Drop in any weekday — or whenever the feeling strikes. Nature cams rolling, chat open, no agenda required.
Every weekday at 9AM Central · Online · Always drop-in
What Is Watering Hole Hangs?
Watering Hole Hangs is exactly what it sounds like — a casual, drop-in gathering where people come together in the same space without any particular agenda. We put a nature live cam on in the background. We chat in the margins of whatever we’re doing. We body double. We rest. We exist alongside each other.
No slides. No presenter. No outcomes.
The watering hole is one of the three gathering modes at the heart of how we think about learning and community — alongside the cave (solitary, focused) and the campfire (gathered around a story or idea). The watering hole is where we just are. Peer-to-peer, unhurried, incidentally connected.
Watering holes are the spaces in between the structured things. They are where community actually forms — where someone mentions an idea, where a special interest gets aired, where you realize someone else has been thinking about the same thing.
Watering Hole Hangs gives that space a home. Scheduled enough to show up to. Open enough to hold whatever you bring.
When & Where
Every Weekday · 9AM Central
Online — Stimpunks Community Spaces
Also: randomly, whenever someone feels like hanging. Watch for impromptu Watering Hole announcements in our community.
What to Expect
Watering Hole Hangs is deliberately unstructured. That’s a feature, not a gap.
You can expect:
- A nature live cam running in the background — watering holes in Namibia, sea otters, kelp forests, bird feeders, and more
- A chat space that’s open for conversation, idle commentary, or friendly silence
- Body doubling — a place to do your own thing while being gently in the presence of others
- No agenda — no check-ins required, no introductions unless you want, no pressure to perform sociability
- Drop-in, drop-out — come when you arrive, leave when you’re done
Some hangs are quiet. Some are chatty. Some sit right in the middle and let the otters do the heavy lifting.
You can work on your project. Rest. Watch the cam. Infodump something that’s been living rent-free in your brain. All of it belongs here.
Body Doubling Is the Point
Body doubling is one of the most underrated, most neurodivergent things we do for each other. When you’re in the presence of another person — even quietly, even at a distance — something in many neurodivergent bodyminds settles. Focus arrives. Tasks become finishable. The weight of alone-ness lightens.
A body double is someone who sits with you as you tackle tasks that might be difficult to complete alone. Many people with ADHD find it easier to stay focused on housework, homework, bill paying, and other tasks when someone else is around to keep them company.
Watering Hole Hangs is a body doubling space that doesn’t require you to explain yourself, perform productivity, or coordinate around someone else’s needs. You just show up. The presence is the point.
The nature cam helps too. Something about water, movement, animals going about their quiet lives — it works. It earns its spot in the background.
The Glossary Connection
Watering Hole Hangs is a living practice of how we think about community space at Stimpunks. A few glossary entries that live here:
- Watering Hole — The informal, peer-to-peer gathering space in the Caves, Campfires, and Watering Holes framework. No agenda. No presenter. Just people in each other’s presence.
- Caves, Campfires, and Watering Holes — Our framework for thinking about the different modes of learning and gathering. Campfire Learn Together is the campfire. Watering Hole Hangs is the watering hole. Your cave is still your cave.
- Body Doubling — The practice of doing your own thing in the quiet, regulating presence of another person.
- Bodymind — The understanding that mind and body are not separate systems — that what we feel, how we move, and how we think are all of a piece.
- Cavendish Space — Our shorthand for psychologically and sensorily safe spaces suited to zone work, flow states, and intermittent connection. Watering Hole Hangs is a Cavendish Space in motion.
- Co-regulation — The way nervous systems settle in safe proximity to other nervous systems. This is happening here. Quietly. With otters.
Live Nature Cams
We choose our background cam together, or whoever is around first picks. Here’s what’s in rotation.
🌍 Watering Hole Cams
- Namibia: Live stream in the Namib Desert
- Namibia: Live stream at the Okaukuejo waterhole, Etosha National Park
🦦 Otter Cams
- Sea Otter Cam · Vancouver Aquarium
- Sea Otter Cam 2 · Vancouver Aquarium
- Live Sea Otter Cam · Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Live Sea Otter Cam · Monterey Bay Aquarium (alternate)
- Live sea otter / fur seal cam · Seattle Aquarium
🌊 Ocean and Reef Cams
- Live Jelly Cam · Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Live Kelp Forest Cam · Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Utopia Village Sandy Channel Underwater Reef Cam
- Utopia Village Top-of-Wall Underwater Reef Cam
- Live Cam in The Lower Keys
🦋 Butterfly Cams
🚂 Train Cams
- The Best of Norway’s Railway: Spring and Summer Cab Views
- Travel by Train in Sweden · 24/7 with chat
- Front view of Colorado’s Royal Gorge Route Railroad
🐦 Bird Nests and Feeders
- Big Bear Bald Eagle Live Nest · Cam 1
- LIVE Bird Feeder & Wildlife Cam · Gettysburg, PA
- Live South Africa Bird Feeder & Wildlife Cam
🦌 Wildlife
- Wildlife In The Forest · 24/7 LIVE by Morten Hilmer
- CritterVision Critter Cam
- Live Deer, Bird & Wildlife Cam
- Live Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam at Sapsucker Woods
- 24/7 LIVE Cat TV · Birds and Squirrels in Relaxing Forest Corner
- PixCams Wildlife Cam 2 Live Stream
- Croc Rock · London UK Forest Wildlife Cam
Access & Sensory Info
Watering Hole Hangs is designed with neurodivergent bodyminds in mind — including the bodyminds that find unstructured social time hardest.
- Online — attend from wherever you’re most comfortable
- Camera optional — on, off, or however you need it
- No introductions required — arrive silently if that’s what works
- No check-ins, no roll calls — you are not on the attendance list
- Chat-friendly — text is always a valid way to be here
- Leave freely — no goodbyes required, no explanations owed
- Stim, snack, rest — all welcome, always
- The cam is doing the social work — let the otters carry you when you need it
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Join Us
Watering Hole Hangs happens every weekday at 9AM Central in the Stimpunks Community Spaces — and spontaneously whenever someone feels like gathering.
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Part of Stimpunks Recurring Events. See also: Solidarity Sesh, Infodumplings, Campfire Learn Together.
The animals don’t know you’re watching. They’re just living.
That’s the whole thing, really.
Come be near something alive.

