A few nuggets from a life outdoors

-Injured or not always make an effort to do better. 

-Life will always throw obstacles in the way, what determines how you are perceived is how you handle those obstacles.

-A trip around the sun takes 365.23+/- days, a trip to the store takes maybe a few hours, you have to decide which is more important to you.

-Never forget that life is going to kick you in the teeth sometimes, the key is to keep on smiling after it happens! 

-Always remind those you love of why they they are important to you.

-Stupidty usually kills one, fear kills the rest. So, know the difference, and manage the fear.

-Sometimes its best to just look up at the sky and be thankful for the moment you have.

-Life will always get in the way, YOU are the one who decides how you handle what comes your way. We suggest a smile and a nod.

-If you see a mountain in front of you there are two options, go around or go up and over if you wish to pass it. Up and over will be more difficult and strenuous but save time, the trip around will take longer and be more gentle. Be prepared for the journey as most of the difficulty can be overcome with your mind. Whereas bring your endurance if you go around.

 In today's day and age of technology, it is not as easy to find the path less traveled. So, when you are looking for a  path less traveled it may take a little more time to find it. As the business world calls it "thinking outside the box" is important for growth as not only a business but also as a person. 

Look hard, dream big and find a different way through your life. While others may think this is "out there", remember in your heart that you are making your own way.

Sometimes taking the road less traveled will open you to confusion and ridicule of others. Though as I always tell Everett, "I want Everett to be Everett" not just another kid to fit into a group. I give the same advice to anyone going through life or business make yourself or your business stand out for being different. 

 As we continue with our journey here on N.O.B.S. Outdoors somethings will be noticeable in our information provided on the site. While I have tons of high-end solo gear for the outdoors accumulated over the years from backpacks, skis, kayaks, tents, sleeping bags, stoves, etc… It is time to change the perspective and see what is really needed and how economical we can make this adventure. Tech-gear has a place and time no doubt, but it should not be the base you build off of unless that is your job.  

On this page I will share some thoughts, tips and tricks learned from a life outside. 

 As I was talking with my own dad yesterday on the way to work, unless you are pushing a piece of gear to its limit what is the purpose of a -50 degree sleeping bag or $1000 tent? To be honest it is no more than bragging rights. In the last few years, I have picked up a $49.99 6-8 person tent at Aldi on sale and a few $30 dollar sleeping bags the next year. It’s a standing height tent for me at 6’2+” and only takes about 5-10 minutes to set up. I have set it up in 45+ mph winds in West Texas by myself, it has a rain-fly and works great. 

Most of the time you don’t need the sleeping bags in the heat of summer a sheet will do. While backpacking gear is great don’t get me wrong, most people are not going to hike the Appalachian Trail or the Continental Divide Trail, they are taking a car to a campground or going out in the backyard to camp. So, there is no real need for starting out with the expensive stuff.  

 There are a thousand reasons to stay in the house, keep working, or to chase that e-mail/text/phone call these days. While I understand completely the need to make money to survive or rest up after a long day, there is something that the outdoors gives you that nothing else will. You don’t need the fancy equipment, the perfect shoe/outfit, or to impress anyone. Being outside on a regular basis even for just a few minutes at a time will change the way you feel and think. Make the first step and it can lead to a lifetime of adventure. If you have children or a significant other, it is even more important to get rid of the devices and explore the world around you. It doesn’t have to be to some exotic place.  

Many people out there think that a trip or vacation requires eating out everyday for all meals. Now some trips in life this maybe the case but for most of them this is not the case. While camping allows more flexibility than most in this category, hotels don't always have this option. 

I do math for a living so lets do a little math problem here renting a house for a week vs hotel. The house has the ability to cook where the hotel doesn't for this scenario. Lets say the house costs $1500 for a week and the hotel costs $900 for a week. If you have a family of 4 lets figure $10 per person for breakfast, $10 per person for lunch, and $25 per person for dinner (Inflation sucks) So if we calculate the food budget for a day at $40 for breakfast, $40 for lunch, and $100 for dinner. Thats $180 per day in most touristy vacation spots. Multiply that $180 x 6.5 and you have $1170 per week for food. So we add up the hotel cost with food of $2,070 for the week. 

Where getting a house allows you to bring food to cook everyday at about 1/4 the cost. That comes to $45 per day for food if your bring it with you for a total of $292.50 for the week and lets add two nice meals out at $150 each for $300. This gives you a total of $592.50 for food for a total of $2,092.50 

So if you look at the costs difference it is $22.50 now with proper planning and some shopping smarts you could cut about $100 or more off the food budget for the house easily. 

So, there are options out there for a vacation 

This isn't saying never push your limits. But, as I get older I am reminded daily of the fun I had and the mistakes that I made growing up into who I am today. For example I broke both of my ankles about 6 years ago. The doctors told me their goal was for me to be able to walk after everything was said and done. So 10 months after the accident I walked a marathon in 5 days. pretty much 5 miles a day for 4 days and 6.2 miles on the 5th day. 

What does that have to do about knowing my limits. Let me tell you. This was not the first time I have been told I wouldn't be able to run or walk again after an accident. Over the years this has pretty much been the mantra every time I end up in the ER. If you know the baseline such as just trying to walk again. You can give in and settle for the minimum, or you can get up at 3am to push yourself through the pain to go farther. Hiding those tears and pain from the world around you till you can handle it and go beyond that baseline. Putting in hours of physical therapy on your own, striving through the pain instead of waiting on someone to put you through it.

Its the same for anything in life. If its an academic limit, read more, learn more, research more. If its a physical limit work harder, work longer, find a way around it. If its an economic limit work harder, learn more, work more, budget more, save more. In all of this what is the key work hard, never stop learning, and put more time into it.

We can all sit back and say what "Can't" be done or "why" it isn't happening. When in reality it comes down to doing what you have to do to personally move those limit lines on your own. No one else can expand those limits you have to do that on your own. 

Having been told over and over to settle for the baseline in recovery or after a failure, I have learned that mental fortitude and strength gets you farther than any excuse ever will.

 Never say "I Quit" always say "Next Time".

So you want to learn to cook outside using a cast iron dutch oven over a campfire. This has been an ongoing intrigue for me personally. First off as it was told to me "you have to know how to actually cook" outside of cooking over a fire. This really means if you struggle making something edible in the first place, adding a dutch oven to the mix will not exactly be a positive step. Though you may be an excellent chef on the dutch oven and still burn water trying to make mac & cheese in a fully outfitted kitchen.

Cooking is one of my all time hobbies. I'm not talking fancy stuff. To be honest I can't bake very well, and certain foods I just don't eat, so I don't know how to cook them.  

When you are dealing with a dutch oven the first step is where to place it in relation to the fire.  Typically you want to have a section of red coals away from direct flame  on the ground next to the fire or on an elevated grate above the flame height of the fire.  Direct flame contact with the cast iron will create hot spots on the inside and burn the food to the inside of the pan.

As the fire goes down in height you will want to keep the dutch oven at a similar height to above the flames to keep consistent heat. This is where cooking over the red coals by sitting the dutch oven directly on top or ringing the oven with the coals makes it a lot easier.

Once you decide what you wish to cook a typical recipe will give a temperature to cook at say 350 degrees farenheit.  This is where you need a small bag of charcoal for the easy route. 1 typical charcoal briquet (think kingsford or match light size here) is worth 50 degrees in temperature. So you want to light up those briquets and get them at least 50% grey in color, in other words they need to be burning on their own.

For a 350 degree temp you have the heat from the fire or red coals below and most dutch ovens have either a lip or raised lines on the lid. This is where you place the charcoal on top to complete the heating requirements of food.  So you place 7 equally spaced charcoal briquets around the top of the lid. You may need to add more depending on your cooking time as some of the briquets completely burn out. This will keep the temperature consistent. 

If you have the dutch oven cooking can be a breeze. I have seen a guy who had dutch ovens with little feet on them stacked 7 ovens high with charcoal on each lid and the bottom one sitting on red coals. He used a piece of metal stove pipe as a wind break to keep the temperature consistent. He made cobblers, stew, casseroles, everything for a group of about 30 people in those 7 dutch ovens. 

Timing is the key. We recently cooked a casserole that was made a home in an aluminum disposable pan inside a dutch oven over a campfire by placing rocks in the dutch oven under the pan to keep contact heat from burning it to the bottom. It worked great and cooked in the 45 minutes that you would normally cook it in the oven. Essentially creating a convection oven

So, go on give it a try. There are thousands of great dishes that can be cooked in a dutch oven. 

Fall is starting out cool here in the Western North Carolina mountains. For those of you who didn't know we got snow yesterday here on the 18th of October at the higher elevations and down into the valleys over in and around Mountain City, Tn. 

We love the cooler weather here. Snow brings us alive, while traveling around and playing in the warmer weather is always fun. Snow is our favorite part of the year. Which for us means getting our winter gear out of the closet and preparing the kit for the car.

Our winter kit for the car includes 1 set of dry clothes for everyone in the car,  gloves of some sort for everyone in the car, a stocking/knit/watch cap for everyone in the car, and a basic set of flares/chem-lights/flashlights/mirror, tire chains/cables, tow strap, pocket knife, lighter/matches, road atlas, and a compass. 

Obviously the clothes are in case you get wet or need another layer to warm you up. Gloves are dual purpose for work like changing a tire and to keep warm fashion gloves are not really going to do more than just look good or maybe keep your hands warm. A warm hat is to keep from losing body heat if you get stuck in the car or need to get out of the car for work and forgot to bring one. Light sources are for multiple purposes if the car gets stuck at night and you have to walk, if there is an accident to mark the path to your location, or to signal for help. Tire chains/cables are just a necessity any where that snow and ice are prevalent throughout the winter. A tow strap is not only to pull other people out of the ditch but also to have if someone offers to pull you out and doesn't have one. We have pocket knives in every vehicle no matter the weather it is just a good idea to be comfortable in using one they are great for helping get material to start a fire in the cold. Matches or a lighter are in our pockets daily, having a way to start a fire is essential in cold weather in the mountains. As much as we travel a road atlas is key especially in the winter as if you do need to detour around a snow covered road sometimes the GPS just will not work easily with that, if you get out of the car to walk it is a good idea to know which direction the closest road is. A compass is pretty much a life saver if you know how to use it, if you do not know how to use it, it can lead to your death. 

This is one of those things that amazes me every day. People wake up and think the world owes you an easy life. You look at TV, Sports, Business and see all these people showing off their money and toys. You think they always look so perfect and couldn't have to work that hard to get that. 

I am not a sports fan but over the years have had the benefit of meeting and knowing many high profile athletes. Talking the top of the salary list types. The ones who actually had a full career and truly retired. Not a one or two season and either got replaced or injured and were out. The same with business, tv, movie and music industry people I know. One thing that separates out the one hit wonders in the world from the long career types is Hard Work.

While it may look like they just show up cash the check and go home to play, that is far from the truth. Most of them are the first one in the gym, office, or studio in the morning. picking a guitar on the porch not to wake up their spouse or kids at 4am,  or spending all night after work to find that edge in a negotiation before they get to the table. They don't complain, they know they are lucky and work their butts off to stay on the path they have chosen. They know more than their own job, they take the time to learn every other job around them. This allows them real insight when asked for advice or needing to receive feedback (criticism) from others.  

They are not afraid of early mornings and late nights, long trips or doing things they don't like if it is necessary to get the job done. Sometimes you sweep the floor to take practice shots, sometimes you serve the food at your own event, sometimes you hold up a scaffold/ladder to put the lights up for a show, sometimes you stay up for days to put together a proposal for clients. You do what is required to get to the goal.

No job is beneath you, which means no job is above you. If you can take out the trash you can learn how to be the CEO.

Starting at the bottom and putting in the work, has been replaced by people who think that is beneath them. Put in those solo practices by moonlight, the hours in the gym, the hours reading up on clients/research, and If you want to be the best put those hours in with a smile. Your ability to sacrifice will determine your ability to succeed. 

Then one day you will sit back and realize if you put the work in, you have reached your goal. 

Security in a pay check is not what I am talking about if you really want to run the place you may not get a paycheck for years. May have to sleep on the floor to keep a project on schedule, and may have to give up that fancy car or vacations in the beginning. 

Never stop learning and put in the hard work. Learn that a 1/4" makes the difference between scoring and failing. No one shoots 100% no matter how much BS they want to feed you. Failure teaches more than success, Hard Work gives more than it receives, and life owes you nothing.

It has been a long time coming and this will be something for your to laugh at. Come back or Subscribe so you know when this one posts. You will not want to miss it.

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