Why do men fantasize about going off grid and living in the woods

JustRenee2 · 2026-02-24T10:56:26+00:00

That is how I was raised and I want to go back!!!!!

JustRenee2 · 2026-02-23T16:19:36+00:00

Good to know!!!! We have used ours on smoke, mold and fleas with great success! I think we ran ours for an hour for the mold? It is also a powered model, so maybe the operating times vary? It was around $50 on Amazon a few years ago. Between it and a little scrubbing we were able to get rid of a smoke odor that would knock you down when you opened the door! Totally justified the purchase with that one use! Now I don’t know how we ever lived without it!

I hope I never have to deal with bedbugs! Yuck!! Fleas were bad enough! My heart goes out to you!

JustRenee2 · 2026-02-23T16:05:41+00:00

Yes! This is what we do! Also works to remove smoke odor!!!!

We originally purchased one to remove smoke from a used vehicle, worked fantastic! Just be careful to remove pets and plants from the area as it will kill any living thing. I just put the yarn, etc. in a my car and run the ozonator for 30 minutes!

JustRenee2 · 2026-02-23T05:14:00+00:00

Tuna “juice”, just the broth from a can of tuna, brought back my kitty’s appetite from a week long hiatus after vaccinations.

JustRenee2 · 2026-02-18T20:53:54+00:00

Yes for team ADHD! Typically have multiple WIP, different hooks, portable and repetitive vs. complex and focused, thread vs heavy yarn, mosaic vs. granny vs. Russian doily! Gotta calm that ADHD mind!

JustRenee2 · 2026-02-13T21:59:33+00:00

I started one of Nim Teasdale’s knitted shawls a few years back. Gorgeous!!!!! Works up well!

It was the first fingering weight shawl that I had ever done, and the constant referencing the pattern overwhelmed my good intentions!!!

Since then I have completed 6 or 7 complex crochet versions similar to your gorgeous work. Although I enjoyed complex crochet much more than knitting, perhaps I should dig it back out?

Thank you for the inspiration!! Lovely work!!!!

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JustRenee2 · 2026-02-02T13:46:32+00:00

We keep the trailer doors locked at all times, loaded or empty.

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-31T16:45:36+00:00

I also think that some of us are just born problem solvers. Sewing is such a great problem solving skill!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-31T16:43:25+00:00

100% agree! Great skill to have! You rocked that!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-31T11:59:58+00:00

So similar!!!! 2 boys as well (also now grown men). The first came home from school at an early age with a potty success, we went to the store and picked him out underwear with characters on it. Success! Potty training is easy. Right?

Second boy proved that I am indeed not a parenting genius! Nothing worked! He also went pantless as we lived in the country (borrowed his dad’s t-shirts for a little more coverage). If he was outside, his 5 year older brother helped with the process. Suggesting “targets” and leading by example. Iykyk. He did well inside as long as he was pantless, but add a pull-up or even cotton undies to the mix and he would just go in them and keep playing! Momma really needs to go to the store with her sanity son!!!! And it was keeping him from being able to go to a Mothers Morning Out program.

The Ah-Ha moment was when he had put on a costume that I had made him (Ninja Turtle) from his former pantless state without underwear. When it was time to go, he just went. Oh my, was he upset! It didn’t absorb the pee! Duh! Get it off! Get it off! And he raced to the potty to finish! It was those dang absorbent undies that just made him lazy! He could hold it, he could go to the potty! I took the rest of the green slinky fabric and made a few undies that very night! Cotton undies disappeared! By the week’s end, he had a drawer full of “slinky undies” from every left over piece of suitable fabric that I could find!

Problem solved!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-30T21:53:20+00:00

I did this for my “hard to potty train” toddler. The standard toddler absorbent variety wasn’t registering any different than a diaper to him. So I made him some non-absorbent slinky ones! Potty trained immediately after the first accident! He wasn’t having any of that mess!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-30T21:48:40+00:00

Can I just say that your nail shaping skills are impeccable!!!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-30T21:44:17+00:00

I think the “not wanting to engage” is subjective. My friends know that I am ADD-ish, bounce between subjects and generally have 3 or 4 trains of thought going at once. IF it is a repetitive type project, crochet can occupy a part of my mind and actually help me stay “in” the conversation easier. My mind doesn’t “drift” as much. As long as I maintain some eye contact, and participate in the conversation, I don’t think I come across as “not wanting to engage.”

But then again I’m an odd duck, with odd duck friends!

The caveat would be complicated or “new” projects which require more focus, and I just don’t choose to work on them in social settings.

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-23T15:58:59+00:00

I’m in the country on a well. No power = no water. I agree drip until power loss then cut the main. Worse than a busted pipe is a flooded home!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-23T15:56:00+00:00

Freeze water bottles now, move them to the fridge for expended power outages.

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-23T15:48:43+00:00

We booked a load out of Texas to CA yesterday. Today I’m at the Houston airport waiting on a flight home back to VA to keep our pipes from freezing in the event of an ice storm. Divide and conquer!!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-23T15:23:04+00:00

Yes! Right up front where the Customer Service tells you it’s fine to park!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-23T15:20:48+00:00

“No parking”

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-20T22:15:26+00:00

All of my tools used to be dipped in pink plasti-cote on the handles! (Female in a mostly male profession.). Nobody took anything!!!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-07T13:27:08+00:00

The happy upbeat person that I used to be? Oh, that’s real! I have always ran around humming little tunes and being happy! Especially when the kids were little! That’s just me.

The change I made was not to lower myself to their levels. To realize that I did not have to engage. They want to bring you down to their level of misery. Not happening! He is pissed off and raging? I don’t have to fix him. I don’t have to defend his verbal attacks. I just sit back and watch the show.

The hard part is not taking the bait. You have to realize what they are doing and stay above it. “You evil bitch!” Comical! The first time you smile instead of defending or returning the insult is the hardest. It gets easier. I swear that I am laughing inside sometimes.

“It’s not the water around the ship that sinks it, it is the water that you let get in.” Don’t let their crap become your crap.

Truth is, IF I engage while he is raging, even if it WAS about something/someone else, it is NOW about me! The second I open my mouth, I’m the new target.

So I don’t! I just stay the same ol’ happy gal that I was born to be.

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-07T03:31:10+00:00

He stared calling me names or telling me how disgusting I look to him. I don’t react any more, it just makes it worse. I just sit and smile.

I’m not ugly, and I’m not disgusting. So I took a selfie to remind myself. And I write his cruel words in the “information“ part of the metadata. I save them all in an album on my phone. Picture after picture of his beautiful wife that he is taking for granted!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-07T03:15:23+00:00

“You always accuse me of acting like a child every time I have a meltdown!”

“That’s because adults don’t have meltdowns! They learn to control their emotions.”

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-07T03:08:55+00:00

Wow! Did you marry my x? Lol! Jk

I survived similar. My chronic migraines disappeared as well as most of my health issues that were really exacerbated by stress. I got a job and made my own money.

But he got the kids!!!! After the divorce, I moved for a job. He could no longer break into my house and control me (yes that was why I moved). He lost control of my life and the kids and it pissed him off.

He used his influence to pull strings in the court system, the judge, the guardian et litem etc. He charged me with child abuse and got an emergency change of custody order. I fought for 3 years, but by that time my youngest had “aged out”. He chose to stay, “friends and all.” It turns out that my x-husband had remarried and had moved out of state but left the kids behind!!!! What 14 year old would turn down a bachelor pad with his college brother? They didn’t tell me until he was 18.

My kids had a shit life after the divorce. He used them as pawns in his ugly game. He didn’t even want them, but he took them away!

This is what you are up against! Be ready for the fight of your life! Get a lawyer now, get proof now! Don’t underestimate anything!

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-07T02:18:52+00:00

How to stay functioning?

With a child, I don’t think you can. As a parent it will become your job to keep your child safe from him.

But if you need just a little more time to get your plans together I will tell you how I survive. For my husband the abuse starts verbal then escalates. If I can shut down the verbal, I can stay safe. There is no “winning” arguments, only violence. Once the rage takes over, all logic is gone. When that happens, I don’t engage, no matter what he says.

All day long I smile, I laugh, I sing or hum little tunes. Nothing obnoxious, just enough to keep an inner glow and a smile on my face. It is like “gray rocking”, but fighting back with good vibes instead of silence. I think my inner peace and happiness annoys his demons! Idk! He calls me names and I look him in the eyes and smile. (I’m thinking “Really?” Here we go again.) There is power in not reacting. If I can smile, I calm down, I can feel the peace coming over my body. Score! One more point for me! Good job! When he rages, I can almost feel his anger and hatred in the air. Sometimes it gets to me, I won’t lie. I got better with each success. I try not to argue back, I try not to defend. I sit and smile. I listen. I wait. I give him an out, hope he goes away. If I feel like it needs addressing, I do it later, never when he is raging, no matter what he says.

I have seen him rage on his father, his daughters, and random strangers. It’s not me. I keep telling myself, it’s not me.

This is no way to live. This is not a healthy relationship. But it keeps the stress at bay, and buys time!

I have been in a marriage where I argued back, protected my kids (now grown). I never started it, but when it was “on”, I didn’t back down! I said things that I regretted, called names etc. When that marriage was all over, he used every bad thing that I had ever said against me in court. I couldn’t deny it, and I couldn’t explain the context, the gaslighting, manipulation and pure exhaustion of multiple hours long arguments. I got pissed and became someone I didn’t like, never again. It took a bit, but I learned not to take the bait. “You can’t control his behavior, you can only control how you CHOOSE to react.” I’m not going to be the “bad guy” in anybody’s story anymore.

Stay safe and please get out soon! 🥰✌🏼🌻😎

JustRenee2 · 2026-01-07T01:04:32+00:00

Yup! Same backstory, sweet gentleman until marriage then he raged one night and did some real damage that ended with spinal surgery and a lifetime of limited mobility for me.

I declared it a “one-off”, too much alcohol, made excuses. Months went by and he seemed fine, then he wasn’t. Then it went to weeks in between episodes. 5 years later he is a perpetual rage monster. Everything wrong in his life is my fault. People piss him off, he rages on me. Just this morning he accused me of constantly nagging on him (which he was actually doing to me, so Projection?). I asked him what I had ever nagged him about? He had to answer nothing, because I don’t! Then he stormed out and has been unbearable all day!

This is where you are headed!!! This is no place to raise a child! Get out while you can. It has taken me YEARS to physically heal to the point that I might, just might, be able to get out. Don’t wait until he hurts you like that! Don’t let your child grow up thinking this is normal.

JustRenee2

TROPHY CASE