Can you believe, it's been a year. Visiting my old Stomping Grounds - Bacon on the Fire - Saying Bye

Hey guys, today is a special day. As you can probably hear behind me, there's cars driving by. I'm certainly not up at home. If you look around me, this might look familiar to you. If you've watched my videos for a long time, this definitely will look familiar to you. So I drove down to Windsor last night, used to live down here obviously and I've come to the place Where my buddy Scout, my old dog Scout and I cut our teeth. We lived here for so long We kept coming here for so long. We built shelters out here, did plenty of overnighters out here Learned a lot of skills out here, shot a lot of videos out here Basically made my channel out here I made the about seven hour drive through the states here yesterday to shoot this video because it's been a year since Scout passed on and I miss that dog dearly still still get all worked up over it I thought what a what a better way to honor his memory than to come down to our old stomping grounds and spread some of his ashes around so that's what we're gonna do today we're gonna basically recreate an old Scout and Joe video this is the exact tree that we used to cross the ditch on together I would cross it and then Scout would walk across the the log behind me. That dog followed me wherever, he loved me, man. I love that dog so much. Let's see if this, I haven't been back here in years. Let's see if this old tree, this old log is still sturdy enough to carry my weight. I got my camera, I got a backpack, so we don't wanna dump in the water, that's for sure. We're gonna go in the woods and cut some wood, cook up some bacon like Scout and I used to all the time. I'll show you our old, I have my old tarp I used to set up with him too. I'll show you our old shelter location, if it's still there. I tore the shelter down, but I'm sure the location's still there. And, yeah, this will be nostalgic. Let's cross this log. Cross your fingers, too. Oh, man, it looks slick. I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I don't know if I have my balance. Oh, man, I really don't want to fall in here. Oh, man, this is so sketchy. If I go in. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. I almost went in. Woo! Oh, okay. Okay. Maybe I need a pole. I think I'm going to get a pole for help. Sketchpad McGee. Cross it quickly, let's just try and cross it quickly. Obstacles, some ice, okay, okay, we got this, folks. We got this, okay, I did it, I did it! Oh man, sketchy, sketchy situation. And Scout used to walk on that behind me, what a good dog. Sometimes he would jump in, sometimes he would break through the ice. Sometimes this would be rushing so hard from heavy rains and snow melt and stuff, he would jump in and get swept away and have to fight the current. He would always do it. He's a strong swimmer, a strong dog. Okay, I've got to get up this mud incline now. Oh, man. Getting out of here should be lots of fun. Being here and seeing all this just makes me remember Scout so much. I can vividly see myself walking through here and him behind me, his tracks behind mine, when there's corn in this field, when it's empty. I can really see him right now. I really can. Oh, man, I miss you, buddy. You can really tell I'm down south, eh? Up north up where I live right now up home. We're getting dumped on with a snowstorm. It's like negative 10 Celsius here It rained last night, and it's like positive 5 Celsius. Oh, man It's crazy crazy how time changes things guys it really is my sunglasses out here I wore my old toque for nostalgic reasons as well that gets me right in the feels Someone's been walking here with their doggy Awww, these woods are special to me, not only did I cut my teeth here and spend a lot of the time I spent with Scout alone here, but I also did some over nighters here with many different people. Mike, Doug, my brother, Emerald, Will, my buddy Brendan, I'm sure there's other people. Oh Brian, my friend Brian, this is who I found out about this place with my friend Brian and I grew up in Windsor and we were both both made for the outdoors found found a little patch we could find and made it our own and this is that so this this these woods have just all hardwood ash maple oak beech ironwood pop hornbeam musclewood elm hickory butternut tons of wood in here tons of hardwood in here red oak my favorite wood this is home guys this is home to me oh man I forgot about these massive vines too you can climb these feel like a kid again my shelter was attached to this tree here and there was one there that fell out or that ripped out of the ground line when I emptied it when I tore it down if you listen can you hear all the the trucks and the noise in the background that's something I don't miss not at all yeah anyways this is my old shelter cut piece of wood here too all over the place actually that was part of my bench holding up my bench there's a very strong smell of manure as well something I had forgot about okay well I did have a secondary shelter and it's just over here and I tore that one down too but I see someone has built something up in its place so let's go check it out then we'll get a little fire going maybe we'll hike to a fallen log and sit down oh my buddy Tony who passed away carved his initial yes there's a T forgot all about that spent time out here with my buddy tony the best man at my wedding unfortunately passed away like seven years ago or so um just a great guy i'll come out here with him and hang out with him here too i miss that dude i miss that dude a lot best man at my wedding guys it was rough gotta take care of yourselves and tell people you love them all right check this out this is uh this is ugly this is very imposing i'm not trying to be like pointing the fingers and stuff but leaving this kind of stuff out here propane tanks and stuff not it's not a good look oh yeah tons of garbage unfortunate thing is is that they might have been influenced by me to be honest with you I'm not oblivious to that at all I do try to practice what you're supposed to be doing in the woods and stuff but anyways let's go find a log to sit down on build a little fire and pay tribute to Scout oh man just thing after thing this tree here he would always chase raccoons at this is old raccoon tree he would uh he would always freak out and smell smelling it sticking his nose in the cavities oh man this is such a memory like overall good orange look at orange too can you pay my grills all right and a saw you gotta love this axe pocket especially for this little guy all right off to find some wood so this is super fitting this is my favorite wood a red oak this is the type of wood that scout and i used to use all the time to cook our bacon on and there's something extra i can show you with it now if you're a true og joe rob fan you'll know so this is bark off of a red oak right not a birch definitely not a birch 100% hardwood red oak okay remember about the bark we'll come back to it back to it quick for those who don't know red oak is a super dense hardwood very very good quality firewood gives off a pretty good smell and taste as well for a long time we're going to be cooking up some bacon so i imagine cut a few more pieces like that that'll be enough for me i'll gather some twigs you know what i'll cut some thinner pieces to go down as a base beforehand that's silky to use hopefully my camera is not messed up the leaves out of the way not used to having to deal with leaves all snow there you go good platform goes in the pocket i had someone argue with me that they've never heard it called axe mask before that's not me just saying that that is a thing right Axe mask you've heard that before right technique with this small axe is everything I'm not gonna try to chop down a big tree with it, but for splitting things like this beats a baton any day Barely any effort just kind of pop and pry pop and pry give the old pop sometimes You got a pop pop you know, but also I wouldn't try splitting like this either There's no point which it works obviously, but a little bit more precarious. I might fall, be careful that way too You could also do one of these, no real point. I'll leave some big But it is hardwood, so it will burn for a long time. Let's go gather some twigs, too. Oh, yeah, that's bone dry. Look at that. Wow, that's perfect. Perfect kindling at first stage. Wow, I can't believe how dry that is laying down like that. Usually stuff laying down is not super bone dry. Okay, this is probably plenty. Cool, cool, cool. Bundle of sticks. Bundle of sticks. Remember the bark? Remember the bark? Save the bark. I do not have a fire steel with me. And I wish I did to show you the even more functionality of it, but I don't. So you'll have to take my word for it. This is that red oak bark, right? Now, it has resins in it. I found this out on my own. That's simulated birch bark that will keep a black flame burning for a while. So I'll be able to get this going with just this little bit of bark. It's not that impressive with the lighter, but with the fire steel it is. And it works. I swear it works with fire steel. So we'll... Oh, the wind's kicking up. Wow. Oh, wow. Oh my goodness. Okay. So again, you have to take my word for it with a fire steel But you can see it's going pretty good, right? It's burning pretty viciously with some black smoke now Obviously, it's not as efficient as birch bark, but it is super useful in the hardwoods environment. It'll go, I'm sure of it I'm not gonna cut the camera just so you can see exactly what I mean. I don't want any sleight of hand comments. So it's gone. I'm going to start adding more. You don't want to be one stick in it, right? Right, folks? No one stick in it? Again, we'll leave it going. It might be boring for a second, but I'm going to let it go. I just want to prove to you how good of a fire starter that is. I hear a dog. I hear a dog barking. The joys of going outside in urban environments up north where I am. I don't ever have to worry about seeing people. I'm not worried about it here either. It's just, it might happen. that's okay i'm fine with that okay it is still flamed up i'll bring the camera around and show you i might have to give it some air a little bit of air but you can see flame in there right one breath okay two and it's pretty good now smoky as all get out wow there's a lot of moisture in this as you can see but she'll make some coals no doubt about that the most precious cargo i have i'm sure some of you know the feeling and not just for dogs for other for family members but I can't describe what it felt like to scoop these ashes out of their bigger pot into this thing. It felt so bad, so weird. I just, it was weird. Anyways, I'm happy to have them here. I know he would want to be scattered here. And then I got a couple other places that were special to us. One up near my house that I want to do it to. I got a lot of them. He was a... I have enough ashes to go around. Let's do it. I'm going to put some in the fire because we always had fires together. he caught his tail on fire more than once so here buddy we actually camped out probably right here right here because i knew that tree in this opening so i'll put some here too i think goodbye buddy miss you oh i don't like this ah i can't begin to thank you guys enough for uh what you allowed scout and i to become what you allowed us to do the support that you showed for scout and for me and i know he was not just my dog i know he was all of ours he was special we miss him really bad about emmy she she has a picture in her room of him and every now and then we'll just go in there and she'll be in there crying and holding the picture and it's like he was her big brother he protected her from an american bulldog attack he was there when she came home he was there when autumn came home from the hospital huge part of our lives for so long it's really hard to grasp that he's gone something died inside me when he went i know it i feel so different gotta hide it not think about it it was just a dog I get it like I needed him it's exactly everything that I needed well at that time it's like a phase in my life that it's done now I'm not ready for it to be done can't believe it's been a year sorry I'll stop I don't want this to be a sad video I want this to be a memorial video for him so I'll stop get this bacon on here real soon get up there I can make a tea as well get a tea made up I've got my um scout pendant that someone commissioned for me to be made they made this a couple years ago it used to have more paint on it but it accidentally got washed I wore it today for scooter thank you for whoever made this or got this made if you're still watching my channel I appreciate it it reminds me of him here so it's close to me Will got me some uh of his ashes in a pendant that I carry uh I keep in my car around my rear view mirror as well so he's always always with me we would always make extra for scout we would always share it and i'm trying to keep that up with trip or two he's no scout you know no scout all right we got four pieces on there we'll start with four that might be enough for old joe we're getting there keeps flaming up every now and then from the bacon grease but that's to be expected that piece looks good, look at the sizzle on that so we'll switch this one and this one out then this one's cooking much better, oh boy be nice and smoky that's for sure split up some other little small pieces to put on when my bacon's done so i can have a little fire going while i eat it's pretty nice out sun's coming out i feel so comfortable in these woods this is like my home guys i really do like i'm not joking when i say i cut my teeth here all hardwoods all the time look at big squirrel nest up there big black squirrel nest gray squirrel this big beech has been standing for a long time it's had this yellow spray paint on it for a long time too and a bunch of carvings but check it out this limb that fell off and this piece that fell off of it must have happened recently because there's dirt on the snow but look at this piece had multiple nails nailed into it over the years i don't know what that is maybe a step but anyways goes to show you i'm sure that's why that died and fall fell off fell off why she died and fell off there's like oh yeah even here oh man i love a hardwood forest again that's something i took for granted I'm sure having this my whole life and then been moving away there's advantages and disadvantages of both right where i am now is probably i the most ideal it's a Great Lakes region not here but where i live now Great Lakes region hardwood and soft it's probably ideal somewhere up where i go camping like woodland caribou is boreal boreal so it's jack pine and uh black spruce mainly all right these got to be done oh not quite but getting there there's a little juicy fatty parts on the end still sun is nice though i'll tell you that much difference it makes shining down on me bud get my teabag out what am i gonna have hotel room orange pico or hotel room orange pico i think i'll have the orange pico it's decaffeinated that's a bonus i think so i have a few videos in the queue right now which is good because i was slacked off there for that month or so so i need to get back in the swing of things and i am i'm happy to do it i'm happy to have you guys along for the ride again still not again still i'll pour one out for my homie scout not much more to this day for me or video out here reflect on my friend Scout on some of fun adventures we had together some of our learning experiences and then i'm going to get out of here and drive north i don't know if i'll get there all day all today i might stop in London i'm not sure i don't know what's going on but regardless i don't have to go until Friday i got a few days off a few days away from the family spending it making videos and remembering Scout use of my time so you guys are somewhat new or haven't watched them i would suggest going back like far far far in my video history and checking out some of the videos from this area with Scout we used to just come in for the day a lot of them just had music over top of them we just come in for the day and do exactly what we're doing now this is why i wanted to do this bring in a grill bring in some bacon find a nice spot to sit down relax like i said i feel so comfortable in these woods these are my woods i feel at home here just relax this is what we used to do for fun this is what we used to do before it was my job this is what we used to do man we used to like honestly like i would go to work all week on a Sunday a Saturday i would spend with the family on Sunday I would beg to go out not that I ever had to beg but I feel bad about leaving but go out with the dog for a few hours and this is what we would do again it's crazy man how time changes things I'm telling you guys I'm telling you you realize that the more older the older you get it's just everybody always says it to you but time flies man you got to appreciate what you have there's a red hawk up there somewhere calling out he keeps screaming I'm happy to have come out here I'm happy to have seen my old stomping grounds once again to have come and honored Scout's memory Put more closure on that. It was a good day. You know, the sun came out for a while There's a Redhawk screaming above got to see all the good spots Scout used to be at Spread his ashes the whole bacon vibe. It was a good day. I feel good about it. Feel good I'm glad I did it. Hope you guys hope you guys are glad I did it too Hope you guys stuck with me and you know, I mean, I know like I said, I know he wasn't just my dog for sure was my dog but everybody everybody had a vested interest in him for so very long the videos the responses the emails everything in response to his passing just blew me away showed me i never even understood how much people cared about him it really showed me it made it all that more special so thank you for being a part of his life and everything you've done like i said earlier allowing what you've allowed us to do onward and upward to better things hopefully tripper becomes somewhat of a scout in the future i know people are starting to like him already he's all right but be on the lookout for more videos very soon um i'll be in Canucopia i'll be in Madison Wisconsin at Canucopia if you want to come meet me google Canucopia copia and you'll find out the dates and the times exactly where it's at i'll be there all three days giving a lecture all three days and then again i'll be at Woods Con in august it's the first of its kind so go google Woods Con if you want to find out dates and specifics and stuff i will be there uh Amber Harris Grove i believe is her name from Taken and Afraid will be there zach fowler will be there and Hardcore Holly from old wrestling WWE will be there it'd be great to meet some of you guys i'll keep mentioning it so the word gets out more and more but thanks for watching the video I'll see you very soon