Name 'Shug .Here today to tell you how hammocks changed my life and it was back in 2006. Quite
a long time ago you do the math because I can't that I sort of was looking for something different
in my camping it was really to have a more comfortable cup of coffee in the morning but it's
larger than that it's way bigger it's humongous I think what I was looking for in my life at that
time and I go through these cycles a lot I don't like the phrase stuck in a rut I like the phrase
I'm going down the same path every day and there's nothing wrong with that it's familiar
it's good but when you're walking down that same path you're always looking to the right and the
left and behind you and seeing these other little spurs and trails off to the side going someday I'm
going to go down that but right now I don't have time because I got to keep going down my path and
yes it did make for a way more comfortable and delightful way to have my coffee in the morning
my Medallion dodo instant espresso I'm laying back I'm relaxed I'm looking around at the
woods I'm under a tarp which I love I love being under a tarp because I like to wake up and see
right out so here's the other thing that getting in The Hammocks did for me it reinvigorated my
backpacking now I've always been a Backpacker I Was A Boy Scout I've camped and backpacked
through High School through college I used to even go camping when I lived in New York City me and
Meg would go out and car camp in Upstate New York I wasn't really doing a lot of backpacking at the
time because after the circus I I kind of lost most of my backpacking equipment other than just
some boy scout stuff so I moved here to Minnesota I still backpacked I tented I went through my
ultralight phase I went through tarps and bivvy bags I always liked the tarp but I had tents
just a Timberline pup tent and it worked great I started going to like some Henry shires type of
tent the contrail and all that that Journey led me to thinking you know I bought this Lawson hammock
once for goofing around let me go dig that back out and see how that works the Lawson was great
but it was Heavy I didn't had spreader bars it really wasn't what I was looking for so I went and
bought an Eno at REI used it a couple days went and returned it because REI is good about that
I went online and I found just Jeff's site which is uh is still out there and it showed how to make
a hammock I found hammock forums and from there it was on let me tell you it was on my friends
you know a lot of times in life we need something new in our life no matter what your age is to make
you new at something you know most of my YouTube videos have to do with hammocks or trips in
hammocks or it really started and I'll come back to that but I would have never started YouTube
had I not got into hammocks so I see people going through the conversion in The Hammocks some people
take right to it other people uh they get kind of perplexed uh there's a lot of elements to it
and there are it's very modular there's some people have never rigged a tarp and
a tarp is its own art they've always slept in a tent so you got to learn to rig a tarp
you've got to learn to set up your hammock you've got under quilts insulation but enjoy
that journey of something new like right now I'm playing a lot of bass it's very new to me
[ __ ] and it's open in my eyes to new things the way I see life and let that hammock Journey
if you decide to you know take on hammocks and go through that process and take on the
hammock Quest and see it through to change your camping you know let it lead you somewhere new
think about that for me I get 10 11 hours sleep in my hammock I never got that in a
tent so that was a benefit I didn't see coming I get consistent sleep I don't sleep that well
at home I've got a Select Comfort bed I sleep with my wife Meg has nothing to do with that it's just
that my mind is in a different place when I'm at home but when I'm in the woods my mind is in
a total other place I'm like a 13 year old kid all I gotta worry about is not getting a d or an
F in math that that's kind of a metaphor for my life in the woods and I sleep long and good out
there and it could just be that you're out walking you're in all that fresh air so if you're new to
Hammocks be patient enjoy every step you get to be new again you know you may be 45 years old
and you're probably great at so many things the job you have being a mom a dad whatever it is in
your life that you've been doing you're probably very good at it and it's probably even become very
familiar and familiarity can be contempt all right but you know you just like when I was
in the circus in in clown college applications there was this one question that said answer
this familiarity breeds contempt no idea what that meant I found out what it meant after three years
in the circus I was just running by the elephants I wasn't looking anymore I wasn't staring at them
I was running by the ax that do incredible things hang by their hair juggling wasn't even looking so
my familiality breeded contempt in that situation it was just every day it was normal it it was just
the way my life was going I don't think it's bad it's just something different so let something new
in your life Lead You In new directions let it change your vision it's like when you're trying
to take your kid or somebody and you're trying to there's something in the sky you're trying
to grab their head to go see it's it's over there let life kind of tilt your head and you know let
your view and your whole being get into something else and be new you may be great at it you may be
horrible at it which is actually kind of a benefit because you go back to the stuff you're good at
and go hello old friend I miss you I'm so good at you it's good to be back but sometimes it's good
to go to loserville I mean you never know when you're gonna have to move there it's good to know
a few people in Louisville proper with this little journey on the base I'm hearing music differently
all I hear are bass lines and it's leading me back to music that I grew up with because when
I started playing music at the age of 37 I bought a mandolin it started I've never really played any
other music except for acoustic music and mainly the mandolin some guitar and picked Bluegrass and
a little bit of Irish and Acoustic Music These electric basses are leading me into amps and
cables and Funk Rare Earth this rediscovering all the old music I used to listen to the other day
the song Tighten Up came on by Archie Bell on the drills hey we're out your bells in the jails from
Houston Texas yep yeah tied up on that base shell if you've never heard that song it's a great group
sound you hear in the background that's just my furnace kicking on back here so I had mentioned
a little while back on the video that when I was doing research in hammocks I was going online for
the first time looking at backpacking videos looking for hammock information found hammock
forums which is I'm still on it's one of my only social media things I go there and post and read
and just kind of keep up with what's going on in the world of hammocks and it's gone through a lot
of iterations in the time that I've been there since probably around 2006 2007 things change I
don't like it but it happens and you have to keep your mind open to change it because when you're
old like me you can't close your mind you can to some things some things your mind will never open
but to a lot of new things be open let the change happen all right enough of my platitudes in Round
Rock so being on hammock forums got me into an audience of people and I saw that some people were
struggling and hammocks were you know they came to me uh sort of naturally I didn't have a problem
with them intuitively I understood them and all the things that went with them but I was letting
the journey take me there and I was enjoying the journey which was great I allowed myself to enjoy
the journey that Journey took me and I wanted to help some people and I remember there was a guy
in there I think his name was seven said hey man could you do some videos on hammocks because I'd
like to show my family this world I'm in so that's kind of when I started my hammer cow 2 thing and
my audience was not a YouTube audience it was a hammock Forum audience I'd ask my daughter Ariel
one time and say little honey I shot this video how do I get this video on this online Forum
I'm on she said dad you have to go on YouTube you have to open an account you upload your video then
you take that link and you link it over to The Forum except when she said it to sound like this
but in time I didn't know people on YouTube would start watching these and they did once you start
doing YouTube and I have like 660 something videos out Google comes to you and they offer you the ad
share Revenue thing and you make a little money now in backpacking you know ton of money I've
always called it Mad Money because it's sort of a limited audience but yes I get a little check
in the bank that goes directly to my bank and even if I don't put videos out there's always some new
people finding you they go on they get newly into hammocks and you know go and search hammocks and
I come up and some of your regular subscribers they just they just Tire of you and they move
away and I do that to people too it's kind of lousy but it's easy to do with a cyber friend
and then sometimes you come back and it just depends on the subject you're researching so I
wouldn't be talking to you had I not taken this hammock Journey eventually people start sending
you gear because they want you to show the gear because you're kind of like free advertisement
you get to keep the gear and sometimes I don't take the gear and sometimes I do take the gear
and sometimes I show the gear and sometimes I don't show the gear I'm doing that way less now
because at this point I'm running out of room and I don't want to feel like I owe anybody anything
by getting in The Hammocks the whole YouTube and Forum thing happened and through that I've made a
lot of friends you know when I was tent camping I didn't really reach out to other tent campers
I didn't go over to people going notice I got a touch quite unusual let's talk about them what
kind of cook kit you got what sort of boots you're wearing what do you wear when you're
hike what's your clothing system deal Winter Camp do you like fall let's see your stuff how
do you filter your water I didn't do that a lot when I was tenting but people that hammock were
kind of drawn to each other and you kind of end up camping with some some relationship stay some
don't but I've met a lot of people just by taking this journey into hammocks and that's been cool
very cool I was recently asked could I go take a backpacking trip and not film and honestly
at this point it'd be hard I'd have to bring the camera I'm talking into right now take the SD card
out of it don't bring any batteries just let it be the camera with no workings and wean myself
out of it so I really couldn't make a video but there's something about the act of just talking
to the camera it's like Tom Hanks talking to that volleyball uh and whatever that movie was called
a lost or alone or adrift or whatever it was he was talking to that volleyball when I talked to
this camera I feel like I'm talking to the world I feel like I'm talking to you so that's a good
and bad thing and as as time goes on I would like to take a trip and not film this be so much easier
will it happen probably eventually I don't know how how long can I keep doing it
I don't know there's a lot of I don't knows here which is good and bad I I don't have a magic ball
maybe I need to find my magic eight ball see if I can find that don't have the magic eight ball
oh but I got some balls oh yeah all right enough of that with all of these things the last thing
was by having this camera which would have never happened really had I not taken the hammock
Journey because that made me go backpacking more because I enjoyed it I look forward to playing
with my backpacking toys hanging my hammock sleeping in it what this camera has done is
in in one sense it slowed me down out there he should just go walk not really look and wait
till I get to a view well this will happen in my mind I'll be walking long ago I should have
filmed that and whenever that happens I stop and I get the camera out and I film it especially with
mushrooms and as I'm filming I'm really getting a look at this thing I stopped that I would have
never stopped to look at through the camera then it turned the camera off and put it away and
then I just stand there and look around the area going I bet nobody stops here because it's not a
destination point and I call it a regard moment it might be 20 seconds it might be 30 seconds it
might be a minute once in a while I drop my pack because you're just in the woods and sometimes
it's just hearing the wind through the trees or two trees you know in the winds bowl and go
sometimes it's just complete Stillness and it has just changed the way I view trips so if I
ever quit filming I will bring a camera and take pictures getting into hammocks
change my viewpoint change the way I camp took me off that path I was walking and put me on a new
one that led me to a lot of new places and I still love it well all right that was a mouthful that
said a lot of words there so I'd like to leave you with one thing all secure in sector seven
hello my name is Tim you're right everybody I'm the shoes you are my
friends right do I have friends or do I just have cyber friends
give me a minute to mull it's just an upsetting question and make sure
to subscribe and hit that notification Bell and do all that stuff that I don't care about
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thank you
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