Studies show a�a authoring of Curious
Welcome to botches off road join us as we talk about everything from gear reviews to trail stories
Tent camping to rock landing and all things to do with the outdoors. We got our normal
Normal panel here me Alex and mark or mark Alex and I if you want to be grammatically, correct
The panel of losers the panel of nerds, how do we put this?
Outcast apparently
Yeah, we've been the outcast panel apparently if you want yes MSMST
We're like the we're like the dirty group. They like to keep under the rug. They don't like to talk about us
Yeah, what the heck's with that? We do like all the fun stuff
You guys made a reputation for being too rowdy before the safety officer came on board
No, the safety officer does not slow us down whatsoever. No, not really
Well, I haven't had any reasons to yet. I
Haven't had to put the kibosh on anything. The safety officer has been not very safe lately as himself anyway, so
Making bad decisions. I don't think I've seen the safety officer make a single bad decision
So he tried to climb a hill that he wasn't ready for
I wasn't ready for it. But you know what that hill led to bigger and better things
I then convinced my wife to getting tires and
Your confidence went up
Yeah, I did it went up a little bit the but the tires man these last wintery days
It's been these tires have been just acting phenomenal. I'm so impressed. I am
Mud trains are
Mud trains need to get one of those those rubber
Peelers or whatever for doing the tires the tread on tires
I don't start we just got to start stippling those blocks. He's got on there
Come on man
No, I do that's so much fun
It says we're legal in our state. He probably would put studs on him
Oh imagine mud drains with studs that fix all they'd make the perfect tire, dude
Yeah, I
Just imagine you just hit in the front of the car
Just so you can imagine you just hit in the fucking rev limiter and studs flying out into windshields. I
Yeah, I never hit the rev limiter because I'm always scared it's gonna go boom
I don't think you can hit the rev limiter. I don't yeah
Have I
Did I did that day I went up the the
The hill and then I got mud all over Alex's face. Yeah, what the heck that was funny
I thought I hit him I felt really bad and then then he's over the top of the hood
I can't see him and he thought you were doing like hand motions like I can't see dude. What are you doing?
Yeah, that's what he goes. No, I was just clearing my face. I'm like, oh cool
I'm stuck. So
That was work stuck. No, we got out. I could have always went forward. Yeah, I could have always went back
I just didn't want to but uh, how's everybody? Oh
Oh, yeah, it was definitely definitely a hassle but I guess let's I guess do a little recap
I haven't talked to you guys much this week. Just been busy and
Dealing with the work grind and stuff. How's everybody been?
well the
Been two days of cold and today was the day to test the generator you mean
Yeah, three days it took me an hour and a half to get the generator started on the farm I
needed two bottles of diesel 9-1-1 and
A couple cans of ether to get her going. Yeah, so sounds about right. That wasn't great then
after
generator testing day it was time to
take out the
How do I say this without being morbid the birds that were not strong enough I
Had to remove them from the barns if anybody doesn't know the mortality rate with birds
Not great. They die not it's normal
When I worked at when I worked at tractor supply we'd get them through the fucking mail guys
So you get chicks in through the USPS they'd call you because they stink so damn bad
They're like will you hurry up and pick these chicks up?
We get there pick them up at least when we open the box at least a couple are dead
It's pretty normal in the chicken industry. So yeah
Hmm and then they get older and then they get mean and they start killing each other because turkeys are turkeys
But yeah Cornish cross will do the same thing meat birds
They're just they don't get the protein that they need or
There's not enough food around and they just start eating each other out
So yeah, then I was went to do that and my tractor wouldn't start
So then I spent an hour and a half with diesel 9-1-1 and ether to get the tractor started
So, yeah, that's how my week's going
Wow, how about you mark? How's been working outside?
Nothing. I've been home
lucky
Yeah, our boss caught it for Monday and Tuesday
Yesterday morning. We got a call
Said I don't worry about coming in today. So we didn't come in today either
Hopefully work Thursday and Friday. Yeah, it's supposed to warm up a little bit by then I think today
Grant is supposed to get
What four to six inches tonight?
Supposedly but again that never happens
But then another supposedly another six inches over the next few days
I mean, we've got we've got a little over four inches right now. Well when I came in so
Yeah, we had we had around four inches at
four p.m
Yeah, we just grew up in Alaska right now. I guess it's 40 up there with green grass
Right. What I just yeah, I'm like
I want more snowman. I'm sick of this. I want to be plowing like two foot of powder
I'm just uh, I I don't like this half-ass snow shit
It's like four inches in in where we are. We're so close to lake effect
But we're not at the same like we we hit this weird area where we don't get affected but like white cloud
30 minutes south will
and
North right. Sorry, uh 30 minutes north will and then other people around us will
We never we it's like we miss it. We're in a weird bubble
We usually we usually get lake effect every year. This is the first year where we're missing it
Yeah, I guess
Yeah, we got a little bit more last year, but to me I like when I used to live at my travers we
I remember I was getting like a foot a night sometimes and it was like we don't get nothing like that around here
That was last year. We got a foot and a half overnight last year
I don't feel like I I feel like we got that much. Did we?
Yeah, we get I had drifts in front of my brooder that were taller than me and I had to dig them out with a shovel
Yeah, I don't know why the fuck I keep forgetting about that. I don't know why I keep forgetting about that
Little that little storm time. Yeah, it was like a week and a half
Yeah, that was actually a lot of fun for doing deliveries. I uh, I was doing deliveries on the side
For old ladies and stuff that couldn't go out and couldn't drive around and
So I was driving around in it for them. I lost a lot of money, but it was a lot of fun
Because I use a lot of money and gas going through that shit
I got the forerunner stuck in a snowdrift in the
Farm parking lot just or driveway just trying to mess around and it was like 20 miles an hour to dead stop
In an instant. Oh, yeah. Oh, you also had fun with the fedex driver
Oh, that was this year. Yeah, the FedEx driver that fell into my yard
Yikes
I'm not looking forward to cleaning that up in the spring. Yeah
We had a FedEx driver that got stuck in a
driver
We had a FedEx driver that got stuck in a driveway
At my aunt's house. He was just trying to pull out and he just got stuck in the gravel
So he got out of the truck and it was my uh, it was
I guess it's uh, it was a little over a year ago because it was my uh diaper party
For Jasper
Mm-hmm. And so all our family there all the guys of course were walking up. Let me get there. Let me get there
I'll drive it out. I'll get it out the guy he got right out. He's like, all right. Yeah
Yeah, go ahead. Take so
So one of my uncles got in there and the steer starts driving the fucking FedEx truck
The rest of them are behind it pushing them and rocking them out
I'm I went to the truck and got my strap and everything because I had that sitting right there
But by the time I you know, by the time I got my strap ready and drove the truck down there. They rocked it out
I
Hooked up the winch to this FedEx truck and dragged him across my yard
But it wasn't strong enough to pull him back up on the driveway
Though I I mean the forerunner in general wasn't not just the winch
So I went and got the loader and the loader pulled him up in like one second
I'm like, man, I should just wing did that from the get-go
Yeah
Well, that's I well anyway, i'm hoping that we get that kind of snow, but I I do have a trip coming up
Um, it's not really an overlandy trip sienna and I
We're just tired man. We need a break like
We're we're getting all worked up over my job and everything and how much we freaking hate it
And i'm like I just need like we need to take a weekend and just get away from things. So I went and found a
Hotel in Traverse City for like 60 dollars a night
And uh, we're gonna go up there for a couple nights and i'm gonna get a day pass for Great Wolf Lodge for the kid
and we're gonna take the kid to go play in the water park on Great Wolf Lodge and
Hell, yeah, it's it's cheaper. It's cheaper to actually
Get two nights at a hotel
And then pay for day passes to Great Wolf Lodge than it is to actually just rent a room for two nights at Great Wolf Lodge
oh, yeah, that that depends because if you
Go up with two parties. You can get one of the suites with like multiple beds and stuff
And that is significantly cheaper than a hotel room. Oh, yeah. Yeah, if you're going up with two different parties
That's nice because you can split it but
Um, yeah, we're just going by ourselves. It was kind of an off
Not really a little planned thing. We just needed to get out and do something
and for me it was like I needed to get out and do something that was
I don't know. Not the normal. Stint out the same trails and and then Zach
And a couple other guys were talking about doing some trails near I think
Atlanta area something like that
So
we're gonna
Do that fun stuff for we're gonna go up there Friday night
Stay do the whole all Saturday. We'll play in the water park
Sunday
You know, we'll we'll sleep in the hotel and then Sunday or you know, sorry Saturday night. We'll sleep in the hotel
And then Sunday morning won't get up and meet those guys out at the trails
And then we'll do some trail riding for the day and come home
Is that this weekend? Yeah
Oh, i'll be uh
Doing steering stuff
Yeah, I I was hoping I could get someone someone else to come in and do the whole
you know
Great wolf lodge thing with us, but
It was just too fast and and like I said, I need the break
I about walked out the the other day and and quit without any kind of notice or anything just getting
Just getting tired man. I retail was fun while it lasted
I have a certain amount of patience for it and when I can't recharge my batteries when I can't go out and camp
When I can't go out and do some of the shit that I love to do that recharges my batteries exponentially
Then it just drains on me and the winters are really tough for that. Especially when you you know
When you leave at dark and you go home at dark so you don't ever see daylight
When you know, you're working in the winters like this. So right
so it's tough and uh, i'm looking at some other, you know, some other options right now, but
And of course next year. It'll be a little different for winter camping because
Will actually be set up for it. But I we are not set up for winter camping at all. We don't have anything
We used a uh, a buddy heater
In the colder months of fall which
did okay with our tent, but you know, we had a
Oxygen meter in our tent and to keep it warm enough
In there
It was kind of tough
Yeah, and as uh, alex and I
Kind of talking about how much how much I guess monoxide or whatever you want to call it. It gives off
It's uh, we the oxygen meter went off in the middle of the night when I had the 10 oh my god
Which was not what I meant to do. It was I thought I had a better draft through it
But I was going through a pound
I'd say pound
Tank every two hours
oof
So it was like what I was going through three or four tanks a night
But if you
I mean you could help that a lot by getting like a 20 pounder
Yeah, I mean, it's like a 20 pounder
I mean you could help that a lot by getting like a 20 pounder
Yeah, the 20 pounder would have been great when we were out there
I think we all kind of knew that that was like a
For now kind of thing. Yeah, and I didn't want to spend money on a 20 pounder and all that because
Diesel heater really was where I was gonna end up anyway
right, but
Yeah, I know it ended up being kind of expensive doing it that way because we ended up we were there for about a week
No, we just like a weekend four days. It was like five days. But yeah, yeah pretty much
Yeah, because I think we had the heater for four days because that first night we were like fuck. It's cold
and uh, yeah and going through
We went through. Yeah, like I said probably four tanks a night
And then that doesn't include cooking or anything like that. We probably went through another two tanks and cooking
So, I don't know dude. I stayed nice and warm on my
on my bougie ass inflatable cot and
my army sleeping bag
Yeah, getting off the ground does help with yeah getting off the ground. Yeah for sure
the I think the biggest issue wasn't me as much as it was like making sure my son and wife were
Enjoyed like my wife is not built for that
I just like giving you crap. Oh, yeah, I know but no
My wife's just not built for cold weather and to make it as enjoyable as I can
So that she agrees to go out because she will not she will not agree to go out if it's not comfortable
especially for sleeping like
so I uh
You know, that's the reason for not really going out this year
Setting up a tent in the snow all that kind of bullshit is not
It's not gonna work for her
So I think if we uh, I think when we get the rooftop tent next year, hopefully
Um, that'll be a little bit better a little bit more secure. It's
off the ground too, so
But so there's a difference between a cot and a rooftop tent
A rooftop tent is inherently going to be colder than a cot
Because yeah, you're gonna have that all that wind passing through right? Yeah, so it doesn't have any insulation
With the cot it gets you off the ground, but you're still in a wind blocked
Uh tent right whereas with a rooftop tent. You're basically on the ground with wind running under you
Yeah, so my my theory with that
And let's just say i'm not
We're not going to use the diesel heater
But my my theory with that is that it comes with like a three inch foam pad that we're going to use kind of as like
An insulator and that foam the found foam pads usually work pretty well for holding in the heat
And then if you put uh, what's that reflective insulation if you put that on the floor and the roof you'll be fine
Yeah, yeah, they also they also make a hanging
Comforter pretty much that hangs on the inside lining
Uh, I think our buddy zach actually has one and he used it in his rooftop and he said that he didn't even have to really put the heater on
And I believe that um that it's it's a really good ins
insulation layer
Yeah, no different from sleeping under the blankets. I suppose but
Yeah, i was about to say roofness. I know they have their own one that they put up in theirs
Yeah, i'm trying to think of other ones but
The the tent the the four by four colorado tent is a canvas tent
Um, mostly canvas anyway, so it's it's a heavier fabric. It's going to stop that wind a lot better
And I think it's gonna I think it's gonna hold heat in better
so
I think i'm gonna buy a new tent for next year, too
You're gonna go for like a canvas hot tent, aren't you?
100 going for a canvas hot tent with you know
Yeah, I think that's I think that's a super good thing for like
Uh for you. I think that'd be a great way to do a little tiny wood stove and a hot tent
Yeah, yeah and
I uh, i'm looking for
Ones that are quick set up like um one tigris has their tp top tent thing. Yep
um, it's one pole and like four uh,
or six or seven
Stakes so that's probably the route i'm gonna go that way. It's literally like two minute setup and then pop in the wood wood stove
You know, i'm just thinking about this what I wonder I would love to do a comparison one night
With my deal
So I'd love to do a comparison one night with my diesel heater heating your tent versus the wood stove
To see how much more or less efficient
How much fuel we go through if it can stick to the same temps?
I think that'd be a fun comparison because obviously everybody knows that wood heat once you get it going
Is pretty superior in most ways. I mean it gives off a lot more heat
But you have to constantly maintain it whereas a diesel heater is not so much but it's the downside to the diesel heater other than using
Diesel fuel is that uh, it runs typically off of a battery or power source
so
I think that would be a really cool comparison to see
If the temps stay
and then you know how much
How much kind of goes into it
I want the wood stove
Because I can use it for cooking just as well as I can for heating
Yeah
I mean it's more setup and it's more work
But there's also something romantic about sitting by a wood stove even if you're alone
I can agree to that and I think before
My current setup
I probably would went that same way, too
I think what works best with what I have right now is going to be probably that but I would
The romance it's funny you say romantic because that that does it does have some kind of part into there man. There's something about it
Dude, it's like it gives the perfect ambiance for beating off dude. It's just
It does man keeps it warm
You could throw your lotion on the stove to get a pretty warm. Oh, yeah, dude. Hell. Yeah
That's a little bit of hot oil
Yeah, a little bacon grease that you had
anyway, the
But no, it's uh, you know, it's kind of like uh the
The whole log cabin thing. Yeah, it's like
You know having a log cabin with your little wood stove out on some property
It's uh, yeah, there's something there's something kind of romantic about that whole thing
But that's uh, I think it's gonna be cool. I think you definitely
I'm wondering how much of that you could store on your roof. Once that's that tent is down
That you could do pretty much the whole tent up there the couple that i'm looking at they break
Uh, like this one here. Um, I guess I could link it. This is the one tigris
It's got a 12.3 inch or 12.3 foot uh floor width
So, you know diameter, yeah, and then
Uh floor width so, you know diameter, yeah, and it breaks down into smaller than a small packout
That's good, man
So i'd be able to throw it in a packout and throw it on my roof really
Yeah
And that's uh, and that's asleep's probably what three to five people?
I would say two comfortably if you have a wood stove in it. Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense
Because
It is round instead of squares. So and the you know, obviously the roof slopes
So you can't really
Take up as much space as you normally would and there's a center pole
Yep. Yep center pole
Um, I don't know if this is going to be your setup next year the queen-sized
Foam pad, but I would look into that because I don't know that it would fit
Um for winter time I do not plan on using that uh queen-size inflatable cot
Figured not that
That is I don't think my wife would go camping with me in the winter for one
and
For two that is only because she is not happy sleeping on her own cot
Another thing is we gotta watch for memory foam because it does freeze during cold temperatures
Right. That's a good point. Yeah
That's something that i'll look at too, I think
Because like I said that foam pad that comes in there
I think it's part foam part air. I have to double check when I when next time I look at it, but
it's uh, i'll have to take a look at that too, but
I'm just
You know, i'm ready to ready to do that traveling and i'm ready to get out and start traveling west and
And that that fj is going to be our fallback shelter our housing if anything goes to goes awry, you know
if we
You know if something ever happens while we're trying to do that plan
We can always live in the truck
Semi-comfortably, you know, we have the fridge we have all that
It doesn't take a whole lot
so
We're we're kind of in the middle of the truck
so
We're kind of hoping to do that
I could uh
Just get a one person cot tent and then put a diesel heater into it
I debate about that
I've seen people they'll run the diesel heater on the outside
and they'll just run a hose into like uh, not like a baby sack but like
Well, I know yeah, I'm outside but like i'm talking about they'll they'll do like a one person hiking
Like yeah hiking tent almost and just put it in at the foot
That's that's an option for me as well, though. I really like the tp idea. So i'll probably end up doing that
Yeah, like you like you said there is something about that
there and
You know my the other way I look at it is with the tp if it's really cold and we don't want to sit at a fire
Because you know, it's fucking wintertime
We can fit three or four people sitting in the tp and play cards or something
Yeah, and you know, I hate to say this too, but uh, I think I was looking at
I think i'm pretty sure I was looking at some of benji's uh videos on youtube and they have that propane
Fire the fireplace that made out of like the ammo can or whatever
That thing is kind of cool
I
You know, I would love to have like a just a fire pit all the time
So when you're camping something like that
Camping something like that would be really cool
So the propane fire pits, I still think wood is better here
But when you get out west to places that have burn bands, that's when you really need the propane fire pit
Around here a propane fire pit
it's
It's an extra thing. You've got to haul around and it's extra. I mean you got to stock more propane
um, it's bulky
It is kind of bulky. So I was okay. So let me let's put out scenario
um
It's the middle of the winter in the up
We're out camping alex you have
Um, you have two or three bundles of wood
Okay
um, I have
A five pound propane tank on the wheel like we were kind of talking about earlier
Okay, and I have the fire fireplace in that situation
situation winter camping
in
Both of you guys, I guess what would you say would be better for the night the wood?
No, right
Yeah, that five pound pro with that fire pit, uh that five pound propane
You're gonna get a couple hours with five bundles of wood. I can probably get
you know
A night maybe two nights depending on how big of a fire i'm burning
so, okay, and then
we add in
Uh, you know
The amount of space that five bundles of wood takes is it worth it still? Yes
Because I i'm starting to lean when it comes to all you want the fire pit for currently
Is just sitting around and some some warmth
Okay, so i'm not right
Right, but like throwing up. Let's say we're throwing up chairs
And we have you know, and i'm just saying this on two separate because I want I'm interested to hear
But the the scenario is that we found our camp up there a couple feet of snow
Um, it's just unrealistic to find wood out in the couple feet of snow in the middle of the up
That's going to be dry enough
Um, I think you'd be surprised that well, we're just gonna that buried wood is actually gonna be pretty dried
Sure
And if you're starting with a couple of uh stacks you start drying wood before you put it on
I can I could say that we're looking at setup time. We're looking at um
Digging this uh, the snow away from the wood cutting the wood, etc
And then we're looking at plugging in a hose
Lighting the the fire pit
The the the time to do I the both of them
The amount of space that it takes up in your truck to have that much wood stored
Is it still looking like you're?
I mean, and this is just purely not for cooking. This is just for uh,
I'm just for ambience really so
The thing is it depends if I have to carry around a fire ring of my own if i've got the portable one that mark's got
Mm-hmm, then
Those four stacks of wood and that one portable, uh
Fire pit take up about the same amount of space as a 20 gallon
um
Propane tank and a propane fire pit
Yep
So, I don't know man because i'm because i'm like like i'm saying, you know, you have a five ten pound tank
On the back of uh, let's say the back of the fj on the spare tire carrier
Uh, I guess it just depends if you put yourself in get broken if you prefer well, I'm
I'm just well i'm just trying to think of it as from like, uh,
Objectively and that's kind of why i'm asking about this. I'm trying to
Put more scenarios in to see if that changes it
Or if you're you know
You know the only time the only time I see propane being worth it is if we're in a burn ban
Because you can burn propane during a burn ban
Yeah, well even in a burn ban most typical burn bans if you have a fire pit
Uh, I think of the up at least and if you have a fire pit, that's a contained fire pit. That's different. Isn't it?
I'm talking about out west. Oh, yeah
Yeah, I mean
See, i'm i'm kind of an in-between on that because I like the crackling of the fire and everything
But if i'm just if i'm sitting for 30 minutes or so
And we're just sitting by the fire to warm up and chill and we just got done wheeling all day
Then it almost to me. It's like, well
If you're only looking at 30 minutes, then yeah, the propane makes the most sense
Yeah, so so it's conditional for sure
Because to me if i'm setting up a fire i'm going to be there for two or three hours at a minimum
Yeah, so that's and that's yeah, that's what i'm trying. I I guess in my situation. I probably wasn't clarifying but
Yeah to me. It's like we're out wheeling all day
We're we just we're setting up tents
We just want something hot to sit by for a little bit chit chat for an hour
or so and then we're going to bed pretty much and
to me
In those certain conditions, I would like I think a propane fire pit with the space that you would save
Would probably be there. But yeah, if you're gonna be there for a while
If we're all hanging around the fire, you know having a couple beers and all that
fire pit other and
To bring in the romanticism behind it too fire pits just the way to go
And I think if you have a fire ring like what mark says that contains and and uses that heat a lot better
uh, they just have a
Way more efficient, right exactly. So so like uh, you know, it holds that heat
Pushes it out. It's a lot better than just throwing it on the ground because that's how what I was kind of
Pointing at was you know fire in the snow
Because there's no you know, no pits around where we're where we're at. So we're starting a fire in the snow
With the wood in the back of your truck
That's where it's right. Yeah, so
Yeah, that's interesting because
Yeah, I think it is conditional
Then the other argument people have for propane is there's not much smoke. Well with that fire pit that marks got there's not a lot of smoke
It burns. No, there isn't
Yeah, there is there is something to say about those the the design of those fire pits actually do work pretty well. So
Um, I'd actually I don't know. Did we actually talk about that?
Mark why don't you talk about that a little bit because I don't know if we talked about it in
In the mail recap. Yeah that you guys that you uh mark actually won a fire pit from
Uh from his trip. So yep
It was uh, that was actually pretty cool. I haven't actually seen it yet, but we'll have to
You didn't yeah. Oh, no, you didn't come over that day that patrick. No, he was he was the part where patrick was over
Which we were burning out in the middle of winter and stuff
Yeah, yeah
but that is uh
But yeah having a ring like that for sure if you already have the ring
um
Makes more sense, but
I was just curious way cheaper because I think
Was it a hundred dollars for that? I think normally
Yeah, something like that and they'll probably say for pain ones like 200 or more
Yeah, yeah looking at looking at cost for sure
Um, I would say though if we if we're sourcing bundles of wood
Seven dollars a bundle or so
Each time that we're out longevity
It's two dollars and forty cents a gallon for propane
It almost makes more sense to have propane longwise. I mean it'll pay for itself better
I
Don't know because you're gonna go through that gallon faster than what um
We you know a fire pit would go through a bundle of wood
That just depends on your wood
But also my issue with propane is that you're gonna want to use it for your wood
Propane is that you're gonna want to use it for cooking at the same time
So you're getting two different things to use that propane up with that's a good point. That's a good point. Um
We just need to invent we just need to invent a diesel uh fire pit. It'll be great guys. I see no problems with this plan
No, but that's a good point mark
You'd have to run like a splitter of some sort if you wanted to try to cook at the same time and
And then there's just not enough pressure
Most likely if you run in a 20 pound tank, there's just not enough pressure between the two
To actually do anything
So actually it looks like you can get smaller propane pits for like 150 bucks
That's yeah, like so it depends on your size. That's really not bad. Um, yeah, and i'm talking i'm talking ammo can so I mean
It's really oh that one. Oh that one. Yeah, that one's really expensive
I know i'm but that's what i'm talking about is that that one that's like this big
So when we're talking about space saving and it's a foot by six inches
And whereas i'm thinking of the the majority of propane fire pits i've seen that are a lot bigger than that. Yeah giant cylinders
Yep. Yeah. No, no, no. Okay. So yeah, i'm sorry my bad
No, you're good. I totally forgot that thing actually puts out a lot of heat too
So, I mean I kind of see why you do that one. I would you does that change your mind a little bit?
Oh, I still I still like wood, but that that one's also going to use less propane. Um
Yes, that one I would probably use over wood in the winter time. Yeah. Okay. So
Okay, so ignore the cost
Of that, let's say you want it
Yeah, now
Yeah, okay
Yeah
I I that is what I was speaking of but it is it's good to see
uh
I i'm curious if something like that might be better for us in the future
as far as uh
maybe having one of us have something like that because because
I can kind of see that when we did the mst poker trip
We could have hung out in the parking lot a little bit and threw that out real quick
Yeah, pain up and just heat everyone up
All right. Yeah, you know even when we're at lunch, you know, you think about how long it would take to set up maybe a minute
Yeah, and i'm again i'm going off of having that tank off the back
the tire
Yeah, maybe you guys would have let me hang out a little longer than
It was a lot of people were cold. So yeah, I think I think that would have helped having something like that in the middle
I was so not ready to get back in that truck. I know you weren't
So everybody else was and we were like dude, it's so much warmer sitting in the vehicles right now
But part of this I don't have any like winter clothing I have a sweatshirt and that's uh,
I have a winter coat but
I've had it for like six years
And the last time I tried it on it was baggy as hell
But I tried it on here a couple days ago and who?
It's tight
I think I only wore my carhartt hoodie that trip
I don't remember bringing a winter coat
I don't think you did. It wasn't really that cold out, but it was just the wind and everything else
Yeah, it's the wind
I'm pretty sure I had my hey dudes at that time
because I uh
Well, I had my hey dudes on
Oh, no, I didn't I had my hiking
Hiking boots on because I was gonna switch to my mucks if anything crazy happened
I wasn't really anticipating on that last hole. So I didn't really
just didn't switch to my mucks just when that happened so
They didn't end up getting used but
I think I brought my mucks, but I don't think I was wearing them. I think oh no, I wore my combat boots
Yeah, yeah, which for anyone wondering combat boots are a terrible choice with mud and snow because it builds up under your feet
I had I had a pair of combat boots
They were like a light tan that I bought from buckley old engine show for like 25 bucks
and I i'm sure there were some off-brand whatever but
they they
sucked
in winter the traction was
this mud terrain
The only reason I wear combat boots is because I have so many that I got for free
And I have a hard time buying new clothes and shoes when I have them that work
See that's the thing is like sienna's like why don't we just buy you a coat?
I'm like, I don't plan to be this fat forever. I don't want to waste the money
That's the thing is like like I'm uh, I think I was wearing a 2x
Uh before jasper was born I was wearing a 2x and now i'm wearing like three to four depending on what it is
Oh, dude, so is he we were at sam's club and they had these really really nice winter coats marked down to like 20 bucks, right?
And I tried on the 2x which was the largest size they had and it fit me like a 1x
And I was like, are you fucking kidding me? Like i'm too fat to get good deals
Like now I can't be fat anymore
Yeah, i've started eating a little bit healthier and
Uh, it's it's gonna change man. I can't
I have so many nice expensive winter clothing layers
That I invested in when I was more of a 2x size. Yeah, like um
Like actual layers that are really nice for it
So i'm just losing money at this point
I'm not gonna spend a bunch of money on forex because
I'm not gonna be a forex for
long
I uh, I think it's really funny because i've been losing weight for listeners. I've lost like
Four i'm down to 265
So that's like
35 pounds in the last three months
And I noticed that my army gear from when I got out of the reserves all of that is starting to get super baggy on me
Which is great. Yeah, that's it's a great feeling. Oh my god. You don't still tight. So
Yeah, I mean, it's a good feeling dude. I uh
I noticed that i've started to lose a little bit ever since I started this job
Uh, just moving around a little bit more
Not more of a desk job, but
I've started to lose a little bit. I'm not eating as much because i'm not
sitting bored or anything like that, so
um
That helps
I did kind of pick up smoking a little bit again
and uh
But that's just been like
I did I was so far I was so close to flipping out and just throwing my keys down and walking out the other day
I went took my lunch break went to the gas station picked up a breeze or whatever. These little vape things are I was like
It's like I just need to take a couple puffs and
Now now i'm kind of back i'm back to it but like I could obviously I could stop anytime
I just don't I never really like stopping anyway
Yeah, I drifted from vaping because i've been vaping since like
2015 2016
and I just drifted from that to the like rogues or
zins
Just because getting the stuff for my vape has gotten so fucking hard
Yeah, I
The one thing that I didn't like about it was
that I always got like
My juice would leak
Over and fill in my juice and I'd vape like a freight train because I was only doing three meg uh mg
For the longest time
So I pretty much just breathe it in. It sounded like darth vader just that's what I do
And uh
and
Then uh, you know, then i'd have to wipe my windows out of my truck every couple days and
That was honestly that pissed me off because it was like if you like the nicotine you have to wipe out of your windows
Is so much harder to wipe than just like fog or anything. It'd be the one thing to piss me off
But I can't stand disposed dude. They they taste bad. They don't hit as good and
They make my throat burn
Yeah, this one is not bad. I uh
This I don't know. I just got a breeze because uh, my aunt used one and it was just what I was
I don't i've never used a dispo before that
But this isn't bad. Like I said, I just I only hit it when I just feel like yeah
I want to I guess which I guess isn't really
Doesn't stop like it's a little bit like i've been hitting it throughout today and just kind of here and there whenever I feel like it but
I feel like i'm already better
I don't know if it's placebo, but I already feel like i'm a little calmer. You know what I mean? I uh,
I'm picturing the
I'm picturing the chapter art that mark's gonna make with ai. It's gonna be an fj just sucking on a mod
Yeah, for real
but
Yeah, it's it's I mean I like I said, I stopped when uh when jasper
When he found out we were having him and I really didn't want to because I liked doing it
and uh
But now that he's now that he's born and everything. It's like
Nicotine was a really good appetite suppressant
It really is an appetite suppressant. Oh it is stop
When I stopped smoking I gained probably 30 40 pounds
Just wow trying to find yeah, dude. It was it was fast
30 to 40 pounds just using you know, like just I don't know just substituting
And uh, it was it was quick though like from that
from
Then actually having
And I don't know what kind of bullshit happened after that but like I gained fucking crazy amount of weight between that
Another 40 to 60 pounds. I've always known you as a big guy. So
That's good. I know well when we met I I was bigger, you know, because jasper is already born but that was but that was the joke
Yeah
So the uh, but I was 275
before jasper and I was meal prepping every day and meal prepping every day and I was going to the gym and it was a it was a
You know more of a muscular 275 is going to the gym three times a day
So I was doing pretty good. I had such bad, you know body dysmorphia about it though
I had no idea that I was actually doing good
Until I looked back on my photos. I'm like damn god damn it
I was doing pretty good. I was doing pretty good. I was doing pretty good
So I went to my photos. I'm like damn god damn it. What did I do?
Yeah, when I uh, when I look back at army photos, I'm like goddamn there's like half of me there
oh, yeah when people are like, you know, there's some of the other day was like
Did you see that big guy dude? He had to be like 300 some pounds. I'm like
damn
because I
said, but people don't like know that I'm like 300 some pounds, but they're like, yeah, he was big, man.
He was like 300 ton pounds or like when they or people compare big people, they're like, you know, he was a big guy like you.
I was like, fuck.
My
Wake up call we were testing the scales on our feed bins and my boss is like, well,
this one is calibrating at 300 pounds when you stand on it and I'm like, huh, I'm not that big.
So he went and got a floor scale and I was 300 pounds on the dot.
Yeah, I think right now I'm at I am at probably three
50 I haven't weighed myself and probably a month or two you don't you don't look like you carry that much weight though
Like you're a bigger guy. Don't get me wrong, but I would never have guessed high threes
Yeah, I did
360 brother
and that I like I looked at Santa like and
Further for the listeners. This is just my kind of humor. So don't I like to see I was like shoot me like fucking
Just kill me now. Okay. I I told her if I ever got above like 340 to just shoot me because at that point
I'm too far gone
And I looked at her and I was like shoot me the doctor looks at me. I'm like, no, no, no, no
I don't need a grippy sock vacation. I'm good. I'm just joking
but
yeah, apparently
apparently dark humor is not healthy and I
Had someone I had someone tell me that it's not healthy that I plan and dying on in space when I'm 80 and I'm like
Why that's a long happy life
Joker I joke about people. I'd be like, yeah, I wasn't really planning on living past
23 so I don't really know what a hell I'm doing with my life
Yeah, still figured it out cuz I wasn't planning on getting this far
So yeah, I mean it's a it's a work in progress. I I
Have the knowledge. I have the skill I
It's odd because I'm kind of the more I think about it the more I feel like it is a weird type of addiction
It's it's hard for me to like
Let's get gym memberships at that place in New ego and start working out together. I have gym membership at 24 or planning
or was it
the
One in Fremont because I was working at Fremont
I'd go right but for so it's it's too expensive now to do two of them because that's what I was gonna do
What if you just cancel that one and move to the one and you have to pay I have to do the I have to
Payout fee or whatever which is the rest of the year
That's why so it's like a couple hundred bucks
I'm gonna do the one in New ego just cuz it's close
Yeah, I wanted to
You know, I was I was getting to a point to where I was having fun
I was there for like I said three some hours some days and
It got to the point to where it was more
By the time I was getting home and cooking dinner
It was like 10 30 11 and then that became more unhealthy because we're eating so late and seeing us pregnant
She's like, hey, can you like be home at a decent time, please?
like yeah, so kind of call that I
I I have never been big on weightlifting. I mean I did for a while I weight lifted for about a year
But I was never good at it so cardio has always been my thing and I lose a lot of weight when I start fucking
Are you cardio? Yeah. Oh, I love dude. I I like to sit down bike for cardio
Because I could do like a podcast or something or YouTube video and watch over landing videos while I was doing like the bike
But like I do mostly it was like yeah, I was like weight training stuff like that
But it didn't be me on a treadmill just watching Family Guy. Yeah, I treadmill suck, dude. I
I used to do close to 75 to 80 miles a week
Yeah, no, I I liked the hiking aspect more
So like hiking and stuff is different for me. I could do double or triple the mileage
I could do like I would like to do with you guys at some point if we ever get there
I'd love to do that 40 mile dragon dragon trail hike it. Oh, I want to do that, too
I'd be awesome. That'd be sweet
And still a lot of real up there too. It's all I think it's all yeah, it's the same thing
But it's it's 40 miles dude, it'd be such a fun
If such a fun little backpacking trip do that do like four days. Oh, yeah
Ten miles. Oh, that's pretty easy. I think in the spring
I'm gonna get my bike out and go through it because I think I want to start riding bikes. Yeah
I should really do that too
My ass is too fucking big to be on a bike, bro. I gotta lose some more weight before I do that
We'll get your weight down and then we'll get you on a bike. It'll all be great
Yeah, no, I'm I also like you know
It's funny is that I could probably go cheaper on a roof rack
If I didn't need my static to be so fucking happy
They might my static gross weight that I needed to be to factor in my wife my son and I
because I weigh two
Two times what I should three times. I should I
Needed to be pretty high. So the print zoo is like is the highest
static weight
Rack that is commercially available for my truck and I've gone through Sherpa. I've gone through Westcott designs
I've gone through all sorts of them
Amazon of course, but I
think it's like seven something and
I just needed to be a little bit bigger. I'm halfway worried about my fucking ladder
I'm gonna have to write it. My ladders gonna break every time I go up and down it or something
See, this is why you get a nice ground tent. Then you don't have to worry about weight. No
No, I we've did the ground tent. We're moving past we're moving the bigger and better
Like I saw in the bedding more ring
Smaller and not necessarily better
It's actually bigger for me, it's a king-size
It's a king-size sleeping platform and we have a tube
It's gonna be smaller. Then we have a tube out right now. Oh
Oh that blue one. Yeah. Oh that blue one. No, that's not an everyday thing. That was just a
That was just the one that I brought out for you guys because we do
That was a multiple day stay
Yeah, that I think that
Yeah, that one that one's great for those three days or you know, whatever just set up base camps
But the type that we're gonna be doing it's
Nope, that's not gonna work. It takes too long. It's too big
It's a it'd be is a lot easier for what we're doing to do how we're doing it
I want something that's gonna last a long time. I want storage
It's gonna double as storage so it's gonna be nice
Looking forward to it. I could
Camp anywhere on that. I don't have to worry about
What kind of terrain we're on how muddy the ground is. I don't have to worry about all that shit the sand the mud
snow
I don't have to clear a bunch of snow out of the way
You don't have to clear a bunch of snow out of the way for a ground tent either you set it up on top of it
Yeah, and I'm thinking about quality of life for my wife and stuff, too
I mean, like I said, this would all change if I was doing this solo my my my kit would be very different
So yeah, I just wintertime. I know she won't go out with me. So I just plan on solo winter camping, right?
Take a dog. Oh, I'll take her. She doesn't care. I gotta get her a new car heart though, because
The one that I got her when she was uh, one year old
Now she's almost 10 years old and it doesn't really fit anymore
Yeah, well, that'll be good this plan like I said paying off some stuff this year
I'm gonna pay some debt off here in the next couple months. Hopefully, uh,
Hopefully everything is gonna kind of go the way that we plan it to and then we should have that tent by
mid late spring and
Then I could start
really
Really building out to what we want
Customizing it and then we should have that tent by
Really building out to what we want. I'm customizing the back. I think I am gonna do
Um, I think I'm gonna do probably more of a custom wood drawer type situation
um
but yeah, we'll see man, but
Yeah, I uh
I should be getting my roof rack here in the next couple of months, too
um
I had a little surprise situation where my
OEM power steering rack that is a little over a year old decided. Hey
I don't need to exist anymore
So
I need to I just got a new one today. It's not oem. Shoot me. Toyota pierced. I went the oem route once
so
I uh
I just got a hundred and seventy dollar one from detroit axle and new outer tie rods
and i'm gonna rip my steering shaft out and do a couple weld mods to clean up the slop
and
It's gonna be a bear of a project, but it'll be worth it in the end
Even if it ate into my uh packout and roof rack budget
Hey, at least it's better than replacing a whole bumper like I have to now
Yeah, what the hell dude?
Never buy amazon bumper
Yeah, gavin you kind of bent my bumper out a little bit when we had to pull me out a lot a lot of it
Hey, they told me I know I could have hooked up my kinetic and
And I would have made it worse
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's even more. Yeah, that's even more uh energy, huh?
It is a poorly designed bumper and that meant for kinetic pull. You know, we did technically do a kinetic bulb
Yeah, kind of
Don't tell me
Yeah
Yeah, but yeah
after uh
I mean you got it for free it came on the truck and you got a year ish out of it. Yep
Just about a year. So
I'd say for a free bumper. It's not the end of the world. No tip of the day. Keep the amazon pumpers away
Yes, and with that in mind
Uh, we thank you guys for listening in
Uh, and we'll see you next time
later