Motivation can be a problem when you are starting the process of going from a life that is lived from work to home everyday. One of the things I find is good is to have multiple activities that you can do throughout the year.
That is what the blog is about. Getting out there. You need to key in to things that you love to do that isn’t gathering in your house and watching TV.
There are a lot of good reasons to get out of your house and enjoy the outdoors. I feel like sometimes we all get out of control with our plans. If we need to get outdoors, we need to go hike the entire Appalachian Trail. Or if we are going hunting we need to go out for a month in the deep back country and hike 50 miles to get our tag filled. However, a lot of us live in the real world.
Time without family and time off work really can get in the way of these things. If you aren’t getting outside because you feel you need to do something great in scale or time… that is a problem
One of my favorite trips that my family and I took was getting our Christmas Tree this year. We were able to get a tree off BLM land and it turned out amazing. One thing I did for myself in this trip was to take my project truck out to get this tree. My 1991 K5 Blazer was the perfect vehicle for us to get in and get up to the mountains and pick out a tree.
While this was a simple 1 day project, there were a few things I took into consideration before we left to get the job done. Gathering gear such as chainsaw, and gloves were obvious. But also it is good to make sure you understand the regulations of your area to ensure you are complying with the law. Additionally, it is a good idea to thing about things like a breakdown or what happens when we are out in the bush for a little longer than we need to be. To help with this I packed my off-brand jet boil and some dehydrated tacos that I prepared for elk hunting this year. We also packed plenty of water for this adventure as well.
Another thing to think about when planning this is to not over think things sometimes. One of the things that ended up being something great on the trip was the problem of forgetting something. While I don’t advocate for forgetting to fill up with fuel or water before a trip, in this case, this lack of preparedness really made the trip. I wanted to take a family picture when we got the tree. The one we captured turned out great. However, we really had to work to get it done. I took my Canon M50 along for the ride. The battery checked in at full at the house, but when it came time to use the camera the battery was dead. We had to overcome this misstep. Here is the result:
This mistake ended up making the trip. We still tell this story to friends and family. Also, it lightened the mood and we ended up capturing more than I anticipated that day:
This is the second year that we have cut down our own tree for Christmas. This has become a yearly trip. The first year we waited till we were well into December and it was an adventure too. We ran late and the snow was deep. The hiking was long and we ended up with a tree that was more of a bush than a tree. All hail Christmas Bush! I think Steve Rinella started the trend with the different types of fun. Parts of this trip can be the type of fun that you don’t think of fun at the time but become fun when you think about them in the past. Those are the stories that you are going to tell your friends during a cold brew. Or tell over a meal that you smoked and your wife prepared. These stories are memories that last the family for a lifetime.
For 2024 maybe things may change with this trip. I want to plan to eat lunch when we are out possibly. Maybe take a dirt side road and go deeper into BLM land. Maybe hike in a little further to get our tree. Maybe this trip won’t change and deserves to be a time that we all spend time together. That is OK. I don’t feel the need to make it something it isn’t. These small trips can be great to help everyone get out there and smell the woods. Maybe experience some wildlife. It will definitely allow you to experience some great views as well
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