As always, comments and suggestions are welcome!

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If you’re followers of Mike over at The Backyard Pioneer, you’ll remember that he ran a contest towards the end of February where he gave away a Spyderco Endura 4 FFG. I was fortunate enough to be the lucky winner. Mike and I had been trying to get together before the giveaway and figured the ‘handoff’ would be a good reason to meet. Despite home and work duties conspiring against us, we were finally able to meet last weekend. On top of meeting a pretty cool guy, I was able to pick up this wonderful knife. I’ve only been carrying it a week, but I have to say I am starting to fall in love. Razor sharp, super light, tough lock…what’s not to like?

In addition to the knife, I decided it was time to start carrying a multi-tool. My old knife was actually part multi-tool, but it wasn’t a great knife or a great multi-tool. It won points for SWaP (Size, Weight and Power) reduction (one item vs two), but that’s where it ended. Today, the Leatherman Juice S2 Multitool showed up. Not much use yet so far – I’ll do a review in a little bit – but I very much like the fact that it’s not ‘tacticool’ looking. The bright orange color is non-threatening while still be manly enough to carry around.

In addition to the Juice, I picked up two flashlights. The first is a Streamlight Stylus Pro. It’s a nice pencil-sized flashlight that runs off two AAA batteries and puts out about 48 lumens through it’s LED bulb. The clip allows it to sit inconspicuously in my pocket, right next to my knife.

While I was shopping, I noticed it’s little brother, the Streamlight Nano Light. This little guy sits on my key chain and gives me constant access to about 10 lumens. And, at a whopping, 0.36oz, there’s no perceivable increase to my keychain. I haven’t spent much, if any, time with these flashlights but if prior reviews of other users is any indication, I should be quite happy with them. I’ll provide reviews in a little bit once I’ve carried them for a while.

In case anyone is interested, I bought all these items on Amazon.com. I’ve provided links and cost in the table below if you’re interested in grabbing them.

Skill #1 – Physical Fitness

Weight and Diet

By my calculations, if I want to lose 30-lbs by June 1^st, I need to average about 6-lbs per month. Let’s see how I did:

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Being a 80% (4 months into a 5 month period) and seeing a 2.2lbs gain in weight is not where I need to be. In order to meet my goal, I would need to drop 32.2lbs in the month of May. I obviously will not be able to accomplish that task. That being said, the revised goal has been to get to 250lbs by June 1^st and be down to 235lbs by the end of August.

Workout Goals

Much like my Weight and Diet Goals, my Workout Goals have not been met over the last few months. That being said, I am not even going to document them. April started out great, but fizzled out for a variety of reasons. Bottom line is that I did not prioritize my health and fitness above other commitments.

In an effort to reset my physical fitness, I’ve joined the Health & Fitness Collaborators Facebook Group. That group has a 10-week challenge starting today (1-May) which runs for 10 weeks. The goal is to get up to (and over 100 points) by staying active. You get 1 point for the following activities:

• Running 1 mile
• Biking 4 miles
• Walking 1.5 miles
• Rowing 500m
• Swimming 6 minutes
• Every 110 calories you burn on misc. activities

The goal of the challenge is to get out and get healthy. I’ll be participating in the challenge and plan on making it to 100 points. That, in addition to a cleaner diet, should help me achieve my goals.

Enough about Physical Fitness, let’s move on to some of my other skills…

Skill #2 – Blade Sharpening

At this point, I was supposed to have done the following:

1. Purchase a quality whetstone (Jan 31)
2. Rewatch Syperdco Instructional DVD (Jan 31)
3. Find/consume whetstone sharpening instruction (Jan 31)

As I reported earlier, I have already accomplished Item 2. Items 1 and 3 still need to be accomplished, however I’m doubting their necessity as the Spyderco Sharpmaker provides me with an excellent edge on all my cutting equipment. I suppose learning about different sharpening techniques is important, but I’m doubtful that I will need them as long as I have my Sharpmaker kit. This action is going to go on the Nice Have List for now. I may explore it later in the year, but I’m going to consider this task complete.

Skill #3 – First Aid

The goal was to sign-up for a CPR class by February 15^th and sign-up for a First Aid class by February 28^th. These are still on the To Do List and I’m exploring opportunities to hold these classes at my work.

Skill #4 – Food Storage

The goal was to research food storage requirements by February 15^th. As mentioned previously, I signed up for an online Home Food Preservation Class at this website. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to explore this class. I’ll be taking a look at it over the month of May and should have a plan to start building food reserves by the end of the month.

Skill #5 – Canning

The goal was to research canning methods by February 15^th. I have watched a few videos on this process consider my introduction complete. The Home Food Preservation Class (mentioned above) should help conclude this education. The next step is start looking for canning equipment. Fortunately, it’s starting to be yard sale season around here.

Skill #6 – Brewing Beer

I’ve decided to drop this goal from my list this year. Sometimes you have to know when to say when and home brewing will be one of the sacrifices I make in order to achieve other goals.

Skill #7 – Composting

As mentioned previously, I have researched the method I plan on using for my composting system. Now that spring has sprung, I will be purchasing materials over the next month to build my composting system. Posts to follow.

Skill #12 – Handgun Permit

I have submitted my handgun permit for my county and have my interview scheduled for this month. I’m 100% on track here.

Skill #13 – Shooting

Continuing on with proper training and use of firearms. I’m thinking about getting into some more advanced classes around here. Overall, I’d consider this task as complete as possible – but, as with most things, there’s always room for improvement.

Overall

I’m not in the best shape (physical or schedule-wise) with these goals, but there is traction. I’m going to do my best to keep more up-to-date on these issues and to document the process more..

Thanks for reading this article. I would appreciate feedback on my plan and, if you want to help hold my feet to the fire, make sure to follow me over on my Facebook Page.

Skill #1 – Physical Fitness

Weight and Diet

By my calculations, if I want to lose 30-lbs by June 1^st, I need to average about 6-lbs per month. Let’s see how I did:

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A 4-lbs loss is not bad, but not quite the goal I wanted to reach. My diet was all over the place, as was my workout plan. I didn’t not keep consistent with my plan at all. The same holds true with my workout goals.

Workout Goals

Much like my Weight and Diet Goals, my Workout Goals were not achieved in January.

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No excuses, just slacking. I could give you the rundown about work, family, motivation, weather, etc. But you don’t want to hear it…and neither do I. I didn’t come through and I’ll do better in the future. Moving on…

February and March Plans

February has been a dead month for me. I’ve been working like a crazy man and I just haven’t had time for me. That is going to be compounded by the fact that I am going on a 3-4 days snowboard trip with my buddies next week. While it’s a much needed break from the rat race, I already know I won’t be living in what I would call a ‘healthy’ environment for the duration of the trip. We eat and drink well – and by that I mean we indulge ourselves.

The bottom line is that February is being chalked up to a lost month. I am not happy about it, but it’s the reality of the situation. March will begin a renewed emphasis on health and fitness. I’m setting the same goals I did in January for March:

• Cardio Sessions: 12
• Push-Ups: 800
• Crunches: 800

By shooting for these goals and making a renewed, concentrated effort to get my diet in check, I should be able to get back on track weight loss wise and hit some of my other goals.

Enough about Physical Fitness, let’s move on to some of my other skills…

Skill #2 – Blade Sharpening

At this point, I was supposed to have done the following:

1. Purchase a quality whetstone (Jan 31)
2. Rewatch Syperdco Instructional DVD (Jan 31)
3. Find/consume whetstone sharpening instruction (Jan 31)

I have accomplished Item 2 off this list. Items 1 and 3 will be performed before the close of February. My goal of sharpening all straight blade knives in my household by February 28^th should be achievable as well.

Skill #3 – First Aid

The goal was to sign-up for a CPR class by February 15^th and sign-up for a First Aid class by February 28^th. I have not done either, but plan on doing it by the end of this month.

Skill #4 – Food Storage

The goal was to research food storage requirements by February 15^th. I signed up for an online Home Food Preservation Class at this website. In addition, I have been looking at different food storage systems but I have not taken a look at how to create a food storage system. I think I have a few leads on how to do this step. I’m looking to have this research done by the end of the month.

Skill #5 – Canning

The goal was to research canning methods by February 15^th. I have watched a few videos on this process and would consider this task 50% complete. I am aiming to be complete with my introduction to canning by the end of this month.

Skill #6 – Brewing Beer

I have done no work on this skill, including my goal of researching beer brewing processes by February 22^nd. As much as I hate to admit it, this skill may be one that drops off due to time limitations.

Skill #7 – Composting

I have researched the method I plan on using for my composting system. I will write more about this in a future post but I will tell you that it is a method that Jack over at The Survival Podcast recommends.

Skill #12 – Handgun Permit

I have submitted my handgun permit for my county and am anxiously awaiting the next steps of this process. I’m 100% on track here.

Skill #13 – Shooting

I have purchased a firearm and am learning how to use it properly. I don’t want to get into any more detail right now online about this process.

Overall

In total, I’m pretty happy with where I’m at. The physical fitness goals are not something I’m proud of, however, I am pretty pleased with where I am otherwise considering the large amount of time I’ve been putting in at work.

My plan will be to continue this process and keep up with my timeline goals. March will see more work being done in Blade Sharpening, Food Storage, Canning, Composting, Camping and Fire Making.

I also hope to more regularly write about each skill and the progress I’m making.

Thanks for reading this article. I would appreciate feedback on my plan and, if you want to help hold my feet to the fire, make sure to follow me over on my Facebook Page.

In my day job, I’m responsible for managing projects and, as any project manager worth his salt will tell you, it’s good practice to check on how a project is going at specific intervals so that there aren’t any surprises at the end.  This approach also allows you to adjust your plan according to where you are at the current point.

So, without further babbling about the boredom of project management, let’s get to my mid-January review!  I’m only writing about skills that have deliverables in January.

Skill #1 – Physical Fitness

In case you forgot, I laid out my goals for physical fitness in this article.

Weight and Diet

• Starting Weight: 263.4-lbs
• Current Weight: 259.0-lbs
• Weight Lost: 4.4-lbs

My goal was to lose 30-lbs by June 1^st.  That means I have five months to lose 30-lbs which works out to a rate of 6-lbs per month or 3-lbs per half month.  By that rate, I’m right on track, if not a little ahead.  My diet has been on and off over this first half month.  I have been completely dialed in on some days and other days – well, let’s just say that there has been some Domino’s consumed since New Year’s Day.  Dialing in the diet a bit more should help accelerate the weight loss, however, I am pretty happy with where I’m at right now.

Workout

I set some pretty specific goals, workout-wise, for January.  Here’s where I’m at:

I’ve been slacking a lot getting in cardio sessions.  No excuses, I just haven’t been going to the gym and can’t get into it.  I think I need something to train for – a road race, big hike, something.  I am going on a snowboard trip in late February, so that would be a good goal to get in shape for.  We’ll see.  In terms of push-ups and crunches – I’m 25% of the way there when I should be at roughly the halfway point.  I can probably recover the push-up and crunch goals by getting after them every day, but the cardio may be difficult to catch up on.  We’ll do our best to get there.

Skill #2 – Blade Sharpening

I had one key action item due up to this point in January for this skill and that was to confirm the location of my Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker System and Instruction DVD.  I’ve accomplished that task and plan on watching the DVD within the next week.  The remaining tasks for this month include:

• Purchase a quality whetstone by January 31, 2013
• Rewatch Spyderco Instructional DVD by January 31, 2013
• Find and consume whetstone sharpening instruction by January 31, 2013

I don’t see any problem with meeting these dates.

Skill #12 – Handgun Permit & Skill #13 – Shooting

I’ve made progress on both of these fronts and seem to be on track with where I want to be.  As I mentioned in the article describing these skills, I won’t write much more about them for many reasons.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that January is going pretty well in terms of meeting the goals I’ve set.  I’m a little disappointed in the workout progress I’ve made, but I think I can play catch-up and come pretty close to meeting the goals.  The other skills seem to be dead-on and building at the right pace. 

I’ll be back at the end of January with a monthly recap and a plan for February.  In the mean time, be on the lookout for more articles which you should be able to implement!

Weight

I started my day with a weigh-in and, while I’m not putting the official number out for public consumption, I will say that it’s not a number I’m proud of.  I’ve also decided to take measurements as I’ve found that sometimes I don’t lose weight so much as ‘restructure’ my body.  The measurements I’ve chosen to take are as follows:

• Upper Arm (right and left)
• Waist (naval)
• Waist (belt line)
• Hips
• Mid-Thigh (right and left)

When I write my January recap and February plan, I’ll post the change in numbers so everyone can see the change I’ve made.

Diet

I’ve enjoyed the holidays F-A-R too much and to say that I’ve overindulged would be an understatement.  So, the plan is to put tight wraps on the diet this month.  I’m going to do my best to go to a Paleo-esque diet.  My caloric intake will be centered on the following:

• Lean meats
• Fish and seafood
• Fresh fruits and veggies
• Eggs
• Nuts and seeds
• Healthy oils (olive, walnut, flaxseed, macadamia, avocado, coconut)

But, more importantly, I’ll be avoiding the following items:

• Cereal grains
• Legumes (including peanuts)
• Dairy
• Refined sugar
• Potatoes
• Processed foods
• Salt
• Refined vegetable oils

These rules seem kind of strict, but I’m not too worried.  I’ve done this type of diet before with good results and I believe I can make it stick.  I know that I feel more energetic and wholeheartedly better when I’m eating like that, so I need to give it a solid try.

I do know, however, that I’ll slip.  And that’s fine.  I’m human.  I just need to make sure that a slip is just a slip and not a detour into eating poorly again.

Workout Plan

Being sick and working over sixty-five hours per week for the last three or four weeks have put my fitness level at essentially zero.  The whole month of January will be used to get a decent base back.  With that in mind, I’ve devised the following workout plan for the four weeks of January:

Cardio Work

• Three cardio sessions per week (~30-min per session)

Strength Work

• Four workouts per week consisting of 50 push ups and 50 crunches each

January Goals

The workouts above are pretty basic and allow for some flexibility with my schedule.  They also will result in a solid base come February.  In order to gauge my success in January, I’ve set up these goals based on the results of the workouts:

• 12 cardio workouts (~360 minutes of cardio)
• 800 push ups completed
• 800 crunches completed

This plan starts today (January 1) and runs through January 26.  February 1 is the following week, so we’ll consider that the first week in February.  On February 27, I will post a workout plan for February and also post a January recap which will concentrate on weight/inches lost, workout goal status and overall recap of the month.

Do you like this workout plan? If so, let us know in the comments, on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.  Why not join us? Give me a shout on any one of those platforms and let me know if you’re going to follow the workout plan with me.  It’ll be great to see who you progress too!

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Background Information

Hurricane Sandy was an interesting situation for many reasons.  I’ve talked a lot about how the power outage we experienced exposed the need we have for backup power, heat, food and so on.  The twelve days we spent in the dark also revealed a need for some kind of home protection.  During this time, cell phone coverage was spotty at best and if we had needed police assistance for any reason, it would have been a 50/50 shot of getting through to 911. 

Before you think I’m overreacting, hear me out.  I live in a nice neighborhood.  There’s no crime – hell, the weekend police log in the newspaper usually only includes broken windows, knocked down fences and missing/destroyed mailboxes.  And, for the most part, the power outage during the hurricane didn’t change that.  There were instances, however, where we’d have scenarios of cars we didn’t know – and by we, I mean anyone in the neighborhood – would stop on the block for an abnormal amount of time and then leave.  It almost felt like someone was doing reconnaissance on the block.  Nothing happened, but I definitely felt like my family was in possible danger at times.

These situations got me thinking about useless my baseball bat or pocketknife was if someone really wanted to make a run at my house and/or family.  I decided that it was time to make sure that I could properly defend my home in case something went south.  Interestingly enough, this moment of clarity coincided with a previous trip to the range with some coworkers.  I was invited to come shoot clay pigeons with a group of guys that I work with and really enjoyed myself.  Thoughts of self-defense aside, I simply enjoyed the sport of clay shooting.  It was relaxing and a good stress relief.  Both of these circumstances culminated with my decision to go about legally obtaining a firearm and learning how to use it.

The Plan

Much like with my previously identified skills, I plan to utilize a lot of education up front and then implement.  I will put in my paperwork for a handgun permit which is required, by the New York county I live in, to handle a handgun, not to mention purchase one.  Once I receive my permit, I will take a handgun safety class to learn how to properly handle one.  At that point, I will consider purchasing one.  I will also continue my trips to the range with my coworkers and learn more about long gun (rifle and shotgun) use through them.

That’s about as far as I’m going to go with these two skills.  I’m not going to define my measurable goals – be assured that I do have them – or write much more about them for many reasons.  First, I don’t want this blog to be a haven for gun rights/gun control discussions.  I have my political leanings, but I don’t want to deter from the major premise of this blog with them.  Second, the more I talk about what I’m doing or what firearms I may acquire, the more I endanger what’s considered the operational security (military term I’ve learned at work) of my household.  I really don’t want my personal choices for home defense to be public knowledge.

Conclusion

So, that concludes the introductions to the 13-in-13 Challenge skills I will be pursuing in 2013.  Did you like this series? Let me know in the comments or on our Facebook page.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting my intended workout plan and goals for January.  The next few weeks will contain posts about the other topics I’ve addressed – any progress I’ve made and any future plans I have.  I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on my progress, so please feel free to post your comments at the bottom of these posts and join us on our social media platforms.

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Knowledge Base

You might remember that yesterday I mentioned that I was in Boy Scouts when I was younger.  Well, during that time, I got pretty good using a map and compass.  But, much like with my camping and fire-making skills, the years away from the outdoors have definitely dulled my abilities.  The introduction of handheld GPS equipment has also diminished the need for map and compass skills.  I definitely need to be able to navigate in the woods without a GPS.  You never know when your GPS is going to give up the ghost – dead batteries, water ingress and damage due to dropping it are all very real possibilities.

In addition to being a Scout when I grew up, I also grew up on a lake and was an avid fisherman – mostly largemouth bass for anyone interested.  Many fishermen are also hunters, but that wasn’t the case in my family.  I never hunted and never learned to track animals in the woods.  Hunting is not something I plan on getting into any time soon, but it’s not something I’m opposed to.  In fact, getting my own turkey for Thanksgiving or a fresh deer would be an incredible way to feed the family.  Tracking also provides the ability to help find folks who have gone lost in the wilderness.

The Plan

So, both of these skills have the common requirement of being out in the woods.  And there’s really no place I’d rather be.  Land navigation, or orienteering, will be accomplished by setting up a series of hikes where I rely solely on a map and compass (GPS will be carried for emergency backup).  Tracking is going to be a harder skill to learn.  I don’t know anyone who hunts although I do know friends of friends who may be interested in teaching me tracking skills.  I’ll read up a lot on how to track and use websites (I bet there’s a decent amount of information on YouTube) to build my knowledge base.  Bottom line is that each one of these skills really needs practice in real-world scenarios to learn and gain comfort with.

Measurable Goals

In order to gauge my completion of these skill sets, I plan to achieve the following goals:

• Plan and execute 3-mile hike using only map and compass by April 1, 2013
• Plan and execute 5-mile hike using only map and compass by April 1, 2013
• Research tracking by May 1, 2013
• Enter the woods and attempt to track an animal (probably deer) by June 1, 2013
• Possible Goal: Participate in a hunt (deer or turkey, most likely) by November 1, 2013

These goals are, unfortunately, a little vague and bland.  Both of these skills are an accumulation of effort and not necessarily an accumulation of milestones hit.  Each skill requires a lot of time in the woods and I look forward to spending my time there during 2013.

Tomorrow I finish up my introduction of the thirteen skills I want to tackle in 2013 when I talk about some Protection skills I want to learn.

As always, please make sure you follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+!

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My Outdoors Background

In my younger days, I was involved in Boy Scouts.  A big part of the Scouts was learning outdoor skills by real world experience.  My troop made a point of doing at least one weekend camping trip every month, regardless of weather or temperature.  During this time, I learned a lot about camping, fire making, cooking and general outdoor survival skills.

As happens with a lot of guys, the lure of sports and girls pulled me away from Boy Scouts before I achieved the rank of Eagle.  I don’t have any regrets about that – I had a very limited time to play sports at a competitive level and I could enjoy the outdoors for the rest of my life.  What I do regret, however, is that I let my outdoors skills lapse over that time.  I haven’t camped in probably fifteen years and the only fires I’ve built are in my backyard fire pit – usually with the very heavy assistance of a lighter and a Duraflame^® log.

Current Situation

As has become pretty obvious on this blog, I’m a family man now.  I have two little girls, a wife and two dogs.  The ability to ‘disappear’ for a weekend for an intense backpack trip somewhere in the remote wilderness on a whim just doesn’t exist.  Camping trips need to be much more structured and planned out.  That being said, camping trips don’t necessarily need to be the large-scale adventures that you might imagine.  They could be as simple as a night sleeping under the stars with your kids in the backyard.  Likewise, fire making skills don’t need to be learned in the great outdoors.  I can use that firepit I have in the backyard to learn the skills I would need with I’m off on a hiking or camping adventure.

The Plan

A slow build of my ability level will be how I approach these two skills.  Camping in particular is going to be a family activity.  The girls have already shown interest in ‘camping’ with daddy.  We’ll probably start with pitching a tent in the living room and spending a night indoors.  We’ll move outside in the backyard during the summer when it’s nice and then, eventually, an overnight off the beaten path somewhere.  Whether the girls join me or not is still up in the air.  They are still pretty little for that kind of thing, but we’ll gauge it as we go.  Fire making skills will be used at all of these milestones to build my skill set.

Measurable Goals

I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about how measurable, well defined goals will help me gauge my progress, but I think it’s important to use them.  Without a solid definition of completion, how can you say you’ve achieved your intended goal?  Here are my goals for these two skill sets:

• Purchase a tent capable of housing the family by April 1, 2013
• Have a living room ‘camping adventure’ by May 1, 2013
• Have a backyard ‘camping adventure’ by July 15, 2013
• Camp overnight in the woods by August 31, 2013
• Purchase a flint and steel set by March 1, 2013
• Purchase a magnesium bar by March 1, 2013
• Purchase an ‘emergency fire’ kit by March 1, 2013
• Research homemade quick fire starting methods by April 1, 2013
• Start an individual fire using each method learned by June 15, 2013
• Build a fire starting kit for my BOB and GHB by July 1, 2013

Both of these skills are not a ‘set it and forget it’ skill.  They build on the amount of times you use them and, as you progress, you learn little intricacies on the way.  The idea of both these skills is not to become a master at them – I don’t believe you can ever know everything there is to know about either – but to increase my skill set so much that I am much more proficient than the average outdoorsman.

Come back tomorrow when we wrap up the Outdoor Skill sets with two things I’m not very experienced in – Land Navigation and Tracking.  I’m very excited about learning these skills and plan on using them thoroughly through the next year.

One quick request if you’ve gotten this far: I love to know what you think.  Please leave a comment on what you’ve liked about this series so far and even what you haven’t liked.  If there are particular parts of the skills I’ve identified that you want more information on, please let me know and I’ll be sure to write a post – or series of posts – on it!

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