I do much more reading on this forum than posting, but I thought this story was a good reason to start my first thread.
Last night I was spending the night at my parents' place and decided it was a nice night to sleep out in the hammock. They have two perfect trees and I had all my gear with me, so why not? When I told my mom, she let me know it was supposed to rain and I probably said something like "good" (I had my AHE toxaway tarp, so I'd be fine, right?). So as I headed outside to get setup in the dark she reminded me that I might want to turn off the flood light that lights up the whole backyard - thanks for the helpful reminder, mom.
So I settle in for the night and read my kindle for a little while before I pass out. I'm having basically perfect hammock sleep - no tossing and turning, not too warm, not too cold, just totally out - when I'm jarringly awoken by the feeling that a small reservoir of water had just burst and leaked all over me. It almost felt like somebody broke a water balloon over my head. What the......??? Did it start raining? Was the tarp leaking?
By the time I figure out what's happening and climb out of the bugnet, I get hit by the water two more times, soaking my quilt, the hammock, my kindle, and my backpack. Then as I scramble to detach my hammock from the suspension I take one more shot of water to the back in an attempt to protect my gear from getting soaked.
So now it's 4am and I'm hauling all of my wet gear into the house (luckily I had a house key with me, not sure what plan B was if I was locked out), change into dry clothes, and collapse on the couch, defeated and still a little confused. Then, it dawns on me. While my mom was kind enough to remind me to turn off the flood light, neither of us happened to remember the new sprinkler system they had installed at the beginning of the summer. Turns out the timer was set for 4am and one of the sprinkler heads was near one of the trees near the open end of the tarp and essentially pointed right down the ridgeline of the hammock, rendering the tarp totally useless (except for the water that hit the underside of the tarp and splashed me).
So, let's just say it was a learning experience. I think my favorite part has been listening to my mom tell this story to people and hearing her try to explain why her adult son was sleeping in a hammock in her backyard.
TL;DR consider sprinkler placement when you are selecting your site.
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