Best products from r/Portland

I learned a lot of my garden techniques from Growingyourgreens.com - also the best garden book is the "Square Foot Garden" because of its ease in results, simplicity to set up, and in-depth explanations.

For starting something brand new, just go buy a variety of squash, cucumber, and zucchini seeds – just $10-$15 worth, get’m at Fred Meyers or anywhere that sells seed packets. These are very easy to grow, and you can get kid-friendly squash pumpkin varieties. Just set a seed down on the ground with a spot that has good sunlight, cover it with a little bit of soil, and water. Keep watering twice every week because the seeds will take some time crack open and warm weather to germinate. The plants will grow huge, you'll get a nice harvest, a lot more than you’ll be able to eat. Things like tomatoes and peppers require lots of pruning, leafy greens are better in raised beds – but squash, cucumber, and zucchini are an easy win. Also, you should start an herb garden ASAP; lavender, mint, parsley, basil, ect… - herbs grow easily in containers, just keep them in sunshine and give them water.

If you want to rig together something simple, then growing sugar-snap peas and green beans is incredibly simple. Just hang nylon trellis off of anything: the south side of your house, off a tree limb, wherever - plant the peas or beans below. If you do construct something like this, then I’ll even send you some of my rare Achocha seed as a celebratory gift for your introduction to gardening! Just shoot me a PM when you have it constructed.

There’s a secret to fruit trees: go to any of the big-box stores around September or October - during that time they’ll be liquidating the last of their seasonal trees, you can get mature trees for only $10 (normally, $25-$30). Be sure to look into how to “train” and “prune” a tree, and the next year you’ll have an great harvest. If you want to save even more money, just consider growing the tree yourself: save some apple seeds in the refrigerator for a month, then start them outside during spring or summer in a deep pot, after the first year, transplant them. In 3-5 years you’ll have fruit.

Good luck!

Two general types of experience you can get: hands-on, and book learning.

The former is very important, but not too difficult to do. A fair number of people in the Portland area go mushroom hunting occasionally, even if they only know a species of two. Sucking up to the right people is surprisingly effective. Also, getting in touch with or joining organizations like Oregon Mycological Society or the Cascade Mycological Society can be immensely helpful in making contacts and finding hunting partners/mentors.

The latter is also very important, as there is some much you can learn without actually holding a mushroom in your hands. For books, accessible guides like Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest and All That the Rain promises and More are great for getting started, and heftier books like Mushrooms Demystified are good for those looking to take the next step in learning. Online, the hunting and identification board on The Shroomery, Mushroom Observer, and /r/mycology are great places to lurk and just soak in info, while sites like Mushroom Expert are good places to explore and follow what interests you.

Credit card companies get ~3% off everything you spend on their card. So of course they're going to keep letting you do it. If you spend $10,000 on something and use a credit card, that merchant has to give the credit card company around $300. Interest and annual fees are just icing on the profit cake.

That's why you have things like 1-3% cashback cards; they're sharing that percentage with you in some cases, but still mostly keeping it for themselves. I buy everything with credit cards and sign up for new ones all the time, because I get tons of miles/points doing so. I don't overspend, and I never pay interest, and I've earned over 260,000 miles/points so far. I value each mile/point at 2-5 cents.

As far as what to do with your investments; there is a bunch of research available online. I'll again suggest The Bogleheads Guide to Investing as a primer for this sort of thing. There is also the Bogleheads wiki. Morningstar has tons of information on virtually every fund, but you need to know what you're looking at so read the book first to learn things like expense ratios, R-squared, and standard deviation.

As far as investing in things that match your value system, you could invest in local government bonds, which is very beneficial for tax purposes and usually a good, safe investment in your local community, but I wouldn't worry too much about it overall. Investing in any one sector or specific group of companies is never a good idea. You should be investing in index funds, i.e. the whole market. No one, over the long term, has ever beaten the market as a whole. Yes, you'll own a little bit of all the horrible companies, but it's the safest bet for your future and that's not something you really wanna screw around with.

More important than what specific funds you should invest in is at what percentages, i.e. your "asset allocation". I won't go into it in too much detail on this, read the book above for more information, but a popular rule of thumb is to invest your age (e.g. if you're 30, invest 30%) in bonds, and the rest in stocks. As you get older, you change that asset allocation to match your age. If you want to make it super easy, most investment firms have "target retirement funds" that do all the work for you. Most 401ks offer such funds, and you're probably already subscribed to one. It's a safe bet to stick with that.

tl;dr: banks get money whenever you use your card. invest in whole market index funds.

I ride with two cameras that are basically identical to these (the specific ones I have aren't for sale any more): https://smile.amazon.com/Crosstour-Underwater-Waterproof-Wide-Angle-Rechargeable/dp/B074319MZZ/ref=sr_1_7?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1543552105&sr=1-7&keywords=action+camera

and these mounts:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B017JJ06IU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They work great. I charge them both about twice a week, and clear the cards when I charge them (they do not auto-delete old videos, which is a shame, but they *do* record in 10-minute incremental videos).

I don't have any video to share that doesn't have license plates, and I don't want anyone getting dox'd. They are good enough at 1080p that you can pretty reliably read a plate in good light, or if you're behind a car and you have a good head light, you'll be able to read it at night. They work fine in light down to normal street lights, but they don't record much at night, on say, the springwater trail (too dark).

I've compared with older Go Pros, and can't tell any substantial difference, and these were *literally* 1/10th of the price (~$35 / each, they came with the waterproof housing).

I had one incident where I needed to get medical care and a replaced helmet due to being right-hooked; having video made that *very* simple.

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Plenty of my friends garden here. I think it can be difficult to grow things that need lots of intense sun (tomatoes only do so-so), but lots of other stuff can be grown.

This book:
Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening by Steve Solomon is supposed to be pretty definitive for this area. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1570615349)

You can also go to the many farmers markets for fresh produce and advice on growing your own.


As others have said, it's not so much the rain, but the grey. I don't think we get that many inches of rain, but late fall, winter, and early spring can be dreary. But you can drive 80 miles up the gorge and be in sunnier but colder weather.

We get very little snow... maybe one or two days a year where it sticks. A couple years ago, we had snow on the ground for almost a week.

I remember calling my dad (who lived in Wisconsin) one day in the spring. I was out mowing the lawn and he had just shoveled 2 feet of snow off the sidewalks.

I love it here. I'd enjoy living short-term in other places, but of all the places I've already been, this is the one I like the most.

Wow, I'm surprised you followed up on this! yeah.. 100% chance of rain, high of 55. Just off by 20 degrees! hehe

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Yeah as a pretty avid/nutso outdoors weekend warrior year around for 7-8 years, the amount of time I spent (wasted, perhaps?) looking at the NOAA forecast, reading meteorological discussions, and trying to divine what weather would come by the weekend... my ultimate take away is that outside of that specific high pressure summer ridge that develops over the Pacific that gives us our glorious summers, the forecast is especially tough to rely on beyond a few days off, sometimes even less then 24hr out is not reliable. There's a few exceptions to this, the biggest I can think of is when we get the rare occurrence of snow in the winter there's usually a high pressure system in play, that can sometimes give a longer range of predictable weather (usually sunny, clear, and windy af from the east!). But that can last for a few days to a few weeks even sometimes.

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It's that air-mass colliding with the typical weather coming off the pacific that gives us the snow. The difficulty in predicting is that the ocean always wins that battle, eventually, but sometimes the situation is down to the last minute knowing if the colder inland air will hang on for X amount of time as the moist pacific air hits it.

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If you want to geek out on the weather I recommend this book by a meteorological professor up at UW in seattle. It's slightly washington centric but touches on the gorge and Oregon enough to make it plenty relevant.

https://www.amazon.com/Weather-Pacific-Northwest-Cliff-Mass/dp/0295988479

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let's just enjoy the rain tomorrow.. the weekend looks pretty decent!

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It's a very unique environment here with a short growing season. I guarantee this book will set a lot of things straight, just ignore his dogmatism. You can buy it at any nursery, it's basically the bible of veg gardening in the PNW.

Besides reading that book the other thing I strongly anyone to do is use seeds selected for our region. It matters more for tropicals (tomatoes, etc.) but it's always a good idea. Territorial seeds is a good place to start but try to order everything at once, because they criminally overcharge on shipping for small orders. They are also available at most nurseries.

Slugs are inevitable and need to be treated with Sluggo or some (organic?) alternative. Make sure to do a dose in the fall to get the f*ckers before they reproduce. Consider indoor/hydroponic gardening if a short, rainy, sluggy season isn't your thing. Or to supplement to your outdoor garden (it's cheap to grow salad greens indoors, tropicals are another matter).

Lastly some years are "cabbage years", so no matter what you do, we won't get enough sun to get a good crop. Therefore, if you like cabbage you're in luck, because cabbage always produces year after year.

Yeah, those are all looking pretty good. You could probably harvest a lot of that big kale leafs.

Also, for cucumbers, try growing them vertically by constructing a trellis above them. Cucumbers and pumpkins do best when growing vertically as it exposes more flowers to the air (and pollinators).

I like this style: https://www.amazon.com/Gardeneer-Dalen-Trellis-Heavy-Duty-Tangle-Free/dp/B000BZ8FXS/

Also: sweet pad.

Learn to do things yourself. There will be many things you will need to have done to your home over the course of you owning it. You will save tons of money by doing work yourself. Simple things like swapping out an electrical outlet will take you 10 minutes and cost you less than $5. Calling an electrician on the other hand will cost you at least $100. Plumbing is my favorite. There is so much to be saved with doing your own plumbing.

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I recommend this for any aspiring DIY'er:

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https://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-Book-Home-How/dp/0760354766/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1536886540&sr=8-8&keywords=home+repair+book

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002E6RERU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 That sabre? I have the one with dye in it as well, hopefully I don't need to use it but I do love the hand strap for when I go running along the swc at dusk.

Just got back from buying one of these portable units from Best Buy. The Washington Square location had about 10 of them in stock, priced at $449 on the floor. Price-matching to Amazon was easy, literally just showed them my phone, bringing the price to $349.

I spent a couple of hours researching models in the $300-$500 range and this one was consistently rated well (#1 selling model on Amazon too).

Hope this helps!

underarm rashes in natural deodorants are caused by Baking Soda. Its a cheap filler that is good at neutralizing odor but it will cause rashes. Avoid Baking Soda deodorants and your pits should be fine.
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I use ORGANIC 101 deodorant. Its USDA certified and no baking soda (no aluminum either). I think its hands down the best natural deodorant I've ever used (Ive been using natural deodorant for about 10 or so years).
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All their scents are legit. But lately been using their Lemon Haze. Cannot recommend them enough and they offer a 30 day money back guarantee. Maybe check them out:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0ZYGXP/ref=sr_1_46_s_it?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1500575614&sr=1-46&keywords=natural%2Bdeodorant&th=1

Just know how to pronounce certain rivers and areas.Pick up Chuck Palaniuk's Fugitives and refugees http://www.amazon.com/Fugitives-Refugees-Portland-Oregon-Journeys/dp/1400047838, great read about how Portland was and what its has turned into.Have a bike?Go on some Midnight Mystery Bike rides.Downtown P-town can suck some times.Momo's is a good bar.Don't go to VooDoo doghnuts it's such bullshit.Powell's is cool.There is more to Portland then just Trendy Third and Downtown.Check out SE.it's a lot more fun.

Three good options listed here, I've done #3, Nestucca River Road and it was great, low-stress and passes through some beautiful country. From Portland take the MAX light rail to the end of the line in Hillsboro (shoot for mid-day so you aren't trying to cram a bike and panniers on a crowded rush hour train).

Elevation profile

Oregonian article from a few years ago

We left a little late, maybe 1pm and just barely made it to our BLM campground (Dovre maybe?) at dusk. It's all downhill after that to Beaver.

I will add that a few miles of 101 south of Beaver are a little uncomfortable to ride as there's little / no shoulder, unlike most of the rest of 101. If you pass through this section from further north (the Tillamook option, for instance) I believe they route bikes around on a scenic alternate road-- these are well marked and a common feature of 101. However the Beaver / Cloverdale area isn't very long, so it's not a huge concern IMO.

If you have the Adventure Cycling maps they might come in handy. Much more detailed info (accurate elevation profiles!) than what's included in the book everyone gets, but the later has a nice narrative.

EDIT: typos

https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Docking-Station-Support/dp/B0099TX7O4

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put it in this, plug it in via usb to another computer and read your old hard drive like a flash drive.......if then it cant be pulled off, you will need a forensics expert, and you will be looking at $200 per hour to get your stuff :) and, it might be worth it.

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this (and many others like it) turns your hard drive in to a flash drive, and yes, sometimes it wont read corrupt files, in fact, sometimes, files are so corrupted as to never be read again.....hopefully not.

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good luck OP there are tons of different versions of this device, and trying is a heck of a lot cheaper than paying someone to try.

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Roadside History of Oregon
You mentioned Matt Love (who is awesome), if you haven't read it and can get your hands on a copy of The Far Out Story of Vortex I, I'd highly recommend it!

https://www.amazon.com/Delta-Cycle-Airzound-Bike-colors/dp/B000ACAMJC


Yes, just recommended this elsewhere in the thread.

Excellent investment.

That really is the best, and if you like

mushrooms https://www.amazon.com/Mushrooms-Demystified-David-Arora/dp/0898151694
or https://www.amazon.com/All-That-Rain-Promises-More/dp/0898153883

or rocks https://www.amazon.com/Gem-Trails-Oregon-Garret-Romaine/dp/1889786446

If you think mascaras are deathcaps, I strongly suggest not eating anymore wild mushrooms until you get a better understanding of the local varieties. here's a good guide

Neodymium magnets in between the 200-600lb range are the most common, and are quite compact...I have a 330lb one and it is pretty compact...about half the width of the palm of my hand

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DJSYSN1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That's the type I use. You strap it to your hand and then it's just there, and you don't have to worry about dropping it if you're surprised. Very convenient. https://www.amazon.com/SABRE-RED-Pepper-Spray-Protection/dp/B002E6RERU/ref=pd_nav_hcs_bia_t_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WNV2TABVWJFB4DKW1HD9

http://www.amazon.com/Fugitives-Refugees-Portland-Oregon-Journeys/dp/1400047838

>Fugitives and Refugees is a must for anyone who may, in their lives, go to Portland. But its appeal should reach beyond Oregonians. Palahniuk's love of the city is so great, and his stories so weirdly wonderful, it makes one want to get out of the house, get in the car, and drive to Portland right away.

It also has my absolute favorite cover of ANY book. Middle of the woods? Check. Massive fungus? Check. Trombone? Sure. Tuxedo? Why the hell not. It is simply magnificent.

http://www.amazon.com/All-That-Rain-Promises-More/dp/0898153883

Can't vouch for it yet but am very impressed with the reviews on this book. http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Vegetables-West-Cascades-6th/dp/1570615349/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345180353&sr=1-1&keywords=steve+solomon

https://www.amazon.com/Forum-Novelties-Traffic-Costume-Orange/dp/B00T8QWXNY/ref=pd_bxgy_2/142-6322577-3739223 Free 1-day shipping. ;)

This is another 'Roadside History' book and it's fantastic, especially if you're heading to East or central Oregon

http://www.amazon.com/Roadside-History-Oregon/dp/0878422528/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412712010&sr=1-1&keywords=Roadside+history+of+Oregon

I don't have extensive experience with books on Portland, but I recommend Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon

There are appartments and condos and even some neighborhoods that disallow in-window AC units. For reasons.

This is why you can now buy In-room AC units that have an attached hose to exhaust the hot air, and trays for condensate. They are not as efficient, but if that's all you can use, its better than the alternative.



example: http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-MN10CESWW-Portable-Conditioner-Control/dp/B00B2BTAV6/ref=sr_1_sc_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1465224560&sr=8-5-spell&keywords=in+room+AC+exaust+hose

Seriously, I have my mushroom book with the delighted trumpet man on the cover and I just need some rain.

https://smile.amazon.com/Delta-Cycle-Airzound-Hooter-Rechargeable/dp/B000ACAMJC

I've lived here for almost 20 years now and probably half the shows I've been to have been at the Roseland. I've always felt like there was something vaguely dark about it, so when I found out about the murder in its history it didn't surprise me a lot. It's definitely a story from the city's Drugstore Cowboy and Fugitives and Refugees days.