thing. At this time, for the guy that can get his hands on the financing, it is a real buyers market whether it's a new or existing home. Most of the builders up here are sitting around dreaming of the good old days when they didn't need to look for work. I know of several that used to refuse building anything under $150 per/square foot that haven't built an entire home for the last 2 1/2 years. A little research and you should be able to get a good discount on the labor portion of a new home. Now is the time to wheel and deal when these guys are scrambling. The only thing you want to make sure of is that the company isn't on the verge of closing his doors halfway through your build.

You might want to visit them to see if they could steer you in the right direction. The only other thing that came to mind was a local branch of MBAA as there are small groups all over western Michigan that hold week night tournaments. A year or so ago, I ran across a website that listed many of the club's schedules all on the one site. Now that I'm done fishing tournies, I didn't think to save it to favorites. If I can remember it, I'll PM you the info. You've got a nice home lake down there. The one thing I do remember from my trips down to it though was that summer weekends can get rather busy. Sounds like Thursday nights would be the time to fish it.

Welcome to the Forum Tyler! I'm not sure if this is the one you're thinking of, but it should be a good start. http://lakedrivemarine.com/thursday-night.htm

We really need an audio app on here, because I didn't know there was a manly way to scream like a 13 year old girl! Anyhow, that's an awfully pretty looking fish with great colors. Not sure about the disease thing though. Looks almost like a wart on the back part of it's dorsal fin, which might be what caused the wound on it's side. Maybe a quick email of your photos to your State's fisheries dept could get you a more definitive answer.

It would be interesting to know when you sent out your resumes, and what your cover letter discussed with regards to what you were looking for. I have my own theory that I have discussed with other accountants on how to hire recent graduates, and many have agreed that their approach is quite similar. The problem is that most graduates don't buy into it. There is quite a wide gulf between the two parties.

Am I the only one that finds it incredibly ironic about your Brother-in-Law's chosen career field? Though the job requires the worker to dig into the financial records of people who should be considered much less than open or honest, the first thing he does is to accept verbatim, everything that a college recruiter (a stranger he has just met) tells him. At this point we can only hope that he pays attention in class! This leads up to one of the most important lessons of life that a young person must learn. Don't believe everything you are told! It doesn't matter if it's the military recruiter that tells you that the drill instructors will calmly teach you everything you need to know about army life, or a college guidance counselor that tries to explain to you that it will be easy to pay the loans needed for a 4-5 year degree by quoting pay rates. DON'T BELIEVE THEM! I can't tell you the number of times that the soon to graduate accountants sent me resumes looking for jobs. I finally got to the point where the only three questions I would ask any of them were their name, contact number, and how they expected to get paid. It's hard to imagine that after almost five years of education, perhaps only one in a hundred understood that their pay would be based only the billable work they could generate for their employer. As far as your Brother-in-Law's future employer pays, he should probably be told to look at the link that Tom D. provided. From discussions I've had with several IRS agents, pay scales are based on GSA levels. A starting employee with no experience can probably look forward to a salary that pays just above the poverty line. Only after a good number of years should he expect to be making a decent wage, which is typical of most governmental jobs. Another lesson of life. People don't go to work for the government because of the great pay. The primary benefits of government employment, at any level, is the fact that employment is normally more steady than private industry pays, along with comparable or slightly better fringe benefits. BTW, some people never learn that first lesson and they are fairly easy to spot. It's the middle aged guy sitting next to the cute little blonde at the bar. He's picking up her tab, and she is telling him how much she adores older men. Because they think more clearly!

What's the name of that program? Not that it would work for long. Mainly due to the fact that any company large enough to have a programmer writing their very own payroll program, would almost always have several levels of management preparing payroll data for entry and then reviewing periodic reports for the employees in their departments, sections, or company wide. Assuming that the manager of the IT section was careless enough to miss the problem, his supervisor or the company's own budget manager would eventually notice the increased costs in that department. Of course like many classes in college, some of these "what if" problems don't mirror what happens in real life. Once a company gets large enough for it to become cost effective to have computerized payroll preparation, management either opts to purchase complete software to do the work in house, or hires an outside payroll firm to perform the task. Using an outside preparation firm reduces costs to the company and provides for less of chance that this sort of thing could happen along with other additional protections. Perhaps why ADT is one of the largest payroll services in the world!

So what were the other two choices? #1 shouldn't matter because if the manager in #2 is doing his/her job, the program will be tested with real data prior to it's use. In all of the payroll programs I've used, the payroll for each employee is processed through data entry and isn't part of the program, which should be working toward tax calculation and reports only.

Build your own ice shanty and you can save hundreds. A number of years ago, my BIL and I built two 4' x 8' portables for less than $150 each. A shack this size can easily fish two people, five holes, with room to spare for a small heater. These also included a strap on box that would hold three five/six gallon buckets, the heater, and auger for trip out and back. They weighed in at around 65lbs each w/o gear. Not too hard to drag unless you got into really deep snow, but that's when all shanties get hard to drag. The first thing you absolutely need though is a quality flasher unit like Vexilar makes. Quite a few days when you can get your limit and be back in a nice warm truck before you'd ever get cold enough to need an ice shelter.

Be very, very careful. It's a little known fact that the bait monkey's parents had a successful career luring anglers to spend thousands on the sport of ice fishing. You'll never know you are in trouble until the day you need to buy a quad or snowmobile to haul all of your gear out onto the ice. If you see this couple, RUN!

My best advice would be to worry less about what is in your boat and more about what is under it. The key to consistantly doing well in fishing whether you are in a tournament or just fun fishing is the ability to locate the fish. Spending the time needed to understand the formula put out by In-Fisherman many years ago will help you understand the process. F - Fish + L - Location + P - Presentation = Success

I'm not sure you need a console for a 10hp as it would be just as easy (and cheaper) to use a tiller model. The only other thing you may want to check on would be your state's laws regarding motoring down the lake with someone sitting above the height of the sidewalls of the boat. Up here, running at anything faster than a no wake speed earns you an automatic ticket. Regardless of that, it looks like you've got a nice project for this winter.

Nice looking pup! Not real sure about the running deer thing, as we always tried to break our hounds from that habit. Anyhow, he should make for good company whether out in the woods or at home. Congrats on finding your new friend.

It's a Classic! Somewhat similar to the first bassboat I ever owned other than it doesn't have a console for the driver. If I remember correctly, that boat was set up for stick steering from the bow seat. Way2slow brings up the most important point regarding the soundness of the transom. Depending on the size of a gas motor hanging back there, you'll need to make sure it can support the weight and tourque. Soft spots in the flooring and worn carpeting aren't nearly as hard to fix as weak stringers can be. IMO that raised deck doesn't gain you a thing if you have to sit down up there, as standing on the original deck should put you at the same height. It doesn't look like you'd have room to run a foot controled trolling motor up there either. If I was working on that boat, I would probably remove the deck and fish it like it was designed. Think about how far down you'd have to reach from that tiny deck to lip a bass. If you really want a deck up there, you might consider bringing it back far enough to provide foot room and a pedastal for a butt seat only. Post us some pics when it's ready for the water.

Agreed! Unless this lake is a 100 acre pond there are bound to be other areas that hold fish. Take the time to locate some of these other non-pressured spots using your electronics. If you do catch them 80' deep, I hope you fizz them before releasing them.

Has the thought of giving up the Nat'l Guard in favor of an active duty hitch crossed your mind yet? It sounds like you needed the better pay and benefits of a year's worth of full time service so why not stretch it out for a couple of years. My gut feeling is that we are going to see a draw down on a lot of these major deployments and/or adventures into new conflicts. We only need to look at the recent success we've had with special forces operations or drone attacks to teach us that the current enemy is not going to be subdued with a more conventional boots on the ground policy.

I can feel your pain! After several longer than normal power losses we purchased a generator for our home. It isn't big enough to power everything at the same time, but it can provide most creature comforts as well as saving the contents of the fridge and freezer. I'm not an electrician so I can't tell you name of the part that allows us to switch from the power company to our own source, however it is a extra breaker that allows for the switch of the source. We simply turn off most of the un-needed breakers, and then turn off one main and turn on the other. I don't think the whole project cost more than a couple of hundred bucks which was much less than the cost of a freezer full of food. BTW, expect a few comments from the neighbors about why you have lights when you first hook it up!

I really want to meet the self-taught accountant who understands GAAS & GAAP, the required steps for a simple Compilation and Review engagement, or can explain breakeven sales. I want to meet the banker or financial institution that will provide a company with financing for a major loan package when the company's accountant isn't either certified or at the minimum accredited. Without a formal education a person could probably become a decent bookkeeper, but that person won't come close to a fully educated professional in the field.

When I finally got to meet you and Keri, our conversations confirmed to me that you folks had a real pride in ownership for this venture. That is something you should proud of. Reading the comments on this thread confirms something that is much more rare, pride in membership. I can't imagine this place going anywhere but up and up, and I can't imagine anyone I'd be happier to see enjoy that success. Great Job! Steve

We're dog people up here. My parents already had a male cocker spaniel when I was born and I was ten years old by the time he had to be put down from old age. Within a year we had a brand new black lab puppy. She became my daily chore for walks each evening and the two of us graduated obedience school though I think the dog did most of the work. Sadly, she developed a rather severe case of canine epilepsy when she turned three years old. While we tried to keep her going with ever increasing doses of medication, we had to put her down as well when she just couldn't handle the disease. I was 14 years old at the time and I never had another dog of my own until after I had gotten done with my stint in the active duty military. However, that wasn't the end of my contact with dogs. My Father worked for Wolverine World Wide back then, and about that time, the company had a drawing for a real live Hush Puppy. Fate placed the winner of the floppy eared fellow just down the block from our home. An elderly couple were the proud parents of that basset hound, and my Mother was nice enough to offer my services for taking "Chuck" to the same obedience school even though I only had a minor part in the first success. Chuck and I got our diploma too, and the die was set! I got to enjoy Chuck's company on nightly walks for about a year before these folks all moved south to a warmer climate. I didn't have long to wait before my Mom had found me another puppy in need of my now impressive resume. Just two doors down, the recently widowed Mrs. B. had a young beagle that her husband had left her with. Maybe Mr. B. just passed away because his wife had named the dog "Sweetie" and he couldn't take it, but I was stuck. Though this little dog was older than her fellow classmates, we somehow managed to teach her that walks were better for everyone if she didn't pull her human down the street each night. Mrs. B. fell in love with Sweetie so much after she was trained that she decided she needed a second beagle pup. Now if you can imagine some poor sixteen year old guy having to walk a dog named Sweetie, you'll be able to appreciate the added trauma of a seventeen year old taking "Cutie" to that same school. Even worse were the days after graduation when I would get to walk them together. Speaking of dogs and other pets being chick magnets just might be true. That might have worked with a dog named Chuck, but not so much when you have to explain that their names are Sweetie and Cutie! Maybe that's part of my problem....

Austin, Everybody comes to a point in their lives when they have to take control over their own destiny, and it sounds like you've made the decision that's it is your time. The best I can do is to wish you luck with that choice. I think you can look forward to a lot of encouragement and sage advice from the folks on here. Use it. With the right amount of drive and determination, sprinkled with a liberal dose of luck you'll figure out how to make it work. Keep in touch with the guys on here like Sir Snook that have worked in your chosen field, and pick the brains of the younger guys who are soon to graduate for their input. It also wouldn't hurt to learn to love Ramon Noodles! Good Luck Steve

Nice Greenie A-Jay!