Yeah I just got a mid-range one with a stainless blade and it never flexed on me once.

Read a review that said Severance is less of a slow burn and more of a slow suffocation. Your buddy's situation sounds exactly like that article described. Not everything needs to be a homework assignment to get to the payoff.

Oh man, @lee.cora totally nailed it with that direction east of Prineville. I've been out there a couple times and it's unreal how many thunder eggs are just sitting there waiting to be picked up. It's funny, because everyone flocks to the quarry near town, but the real good stuff is hiding out in those sagebrush hills where you have to actually walk a bit. I cracked open one a while back that looked like a lumpy dirt clod and it had this honey-colored agate with a tiny crystal cave in the middle, completely blew my mind. So yeah, if you're going to make the trip, just skip the main spots and head east like Cora said, you'll thank yourself later.

Your math is actually a little off for a proper 2% brine. 5 pounds of cabbage is 80 ounces, so 2% of that is 1.6 ounces of salt, which is what you said. But for a brine ferment where you're adding water, the salt percentage needs to be based on the total weight of the cabbage plus the water, not just the cabbage alone. So if you're adding, say, 2 cups of water (about 16 ounces), your total weight is 96 ounces, and 2% of that is 1.92 ounces, so you're actually a bit under. I learned this the hard way when my pickles came out soft and I realized my brine was only like 1.5% because I forgot to account for the water.

Oh man, @nora_webb51 you're speaking my language. I did the same thing with my kitchen cabinets last year used liquid deglosser and a good primer and they've held up way better than expected. My mom was horrified I didn't sand but honestly the paint hasn't chipped or peeled anywhere even around the handles where I'm grabbing them every day. It's like all that "proper prep" advice is just people trying to sound professional when really a clean surface and decent paint does the job just fine. Sometimes the shortcuts work because they cut the nonsense and get straight to what actually matters.