0:00

That's an odd

0:02

way to describe that.

0:05

Couldn't slide a loose

0:07

jelly bean. How would

0:10

you describe it? You

0:12

have some loose in

0:15

your pocket right now?

0:17

Usually. How do you

0:20

think I get all

0:22

these kids to follow

0:25

me? Wait, that doesn't

0:27

sound right. Yeah, you guys

0:29

too. I guess that is

0:31

what today is. Yeah, New

0:34

Year's Eve. So how was

0:36

Christmas? Cold compared to yours.

0:38

Yeah. That's true, Bruce. I

0:40

was yours. Not too bad. I

0:42

flew south for the winter. Yeah,

0:44

that's right. Yeah, you were down

0:46

in Mississippi with the family.

0:49

Yep. That's cool. It was,

0:51

I think on Christmas Day, I

0:54

was wearing short sleeves. It was

0:56

something like 67 or 8 degrees.

0:58

Okay, all right, that's nice. Yeah,

1:01

I woke up Christmas

1:03

morning in our hotel and

1:05

I gotta say it just It

1:07

felt really weird. It

1:09

felt like I was missing

1:12

something and I mean when

1:14

you're walking down the hallways

1:16

out into the lobby of

1:18

this Hotel that we were at

1:21

is more like a resort. There

1:23

are no walls in the lobby.

1:25

It's like wide open to

1:27

the outside and It's pretty

1:30

amazing. So you get

1:32

this ocean breeze that's blowing

1:34

in through the building

1:36

and there's palm trees everywhere

1:39

and the sun is shining

1:41

and it's just beautiful. But

1:44

yet it just felt weird.

1:46

It felt like I was

1:48

like I was missing Christmas.

1:50

I don't know. You know,

1:52

I mean, my wife loved

1:54

it and my son, I think he's

1:56

sort of he. He's sort of on

1:59

my side where just I don't

2:01

know if it felt weird it feels

2:03

like we were missing something about Christmas

2:05

and I don't know if it's just

2:07

the cold weather because we're so used

2:09

to it or or what but yeah

2:12

it really felt like we sort of

2:14

missed out but I don't know so

2:16

we talked about are we gonna do

2:18

this again next year and we're thinking

2:21

maybe spend Christmas at home and then

2:23

Maybe we could do it the following

2:25

week, the week of new years. Yeah,

2:27

yeah. Katie and the boys were worried

2:29

about not having a white Christmas because

2:32

it hasn't been snowing. It's been cold,

2:34

it just hasn't been snowing, and then

2:36

a couple of days before Christmas, it

2:38

snowed an inch or two. So they

2:40

got their white Christmas, and then two

2:43

days later, it warmed up to 47,

2:45

48 degrees, and melted all of it.

2:47

and everything is just a sloppy muddy

2:49

nightmare outside it's just bad. Oh man.

2:51

What's funny is when we were down

2:54

there we would see the locals and

2:56

the locals are walking around in pants

2:58

and long-sleeved shirts and some of them

3:00

even have sweaters on and I'm like

3:02

my goodness it's like 80 degrees what

3:05

what's going on and they explained to

3:07

me they're like this is winter for

3:09

us. It's cold. This is, we're not

3:11

used to this. I'm like, it's almost

3:13

80 degrees. And they're like, yeah, it's

3:16

cold. And it's amazing how much. We

3:18

have our thermostets set at 92. Yeah.

3:20

It's amazing how much our bodies can

3:22

adapt and get used to different climates.

3:24

Yeah. Yeah. It was just a lot

3:27

of rain. I mean, in Mississippi, it

3:29

rains all winter long, but it's been

3:31

raining a lot here too. And almost

3:33

the whole drive home. So nine hours.

3:35

it was just rain, which is pretty

3:38

exhausting when you drive that far. You

3:40

know, 600 miles just in the rain

3:42

constantly. Yeah. It makes for a long

3:44

time, but it still went fine. We

3:46

didn't have any slow downs in any.

3:49

the city's you know going through Nashville

3:51

is always kind of like what are

3:53

we gonna hit some traffic but we

3:55

didn't we went and saw Rebecca's folks

3:57

first and hung out there for a

4:00

couple days and then we went down

4:02

and my dad we celebrated his 80th

4:04

birthday it was the previous week but

4:06

did a big dinner and had a

4:08

bunch of family over and it was

4:11

nice nice to give the old man

4:13

a high-five and a hug and he's

4:15

he's recently went through these two big

4:17

trunks of stuff that he found in

4:19

the attic that have just been kept

4:22

for I don't know his whole life

4:24

pretty much and I guess he's hit

4:26

an old enough point now that he's

4:28

kind of given a lot of this

4:30

stuff away but it was neat it

4:33

was like a time capsule he set

4:35

kind of more for I mean I

4:37

was tuned into it but the grandkids

4:39

were really like oh and looking at

4:41

all this stuff but he was pulling

4:44

out things that he you know traveled

4:46

around and and picked up as souvenirs

4:48

when he was in high school. or

4:50

you know when he was flying around

4:52

the world in the air force and

4:55

different different things some metal roller skates

4:57

that you strap on to your shoes

4:59

and it has this little key that

5:01

you tighten around so it would grab

5:03

your shoe just that kind of stuff

5:06

that's been sitting in a you know

5:08

sitting in a box forever yeah he

5:10

was kind of giving him out and

5:12

just saying like hey who wants this

5:14

and I took a few things that

5:17

were pretty cool we had another tree

5:19

come down on Christmas Day We were

5:21

kind of that post-present opening calm where

5:23

everybody's kind of, the boys are looking

5:26

at their stuff. I think I was

5:28

reading a book. Katie was reading something

5:30

off of her phone and all of

5:32

a sudden there's this noise that everybody

5:34

sort of noticed and everybody stopped what

5:37

they were doing and started to look

5:39

at each other and then we... whipped

5:41

our heads around and looked over in

5:43

the corner in the Christmas tree and

5:45

just hit the ground. Oh no! I

5:48

thought, yeah, right when you said a

5:50

tree came down, I thought you meant

5:52

like outside. Yeah, me too. I was

5:54

trying to be misleading. Oh, okay. Well,

5:56

you did it. Well, it worked. The

5:59

tree we got this year, we went

6:01

out to the tree farm and cut

6:03

down a 40, 45-footer, maybe a 50-footer,

6:05

I don't know what it was, and

6:07

took the top seven feet off and

6:10

got at home and I trimmed a

6:12

little bit off and wedged it in

6:14

the corner and it was good to

6:16

go. Now, the other cool thing about

6:18

this tree was that it forked halfway

6:21

up. four feet home and put it

6:23

on his deck at his house. So

6:25

we shared a Christmas tree this year.

6:27

That's cool. But it smelled great. It

6:29

did. But the one we had had

6:32

a bit of scoliosis at the top.

6:34

So if you turn it in a

6:36

certain direction, it looked really, really good.

6:38

And then if you walk 90 degrees

6:40

around it, you go, oh, nope, there

6:43

it is. That's kind of a funny

6:45

looking tree. And so it was leaned

6:47

in the base to get it to

6:49

stand like it was looking straight up.

6:51

And Katie's a minimalist when it comes

6:54

to ornaments and the boys would like

6:56

to put everything they ever had on

6:58

there, but I don't know if your

7:00

kids are the same way where it's

7:02

like, how come there's 40 ornaments on

7:05

that one branch and the backside is

7:07

empty? And that's really what the downfall,

7:09

the literal downfall of this tree was

7:11

is that they decorated it and I

7:13

kind of helped spread stuff out a

7:16

little bit more after the fact, but

7:18

all the lights were on the front,

7:20

there was no weight on the back.

7:22

and then each one of them I

7:24

think added one new ornament to the

7:27

front on Christmas morning and that was

7:29

enough to kick it out of balance

7:31

like it wasn't a dog we don't

7:33

have a cat it was a slight

7:35

imbalance took that tree down that's crazy

7:38

and then the real problem was it

7:40

it was drinking about a quart of

7:42

water a day it was a thirsty

7:44

tree we'd pour 32 ounces in that

7:46

base every single day and we had

7:49

just done it when it tipped over.

7:51

Oh, so it went everywhere. And so

7:53

it put a lot of water on

7:55

the floor. The presents that were supposed

7:57

to go to the cousins later got...

8:00

So the boys got to open their

8:02

presents so we could try to dry

8:04

them out. So by 730 on Christmas

8:06

morning, we're pulling the tree and throwing

8:09

it out into the yards and

8:11

moving all of the furniture and

8:13

sweeping and mopping and vacuuming. And

8:15

we absolutely completely undid Christmas by

8:18

9 o'clock Christmas morning. It was

8:20

gone. It's out. So much for

8:22

the calm, huh? Right. It's like,

8:24

well, at this point. We're not going

8:27

to put the tree back up and

8:29

if we're putting ornaments and crap away

8:31

We might just well put it all

8:33

away Yeah, did anything break any ornaments

8:35

break when it fell over there was

8:37

one or two of like my old

8:40

ones There were these weird little moose

8:42

figurines that one was a maybe a

8:44

hunter one was a skier like these

8:46

little pot-bellied moose things one or two

8:48

of those broke. It's meese Mese. Plural

8:51

is Mese. I think that's the plural

8:53

of mouses. Oh, okay. They were nice

8:55

little things that my mom had gotten

8:57

me years and years ago, and so

9:00

the boys were pretty upset about that,

9:02

but mostly it was just the generic

9:04

garbage orb things. Oh, yeah. That nobody

9:06

really knows what they are where they

9:09

came from, but every tree has a

9:11

few. Those were mostly what shattered. So,

9:13

so. When we went down to see

9:15

my folks, my mom had this old

9:17

glass ornament. that I think was from

9:19

her mom's childhood or either her

9:22

grandmother. It was 90 plus years

9:24

old, really big glass ball and they

9:26

would always put it on the tree and

9:28

when I was young we had a couple

9:30

Christmas trees crash down like that and

9:32

we were always like, oh is it

9:35

going to survive? And it never broke.

9:37

This time my dad said. It took

9:39

nothing, like it was just hanging on

9:41

the tree and it just let go

9:43

and a million pieces. It just exploded

9:45

on the tree, huh? Yeah, he said

9:47

it just finally gave up the ghost

9:49

and was like, okay, I'm done. I

9:52

don't want you to put me on

9:54

here anymore. Overinflated that balloon. Yeah. We

9:56

never wanted the tree to crash like

9:58

that, so we joke about... I

10:00

found this big rock years ago. It's

10:02

like a, I don't know if it's

10:04

volcanic rock or what, I don't know

10:07

what it is, it's really heavy. And

10:09

we just call it the Christmas, the

10:11

Christmas rock, you know, and so I

10:13

put it on the base so that

10:15

it has this 30 pound weight or

10:18

whatever, that it would take a pretty

10:20

significant something and we just covered up

10:22

with a tree skirt. So then you

10:24

just can't see this giant rock that's

10:26

holding the tree from. Right. The way

10:28

that you were talking about how your

10:31

tree was decorated though, it reminds me

10:33

a long time ago, I used to

10:35

be crazy like Bruce's and I actually

10:37

owned a cat. Used to be? Yeah,

10:39

used to. And the cat would be

10:42

very interested in the Christmas ornaments, especially

10:44

the ones on the lower branches that

10:46

they could reach. They just sort of

10:48

get up there and look at them

10:50

and bad at them and eventually they

10:52

were breaking them. we couldn't have that

10:55

anymore so the following year we only

10:57

decorated the top half of the tree

10:59

and and the cats were avoiding it

11:01

which was was just perfect then fast

11:03

forward many years until the cats are

11:06

gone and now we have a little

11:08

boy running around and he also would

11:10

be a little bit interested especially when

11:12

there he's only like two three years

11:14

old so again we just sort of

11:17

decorated the top half of the tree.

11:19

And it just looked funny when only

11:21

the top half of the tree is

11:23

decorated. But now you fast forward like

11:25

another 10 years or so. And Danny

11:27

and I, we just couldn't care less

11:30

about what the tree looked like, but

11:32

yet. Mason is super excited about it.

11:34

He's like, I want to do I

11:36

want to do it all. I want

11:38

to decorate the whole tree. Oh, yeah.

11:41

So he decorates the whole tree, but

11:43

he's still so short that he can

11:45

only decorate the bottom half. And we

11:47

just let it go and that's. It's

11:49

flipped now. It just looks so funny.

11:51

Yeah, it flipped, but now he's he's

11:54

starting to get taller and he's just

11:56

about as tall as Danny is now.

11:58

So he did it again all himself

12:00

this year and he pretty much got

12:02

the whole thing decorated. I had to

12:05

do the very very top for him,

12:07

but other than that he did everything,

12:09

which was awesome. Rebecca is like the

12:11

police with her tree. I mean, she

12:13

she monitors everyone that goes on and

12:15

where it goes so it always ends

12:18

up looking just like that's just her

12:20

thing so I let let her do

12:22

it she's always liked you know I

12:24

don't know this is where it goes

12:26

and and she reserves the right to

12:29

rearrange things if she doesn't like it

12:31

well after we got the house absolutely

12:33

cleaned out the the dog kennel had

12:35

been out on the bench in the

12:37

shop for most of a week at

12:40

this point because it's like well we're

12:42

going to take the tree out here

12:44

soon anyway and have to rearrange again

12:46

so there's no reason to shove it

12:48

in there just to have to move

12:50

it around. So we got to put

12:53

the dog kennel in on Christmas Day

12:55

and it's nice. It's just absolutely gorgeous.

12:57

It's one of my favorite things at

12:59

this point. Yeah, you sent us a

13:01

picture of it. It looks fantastic. So

13:04

here's the question. This was primarily for

13:06

Knox and not Flint or is it

13:08

the other way? Okay. It's for Knox.

13:10

Flint is pretty trustworthy when we're out

13:12

of the house. He's not going to

13:14

jump on furniture. He's not going to

13:17

chew on things. Knox has never... made

13:19

me think he's going to but he's

13:21

also never had the opportunity to his

13:23

entire life if we're gonna leave he's

13:25

gonna get locked up and it just

13:28

it works and he likes it so

13:30

it's fine okay and how has he

13:32

taken to it it's his favorite spot

13:34

in the house he would rather go

13:36

in to his fort and lay down

13:38

then go and lay on a comfy

13:41

bed yeah i was showing my mom

13:43

that picture you sent me when we

13:45

were down there and she was kind

13:47

of asking you know what what was

13:49

the need that arose to make you

13:52

want to build this? And I said,

13:54

well, he already had the crate in

13:56

the room anyway, so he wanted it

13:58

to be like a piece of furniture

14:00

that was nice looking and functional. And

14:03

she's like, well, that makes sense. Right.

14:05

Yeah. I really liked the inserts that

14:07

you made, the ones with the geometric

14:09

patterns. They give it just a little

14:11

bit of design flare that. doesn't normally

14:13

come out of me. That's it. That's

14:16

it exactly. It looks really, really good.

14:18

It just adds something to it. I

14:20

liked it. And I've thought about that

14:22

design a bit too, and if you

14:24

didn't want it to be a kennel,

14:27

you could just make those panels out

14:29

a quarter inch, whatever, and stuff blankets

14:31

in there. Or, you know, it wouldn't

14:33

have to be a dog kennel. It's

14:35

whatever you make those panels into that

14:37

it. decides what it needs to be.

14:40

That's not a bad idea with the

14:42

blanket storage. Yeah. I didn't see on

14:44

the picture, maybe I just didn't, maybe

14:46

I missed it, but how does it

14:48

latch closed? There's just a little knob,

14:51

there's a knob that kind of, when

14:53

you turn it, it slides out a

14:55

little piece of like flat stock, a

14:57

little, just a little piece of metal

14:59

comes straight out and covers the gap

15:01

between the frame and the door, and

15:04

then there's a catch on the door

15:06

that it slides that it slides into.

15:08

Oh, I see. OK. And there are

15:10

two doors. You maybe didn't see enough

15:12

pictures of it to see. There's one

15:15

door in the end, and there's one

15:17

door in the side. That way, depending

15:19

on where you want to put the

15:21

piece of furniture, there's still a door.

15:23

There's still access. Yeah. That's a good

15:26

idea. And I could have put doors

15:28

in all four sides. And that might

15:30

be the way to do it if

15:32

I were selling these to people, because

15:34

then it really doesn't matter how you

15:36

set it matter how you set it

15:39

up. Right. I know we talked about

15:41

this before on a previous episode, but

15:43

I forget where we landed or where

15:45

you landed rather. Are you going to

15:47

do plans for this? Yes, I think

15:50

so. You know, I've been trying as

15:52

much as I can not to work

15:54

for the last week and a half.

15:56

And so coming, you know, the kids

15:58

go back to work or get back

16:00

to school on Thursday. So starting Thursday,

16:03

it's like, all right, I got to

16:05

get this video edited. I'm going to

16:07

do plans. I'm going to try to

16:09

maybe sell panels as a product, that

16:11

kind of thing. Oh, that's a great

16:14

idea. Yeah, throw them in the laser

16:16

and P. P. Right. The thing I

16:18

wanted to point out about that kennel.

16:20

So because of all of the different

16:22

faces and angles and corners and pockets

16:24

and I wanted the body of the

16:27

kennel to be really really easy. Use

16:29

a finish that was really really easy.

16:31

So I ended up just using tongue

16:33

oil. Wipe it on, wipe it off,

16:35

you're done. But the top I wanted

16:38

to be more durable than that. And

16:40

what I've done for durability for a

16:42

long time now is to use armor

16:44

seal and put it on. And then

16:46

as soon as it's dry enough to

16:49

not stick to a paper towel, I

16:51

spray endurovar over the top of it.

16:53

That's what I've done on both of

16:55

the dining tables on all the desks

16:57

I've made lately. Well, this time around,

16:59

the catalyst for my endurovar had finally

17:02

gone bad. So I didn't have any

17:04

of it, and I wasn't about to

17:06

order more of it. So as long

17:08

as I've been doing this stuff, my

17:10

absolute favorite finish on anything I've made

17:13

is that little kid's stool. that I

17:15

made for the boys to reach the

17:17

sink. Oh yeah. And all that was

17:19

was coat after coat after coat of

17:21

armor seal. I've got a gallon of

17:23

armor seal and I've got nothing but

17:26

time. That was the issue is that

17:28

if you want to put it on,

17:30

armor seal is not a fast process

17:32

until I cover it with endurovar and

17:34

it's a 10 minute process. Well armor

17:37

seal takes 24 hours to dry before

17:39

you do the next coat. and

17:41

they suggest a minimum of three. So it's

17:43

a three day finishing process minimum if you're

17:46

just gonna use armor seal. So that's why

17:48

I tend to not use it. And it

17:50

shuts down your shop, you know, because it

17:53

stinks. You're not putting that stuff on inside.

17:55

It's a it's a polyurethane. Right. So I

17:57

had nothing but time. I wasn't gonna. to

17:59

be in the shop other than to run

18:02

out and put another coat of this thing

18:04

on. And I ended up doing five coats.

18:06

So it took almost, I mean, it's

18:08

a full work week worth of shop

18:10

downtime just to put finish on that

18:13

thing. And it's incredible. The top of

18:15

that thing is just, oh, it absolutely

18:17

is. And it blends well enough when

18:19

you add it to the bottom that

18:21

you can't really tell a difference between

18:23

the tongue oil. and the general finishes

18:26

by standing back and looking at it.

18:28

But if you get down and rub

18:30

on it, oh man, huge difference. And

18:32

how would you apply? Would you brush that

18:34

on, foam brush, wipe it on? Yep,

18:36

I used a foam brush, so I

18:39

just foam brush, long lines, you know,

18:41

I'd kind of flood the surface a

18:43

little bit and then do long lines

18:45

all the way across. And then I'd

18:47

kind of clean up after myself for

18:50

five minutes, and then I'd come back

18:52

with a clean old t-shirt. and wipe

18:54

what was left off. So you're building

18:56

up very thin layers. But once you've

18:58

done, three was like, oh, this isn't

19:00

enough. Five, I'd keep going at that

19:03

point. The other thing I did while

19:05

I was at it, though, is I had

19:07

a raw piece of just a walnut board,

19:09

you know, 18 inches long and five

19:11

inches wide. I didn't even bother

19:13

to sand it, but when I

19:15

still had the brush wet, I

19:17

would brush it onto that thing,

19:19

and I didn't. wipe it dry afterward. I

19:22

would let it just sit on there and

19:24

dry on its own. And I think I

19:26

would do that next time. I think I

19:28

would not wipe it back off. Thicker coats

19:30

and it as long as you're making these

19:32

nice long even strokes, it kind of

19:35

self levels because it takes so long to

19:37

dry. I think if you were slapping it

19:39

on there, if you were just wiping it

19:41

on, because it is a wipeable finish,

19:43

but if you were doing that, I don't

19:46

think you could get as consistently with

19:48

your consistently with your brush strokes

19:50

and then if you left it

19:52

flooded on there like that i

19:54

think it would dry a little

19:57

uneven a little ugly but i i

19:59

think you would get up because I

20:01

don't back to that kid's stool

20:03

I do not remember wiping that

20:05

off I think I just painted

20:08

it on and let it dry

20:10

and painted it on again and

20:12

that's kind of why I did

20:14

that second board just as an

20:16

experiment. Now is the one that

20:19

you used an oil base finish

20:21

is that why it takes so

20:23

long to dry? I believe so

20:25

yeah it is oil base because

20:27

I know that armor seal comes

20:30

in a water base poly as

20:32

well. They don't call it that.

20:34

It's high-performing high performance, I think

20:36

Yeah, their their water poly is

20:38

called like either high performance right

20:41

or Indurivar is the commercial one

20:43

right you said Indurivar earlier, but

20:45

I think you meant Conversion varnish

20:47

Yes, that's correct, but arm our

20:49

seal with an R is its

20:52

own thing. It is not a

20:54

mm-hmm. It's not a polyurethane in

20:56

a line of polyurethanes. It's it

20:58

is armor seal It's a blend.

21:00

It has a thinned down polyurethane,

21:03

but it also has tongue oil

21:05

and some other stuff in it,

21:07

which is why it makes walnut

21:09

look so freaking good. Yeah, I

21:11

am a huge fan. If you

21:14

have the time to put into

21:16

it, that's all I'll ever use.

21:18

But time is a factor a

21:20

lot of the time. Well, this

21:22

episode is sponsored by One Trinity.

21:25

Thanks to them for keeping this

21:27

show going partially. We appreciate them

21:29

over the years. We all have

21:31

their machines and if you don't

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know what machines we're talking about,

21:36

they are a CNC company. It's

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21:40

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21:42

and have for years. They just

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took the hobbyist market by storm

21:47

and I think they've turned a

21:49

lot of people into businesses using

21:51

their machines just from looking at

21:53

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want to check out what they

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have to offer go to one

22:04

affinity CNC.com what they have tell

22:06

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22:09

I think you'll I think you'll

22:11

enjoy them. Well for those of

22:13

you that may have been wondering

22:15

from my based on what I

22:17

was saying earlier where I spent

22:20

Christmas I took the family down

22:22

on a vacation to Cancun and

22:24

It was fun. We went down

22:26

there for like five or six

22:28

days and my wife sat in

22:31

a cabana by the beach or

22:33

by the pool and ordered drinks

22:35

all week and I got to

22:37

sort of putts around with my

22:39

son and try to figure out

22:42

some things to do. And one

22:44

of the things we did was

22:46

really awesome. First off, did you

22:48

guys know that Cancun didn't even

22:50

exist in 1970? The whole city

22:53

didn't even exist. It was just

22:55

an undeveloped jungle. It was a

22:57

really thick jungle with just lavish

22:59

beaches. And apparently, like, I think

23:01

it was in 1969, the Mexican

23:04

government was proposed with a project

23:06

saying, hey, if we developed this

23:08

area, we could probably turn it

23:10

into like some kind of tourist

23:12

destination. the Mexican government thought about

23:15

it for a while and in

23:17

in 1970 they're like yeah you

23:19

know what okay we'll give you

23:21

two million dollars and they started

23:23

they started building they started developing

23:26

and they turned it into what

23:28

it is today and it's just

23:30

unbelievable there and it's still being

23:32

built up like crazy there's resorts

23:34

going up left and right but

23:37

one of the places that we

23:39

stayed in was one of the

23:41

very earlier ones and I say

23:43

the earlier ones it was built

23:45

in 2012 but apparently it only

23:48

takes like 12 years for those

23:50

resorts to really start looking pretty

23:52

aged and kind of falling apart.

23:54

I bet it weather is fast

23:56

down there doesn't it? It does.

23:59

I mean, yeah, there's storms and

24:01

all, but there's no winters. And

24:03

so I was sort of guessing

24:05

that it was- Salt wrecks everything,

24:07

and I bet there is a

24:10

salt-related issue. That's just what I

24:12

was going to say, is all

24:14

of the construction that was metal

24:16

was showing rust and corrosion and

24:18

falling apart. So they must constantly

24:21

have to be on top of

24:23

that. Anyways, it was a great time

24:25

down there. We had a lot of

24:27

fun. But what Mason and I did,

24:29

we went on this excursion. We

24:31

checked with the hotel and they're

24:33

like, oh yeah, you definitely want

24:35

to go and do this. And

24:38

it's like an all-day thing. So

24:40

Mason and I, we got up

24:42

real early, one of those days, we

24:44

got on a bus, and they drove us

24:46

for like, like, over an hour away. But

24:48

we went to this park called

24:51

the Expler. We didn't really know

24:53

what to expect. We knew that they

24:55

had like a big water slide there

24:57

and stuff like that and some other

24:59

things to do when we figure out

25:01

We'll we'll make a day out of it. It'll

25:03

be fun. I'm sure what we'll figure

25:06

it out Well we got there we got off

25:08

the bus and it said just follow follow

25:10

the path and we started following the

25:12

path and the path was going down

25:15

down we were in like the thick

25:17

jungle It's the path is going down

25:19

and down and winding around in the

25:21

jungle and all of a sudden the

25:24

path is now underground and

25:26

we're inside of caves and we're

25:28

walking that this narrow winding

25:30

path that's underground all lit

25:32

up with like lights and

25:34

stuff like and there's stalactites

25:36

hanging off the ceiling and

25:38

we're like what in the

25:40

world are we walking into

25:42

and then it just opens

25:44

up into this mass cavern

25:47

inside or underground inside and

25:49

that's where the main reception

25:51

is for this park that

25:53

all the ticketing booths are

25:55

there and there's it's it's

25:57

absolutely enormous there's tables and

25:59

chairs and big waiting areas and

26:01

zigzaggy lines, you know, for you

26:03

to wait in to get to

26:05

the front desk and there's a

26:07

path that goes this way over to

26:10

the locker rooms and there's a path

26:12

that goes this way to some of

26:14

the other exhibits and rides and

26:16

stuff and there's an entire

26:18

gift shop there underground. It's

26:20

just amazing and we got our

26:23

helmets. So apparently whenever you're

26:25

there, you basically need to

26:27

wear a helmet. all day long

26:29

because everything that they have there

26:32

is kind of well I mean

26:34

it's adventuresome you know it's it's out

26:36

outdoorsy and you could get hurt on

26:38

it so we got our helmets on

26:40

and and they asked us do you

26:43

want to purchase pictures and we're like

26:45

I don't think so I don't think

26:47

we're not going to do it I

26:49

got my phone and they're like oh

26:51

you're not going to want to take

26:53

your phone because you get wet on

26:56

everything. So I was like, oh,

26:58

okay. So we got a locker

27:00

and, you know, we switched into

27:02

our swimwear and they're like, go

27:05

to the water slide, go check

27:07

that out. So we went to

27:09

the water slide and we waited

27:11

in line for, I mean, we

27:13

were there super early, so we

27:15

only ended up waiting in line

27:18

for like 15, 20 minutes. We

27:20

got to this water slide. Guys,

27:22

this is the biggest. I think

27:24

it's the biggest water slide

27:26

in the world. It's got five.

27:29

Like a curvy loopy kind of

27:31

one? You have to sit in

27:33

this raft with three other people.

27:35

So it's a four people go

27:37

at once. Okay. And it's got

27:40

all of these different kind of,

27:42

I guess you'd call them obstacles.

27:44

I don't know, but you go

27:46

zigzagging down this track so fast

27:49

and then all of a sudden,

27:51

you go. flying up this giant

27:53

half pipe and then you come

27:55

sliding down the other way backwards

27:57

and then you go through more pipe.

28:00

and there's a big drop off and

28:02

it drops you into this gigantic, it

28:04

almost looks like a gigantic toilet bowl.

28:06

You go round and round and round

28:08

and then you sort of get flushed

28:10

in the center and then you fly

28:13

out of that into another obstacle which

28:15

is like a giant orb and you

28:17

go zipping around inside this orb and

28:19

then you come out of that one

28:22

and you go down more tunnel into

28:24

another huge drop down into this massive

28:26

like funnel looking thing. And so it

28:28

was just unreal. It was it was

28:30

pretty fun and then at all

28:33

of that's underground No,

28:35

that was that was above ground.

28:37

Okay, but it ends in like

28:39

a wave pool which was kind

28:41

of Neat. So then once you

28:43

hike out of that, then it's

28:46

like, all right, well, there we

28:48

did. Well, we did the water

28:50

slide. What's next? And they have

28:52

zip lines there. 14. So they

28:54

don't need towels. That's how you

28:56

dry off. Yeah. Well, that's that's

28:59

what I thought. I said, Hey,

29:01

let's just go dry off on

29:03

the zip lines. So we went

29:05

and waited in line for the

29:07

zip lines. Might. above ground

29:09

and I say for the

29:12

most part because they have

29:14

some zip lines that go down

29:16

through the jungle canopy then

29:18

you're inside the jungle and

29:21

then you it goes down

29:23

inside of a cave and

29:25

you're still flying really fast

29:28

and you end in a river

29:30

so like you you crash into

29:32

the river so it was just

29:35

so much fun and one of

29:37

the funny things was We were

29:39

in line for the zip line

29:42

and they have instructors there that

29:44

try to get the attention of

29:46

the entire crowd as they're putting

29:49

on their harnesses and stuff and

29:51

he's giving instructions and he would

29:53

have to give instructions in Spanish

29:56

first and he just rattles

29:58

it off and then he

30:00

gives the instructions in English, but

30:02

his English was a little bit

30:04

broken. So I've actually been waiting

30:07

to ask you this question. Does

30:09

everybody down there pretty much speak

30:11

English because it's such a touristy

30:13

place or did you have some

30:15

language issues? No. You don't speak

30:18

too much Spanish? Not a lot.

30:20

I speak a little bit of

30:22

Spanish enough to be dangerous, but

30:24

when they're speaking that fast, influently,

30:26

I have a hard time following

30:29

it. but he was up there

30:31

and you know he'd go beep

30:33

bit about it a beep it

30:35

about it about you know in

30:37

Spanish and then he would say

30:40

oh okay so hold here lean

30:42

back this way knees up hold

30:44

together you know so it's sort

30:46

of broken and then he goes

30:49

into it another spiel beep it

30:51

about but about it a beep

30:53

it about like that and a

30:55

bunch of the The Mexican people

30:57

that were in line just started

31:00

laughing. I'm like, what was that

31:02

about? You know, and then he

31:04

goes into an English. He goes,

31:06

no peep in sky. No peep

31:08

in sky. No peep in sky.

31:11

No peep in water. Do not

31:13

drink water. It might be peepy.

31:15

Yeah. So, you know, we bust

31:17

out laughing and we're like, wait

31:20

a minute, they must have had

31:22

enough of a problem with people.

31:24

Going peepy in the sky that

31:26

they had to make a rule

31:28

about it like raining down on

31:31

people below I guess so my

31:33

goodness, but I think if I

31:35

mean some of these zip lines

31:37

were really tall like one of

31:39

them was 150 feet tall and

31:42

you go so fast. I'm guessing

31:44

the people that were probably wetting

31:46

their pants were doing so involuntarily.

31:48

Right. But yeah it was it

31:51

was a blast. After all the

31:53

zip lines we did 14 of

31:55

those things and like some of

31:57

the zip lines would go through

31:59

waterfalls and you know like I

32:02

said end in the river and

32:04

it was just a blast. Mark

32:06

you would like this next one

32:08

that we did. It was The

32:10

amphibios and amphibios in Spanish means

32:13

basically amphibious vehicle or altering vehicle

32:15

So they just give you a

32:17

John Deere side by side and

32:19

They let you loose and so

32:21

there were two trails and each

32:24

trail was like five kilometers long

32:26

and it's through the jungle and

32:28

these trails were nuts And some

32:30

of them, like you'd come around

32:33

a turn and the trail just

32:35

disappears. It's like, where's it going?

32:37

And it's going. down. It's at

32:39

a steep angle and we would

32:41

go down and all of a

32:44

sudden we're inside the caves and

32:46

the caves are winding around and

32:48

you're like dodging stalagmites and stalactites

32:50

and some of them go through

32:52

waterfalls and these deep water trenches

32:55

it was a blast and at

32:57

one point we were so far

32:59

down deep into a cave. that

33:01

I'm like I just want to

33:04

see how dark it is so

33:06

I turn off the lights of

33:08

the vehicle it was absolutely pitch

33:10

black like you could not see

33:12

your hand if it was an

33:15

inch from your face and it

33:17

was just so much fun. Mason

33:19

was freaking out because it was

33:21

just so dark down there. But

33:23

then we turn on the lights

33:26

and we're going a little bit

33:28

more and I see like a

33:30

little bit of a straight away

33:32

so I turn the lights back

33:35

off while I was still driving.

33:37

He's freaking out. But it was

33:39

a blast and we climb out

33:41

of that cave and... And then

33:43

on to the next one. We

33:46

did another one, which was where

33:48

we did a river, underground river

33:50

swim, which was like 400 yards

33:52

long. That one was a lot

33:54

of fun. We did. Just about

33:57

every single thing that the park

33:59

offered and I think at the

34:01

end of the day I had

34:03

something like 18,000 steps my fit

34:06

bit was saying who is this

34:08

guy? Sounds like a fun place.

34:10

Man, it was a lot of

34:12

fun. It was great memories and

34:14

oh, you know what was really

34:17

cool? Remember in the beginning where

34:19

I said that they asked me

34:21

do you want to buy pictures?

34:23

Yeah, man, they got that thing

34:25

figured out because here's what they

34:28

do. You get a bracelet and

34:30

the bracelet has a barcode on

34:32

it. You also get a helmet.

34:34

Well the helmet has a microchip

34:36

inside of the helmet. Now the

34:39

bracelet, the barcode on the bracelet

34:41

and the microchip in the helmet

34:43

are both linked to an account

34:45

that they create for you when

34:48

you register, when you sign up

34:50

and go. Well when you're on

34:52

the rides there are sensors around

34:54

that will detect your microchip approaching

34:56

or passing by and it triggers

34:59

a camera that is nearby and

35:01

so it automatically takes your picture

35:03

when you're splashing through a waterfall.

35:05

During some prime moments. Exactly, exactly.

35:07

And then elsewhere around the park

35:10

there's all these photography stations like

35:12

if you're doing the river swim

35:14

or you're doing this hike or

35:16

whatever, where you can stop and

35:19

it tells you where to stand

35:21

and you can scan your wristband

35:23

on this little scanner podium thing

35:25

that they have there and that

35:27

triggers a camera to take your

35:30

picture so you can pose there

35:32

with your family or your friends

35:34

and you can smile and all

35:36

that stuff and it all gets

35:38

sent up to the cloud and

35:41

linked to your account. And then

35:43

if you purchase it, you get

35:45

like, I don't know, 90 days

35:47

or something to download all of

35:50

your pictures that you want. But

35:52

I'm sure they charge an arm

35:54

and a leg. I didn't even

35:56

ask how much they charge. We

35:58

just, I don't know, we just

36:01

weren't interested in that. So we

36:03

didn't do it. But I thought

36:05

that is so cool, man. They

36:07

must make an absolute fortune from

36:09

that. Well, and they're smart to

36:12

make it so immersive, you know,

36:14

like you don't have to have

36:16

a camera with you or some

36:18

goofball telling you, hey, you want

36:20

your picture? You know, it just,

36:23

it's kind of up to you,

36:25

what you want to do. Exactly.

36:27

Yeah, and if you didn't think

36:29

you liked that one, you could

36:32

just take another one. And yeah,

36:34

it's, they really had it figured

36:36

out. It was a lot of

36:38

fun. So I recommend. If you're

36:40

going to go on vacation to

36:43

Cancun, definitely, definitely, definitely do this,

36:45

this park. It is just, it

36:47

is so worth it. It's called

36:49

Ex Plor. So it's the letter

36:51

X-P-L-O-R. That's cool. Well, I don't

36:54

want to ask, you know, how

36:56

much money you spent on your

36:58

family vacation, but it... Is Cancun

37:00

a place where you can do

37:03

it kind of affordably or is

37:05

it so well known now that

37:07

it's expensive down there? No, I

37:09

think it's pretty affordable. I mean,

37:11

we ended up paying a little

37:14

bit extra so that we could

37:16

be in... like quieter area of

37:18

the resort so the resort was

37:20

sort of broken up into three

37:22

sections there's like the splash family

37:25

kind of like for families with

37:27

young kids and it's like a

37:29

splash zone with water slides and

37:31

all that stuff and then the

37:34

next section was kind of like

37:36

the general admission kind of section

37:38

where like all the spring breakers

37:40

would go and the partiers and

37:42

that was sort of the loud

37:45

crazy section of the resort and

37:47

then the third section was kind

37:49

of like the families that are

37:51

that just wanted to be quiet

37:53

and peaceful and That's what we

37:56

were in. So the other areas

37:58

were a lot cheaper and more

38:00

affordable. So I, and everything down

38:02

there is super cheap. Like if

38:04

you would give somebody a tip

38:07

or something, it could be like

38:09

a, like anytime somebody brought a

38:11

drink, you know, I just give

38:13

a dollar for a tip and

38:16

that, that was considered good. Is

38:18

it, yeah, it's, that's a good

38:20

tip for getting one drink. Yeah,

38:22

so. It goes a long way

38:24

down there. I think the exchange

38:27

rate was something like 20 pesos

38:29

to $1. So yeah, I think

38:31

it's definitely affordable. And again, we

38:33

were in like an all-inclusive resort.

38:35

You can get resorts that are

38:38

not all-inclusive and save even more

38:40

money. But we decided to do

38:42

something different this year. We saved

38:44

up all year long just to

38:47

do this. We didn't really exchange

38:49

gifts as a family this year

38:51

because we were... Sinking everything into

38:53

this vacation. And we just wanted

38:55

to try something new. Well, sounds

38:58

like it paid off, but you

39:00

might want to shift the timing

39:02

on it if you end up

39:04

doing it again. So you're home

39:06

for actual Christmas. That's what I'm

39:09

thinking we want to do. Yeah.

39:11

But we're not really a big

39:13

vacation kind of family. I think

39:15

the last vacation we took was,

39:18

well, we went down a Red

39:20

River gorge. You know, when we

39:22

talked about that. Was that a

39:24

spring break? No, or summer? I

39:26

think it was a summer. Yeah,

39:29

I think it was a summer

39:31

trip. And then five years ago,

39:33

we did like the canyons at

39:35

Utah. And that was really fun,

39:37

too. That was definitely on a

39:40

spring break. But I mean, aside

39:42

from that, we just don't take

39:44

vacations. And I don't know, maybe

39:46

we should. Maybe we should do

39:48

more vacationing as a family. It's

39:51

just not something that we have

39:53

done. yet so I don't know

39:55

I understand that sentiment we were

39:57

just busy with all kinds of

40:00

stuff this year and we looked

40:02

up and realized when we went

40:04

home to see family in Mississippi

40:06

we had not even been there

40:08

in 2024 we usually make a

40:11

few trips in the summer you

40:13

know see see different people go

40:15

home do different things but just

40:17

being busy with other stuff and

40:19

it was kind of different we're

40:22

like oh we haven't even been

40:24

to Mississippi this year so we

40:26

ended up staying a full week.

40:33

Well we have a lot of people

40:35

that support us on Patreon and we

40:38

sure do appreciate that. They are great

40:40

folks over there helping keep the show

40:42

going and if you want to help

40:44

out it's patreon.com/we built the thing toss

40:47

a couple bucks our way you get

40:49

some parks out of it speaking of

40:51

the coins came in while we were

40:53

gone and they will be going out

40:56

this coming week so we're gonna get

40:58

all that sorted. How do they look?

41:00

I haven't even opened the box. Oh

41:02

man! That's just quite the cliffhanger. Yeah

41:04

it is. I'm sure they look good

41:07

but they came in a couple days

41:09

ago and they just got set aside

41:11

because we just got busy but yeah

41:13

they they took a while it was

41:16

probably because of the time of year

41:18

just shipping and all kinds of stuff

41:20

they ended up not coming in until

41:22

I don't know this past weekend or

41:25

something. So I'll be getting those out.

41:27

Rebecca and I will be just setting

41:29

aside some time to get all those

41:31

things boxed up and shipped out and

41:34

you can look forward to getting those.

41:36

Some of our top patrons are Ray

41:38

Joe Liff, Deo Gloria Woodworks, that's Matthew

41:40

Allen, Henry Luttons at Manfredo Woodins at

41:43

Manfredo Woodwood, Chris Simonton, Maddox Woodworks, Byron's

41:45

custom woodworks, Bruce Clark, Aaron Yelton, Will

41:47

White, and Cody Elkins, the creator of

41:49

the creator of the Jennybitt. So big

41:52

thanks to them and everybody who supports

41:54

us over there, we sure to appreciate

41:56

it, we sure to appreciate it. Well

41:58

this last week was the last time

42:01

that you could get entered to win

42:03

the type bond giveaway. This is part

42:05

of our monthly giveaway that we've been

42:07

doing. Tight bond is giving away a

42:10

$150 gift card so you can just

42:12

go on a shopping spree and buy

42:14

whatever type bond products you need for

42:16

your shop. $150 worth? Yeah, it's really

42:19

nice. And today is when we get

42:21

to pick a winner. So I tallied

42:23

up all of the entries that

42:25

we got and we actually had

42:28

78 unique people. Answer the

42:30

question. And if you

42:32

remember, the question was,

42:34

what method does Drew use

42:36

to hang his tools in

42:39

a shop? And ceiling

42:41

hammocks. Sealing? It was

42:43

actually a really, really

42:45

easy question. Not a

42:47

single person got it wrong.

42:49

So 78 unique people answered

42:51

that question. The answer, of

42:53

course, is French cleats. And

42:55

we had 31 of those

42:57

people be patrons and 47

42:59

of them were non-patrons. Yeah,

43:01

because you don't have to

43:03

be a patron to enter

43:05

the giveaway. That's right. Anybody

43:07

can enter to win. So

43:09

we tallied up all those names

43:12

and once we factored in

43:14

all of the bonus entries

43:17

that patrons get because you

43:19

get a bonus entry if

43:22

you're a patronet. the $2

43:24

level, well then you get

43:26

two extra bonus entries, that

43:29

sort of thing. So once

43:31

we factored all that in,

43:34

there was a total of

43:36

319 entries in this contest,

43:39

I put all the names

43:41

into a random picker

43:43

and the winner for

43:45

the type bond giveaway

43:48

this month is... Nice,

43:51

so congratulations Joshua and hope

43:54

you enjoy that $150

43:56

gift card. That's that's

43:58

pretty sweet I wouldn't

44:01

mind having one of those

44:03

myself. Anyways, this is going

44:05

to bring us into the

44:07

next month, so this is

44:09

going to be January's giveaway,

44:11

and I've been really excited

44:14

to tell the sponsor of

44:16

this giveaway. It is Bessie.

44:18

So Bessie, the, you know,

44:20

just a leading name in

44:22

workshop clamps. Well, they are

44:24

giving away quite a bundle.

44:27

of clamps. They are giving away

44:29

two K-body revos that are 24

44:31

inches long, two K-body revos 40

44:34

inches long, a trigger clamp set

44:36

of four clamps, so two six

44:38

inch trigger clamps, two 12 inch

44:41

trigger clamps, and a set of

44:43

two of their brand new 12

44:45

inch rotating head clamps. quite an

44:48

amazing clamp bundle that they're giving

44:50

away. Those are nice. I got

44:52

some of those 24 inch K

44:55

body revos I guess last year

44:57

a couple years ago. I didn't think I

44:59

would use them as much as I do

45:01

because I was like oh they're only you know

45:03

two feet. I grab them all the

45:05

time. Oh yeah those are the number

45:07

one clamp. Like if you go in

45:10

and look at all of my wall

45:12

of Bessie clamps and you look at

45:14

which clamp has the most glue drips

45:16

on it, it's the 24 inch ones.

45:18

Yeah. So I use them all the

45:20

time. Those are the ones I use

45:22

the most. So we need a

45:24

question for this month. I gotcha.

45:26

I asked you guys yesterday, what

45:28

would be a good question? I

45:31

want something a little bit tougher

45:33

than what we had last month,

45:35

something that is really going to

45:37

make people think, but yet something

45:40

that if they go digging deep

45:42

enough through the shows that they

45:44

could get the answer pretty easily.

45:47

It's unguessable though, right? Couldn't possibly

45:49

guess the answer. Oh, well, actually,

45:51

yeah, you really can. Yeah, you

45:53

can just sort of guess it. You

45:55

got a one in three chance. Yeah,

45:57

so the question for this month is...

46:00

Of the three of us, who

46:02

got a laser in their

46:04

shop first? Of the

46:06

three of us, who got

46:08

a laser in their shop

46:11

first? And as a bonus

46:13

question, give us

46:15

the name of what

46:17

brand that laser was,

46:20

what... brand laser was it?

46:22

So there's your question and you

46:24

can send your answers over to

46:26

we built a thing@gmail.com make sure

46:28

you put the word giveaway in

46:30

the subject line and We'll get

46:32

you entered and again if you're

46:35

a patron of the show Because

46:37

anybody can enter this giveaway and

46:39

win it, but if you're a

46:41

patron you get bonus entries to

46:43

improve your odds of winning So

46:45

there you have it One

46:52

of the gifts that I got for Rebecca

46:54

we'd kind of like you were talking

46:56

about Drew We don't do a whole

46:58

lot of gifts. They're usually just some

47:00

little happy's here and there, but

47:03

one of the things I got her I

47:05

got influenced I think when I was it

47:07

was like a week before Christmas and I

47:09

was just online and saw an ad and

47:11

was like, huh, let me let me click

47:13

on that and see this may be something I

47:16

want to do. So do you know the

47:18

comedian Brian Regan Regan? I probably would

47:20

recognize him. I've got my favorite comedians

47:22

and I know them really well. This

47:24

guy's one of my favorites, one of

47:26

our favorites, but I ended up getting

47:29

her a couple tickets to go see

47:31

that and it was this past weekend.

47:33

So right when we got back in

47:35

town the next day, we went to

47:37

the Lexington Opera House and it was

47:40

hilarious. I mean, he was great. He's

47:42

a hilarious comedian and it was just

47:44

a good time to get away. have

47:46

a have a little getaway a little

47:48

date and she had no idea I

47:50

had Anne Marie make two little

47:53

tickets you know so obviously

47:55

they're just digital yeah and

47:57

so she loves doing crafts

47:59

and making cards and drawing all kinds

48:01

of stuff. So I was like, okay, here's

48:03

the comedian's name, here's the date. You just

48:06

come up with tickets. Here are examples of

48:08

like an admit ticket, you know, and she

48:10

made these cute little tickets. We put them

48:12

in an envelope and had them kind of

48:14

tucked in the Christmas tree. branches at my

48:16

mom's house and I let her open that

48:19

one last and she just had no idea.

48:21

That's awesome. Did she had a great time?

48:23

Yeah it was fun. You know a lot

48:25

of times big big names like that will

48:27

bring along kind of an up and coming

48:30

comedian with him on the road and so

48:32

he had a guy that opened for him

48:34

who was pretty funny and then he came

48:36

out I mean all in all I think

48:38

it was like an hour and a hour

48:41

and a half show so pretty good for

48:43

a comedy show and we enjoyed it.

48:48

What is this beef, Mark? You got

48:51

a beef with us? Doable, yeah, but

48:53

that's not the story. Oh. So, I

48:55

think we did it first time

48:58

last year. One of our neighbors,

49:00

I think it was actually during

49:02

COVID, and you couldn't buy

49:04

things that you wanted to

49:06

buy. He'd had enough of it.

49:08

He went out and bought Angus

49:11

beef, beef, calfs. Hmm. And

49:13

now he's been raising them. and

49:15

he I believe one a year

49:17

he's been butchering one a year

49:19

so sometime last year between Christmas

49:21

and New Year's we went over to

49:24

their house and there was probably 15

49:26

of us working on it kind of

49:28

like four families and we just cut

49:30

up this cow and so we did

49:32

that again this year so what it

49:35

is today Tuesday three or four days

49:37

ago this Saturday this last weekend there

49:39

was beef cutting day and we went

49:42

over to their house and They've

49:44

got this huge heated indoor

49:46

shop and You know, well, there's

49:49

just a whole cow just a

49:51

whole cow hanging there and we

49:53

just start cutting quarters off of

49:55

it cutting chunks off of it

49:57

and it took three hours for

50:00

all of us all hands on deck

50:02

to have everything completely packaged and ready

50:04

to go and in two coolers and

50:06

you know we we paid for our

50:09

pretty much like wholesale share of

50:11

this quarter and got at home

50:13

and put it in the in

50:15

the freezers and you couldn't slide

50:17

a loose jelly bean into any of

50:19

our freezers at this point. It

50:21

is so packed with... That's an

50:23

odd way to describe that. Couldn't

50:25

slide a loose jelly bean. How

50:27

would you describe it? You have

50:29

some loose in your pocket right

50:31

now? Usually. How do you think

50:33

I get all these kids to

50:35

follow me? Wait, that doesn't sound

50:37

right. Yeah, we normally get... I

50:39

think we're on our third cow.

50:41

We've been buying a quarter cow. each

50:43

year and a quarter cow just

50:46

for a family of three usually

50:48

gets us the entire year. How

50:50

much did you get? Well we

50:52

got the quarter, we got a

50:54

whole quarter of it but weight-wise

50:57

we just kind of estimated so

50:59

we kind of brought it in

51:01

the house in totes and we

51:03

counted how many pound burger

51:05

packages fit into a tote and

51:08

then based on that we had

51:10

four totes. And so we figure we

51:12

got about 200 pounds of meat out

51:14

of it. Wow. Wow. That's just unreal,

51:16

isn't it? Right. And I think by

51:18

the time it was all done, we

51:20

paid like right at three or just

51:22

under three dollars a pound. That's

51:24

so cheap. It's so cheap. And

51:26

the quality of the beef is

51:28

going to be so much nicer

51:30

than what you would get at

51:32

the supermarket, which you would end

51:34

up paying three times as much

51:36

for it. Oh yeah. same day

51:38

never frozen you know fresh never

51:40

frozen t-bone and it was just

51:43

unbelievable yeah does it come from

51:45

whatever processor they use already like

51:47

vacuum sealed and ready to put

51:49

away we did it oh there was a

51:51

cow hanging in his barn that was

51:54

the party that was the three-hour

51:56

party with all of us was

51:58

cut him up and process and

52:00

run them through a grinder and wrap

52:02

up the roasts. That's pretty cool. I

52:04

mean, you've got the knowledge of that

52:06

anyway. When we bought that half hog

52:08

from Ryan's dad, there was just a,

52:10

I don't have that knowledge of how

52:12

to take care of a hog like

52:15

that, but there was a local processor

52:17

just up the road from us that

52:19

asked how we wanted everything. You know,

52:21

you want roast, you want some sausage,

52:23

you want this and that. And they

52:25

did it all and vacuum sealed it

52:27

and vacuum sealed it and we were

52:29

ready to it and we were ready

52:31

to throw it in the freezer in

52:33

the freezer. Everybody kind of had their

52:36

station. The guy that actually raised them

52:38

was breaking apart the carcass. He actually

52:40

broke off the biggest chunks. And then

52:42

he'd run it through the band, sorry,

52:44

he'd just slap it on the table

52:46

and say go to town. And I

52:48

was on like the roast, the big

52:50

chunk station where you kind of had

52:52

to identify what it was or where

52:55

it came from or what the... best

52:57

way to break it down was and

52:59

I don't I don't know what I

53:01

can't tell you what steak that is

53:03

I don't know the difference between a

53:05

sirloin and a this or that or

53:07

whatever I can just identify muscle groups

53:09

and break them down and that's pretty

53:11

much what I did and then all

53:13

of the the kids all of the

53:16

youths my my children did not participate

53:18

they went ice fishing they were on

53:20

and they were happy to be there

53:22

on the burger table where it's just

53:24

whatever meat lands on this table you

53:26

chunk up small enough to throw through

53:28

the grinder and you don't have to

53:30

know what you're doing there. So I

53:32

was breaking down big things into roasts

53:34

and steaks and stuff like that and

53:37

it's kind of funny because I didn't

53:39

know. This is the second time touching

53:41

a cow this way. But then afterwards

53:43

they feed us. Everybody's sitting there eating

53:45

sandwiches and everybody brought something to eat

53:47

and one of the last stations was

53:49

wrapping it. the old ladies were doing

53:51

that. And so I'd bring over stacks

53:53

of stuff and set them down and

53:56

they'd wrap them and then we're all

53:58

done and I'm sitting there eating my

54:00

sandwich and one of the old ladies

54:02

and I've never met half of these

54:04

people before she walks over and goes.

54:06

So are you a butcher? Do you

54:08

work in a butcher shop? I was

54:10

like, no. Well then how does your

54:12

stuff look so clean? I've struggled my

54:14

way through a large number of dear

54:17

carcasses. I don't know what I'm doing.

54:19

I just can kind of fake it

54:21

at this point. You know exactly what

54:23

you're doing without knowing exactly what you're

54:25

doing. I know what I want out

54:27

of it. Right now I have about

54:29

16 pounds of venison sitting in the

54:31

dehydrator outside. anxious to hang up on

54:33

you guys and go taste test the

54:36

first batch of jerky out of my

54:38

new dehydrator from Christmas Wow nice are

54:40

you gonna turn any of this beef

54:42

into beef jerky? Not right now we

54:44

have enough venison that we'll go through

54:46

that first and then if we have

54:48

a hanker and for jerky then we'll

54:50

maybe break into some of that but

54:52

we we go through so many beef

54:54

roasts throughout the year that I hate

54:57

to take it away from that makes

54:59

sense a really old-fashioned time that wouldn't

55:01

be a bad idea for more people

55:03

to bring back, you know? Just everybody

55:05

get together and it provides for your

55:07

family and you get to hang out

55:09

with folks and do something useful. Right.

55:11

It's not too many people have a

55:13

place to stash 200 pounds of beef

55:15

though. We filled everything and we're talking

55:18

about how we've we've meant to kind

55:20

of maybe buy a backup freezer for

55:22

just in case something comes up like...

55:24

It happened to be the night before,

55:26

my dad called and said, hey, I

55:28

apparently have a cousin who's got a

55:30

bunch of pigs that the slaughterhouse won't

55:32

buy for this reason or that reason,

55:34

and he just wants them gone. And

55:37

I went, yeah. I can't believe I'm

55:39

turning down a free pig, but I

55:41

have, I can't do anything with it.

55:43

I just can't. Yeah, there's nowhere to

55:45

put it. Right. So if I had

55:47

a spare freezer, I would. You might

55:49

be worth picking up a spare freezer.

55:51

Exactly. That situation I think was pretty

55:53

time sensitive, so it's already passed. Yeah.

55:55

Oh, okay. But yeah. When we moved,

55:58

we had a... deep freeze in our

56:00

it was in our laundry room at

56:02

the previous house so we would just

56:04

which was adjacent to the kitchen we would

56:06

just step in there and get whatever meat

56:08

out for that meal and Rebecca liked how

56:10

handy that was well apparently the new buyer

56:12

liked it enough also that when she put

56:14

in the offer she was like I really

56:16

want you to leave that deep freeze because

56:18

it you know fits that surround that it was

56:20

in and everything so we're thinking okay no

56:23

big deal this is like one less thing

56:25

for you to move buy a new

56:27

one Yeah, and we'll just buy another

56:29

one, you know, is what we thought.

56:31

It was late summer 2021. Well, if

56:34

you remember, nope. That's when, that's when

56:36

everything started, like, supply chain stuff was

56:38

really going weird and prices were going

56:40

weird. And so when we moved here,

56:42

even by October, you couldn't buy one.

56:44

Yeah. Like, I tried to buy one

56:47

at Home Depot and they're like, oh,

56:49

it'll be six months before we even

56:51

have a stock of something. Right. So it

56:53

really freaked me out. Yeah, that's how we

56:55

save a lot of money is buying in

56:57

bulk or doing like you did, you know,

56:59

finding a hog that somebody has and putting

57:01

it away and then we have meat that's

57:04

really good quality that we can put with

57:06

different meals and kind of make stuff stretch.

57:08

But I just remember thinking about that, you

57:10

know, a spare freezer like, yeah, I'll just

57:12

go buy a spare freezer. Well, you couldn't

57:14

then. Right. Yeah. That's what I would like

57:16

to get is an upright freezer. So I would

57:18

like to buy one of those and

57:20

use that and then keep my deep

57:22

my chest freezer as the backup because

57:24

right now yeah that chest freezer there's

57:26

200 pounds of beef on top of

57:29

my venison so if I wanted to

57:31

get to anything for deer I've got

57:33

a lot of work ahead of me

57:35

they're just so hard to organize and

57:37

sift through so that's what we got

57:39

for ours too was an upright freezer

57:41

but One of the things that I

57:43

got, I started to get really nervous

57:45

about, it's like, all right, I have

57:47

$600 worth of meat in his

57:49

freezer. What if we lose power?

57:51

Don't open that door. Right, but

57:54

our little subdivision is known for

57:56

losing power for multiple days,

57:58

probably like two. maybe three times

58:00

a year. And I just was too

58:02

nervous. So I went and I bought a

58:05

generator and I've got four of those

58:07

little 20 gallon propane tanks sitting there

58:09

right next to it just in case

58:11

we lose power so that I can

58:14

run the generator and keep my food

58:16

protected for a number of days. The

58:18

good thing about propane is I don't

58:20

think it goes bad. It can just

58:22

stay in that liquid form. Yeah, I

58:25

think so too. I've got a generator too

58:27

and I figure it. with as much stuff

58:29

as in that freezer once it's frozen it

58:31

will take days for it to thaw out

58:33

so it's kind of like after two

58:35

days of no power I would probably run

58:38

power to the to it from the generator

58:40

and let it run for a day and

58:42

kind of just cycle it off and on

58:44

that way but in the winter time which

58:46

is when we usually lose power if we're

58:49

gonna lose power I will just carry it outside

58:51

oh yeah yeah well that's a thing and

58:53

with us with you and I being in

58:55

the northern as north as we are.

58:57

Right. We got basically six months out

58:59

of the year where we're kind of

59:02

safe. Right. Uh-huh. My sister's building

59:04

a house right now and she's

59:06

engineering something like that. So where

59:08

they're gonna have their upright deep

59:11

freeze, it's on a separate circuit and

59:13

it's actually going to swap if

59:15

they lose power and go directly

59:17

to a generator, they're gonna wire

59:19

it that way. So I was

59:21

like, man, that's pretty cool. Yeah,

59:23

that's a handy feature to have. So

59:28

with all this talk of us

59:30

being, you know, up north, it

59:32

reminded me of a quick little

59:34

anecdote. When I was down in

59:36

Cancun, my wife and I are

59:39

sitting on these chairs on the

59:41

beach underneath some palm

59:43

trees staring out at the

59:45

ocean, and she's reading her

59:47

book, and I'm scrolling on

59:50

my phone, and I said, all right,

59:52

you know what? I think I gotta go

59:54

take a dip in the water. So I

59:56

put my phone down on the table next

59:58

to me, I pull my shirt. off and

1:00:00

I'm looking over at her I stand

1:00:02

up and I'm facing her so my

1:00:04

back is to the ocean and I'm

1:00:06

facing her and I say I'll be

1:00:09

back just for a little bit I'm

1:00:11

just gonna sort of wait in up

1:00:13

to my waist and I don't know

1:00:15

get a feel for it and hang

1:00:17

out there for a little bit cool

1:00:19

off and I don't know like

1:00:21

five minutes or something and she's

1:00:23

like okay yeah that's fine and

1:00:26

then I turned around and there

1:00:28

probably a less than 10

1:00:30

feet away, are two guys

1:00:32

looking at me in full

1:00:34

uniform, masks and sunglasses

1:00:36

covering their face, and each

1:00:38

one is holding an assault

1:00:40

rifle. Whoa. And they're hunting

1:00:43

polar bears or what? They

1:00:45

didn't like you taking your

1:00:47

shirt off. I just froze

1:00:49

and I'm looking at them,

1:00:51

they're looking at me, and

1:00:54

I just sort of slowly

1:00:56

turned around and I looked

1:00:58

at Danny and Danny's looking

1:01:00

at me wide-eyed and I'm

1:01:02

like, what's happening? And I

1:01:05

look back at them and it's

1:01:07

hard to see what expression is on

1:01:09

their face because they're covered with

1:01:11

masks. They have like those.

1:01:13

what do you call them,

1:01:16

like gators or whatever? And

1:01:18

they're black, so they're pulled

1:01:20

up and they have sunglasses

1:01:22

on, so you can't see anything. And

1:01:24

one of them just sort of

1:01:27

gives me an up nod and says,

1:01:29

hola. And I'm like, okay, God,

1:01:31

I hope they're, I hope they're

1:01:33

friendly, you know. So I start

1:01:36

walking towards them. And as I'm

1:01:38

right up there next to him,

1:01:40

he goes, where are you from?

1:01:42

And I'm like, okay,

1:01:45

good, they're friendly. And

1:01:47

I said, ah, the

1:01:50

Ustato Sinidos,

1:01:52

United States.

1:01:54

And he goes, ah,

1:01:56

Tennessee. I was like,

1:01:59

uh, yeah, see. You see? Yeah,

1:02:01

Tennessee's there. But I'm not

1:02:03

in Tennessee. I don't live

1:02:06

in Tennessee. He's like, no

1:02:08

bebo in Tennessee. And he's,

1:02:10

well, where, you know, de d'ondé,

1:02:13

which is like, where are

1:02:15

you from? And I'm like,

1:02:18

well, it's status and needos,

1:02:20

but Norte, which means north,

1:02:23

north, far further north. And

1:02:25

he's like, oh, okay. Canada. He

1:02:27

said it. He's like Canada. Yeah,

1:02:29

pretty much. Might as well. And

1:02:32

I just looked, I looked at

1:02:34

them, I looked at their assault

1:02:37

rifles, and I'm like, see, yep,

1:02:39

that's where I'm from. I'm from

1:02:41

Canada. And then I walked out

1:02:43

and I asked him, I'm like,

1:02:46

are you policia? And they're like,

1:02:48

no, no. And then I noticed

1:02:50

like one of the patches on

1:02:52

their arms is at Gardo Nacional,

1:02:55

which is National Guard. And I'm

1:02:57

like, oh, they're part of the

1:02:59

Mexican National Guard and they're just

1:03:01

kind of patrolling these beaches and

1:03:04

they. and just kind of walk up

1:03:06

and down a couple miles or something

1:03:08

along the beach just keeping the peace

1:03:10

making sure everything is cool and I

1:03:12

was like oh that's and then after

1:03:14

that we started seeing them everywhere like

1:03:16

on road crews construction crews or just

1:03:19

kind of walking the streets the National

1:03:21

Guard was everywhere so I thought it

1:03:23

was kind of neat, but yeah,

1:03:25

man, they're serious, mean looking on

1:03:27

bricks. Started out intense, huh? I

1:03:29

think I would have run up

1:03:31

to see what kind of guns

1:03:33

they were carrying and see if

1:03:36

they had any sharks or sea

1:03:38

turtles I could shoot after. Sea

1:03:40

turtles. Oh man. Well, so glad

1:03:42

you guys had a great Christmas.

1:03:44

Yeah, can you believe tomorrow is

1:03:46

2025? 2025. Maybe this year just

1:03:48

flew right by. So for all

1:03:50

of you guys out there listening,

1:03:52

happy new year to you. And

1:03:55

I sure hope you had a

1:03:57

wonderful Christmas and we will catch

1:03:59

you. Next week.

1:04:01

See you guys.