The Power of Iterative Engineering

Or, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I’m an over planner. There’s no arguing it.

My very first boss drilled into my head “We never have time to do it right, but we always have time to do it again.”

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Screw hole repair / upgrade

We bought the house from a flipper who “redid” the 45 year old kitchen. And by redid, I mean he replaced the old solid wood cabinets with the cheapest builder grade particleboard cabinets he could source. (My neighbors are still rocking the original cabinets, and while dated, theirs are holding up better than mine.)

After three years of use by my kids, hinge screws are starting to pull out of the cabinet frames.

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MSR Mini Groundhogs

The basic stakes included with most tents are terrible. One that came with the tarp bent the first time I put it in the ground.

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The MSR mini groundhogs are a joy to use, though they are quite painful if you try to push them in by hand. No worries on that though, they are short enough that they are easy to push in with your boots.

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12×12 Tarp Configurations

What I like best about the tarp is that it’s infinitely adjustable. You can pitch it high off the ground to get lots of ventilation or low to trap warmth inside.

Played with it in the yard today to try out some different pitches. I threw a single sleeping pad inside to give a sense of scale. The 12×12 is giant for a single camper.

Plow point interior. Plenty of room to stretch out.
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Poler two man tent – First impressions

Not a review, as I haven’t actually slept in it yet. These are my initial thoughts after unpacking and setting it up in the backyard.

Stuff sack has compression straps. The straps are sewn on for most of the circumference.

First off, I got this tent on clearance at $75. List price is $250. I’m going to give a seventy-five dollar tent a lot more slack than one costing more than two hundred dollars. I bought this tent for the kids. They are both getting into scouting and I wanted a tent that they could carry and set up.

First off, it’s heavy. It weighs eight pounds. This is not suitable for a through hike of the AT. That being said, it’s perfect for car camping especially if you have a small car, or trips where you have to walk in from a distant parking lot (music festivals).

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Still another tent (but not really)

For some reason I started shopping for backpacking tents. But I couldn’t find one I liked. They all had one or more fatal flaws –

  • Too heavy
  • Too small when pitched
  • Too large when packed
  • Too expensive

But I think I may have found the perfect solution.

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Nimble Double Air Mattress review.

In the yurt, my wife and I sleep on a folding air bed, but I don’t have room for it in the modern tents so I went looking for something smaller.

Backyard camping under the tarp

The Alps Mountaineering Nimble Insulated Sleeping Pad- Double makes for a great night’s sleep. It’s also available single wide in insulated and non-insulated versions.

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