Heard a kid at the camera shop say they just throw away old film cameras instead of fixing them...

Pro tip: I bought a $120 water filter for the Lost Coast Trail and it saved my trip

I was about a day into the hike and my old pump filter clogged up for good. I had to use my backup, a Sawyer Squeeze I bought just before leaving. It was super easy to fill up from the creeks and took maybe two minutes to get a full liter. I would have been in a real bind without it. What's your go-to backup piece of gear for a long route?

I used to think my sourdough starter was fine if it smelled a little boozy

For a long time, I just fed my starter once a day and if it smelled like strong beer, I figured it was active. Then I visited a friend in Asheville who has been baking for a decade, and she took one sniff of my jar and said, 'That's hungry. It's eating itself.' She showed me her starter, which had a sweet, fruity smell, not sharp. I started feeding mine twice a day for three days straight, and the whole character changed. The bread I made after that was lighter and had bigger holes. It turns out that boozy, nail polish smell means it's stressed and producing too much acid. Has anyone else fixed a starter by changing the feeding schedule?

Spent a whole day trying to match a 100-year-old brick for a repair

Got a call to patch a small section of a foundation on an old house in the historic district. The homeowner had a few of the original bricks from 1923. Thought it would be a quick trip to the yard, but nothing modern came close to the color and texture. I must have called six different suppliers across three counties. Finally found a place that does custom reclaims, but they needed a sample to match. The whole thing, from first look to having the right bricks in hand, took almost two weeks. Anyone else have a go-to source for matching really old stock?

Caught my friend trying to splice wires with duct tape at a party

I was at a friend's birthday party last weekend. He had a string of patio lights that kept cutting out. Instead of calling someone, he grabbed duct tape and tried to fix it live. I had to stop him before he shocked himself. It hit me how often people skip basic safety for a quick fix. Now I always carry a voltage tester in my truck, just in case. Seeing that made me appreciate why we train for this stuff.