Happy 4th of July fellow dad-brahs!!!

It's been a crazy few weeks for us. I lost my father at the end of May, 1 week later my little dude had a seizure as described a few posts above this one, made it through my first Father's Day as a dad as well as my first without one (and my wife coming down with the Rona the same day), just this past weekend celebrated 78novacaine Jr's 1st birthday, and took him to a parade down the street from our house this morning.

For reference how frigging hyuuuge this dude is, I'm 6' and 195#...

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Took 4 of my kids out backpacking. It was the first time for three of them. We'd hoped to catch some fish, but the fish didn't cooperate. Still good times.

Tadpoles in the lake. My younger boys thought that was pretty cool. They found a small frog the first day, too.


Kids LOVE fire. I don't usually do much fire when backpacking myself. I'm more a leave no trace guy. This spot had some fire rings (and tables) that were put in for eagle scout projects over the years. It was a nice luxury with the kids along.


Moose came through camp in the morning:


Second day I was fishing with my oldest and saw a pretty big frog for around here. Most of the ones we see are pretty small, maybe as big as the last joint of my thumb. I saw this guy on the edge of a lake when my son walked by. He went in after him and caught him.


Wet spring this year, everything is still green:

MFC

Originally Posted By FarmersSon⏩

Wet spring this year, everything is still green:

Can you send some of that down Texas way? My family property is looking ROUGH. Due to other circumstances we drastically reduced our cattle herd recently, and it's looking like a damn good thing we did. Saw a video yesterday of a line of cattle trailers half mile long going to a sale barn because nobody can keep their cattle fed and watered right now.

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MFC

Father/Son trip report:

So, I grew up in rural Idaho. 20+ years ago I was involved with a one of the local boy scout troops. For our high adventure (generally a big multi day outing) one year we'd planned a horse trip into the Big Horn Crags which is a portion of the greater Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The week before our planned trip, it snowed in the the middle of July so our leaders changed activities on the fly and we did something else. Ever since then, it's been in the back of my head that I wanted to make it up there some day. The area is super remote, at least a 4.5 hour drive from any airport a person could fly into, with 2+ hours of that on dirt and gravel roads. The problem has always been that I didn't want to do something like that by myself and it's been really hard to get a buddy lined up to go due to time/logistics.

This summer I put in on the calendar and determined this was the year to do it. My oldest son turns 16 next month and I decided he was ready to make the trip with me. Left work a little early and we drove most of the way there. We stopped around 11 PM, still an hour away because we were both beat, we literally through the tent up on the next semi-flat location we passed.



Drove the last hour, had a little breakfast, and hit the trail:



Views like this all day hiking in:









continued...

MFC

Made good time on the hike in, averaging around 2 mi/hr through some really rough country. Set up camp mid-afternoon then fished, ate dinner, and went to bed.

I was mostly fishing flies under a bobber. I fly fish, but I'm not a purist. For backpacking I take one rod and I think a spinning rod is more versatile and if I want to fish flies I toss them on a bobber. In the past I've had really good luck with foam ants in high mountain lakes. This time I couldn't get a fish to look at one:



Just about everything we caught was on nymphs or spinners:



You could see the fish swimming over to take your lure, the water was clear:



We hiked around 11 miles the first day. The second day we explored a little and then relocated camp, maybe 6 or 7 miles total. Day three we hiked around 11 miles back to the trailhead. Really good trip. For all you dads out there I can't recommend one on one time with your kids highly enough. I have 5, so it is tough to fit in the one on one time, but it is worth it. In all I spent around 72 hours with my son and he had no one to talk to except me, and he had no electronic diversions for his attention. We talked about everything from girls to video games to future job plans. It was also a first for me. Until that hike I'd never felt like any of my kids had ever surpassed me be any physical measure. Other than height, lol, I'm a hair under 6'2" and he passed me there last year. On the second and third days it became clear to me that he could out hike me. I was carrying a bit more weigh than him but I don't think it would have mattered. I'm in could shape and made good time, but he has been running all summer getting ready for cross country this fall. During one hard climb, I was huffing and puffing and he was back behind me jabbering away without any sign that he was breathing hard. Good for him, he's worked hard. All-in-all a fantastic trip.

MFC

Originally Posted By Berts⏩

Reps!! I have spent a ton of time in the frank church, white clouds and sawtooths but not much in the Craigs. I need to make it over there, I'm guessing wayyy less people. I've always wanted to hike into Ship Island Lake. I have camped on the MF where that water comes it and always wanted to see the lake. Sounds like a bish of a hike and drive though. I whitewater kayak so mostly explored from that craft. MF Salmon's, Selways, Main Salmons, SF Salmon Canyon, etc, etc. My son is almost 4 months old, we will be taking him back packing a bunch this fall when things cool off.

These are the trips your kids will remember for their entire lives, well done!!!

Thanks Berts! Spent a little time in the White clouds and sawtooths. I took a job in Utah fresh out of college and the backcountry where I've spent the most time is the Uintas. Panorama of Ship Island Lake:



Hiking in I think we saw 3 other groups. Two rangers, two men, and a couple with a dog. We'd go hours without seeing anyone.

MFC

Originally Posted By FarmersSon⏩

Made good time on the hike in, averaging around 2 mi/hr through some really rough country. Set up camp mid-afternoon then fished, ate dinner, and went to bed.

I was mostly fishing flies under a bobber. I fly fish, but I'm not a purist. For backpacking I take one rod and I think a spinning rod is more versatile and if I want to fish flies I toss them on a bobber. In the past I've had really good luck with foam ants in high mountain lakes. This time I couldn't get a fish to look at one:



Just about everything we caught was on nymphs or spinners:



You could see the fish swimming over to take your lure, the water was clear:



We hiked around 11 miles the first day. The second day we explored a little and then relocated camp, maybe 6 or 7 miles total. Day three we hiked around 11 miles back to the trailhead. Really good trip. For all you dads out there I can't recommend one on one time with your kids highly enough. I have 5, so it is tough to fit in the one on one time, but it is worth it. In all I spent around 72 hours with my son and he had no one to talk to except me, and he had no electronic diversions for his attention. We talked about everything from girls to video games to future job plans. It was also a first for me. Until that hike I'd never felt like any of my kids had ever surpassed me be any physical measure. Other than height, lol, I'm a hair under 6'2" and he passed me there last year. On the second and third days it became clear to me that he could out hike me. I was carrying a bit more weigh than him but I don't think it would have mattered. I'm in could shape and made good time, but he has been running all summer getting ready for cross country this fall. During one hard climb, I was huffing and puffing and he was back behind me jabbering away without any sign that he was breathing hard. Good for him, he's worked hard. All-in-all a fantastic trip.

This is living the good life. Got you on spread brah.

The closer we approach the uncertainty of life's ending the more we wish to trade all of the things we have acquired in exchange for all of the things we have lost: wealth for youth, knowledge for fresh curiosity, resignation for hope. We'd trade our wisdom for new experiences, but it is wisdom that will teach us that at the end of the road the only new experience is death.

MFC

:)

Originally Posted By FarmersSon⏩

Kids went back to school today. Probably need to call home over lunch to do a wellness check on my wife. (semi srs)

We both love watching them grow and learn, but there's a hint of sadness, too, when we think about them never being small again. She always gets sad for around a week when they go back, I mostly cope by not thinking about it. Any other dads (or moms if any of you are lurking in the dad thread) having those back to school feels?

We are putting plans into motion to be able to hopefully homeschool our little dude and never know those back to school feels. The public education system in this country is fundamentally broken at this point and I don't see it getting better anytime in the near future.

Other than that, how's everybody's littles doing??? Mine hasn't really gotten any bigger, but he is still above average height/weight for his age and eats like a horse so we aren't worried about it. Other than that it has just been absolutely amazing watching a tiny human learn how to do human things.

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MFC

**Texas Crew**
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**Dallas Cowboys Fan Crew**

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See you tomorrow

Originally Posted By Barteh⏩

My 10 months old daughter is now started to walk and crawl around the house all the time. She really is a menace. If you don't look at her for 10 seconds she's suddenly at the cat litter in the kitchen playing with the "sand". We tried to put a small blockade up at my girl's office with the cart, 2 tables and one other thing and she somehow managed to worm her way through it and get ink from the printer all over her hands and face.

Any tips for this kind of chit? Obviously we're trying to keep every kind of liquid that can be slightly toxic out of her reach. Oh she also cracked my phone screen this week.

2-3 of these should do the job. I combined 2 at my last house.

See you tomorrow

Originally Posted By Pterodactyl314⏩

2-3 of these should do the job. I combined 2 at my last house.

We bought something like this, big ass thing, like 8'×10' with rigid sides once our son became mobile. He fukking HATED it. Would throw a walleyed fit every time we tried to put him in there so we could get stuff done. It ended up just being a giant space taker, lol.

Permabulk/bloatlord Crew
Tradie Crew
HTC

Originally Posted By FarmersSon⏩

Father/Son trip report:

So, I grew up in rural Idaho. 20+ years ago I was involved with a one of the local boy scout troops. For our high adventure (generally a big multi day outing) one year we'd planned a horse trip into the Big Horn Crags which is a portion of the greater Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The week before our planned trip, it snowed in the the middle of July so our leaders changed activities on the fly and we did something else. Ever since then, it's been in the back of my head that I wanted to make it up there some day. The area is super remote, at least a 4.5 hour drive from any airport a person could fly into, with 2+ hours of that on dirt and gravel roads. The problem has always been that I didn't want to do something like that by myself and it's been really hard to get a buddy lined up to go due to time/logistics.

This summer I put in on the calendar and determined this was the year to do it. My oldest son turns 16 next month and I decided he was ready to make the trip with me. Left work a little early and we drove most of the way there. We stopped around 11 PM, still an hour away because we were both beat, we literally through the tent up on the next semi-flat location we passed.



Drove the last hour, had a little breakfast, and hit the trail:



Views like this all day hiking in:









continued...

damn man, so jelly

Cherish your life. Live to tell your story

Sloots Gon Sloot.

Originally Posted By Barteh⏩

My 10 months old daughter is now started to walk and crawl around the house all the time. She really is a menace. If you don't look at her for 10 seconds she's suddenly at the cat litter in the kitchen playing with the "sand". We tried to put a small blockade up at my girl's office with the cart, 2 tables and one other thing and she somehow managed to worm her way through it and get ink from the printer all over her hands and face.

Any tips for this kind of chit? Obviously we're trying to keep every kind of liquid that can be slightly toxic out of her reach. Oh she also cracked my phone screen this week.

Get an enclosed cat litter box like this and, if possible, try to put the whole thing somewhere on the other side of a baby gate where the kid can't get to it:




Magnetic cabinet locks for all your kitchen cabinets that avoids having an ugly lock on the outside of the cabinet:


Protip: don't get the one in this picture. The magnet is a two-part piece of plastic that will come apart if it's dropped on kitchen tile, and the actual magnet inside will slide off under the fridge or something. There are others where the magnet container thing is totally sealed and won't come apart.

Forget the tension-mounted baby gates and get something that actually screws into the wall. I can't find pictures online of the one we have, but it's just a normal cheap-looking wood one except it clips onto eyebolts that are screwed directly into the wall. As the kids get older they'll start tugging on the baby gates as hard as they can and they won't stand up to it if they're not screwed down.

Originally Posted By 78novacaine⏩

We bought something like this, big ass thing, like 8'×10' with rigid sides once our son became mobile. He fukking HATED it. Would throw a walleyed fit every time we tried to put him in there so we could get stuff done. It ended up just being a giant space taker, lol.

We had the exact same playpen, with the exact same result

And relief washes over me in an awesome wave

6'5 master race.

****!!FLORIDA CREW!!****
****!!POLSKA CREW!!****

This has been useful

See you tomorrow

Originally Posted By Pterodactyl314⏩

This has been useful

lol we have two of these for our (little) dogs

Sloots Gon Sloot.