The challenge of dirt time....

[kgd]

As I see it, there are two things that disway us from getting more dirt time.

The first is the usual distraction/couch potato, my life is too busy excuse. This one affects us all. How many times that you sort of have no plans on the weekend, but it was a hectic week. You log on to W&SS and read some great trip reports, think you are motivated, but in the end you just sit there like mash potatoes and gravy killing time with thoughts of buying a new knife or wacking off to the GoingGear website? Well stop it. JUST STOP IT. Get some dirt time.

Thursday, when your wife hasn't cornered you into an 8 h chore and she ain't dragging you to the inlays, plan an overnighter. Just get out there, stay Friday night and come back Sat. morning. There that wasn't hard was it? Say to the wife, Honey, I'm going to the strip bar, I might be back tonight but don't count on it. Then grab your handful of five dollar bills and instead of going to the strip bar, go to the woods. There you go bliss!

The second detractor is the 'my little area isn't good enough for dirt time'. This is the syndrome where you think nature has to be 800 km away from you. Sure, momma nature's t's are good out that way, but you can make do with what you got right at your door step. Make it happen. I think 2nd reason can be a real dirt time killer. Folks want to plan and plan and plan that ideal get away. They book off like two weeks and then the chances of getting that time killed by unforseen events maximize it. Still, how many dirt time adventures do you miss out on simply because you won't consider something close by because it lacks the 6002 parameters you deem necessary to generate your dirt time paradise? Come on, you can spill in the hands of any gal, she don't have to be Cristy Brinkley....Settle....Settle....Settle.

Thats rule # 2 of dirt time. Get the dirt, it don't have to be no stink'n pristine dirt. Just dirt. Get it under your fingernails. Make it happen. This year, I've made a personal challenge that I'd get out on an overnighter at least once a month. So far I've managed to stay in that realm. Who else is struggling with the dirt time and whats your excuse?

 

[coaldigger]

I said over the winter that this year I was gonna do alot more camping & woods bumming but my Job just don't give me a chance ! I'm a CoalMiner & if any of you guy's know one then you understand. I work for one of the Largest Coal companies in the nation(Massey Energy) & the demand for the Black Gold is HIGH ! They expect us miners to work 6 days a week 10~12 hrs a day...they could care less if we have plans for the weekend, the Big wheels don't work the weekends & only work 8hrs a day so it's easy for them to call & tell the mine foreman to make us work our weekend that we were schedueld off or to run coal an extra hour or two past quit time. Then when we finally do score a weekend off I'm so far behind on my house chores + my boys play sports & they usually have a ball game of some type on the weekends so again....my "Free Time" is far & few between. I don't call it an "excuse" ...I call it Life ! Oh well :0(

 

[tonym]

So Ken, how much have you been drinking tonight???

 

[kgd]

Tony, a little bit but not much by that point. I only notice a few grammar and spelling plus usual colloquialisms in my post
That was my attempt at a motivational speech

 

[barrabas74]

I got dirt time all weekend, doing tree work and planting at my house and my mothers house

Hey I cut wood, practice fire making skills (with the dead wood when I was done) and got dirt under my fingers.

 

[j williams]

Im pretty lucky. Since I only work 2 24 hour shifts a week, and all my boys are in school, I have a ton of time to get in the dirt. Overnighters are hard to pull off though. The wife is an RN, and our schedules have to allign perfectly for it to happen. Which doesnt happen much. I tell ya ken, Bushclass has really gotten me up and out there.

My problem lies in other hobbies. I get into doin leather or working on my canoe, and that eats into woods time.

Busy time of year is always the best time of year to be out....

 

[Rick Marchand]

...Thats rule # 2 of dirt time. Get the dirt, it don't have to be no stink'n pristine dirt. Just dirt. Get it under your fingernails. Make it happen. This year, I've made a personal challenge that I'd get out on an overnighter at least once a month. So far I've managed to stay in that realm. Who else is struggling with the dirt time and whats your excuse?

Listen you prick... Wasn't just this year that your kids finally moved out of the house? (well, mostly, anyway) It's the overnighters that are the problem... and not so much even them. My family would have no problem with me walking out after supper and comming back the next morning. I can walk across the street to a Provincial Park. What I seem to be lacking lately is the opportunity for extended trips. I'm talking more than 3 days. It takes 48hrs for me to finally ease into the woods. 5 days is the minimum of what I would consider a wilderness trip. Mind you, I would take it anyway I could get it. I'm free tonight again Ken.... lets hit the prarie and catch the deer movement at dusk? You sonnamabatch!!!

 

[hollowdweller]

My next true dirt time will be in June unfortunately.

I've been hiking in my woods a lot but this time of year for me is goat milking and kid raising and it is VERY hard to get away from home. Glad I have 80 acres out the back door or I'd be getting no woods time.

 

[sicily02]

Ken, great post. I agree with ya. Just getting out there. You do not have to have the most wild placeses to practice skills and get some dirt time.
I spend my time in a area that is roughly 3/4 of a mile by roughly 1 mile. the little Blue river runs through it and several small creeks and I would not give it up
to have the wild places that some get to go to, once in a while. I get out in my little area 5 to 6 times a week average. even if it just to sit by a fire.

.

Bryan

 

[Hawkeye5]

Good one Bryan.Been sick as a dog and have not been out in two weeks.

Have a good one.
Jeff

 

[sicily02]

Thanks Jeff, I hope you get better soon and are able to get out for some dirt time soon.

Bryan

 

[kgd]

Cool stuff guys. No doubt overnighters are harder for us to swing. Perhaps overnighters shouldn't necessarily equate to dirt time, but getting out even to those hidden little backyard places for a little firecraft can be just is good as well.

Hey Rick, speaking of pricks, hows the blade show prep going? (oh, not only do I get dirt time, I play dirty too )

 

[tknife]

Maybe some of the thrill and pleasure of getting away, is that the time can be hard to come by. When things come too easy, we sometimes appreciate them so much less.

It's only but once or twice a year that I can get to somewhere truly wild, but I am very lucky that I have many hundreds of miles of trail systems that are very close to my house.

I have completely slacked on getting to the gym, but I have made up for it a little by getting in 2 or 3 short hikes, and 1 all day hike in just about every week. Some of the areas I get to have some resources where I can practice a skill or two. And it's always nice getting up off the lower trails just to find some shade and do some whittling and feel like I am in the middle of nowhere :thumbup:

 

[hiwa]

KGD's right. Get off yer butt and get out there. Perfect pristine wilderness is hard to come by for a lot of us. Last year , I discovered this park right here in the city. I can get off the populated path and find some quiet time there. Beats sitting in the backyard. My main playground is 200 clicks away. I'd rather go there but it's not really convenient. This place is like a 15 min. drive , and although it's a city park , there is wildlife there and is a pleasant place to go.
Thanks for the thread !:thumbup:

 

[Alan2442]

i agree with it being hard t get out, but my problem is that i am a shitty academic student and "the man" doesn't like to let me leave post very often. That's all about to change soon though. I have my last exam tomorrow and will have 60 days off starting right after graduation on the 21st of this month.

 

[JV3]

you make it sound so complicated. my excuse for not getting enough dirt time is every friday i toss a 3-sided coin to decide whether i'm hiking, mountain biking, or hitting the strip joints.

okay, i'll be honest - it's hiking/boozing, biking/boozing, or strip joints/boozing - at least all 3 involves dirty stuff the last time i tried to do all 3 on the same weekend i nearly got fired monday morning - whoever said 30's is the new 20's was lying!

 

[KEmSAT-Survival]

What Rick said.
I tried the overnight thing one November, after coming out the next day I thought: "What a gigantic waste of energy. I just hiked better than three miles, not counting the buttload of energy it took me to hike down the side of the mountain to get water and then back up it. Who the hell does this?"
I go to get away and I want to know that I'm getting away for a sufficient amount of time to recharge myself and help me to actually want to see my family and friends again (yes, as much as I love them, I DO get sick of looking at them and hearing problems). That overnight stuff isn't even enough to get the wheels turning and get me out of "everyday office Joe, here comes another quandry, mode."
Besides, it's easy to say: "Shit on my homework, I'm going camping" Right up until you see a goose egg on that final report and then feel like an ass for wasting $1,000. Some of us have responsibilities that come first. Mine happen to be: a job, a wife and two -- soon to be THREE kids, college coursework (almost there, Lord, almost there. March of next year and I'm done!), and a horse business (buying, selling, riding, showing, etc.) that I'm part of. So I already have an overflowing trough, my hobbies come second.
When I make commitments I don't just throw them down and "treat" myself. I get woods time when I can which has been zilch for over a year now, and negative 3 for hunting for going on three years -- and I love hunting.

 

[kgd]

you make it sound so complicated. my excuse for not getting enough dirt time is every friday i toss a 3-sided coin to decide whether i'm hiking, mountain biking, or hitting the strip joints.

okay, i'll be honest - it's hiking/boozing, biking/boozing, or strip joints/boozing - at least all 3 involves dirty stuff the last time i tried to do all 3 on the same weekend i nearly got fired monday morning - whoever said 30's is the new 20's was lying!

thats the right attitude! (30's is the OLD 20's)

 

[adaman04]

My excuse was work. I’ve been at my current job for 4 years and after the first year the economy started slowing. So as extra spending money I took on a good paying part time job working from home. Well as the economy started to recover (in some industries) my regular work got busier and so did my part time. What that left was me working a 12 hour day then coming home and working another 4, and more often than not working 7 days a week.

A week ago I put in my notice with my part time gig. What’s that they say “Don’t spend so much time making a living you forget to make a life….”? Well that’s what I have been doing for 3 years. Time to get my free time back, spend more time for myself, and be a better husband. My wife is no less than thrilled that I’ve getting away this weekend, not just to get me out of the house , but for myself.

So, time for a new excuse, but until then I’m getting out there and making up for all the dirt time I’ve been missing.

See my fellow Hardwoodsman this weekend.

-Adam

 

[BRL]

Good post, was thinking today about this exact thing... getting out more, no matter what. I've been working on my FTS bag (F@#% This S@#$ bag... different than a BOB) so that once in a while I can call Wife near the end of the work day and say something along the lines of "F@#% This S@#$, I'm driving out into the desert to spend the night. See you in the morning." God bless her, she'll let me do it, too.