Good morning and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a (mostly) safe and enjoyable holiday season. Ours was packed and still going (just like our noses) as we wrap up some family visits and get ready for another. Our family’s got some fun stuff in the works for this year and I hope you all do too! However, it saddens me a bit to say that I won’t be bringing this platform into the new year. This was a learning experience and while I did take away some valuable lessons, this will not be a priority that I impose on myself and the family. That’s not to say that we won’t be out there getting after it though! I wish you all the best this year and, as always, stay feral.

Our oldest has a December birthday and throughout the year we are drowning in toys. Lego land mines, hot wheeled assassins, monster truck ankle rollers are just a few of the dangers in our house and they multiply every holiday season. But why do we continue this cycle? Nicole and I, well mostly me I guess (but she doesn’t stop me so it’s really her fault), buy the kids lots of things then get frustrated with how many things we are living with. Kids need toys, definitely, there’d be no getting the dishes done or dinner cooked if toys weren’t around but our toys didn’t create our best memories, our experiences did. I remember taking a road trip just me and my dad, going to a theme park and getting on a big roller coaster for the first time, eating a giant ice cream trough, baking my cake with mom, crawling through the tunnels at Discovery Zone (RIP), etc. In none of those instances do I recall having toys with me. The experiences are what make the time together special, not the things. All that to say, if you find yourself in the same boat, weighted down by things, maybe spend the cash on an experience you can share. They’ll get toys and they’ll get experiences, my biggest fear is not being involved in the latter. If you’re struggling to think outside the box as I do, one cool strategy a friend used to employ is to look at Groupon for what is around. I guarantee you’ll find something new there. If you made it this far, comment on what your favorite gift was growing up. Mine was a Mongoose BMX bike that I ride everywhere for years! Happy holidays and, as always, Stay feral!

One thing that I often fall victim to is underestimating my kids. For example, when in Phoenix I wanted to go on a family hike; I remembered Camelback Mountain from a year ago and remembered it being fun but not too challenging. We got to the trailhead at noon with 2 napping kids to start our 3 mile trek up 1300 ft to the peak. I was hesitant to wake the kids up but did it anyway at Nicole’s suggestion. As we walked up the steps carved in the mountain, I realized the hike was longer and more exposed than I remembered. The last 1/3 of the hike was a scramble and that didn’t seem like a long ways for an adult but definitely did for a kid. Doubt crept in, I started asking if we should turn around every time we came to a stop, concerned about the scramble and my 3 yr old’s attitude (he was still wake up grumpy). We pressed on and when we got to the scrabble we were super glad we did. The kiddo was a Billy goat getting up the rock pile and we had a blast watching. I was proud of him, 3 yrs old and he bagged his first peak. Lesson learned: don’t lead with my predispositions, challenge them.

Good morning my feral families! Thank you for visiting, I hope you can find a home here. I love the outdoors with my family and want to see more families unafraid to venture into the wilderness so I hope this space will serve as an inspiration to join us. To start things off, let’s introduce ourselves and a favorite outdoor memory you had growing up. My name is Ian and one of my favorite memories was when my grandpa took me to June Lake for a weekend (brace yourself for a long story). I was the only youngin with 4 adults all over 50 (or so it seemed to my 8 year old brain) and I was free. They basically let me do whatever I wanted with little to no supervision and I loved it. One morning after breakfast I grabbed a fishing pole and a tackle box then headed to the lake. There were 3 or 4 other fishermen there chatting away and when I come bebopping in like Huckleberry Finn. These guys didn’t have any fish that I could see and they looked a little puzzled to see an unsupervised kid stroll up ready to cast out. I baited my hook and threw out my line, in 5 minutes I had a bite. Excited, I reeled it in and it was a keeper!! Problem is I didn’t plan beyond putting a hook in the water, so I borrowed one of their empty buckets took the fish to grandpa’s RV. The adults were surprised to see my success and as I went back for round 2, I took my own bucket and a tether. When I got back to the shoreline, the others asked what kind of bait I used. I had no idea there was strategy behind attracting fish, so I showed them my jars of powerbait (play dough with the smell of fish food for those less familiar) and which one I used. For round 2 I changed it up, I mixed 2 baits (what kid doesn’t combine play dough colors?) and cast out again. 5 minutes later my pole was bending while the others on the shore stood in surprise (probably a little frustration too) as I reeled in another keeper! They asked again what I used, I remember saying “now they like the orange one with the green one” and one of the men echoed sarcastically “oh, now it’s orange and green? Not the yellow?” I caught 3 fish that morning before I went back to the RV.