Yeah when you said "I used to think zip ties were enough" that hit home. I was reading this article from a data center engineer who said he found a full on mouse nest inside a server that had been running for years just held together with zip ties. They actually chew through them over time. Mice and rats love the warmth and the plastic gives them nest material and they can squeeze through any gap bigger than a quarter inch. I switched to metal cable lacing ties after hearing that horror story. Now I check all my cable management once a month with a flashlight. Never taking that risk again.

Got a cheap LED grow light off Amazon for my succulents last winter and it basically turned my whole windowsill into a sad purple disco for plants that didn't even perk up. The timer on it stopped working after a week, so I had to unplug it manually every night which I totally forgot to do half the time. Ended up tossing the whole thing in the garage where it sat next to an old fish tank filter that somehow started growing moss on its own. Now I just put my plants in the actual window like a caveman and they're doing way better than they ever did with that "professional" setup.

Yeah absolutely, that's the exact move we had to pull on a church restoration a couple years back. The original mortar was basically dust and we were sweating bullets thinking we'd have to tear out half the wall. Mixed up a real soft 4:1 with the lime putty instead of hydrated lime and just babied it into the joints. It grabbed hold like nothing else and now it's been solid through three winters straight. Sometimes you just gotta trust the old school recipes even when everyone else is telling you to go with something stronger. That soft mix saved our butts too.

Oh man that's rough! I had a possum move into my garage last winter and it took me forever to figure out how to get it out humanely. They're stubborn little things. I finally just left the garage door cracked open a few inches at night with some apple slices near the entrance and he eventually wandered out on his own. Hope your squirrel situation works out without too much drama haha.

...and like, is torquing in a circle really causing that many problems for people? I've seen guys zip lug nuts on with an impact and call it done, never even break out a torque wrench. @anthonykim you make it sound like a single pass will snap a stud, but most daily drivers aren't exactly racing in Formula 1, you know? A couple slow passes in a star pattern is usually good enough for a wheel swap in my driveway.