We Love Camping

Hey Siri, set a timer for five minutes. Five minutes, starting now. Well, we're starting off with our just usual morning routine. Get coffee made, get the wood stove going again, and, you know, just relax a little bit. It's still dark, so no hurry to jump out of the van and get doing anything. We'll probably just have some coffee and relax a little bit. But for those of you that remember last year around this time, I did a Friendsgiving with some friends, and we cooked a turkey over a smoker, and it was a good time. In fact, it was such a good time that we had more friends over the years say they also wanted to do that. So we're going to do it again this year. Now, I'm not doing that in this video, but what we are going to be doing is prepping for that. I've got my friend Gary up here right now, and we're going to cut a bunch of firewood today, get ready for everybody to show up so we have plenty of firewood here in the next couple days. I've got to get the turkey thawing, and I also have a couple other small tasks I want to do before Saturday, which is the actual day we're going to do the Friendsgiving. Today's just going to be some camp stuff and just kind of a fun prep day for what is going to be a fun weekend. So the first thing I want to do is get some breakfast going, but before that even, I want to get the turkey out of the freezer here so that I can get it thawing, because I think it's going to take probably this full day and tomorrow to get it fully thawed. So I want to get it out of the ice cove right now so that that gets done. I've got a 15-pound turkey, so hopefully that will be big enough for everyone. But I'm also going to grab out, I've got some frozen potatoes in here that I want to use. This is also a good time for me to tell you guys, because Iceco is the sponsor of this video, that they're going to be having some Black Friday deals. I'll have all of the information down in the description and across the bottom here. Again, I've been very happy with my Iceco refrigerators. This one is set up specifically as a freezer if you're new to my channel, and then I've got a 50-liter up front in the van that I use as a refrigerator. It's been a great setup for me. They've got all kinds of different configurations that you can choose from, and you guys have been asking and wondering what chair I've been sitting in. They also have some really nice camp chairs. I really love that chair because it's got a super high back and it's super comfortable. But anyways, if you guys are interested in an Iceco refrigerator, this Black Friday is going to be a good time for you to check out some deals. Again, all the information down in the description. All right, so we're camped right next to a nice little creek, so I just went over there and grabbed some water, and I'm just going to throw this turkey in there, put on this lid, and then it'll just sit in there for the next two days, full day today, full day tomorrow, and hopefully by that time it'll be all thawed out and ready for brine, and then I'll pull it out and we'll brine it then and let it sit overnight before we cook it the next day. All right, yeah, ready to eat a good hearty breakfast here. Like I said, I've got a lot of work yet to do because I want to cut a lot of firewood for the camp, so when everybody's here and we're hanging out over the couple days, we can have a campfire going pretty much all day. Because it is not super cold, but it's rainy and just got that damp feeling, so being able to stand by a campfire is just going to make it a lot more fun. So like I said, Gary and I are going to get working on that right after I get done mowing down on this breakfast. So it looks like somebody either took a hatchet or, based on the clay pigeons, I can't imagine they actually shot all the way through this, so it looks like somebody took a hatchet through this tree. It's all hung up. I don't know that I want to try to take another hung up tree out of there. But, with that said, I think it just took a little bit of time and just kind of brought it down. If I did like I did kind of with that tree in that last video I did, if I cut it up here, it's going to drop that way and it's going to fall down and hopefully it clears itself from the bigger branches that's hung up there and it just falls. But it might be a couple chunks. You'll have to take it a couple chunks at a time. That's what I'm thinking. It depends on how it hangs up there, but I can watch your back. Alright, so you guys probably overheard me and Gary talking. We're going to try to knock down that tree that somebody, like I said, it looks like they went at it with a hatchet, but it also looks like it's been shot at several times, which is not a good idea. But, like I said, it looks like they went at it with a hatchet and then it fell, leaned up against another tree and then they left it. So, we're going to go ahead and see if we can knock it down and see if we can get some good firewood out of it and also make sure that it's not a hazard for other people who camp in this area. Yeah, I mean, I think if I cut, just pretty much like I did, there's still a lot up there, but I think you're right. If we cut it like right here, it will fall up against that tree. It would be almost vertical at that tree and then it's just going to want to fall some way. That's what I was thinking. Perfect. That's actually really good because it's leaned up over here, so it's going to be really nice to cut it back. All right, guys. So, we brought everything over in bigger chunks because it just makes it a lot easier. I could have bucked it up all over there, but then we just had to make a bunch more trips and by carrying it over in bigger sections, it just makes it a little bit easier. So, I'll go ahead and buck all this stuff up now into smaller pieces that we'll then split down, but I have to say, now that Gary's back over at his camp, I am super impressed with that guy. He is 72 years old and he is an absolute machine. Carrying this stuff over, definitely life goals right there. Yeah, this upper stuff definitely feels pretty good. Yeah, that's splitting dry. A little bit more of this, Gary, and you'll be able to, maybe you can fight that Jake Paul. All right. So, pretty happy with what we've gotten done so far, but I have one more project I want to do and that is I have this old cast iron skillet that I have not used in several years. It's a pretty good size one. Really too big for my use in the van, but I want to make a stuffing for the Friendsgiving. So, I was thinking I'd make the stuffing in this pan and then I'm going to cook it in the smoker after the turkey is done, but this pan needs a little bit of love, so I think I'm just going to clean it up and get it re-seasoned so it's ready to go on Saturday. All right. So, this is a fairly simple procedure. Some people like to overcomplicate this, but all I did is I went down to the creek and cleaned out the skillet really good with a chain mail, made sure that I got any residue or anything out of it, and now I've just got it on the burner and I'm getting the pot real hot or the cast iron real hot so that that way I can basically cook off any water or moisture that's in it and then I'm just going to use some of this spray on avocado oil. Now, you can use pretty much any type of oil to season the cast iron and everybody's got their preference. I'm just using this because it's what I have on the van. I like to cook with it, so it's just what I have. It's what it's going to use and I know it's going to work well. So, I'm just going to put a very light dousing. It doesn't take a lot. And then just use a paper towel and wipe it evenly around the pan. Whoops. And don't catch your paper towel on fire. So, wipe it evenly around the pan. And you just want a thin layer. It doesn't take much. And then I like to let it go until it starts to smoke. And once it starts to kind of smoke off a little bit, I might do it one more time, but quite honestly, it should be good enough for now. These paper towels with oil should be flaming. Whoa, holy mackerel. Let those two steaks hit your head in the pack. Alright, folks. I think we got everything accomplished we wanted to today. Got all the good firewood put in. Yep. A lot of wood chopped up today. Yeah. So, we're both tired. We're enjoying a little whiskey. Sitting by the warm fire. And I think that's how we're going to spend the rest of our evening. I hope you guys enjoyed the video. If you did, please do give it a like. If you have any comments or questions, you can leave those down below. And we'll catch you guys again outside. Like a bird on a tree. I'm just sitting here. I got time. It's clear to see. From up here. The world seems small. We can sit together. It's so beautiful. You and me. Meant to be. In the great outdoor. Forever free.