Stopped by an old shop in rural Georgia, noticed the anvils were all going quiet

I was down near Macon last weekend visiting a friend and we stopped at this old blacksmith shop that's been sitting there since the 1800s. The owner let us wander around the back, and I saw three anvils sitting outside under a lean-to, all rusted and half buried in leaves. One of them was a 150 pound Peter Wright with the horn still intact. It got me thinking about how many of these old shops just faded away as welding and fabrication shops took over. The guy running the place now mostly does ornamental gates and railings with a mig welder. He told me he hasn't lit his forge in over 6 months because nobody asks for hand forged stuff anymore. Has anyone else come across an old shop like that and wondered what we're losing?

TIL my sleeping pad had a slow leak for 6 months and I never noticed

I was out in Shenandoah last weekend and woke up on the ground. Turns out the valve was just slightly open the whole time. Has anyone else dealt with a valve that won't seal tight?

Hot air rework stations vs soldering irons for through-hole work

I see everyone recommending hot air stations for desoldering on here, but I tried using mine on a vintage radio board last week and it melted a plastic connector housing before the solder even flowed. My old Weller iron with a desoldering pump got it out clean in 2 minutes. I guess hot air has its place, but for older stuff with delicate parts, I think the iron is safer. Anyone else had a hot air disaster on vintage gear?

Watched a line cook at 2 AM fix a broken hollandaise with ice cubes and it blew my mind

I was closing up at this spot in Portland last weekend and saw a guy drop a few ice cubes straight into his broken sauce, whisked it back together in like 30 seconds. I always thought you had to start over from scratch or use a double boiler trick. Has anyone else tried this method for saving an emulsion?

Took me 4 hours to find a creek crossing that wasn't washed out on the Appalachian Trail last summer

PSA: Stop sanding body filler with 80 grit if you want it to last

I keep seeing jobs come into the shop where guys are knocking down filler with 80 grit then shooting primer right over it. Those deep scratches come right back through the paint after a few months in the sun. I had a customer last summer with a 2018 Ford F-150 hood I redid because of this. Use 180 at minimum for the final pass. Takes an extra 10 minutes but saves a comeback. Anybody else dealing with this?

That influencer who swore by the $100 face oil made me break out for a month straight

I followed this skincare person on TikTok who had like 200k followers and she kept going on about this fancy rosehip oil from some boutique brand. She said it would fix my dry patches and make my skin glow. I spent $45 on it which is a lot for me and used it every night for two weeks. My face turned into a pizza, just tons of little bumps and redness everywhere. I stopped using it and went back to my plain old CeraVe moisturizer from Target and my skin cleared up in like 5 days. I mean maybe it works for some people with different skin types but I wish I had just stuck with what I knew worked. Has anyone else gotten burned by a hyped up product from a big influencer?

A customer called me out on my door hanger adjustment technique... and they were right

Showerthought: The drive-through coffee shop near me charges $6.50 for a latte now

I was in Portland last week grabbing a coffee before my shift and noticed the same basic latte I used to get for $4.50 is now $6.50... that's almost 45% more in like 3 years. The line was still wrapped around the building though, so people are clearly okay with it. Is this just inflation hitting everything or are we all ignoring the price creep because we want our morning fix?

My homemade GPS track for the John Muir Trail ended up 15 miles off

I spent 6 hours plotting my John Muir Trail route on a GPS app last winter, only to realize in August at Red's Meadow that I had missed a critical switchback near the Ansel Adams Wilderness. The digital map I used was from 2012, and trail reroutes had added 15 extra miles. Has anyone else found old GPS data causing big problems on a long trek?