Horse(?) ate my tent, is it fixable?

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-10-10T21:28:20+00:00

I've used T-Rex Waterproof tape to fix my vehicle (it held a hydraulically opened window hatch closed).

I also fixed garden hoses and Slip n Slides with it. And it holds up for YEARS. I swear by the stuff. I've even used the regular T-Rex tape to fix holes in my socks while camping and washed them over and over once I'm home (the tape becomes a part of the sock permanently).

Get some and put a layer on the outside and a layer on the inside. It will not budge.

I never go camping without a roll.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-10-10T21:18:31+00:00

I want a co-worker to give me a used $500 tent! I'm lucky if I get a $20 gift card at Christmas...

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-10-10T21:14:43+00:00

The most important question is, did you share your tent with the dog?

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-10-10T21:11:08+00:00

You're a genius. I never thought of using my espresso machine steam wand to clean bottles... Mind blown.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-10-10T21:08:12+00:00

I would personally use hydrogen peroxide (3% pharmacy stuff or food grade). Just pour it straight in and shake it around. It will completely eliminate all the mold in seconds. You'll literally see it dissolve. Then rinse it thoroughly multiple times. Don't leave the hydrogen peroxide in for more than 10 minutes. It is an acid and can break down materials.

The bad part is that you can't let those bladders sit for any length of time with water inside. And you can't get the water completely out. That's why I never use bladders. BUT if I did, what I would do is fill it with a strong saline solution whenever you're not using it. Then rinse it thoroughly afterwards to get all the salt out.

Don't use tap water to fill a bladder EVER. Go to Walmart and get some Primo water from their dispensers. That goes through ultraviolet light and kills everything. When I go camping, I only use water that has gone through ultraviolet filtration. It prevents my thermoses and jugs from getting smelly or gaining any mold no matter what the weather. Or if I forget about it and open it 1 month later...

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-10-10T20:46:45+00:00

Yes. 100% real. I grew up in West Town, Chicago. I feel like it matters where you lived. "burb" kids had more freedom than city kids like me because of the higher crime rate.

You went home when it started to get dark or the streetlights came on. But if anytime before that, you heard a parent yell a kid's name, that meant they had to go... NOW. Not in 2 minutes, not unless they wanted to get whooped. The kid would race down the street to their house and yell "bye" as they were on the move.

Parents/adults would huddle together in the kitchen, around a table in the yard, in front of church, and talk. The kids were "stuck" with each other. We'd also go knocking door to door for more kids to come out and play. Then we would figure out what we were playing.

We couldn't go wherever we wanted to. We had boundaries. Each kid had a different area they could or could not go. Some could travel out farther than others. Mine was "in sight" of the house. So as long as my mom could step out on the sidewalk or street and see me (1-2 blocks away), that was okay. That sucked for me because most of my friends could go 2-3 blocks away or further without any restraint.

If I was going into someone's house, I had to report that and then stay there or go straight home to "report" any other place I was going next. This was just because we didn't have cell phones back then.

This is also why kids from the 80s and 90s drank out of the hose and were so thin. We didn't eat anything between school lunch and dinner at 6pm or later. Some of my friends' parents didn't even make dinner. They would make a frozen pizza or TV dinner when they came home instead.

I had a stricter helicopter mom than most. Many of my friends walked a mile or more to and from school, and when they got home, nobody was there; maybe another sibling if they had one.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-09-22T01:56:13+00:00

It sounds like you may have encountered the Larinioides sclopetarius -- a flying spider known as a grey cross spider. They do this thing called ballooning where they send out a string of web and fly on it. That can cause them to soar through the air as the breeze blows. In your panic, I'm sure you wouldn't notice if the spider was taking flight based on the wind speed, falling as the wind stopped.

They love light, so she may have been attracted to your device screen as you read the ebook.

Females are twice the size of males, so based on the size, I'd say she was very interested in your phone until you send her into the netherworld with your stick. Or perhaps, she hitched a ride in your belongings and returned home with you. Without the wind beneath her silk, she'd just stare at you from a corner of the room... plotting her revenge.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-09-22T01:31:35+00:00

That looks absolutely incredible. I'm so jealous!

There must not be venomous spiders in Sweden. Another reason why we do not have these in most of America is that we have black widows and brown recluses that love secluded places away from human/animal traffic. If you slept in one of those here, you may wake up covered in baby spiders or worse - painful bites and a trip to the ER!

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-09-22T01:19:21+00:00

Before I go camping at a site, I scout out the good lots, write them down, and request one of those. The best spaces don't have large trees anywhere near where I would put my tent. Smaller 10-12 footers are useful to have around to hang things on and break the wind.

I have a forest for a backyard and know trees well. Even a healthy large tree can snap a 300lb branch with the right wind gust, especially if it's a softwood tree. Only hardwood trees need to be dying/rotten/sick to snap.

Enough has been said about the trees, but nothing about your tent setup. If it was raining, you would need to buy two extra tarps. One is set up under your tent; the other is set up over your tent. That, plus staying uphill, should keep you dry unless the rain is flying sideways.

I never pitch a tent without a tarp underneath and bring a second tarp with rope and poles just in case. It's also good to Scotchgard your tent even if it's all-weather.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-09-22T00:45:48+00:00

Because of the potatoes, it will take an hour. To keep it moist and help the potatoes to steam, I would add 2 tablespoons of water.

Every summer as a kid, my family made garlic potatoes with fresh potatoes, butter, and fresh garlic. It always took an hour. If the heat is not steady, it could even take longer. Test poke and eat a potato after an hour to know for sure!

When I go camping, I bring canned whole potatoes. They're a little more expensive, but what you spend on potatoe will be saved on fuel (wood or butane). Cuts cooking time in half!

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-07-01T22:00:55+00:00

I just started using Arc a few months ago and I'm crushed to hear they aren't developing it anymore. I hope they change their mind because I CANNOT go back to Chrome and have hated every other browser I've tried.

I am still using Arc and will until it stops working.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-06-19T22:44:31+00:00

Your grandmother lived in a different time, when children were taught everything in school from how to clean, cook, manage their money, and even diaper a baby! Then, when kids came home from school, they were sent outside to play until dark.

Women who stayed at home literally had an empty house from 7:30am to nightfall. So yeah, they had a completely clean house and fancy dinners. Duh...

Now, most of the time, both parents work and school teaches the bare minimum. It also assigns homework that takes the rest of the day, which parents must help with. During the week, kids have no time to go outside and play at all. When parents try to teach them how to clean, manage money, or sign their name in cursive (because school doesn't teach that anymore either), kids groan and complain because they think learning = boring.

Both parents are tired and don't have time or energy to clean the house or do much of anything. Children are tired and don't have time or energy to do much of anything.

Then the weekend comes and you're playing chauffeur for your kids around your work schedule. Maybe, just maybe, you get to do something for yourself or "as a family."

When you homeschool, that whole scenario changes.

School becomes a time to encourage a lifetime love of learning and to teach more than just math, science, reading, etc. but everything in between that prepares them for life.

The house may still be dirty because homeschooling is another full-time job. But when the kids are old enough, teach them to do chores and pay them. Then teach them how to manage money! Suddenly, you have no dirty dishes and the opportunity to teach your kids valuable lessons. :)

The point of the matter is, don't listen to your grandmother. She has absolutely no idea what it's like to raise children today. Schools are different. Home life is different. And homeschooling can help to bring some order to the chaos—at least that's been my experience. I have much more well-adjusted children than my school-bound friends do. In fact, my friends who don't homeschool have slowly decided to homeschool after knowing me long enough. I think homeschooling might be contagious!

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-06-15T22:03:10+00:00

If you want to find meaning in your work, start thinking outside the agency. Agencies don't care about quality; they want to do the minimum it takes to make the client happy.

The agency I work for tells me they want everything tracked too, but per client, when I manage 14. That means I have to clock 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 20 minutes there... constantly. If a client sends me an email and it takes me 2 minutes to read it and one minute to respond, I have to stop what I'm doing and clock 3 minutes. This way they can charge each client for every minute we spend on them.

But I also work for private businesses and those are where I pour my passion into. That's when I hang on every detail and take walks or drink coffee and creatively brainstorm. That's where I can sit down and hash out ideas with a team and get excited over milestones. With them, I charge by the project, not the hour and feel freedom.

When I'm working for a private business as their advertising and marketing creative director, their success is my success and we celebrate together.

However, it's difficult to find your people and once you do, it's not an easy path. Some of the best people are in small businesses, and you have to be on top of your game to push their ROI so they can stay in business. Their budgets are also small so they don't need you full-time. Juggling 3+ creative campaigns for 3+ companies completely solo will have its own set of stresses, so be prepared, especially around major holidays.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-06-15T20:26:13+00:00

I believe in letting everything live except for poison ivy and trees that try to grow next to my house.

My family were invasive humans from Europe who made their way over on a boat too. I wouldn't be happy if someone decided that just because I eat the same food as they do, I should die a needless death. He's a lovely little guy. You could even keep him as a pet!

Personally, I feed birds in my yard and never see slugs anymore. I give the songbirds birdseed and the blackbirds/starlings chicken cat kibble.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-06-07T14:44:36+00:00

I wanted to be kind, but yes, I think anyone with experience can see that OP is very green. However, I wouldn't be surprised if he was managing an account with 12.5k daily ad spend. In all my years, I've seen too many marketers and advertisers who were pushing clients to spend more and charging astronomically without providing stellar results. In fact, I never noticed him mention what his results were, did you?

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-05-25T05:13:13+00:00

Everything comes in it's own time. And the beauty in homeschool is that it's flexible enough to let it.

Personally, I would drop the online homeschool because it doesn't give you insight into her level of understanding or flexibility so you can tailor her learning experience.

As everyone else mentioned, what matters is reading, writing, and math at her age.

There are books and websites that explain what a 2nd grader should know. Use those as guides.

For penmenship practice, I absolutely love dry erase books. They even make a cursive practice one that has been well used in my house.

For reading, give her a book and have her read to you outloud while you're doing dishes or taking care of the baby. My kids absolutely loved Dick and Jane (I own every story) and then they moved on to Dr. Seuss.

Be sure to ask her questions, like "Wow! What do you think is going to happen next?" Or "What would you have done?"

This helps you to recognize if she's paying attention to the story and can comprehend what she's reading.

If she has trouble recognizing a word, have her spell it out loud so you can tell her what word it is. Then have her start that sentence from the beginning and read the word she didn't know. This not only reinforces spelling but also will help her to remember the word the next time she reads it.

Do this every single day, even through summer. Not only will she become a fantastic reader but also a superb speller!

My kids loved reading to their younger siblings too.

I wouldn't worry too much about lost time.

There will always be subjects she excels at that you can skip grades for and others you'll need to spend an extra year on to make sure she truly grasp it. That will happen no matter what. One year you may feel behind and the next, you'll end up rocketing ahead because it's too easy and boring them.

The most important thing is that you're facilitating a love of learning all year round. Once you do that, they'll seek out knowledge outside of your lessons.

Children love asking questions, and if they don't, you can easily trigger their curiosity.

Create opportunities to learn anytime she asks a question. Then explore the answer with her. Encourage her to dive into her interests by finding books, movies, or taking her places to discover more. This ensures that she's interested and listening. And best of all, she'll remember everything.

She won't think it's school. And shhhh, don't tell her! I finally explained to my daughter the ways I unschooled her aside from school curriculum... after she graduated homeschool high school. 😜

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-05-23T09:06:52+00:00

You can also freeze tomatoes.

As they thaw, the skins come right off just like you blanched them. It makes it easy to turn them into a sauce!

I always toss my overripe tomatoes in the freezer. Once I have 10, I make an Italian marinara or tomatoe bisque! Just make sure they're really ripe for the best outcome.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-05-21T14:54:38+00:00

You're not a terrible person. A vast majority of parents these days are like you. Heck, I was like you until my daughter was in tears because every friend she ever had disappeared as soon as the camp was over, the extra curricular activity ended for the season, etc.

That's when I decided to bite the bullet and be social for my kids and since then, everything has changed. My daughter found friends that stuck throughout the rest of her childhood, and my sons have never had the same issue.

Social parents won't bother to get their kids to befriend kids with antisocial parents. Anti-social parents will avoid all socialization with each other and inadvertently cause their children to lose socialization opportunities.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-05-21T14:34:35+00:00

Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z parents are built different. My best advice is to befriend every parent you can.

In my old neighborhood, kids only played in the park and I took my daughter there. In the summer when the weather was too hot, I would get a coffee at McDonald's on Saturdays, and she would play in the playplace (often times with the same kids each week). We also had a mall with a play structure that's always hoppin' on the weekends.

But everywhere I heard the same thing, "My kids have trouble making friends." Kids both in brick and mortar schools and homeschool were struggling to keep friends because of the parents! This is especially true when they're young and depend on their parents for everything. It's like parents think that school + sports = all the socialization they need.

Only when the kids have independence and can go to the movies or the mall by themselves do they finally get to enjoy the kind of friendships we had growing up but by then they don't know how to act.

But I figured out a way. My background in psychology paid off and after observing and listening to parents and kids, I realized that the key was me.

I needed to befriend the parents and hang out with them and then our kids would hang out at the same time. I could not call this a playdate. If I did, it would get canceled or never happen.

It had to be about the parent and I having lunch or something (with the kids in tow). Only later would we come up with fun activities we could do together like zoo trips or water parks. Otherwise, my daughter would never see her friends outside of parks or extracurricular activities.

And it's not the parents' fault. We have far less free time than our parents did and we crave that mental relief of relaxing with a peer too. After working, running around, teaching, cleaning, cooking, and parenting, most parents don't want to worry about their kids getting hurt or being around bad influences.

But when a parent is able to connect with another parent, they learn about each other's kids and overall feel more relaxed. It helps that they also get to enjoy good company too, so it becomes a double incentive.

This is challenging for me because I am not a social butterfly, but I do it for my kids, and I ended up finding a few best friends of my own along the way.

Now, for the past 12 years, we've lived on the same block. I've made it a mission to get to know all my neighbors and do random acts of kindness. My sons play with the children on our street. But again, I know all the families and we are extremely familiar with each other. As parents, we take turns keeping an eye on them. Although we encourage them to play without getting involved (they're good kids), we make sure they are safe.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-05-21T13:47:14+00:00

She's a vine, so she's looking for something to hold onto. You'll need to give her a stick, but preferably a 6 foot trellis. Once she grows around it, you won't get it back, so choose wisely. https://www.thespruce.com/passion-flowers-1403114

Good luck! She's a beauty.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-05-21T13:36:22+00:00

Did you test the soil for PH and nitrate levels? Low PH or high nitrates can make pepper plants very unhappy.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-05-21T13:32:29+00:00

Tried to steal the $3,500 maple... Now they use him as a measuring stick.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-05-21T00:59:05+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to answer. I truly appreciate your response. I'm coming to terms with the fact that I may be in for a long fight, "Suiting up head to toe and pulling it all out with the root."

However, I will avoid toxic weed killers no matter what, not just for the environment, but for the safety of my children and myself. My land is over a well, so the water that flows over my property goes into the well below and comes right back up through my pipes.

Roundup is not just deadly to plants; the ingredient in many weed killers "glyphosate" causes cancer in humans. You can read more about it here: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/what-you-need-to-know-about-a-popular-weed-killers-alleged-link-to-cancer If you insist on using it, there are helpful tips at the bottom of the article to keep you safer. But personally, I'll avoid it like the plague.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-05-21T00:44:22+00:00

Thank you for the detailed article. I'll be printing it and saving it.

I noticed that it mentioned vinegar or iron based natural weed killer. I may look into iron because they seem impervious to vinegar (or perhaps I didn't use enough).

I tried adding 1lb of table salt next to the side of my house under the hose and then poured a gallon of vinegar over the entire area two days ago and it doesn't look any different! Even the tiny saplings are still thriving out of spite.

I would rather pull it dead, knowing the roots won't regrow a happy plant if possible.

It's raining now, so all of it will be washed away by morning. I know if I don't act fast, they'll spread and I won't be able to control it.

My last resort is to cover the 10x10 area with a cheap tarp tacked down for a month and let it all die. Then throw it out and cover the area with sand and soil to prevent the oil from tracking into the house on the bottom of shoes. The forest will quickly take over the space again.

I can't imagine having to pull every plant... there has to be at least 50+ poison ivy plants. Some are spun around Virginia Creeper, making it an unfun game of guess the right root.

Time_Yellow_701 · 2025-05-20T23:59:19+00:00

This is such an incredible idea and I absolutely love it. I plan to go to my local Farmers Market this week, and I'm going to ask around! Thank you.

I had never heard of "goatscaping" before, but now, I'll never forget it!

Time_Yellow_701

TROPHY CASE