if you want to solo mine then use the inbuilt full node or if you want a pool go with OCEAN
Discussion
That's what I was leaning toward. I had done research off and on for about a year on different pools and noticed they were almost like corrupt gangsters with a bunch of rules to even exclude hobby miners. That's just not the ideology of Bitcoin to me. I'm not in it so much for the money as much as I'm in it for the integrity of a new financial system and the sovereignty of the people. Ocean really seems the only solution at this time that can balance out my goals.
Thank you for your input and I definitely appreciate it.
i am going to do something similar to you soon
Looks like I might have a 6 year heater at this rate on Ocean. Might have to look for a pool with a lower payout threshold. 
What machine are you using
Forget yes, the apollo ii. If i was you id just solo mine to your own pool
I'll keep an eye on it to see if the threshold ticks down more. Solo mining I'd probably never find a block. At least the Apollo II is a solid node compared to the Raspberry Pi's. I tried running my Raspberry Pi with Umbrel and Start9 but both would crack out after a couple days.
Thank you for your continued input.
I was thinking about trying ViaBTC because it looks like they have a .0001 BTC payout. Still learning.