Footer and Post Page Issues

Hello,

I recently made the switch to minimatica and so far am having a fairly difficult time cleaning up my theme. I have a list of questions, I’m hoping at least a few of them could be answered. I did search through the forums, but couldn’t seem to make some of the relevant posts fit my specific issues. My website for reference is http://www.maineflycastings.com

Issue 1 comes on the homepage. Under my footer widgets, ALL of my post categories are showing up at the bottom. I’m not sure why, and I can’t seem to find any code putting it there. I’d like to remove them~

Issue 2 is also with the widgets on my homepage AND with my post content. I would like to add solid backgrounds to my widgets and post content so I can use my photograph as a background instead of solid black. I know this is likely a css issue, I just don’t know where to add the code, or exactly what to add.

Issue 3 has to do with the featured image in my posts. How can I still add a featured image for the homepage slider, but make it not show up in the actual post?

Issue 4 deals with random lines in my posts. I would like to remove the meta info at the top of each post (or move it to the bottom if possible) and also remove that while line that seems to always be visible.

Issue 5. Finally, I discovered how to enlarge the header box margins, but can’t seem to enlarge the box in the upload section to actually USE a larger image. Any ideas?

Thank you in advance, sorry this is so lengthy!~

-Ben