how to save time, money and resources

[Percy]

I can see from reading this thread, I have a lot to learn. My claim to fame was getting a great big fruitcake for Christmas from some distant cousin a few years back and accidentally mailing it back to him the next year. He wasnt offended so Im thinking this fruitcake has some serious miles on it.....

[Old Greenhorn]

I resemble a LOT of these remarks, almost too many. Up to now, I thought I was just and oddball, everything has a least a second use, sometimes many more. Steps are things you can never get back, conserve them and use them wisely. I work alone most of the time, so finding ways to accomplish what I should have help for is a way of life (like raising a 21' long 4x10 header alone).
 Doc, when were you in Philmont? I went in '04 and the training was a little different then. It also depended on the type of 'facility' if it was a red roof inn, a pilot to bombardier, or the other single one.

[florida]

If we all peed outside our cities would all  smell like Paris in a week. The whole city is a giant sewer and smells like one. I still do about half my peeing outside but, as my wife has informed me, doing so in the same spot stinks and kills the grass.

[WV Sawmiller]

Fla,

   TMI! 

   I do seem to share your opinion of Paris. Also if you go in one of their restaurants when you finish eating the biggest meal on the menu you need to go back to your room and order an extra large pizza to fill up. They are big on presentation with fancy sauces drizzled all over the plate but short on sustenance.

[doc henderson]

Group of us went in 2016.  great experience to Philmont.  Yes they had the "red roof inns" (traditional latrine), "pilot to co-pilot" (side by side, open air),  pilot to bombadeir (back to back, open air).  No urine in any latrine even if you are doing "double Dooty".  If one needed to doo a number 2 on the trail or mountainside, It had to be 100 feet off the trail.  We had a kit with a shovel, tp and hand sanitizer.  Even though the seats on the latrine were old 2 x 12 lumber, you kind of appreciated being able to take a seat.  They were weather worn and splintery so you did not want to shuffle much.  If think I have seen some of the wood used for barn wood crafts seen on my wife's pinterest account.!!! smiley_dizzy

OG just cause you "resemble some of these remarks"  does not totally rule out that you and I are "oddballs"!!! lol.

florida and WV, I had a framing crew help build my shop.  I became friends with the foreman, who later helped me in the later stages of the build.  He was digging near the foundation in the corner where a retaining wall came out and I heard him swear.  When I asked him what was wrong, he told be one of his guys must of peed in the corner, and he always tells them to move away from the building.  I had to confess it had been me a few days earlier. :-[

[Old Greenhorn]

Ah yes, then they have updated the process for sure. The red roof inn's used to have a separate urinal pipe that ended in a slightly different location than the 'straight drop' from the seat, maintaining separation of 'donated materials'. I still remember the 'operators class' and the instructions to grab a stick, shove it down the hole and rattle it around to warn the spiders away before you sat down. There were more than a few situational awareness things you had to be good at there on a daily basis, bear and mountain lion avoidance techniques being high on my list. 
The 'off trail' sanitation process remains unchanged after hundreds of years of perfection.
 Man, some of those pilot to bombardiers had million dollar views out over the mountains. I took a lot of nice photos whilst 'otherwise occupied'. It could bring a whole new meaning to 'quiet time' in the early morning hours watching the dawn arrive. IWTGBTP!

[doc henderson]

Quite the experience.  After 12 days of drinking water fresh from the stream, and making food we had carried for 3 days we were all happy to return to "civilization".  Other groups could also attend besides BSA, and our sister crew (same overall destinations but a separate group)  had the leaders 14 y/o Daughter with them.  Early one morning headed to drop a bomb, their camp was along the way and they told me she was currently in process at the Latrine.  After about 1/2 hour of waiting, they informed me that she often does not get in a hurry.  With a little patience and pacing, she finally returned so I could use the facility.  Early the next am, we heard someone playing what sounded like an opera cd at full blast echoing off the rock of the hillside.  Turns out it was that young girl who already had scholarships to several universities to study opera.
 
It is sad that we have to pay and take off work to give our kids the experience of being self sufficient and making due.  It is no wonder, and part our fault, that young people today are referred to as "snowflakes".  The generations before us, had no choice and became the greatest generation as a result.

[Old Greenhorn]

Funny, I recall being very tired when we did that last downhill hike from the Tooth into base-camp (it was a long day). But I wasn't in a big hurry to get home, but a few were.
Yeah, we pay a price to put in that effort and provide those experience, but I thought it was a darn good investment, better than getting a hot tub or pool in the yard, that's for sure. My son was a bit young to make the trip that year, but he sure grew up on the trail after some very rough days in the beginning that nearly broke him. I had my own serious bout with hypothermia halfway through, but it was a great learning experience for the crew, and they took good care of me. The next morning I was back under my own power, a little worse for the wear. Fortunately early recognition of the problem (it wasn't my first time) and quick and decisive treatment saved us from planning how to execute an evac mission from the top of Mt. Phillips.
I found this photo in my background collections, the Tooth of course.




And this one is my favorite, quite the evening.


 

[wisconsitom]

Doc, the ability to urinate outside if one (man) wishes is still one of my key criteria for a place being a good place to live.  I can go behind my garage here in town........but up at the farm, it's pretty much wherever you happen to be!  Plenty of trees-much cover.

Wife and I have been known to rinse/re-use baggies, re-dry paper towels and re-use.  I recycle everything that can be, and compost all kitchen scraps, yard waste, leaves, etc. and always have.  

When I was a kid, the farm kids had it made.  It was real good times for the dairies.  Those kids had new everything.  Meanwhile, me- a "city slicker"-who lived in a community of 2000 souls on the edge of a corn field!....had patches on my knees, etc.  Things ain't always as portrayed!  Farm kids  did not "walk 4 miles to school" but instead, got picked up by a bus.  Us "city slickers" in that tiny farming community did actually have to walk some distance, rain, snow, sleet or shine....to school.  Again, a reversal of stereotype.  No complaints, but it taught me at an early age to be resilient in all kinds of weather, a trait I retain to this day.  Can't believe how wimpy lots of folks-who are generally decades younger than me-are, or seem to be these days.

tom

[doc henderson]

I agree Tom.  I turned out relatively tuff, but not as tough as my dad, and he was not as tuff as his dad.  Doing things the hard way used to be un avoidable.  Now parents join organizations and sign up for activities to help make their kid self confident and self reliant.  We have so many conveniences that it requires more effort to make a kid do something inconvenient, but of potential value in there future.  not the one thing but the cumulation of things that you did even though it was not fun.  It is prob. less safe to let out kids run all over town on a bike like we did, and in fact you maybe reported to child protective services by someone thinking it is not safe.  I was given a book by a senior pediatrician.  It was written by the Amish and called "raising up a child".  It looked like something you could request from an ag. extension agent for chickens or hogs. but basically taught the new parent not to coddle the child forever.  I currently blame the parent more than the kids at this point.  The college experience is prob. no better.  I spoke recently by email with my favorite college professor from KU.  He was forced to stop teaching core curriculum courses because the university got complaints that he was to hard.  I did research with him for 2 years looking at water stress on Portulaca in the 80s.  The first test in his class "biology of organisms" had only 2 questions and answered writing pages.  The mean of the first exam was 43%.  Regards.

[doc henderson]

We have added an app called life 360.  when I get home at 1 am my wife and kids are asleep.  If I wake up at 10 am and they are all gone, I can look at my phone and I can see both my kids are at their schools and my wife is working in whatever town it is.  It will alert me if there is a car accident.  I can pull up a report for each person telling each trip and events like phone use, hard braking or acceleration, and speeding.  There is a button I can push that tells me time to reach my family by car and push another button gives me a route to follow. This may seem counterintuitive after my last post.  But my daughter, if she ever got lost, would not be able to give me directions how to find her ect.  If my son is not going where he is supposed to, I will know.  After seeing lots of hard braking and accel, he was warned.  My dad always seemed to know and he did not have a smart phone. You can set way point the ding when someone leaves or arrives.  I can be busy at work or half a sleep and know that my kids made it to or home from school.  We are considering adding my mother-in-law and my brother since they live alone and in other towns.

[doc henderson]

I hope to not over do it but here are a few photos from our Philmont experience.




 


tooth of time, yes we climbed it.




 


the girl in blue sang opera for us.  My son William 3rd from the Right




 


top of baldy




 


Son and I early in the week.  My pack at 58 pounds.  limit 30% body weight for the young men.




 


my son acting as mule as I climbed the spar pole




 


me repelling down a cliff




 


pilot to bombardier.  BYOTP




 


The elders, I am on the right




 


the youngers




 


me on high cope course




 


the ground from 42 feet up

[Old Greenhorn]

When our kids were young (and still now) we only had a couple of major rules. One was "No video games in the house, ever". My son gave us all kinds of grief over the years without relief. I told him if you have nothing to do, go out in the woods and build a fort, make something in the shop, DO something. He hated me a little for that.
 When he was about 20, he brought that up again, but this time he confessed that he now understood my point and was actually glad I stuck by it. He said, 'some of my friends are real morons and they don't know how to fix ANYTHING!" My son had taken to pulling bikes apart and making monster bikes out of them welding on long forks and other nonsense. Later he turned himself loose on the yard tractors and learned all about how to mess up an engine, and then repair it before Dad got home.  He knew that if he broke it, he would have to fix it. There was no "buy a new one" at our place.
 I think these days I would be branded 'abusive'.

 Love your Phil-shots. Sadly, most of mine are stuck in a crashed computer. I was a bit younger then and don't look so decrepit.

[doc henderson]

now every phone has a camera and we upload to drop box.  OMG no wonder the kids are screwed up (compared to us)  lol.  I am sure that is what our parents thought too.  I think the pic from top of baldy mountain, that is eagles nest in the background, the lake.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, you have me whipped in the photo department, as mentioned, I think mine are gone, but here is one of our crew sitting on top of the Tooth. I have lost track of some of them, we had boys from 4 Troops and 3 different States, But the ones I kept track of somewhat and see in the photos became fine young men, cops, doctors, a writer, a Marine, and I don't know what else.



 

[doc henderson]

speaking of fine young men, which one is Old Greenhorn?

[Ianab]

Well, you have me whipped in the photo department, as mentioned, I think mine are gone

What's actually wrong with the crashed computer? If it's "no hard disk found" sort of thing you are probably out of luck. Any other message (or even no message at all) then chances are the files can be recovered without much effort. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Doc, I am not in that photo because I snapped it. But all this talk of the Philips ranch had me thinking and I remembered a backup CD which took me a half hour to find and then 1500 photos to go through (from all the adults on 2 crews). I found this one which has just our crew and you know where we are:


 
 I am in the front row, third from the right with the hiking pole. My son is directly behind me in the blue tee.

I also found this one. Seems nobody really looks good in back country clothes. We shot this as a favor for the owner of 'The Hiking Shack, which had set me up with a super fit on my boots for the trek. They were collecting photos of folks with their water bottles from around the world. They have, sadly, since gone under. Great folks. SO on Mt. Phillips when we hit the tree line....


 

Ianab, I am sure the disc is salvageable, I just have not gotten it to 'a guy' to do that. I long ago gave up fixing these dang things and keeping the hardware and software required to do it. I'll get around to it someday, soon I hope.

[doc henderson]

They have a new sign now but says the same thing.  Prob. rotted from all the people kissing it after 12 days in the wilderness.  I got down to 167 pounds pre-trek, and lost 7 more pounds at the end.  We hiked over 119 miles just place to place, not including side hikes and activities.  Running the risk of some comments, I would say you look pretty good!  We made it OG.  thanks for taking the time to find the photo.

[Old Greenhorn]

In the interest of full disclosure and since we have already hijacked your thread beyond hope of recovery, I should point out that the photos of me in the above post are 15 years old. The following summer (2005) I made a bet with my Scouts at summer camp that if they won the campsite inspection competition I would shave my beard off. Many of the parents were aghast and warned me, but I knew they were hopelessly outgunned by some of the large fancy suburban troops. Our guys were all pretty young and I think we only had 7 boys. I just wanted them to do their best, and they did. They won! I had such joy seeing the faces on the leaders of those troops that had won year after year, that shaving the beard off was a pleasure. Soon after I joined the fire service and couldn't have one anyway, so it never grew back, however, these days I AM thinking about it a bit. I have very few recent photos of me, but I did find this one from a few years ago, I don't think I have changed too much since then. I am on the left, and the fellow on the right might be recognized by a few of the pickers here on the forum. He is gone now and such a good friend he was that I miss him every day. Moreover, he gave more to the world of 5 string banjo then almost anyone I can think of, except maybe Earl, and I could debate that. SO there's a little contest, anybody know this fellow?


 

[doc henderson]

I think it still about things that are important to us all, like raising kids, and therefore how we choose to spend our time, money and resources.  still not bad looking OG.  There is only so much to go around.

[Old Greenhorn]

AH! My bad, I thought it was about SAVING time money and resources, all of which I found much harder to do when raising kids, which is why I would repair used car and truck parts rather than go to the supply house and buy new ones, or even why I fixed my own vehicles in the first place. Or why I hand dug up the septic tank rather than hire a machine and operator, or why I....... ah never mind, you get the point. You work with what you have and if you don't have it, you figure out another way.

[Old Greenhorn]

Doggone it Doc, you set me to thinking about those pilmont days and after I went through that CD I found another one that had a bunch of Philmont music on it, mostly campfire recordings I got from others over the years, and there went my evening. I am supposed to be cramming for my EMT re-cert exam in 2 weeks, but listening along I thought of a tune, whose name escapes me, and I am sure I had it in this group somewhere but I can't find it. There went my evening!
I got it!, "Colfax County Jail" I think was the name of the tune, but I can't find it on the CD. ARRRGGGHHH!

[Old Greenhorn]

Happy ending. I could not find it in my stuff, so I wound up at bandcamp and if you search for "Philmont Field recordings" you wind up with a TON of stuff. WOW! I remember how I had to search, and swap stuff with friends and mail order (remember that?) to get this stuff, now, you just go to band camp and have at it. Sadly, they only have newer stuff, but still, I am just tickled. Never thought I would stumble on that through a chat on the FF! Of course, these are campfire recordings with all the warts, but I love listening to this stuff when I am working, it makes me smile. I keep a little digital player in my Mule and just let it run all day to keep me company.
SO I guess a Thank You' is in order here, and I can start studying tomorrow night. It's only a 900 page book, how bad could it be? I have 2 whole weeks.

[doc henderson]

I know this site is all about information.  I guess the word is spend your time doing some things you can still smile about 40 years later.  A buddy of mine Todd Brethauer told me something his dad told him.  "Never do anything on Sat. night you cannot be proud of Sunday morning".  He died in a car accident a few years later near Topeka.  I actually drove past the accident on my way back to Lawrence (KU) and did not recognize his red jeep in the ditch.  Drunk Driver.  You never know what things will mean the most in advance and especially when we are young.