Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 537: Raising Outdoors Kids - A Mark and Dan Progress Report

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Ep. 537: Raising Outdoors Kids - A Mark and Dan Progress Report · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan and Tan the show. I'm joined by the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: one and only Dan Johnson of the Nine Finger Chronicles
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to explore the latest lessons that we've learned in our
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: personal journeys raising kids to enjoy and explore the outdoors.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to you by First Light. Like I mentioned at the top,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: we're talking kids today, and joining me to talk about
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: kids is my buddy and longtime co host of the
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: podcast in those early years, Dan Johnson. And in those
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: first few years when me and Dan were talking every
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: week frequently stories of his kids, and eventually my kids
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: popped up on the podcast, and uh, sometimes we were
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: met with complaints about that, people said, stop talking about kids,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: just talk about dear. But guess what, folks, We're still
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: talking about kids because our children. And I'm guessing for
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: those of you who are parents, your children are a
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: very important part of your hunting life, of your outdoor life, fishing,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: whatever outside activities you love. I'm guessing you love or
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: at least you want your children to love getting involved
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: with those two and that's been something that's been on
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: my mind a lot. I know it's been on Dan's
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: mind and something we wanted to share with you guys.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Here Again, we've talked about it in previous episodes over
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the past handful of years, but now with kids that
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: are on a wide spectrum of ages. I've got boys
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: that are two and four, Dan has a daughter who's older,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and two younger boys. UM, we've got some more life
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: experience to share and we wanted to share that with you.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: By no means every experts, By no means do we
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: have this figured out. This is merely a here's where
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: we're at, Here's what we're struggling with. Here's what we're learning,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Here's what's working, Here's what's not. Here's what we're hoping
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: to see happen in the future. Uh, as we try
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: to raise these kids to be comfortable in the outdoors
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and to love the outdoors and to learn to hunt
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: and fish and camp and climb and hike or whatever
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: it is. Um, you know, my hope has always been
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: that my children can can grow to love these wild
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: places and wild things the way I have, and that
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: they can help enrich their lives the way those things
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: have done that for me. So today that's what we're
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: gonna talk about. And it's particularly relevant for another reason too,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: because my pale and colleagues Steve Ronella, just released a
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: book on this very topic on May three. The books
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: called Outdoor Kids in an Inside World, Getting your family
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: out of the house and radically engaged with nature. And
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I've just started reading the book myself, so I can't
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: give you the full review personally, but knowing it's from Steve,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I know it's gonna be good. I know it's gonna
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: be interesting, and uh, I imagine there's a lot that
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I can learn from it too. So check that book
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: out now if you're interested more on this topic, if
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you have kids yourself, or if you're wanting to have
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: kids in the future and you're struggling to think about
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: how do we get these kids outside and off their
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: phones and off of the TV and off of Instagram
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: or TikTok or whatever belogning it is these days. Uh,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: that book and hopefully this conversation can be helpful starting points.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: So well that's said, let's get to my chat with
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Dan we're talking kids, we're talking the outdoors. We've got
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: some funny stories, we've got some lessons learned, and a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: little bit everything else in between. Thanks for tuning in.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Here we go all right with me. I've got the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: one and only Daniel nine Fingers Madman, Big Beard Johnson.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: What if? What if I changed my middle name to
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: nine fingers? Honestly, I think that most people would really
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: be supportive of that. It basically it basically is, don't
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: you feel like I mean, most people, if most people
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: asked you, oh, what do you what's your middle name?
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people would say it might
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: be nine fingers might I guess I've never really thought
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: of it until just now, which is crazy because I
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: think about a lot of random things. But like the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: fact that someone's actual middle name is like a description
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: of their body. Do you remember, Yeah, do you remember
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the Like? There's a number of like pro sports players
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: that have done this, Like Chad Johnson was an NFL
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: wide receiver and he changed his name to his number.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: He became September. Yeah, that could be like, or it
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: could be Mark, because right now you're still rocking the mustache,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: right yes, there, Mark mustache Kenyan. See it's too fresh,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: like the mustaches not become iconic enough for me. So
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: people people wouldn't see that and immediately think, oh, Mark Kenyon.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: I think it's only when, only when your middle name
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: is is such a standing for who you are as
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: a person, only then can you make that switch. So
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: so in your case, nine fingers, I mean you really
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: are that Chad Johnson of the hunting world. Um, you
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: could totally do that. Oh man, I love I love
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: that reference. I'm I'm the Ocho Sinko of the of
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the hunting industry. Nice. Yeah, man, I think that's just stick.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: What is your real middle name? David David Okay, Mark,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: David Mark, David Kenyon. That sounds like you're an elitist.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: You sound you sound like, oh okay, Well, then what's yours? Keith?
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: You sound like a freaking hillbilly. Yeah, exactly exactly, and
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that's correct. Like I'm Daniel Keith Johnson and I'm a
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Mack David Kenyon. We were we were named appropriately exactly exactly.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Are you? I'm good man? How are you good? I'm
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: glad we're doing this. It's been too I know, so
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: how many people I've already shut this episode off. I'm hoping.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping most because I always like to listen to
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the air. I like to do these podcasts with zero
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: pressure and zero inhibitions, knowing that there's no audience so
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: zero so we can really talk about anything we want.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: These are really the best. So how's your sex life lately?
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Don't answer that question question, I was getting ready to
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I was getting ready to muffs. Yeah, exactly, in all seriousness. Uh,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: what is new other than that? Anything? Just just work, man,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you know, it's Uh, it's crazy. I was having this
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: conversation with a guy the other day who he's not
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: like full time into hunting. He does it kind of
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: as a side gig. And uh, and I was just like, man,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna be spending a lot more
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: time outside and doing all this, you know, like obviously
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: during the hunting season. I can use the excuse, Hey,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I'm in you know, I do this for a living,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: so I can get out and hunt. But like I
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: want to go out and maybe turkey hunt more, or
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I want to go out and look for mushrooms or
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: do more scouting instead, I'm I spend a lot of
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: time in front of a computer. Especially this week and
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the rest of this month will be we're getting ready
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to launch a new website and so, uh, it's it's
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: just like it's back to the same kind of work
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: that I was doing before I I got laid off,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: but I'm doing it for myself now. I guess which
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: is which is better? But still I'm not spending that out.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I'd time, like, I want to which one of your
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: bosses is more annoying, the old boss or the new one. Uh?
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Definitely me, Definitely, I'm I'm way more annoying to myself
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: than my old My old boss was cool, man. He
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: he would pull me into his office and because he
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: was a new deer hunter, and so he would pull
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: me into his office, like in the middle of the
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: day and he'd be like, hey, man, can you come
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: look at this map real quick? Uh? So I got
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: a picture of this deer here, and I got a
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: picture of this deer here, and I'm trying to think
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: about what he's doing. So he would actually pull me
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: into his office and talk to me about like hunting
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: strategy every once in a while. And so I thought
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I was getting pulled into his office and I was
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: gonna get in trouble, but it was more of a
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: hunting strategy conversation, which was nice. I actually have to
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: now hold myself accountable for the work that I'm doing
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: and to you know, keep the lights on. And so
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I have this the you know, the the Dan Johnson
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: on one shoulder in the Dan Johnson on the other
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: shoulders like you should go suhroom hunting and you should
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: go scouting, and then the other ones like, actually, you
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: should uh finish your work today and then you should
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: go do some chores around the house and blah blah blah.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: I'm just like both you shut up, like it's uh,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man, it's nuts all right. Now. I
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: feel like, though, I gotta go back to your boss,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: because I feel like he was really doing new dirty
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: when for years he was calling you to this to
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: his office and you were scared you were in trouble,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: but instead he tricked you and was just talking about
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: deer hunting, and then finally after you trusted him, he
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: did bring you in and lay you off. I mean,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: that's like the ultimate worst, isn't it. Yeah, yeah, in
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: a way. But at the same time, I didn't care
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: that I got laid off. Right. So I think in
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: a way it was the best thing for me. And uh,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I probably wasn't an ideal uh uh employee,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I mean at all, But I I built everything that
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I have at work. Certain weeks when I wasn't, they said,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: like this, he built this while it works. Yeah, exactly,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I did. I think in the early days when we
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: were when we recorded, uh some of the original Wired
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: to Hunt episodes, some of those were in a unused
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: I guess the conference room at work. Yeah, I guess
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: that's not ideal, right, right on the clock, getting getting
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: paid to talk about deer hunting. Well, he never listened
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: to the podcast, did he? Oh yeah, he listened to it.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: He listened to all of them, I think, hopefully not
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: this one. All right. Yeah, I don't think. I don't
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: know if he's listening to him anymore, but I don't
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: think he cares. So we're it's a win win. That's good.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: That's good. Man. So you talked about the fact that
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: you maybe don't hunt as much as he thought you
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: were gonna. Is that actually truly? Do you really think
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: that you hunt less now? Or what's that look like?
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Pre you know, new job versus old job. What's your hunting.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't say that the hunting has gone down, because
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I do spend a lot of time hunting. I would
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: say the rest of the years is not what I
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: thought it was, you know what I mean. Like, I
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: would definitely love to go fishing more. I would definitely
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: love to be scouting more and doing other outdoor activities,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: like like today, I wish I was mushroom hunting, but
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I'm you know, I got work to do. So you know,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: this new website launched that I mentioned, you know, uploading
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: all the podcast for the network and and all that stuff.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: So it's like so it's like, I wish I was
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: doing it, but I have to be an adult and
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: run a business, and that I don't know that that
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: is the It's awesome and not awesome at the same time.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: If that makes any type of sense. It makes sense,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: and it's it's also very You could take that same
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: answer and you could apply it to our topic that
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I want us to talk about today, which is kids.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: They're awesome and not awesome all at the same time.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I think we can all agree on that there's moments
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: of both. Um. Yeah, man, I know that when I, Well,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: it's funny. I was thinking about this last night, and
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I remember thinking about those early Wired Dune episodes that
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: we recorded, and you'd be telling me about how you felt,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: you know, bad, going on a big hunting trip and
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: leaving your wife and your daughter home alone, where you
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: felt like you want you should be doing more of
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: this other stuff where you need to do a better
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: job of balancing, or you were trying to figure out
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: how to spend time with your daughter outside while also
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: trying to get these things done that you need to
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: do to deer hunt. And I remember being so unsympathetic
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: to that and being like, Dan, you just gotta get
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: out more, Dan, you just talk about more. Dan, you
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: just gotta And I got to think in last night,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I must have been so annoying any this, this young
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: stupid kid with no kids of his own telling you
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: what you should do. And and now I understand so
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: so much more. Um, but that uh, that first year
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: after my first son was born, you, me and our
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: buddy Andy Bradley did a podcast, so we talked a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: little bit about raising you know, what it's like having
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: kids and trying to raise them in the outdoors and
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: trying to teach them about hunting and fishing and camping
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and all these other different things that we like to do.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: So we did that when Whenever was like five months old,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: and at your point, I think what Eva was probably
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: four or five maybe, or it depends on how long ago.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know how long ago that would have been.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Two summer two would have had my third depending on
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: what time I would have had my third kid, and
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: he would have been just barely born. Yeah, so we
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: are now, you know, almost five years on from that,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: four plus years on from that. So ever now is
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: four and my second cult is too um and you
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: know this is my fifth years parents. So I've got
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: a whole new experience set. Now, how old are your kids?
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Have got three? Now, what are the ages now? Nine?
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Mac is seven and Knox is four. He'll be he'll
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: be five in September. Yeah, so we've got a whole
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: new set of I think learnings and lessons and insights.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: And we we have checked in on this occasionally in
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the years since. I think we did another episode where
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: we talked about this to some degree, but I thought
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: this would be a good time to circle back. It's
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: been on my mind a lot lately actually, um, and
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: just kind of talk about where things are, what we've
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: learned about this stuff. Um. I don't know. It's actually
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: become one of my favorite things to talk about. And
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: maybe it's just because so much of what I do
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: is with my kids now, you know what I'm thinking,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: always trying to try to post something every day on Instagram,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, Okay, what have I done recently, what's interesting,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: what's new, What's going on in my life? And it's
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: always kids related. I almost a very few occasionally idea
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: but very few interesting like outdoor adventures that are just
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: like gung ho badass ship. Now with just me, I
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: don't do much of that stuff anymore. It's like I
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: took my son of the river, we went through rocks,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: or we took a hike, or we went down to
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: the boat, or we shot his little boat, like all
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So I love talking about that
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: stuff now. But I do think, man, I've become that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: old fuddy duddy who's just always talking about his kids
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and doesn't do any cool epic stuff anymore. But I
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: don't know if I care. Yeah, I think I think
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I'm down with it. But it is a New World.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: E'man Now, you know, I think you're probably in a
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: similar boat. Right right before I answer that question, though,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you, uh what a guy
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: who's already had kids go through high school. He's like, uh,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I want to say. He's maybe seven years older than me,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: and so he's in his late forties, and he's like,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: you think especially with it, like he had two daughters,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and uh so I got my one and she is
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: going through I guess what you would call the early
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: stages of a womanhood, and this this huge surge of
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: independence and like parents don't know ship and I am
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: in charge of me and I'm at the same time,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I have to fight back against against that on a
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: daily basis. And and she's nine, yes, And so like
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: this guy, I was kind of explaining this to him,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and he was like, dude, you have no idea what's coming.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: So I'm green to the teenage years, just like maybe
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: back then you were green to just having kids in general.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: And so this whole life cycle of raising kids. And
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: he's just like, you know, just like get your laughs
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: in now, because a lot of pain and anger are
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: coming your way. And so you just need to mentally
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: prepare for that and know that right now you have
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: it actually pretty good. But coming your way to dad,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be good stuff. I know. So, Like as
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: of right now, I am in the mode of just
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: spending time with my kids whenever and wherever I can. Okay,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: it's been a wet spring, right so there's been a
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: lot of a lot of time inside. So whether that's
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: coloring or um reading books or building legos or whatever, whatever,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: watching movies, whatever, it is, just sitting next to him
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: and spending time with him, My my oldest son. He
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: is in sports mode right now, like this past this
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: past year, like he I didn't really know if he
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: was going to be the guy who wanted to be
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: you know, competitive, or if you wanted to be you know,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: to some aggression or like not, you know, like it's
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: good to be. I don't want to say cocky or arrogant,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: but there's you gotta have some confident, competitiveness and confidence.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: And so in the last I want to say, six months,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: he's found that. And so he is all sports right now.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I mean he at every moment he wants to play football, catch,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: he wants to play football. He wants to play basketball.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: For his birthday, we got him a basketball hoop. So
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: he's in that mode right now, and he's not really
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: focused like he's he doesn't necessarily show a lot of
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: interest in the out the quote unquote outdoors. He likes
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: being outside and playing sports, but when it comes to hey, buddy,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: do you want to go check trail cameras with me?
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Or do you want to go, um look for some mushrooms,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: he's not. He's not really into that. He's in the
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: sports thing, you know. Right now, my youngest one, he
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: is in the Like this dude is on a different level,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: right he And what I mean by that is like
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: he marches to the beat of his own drum in
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: a very positive way. And so like if he he
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: does whatever he wants to do, but when he's doing it,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: he's focused one on it. And so whether that's playing baseball,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: or whether it's digging a hole, or whether that's like
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: trying to stack rocks or whatever it is, he's he
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: does that and he that's what he's focused on at
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: that time frame, which is good. I think like the
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: amount of time that a child can sit down and
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: do something, so his attention span is fairly long. And
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: to me, as any parent, really, if you can have
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: a kid do something for a long period of time,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: you're not bouncing around from activity to activity, right, So
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure on on what his mindset is. I
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: know he likes to go on these rides with me
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: every once in a while when we go out to
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the country. I'll give him the buy nos, I'll put
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: him on my lap and we'll you know, drive through
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: the um you know country, look just looking for whatever.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Right now, my daughter, she is at the point now
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: where she wants to go do things with me, and
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I want to go do things with her, like like
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: to the point where, man, like, there's days where I'm
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about pulling her out at school for a
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: day to go do some things. Because are our weak
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: right now, I mean, we're we're loaded when it comes
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: to our schedule, like Monday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: an activity, Saturday, Sunday activities. Right, So we have all
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: three kids and activities that we're we have our own
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: activities that we do and so trying to fit all
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: that in it becomes a little bit of a challenge.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: But she express she expresses interest and so right now
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to educate her and involve her in just
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: about anything that I'm doing up until the point it
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: becomes frustrating or you know. For example, last year, I
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: took her turkey hunting, and so I think she liked
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: going with me, but she didn't quite understand that you
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: have to be still and you have to do this.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: So I'm I'm trying to do the education part of it,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: involved her as much as possible, but at the same
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: time not go to that burnout stage where sometimes people
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: start to lose whatever the activity is that these kids
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: want to be involved in, but they don't want to
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: be involved at the same level that I am. And
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: so that's the challenge that I'm facing right now. Yeah,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: it's funny you mentioned that, Um. One of the things
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: I've thought about a lot with my boys, especially with Everett,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the oldest, who you know, is doing a ton. Both
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: of them really want to do everything, but Ever is
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: old enough that he can really get after it. Um.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: And I've always had that same worry that you mentioned.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't want to make it not fun
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: for them, so I were always try to keep it fun,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: keep it light, make it enjoyable and and like you said,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: you don't want them to get burnt out or associate
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the activity with, you know, something negative. But at the
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: same time, and I'm trying to figure out how you
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: balance this. I don't know the answer to this. This
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: is like a a parenting conundrum that I feel like
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: I need to figure out over the coming years. I
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: do feel like outdoor activities like hunting or fishing, or
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: hiking or camping or any of that kind of stuff,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: they are really good learning tool or mechanism to like
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: teach kids to push through adversity, right, to get tough,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: to push through hard things, to learn to become comfortable
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: and uncomfortable situations. So I'm trying to figure out, like,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: I know they do that. I know they did that
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: for me. I know they can do that for other people.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I know they can do that for my boys. But
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: how do you how do you do that? How do
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: you push your kids to get comfortable with being uncomfortable
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: while not pushing it too far. I don't know how
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: to balance that yet, But that's the thing I'm thinking
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: about a lot. Yeah, And I think that's one of
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: those can tinuous learning processes that we all go through
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: as parents, right, I mean, like every week it feels
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: like I have to take a different approach to my
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: kids on whether that's congratulating them or punishing them, or
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: you know, or commuting communicating with them about something that
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: they've seen or have done. Right, It's just it's always
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: it's always different, it's always evolving. And so for me, um,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: for me personally, I've i my foundation was built on
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: hiking and camping and and things like that, and so
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: uh and I think that's what ultimately lead me to
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: taking some kind of next step. The door was there,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: the path was there. I just decided to take it
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: into the hunting and fishing and outdoorsman realm when it
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: was just the foundation of being outside and the foundation
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: of knowing about nature and and and having a parent
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: who was interested in those things too, Like my dad
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: he doesn't hunt, but he always was outside with us,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: like let's go camping, let's go hiking, Let's go to
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: a nature center and look at snake skins and bugs
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: and and different types of birds in Iowa. And so
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: that right there kind of led me to where I'm
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: at today. Yeah. Yeah, that's something that I've I've thought
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: to like that that foundation of just general interest and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: excitement with the outdoors is is sil key. So so
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: we've been trying to as much as possible, you know,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: make those opportunities a part of our life, like in
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: any way we can. You know. It's so if it's
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: we're gonna go out to eat, you know, we might
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: go out and do a picnic instead, right or just
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, if we're doing activities, it's it's nine times
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: that ten going to be something outside. If it's a winner,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: we're gonna go play in the snow at the park.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: If it's the summer, we're gonna go throw rocks in
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the river. It's like all those little things, you know.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: One of the coolest things we did UM and I
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: realized this isn't available everywhere, but we just were lucky
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: we had this. We have UM a outdoor preschool available
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: in our area in Michigan where it's basically like a
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: nature center UM that runs preschool programs and they're all
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: like nature based and nature focused. And so the kids
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: get there in the morning and the first thing they
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: do is they go and do a nature walk around
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: this This nature center has got a three acre property
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: UM and so they go walk the property and they
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: study worms and plants and trees and look for animals,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: and they use nature to teach different things. So they'll
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: count rocks, or they'll identify the different colors of flowers,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: or they'll you know, all these different things. Um and
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: so ever, just finished his first year of that, and
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: that having that opportunity for him to be outside in
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: learning in an environment away from mom and dad has
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: been really cool to just seeing, you know, and it's
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: it's two things going on. Of course, there's the education,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: there's a socialization with a bunch of kids his own age,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: but then I think also doing that in an outside
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: space as again, just like we've seen him grow leaps
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: and bounds, and now he's excited to teach me about
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: something outside. He wants to tell me about something to
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: do with how robbins eat worms, or where they make
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: their nests or you know, all that kind of stuff.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: It's been really really cool to see those those little
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: things adding up to this larger, you know, this larger
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: love of the outdoors. And I think that's what I'm
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: getting as I think one of my main hopes has
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: been that, like I don't know for sure that my
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: sons are gonna like to hunt, or that they're gonna
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: want to fish, or that they're gonna want to kayak
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: or anything specifically. Um and I don't necessarily want to
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: pressure or influence them in any particular direction to do
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: one or any of those things in particular. I think
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: in general, my biggest hope is just that, like if
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: I were, just like if I were to distill down
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: my goals as far as the outdoors and my kids,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: I just want to have them develop a love for
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: the outdoors and appreciation for it and a comfort in it,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: and for that to be a place for them to
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: explore whatever activity it is they end up gravitating towards.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: And so these little things, I think back to what
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: you said, it is all about like just getting that
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: foundation of fun of interest. And I feel like, especially today,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: maybe it's always been like this, but it seems like
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: it's more important today. It's like, how do you establish
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: that foundation before something else swoops in and steals their attention?
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: You know? I mean technology is the obvious one, right,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: So many kids these days are obsessed with video games
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: and TV and the Internet and social media and all
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So how do you get ahead
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: of that. But then even like when you talked about
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Mac with his sports. Uh. And I've got like nieces
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: who are doing traveling sports now. And like my nieces,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know eleven or ten, and she's traveling all
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: over the country already, and she's gone every single night
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: for practice for the for school things, some school sport,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: and then she's doing like club sports on the weekends.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: And I mean, their life is consumed with this stuff,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: and it's like, I don't do That's something I worry
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: about a little bit. I mean, of course those things
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: can be good, but I don't know. Selfishly, I sure
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: hope there's time left over to be outside doing these
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: other things too, versus like this terminator style building our
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: kids into tiger woods kind of thing that seems like
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: everyone's doing these days. I mean, does that worry you
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: at all when you see stuff or not? You know,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think I'm gonna I'm gonna answer
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: this two parts. Number one, we this it was actually
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: this week Monday, we had our kids were having some
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: behavioral problems. They weren't listening to us, they were they
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: were being basically vegetables, right. They would go to a TV,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: they'd get pull up YouTube and they would just sit
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: there and watch. And I went to every TV in
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the house and every device that they have, and I
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: deleted YouTube from it, and so they no longer have
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: access to that type of content. And I'm telling you
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: right now, in the last four days, they have spent
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: more time outside. They have been they have spent more
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: time reading, coloring, using their brain instead of just vegging
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: out in front of uh, in front of a television.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: And so that was the best thing that I that
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: I've done. It sucked that first day where they got
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: mad at me and they're like, you never let us
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: do blah blah blah. But then the second day, they
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: they weren't even thinking about it. They're just like, Okay,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: we know we don't have this, now, let's go do
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: something else. And it led them to this other other stuff,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: you know, playing outside, playing basketball, you know, just being
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: out outside. So now when it comes to sports, I'm
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: trying to think of what I would have done if
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I wasn't in sports throughout all these all those years,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: right you know, whether it was flag football, whether it
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: was starting tackle football, or you know, I even played
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: basketball for a little bit baseball things, you know, those things,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: And I think sports actually teach kids a lot about
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: discipline and also being comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Like what
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: you've you know, said, like the first time I ever
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: had to go up against someone who is bigger than
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: me in a in a football game. Dude, you're uncomfortable, right,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: so you have to It's it's another way of dealing
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: with adversity. It's another way of really finding out who
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: you are as a person, Like do you have the
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: guts to do something? Do you have the focus that uh,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: you know, can you remain focused in a stressful situation?
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: I think sports really does that. At the same time,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's a great place to learn
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: how to be around people who are different than you. Right,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: everybody's different, So you have a social setting there that
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: I think is very important. Now, your niece, unless she
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: is like d one material, right, she's gonna go to college,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: even at a lower level, and she'll probably play college
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: if she If she's any type of good and she
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: has a passion for sports, she'll do that. The thing
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: that I really like about sports is it has a
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: it has a shelf life, and so it's gonna end
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: up going away at some point in their life. And
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: that's where the foundation even even sprinkled in. The outdoors
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: even sprinkled in throughout all that chaos of let's just
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: say sports or other activities, whether they're in chess club
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: or computer club or band or whatever, all these things
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: that consume a kid throughout the teenage years or whatever.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: All that stuff has a shelf life for the most part,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: and then they hit the real world and the outdoors
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: is always going to be there and not end. And
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying I say this. The outdoors is cheap
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: for the most part. If you want to go on
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: a hike, I can go on a hike a thousand
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: different places for free. And so it has nothing to
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: do with income. It's there. It's uh, there's access to
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: it just about anywhere you want to go camping, fishing, hiking,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: hunting even and you can. There's access all over the
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: place for for that. And I think that if you
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: sprinkle that in and you have a foundation when they
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: were younger, then ultimately when all that other stuff is done,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: they will slowly drift back into that. And I mean,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there was a time mark where maybe did
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: did hunting ever take it like a back seat for
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: you as a kid and it was sports or or
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: social activities. I mean, it certainly took a backseat. It
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: was always something I really enjoyed, but it definitely was
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: not like the full blown obsession during high school and college.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: You know, I was still going out and partying or
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: going and playing sports and doing that kind of stuff.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: In retrospect, I look back on those years and I think, jeeves,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: I wish I would have been, you know, taking that
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: free time I had and instead of going to a
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: house party or going to a football game or something,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: I wish I had, you know, instead road trip to
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Alaska or something like that. Yeah. But but yes, like
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: it was always a part of my life, a big
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: like it was like the biggest part of my life
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: outside of like school or social or sports events during
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: high school and stuff like that, sports activity whatever. Um So, yes,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: you know, I hear, I hear everything you're saying, and
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I recognize the truth in it. But I also, deep
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: down inside of me selfishly, I am still hoping that
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: that my boys can find Selfishly, I hope that they
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: can get all those things that they'll want to get
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: those things, and that their interest would be more on
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: the outdoor side of things because you can get all
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: those same things. You can fill up all your free
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: time with hiking, hunting, fishing, or climbing or mountain biking
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: or kayaking or rafting or whatever. It is so so
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: selfishly and I don't I don't know if this is
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: a good thing or a bad thing that I have
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: an opinion like that. I have a desire, and I
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: I know I can't push this on my kids. I
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: know that I shouldn't, and I'm going to try not to.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: But I'd be lying if I if I told you
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: that I didn't kind of hope that they go that direction.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely. I don't know if that's okay or
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: not to have that. Maybe that's a bad thing that
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: I have a secret desire. I don't know. No, man,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: it's it's okay because I ultimately want the same thing.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: How cool would it be to be able, whether whether
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: it's nine years old, seven years old, five years old,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: if you had this kid who says die hard about
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: hunting and as you were, and they would they want
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: to go out. Dude, that is an excuse for you
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: to go out and hunt as much as you want
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: because you're involving the kids in it, right, and that
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: that's ultimately what you want. But I mean even getting
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: into just like this is my dream, like and this
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: is what I think about a lot is when and
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: I think about it for my daughter too, right, But
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: there's something about a son and a father and a
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: son that there's a connection there and I want the
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: same thing for my daughter. But I think about it
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: with my son, uh a lot, and how cool would
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: it be? And maybe it's because I'm a I'm a
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: I'm a guy, he's a guy. Right, Maybe it's that
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: connection to I want the same thing for my daughter.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: But how cool would it be to just be like, hey, uh,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: what are you doing today? Oh? Nothing, you want to
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: go hunt? Yeah, let's go do that. That's all big
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: And have these like me and you we have these
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: these strategy talks. Imagine some day breaking down a hunt
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: with your son and you know what I mean, like
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: and and having this in depth conversation because they've learned
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: what they've learned from you. But at the same time
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: you've let them go, they've come back to it and
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: they've started the observing process and they started the the education,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the self education too to come to the spot where
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: then you guys can connect and now your best hunting
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: buddy is your son or your daughter, and the only
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: person you want to hunt with is your son or
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: your daughter. Like that's the ultimate that for me, that's
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: the ultimate goal. But I think you have to give
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: them that distance for them to make that decision up
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: on their own. For sure, they've gotta they've got to
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: choose that direction. And I've always thought that maybe it
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: might not be hunting. But if they take a hanker
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: into i don't know, climbing or something, I guess I'm
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: gonna learn climb. If they get into mountain biking, I
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: guess I'm gonna buy a mountain bike and tag along
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: for as long as they want me to go. And
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I guess I'll I'll pursue their pursuits as much as
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: they'd like me to to support those you know, you
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: know one thing that um one thing I took from
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: my childhood which I found really helpful was um my
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: dad always told me he was always going to support
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: the habit. So he was going to if he found
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: a thing that I was passionate about or you know,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: excited about he would spoil me in that arena. So
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: in this case, when he found that I was really
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: into bass fishing in high school, that was the one thing,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: like everything else I'd ask for, he wasn't given it
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: to me. He had worked for it, had to pay
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: for myself whatever. But he noticed like, hey, here's one
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: of those habits that he's really angling towards, specifically, like
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: he's really getting into bass fishing. And he recognized that
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: as a good avenue to the outdoors, even though that
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't something he had previously been into. And so he
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: saw this thing I was digging into and he said,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna put some extra resources
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: behind that one because that's where he's wanting to go.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: And so he got into bass fishing too, and you know,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: that's that end up being a great thing for me
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: and for us our relationship too. So that's that's the
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: thing I've taken with me and I'm going to be
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: trying to do in the future, is is keep an
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: eye out for where their curiosities and interests start taking them.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: And all I can do is expose them to a
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: lot of stuff. I think that's where I am at
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: this this stage in their lives is exposing them to
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: a ton of stuff. And and like we have done,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: we do a lot outside UM. We've kind of revolved
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: our entire lives around it. I'm right now sitting in
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: my driveway in Idaho looking at the mountains, and this afternoon,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: the first thing this morning, the boys are up and
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: that they want to go for a hike. And then
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: later this afternoon we're to go take a walk down
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: the river. We're gonna throw rocks in the river and
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: look for fish. And then later today we're gonna go
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: take a hike underneath the mountains. And like that, we're
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: doing our best to make that kind of stuff like daily.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: We're we're making that a part of life and exposing
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: them to all these different things hiking and fishing and camping.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: And we're gonna take them to a climbing gym next week,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: and we're taking to do these different things. And just
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: like we're taking the shotgun approach, shooting a bunch of
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: stuff at the wall, and then we'll see what sticks.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: We'll see what they're really into, we'll see what they're
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: excited about. UM. And then I guess then try to
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: support that. Um. But but these early years I think
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: is just making it fun, exposing them. And and then
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: I do feel like, at least for me, because these
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: are the things that we love and that we're involved in,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it's easiest for me to teach
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: through this stuff. So I'm not very good at like
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: sitting and doing crafts. I'm not the dad who can, like,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: I don't do that kind of thing. I can't even
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: sit and like do I don't know what city parents
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: do with their kids and do some educational app or
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: some educational game or something like that. I don't know.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: That doesn't resonate with me. But I can take my
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: son for a walk in the woods and teach them
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: about different things or like I was talking about the
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: preschool and stuff like that kind of stuff I can
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: teach in that kind of medium. Um. So I guess
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: I'm when I'm I don't even know where I'm going
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: with this, but I guess what I'm finding is that
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: these early years, the outdoors is simply serving as a
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: canvas two do a lot of different things to teach,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: to learn to grow relationship together. And and really it's
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: just about being out there and seeing where the compass
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: points you eventually. Yeah, yeah, I mean that's a that's
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: a great approach. Now, I think we do have to
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: talk about something though, and that's for parents who let's
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: say there's a guy who's listening to this and him
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: and his wife just like a lot of Americans are
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: working all the time, right, They're just like Jesus man, Mike,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: my schedules swamped. I worked ten hours, or I work
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: as a night shift, or I work and I'm tired
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: and I want to go do these things. Like what
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: we're doing is great, but there are people out there
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: who like, like time is limited or opportunity is limited.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: How do you think that people should go about out
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: getting their kids and the outdoors. They know the benefits
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: from it, but they just man, they they want it,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: but they just can't do it consistently enough as they
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: as they would want to. Yeah, And I think you're right,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: that's a very real thing that a lot of people face.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: And and I am super lucky that I'm able to
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: do as much as I do. And I realized that's
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: not normal. Maybe, um so my thought would be as
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: much as possible is better than nothing, Like, whatever you
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: can get is better than nothing. And like you mentioned,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: sprinkle here and there, even the dabbling, those introductions, even
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: a little bit can come back down the road. I
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: mean that was even the case for me. I mean
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: even though as a kid we did a lot of
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: outdoor stuff, you know, it was never I always described
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: like my outdoor childhood is a very pedestrian outdoor childhood.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Like we didn't do anything hardcore. My dad didn't really
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: know anything serious about hunting or fishing. Um, no offense, dad,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: if you're listening, um, But you know, he wasn't like
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: hardcore in any kind of way. He was just let's
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: go out to the river or let's go to the
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: lake for a little bit. And we never caught anything
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: where I was like, oh, well, at least you don't
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: need to clean the fish um where you go hunting.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: And we never killed anything. I was like, well, at
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: least you don't need to get a deer um. And
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: like we didn't do like a big adventures. It was like, well,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: let's go camp at the little city campground down the
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: road along the lake. It was very local Michigan pedestrian stuff.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: So in a way, I was just getting introduced with
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: little sprinkles here and there, and then after college, just
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: like you said, after college, I was able to spread
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: my wings and I could then double down back into
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: this thing that I had developed a love for based
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: on the sprinklings through childhood, and then I just went
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: super deep into it, took it to a whole different level. Um.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: And so I think I shared that story because I
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: think as a parent listening, he's worried about only being
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: able to do the sprinkle approach. Um, there's still hope
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: for that, Like, that's okay. Any introduction is better than nothing.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: And I would say a second thing though, So first off,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: whatever you can do is better than nothing, Like a
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: walk in the park in the city is great if
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: that's all you've got available to you and there are real,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: still real benefits from them. Um. But a second thing
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: I would say also is that and this is something
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: that kind of this is like a virtue that was
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: hammered home for me when it came to like just
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: working in like especially when I was trying to build
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Wired Hunt as a second job, right when I was
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: still doing the day job. There's there's always this temptation
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: to be like, oh well, I don't have time. I
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: don't have time. I don't have time. There's always other things.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: But if you were to do a very honest audit
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: of your day, and I'm not saying this is true
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: for everybody, but I think there's a decent number of
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: people who if you were to audit your day and
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: look at how your time is actually spent, you're gonna
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: find there's an hour of Netflix, or there's a half
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: hour of reading a book, or there's you know, two
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: hours a week that you go to I don't know,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: play intermural baseball with your buddies, or there's uh an
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: hour here there where you sit on your phone playing
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know, animal farm, or on Instagram or Facebook
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: or some shi it like that. And if you were
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: to really, true, truly look at your hours in a
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: day and then say, okay, what is more important than
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: my kids being outside? And then say, well, I don't
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: think looking at Instagram is more important than my kids
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: being outside, Or maybe me going and going to the
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: bar once a week with my buddies, maybe that's not
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: as important as my kids getting outside. I do think
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: we could probably all if we made the tough choice
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: to prioritize it, find a little bit more time if
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: we were to cut out some of that bullshit, the
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: stuff that we just do because it's fun or easy.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: But honestly, like I could even find times like that
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: that I could cut out. So so my one thing
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: would be take a good hard look at your time
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: and yourself and think, like, maybe maybe there's an extra
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: half hour I can carve out a week and prioritize
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: this outdoor time because it's outside time. Man, it is
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: just so good for kids, whether want them to hunt
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: her fish or whatever, just being outside. It is such
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: a catalyzer for for learning and growing and becoming real
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: human beings. And there's this just so much. There's there's
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: a ton of research these days, Dan, I don't know
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: if you've ever dove into this. I just wrote an
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: article on it. I don't know if it's out yet, um,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: And I've read a couple of books on this recently.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: But there's a whole host of research studies being done
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: now looking into the the physiological like true health benefits
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: and mental health built benefits of time and nature. Like
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: it's not just that like, oh we like it, it's
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: actually that being outside with like certain concentrations of oxygen,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: with the um, with the aerosols that trees emit, these
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: different chemicals that wild started the plant life emits into
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: the air, all sorts of different things. Actually makes us
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: less stressed, actually makes our bodies work better, actually makes
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: us do all these things we're supposed to be doing
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: in a in a healthier way. So it's it's not
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: just about having a fun time out there, it's actually
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: just playing good for kids. So so I mean any
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: little bit helps, I guess that is what I'm trying
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: to say in a lot of different ways. What's your
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: take on that? Oh? I agree, you know, like you're
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: and to boil it down even a little, just a
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: hair further. You don't need that research. I mean, go out,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: go for a walk outside and come back into your
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: house and evaluate how you feel then versus how you
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: feel before you went outside, and it's it's better. It
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: doesn't I would I would say, unless you're like hyper
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: allergic to some kind of plant pollen, Like I would say,
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: anybody can go outside, walk in through your backyard, or
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: or go for a walk in your town. Something as
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: simple as that, You're gonna feel straight up better afterwards.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: And so I mean my kids, uh, they sleep better.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: I'll put, I'll put I'll use this as an example.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: This winner my two youngest They would get up at
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: the middle of the night and they would wake up,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: and then they would try to get into bed with us.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Now that they're able to get outside in a little
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: bit of this warmer weather and run around, dude, they're
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: sleeping through the night, they're well rested, they're less cranky,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: they are you know, they're they're using energy, they're breathing
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: fresh air, and and even their attitudes are a little
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: bit better in certain times. So, uh, to me, that
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: is enough. That's enough information for me to to get
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: them outside as much as possible. Man. Yeah, so so true.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: So let's try to think back on some recent stories
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: or experiences or lessons learned we've had over the last
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: year or two as far as doing stuff with our
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: kids outside, camping, hiking, fishing, boating, hunting. Um, let's just
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: share some of the things we've picked up recently that
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: have worked for you or me, or that we've learned
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: while getting out there and doing this stuff. Because I
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: get I imagine you get these kinds of questions too,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: But I get a lot of questions from young parents,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: you know, seeing something I've posted or something, and they're like,
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: how do you how do you actually camp with a
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: two and a four year old without it being miserable?
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Or you know, how are what are you actually trying
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: to do when you take your son out there hunting
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: with you? How does that work? Or when should you
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: take your son hunting? Or when should you take you know,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: your kid out fishing with a real hook? Um whatever?
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Like all these kind of specifics. Um, there's always I mean,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: there's always these moving targets on all that kind of stuff. Um,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: But has anything recently happened with you, Dan where you
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: had any kind of lightbulb moments in any one of
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: those kinds of activities where you realize like, oh this
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: this really worked, or this was something they loved, or
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: this was something that I got to do more of. Um,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know, anything come to mind you. Yeah, So
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: here's for me. I wanted to get it. I wanted
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: to go chet trail cameras with them. You would think
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: that's a fairly easy task. Or I wanted to go
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: mushroom hunting with them, which means they have to go
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: into the woods. And so some of just the ability
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: to to traverse the landscape can be difficult for a
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: young child. Right. So this is where I've put a
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: lot of emphasis on the fishing aspect of it, because
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: most of the time, uh and I'm not saying every time,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: but if you have a boat, that's awesome. If you
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: have uh, and typically around let's say a river or
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: a public lake or things like that, you're going to
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: find a spot where a kid can sit and not
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: being tall weeds and not have to go through an
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: entire timber like thorns or a whole bunch of vegetation
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: to get to a certain place. Right. It's easy access
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: from from just a mobility standpoint. And so for me,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: what I found is that fishing is it that is
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: that's the gateway drug to the outdoors from from my kids.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: And it's something that you know, there's not a lot
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: of bugs getting on them, they're they're not getting too
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: terribly dirty doing it, and then if they get bored,
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: then they can go run around. Right. So that would
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: that for me, That's what I've observed, is because it's
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: the yeah, you're gonna have to give up your fishing
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: while you're doing it. Like I don't even fish. When
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: I go fishing with my kids, all I'm the worm
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: master and taking help taking the fish off, right, So
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: I do those those things. And so when the when
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: the kids get bored, they can go run around and
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: they can go play in nature and dig through the
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: worms and and things like that, and then when they
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: come back, I want to fish again. Okay, let's go
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: do it. So the that right there has been the
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: has had the most impact for me. And of course
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: I don't think they know it, or maybe even I
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: don't know it, but going through them, just going through
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: the motions of going on a hike have been Oh Dad,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: look at that bird right there. It's a cool bird,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: you know, like that's uh, you know, hey, what what
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: kind of tree is that? Well, let's pull a leaf
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: on off it and let's go look on on my phone,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: or let's go look at the tree book at home,
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: and so those it's just like the little things like
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: that is really what has has gotten gotten them more
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: excited to be outside. Yeah, man, I can't agree more
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: when it comes to fishing being that gateway drug, just
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: because it's for every everything you said, it's it's so
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: I think what like interest in water is just universal,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: Like I don't I don't know many kids that don't
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: want to just play in water, like play in it
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: or throw stuff in it, or you know, shake a
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: stick in it or whatever. Like that's just playing fun
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: no matter who you are. Um so I think you've
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: got like a little extra handicap there, like it's it's
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: helping you out just because water is innately fun no
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: matter what. And then you know, like you said, fishing
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: can be if you're on a boat, there's a lot
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: of good things going for it. Or actually trying to fish,
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: like that's a relatively easy way. I mean shoot throwing
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: worms for bluegills or throwing I don't know, worms or
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: something for like a stocked rainbow trout like a little
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: pond or something like that. There's no easier bang for
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: your buck kind of outdoor experience where you can almost
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: guarantee a positive result, right, Like if you're in a
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: spot with some bluegills, you can catch them. I mean,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: that's just so easy for a little kid to have,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: like a super cool, exciting experience that they feel is
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: like really awesome and hardcore. I'm it's hard to beat that.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, are last year. Probably the best thing we
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: did last year was by a boat. We bought a
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: drift boat for our place out in Idaho, and all
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: summer we would take off, you know, come minutes down
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: the road, hop on a river with a boat and
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: float down the river and the kids just had a
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: blast and all all the different things we try to do.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: It was it was like the least miserable in moments, right,
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, like going on a hike in the mountains
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: or something is cool, but there's gonna be points of misery,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: and that there were of the kids don't want to
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: do it anymore, or they're tired or whatever. Um. But
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: floating on a boat down a river is hard to
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: you know, there's not a lot of bad stuff and
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: go wrong. It's mostly just relaxing. The kids can have fun.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: You can fish a little bit. You can stop and
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: let the kids fish, like like you were talking about.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: The kids can just run around or play when you
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: pull off on the side of the river and play
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: on the shore. Um. We brought just like we did
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: a bunch of things on the boat to make a
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: kid friendly. So we bring a bunch of square guns.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: We'd bring a bucket full of rocks, tiny little rocks,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and then the whole float down the river. They would
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: just throw rocks and throw rocks and throw rocks. We
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: cut up pool noodles and tied them on a pieces
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: of pear cord and then tied those off on the
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: side of the boat, and so all over the boat
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: there was different pieces of pool noodle on different lengths
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: of rope that they could toss out there and try
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: to hit things and pull it back and do different
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. And I mean we could spend ten
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: hours out there on the river doing that and they
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: would want more of it the next day. Um, It's
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: just like it was such a fun thing and it
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: was like it was it was fun for them, but
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: it was actually also still fun for me. I mean,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: there's sometimes when you're doing a thing with your kids
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: where you're doing it for them and it's it's not
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: a ton of super fun and like a what am
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: I trying to say, you know what I mean? Like
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: there's no thing as a uh family fun for everyone's scenario,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: at least different levels of it, right, Like I mean,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: but there was floating down the river with a beer
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: and the cooler with a beer and the coozy next
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: to me, and I'm rowing like I'm just kind of like, man,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: I'd be doing this no matter what whether he had
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: the kids with me or not, like this is just nice.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: And then they're also the kids are also having a
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: great time too, so it was like we're both at
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: a ten. Well, other times it might be the you know,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: my son's at a ten and I mind like at six.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Um of course those things very I'm not saying like
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: I'm always not having found with my kids, oftentimes having
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: found my kids, but that was one of those things
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: where it was it was easy for us all to
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: be having a really great time, and I think trying
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: to find more opportunities where it's like that where everybody
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: can be in a ten, Like you gotta kind of
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: pick and choose your spots, um, you know, like with hiking,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: we still try to go out and do a lot
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: of hikes with their kids out here, but those you
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: really have to kind of carefully plan it out, you gotta,
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: you know, like if I were going on a hike
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: pre kids, my wife and I would be like trying
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: to get up high way up in the mountains. We
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: want like super epic views and really cool stuff like that. Um.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: But with kids, it's very hard to find spots where
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: you can get up to like some epic view like
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: that without having to go very long distance or a
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: very hard hike. And you know, all sorts of things
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: can happen in those scenarios where your kids are not
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: gonna be having fun, or it's gonna be really tough
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: for you if you're hauling them on your back or something.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: So we've we've just had to be a lot more
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: strategic in doing a lot of research or asking around
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: or searching out actually finding a few couple of places
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: where you can have like a pre kid kind of
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: hike but it's actually kid friendly as far as difficulty
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: or distance. So that's one thing, and then the flip side,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: I've also had to learn to come to enjoy the
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: simple fun of an easy one mile walk along the
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: river and say, you know what, that's our day, and
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: not feel bad about the fact that I'm not doing
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: a ten hole a ten mile hike to the top
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: of the mountain like I did ten years ago. UM.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: So it's been a combo of to those two things,
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: I guess, and I think knowing when to back out
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: is important too. Because there's times where the kids are
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: all gun hole about it. I'm gonna hope about it.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: Let's just say it's a hike like you, like you said,
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: and we're a hundred yards in to the hike or
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: two hundred or whatever, the first hill, and you see
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: they've lost interest and now they're complaining and they're you know,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: like I think, I don't think they're I think the
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: attempt is what is important. And then if there they
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: lose interest in something, you know, maybe push just a
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: little bit. But at the same time you have to know,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: hey man, we need to back out, we need we
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: need let's go home, you know, we can go maybe
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: play some basketball or do something else. Because at that time,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: I know I've been there where, and you know, knowing
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: the limits is what's what is what's difficult, because I've
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: been on those hikes or on those mushroom hunts where
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: all right now we're we're back in a ways and
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: so that means not only you have to go there,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: but you got to get out. And so now we're
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: walking up a big hill to get back. And for
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: me it's not you know, it's it's easy, but for
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: them it's it's more strenuous and so that's that is
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: like understanding the limit and understanding when the color quits
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: is is equally important. Yeah, very very true. So on
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: that topic, another thing I did think about was some
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: of the little tricks I've learned to make those more
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: enjoyable for the kids, I guess, um or to convince
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: them to go further, whether it's like shed hunt, a
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: mushroom hunt, or a hike or something like that. I mean,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: always having snacks is like the easiest cheek for me
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: at least, or promising queen. Yeah, yeah, that too, But
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: I mean being able to kind of divvy out little
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: bits of snacks and candy or something special along the
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: way that can always buy me an extra half hour
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: or an extra mile or something like that. Um. Like,
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: that's a thing like if I if I ever forget that,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: I always ruin. I always regret making that oversight. Um.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: Another thing that was kind of hard for me at
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: first and still is a little bit. You know, this
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: will be no surprise to you, Dan from the years
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: of hearing me talk, But like I am always just
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: so like I want to get to the next thing,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: I want to get to the goal, right, I'm just like,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: I want to get there. I want to go to
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: this thing. So when I'm hiking traditionally pre kid mark
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: was I had a destination in mind, and I was
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: like wanting to go as fast as we can, as
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: hard as we can to get to that place. So
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: I was like the speed hiker, didn't take a second
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: to look at anything else. And with kids, especially now,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: like at first the first year or two, whenever could
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: ride on my back in the baby carrier, I could
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: still do that, but now he's too old to be
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: in anything like that. So we're going at his pace,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: and he wants to stop and climb on every boulder.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: He wants to stop and look at every he wants
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: to look under every log for worm. He wants to
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: kick every I don't know dead worm on the trail
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: and look at it and pick up. And at first
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: I was like, let's go, let's go, let's keep going,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: let's keep going. Let's come on, all right, we gotta
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: we gotta move in the next one. But I'm getting
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: I'm realizing more and more the importance of just being
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: okay with all those detours, because that's the fun thing
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: for them. And and the more I let him you know,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: climb on every boulder and do that kind of stuff. Yeah,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: it slows me down, us down. Yeah, we don't go
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: as far. Yeah, we don't ever get to we never
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: get to these end goals anymore. Um, But he enjoys
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: it more and then wants to go and do that
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: kind of thing more often. And so someday we'll get
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: to the point where he wants to go to an
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: end goal too, And so someday we'll get back to
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And some days, even at this age,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: he actually gets a burst of energy and really does
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: want to go for a long walk or whatever. And
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: so we still get to do those things. But I
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: think letting them have fun along the way in whatever
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: way they find fun, even if that's different than yours.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: Like that's that's been important to me. So we bring
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of snacks, bring a lot of water. We
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: let them mess around with every little weird curiosity they
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: find along the way. Um, and you know, we do.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: I think a little bit of bribery, like you talked about. Um,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: lots of times, if we're gonna go on a hike
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: or a shed hunt or something like that, I'll have
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: like a planned special thing for afterwards. So I was like,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: all right, guys, we're gonna go out in this fun hike.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: And we always know after a big hike we're always
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: going to get to get donuts and we're gonna get
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: to get ice cream or something like that. So it
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: becomes like a a special thing, like a big package.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: So there's all these special things around it. And like
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: even when I have been taken my son up to
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: our deer camp now up to Ken Robin, I've taken
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: him up there a few times now, and and with
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: that too, I'm always trying to make these things into
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: special events. So it's not just like we're gonna go
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: up to deer camp and go deer hunting and expecting
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: him to have fun going up to the cabin, but
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: it's knowing that, all right, when we go up to
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: the cabin, we're also going to stop for special breakfast.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: We'll get whatever you want, and we're also going to
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: you know, let you pick a candy bar out. He
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: never gets to get candy, but in this case, you know,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: you have a candy bar when we go up there.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: You know, whatever it is, like all these special things
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: I'll layer on top of that thing. So that it
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: becomes extra fund for all these other reasons, and they
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: begin to associate this extra fun or extra special stuff
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: around these types of outings, um so that it's not
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: a burden, it's something they look forward to for all
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: of these reasons. So what happens when when uh he
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: you know, let's just say, hey, man, Dad, I think
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: I think I really like deer hunting and you're like, oh, ship, yes, thanks,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: Thank the Lord. This is happening, right Dad. I'm wanna
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: I want to learn about the rut and I want
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: to do all this stuff. And then he gets to
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: this point, he goes out, he makes his move, and
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: the deer no deer shows up for like a whole week,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: and he's like, screw this, I'm done. So like what
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: happens when you take like when you when he has
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: the interest, but then you're no longer in control anymore.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: To great question, man, I don't know. I mean I
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: think that I'm not there yet. I can't answer that either. Yeah,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: that's a hypothetical. Yeah, I guess my hope is that.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: I think my hope is that all the years leading
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: up to that, this is going back to like how
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: the outdoors I think can teach kids resilience and like
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: toughness and perseverance. I think hopefully all those years leading
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: up to this point will have instilled in our kids
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: that perseverance, that stick, tuitiveness, that toughness, whatever it is
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: that they need to push through, um, to push through
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: and get to that next step or that next experience
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: or that next outing or whatever it is. I'm hoping
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: that once they're out there on their own, we've done
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: a good enough job that they can handle those inevitable
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: you know, down days, those inevitable dud's right. I mean,
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: I think that's like we keep going back to this,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: but I think that just the outdoors, whichever have you take,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: is really really, really good at training kids for those
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: types of situations, you know, training them for life too,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: because like, I don't know, there's so much other stuff
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: out there, like video games and socially, all the other
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: things that we're talking all the all the banes of
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: society these days, Like there's just so much easy fun,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: there's easy satisfaction, participation, trophies for everything. Um, it's so
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: easy in so many different ways that I think that
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: giving your kids opportunities to not succeed every time and
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: learning how to deal with that, learning that that's okay,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: learning to push through those tough times. Um. And maybe
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: that's something that they'll maybe that's something that becomes more
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: of a thing, you know, when my kids are ten
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: or twelve versus when they're two and four. Maybe that's
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: the case. But um, but I do think that that's
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: part of it too. Yeah, what happens if all of
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: a sudden, you've you've just raised the next Andy May
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: and you didn't even know it. And and so your
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: your son is just like a slayer when he's a teenager,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, he just like clicks for
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: him way earlier than it ever did for us. And
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: now he's becoming a better hunter than you? Does that
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: Does that excitement then turn to animosity for you because
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: you've been outshadowed by your son? Now? No, man, that's
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: my greatest hope is that he will outshine me someday.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: And I really think he will. I don't know if
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: it'll be hunting, but it'll be something. Um. But I
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: mean I think about this like, you know, like I
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: told you, like my outdoor introduction, like my childhood was
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: very very pedestrian. I got almost. I had very introductory
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: level and you know, educations on all things outdoors, right,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: and I was I've still been able to get out
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: there and do some some legit stuff, I guess. But
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: my son, you know, since the time he was born,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: he's been like doing what most people would think. It's
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: like pretty hardcore stuff. Like he lived in he camp
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: for two months straight, two summers in a row. He's
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: been to the top of nearly the top of mountains.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: He's hunted and fished and been doing this kind of stuff.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: He's only four. I can't imagine what he's gonna know
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: and be capable of by the time he's fourteen. I
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: mean he's gonna I bet you, by the time he's fourteen,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: he'll be better than me at fort um. The way
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: it looks right now, Um, it's something I don't know.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: I guess that it might not be hunting. It might
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: be fishing or climbing or biking or whatever. I don't know,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: but there'll be something. Whatever he gets into, I bet
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: you he's going to be crushing it in one way
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: or another. And I think that's what I hope for
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: my kids, is that they find a thing. Yeah, I
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: just hope that they have they find something. For me,
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: it's been hunting and fishing. But one of my greatest
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: hopes is that they find something that that just revs
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: their engine, that gets them excited, that they're passionate about,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: that they are driven to get better at, to learn about,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: to dive fully into. And And my hope is that
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: something outside because I think those outside things are good
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: for you. But I just think about I look at
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: other people I don't know, across the world or whatever
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: that don't have a thing like we do, and I
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: think how boring or how aimless that must be sometimes
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: to have your only hobbies be watching sports on TV
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: and playing video games or binge watching Netflix or whatever. Um,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: I'd be lost if I didn't have like these outdoor
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: things that my life revolves around, like our calendar cycles through. Um.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: So I'm just hoping they can find something they can
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: be passionate about, that they can give their all and
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: that they can you know, grow from and and I
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: think that there's plenty of opportunities in the outdoor. So
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: then to find something that clicks like that, I don't know,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: that's the goal. That's the endgame, right, Yeah? Man? He
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: really is. I gotta say, it's so cool to see
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: the baby steps along the way for that. Um. I mean,
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: there's so many stories, so many things like that. One
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: of the coolest. I don't think we've talked about this,
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: Dan if we did tell me, but I don't think
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: I told you yet. But last year I took my
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: son out a couple of times to help me recover
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: deer and his excitement to help me go find a
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: deer just through the roof. But what was really cool
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: was the fact that he can see red in dark
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: situations way better than I can. So he is tracking
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: my dear for me better than I can, damn already
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: at age. And this who's three years old. At three
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: years old, he's like a blood out. He's like, there's blood,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: there's blood, there's blood, and he's going on like a
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yard blood trail through the swamp leading
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: the way, and he he yells at me if I
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: try to go on from He's like, no, Dad, I
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: want to be the leader. I want to be the leader.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: And he's taking me to my deer. Um. I mean
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, those little moments like that is
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: just like a Super Bowl Trophy for me as a dad,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: it's just like the coolest thing to see those little
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: successes along the left. Yeah, dude, I I think about
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: that a lot, especially because I I killed my dear
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: this year on a weekday and so the kids had school,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: and that it would have been the perfect blood trail. Right.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: I watched the dear drop but it was kind of
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: it was like forty or fifty yard track job. But
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: I watched him drop, right, and I was like, man,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: that would be cool if I could get the kids
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: down here, So like I want to. I want to
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: start spending a little bit more time closer to home
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: so I can get them involved in this in that
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: aspect of it too. So you know, I don't know,
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: We'll see, we'll see it. It's uh, it's fluid at
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: this point. So I've got one last question for him.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: And I was asked this question myself. I dont a
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: few weeks ago, um, and I I hadn't really figured
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: out an answer for myself terribly explicitly. But but I'm
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: curious if you have thought it all about how, if,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: if how or if or when you teach your kids
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: about like conservation. Oh yeah, have you have you have
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: you thought about that. Do you try to do that
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: in some kind of purposeful way or are you letting
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: it kind of naturally happen. What are your thoughts on, like,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: how do we instill that value in our kids? How
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: do we show them that? How do we teach them
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: about that kind of stuff? Um, what's what's that been like?
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: Or what does that mean for you? It's uh actually
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: although the active, the active part of that isn't really happening,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Like we've never done any type of I mean, well
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: I take that back my my kids. Uh, every year,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: somewhere in July, we get like three or four big
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: trash bags, right, and we go to some of the
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: public land down by where I live and we clean
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: up the parking areas. Right. We just pick up the big,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: the big things that we can and load a couple
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: of trash bags in and throw it in the back
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: of the truck. And and or when we drive down
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: a certain road. There's a certain road that leads to
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: our town that has public land on one side of it,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: and there's always beer cans and trash, and we'll we'll
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: pick that up so that aspect of it is there, right,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: and so that it takes an army of people. It
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: just it takes a whole community. Now, what you've done
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: in one day doesn't seem like a lot, but if
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: you do this every day, or if a whole bunch
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: of people do this right, then it becomes then you
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: have all these hours and all this energy that's been
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: put into keeping Mother Nature clean and healthy. So every
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: time I see, like, uh, a wood duck in a
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: in a like coming out of a box or you know,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: or something an example of that, like why do why
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: do we have birdhouses on here? Or why do we
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: do this? Or why do we do that? And just
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: explain to them and it may not sink in. It's
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: like some people who think that they can, you know,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: play play something while they're sleeping and they'll they'll subconsciously
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: remember it later. Okay. So that's the approach that I'm
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: currently taking when it comes to conservation, is just explaining
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: to them whenever the opportunity presents itself. And and if
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: you look for it's there a lot and you can say, hey, hey, dad,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: you see that fox or that that turkey. I'm like, hey,
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: did you know that right now that the turkey population
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: is struggling a little bit in the state of Iowa.
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: And it's because, um, one of the thoughts is that
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: there's an over you know, and overpopulation in raccoons. Oh really,
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that they eat eggs. Yeah, actually raccoons
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: are are what they call a nest predator, and you know,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: like and having those conversations with them all the time,
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: and I think, and a lot of it has to
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: do with um watching conservation shows like on nat GEO
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: or you know something. It doesn't even have to be
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: North American related, like, hey, check these guys here. All
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: they do all day long is protect elephants, right, or
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: a rhinoceros or something like that. And or when we
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: go on our hikes and we see someone with a
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: shovel fixing a one of those railroad tie steps on
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: a on a trail, that's how I learned. That's how
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: like my dad and me and my brother would go
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: camping all the time, and he taught us about conservation
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: through like the county conservation boards and the state parks
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: and things like that, and how it takes a team
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: of people to make something like this successful and then
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the details and maybe you know,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: like hey, Dad, what's this animal, Oh that's actually an
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: animal that's extinct or that how you know, like the
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: buffalo isn't necessarily really wild anymore because of what we
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: did in the past and how certain people thought it
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: was important to keep this out and and start talking
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: just it's just conversation Asian really at this point. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: I think that's that's basically the same avenue I've taken.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: I've taken like I've kind of thought of it in
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: like a three a three layer approach. Like number one
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: is just doing what we've talked about this whole podcast,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: which is just getting them exposure to the outdoors and
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: helping them develop develop a love for it, right, because
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: I think that's step one, Like you gotta love something
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: first before you're willing to fight for it or work
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: for or whatever, right get to care for So step
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: one is like helping them develop that love. Then step
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: two is kind of, like you said, like lead by example,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: like live in a way so that when your kids
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: look at how you live and they see how they
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: grew up, they will kind of seek conservation and action
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: through small daily practices. So like you know, you said,
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: like going out and picking up trash. That's the thing
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: that I've tried to do with our kids too, and
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: like it's a fun thing and you're making a little
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: difference or like talking about this is why we recycle
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: or whatever it is, like this is why we're planning trees, um,
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: and so do these little things throughout life while showing it.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: It's not just oh, well, telling them something, it's not
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: just telling them, it's actually showing like, oh yeah, this
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: is the thing we do. This is the thing that
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: our family does. UM. I think that year after year
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: after year, will I think sink in and then finally
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: just like what you said, I think like taking every
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: little opportunity to educate in small, simple, child friendly ways
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: about you know, just teaching what animals or how animals
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: live or interact or small ways that we can help
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: and talk about kind of like hey, you know, what's
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: you know, part of our our duty is to try
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: to give back. Part of what we try to do
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: is take care of these things, um and keep it simple.
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: But I think that that stuff like starts to become
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: a part of who they are. If day after day,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: hike after hike, fishing trip after fishing trip, hunting trip
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: after hunting trip, they learn little tiny things along the way,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: like what you talked about. I think that stuff starts
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: to sink in and grow and it all goes back
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: to developing that foundation. And I think the hope is
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: that when they're sixteen or there, twenty one or whatever,
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: all of that love for the outdoors, all of that
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: seeing how their family operated in a way that was,
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: you know, giving back to the natural world in some
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: kind of way. And then I think all these little lessons,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: small child friendly lessons over the course of their lifetime,
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: I think all of that gives them this foundation to
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: then do something with it when they are adults themselves,
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: and hopefully they'll love it enough to want to try
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: to do something good too. Um. I think it's I
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: don't think it's complicated. I think it's I think that
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: that's a simpler thing than maybe a lot of the
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: other things we talked about. It's like, if you love
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: it and you show that we should care about it,
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: I think naturally that will grow within them. You know. Yeah,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: I really think what you said earlier about shedding some
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: of the waste in your life. Like, dude, I don't
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: watch TV anymore. Uh. If I do watch TV, I'm
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: gonna put an asterix by that because I just finished
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: ozark Um this week, so is that pretty good? From
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: about yeah, from about nine to eleven this whole week
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: after the kids are in bed, I I've been binging
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: that show. I'm done with it and so but on
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: an average week and I don't even I watched the
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: news in the morning to get the weather, and that's
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: it for the most part. Uh, and either playing basketball
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: outside with my son or I'm you know, working or
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: whatever the deal is. So I'm I'm I'm getting rid
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: of the waste the stuff that's not important, and I'm
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: putting into what you know, putting more of what is
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: important into the into the daily routine. And I think, uh,
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: that's seems to be to be working so far. Yeah, man,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: agree with that. Getting rid of TV, Like, we don't
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: even have a TV at our help place at all,
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: so we don't we don't even have a TV here
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: to watch, so getting rid of that has been a
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: huge thing. Now we do have a tablet, so we'll
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: let the kids watch stuff occasionally on there. But then
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: deleting Facebook and Twitter off my phone was another one.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: Now I still have Instagram because I just gotta keep
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: posting stuff on Insta, but getting rid of Facebook and
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: Twitter has just like this is kind of a topic,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: totally separate, but it has just cleared up so much
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: mind space from absolutely and a little bit of real time.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: But then also just like peace of mind has been
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: amazing getting rid of that crap. Um, So yes to
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: trying to prune the dead branches in your life in
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: whatever form that comes up. I think, yeah, man, running
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: this business is one of those like social media's uh uh,
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: what do they call that? A necessary evil? Evil, stary evil,
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: uncertain aspects of it and just doing what I do
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: for promotion of the podcast and and the network and
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: things like that. So what like the deep down inside
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: of me, I don't want that anymore, So I don't.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, I will want my business and I want
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: my podcast, but I don't want social media. Like I
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: just still still to this day, I'm on it way
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: less than I used to be. But I'll get into
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: a scroll hole this is what I call it. And
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: you're just like, what am I doing? I'm not even
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: reading any of this ship. It's like it's just like
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: habitable and so so I put it down and I've
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: deleted you know certain things, and I only do what's
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: like what's really important to me, and and so, uh,
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: just like again, trying to get rid of as much
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: waste is humanly possible. Yeah, man, that's it's great for
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: your mind, and it's a great way to get a
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: little outside time. That's fact. So, buddy, I got one
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: last question for I already told you I had one
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: last question, but I got one more. The one more
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: question is just what's new with sports Nation? Where can
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: people find the latest? What what people know? Yeah, so
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: I guess my question is when is this going to launch? Uh,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: this is gonna launch, so not today May five, but
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: like May twelve, Okay, so next Thursday. So I'll just
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: I'll just say this right now, the Sportsman's Nation is
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: going through a very small rebrand where I'm getting this
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: new website and so it's gonna be it's gonna be
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: a name change from Sportsman's Nation to Sportsman's Empire, so
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: Sportsman's Empire dot com. And so nothing's really changed with
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: the network. Tons of great content coming out of it,
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of different content coming out of it.
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: We got um More podcast joining the network. The Nine
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: Finger Chronicles is still going to be on there, and
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: so it's, uh, we're slowly transitioning into from Sportsman's Nation
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: to Sportsman's Empire and and so I'm excited about that.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: And and other than that, man, it's just like putting
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: out a ton of content. I think June is gonna
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: be like a flood of content. We're gonna be putting
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: out so much cool stuff. And and all the other
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: content providers for the network are are jacked and and
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: doing well. And so I'm dude, I'm I'm really excited. Uh,
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited to keep moving forward and see the
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: business grow and and ship, like hire somebody. I'm actually
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: thinking about hiring somebody right now, which is crazy to
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: to have. And I guess what I would call an employee,
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: which is nuts to think of. Uh. And so just
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: continuing to move forward, man, that's all you know. Don't
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: look back, I guess. Yeah. That's awesome, dude, good for you.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: I'm glad. I'm glad to hear. It's been awesome to watch.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: So keep on working hard, but even not too hard.
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: To take a little time, get out there, breathe that
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: fresh air. I'm gonna try all all I can. I
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: just need like the Midwest kind of sucks this year. Man,
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: it's been wet and raining, and so I'm ready for
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: I'm ready for a straight like week a sunshine so
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: I can get stuff done. I want to go hang
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: trail cameras back out. I want to put mineral back out.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: I want to go mushroom hunting. I want to go fishing,
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: like all this stuff that I wanna pack into like
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: this summer. So come on out to Idaho, dude. I'm
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: sitting here in my driveway on my little camp table,
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: sitting outside. I'm looking at the mountains the sun shine,
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: and it's beautiful and it's just calling your name, dan Ill.
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: Day one would be awesome, like oh Mark our families
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah. Day two you'd be like Jesus, w
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: are the Johnson's gonna leave? Man? When are they gonna leave?
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: I don't think so. I don't think so. But there's
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun stuff to do it here. I
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: keep in mind, keep in mind, all right, buddy, Thanks
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: for having on fun anytime. Man, all right, And that's
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: a rap. Appreciate you listening. I hope you enjoyed this one.
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: Be sure to stay tuned for more on this topic,
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: definitely on my Instagram count I talk about my kids
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: and my challenges and lessons learned and things I've figured
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: out in the outdoors of my kids a lot on there.
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: So if you're not already following me on Wired to Hunt,
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: look up wired to Hunt on the Instagram platform. Uh
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: lots there. And then, like I mentioned at the top,
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: Steve's new book, Outdoor Kids in an Inside World. It's
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: available anywhere books are sold. Highly recommend checking it out.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you'll enjoy it. So until next time, thanks
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: for tuning in, I appreciate you, and stay wired to Hunt.