Raising Values: Summer Camp

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Raising Values podcast where the traditional family talks. You can find us on iTunes, Stitcher and Spotify and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. You can support the Raising Values podcast through Patreon. The Langillian are behind

[00:00:17] the mic and we hope you enjoy the show. Welcome back to Raising Values. Good morning everyone. It's been quite a while. It has been a hot minute. I know we missed two

[00:00:37] shows. I can't remember if we've missed three, but I know we missed two shows. But it's been busy. I think it was only two. But yeah, I don't know. Well, everybody from the Matterfax

[00:00:50] crew knows because a lot of them were there and I don't remember how much we talked about our Raising Values, but like we started two years ago with the Matterfax podcast before this show was even created. We started doing an annual summer camp for the patrons.

[00:01:07] Well, it was in the spring at first. Yeah. We've since moved it from Tornado Alley in the springtime. Morning Ben. So we've moved it to the summer now. That way more of our patrons can... Well, you and Andrew's patrons because Raising Values doesn't have

[00:01:27] any patrons yet, but... I mean, I'm sure there's... I'm sure I know that quite a few of our patrons that originally came and came with us for Matterfax. I know that a lot of them watch

[00:01:39] Raising Values. Yeah, I know no doubt about that. But they originally started with Yall's podcast. So, but we moved it to the summer so that kids who were in school until the first of June, the first week of June, which we get out like the third week

[00:01:56] of May down here, I don't know why. I don't know if it's like... Anyway, that way more more families could come on the camping trip. So we moved it to June and we went to Tennessee this year and we got to see everybody and we had 21 people there

[00:02:11] this year. I tell you what, I look forward to this trip every year and not... I wouldn't even say half of it. I would say like 20% of the anticipation is where we're going and getting to see that part of the country and the rest is getting to

[00:02:32] hang out with our chosen family and just being with these people who come from all walks of life, but we all have this one thing in common and it is that we're all preppers and that we've all decided that that's how we're

[00:02:47] going to care for our family and all that stuff. So, and the crazy thing is we don't even talk about prepping on this trip. Well, but I mean kind of, but it's not a... I don't even feel like that's an accident though. When you and me

[00:03:02] and Andrew sat down with the original concept of this, like we go to prepper camp every year. You and Hyper haven't gone every year, but Andrew and I have gone, I don't know, six years in a row at this point. Morning Kyle. He's been a lot.

[00:03:14] Morning Kyle. And prepper camp is focused around prepper camp. It's focused around the classes and it's focused around bringing in relative newcomers to prepping and give them kind of like a feet wet, full immersion

[00:03:29] experience into this world so they can figure out what parts of it work for them and their families. And when we started talking about doing this, we ran the opposite direction. Like we did not want to do preparedness

[00:03:43] classes. We don't want to do schedules. We don't want all that. My original concept for this and what I have reinforced over and over and over is if this is not an event that you can bring your non-prepper family to, then

[00:03:59] it's no we're not doing it right. The whole point is to what... I'm laughing at the comments. Ben and Kyle are being... Phil is not glowing. Phil is drinking coffee waiting for it to allow me to

[00:04:10] mimic adult human behavior. Yeah, so time out for a second on this episode and what we're talking about. Last night, well, Wednesday, Piper decided that she wanted to have a summer wean party. So it's celebrating Halloween in the

[00:04:25] summer. I'm all for it because Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. So she got in the attic and she... Dad got in the attic. Well, dad got in the attic and she took all of the Halloween decorations and she decorated

[00:04:38] her room and she had a friend over last night and, you know, bags of candy, teenage girls, the Halloween movies. Her friend showed up in a waffle costume. Piper was a ghost. Y'all, it was the coolest experience. It was so fun. We

[00:04:54] watched Halloween movies until 11 o'clock last night and I think they probably had a sugar crash around midnight but how fun this girl is... Piper is just so... I just love her enthusiasm and creativity and so we

[00:05:10] had a Halloween, no, summer wean party last night. So the house was full of, well, teenage girls. So Piper, Phil is glowing but it's not because he's just a radiant beauty. You are a radiant beauty baby. I think it's

[00:05:29] because the sun is shining outside. Yes, we'll go with that Ben. So anyway, now back to the episode. Yeah. So like I was saying, like the whole idea of what started as the spring trip now has turned into summer camp is it has to be

[00:05:46] an event where you can bring your nonprepper spouses and kids to. It has to be something that... We have some that have come camping with us now for three years in a row and they're just not going to get down in a tent

[00:06:02] and sleep on the ground. Right. They prefer like cabins or lodgers or whatever and that's fine but that's why I've always said like this is the trip where we meet everybody where they're at. This is the trip where we bring in

[00:06:15] people who aren't going to rough it to the same degree everybody else will. This is the trip where we make this as like all inclusive as humanly possible so that everyone can come and everyone can bring everybody else. Yeah,

[00:06:28] we always we're always looking for a state park that has cabins, tent pads or a lodge because like Phil said not everyone's on the same level. I didn't want to tent camp not in the summer although we had... The weather was

[00:06:43] gorgeous. Amazing tent camping weather. I even asked Phil it's like do you want to cancel the cabin and get a tent pad and go stay at the campsites but we ended up staying at the lodge. I mean not the lodge the cabin which

[00:06:56] actually worked out because one of the things that we do with prepper camp, I'm not sorry well we do this for prepper camp too but for summer camp is everyone cooks a meal and we're gonna change that because there's so many

[00:07:09] people and there's so many families and then there's just so much food. So what was it? Four of us had cabins and the cabins had a small kitchen but enough that we can cook in the kitchen and everything but I swear those cabins

[00:07:27] weren't big enough for all of us. I mean we were jacked out on... We were staying in these fishermen cabins so part of it was over water and the other well the whole thing was over water. Pretty much the whole thing was over water. And so

[00:07:42] half of the people were out on the porch, the balcony looking over the water doing their thing and then everybody else was inside. I mean it it got so hot in those cabins because there were so many people but I took pictures. It's on...

[00:08:00] it's definitely on our Facebook and Instagram I think pretty sure. Definitely on Instagram and I'll reshare it if not I don't think it's on our Facebook but I took pictures when everyone got there so we all filed in on a Sunday

[00:08:17] various times everybody was getting there, getting there, getting there. Now we see these people usually just twice a year and it's not everybody. Not everybody comes. That comes to proper camp they don't always come to the

[00:08:34] summer camp in vice versa. But to kind of just explain like what this is like it's it's really like going to a family reunion with only the members of your family that you like. Pretty much. It's like you don't get to... You don't have to

[00:08:54] invite the people that you don't like in your family so because everybody has that right? It's not just me. Okay anyway so only the cool kids get invited to the family reunion and we all meet up somewhere and this year it was in Tennessee

[00:09:10] and again gorgeous it was 50s and the 50s at night and 70s during the day and we just had the most amazing time and of course we went on a hike to find a waterfall and boy did we find the waterfall this year. It was a four

[00:09:26] and a half mile hike. 900 feet down into a valley. Yes well we had to go up, down, down and then up again it was crazy and there were some tears and there were some definitely hurt feet and the dogs once we all got back to the cabin the

[00:09:46] dogs all passed out I mean that we had eight dogs on this trip which is always fun too because I'm a dog person so just having all those cuddly babies around was awesome but we did. We did things where we knew we wanted to go on

[00:10:05] this one hike and we went. We got to the end and then we all decided we looked out on the outlook at the waterfall and you could see people down at the bottom and they were all swimming in the waterhole that the

[00:10:16] waterfall had created. I mean this was a huge waterfall and we're all looking at each other going okay well now what and then we look over to the sign that is that's directing us to the the trail that goes down the mountain to the

[00:10:32] waterfall and it's all in caps very strenuous with exclamation point and so we look at each other and we're all like let's do it you want to do it I want

[00:10:44] to do it I don't know if I want to do it let's do it okay we're gonna do it y'all this was this was a hike it was it was crazy it was actually I mean of

[00:10:57] course there was a path but the path was all rocks it was all boulders and you're climbing over and under and around and down and you know it was crazy and then every now and then you get to a stream that has a bridge and it's like flat

[00:11:11] surface but only because they built a bridge and then you're back over and under and around boulders and you're climbing through crevices it was it was such an amazing just adventure down that trek and then you get to the bottom and

[00:11:26] it's like so worth it because now you have this 900 foot I don't know I'm guessing waterfall and the water is beyond cold I mean like painfully cold so I took my shoes and socks off because I was like let me put my ankle in

[00:11:45] this cold water and see you know it'll help you regretted your life I regretted it because my foot hurts so bad so when my leg gets cold my leg that I tore the

[00:11:56] foot off of when it gets cold it it's painful like it gets in your joints and then can't this is why dad did not put his feet in the water and kept his nice

[00:12:06] fluffy warm wool hiking socks and hiking boots on yeah because I took one look at that I was like no that's a it's a big no call me a call me whatever you want no

[00:12:18] so the kids went swimming I don't know how I had a Piper got into her waist and then all of the the kids from Wisconsin who are used to the cold they were swimming like it was just a normal swimming pool and I'm like well for me

[00:12:36] like going under and everything I'm like I can't even stand it on my feet let alone I would not have gotten in and Piper's in like a long sleeve shirt swimsuit whatever it's called rash guard and she was just like she

[00:12:52] turned around at one point in her face was just like this is grueling but I want to be here and I hate this but I love this and then the kids from Georgia you can tell like they eased in and they eased in and finally they got through

[00:13:08] but they're they're always like full of adventure so it was there was really cool I need to circle back through some of these comments I think we already say good morning to Ben Kyle and Joe if not I'm catching you up now Joe I

[00:13:27] see where you said y'all didn't go to the MOF camping trip but Tennessee is a great vacation spot I mean this is our this is our first year doing the summer camp in Tennessee and I think what we've committed to doing is to hopping and

[00:13:41] around to different different locations every year because the whole idea is like part of the reason why we miss so many people at prepper campus because it's all the way over in North Carolina yeah and my thought process was

[00:13:54] if we if we make the summer camp jump around every year go a little further north a little further south whatever we can catch people because then it's closer for them it's gonna like next year we've already started talking about

[00:14:06] going to Michigan I think that's pretty well yeah that's pretty much yet we were going to Michigan it's it's gonna be a two-day drive for us but it's gonna be super convenient for Andrew and for all of our friends in Michigan

[00:14:17] and several of our patrons in Michigan it's gonna be super convenient for our patrons in Wisconsin we have one in Kentucky we have one in Kentucky we have one in Illinois yeah so the idea of hopping hopping it around means that

[00:14:31] some years someone's gonna be like I just can't commit to a two-day drive and then other years someone's gonna be like oh that's like three hours away from me yeah so that's what we're hoping for anyway and we do take into account

[00:14:45] where everyone is from we look at the patrons and they're like okay we have this one here here and here and most of our patrons are in the east you know side of the country so I don't think we would ever do something out West I mean

[00:15:00] in order I would love it I'd love to go to Arizona in order to dwell and the other thing I'm looking at is like I want to try to do these where we have

[00:15:08] someone who can kind of scout the area for us and it so before I would ever say hey let's go over at let's go out west I'd have to have a patron out that direction to like help us track down state parks and like because there's only

[00:15:22] so much we can tell from just researching it online you know I'm saying like I want somebody that's gonna be able to tell me like you trust in my sleuthing skills I don't want to end up in a lake-foss situation where the park

[00:15:35] looked beautiful on the internet but it was mosquito hell when we got there yeah fair point yeah but okay all right gotcha anyway no and Ben no I did not turn the breaker off on the girls last

[00:15:49] night it I don't think they scare that easily I just let them have their fun and I went to bed at midnight because I was zonked Ben asked what state park it

[00:16:01] it was so to the last two years we went to Lake de Grey Lake de Grey in Arkansas which for anybody that hasn't been there it's a absolutely beautiful state park it's it's about a 30 minute drive to hot springs Arkansas which is

[00:16:18] one of my favorite cities in this country and yes that you can go get in the hot springs and go to the bathhouse and all that stuff and it's really beautiful but if you go to Lake de Grey though I definitely recommend the Yurt's the

[00:16:32] Yurt so that's what that's one of the reasons why we kept going back to Lake de Grey the last two years was because the Yurt's are on a little peninsula and so the Matter of Facts crew would rent out all of the Yurt's and

[00:16:45] then there was one of the I think one of the most beautiful legs of you know areas of the campground were right there all right off the peninsula so we were all pretty much right there together but when we all rented out the Yurt's I

[00:17:02] mean it was like a Matter of Facts party on the peninsula yeah it was literally like having it was almost like having a private island because like almost so much fun except for that one family of tourists that decided to come and squad

[00:17:13] you know basically outside of our Yurt yeah anyway but other than them I mean like no one came down there no one drove there's it's a dead end it's like it's a loop through so there's no reason to come down there unless you're down

[00:17:28] there everybody from the Yurt campsites would just come down our way in the morning and basically go home in the evening when they were ready for bed and yeah it was a party the kids could go jump in the lake

[00:17:38] if they wanted the adults could sit on the porch or sit around a fire and goof around I mean it was it was great and this year going to Fall Creek Falls which is where we were this year in Tennessee you know a lot of us opted

[00:17:51] for cabins because Yurt's I don't think were an option at this part but a lot of us opted for cabins and you know my preference is always going to be to go camping because I just I enjoy the camping experience more but I'll be the

[00:18:06] first to admit that when you when you're talking about hosting a bunch of people a cabin makes things a lot nicer you know I'm saying like not only not just that but like we had to make these reservations nine months in advance and

[00:18:20] the problem we were butting up against was the weather turned out to be freaking beautiful but if it hadn't been we would have legitimately been able to cram everybody into one of those cabins to hang out and keep dry and

[00:18:35] you know to do our thing as it turned out we would have been just fine getting and getting a campsite over by like Tommy and Tim and Andrew that would work out just fine but we didn't know that yeah you can't you can't

[00:18:49] you can't anticipate that but anyway okay so I think we're all caught up as far as except hi Nina yep hi Nina as far as like I know I dumped some pictures to the matter of fact Instagram page I know that I'm I don't know I'm

[00:19:12] gonna check right now she either I know for a fact she puts some of them on her personal profile I don't know if they made their way to raising values or not they did not so we will do that right now anywhere so you can go to the

[00:19:28] raising values Instagram and see it's down in the show it's down in the show description I try to make that as easy as I can for y'all cool and if y'all don't know you know how to get it if you're here and you are not familiar

[00:19:41] with the matter of facts podcast then just go on Instagram and search matter of facts podcast and should find it but I feel that I feel like that Venn diagram probably has a lot of crossover so other than the camp other than

[00:20:01] the hike which I'm pretty sure my daughter's gonna put me in the worst nursing home in existence after I forced her to it wasn't I didn't we didn't have to force her to go down the hill it was coming back up the hill that

[00:20:14] turned into the problem yeah and that was when I had I was riding a fine line of suck it up buttercup and I understand your feet hurt you know yeah it was that climb back up was it was rough it wasn't too bad I don't

[00:20:31] think it was too bad I will be the first to admit now owing to doing quite a bit of stupid stuff when I was younger like I have I have injuries to my knees and my

[00:20:41] hip and my back and you know various things and I'll be the first to admit my knees especially my right knee was starting to go like click and pop as I was coming up that hill yeah I got to the point where and I don't know if

[00:20:53] you noticed it normally just for what you know biomechanically we're kind of creatures of habit I always leave with my right foot I started leading with my left whatever I would take a step up well I because if I if I took a step up

[00:21:06] with my right with my right foot yeah I mean I could you get to a certain point and you can just feel the knee like gritting it it was painful yeah I well because of my ankle I have to decide am I going to push up with

[00:21:21] the bad angle and then take a step or am I gonna push up with this other angle and then it's I have to also decide which which foot am I gonna land on when I'm going down mm-hmm so it was really I never ever want to not do

[00:21:40] something because I have an ankle injury like if I think that I can do it I'm gonna go do it and when it said very strenuous in all caps with an exclamation point I thought about it I was like what is very stringy and

[00:21:52] then the people coming up or like and yeah and then there's a woman who stopped us and she's was don't feel bad about taking as many breaks as you can and so I'm like okay what am I about to get myself into like I physically I think I

[00:22:07] can do this but it's my ankle gonna be okay to do this and I can tell you I remember Caroline was like we were all sitting around at once we got to the

[00:22:18] bottom and I was like this was so worth it this was so so worth it and she goes wait until you have to go back up and then tell me if it was worth it

[00:22:26] and so we got back up and she goes well was it worth and I said absolutely I don't think I would do it again but it was totally worth it yeah so we did that

[00:22:36] hike I saw Kyle just queued in that he played through the pain after that we did a cavern tour which after after the experience of the string the strenuous in all caps and exclamation points we we went to the cavern and we

[00:22:53] opted for the easiest least strenuous tour they had because there is somewhere apparently you're basically spelunking and I veto that immediately I'm like no I want easy nice picture opportunities you know I ain't looking to kill myself

[00:23:11] two days in a row yeah so he didn't want to crawl over rocks again and boulders no so we did we did a cavern tour do you remember the name of the cavern was no you talk I'm gonna look I know I've got that I talk I don't

[00:23:26] know what I'm gonna talk about no so we did the cavern tours and it was only a 45 minute but I was already hurting Kyle I know you were hurting I know that it was we did the the least strenuous Cumberland caverns Cumberland caverns nice

[00:23:46] it was nice it was fun I mean it's like every other cave tour you go into you see the stalactites and stalagmites and the history of how it you know how it was found and all that other stuff but it was just a nice little break because

[00:24:01] in Louisiana we don't have caves and if we do they're full of water but we don't have caves would have waterfalls either waterfall so when we do these things we really want to see it which is gonna be really fun next year when we go

[00:24:14] to Michigan because the the camping trip itself is gonna be about a five or six days so because it's so far we're gonna try to make it worth every everyone's drive at least for us it's a two-day trip and you know five or six days

[00:24:32] together and then go home but the Ravallais are gonna be staying an extra week with Andrew to really see Michigan because when will we get back up there I mean it's not like we're gonna be like hey let's go to Michigan this weekend

[00:24:45] yeah that and we don't fly anywhere I there are reasons for that I don't I well first of all understand that like I get phenomenally and intensely sick and me flying basically requires that I be sedated or I'm just I'm gonna be

[00:25:05] miserable the entire flight on top of the fact that everything about flying to me it's just like this litany of you can't take this can't take this gotta leave this at home you get it you know and I would just I would always rather like

[00:25:22] Gillian I have talked about this if I have my pick for a vacation let me load with the back of the truck with 600 pounds of camping gear and let me just go

[00:25:29] out into the woods and I'm happy as a hog and slob but if I have to fly there I mean I would happily drive two days to get to Michigan rather than fly not

[00:25:41] even so I think the drive is part of the vacation too although I I don't mind flying you don't I don't I don't mind flying I did I used to work in aviation and I despise Holly said that if we do go to Michigan which we are

[00:25:58] that her and h you're gonna fly up there and meet Kyle and Kyle's gonna drive and pick her up from the airport so there you go Kyle now you know weird silence oh no I'm just I'm reading multiple comments I know there are a lot of

[00:26:23] comments so Joe said that if he goes into a cave he expects to fight goblins and find dragons at the bottom in gold and lots of gold I always expect that too it never happens ever happens we also put our hand for my for my girlfriends

[00:26:38] that read books or watch shows there was a there was a really big boulder that was just standing straight up and we all went up and put our hands on it like we were gonna go through and find Jamie from Outlander there was no Jamie

[00:26:57] there was no Outlander there was no dragons or gold but we had a good time and then Kyle said we should all go to Michigan in a convoy that's not a bad idea meet up somewhere I don't know I don't like convoying no offense anybody

[00:27:16] true I mean you're talking to the guy here who confided through Iraq well my my issue is with convoying is that the amount of to not leave anybody behind it requires everyone have a very fixed schedule and yeah if you if somebody has

[00:27:34] to take a pee the whole convoy's got to get off the road like my experience with convoying is that yeah it gets to the point where I would rather just say this is where we're meeting up see all there that way everybody can plan their

[00:27:48] own trip and take their own time and if I have to jump off the road because somebody needs a Celsius in a bathroom break it's not the whole convoy has to get off the road together yeah because we all know that's gonna happen yeah

[00:28:00] multiple times so anyway so no yes Kyle if I hear what you're saying no no con boys because especially with children with especially with women and children there is zero opportunity to make like three to five vehicles stay

[00:28:18] together on the road without four extras trips for tiny bladders anyway I'm right it's always the women and children it's always the women and children you want to know how many you want to know how many stops I make going to prepper

[00:28:37] camp when it's just me no anyway so that was our trip to Tennessee getting to see our chosen family next trip is prepper camp which I don't know if you can still buy tickets I think you can tickets tickets are still available campsites

[00:28:57] are going to be a hat trick at this point I don't think there's anything left I think you're gonna have to an Airbnb that's close I don't know if there's really any hotels that are close your so you're only your only hope at

[00:29:11] this stage bear in mind that prepper camp is only a couple months away your yeah your only hope of being able to stay at at Orchard Lake would be in tent city which is the unimproved campsites where you bring in your own food your own water

[00:29:28] your own power your own toilets you bring you you rough it and if that's your bag then have fun with that I wouldn't mind that my wife and daughter would absolutely flip their lid if they had to pee and to use water bottles so yeah

[00:29:47] so anyway so prepper camp is coming up that's the next big trip and then if you're a patron will once Andrew and I figure out where exactly we're going in Michigan for June we have a couple of months to figure that out and then like

[00:30:04] semi-tenorary I know that there is talk about meeting up with Trek for a day and doing what does he do so Trek is the owner of the Michigan Defensive Farms Institute MDFI there we actually had them on matter of facts very recently with

[00:30:22] Kirk Kulick and you got to check that episode yeah that was all that was that was hard that was hard for me to listen to as the interviewer like it anyway but so yeah Trek's been I mean his prior service military he's been in

[00:30:40] law enforcement he's been a Farms instructor he's he's a man of many talents but he basically told me he said if you're in Michigan you have to stop by and say hi before you leave so I flirted with the idea and we're

[00:30:58] really waiting on like a location and dates to line up once we have that solidified I can get a trek but I talked to Trek about the possibility of maybe a private range day for those was that come up there maybe private class maybe

[00:31:13] if nothing if we can't arrange any that literally will just go bomb you know bomb him and his wife at their property and hang around with him for a couple hours but you know kind of one thing in front of the other we got to

[00:31:24] figure out where we're going dates lock it in and then I can start looking at extracurricular activities but I know that Trek wants us stopping at CM I suspect I haven't talked to him about in a while but I'd be shocked if Uncle Randy

[00:31:38] didn't want us to give him like yeah we got to go see Uncle Randy and Andorra's and you know there they they will be there at some point I hope and I'm sure that they will be there at some point especially if Andrew has

[00:31:52] anything to say about it so what she does so but at the end of the day like we have a couple of people that we want to see while we're up there and other than

[00:32:03] that I suspect that the 2025 matter fact or a matter of fact summer camp is going to be a lot like the former ones like it's it's always a come as you are run with your brung do this at your level of comfort no expectations no

[00:32:21] schedules no obligations if you want to just hang around the campfire for a day then do that and if you want to go into town go do that and if you want to go on

[00:32:32] a four and a half mile hike go do that but it's always been everyone is invited to come and like spend that time together more than anything else just for the just for the pure fact of like you said like this this feels

[00:32:47] like our chosen family it's our tribe yeah this is a bunch of good I like that this is a bunch of very like-minded people who the intention of doing this was always like I feel like you can get most of us that are you know have been around

[00:33:02] the matter of facts podcast for several years you could get most of us into a room and we get along pretty well because we have some shared ideas and interest but the idea of this was always I wanted event I could bring

[00:33:14] my wife and daughter to and you can bring your spouse and kids to and then we can get these families to come together in a way that's just more difficult to prepper camp yeah and not that not that prepper camps not a

[00:33:27] family-friendly environment yeah it's definitely is but it's more of a it's a more of a work trip for us and there you know you go to classes and you don't have to go to all the classes at prepper camp you can decide

[00:33:41] what you want to do and our tribe is usually up on the hill altogether at some point and so if you're not in the class you're up on the hill with everybody either eat lunch you know there's all sorts of things and so we

[00:33:55] kind of took that we kind of took what we did at prepper camp and converted it a little bit into what we do at our summer camp made its own thing yeah and it works out because we're all on a signal chat together and so Tommy might

[00:34:14] put in the group hey the benefits are doing this today well we're gonna meet up at the nature center at 10 o'clock and then you get thumbs up hey we'll be there we'll meet you there and then you get somebody else that says I'll be

[00:34:25] doing this today at 10 o'clock so if you want to do this and then I might text back and say I was hitting my butt on the patio reading my book at 10 o'clock so see y'all at lunch or whatever and there's no pressure there's

[00:34:38] no hard feelings there's nothing and but what normally how it works out is we usually do all the things together we don't want to miss out on the time together because not everybody's gonna be there for the entire trip you know

[00:34:52] Tommy and the boys had to leave early so we missed a day with them and then the not to get into like female male dynamic but the female dynamic at the summer camp is different I think than it is at prepper camp I feel like the

[00:35:11] girls the women who come to prepper camp I have we've bonded we've like got this friendship together I mean we have a book club now we have a book club which is I mean that's that's something fun that has come out of our summer camps

[00:35:32] and so I talked to these women not every day not even every week but we at least talk on a regular basis throughout the year and then when we get to see each other in person it's it's just like you know going home to your sister to

[00:35:47] see them and then our kids grow up together Piper and Tess which is Josh's daughter met three years ago I think one was in third grade and one was in fourth grade I think that's the age that they were they talk throughout the year they

[00:36:06] like text message and all that stuff throughout the year and so when Tess got there it was like sisters reuniting and it was well let me tell you about this and oh my god let me show you this this you know gif or let me show

[00:36:20] you this whatever it's it's just very enduring it's very sweet and it's nice to see the families come together and I think not that I think I know that with this group of people and even the group of people at prepper camp that if

[00:36:34] something popped off or we needed something or prayers or whatever those people are always going to be there not to say that our families won't but we know that we can count on those people you know and I even think that

[00:36:49] some of those people even though they live you know across the country would get in their cars or on a plane if they needed to to come help I know we would well I mean I I know thinking back to like hurricane Ida we had several we

[00:37:04] had several people who were once once the cell phone came back alive and my phone exploded from a combination of Facebook message your signal and text messages yeah I mean we had several several people not even just the people

[00:37:20] that like we camp with every year but like just random matter of fact listeners who were like hey I'm like three hours away from you do you need any help hey I'm I'm we had some people that were over in slide L which is 25 miles away

[00:37:35] from us and they got hit almost as bad as we did but they were still reaching out be like hey I know you're closer to the eyewall than I was are you okay so I think I think the interesting thing about doing this as

[00:37:49] a stand load event separate from prepper camp is that it's given us an opportunity to it's given us an op it's given us an opportunity to meet everyone face-to-face and build some relationships and some bonds but the

[00:38:03] other thing I always enjoy is the fact that like once Kyle's wife said out loud while y'all are really normal which I took is like the greatest compliment on earth but it didn't get said by Josh's wife while we were out

[00:38:19] there but I could I could I could just tell she seemed like you know she was a little tiny bit apprehensive when she first showed up and then by the time we were leaving she her guard was down she was just okay these are these

[00:38:31] are okay people I mean we're weird oh we're weird as hell but we're okay but I guess my point is like I I enjoy doing this because it gives it gives me an opportunity to kind of like let our guard down and show other people who are

[00:38:49] really kind of being brought along by their spouses who are more in who are into preparedness like hey these aren't crazy weird people like the way I prepare is not that much different from the way they prepare like I think I

[00:39:02] think it's another opportunity to break down those stereotypes of what a prepper is or what preparedness is and show people this isn't weird stuff like we're not living in bunkers eating MREs we don't that ain't the way this works

[00:39:17] I mean I got cheese day and ready to if we need to but well you know just sidebar story but like years ago I went to prepper camp and one of our one of our friends when he brought some bear that he had harvested and he

[00:39:31] we were eating ground bear and bear steak and all kind of stuff all weekend because it's a bear it's a big animal a lot of meat and I came back to work and I was telling people like yeah I had bear steak for the first time and they

[00:39:42] looked at me like I thought you went to prepper camp like wouldn't you be in MREs and Bryson beans and stuff like that and I'm like well it's not the apocalypse yet you know have to practice for that I mean I've got

[00:39:55] this stuff I know how to cook it but it doesn't mean we have to live like that today like we can we can enjoy life for a while and just be ready for

[00:40:02] things to go to hell but I think that this is an important part of like the outreach side of this podcast is to show people we're normal you know I don't know if I would say I'm normal I think I think everyone's a little weird in

[00:40:20] their own way personally okay I don't think we're normal I'm sorry anyway anyway so never mind we're not normal now I'm gonna show her how weird I really am the summer camp is for patrons only or invite

[00:40:54] box anyway the summer camp is for patrons only if not I know I know Joe giggle so it's I don't even know what's funny you good patrons only or special invite and I'm assuming that my producer here has put the the link to become a

[00:41:17] patron a nine-hundred sure okay if not you can let us know it's on it's on the website show notes it's in the show notes every time I was saying I was thinking that it was in the show notes everything's in the show notes so the

[00:41:34] information for the June trip next June trip the next one in Michigan will probably come out I would say around October maybe October support the show yeah merch and then Amazon and patreon so if you want to get in on that trip you

[00:41:53] gotta be a patron or you got a you know be a special friend special yeah and special to put a pin on what special friend is if we've met you in person like you've come to prepper camp with us before yeah we'll largely

[00:42:08] grandfather exclusive club well and I'll have to do a shot to get in and I'll also say that cactus juice all the hosts from prepper broadcasting network they all have an open invitation yeah absolutely they haven't for various

[00:42:23] reasons yeah but James well but James did James did say James is watching yeah James did say next year he would try to make it a point to go although I don't know if he realized we're gonna be in Michigan next year so that might color

[00:42:36] his response yeah we'll see but we'll see them all prepper camp regardless yeah one quick thing Kyle commented he said Harrison ain't a prepper Harrison's his son Harrison may not be a prepper Kyle but Harrison is going to

[00:42:53] save us all because he is so damn smart at what six seven so he's gonna figure it out we're not even gonna need bunkers because Harrison's going to create something to get us off this world and out of harm's way so we're gonna keep

[00:43:11] Harrison around even though he's not into stocking food and ammo and all that stuff yet at seven six or seven we're gonna keep your astrophysicist around for quite some time I will say though for those of you who have like prepper

[00:43:29] non-prepper spouses and children that doesn't mean stop teaching them the lessons sooner later that's gonna penetrate that also doesn't mean that they're not invited to something like this but it took three years for Beth to

[00:43:49] come and the rest of the family to come it took how many years before you came to prepper camp it took three or four years before I went to prepper camp so

[00:43:58] and then I feel like once you take a bite out of it you're kind of like hooked so to be fair I mean I was very very deep in a preparedness and doing this podcast for several years before you finally broke down over like okay well so every

[00:44:17] time you went to prepper camp and you came home and you told us about everything that was going on I would get like young girl jealous like I cannot believe I miss this I'm so jealous of you like mad jealous because I didn't go to

[00:44:33] prepper because she didn't go even though I invited her I was invited I know multiple times I know I know won't make that mistake again I didn't get to go last year but that was not of my I was still very upset last year because I

[00:44:48] didn't get to go but anyway so that's it that was our trip I am gonna post pictures on our Instagram I don't know how many people follow Instagram I'm really really bad about posting to Instagram I am also really bad about

[00:45:04] not telling y'all when we're not gonna have a show I do appreciate y'all constantly coming on and at least checking to see if we're going to be on on Sundays or listening to the podcast on rewind or however you want to

[00:45:20] call it so whenever it comes out on Tuesdays but I'm really bad about that so I apologize again but I will go post some pictures on our Instagram feed and let you see this waterfall and the people and the community that we have

[00:45:37] built in the meteor oh in the meteor that was a that was a me you and Andrew and Piper thing it's on the last day but I will I'll post a picture of the

[00:45:46] meteor that we saw it was pretty awesome so yeah so anything else no I think that's it I mean we talked about me and Andrew talked about this very briefly on matter-of-fact podcast a week ago I feel like yeah y'all did a really quick

[00:46:01] regroup yeah but to be fair that was the day after we got home and me and him were still just like all the color drain of our face totally beat from the road like it wasn't this animated put it that way well no because I

[00:46:15] wasn't on there anyway well I hope y'all have a great rest of your weekend thank y'all for tuning in today and I am pretty sure that we'll be here next Sunday yeah I expect so should be we should be but don't have any more

[00:46:32] trips planned for a few weeks no but I will be here with a new tattoo next Sunday anyway alright so y'all have a great rest of your Sunday rest your weekend have a good week and we'll see y'all next week bye everybody bye y'all