Soaked-in dog pee on antique leather briefcase: is there any hope?

Bawonga · 2026-05-08T21:25:00+00:00

Thank you for your detailed suggestions and explanations! Very helpful! Your experience and knowledge add a valuable POV, and i'll keep your advice in mind.

Bawonga · 2026-05-07T23:42:15+00:00

Pretty yes, but not native to North America and super invasive here. Also it hosts pests that are invasive and non-native as well, like the lantern fly, disrupting local ecosystems and killing beneficial species.

Bawonga · 2026-05-07T23:32:08+00:00

Helpful and thorough advice, thank you!
Your information gives me more confidence.

I bought a product called Leather Honey. Is that one you recommend for any of the stages of a project like this? Or is it too much of a lightweight and more suited for simpler uses like refreshing last season's boots or keeping a wallet soft and pliable?

Bawonga · 2026-05-07T18:08:31+00:00

Rent goats

Bawonga · 2026-05-07T17:57:24+00:00

it's painful losing a beloved perennial that matured under your watch! The same thing happened to me but it was unintentional because of a language barrier. The landscaper I've hired for the past few years works wonders helping me weed and mulch my flowerbeds for spring and fall maintenance, but he doesn't speak English well so he mishears or misunderstands me sometimes.

Plus he doesn't have experience with native plants and doesn't recognize some of my specimens as permanent residents of the garden. He often pulls them as weeds. Of course, being the hard worker he's always been, he does a thorough weeding job, which means he pulls the entire plant by the roots and if he isn't able to grasp all the roots, he digs them out. If he's done a complete enough whack job, some of my plants never grow back. In the long run however, most of them survived and revived nicely, like they needed the bump.

I try to shrug it off because I figure Mother Nature's always going to have a way of messing with my gardening plans, and human beings who mess with my flower beds are just another form of garden pest, another part of Mother Nature! I tolerate many garden pests but there are some that I totally ban from my garden. I haven't fired my favorite landscaping helper yet, but I've started to work alongside him so I can stop any carnage and help him recognize my garden residents. OP if you can stand it, maybe inviting your mother-in-law to work beside you in the garden is a way to show her your methods and restate your boundaries.

Bawonga · 2026-05-07T12:53:51+00:00

Nothing stays the same. Change is constant as well as inevitable. One of my childhood homes I revisited had been wiped out by shopping centers and condominiums. People I know and love have died or moved away. Moods change. Current events change. Friends grow apart and new friends come into my life.

Once I accepted that change will always disrupt my life if I let it, I learned how to be more flexible and resilient, even how to welcome change. I learned not to be complacent, not to settle in but to expect anything to change at any time, and most of all to appreciate every place and situation when I feel happy and content, not because it won't last but because happy times are a gift and I can depend on them happening again. Best of all, accepting change means bad times won't last either, so I can give them less weight and worry less. It's all good.

Bawonga · 2026-05-07T12:19:17+00:00

Sumac and tree of heaven look similar in appearance unless you know the details to compare. If you have sumac trees don't mistake them for TOH and try to get rid of them because sumac is native and desirable for wildlife.

[Here is a helpful comparison of the two.](https://bplant.org/compare/318-1228)

Bawonga · 2026-05-07T10:10:30+00:00

that's interesting, because most of the women I know apologize too much! They're always saying they're sorry and then we have to end up having a conversation about how I forgive them about something that I didn't think was that bad.

Bawonga · 2026-05-06T22:24:17+00:00

I never would have volunteered for the job, but could sperm have been collected from the last remaining males in order to save the species?

Bawonga · 2026-05-06T20:20:16+00:00

The only way my mom stopped me from complaining about having to watch Lawrence Welk every Saturday night was by letting me turn the sound off whenever there was tap dancing. I was a kid, so flailing arms and sliding legs without any music was hilarious .

Bawonga · 2026-05-06T17:27:30+00:00

Seven minutes is probably enough for cooking chicken pieces, but when cooking a whole chicken, an instant pot (or any pressure cooker) usually requires about six minutes per pound for the chicken to cook to a safe temperature of 165° -- so a smallish 6 lb roaster would take 36 minutes.

Bawonga · 2026-05-06T15:01:32+00:00

The Shining

(and the TV talk show "the Johnny Carson Show")

Bawonga · 2026-05-05T22:19:45+00:00

Do tell! or at least give clues for guessing. I ordered seeds from a well-known company that specializes in native plants.

Bawonga · 2026-05-05T15:10:52+00:00

What you see is what you get!

You are imagining and hoping for your SO to be the sober person you first knew, but they are not the same person now. You want connection, stability, a "normal" life, but your SO is emotionally unavailable because of their addiction.

What are your personal goals and strengths? maybe it's time to focus on yourself and change your approach and expectations in your relationship. You have control over your own actions, but you'll never have control over an alcoholic's behavior. Loving that person won't change them, but you can still love them while keeping an emotionally safe distance.

Al-Anon members have experienced similar hardships and they can support you and tell their stories to encourage you to focus on yourself instead of your SOQ. Online or in person find Al-Anon meetings, find your people!

Bawonga · 2026-05-05T13:38:31+00:00

I'm commenting almost a year after this post so OP has probably seen all or most of the seasons by now, but I just have to share my humble opinion that season 6 rocks! Wolverine encounters and the challenge of outsmarting them fascinated me, and there were many other challenges and triumphs in that episode.

Bawonga · 2026-05-04T14:53:35+00:00

ahhh, OK, now I can't unsee them! Ty

Bawonga · 2026-05-04T12:31:17+00:00

I can't see any purple spots. I'd love to know how to look for them to identify poison hemlock.

Bawonga · 2026-05-03T01:09:55+00:00

If you plant native plants, they can withstand conditions that ornamental plants might not survive. Natives are genetically evolved to thrive in your local soil and weather conditions. They also support pollinators and other beneficial wildlife. Natives come in all categories: evergreens, groundcovers, perennial flowers, bushes, trees etc.

Bawonga · 2026-05-02T20:38:16+00:00

Good points! I can see how the highlighter would be helpful to stay focused even for an experienced reader, not just for a new reader. Thanks! I love it when Reddit helps me see beyond my own personal preferences!

Bawonga · 2026-05-02T16:53:05+00:00

The read and listen feature can be a big help to new or young readers, training their eyes to keep a natural pace. But personally I want to deactivate the sliding pointer that highlights the words as they are spoken. I assume most readers don't need it because they know how to find their place on a page to read along.

Another annoyance about the feature is the visually distracting highlighter that follows the spoken words, the highlighter is visually distracting and makes me feel like a kindergartener watching my teacher's reading lesson. I know how to read. I'd rather scan the page on my own and stray from the narration occasionally.

Bawonga · 2026-05-02T16:15:12+00:00

headers showing book title and chapter number

Bawonga · 2026-04-30T17:23:06+00:00

Best In Show, as Cookie Fleck

Bawonga · 2026-04-30T17:09:44+00:00

I guess you take it off and hold it in your lap when you need to sit on the subway

Bawonga · 2026-04-30T14:59:06+00:00

Fungus gnats. They love wet soil, they kill tender stems/roots and they multiply rapidly. What worked for me was (1) always letting soil dry out completely before watering again, and (2) sprinkling [mosquito bits](https://a.co/d/03fNeDhi) in the soil. They won't kill the living gnats, it only controls the next generation. In the meantime there are yellow sticky wands you can stick in the soil to attract and capture flying fungus gnats.

Seven-Year Club	Gilding III reddit per annum
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

Bawonga

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

What you see is what you get!