August 15, 2024 • 35 mins
Ever wondered what it truly takes to craft a life of resilience and preparedness? Join us on "Crafting Survival" as we explore the multifaceted concept of survival beyond just cancer, emphasizing the importance of readiness for various life challenges. Kicking off our journey, we share personal insights into daily survival, touching on crucial aspects such as nutrition, exercise, stress management, and the power of healthy relationships. With heartfelt anecdotes, we reveal the strength needed to overcome personal hardships, like coping with divorce and infidelity, and underscore the significance of having an emergency plan inspired by real-life scenarios.
Imagine navigating a treacherous hike to Takowitz Peak without any experience or gear. We recount our perilous adventure, filled with steep, icy trails and heart-pounding rock climbs, showcasing the essence of teamwork and trust. From sketchy hand-over-hand climbing to a dramatic sleeping bag mishap, this tale of resilience amidst nature's challenges promises to inspire and entertain. The journey didn't just test our physical limits but also taught us invaluable lessons about self-reliance and adaptability in the face of unexpected obstacles.
In our exploration of resilience and hope, we delve into the mindset needed to navigate life-altering events like cancer and personal trauma. We discuss how social media has become a lifeline for many on their cancer journeys and ponder whether these challenges are opportunities for growth. With powerful stories of overcoming adversity, including starting a business while on disability and surviving a traumatic assault, we emphasize a proactive approach to life. Wrapping up, we highlight the importance of self-care practices such as hot yoga, ice baths, and saunas, encouraging you to stay strong and hopeful as you craft your own survival story. Connect with us on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and join us weekly for more inspiring tales of resilience.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I will be your shield in the fiercest battle.
I'll defend you from all thesearrows and the sword.
I will will keep you fromdanger.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Let me be your shield this is crafting survival a
podcast that is not just aboutcancer.
It's about the challenges inlife.
It's about surviving,overcoming, developing plans,
speaking with survivors, peoplewho have dealt with cancer,
dealt with other challenges,experts in the field of medicine
(00:37):
, science, innovation anyone whohas dealt with life's
challenges.
This podcast for you.
Sit back and enjoy CraftingSurvival.
You won't feel no pain.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I will take your place, I will be your shield.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, we're talking about our journey, our journey
together, surviving this lifecoming together crafting
survival, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So what we think makes us fit to host this yeah
like why are we doing this?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
we have so many stories to share.
We meet so many interestingpeople.
I think that's the hopefulthing that we'll get to share
all of that and the people wemeet and the survival stories we
hear.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Do we want to talk about the meaning of crafting?
Have we touched on it?
The meaning of crafting,survival.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
What does it mean to you.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
For me Rusted Iron Coffee, thank you.
For me, crafting survival ishow I try to live my life, my
(01:52):
daily decisions when it comesdown to sleep, to nutrition, to
exercise, work, professionalpersonal relationships, things
that I'm doing to minimizestress.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Run a homeostasis life, basically, you know not.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Surviving life, but not just surviving like really
Thriving.
I always say not even thriving,because I'm so over that term
because of, like cancer and theworld I live in and people
thriving, going from survivingto thriving.
But you know what I wasthinking about the other day.
It's aliving right, like beingalive, not just thriving, like
(02:37):
really being able to enjoy andlive life.
I want to feel alive, I don'twant to just thrive.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Right, all systems firing, everything operating at
100%.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I asked ChatGPT if aliving was a real word, because
I knew it was another word Imade up, but it was kind of
funny.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Is it?
What did it say?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's not, of course, birthday.
It said that's like a fun word.
It did a hyphen living a living, but I think it's um, it has
merit, I think.
But you know, crafting survival, and my view is about getting
(03:22):
through situations right, likeLike having a plan, and I keep
using this analogy.
Lately which, unfortunately,our dear friend's home caught on
fire and I was like, oh my gosh, I've been using this analogy
for like the last two weeksprior to that incident and I was
(03:56):
like whoa.
But the truth of the matter inthat situation was her youngest
daughter calls 911.
Right, because we are trainedfrom know in middle school,
elementary school, to thinkabout a cancer option plan.
Right, like to understand ortry to figure out what to do or
how to even go about that oreven anything in our healthcare.
And and there's a lot ofdiscussion now about even
(04:18):
bringing in that education aboutcancer right and cancer
screenings and care earlier inschool.
But you know, stop drop roll isit landon, you know?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
uh, this last lesson in health was about cancer.
She used me as an example,wrote about it.
Yeah, information, used myphotos, so how old to landon?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
ninth grade yeah, she's a freshman high school, so
even that's like a little, butat least they're moving it into
school earlier.
So crafting survival to me it'snot just about cancer, it's
about life situations and how toget out of that and have a plan
.
And you're the son of a firemanwho always has a plan right,
planning everything, so you'relike accustomed to kind of
(05:01):
thinking that way to kind ofthinking that way right which uh
lends uh this podcast to have awide array of characters?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
yeah, and, and and guests for sure, because if
you're crafting, survival couldbe surviving.
You know.
Fill in the variable yeah a caraccident, divorce, bankruptcy,
fire, fire, cancer divorce,bankruptcy, fire, fire, cancer,
covid, infidelity.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Right there was a lady I just the, a lady I just
saw on tiktok, who was talkingabout how she married the man of
her dreams and goes throughthis cancer journey, has this
beautiful wedding and then she's, you know, um, her body's
changed, she's getting better,and then he leaves her.
It was like devastating, likeoh my gosh, like how do you get
through that?
Like you just go throughsomething really terrible in
your life and you got yourpartner and then they're like
(05:52):
see ya.
Anyway, I digress.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Well, I got to admit that I got cussed out for saying
that to my ex.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
What see ya?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
No, no, oh, to my ex.
What see ya?
No, no, no.
She was leaving me because Iwas cancer patient oh because it
was just a couple years after.
It was two years after, butthere was other underlying
issues.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, the cancer may have been induced by stress,
right?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
so at that point, yeah, my crafting survival was
inducing self-inflicted stress,that yeah yeah, yeah, anyway.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So I said infidelity but anyway, but it's crafting
anything in life.
So we had a really interestingsituation happen when we I think
it was our first year of dating, which one.
And going on the backpackingjourney, which I've hiked but
(06:49):
never backpacked before.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Which one?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Takowitz Peak.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And sleeping in the snow.
Just below San Jacinto yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Out of Wild.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
That was quite the adventure.
I definitely learned a lotabout myself in that situation
that I'm not a very goodfollower.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
What was that situation?
And then tell us your takeaways.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I like when you tell the story better.
I you know that was.
I was like, yeah, I want to goon one of those hiking trips,
like you and your brother go on,I want to camp in the snow and
I want to do all that cool stuff.
So you're like, okay, let's doit.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Next thing you know you're getting your ass whisked
up into the mountains.
You're like oh shit.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I no, it was fun.
Got the backpack, got all thegear, we, we went sleeping bags,
little two man tent yeah, wefound a spot to camp crampons.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Well, not full on, but little ice shoes mhm not the
big old, massive, gnarlycrampons, but the snow wasn't
that bad it was like it was likeicy snow.
It had melted a lot and therewas a lot of clear land and you
know patches of snow and stuffyeah, and the straw at the
strawberry junction at 8 800feet yeah there's still, yeah,
patches of snow yeah, and thenup on the mountaintop, obviously
(08:14):
there was snow, ice meltingsnow and ice.
But um, we got a spot we'll talkabout the uh, snowy mountaintop
, talk about the difference andlandscape looking north versus
south.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah Well, one side was icy snow.
It was like an Ansel Adamsphoto.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I wish we were photographers because you know
we need to.
We're adventurers, notphotographers.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, we need to capture them, but it was like an
Ansel Adams photo.
It was like burnt from thefires the year prior on one side
and sunny and the other sidewas like cloudy, gloomy and icy
snow.
Yeah right, like it literallylike divided the peak of the
mountain we were right on theridge of the takowitz, if you're
(09:00):
familiar with the area.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
There's that uh fire watch tower up there, so kind of
funny that a fire burned rightto the fire tower.
Yeah right up there so kind offunny that a fire burned right
to the fire tower.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah right, mm, hmm, yeah, so what?
We found a spot that was clear,behind a nice big rock where we
were going to camp for thenight.
We went and sat on this likeamazing rock and watched the
sunset.
Oh, and that little carve out.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, that rock had that.
I know it's like lazy boylounge carve out in it, and we
lowered down, kind of like we'rein the cockpit of a jet and our
eyes were you know.
Our head was just barelysticking out over the top of the
rock out of this littlecarve-out and all the wind was
gone.
It was silent.
(09:37):
It stood up a little bit.
It was all windy, Squat down.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
It wasn't really windy at that time.
The wind came up later.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
It got worse.
Creaking around in your chairNeeds oil.
Yeah, yeah the wind got worseLater.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Later.
But we saw an amazing sunsetand where we set up on the tent
was behind this big rock to kindof shield us from any kind of
wind and you know, whatever.
But that was not the case.
Yeah, no, we set up this littletwo-man tent right behind this
log Remember, the tent was rightup against the log and we're
like cool, we'll put a fire onthe other side of the log, we'll
(10:16):
sit on the log and have ourfire and our hot coffee and
whatever, behind this big rock.
It was perfect, so perfect,until the wind kicked up Like
gust of wind from like nowhereCrazy, crazy wind and uh, it was
so bad that the tent was gonnablow into the fire that we had
(10:38):
set.
So I had to go sit inside thetent and spread my whole body
out to keep the tent from flyingout.
It's like bending in half well,it did yeah, well, the poles
bent, not in half, but theydefinitely bent the other.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yeah, well, the poles bent, Not in half, but they
definitely bent yeah they werebent.
You were weighing it down andthe wind was blowing so hard.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
The tent poles bent A little two-man tent, yeah, and
at the same time kicked up thefire, and the fire started to
spread into the manzanita.
Bush.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It was like a spirit coming out of it.
Yeah, it just whirled, yeah itwas nuts.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And then you had an emergency fire blanket or
emergency blanket that your dadhad given you.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
It was foil, like aluminum foil things, and you're
running back and forth like ahyena.
Hyena With my tail between mylegs.
Yeah, with snow, hyena, hyena,with my tail between my legs.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, rah, rah, rah, with snow in the blanket, trying
to put out the fire.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
And to get that under control, but then you still had
to get the manzanita trees thatwere lit on fire and the embers
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
They weren't lit on fire yet.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
They were about to ignite.
The embers were in those.
I remember staring at them,going I can't get out of this
tent and I hope you can getthose before they start to light
up, because the manzanita treesare like fire, like just yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Well, not only that, but the embers were in the same
dry oh yeah, and all the pineneedles.
Yeah, the same that I wentclimbing into the manzanita
bushes to get sticks to lightthe fire, all the dead leaves
and twigs.
Then the fire kicked up andblew those embers right where I
had just pulled the kindling outfrom.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
But when you're talking about crafting, survival
, your dad gave you all kinds ofthings you're used to, so you
had an emergency blanket and ashovel where I was able to.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So you had an emergency blanket and a shovel
where I was able to go shovelsnow under the blanket and then
carry the blanket and dump thesnow onto the fire.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, we were going to be the fire out pretty quick
we were going to be those peopleabout to light the mountain on
fire at night time oh my gosh,the fire chief dad and I didn't.
I didn't like wake up in themorning and leave you freak out,
not doing this life with you,right, yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
as the wind kept actually.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
But then, but then right when you finished like
putting out the fire, thefreaking wind went away.
It was like died down, likegone.
It was like let's just put youguys in the most stressful
situation and see how you act.
Let's just put you guys in themost stressful situation and see
how you act.
And it actually made us closernot you know, I wasn't yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
It was a pretty crazy bonding experience, not one
that I'd want to go throughagain, but survived that one,
and so we make it through thenight.
We're good.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
It was so hectic and chaotic it felt like being in a
737 on its way crashing into theground, totally like it just
felt rough and turbulent andshit going everywhere.
You know it was wild it wasvery so.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Then we wake up, we're good, we sleep through the
night.
We had a peaceful evening afterthat and we continued to hike
in the morning and our goal wasto get to the top of the peak
and, um, I'm not a very good umfollower, even though I know
you're way more experienced thanme at hiking and at one point I
(14:11):
get out in front of you,probably a couple times actually
, and I think about it.
And so we're um going along thetrail and we uh, well, there's
no trail because it stopsbecause the snow, and whoever
had footsteps in front of us,they clearly didn't have
crampons or any ability to go on, and we're like we can do it.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
So we were hiking on the trail to get to Takowitz
Peak and as you get towards theend the mountain gets really
steep Right and the trail thatended it disappeared.
People couldn't no longercontinue to traverse past
because it was so steep and icyand it just was dangerous, and
so that was it.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
So we turned around right.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
So we turned around and we start heading back, you
know, retracing our footstepsand as I'm walking, um, you know
back the way we came, and I'mlooking up at the mountain and
I'm thinking that there's aridge on the top, that we could
follow our footsteps back maybea mile or so and then hit this
valley and get to the ridge andfollow the ridge all the way up
(15:22):
to the peak.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
And it worked.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
That's where we saw the Ansel Adams photo.
Ansel Adams photo Now, as we'regoing up, it was sketch in a
couple places.
Remember we had to hand overhand climb and not too high 8
feet, maybe 10 feet, somethinglike that but fully geared up
and gloves and jackets andbackpack and everything A little
sketch.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Rock climbing.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah, rock climbing.
We get to the top, have ourlunch and turn around and start
to head back, and you get infront of me and I yelled at you,
hey, you're getting off trail.
And you're like, no, I'm not.
And you're starting to headdownhill you know steep where
I'm certain that we're not onthe trail and you're like, is
(16:08):
that this?
And so the first time youlistened and you came back
pretty quickly.
You got over your leadershipability.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Lack of.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Wanting to lead and we continue on and then you get
in front of me again.
No big deal whatever.
But then you start to veer offagain and this time you're
certain that that was the way wecame up and you know we had our
little discussion about.
I don't think so.
It's not it remember we got toget on the trip on the ridge.
(16:41):
We're gonna have to figure outhow we're gonna, hand over hand,
climb down the.
You know we haven't even gotthere yet.
You're starting to veer off theridge and so we go for it and
the situation turns sketchpretty quick On the ridge, lots
of rocks and trees and bushesthat have broken the snow and
(17:03):
the ice that allow you to walkthrough and hike through.
So as we get off the ridgewe're hiding behind rock
outcroppings and tree wells toget soft snow where it's not ice
.
And as we keep going, thosetrees and rocks get further and
further apart and now it getspretty sketchy.
(17:25):
We get to a situation where it'sprobably 20 feet between a rock
and a tree, a rock and a hard,a rock and a tree, a rock in a
hard place we were in the rockin a hard place yeah and so, um,
you're still in front of me andyou sit down in the snow, you
know, on the hill, kind of onyour butt, and I freaked out.
Uh, you know, to me it lookedlike you were sitting on a snow
(17:49):
sled and you were just straightdown.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
But I had my feet planted and dug in and I knew I
was secure.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, you had your shoes dug in with the ice spikes
.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I don't know why I sat down.
I just something.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
And I even remember saying why did I?
I just, yeah, I think I neededto relax a little or something,
because we had been intense.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
And so I go around you and I have to get through
this steep part of themountainside that's iced up and
there's no coverage to help meget through and I take my poles
and I start breaking.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It was like a good 200 feet or so right across.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
No, no, no, it was 20 .
Speaker 2 (18:34):
20 feet.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, yeah, because you probably counted the steps.
Well, I have the GoPro.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
We've gone back and looked at it.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, yeah, so the scary part of the GoPro we do.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, got the footage of that.
So I'm breaking ice and I'mstep by step putting my foot
into the broken hole and thenbreaking more ice and taking
another step, and I get acrossthis little sketchy section and
then it's your turn to go andyou start across and at this
point not much is being said,just watching and hoping that
(19:11):
you're gonna get through there,like if I were to fall you'd be
accused of murder very easily itwould be a.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
It would be one of those murder and did, did he do
it?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
stories right because it was, it was gnarly you would
have gone all the way down theface of suicide rock yep on ice,
so your your sleeping bag didso, her, your sleeping bag was
tied to the outside of the bagand for some reason it came
untied and in complete silenceit just slid right down the side
(19:40):
of that icy slope and it wasgone, disappeared.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, and it like did a jump off at the bottom Right.
It was like if you were skiingdown an alpine and went off a
big ass jump.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
We both just looked at each other like whoa Right.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It's a good thing that my sleeping bag from Amazon
, the down feathered $200 plussub-zero sleeping bag that I was
trying to get in time didn'tshow up and I bought it from big
five and it was like I don'tknow 50, 75 dollar backpack.
I mean um sleeping bag whichworked fine by the way um,
(20:22):
because the night was warmerthan we thought.
But yeah, it was a good thing.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I was like thank god oh, we had each other's body
heat.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Sleeping bed.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
We unzipped the bags, made it in bed.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
We didn't do individual body heat, but anyway
, so I didn't lose my expensivesleeping bag, right.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
And I didn't lose my bride.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, we weren't married yet, but hey, Right.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Now we get to tell it .
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yeah so we got through it and then we be be
lined out of there, and that wasthe end.
So that's where we turnedaround when we started the hike
to the peak After we got throughthat sketchy section.
Another little couple steps iswhere the trail had ended and it
was the turnaround point.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that was crazy, but Ithink the lesson for me was that
I had to learn to follow and Ihad to pay attention to some of
the things you did, even to getus through the situation, like
things that I was not accustomedto and not accustomed to that
you know how to do that.
(21:28):
I don't know how to do.
I'm sure I could figure it out,but I wouldn't have been able
to probably, like, react asquickly and do what you did to
get the fire out and to controlthe situation.
Um, I just, you know, just notmy brain's not trained that way
to think and plan ahead like theshovel, all that stuff.
(21:49):
I wouldn't have taken a shovelbackpack and be like, yeah, it's
too heavy, I don't put that inmy backpack, but there's a good
reason that you always have ashovel when you.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I want to make snowmen with you.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
That's funny, yeah, but we've had a few of those
situations, not like that,thankfully.
Now I listen to you Payattention.
But why does the wind love us?
Remember the other time we wentout and we were like out in
(22:23):
near Joshua Tree or whatever,and we had to the butterflies oh
yeah, the butterflies wereamazing, but no, we had to like
park in that like washout orwhatever, because the wind was
crazy and back your truck intoit.
And wherever we go, the wind'slike likes to kick up on us.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Overnight, yeah, in the desert yeah.
You get that a lot.
Yeah, the dramatic shift intemperature hot to cold night
yeah.
Draws in the wind pressurechange.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah, so I want to get like on that whole idea of
like hiking.
I want to get, I said earlier,but a woman by the name of
Allison Levine on our podcastand talk about her Mount Everest
.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
You know, she crafts survival.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, mount Everest.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
She did it twice.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Amongst the other six tallest peaks in the world
right.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Kilimanjaro, Denali.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I think she's done all of them, but she's done
Everest twice and she has a bookabout it and she's a speaker.
She speaks, she's prettyawesome and has her own health
condition that she deals withtoo.
She's pretty awesome and hasher own health condition that
she deals with too.
So, yeah, I would love to bringher on and talk about crafting
(23:39):
survival.
I think she'd be amazingAliving herself.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah, they're going to start talking about aliving.
Yeah, and sometimes it takesgetting sick or having a
traumatic event to kickstart oropen your eyes right.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah to change.
Can we talk about?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
that for a second.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I think you bring up a really interesting point
because at the Cancer Help Deskand the nonprofit, I spend time
on Facebook and Instagram andnow TikTok, and listening and
looking and reading what peoplewrite and say when on their
cancer journey there's, you know, hundreds of thousands of
(24:22):
people on social media withcancer and dealing with or
dealing with cancer and Isometimes like look at it and go
you know, is it an opportunityor is it a death sentence?
I'll be curious kind of yourthought, like as I mean, I think
(24:45):
you're unique in the way youhandled your own journey, but
you know how you conduct yourlife even now is like you talked
about survival, like you're asurvivalist.
It's like you're survivalist.
It's like you're, you know,caveman.
But um, I think it'sinteresting what you just said
(25:05):
because it's about.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
You know.
It presents new opportunity and, yeah, it's unfortunate that
you gotta.
That situation even arisesright and so makes you think
what would I be doing had thisnever happened?
Hiking mountains, but you stilldo it wouldn't have started my
own business that's scary tooyou know, yeah, I was on the
(25:32):
rebound, I was on disability.
I was like shit.
Now's the time.
Get all your ducks in a row andthen figure out what it's going
to take to run your ownbusiness hey, crafting survival
you.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
What's your business?
Because you craft, you're acrafter yeah, construction, yeah
, full circle builders thismessage is brought to you by.
Are you a sponsor now?
Yeah, full circle builders.
This message is brought to youby full circle builders inc.
Are you a sponsor now?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
you're number one sponsor, babe yeah, that's right
.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
The non-profit doesn't have any money, so
hopefully one day we'll getthere yeah, yeah, you can use it
for, you know, if you have theright mindset, opportun, and you
want to chase cancer away withpositive outcomes, or if you
want to be a victim right aboutin our kind of story in our
(26:36):
meeting, and one of the reasonsI moved away, that I wanted to
get out of that town, wasbecause I was held at gunpoint
and sexually assaulted when Iwas 15 and I refused in my mind
to be a victim.
I didn't.
I don't you know.
People would say I'm so sorrythat happened to you and even
when I bring it up now it makespeople uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
And where did this happen?
This was on the path that youwould walk home from school,
right?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
No, it was on my dad.
It was before they built back inthat area and my dad would yeah
, and my dad would um walk backthere and he, um, you know this
path he took.
So of course I mean, whywouldn't it be safe?
So anyway, that's here northere.
But people, people will say I'msorry that happened to you and
(27:21):
I'm like, but it happens, canhappen to anybody.
I mean, I could never like say,yeah, you know, I didn't, I
don't want to dwell in it, Ididn't want to be stuck in it
and I didn't want it to be partof my identity whatsoever.
I just wanted to move past itand and say you know, my answer
was always why not me?
And I still think that, evenwith my own health or anything
(27:43):
like, why not me?
Or why can't these thingshappen to me?
Um, cause they happen to a lotof people, um, so I personally
don't.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Well, that, that's a good mindset for prehabilitation
.
If you had a mindset of why notme?
And do you think tomorrow couldbe my day?
I could wake up and whatevercould change drastically.
And now I got to figure out howto get through it Right Fall
off the mountain.
Family member in a plane crash.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Car crash Right, whatever, sick illness, whatever
Figure it out, yeah, so why notme right off the mountain
family member in a plane crash?
I mean right crash?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
right, whatever sick illness, whatever figure it out
where, yeah, so why not me?
And so if you, like fear.
So then it's like fear todaythat tomorrow could be my day.
How am I going to approach it?
Am I going to, you know, havethat healthier choice at the
buffet, or am I going to decideto go do that yoga or that
workout, or you know?
(28:36):
Or am I gonna sit on the couchand and scroll, or or pour a
glass of wine, or are youtalking about me now?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
since I've been, I've been at a commission with my
knee all right?
No, I'm not talking about you,yeah, but I have been doing
those things right, it soundslike I not talking about you.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah, but I have been doing those things Right.
It sounds like I'm talkingabout you.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
That's not how I hate TV actually.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
I'm like later going to another yoga yeah and then I
get pissed off Me yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
It's not your fault.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
So with that, why not me?
Mindset you know why not me?
Give why not me a reason to whynot you.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Go to the gym, take those extra steps, do those
push-ups when you're layingthere watching TV.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Well, what if you're sick, Okay?
So I mean you're saying thosethings and you know it's not so
easy when you're sick already,like dealing with it.
Like you're like, hey, can yougo to yoga today, day?
And I'm like, do you see myknee?
It's not any better, right,it's fat and swollen and we
don't know why.
But you'll say, you know, I'mlike no, I mean I want to, but I
can't.
And it does get frustratingbecause I want to, I want to do
(29:41):
those things and I know that Ican't.
Now there's other things Icould be doing, right, not going
to hot yoga per se, where Ihave to use my legs to balance
my body, but I could be doingsit-ups and push-ups right in my
upper body, um.
But I get down and frustrated,probably just like most people
do who are not well, and so notthat I'm sitting there going,
why me, I just am frustratedwith the situation, and so I'm
(30:07):
not certain that it's so easy tojust flip that switch and go.
Oh, I'm just going to go to thegym now.
So you know, were there timeswhere which you I wouldn't say
your your journey with beingtreated with cancer wasn't like
easy, but you still continued togo to the gym or you know you
didn't lose too much groundbecause you were already in good
(30:28):
shape.
So I don't think you've gonethrough like debilitating, like
we have some friends who've beensick with cancer, who had
debilitating, you know, who wereathletes, and it became
debilitating because of theirsurgeries and things and it's
hard, it's really, really hardto find your way back.
But does that kind of like?
You know, I wonder, when I seesome of the cases that I see and
(30:51):
people talking about theirillness, with the like rushing
of like like you almost gotrushed into having surgery and
then somebody hit the pausebutton Right, like can we
encourage people to push thepause button and not be rushed
into like making a treatmentdecision?
You know that could change theirlife, that could change their
(31:15):
life and there's I see a lot ofthat in healthcare and and could
you maybe pre-plan kind of whatthat journey is going to look
like?
Okay, well, if I have surgeryand I lose part of my intestines
because that's what happensthen coming out of that, then
the post, post planning, right,but you already gone into it,
right, you plan for that fire,you plan for these different
things to happen in scenariosand I don't see a lot of that
(31:36):
happening.
But anyway, I kind of digress.
I went on a tangent, sorry.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Prehabilitation.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
But I think it comes back to like the.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
You want to preheat, rehabilitate or prehabilitate,
yeah Right.
So we're stuck in a societywhere we rehabilitate.
We're not doing the work before, we're doing it after.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, it's too late, but, as I said, the mindset
though I'm kind of going to themindset thing of the mindset of
why not me, or why me Right, orwhatever I think when you're
already in the situation it'sdifficult.
You know you can't just flipthat mental switch.
Sometimes, Right, and even ifyou could flip the mental switch
(32:19):
, you know you stay thatphysical, Physically you're able
, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
So I think you know if you could flip that switch,
you know, while you're goingthrough it and just do whatever
little stuff for yourself thatyou can, If it's you know you
can if it's you know yeahreading if it's meditating
crafting survival right, it'ssomething that is going to
de-stress your life is reallyultimately?
(32:45):
you know, cancer is a stressgrab that shovel and dig deep,
dig out of the snow, dig out ofthe fire right, yeah, in that
situation, do whatever you canand and that meditation, that 20
minute of breath work mightturn into 16 minutes of breath
work and four minutes ofpush-ups, and so that's breath
(33:06):
work.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
We gotta talk about breath work on a another time
because, uh, I want to talkabout, like the whole w Wim Hof
method and that whole dealbecause that's super interesting
.
His story is interesting too.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Oh yeah.
Well, breathwork in and ofitself is amazing, the responses
you can trigger from your body,your neurological system.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Oxygen to your cells and your brain.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, get revved up, ready togo for a marathon, and you're
not even running a marathon.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
He's got so many ideas of people he could bring
on.
Oh yeah, oh my gosh yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
We could do a podcast in an ice bath, oh my God.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I stay in longer than you, so I got more fat cells than
you, you can do a podcast in anice bath and I'll take off.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Go to hot yoga.
Yeah, you can leave me in theice bath and go to hot yoga.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
You would do that Sauna.
We can do a sauna.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah, anyway, we're going to have to wrap it up, am
I getting it?
Yeah, that's been another.
It's a wrap.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
We've got to get out of here.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Okay, okay, see, we gotta get out of here.
Okay, okay, see ya.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Remember, no matter the challenge, there are
extraordinary people out thereovercoming the unimaginable.
Their journeys remind us thatgrit and hope are powerful.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Join us next time as we continue to explore the lives
of those who face life'sbiggest challenges head on.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Until then, stay strong, stay hopeful and keep
crafting your own survival.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Tune in weekly and follow us on Instagram TikTok
and Facebook this is CraftingSurvival.
You.
I will be your shield in the fiercest battle.
I'll defend you from all thesearrows and the sword.
I will will keep you fromdanger.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Let me be your shield this is crafting survival a
podcast that is not just aboutcancer.
It's about the challenges inlife.
It's about surviving,overcoming, developing plans,
speaking with survivors, peoplewho have dealt with cancer,
dealt with other challenges,experts in the field of medicine
(00:37):
, science, innovation anyone whohas dealt with life's
challenges.
This podcast for you.
Sit back and enjoy CraftingSurvival.
You won't feel no pain.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I will take your place, I will be your shield.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, we're talking about our journey, our journey
together, surviving this lifecoming together crafting
survival, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So what we think makes us fit to host this yeah
like why are we doing this?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
we have so many stories to share.
We meet so many interestingpeople.
I think that's the hopefulthing that we'll get to share
all of that and the people wemeet and the survival stories we
hear.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Do we want to talk about the meaning of crafting?
Have we touched on it?
The meaning of crafting,survival.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
What does it mean to you.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
For me Rusted Iron Coffee, thank you.
For me, crafting survival ishow I try to live my life, my
(01:52):
daily decisions when it comesdown to sleep, to nutrition, to
exercise, work, professionalpersonal relationships, things
that I'm doing to minimizestress.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Run a homeostasis life, basically, you know not.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Surviving life, but not just surviving like really
Thriving.
I always say not even thriving,because I'm so over that term
because of, like cancer and theworld I live in and people
thriving, going from survivingto thriving.
But you know what I wasthinking about the other day.
It's aliving right, like beingalive, not just thriving, like
(02:37):
really being able to enjoy andlive life.
I want to feel alive, I don'twant to just thrive.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Right, all systems firing, everything operating at
100%.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I asked ChatGPT if aliving was a real word, because
I knew it was another word Imade up, but it was kind of
funny.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Is it?
What did it say?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's not, of course, birthday.
It said that's like a fun word.
It did a hyphen living a living, but I think it's um, it has
merit, I think.
But you know, crafting survival, and my view is about getting
(03:22):
through situations right, likeLike having a plan, and I keep
using this analogy.
Lately which, unfortunately,our dear friend's home caught on
fire and I was like, oh my gosh, I've been using this analogy
for like the last two weeksprior to that incident and I was
(03:56):
like whoa.
But the truth of the matter inthat situation was her youngest
daughter calls 911.
Right, because we are trainedfrom know in middle school,
elementary school, to thinkabout a cancer option plan.
Right, like to understand ortry to figure out what to do or
how to even go about that oreven anything in our healthcare.
And and there's a lot ofdiscussion now about even
(04:18):
bringing in that education aboutcancer right and cancer
screenings and care earlier inschool.
But you know, stop drop roll isit landon, you know?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
uh, this last lesson in health was about cancer.
She used me as an example,wrote about it.
Yeah, information, used myphotos, so how old to landon?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
ninth grade yeah, she's a freshman high school, so
even that's like a little, butat least they're moving it into
school earlier.
So crafting survival to me it'snot just about cancer, it's
about life situations and how toget out of that and have a plan
.
And you're the son of a firemanwho always has a plan right,
planning everything, so you'relike accustomed to kind of
(05:01):
thinking that way to kind ofthinking that way right which uh
lends uh this podcast to have awide array of characters?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
yeah, and, and and guests for sure, because if
you're crafting, survival couldbe surviving.
You know.
Fill in the variable yeah a caraccident, divorce, bankruptcy,
fire, fire, cancer divorce,bankruptcy, fire, fire, cancer,
covid, infidelity.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Right there was a lady I just the, a lady I just
saw on tiktok, who was talkingabout how she married the man of
her dreams and goes throughthis cancer journey, has this
beautiful wedding and then she's, you know, um, her body's
changed, she's getting better,and then he leaves her.
It was like devastating, likeoh my gosh, like how do you get
through that?
Like you just go throughsomething really terrible in
your life and you got yourpartner and then they're like
(05:52):
see ya.
Anyway, I digress.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Well, I got to admit that I got cussed out for saying
that to my ex.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
What see ya?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
No, no, oh, to my ex.
What see ya?
No, no, no.
She was leaving me because Iwas cancer patient oh because it
was just a couple years after.
It was two years after, butthere was other underlying
issues.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, the cancer may have been induced by stress,
right?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
so at that point, yeah, my crafting survival was
inducing self-inflicted stress,that yeah yeah, yeah, anyway.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So I said infidelity but anyway, but it's crafting
anything in life.
So we had a really interestingsituation happen when we I think
it was our first year of dating, which one.
And going on the backpackingjourney, which I've hiked but
(06:49):
never backpacked before.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Which one?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Takowitz Peak.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And sleeping in the snow.
Just below San Jacinto yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Out of Wild.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
That was quite the adventure.
I definitely learned a lotabout myself in that situation
that I'm not a very goodfollower.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
What was that situation?
And then tell us your takeaways.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I like when you tell the story better.
I you know that was.
I was like, yeah, I want to goon one of those hiking trips,
like you and your brother go on,I want to camp in the snow and
I want to do all that cool stuff.
So you're like, okay, let's doit.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Next thing you know you're getting your ass whisked
up into the mountains.
You're like oh shit.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I no, it was fun.
Got the backpack, got all thegear, we, we went sleeping bags,
little two man tent yeah, wefound a spot to camp crampons.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Well, not full on, but little ice shoes mhm not the
big old, massive, gnarlycrampons, but the snow wasn't
that bad it was like it was likeicy snow.
It had melted a lot and therewas a lot of clear land and you
know patches of snow and stuffyeah, and the straw at the
strawberry junction at 8 800feet yeah there's still, yeah,
patches of snow yeah, and thenup on the mountaintop, obviously
(08:14):
there was snow, ice meltingsnow and ice.
But um, we got a spot we'll talkabout the uh, snowy mountaintop
, talk about the difference andlandscape looking north versus
south.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah Well, one side was icy snow.
It was like an Ansel Adamsphoto.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I wish we were photographers because you know
we need to.
We're adventurers, notphotographers.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, we need to capture them, but it was like an
Ansel Adams photo.
It was like burnt from thefires the year prior on one side
and sunny and the other sidewas like cloudy, gloomy and icy
snow.
Yeah right, like it literallylike divided the peak of the
mountain we were right on theridge of the takowitz, if you're
(09:00):
familiar with the area.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
There's that uh fire watch tower up there, so kind of
funny that a fire burned rightto the fire tower.
Yeah right up there so kind offunny that a fire burned right
to the fire tower.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah right, mm, hmm, yeah, so what?
We found a spot that was clear,behind a nice big rock where we
were going to camp for thenight.
We went and sat on this likeamazing rock and watched the
sunset.
Oh, and that little carve out.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, that rock had that.
I know it's like lazy boylounge carve out in it, and we
lowered down, kind of like we'rein the cockpit of a jet and our
eyes were you know.
Our head was just barelysticking out over the top of the
rock out of this littlecarve-out and all the wind was
gone.
It was silent.
(09:37):
It stood up a little bit.
It was all windy, Squat down.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
It wasn't really windy at that time.
The wind came up later.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
It got worse.
Creaking around in your chairNeeds oil.
Yeah, yeah the wind got worseLater.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Later.
But we saw an amazing sunsetand where we set up on the tent
was behind this big rock to kindof shield us from any kind of
wind and you know, whatever.
But that was not the case.
Yeah, no, we set up this littletwo-man tent right behind this
log Remember, the tent was rightup against the log and we're
like cool, we'll put a fire onthe other side of the log, we'll
(10:16):
sit on the log and have ourfire and our hot coffee and
whatever, behind this big rock.
It was perfect, so perfect,until the wind kicked up Like
gust of wind from like nowhereCrazy, crazy wind and uh, it was
so bad that the tent was gonnablow into the fire that we had
(10:38):
set.
So I had to go sit inside thetent and spread my whole body
out to keep the tent from flyingout.
It's like bending in half well,it did yeah, well, the poles
bent, not in half, but theydefinitely bent the other.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yeah, well, the poles bent, Not in half, but they
definitely bent yeah they werebent.
You were weighing it down andthe wind was blowing so hard.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
The tent poles bent A little two-man tent, yeah, and
at the same time kicked up thefire, and the fire started to
spread into the manzanita.
Bush.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It was like a spirit coming out of it.
Yeah, it just whirled, yeah itwas nuts.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And then you had an emergency fire blanket or
emergency blanket that your dadhad given you.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
It was foil, like aluminum foil things, and you're
running back and forth like ahyena.
Hyena With my tail between mylegs.
Yeah, with snow, hyena, hyena,with my tail between my legs.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, rah, rah, rah, with snow in the blanket, trying
to put out the fire.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
And to get that under control, but then you still had
to get the manzanita trees thatwere lit on fire and the embers
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
They weren't lit on fire yet.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
They were about to ignite.
The embers were in those.
I remember staring at them,going I can't get out of this
tent and I hope you can getthose before they start to light
up, because the manzanita treesare like fire, like just yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Well, not only that, but the embers were in the same
dry oh yeah, and all the pineneedles.
Yeah, the same that I wentclimbing into the manzanita
bushes to get sticks to lightthe fire, all the dead leaves
and twigs.
Then the fire kicked up andblew those embers right where I
had just pulled the kindling outfrom.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
But when you're talking about crafting, survival
, your dad gave you all kinds ofthings you're used to, so you
had an emergency blanket and ashovel where I was able to.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So you had an emergency blanket and a shovel
where I was able to go shovelsnow under the blanket and then
carry the blanket and dump thesnow onto the fire.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, we were going to be the fire out pretty quick
we were going to be those peopleabout to light the mountain on
fire at night time oh my gosh,the fire chief dad and I didn't.
I didn't like wake up in themorning and leave you freak out,
not doing this life with you,right, yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
as the wind kept actually.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
But then, but then right when you finished like
putting out the fire, thefreaking wind went away.
It was like died down, likegone.
It was like let's just put youguys in the most stressful
situation and see how you act.
Let's just put you guys in themost stressful situation and see
how you act.
And it actually made us closernot you know, I wasn't yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
It was a pretty crazy bonding experience, not one
that I'd want to go throughagain, but survived that one,
and so we make it through thenight.
We're good.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
It was so hectic and chaotic it felt like being in a
737 on its way crashing into theground, totally like it just
felt rough and turbulent andshit going everywhere.
You know it was wild it wasvery so.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Then we wake up, we're good, we sleep through the
night.
We had a peaceful evening afterthat and we continued to hike
in the morning and our goal wasto get to the top of the peak
and, um, I'm not a very good umfollower, even though I know
you're way more experienced thanme at hiking and at one point I
(14:11):
get out in front of you,probably a couple times actually
, and I think about it.
And so we're um going along thetrail and we uh, well, there's
no trail because it stopsbecause the snow, and whoever
had footsteps in front of us,they clearly didn't have
crampons or any ability to go on, and we're like we can do it.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
So we were hiking on the trail to get to Takowitz
Peak and as you get towards theend the mountain gets really
steep Right and the trail thatended it disappeared.
People couldn't no longercontinue to traverse past
because it was so steep and icyand it just was dangerous, and
so that was it.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
So we turned around right.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
So we turned around and we start heading back, you
know, retracing our footstepsand as I'm walking, um, you know
back the way we came, and I'mlooking up at the mountain and
I'm thinking that there's aridge on the top, that we could
follow our footsteps back maybea mile or so and then hit this
valley and get to the ridge andfollow the ridge all the way up
(15:22):
to the peak.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
And it worked.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
That's where we saw the Ansel Adams photo.
Ansel Adams photo Now, as we'regoing up, it was sketch in a
couple places.
Remember we had to hand overhand climb and not too high 8
feet, maybe 10 feet, somethinglike that but fully geared up
and gloves and jackets andbackpack and everything A little
sketch.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Rock climbing.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah, rock climbing.
We get to the top, have ourlunch and turn around and start
to head back, and you get infront of me and I yelled at you,
hey, you're getting off trail.
And you're like, no, I'm not.
And you're starting to headdownhill you know steep where
I'm certain that we're not onthe trail and you're like, is
(16:08):
that this?
And so the first time youlistened and you came back
pretty quickly.
You got over your leadershipability.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Lack of.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Wanting to lead and we continue on and then you get
in front of me again.
No big deal whatever.
But then you start to veer offagain and this time you're
certain that that was the way wecame up and you know we had our
little discussion about.
I don't think so.
It's not it remember we got toget on the trip on the ridge.
(16:41):
We're gonna have to figure outhow we're gonna, hand over hand,
climb down the.
You know we haven't even gotthere yet.
You're starting to veer off theridge and so we go for it and
the situation turns sketchpretty quick On the ridge, lots
of rocks and trees and bushesthat have broken the snow and
(17:03):
the ice that allow you to walkthrough and hike through.
So as we get off the ridgewe're hiding behind rock
outcroppings and tree wells toget soft snow where it's not ice
.
And as we keep going, thosetrees and rocks get further and
further apart and now it getspretty sketchy.
(17:25):
We get to a situation where it'sprobably 20 feet between a rock
and a tree, a rock and a hard,a rock and a tree, a rock in a
hard place we were in the rockin a hard place yeah and so, um,
you're still in front of me andyou sit down in the snow, you
know, on the hill, kind of onyour butt, and I freaked out.
Uh, you know, to me it lookedlike you were sitting on a snow
(17:49):
sled and you were just straightdown.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
But I had my feet planted and dug in and I knew I
was secure.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, you had your shoes dug in with the ice spikes
.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I don't know why I sat down.
I just something.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
And I even remember saying why did I?
I just, yeah, I think I neededto relax a little or something,
because we had been intense.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
And so I go around you and I have to get through
this steep part of themountainside that's iced up and
there's no coverage to help meget through and I take my poles
and I start breaking.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It was like a good 200 feet or so right across.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
No, no, no, it was 20 .
Speaker 2 (18:34):
20 feet.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, yeah, because you probably counted the steps.
Well, I have the GoPro.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
We've gone back and looked at it.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, yeah, so the scary part of the GoPro we do.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, got the footage of that.
So I'm breaking ice and I'mstep by step putting my foot
into the broken hole and thenbreaking more ice and taking
another step, and I get acrossthis little sketchy section and
then it's your turn to go andyou start across and at this
point not much is being said,just watching and hoping that
(19:11):
you're gonna get through there,like if I were to fall you'd be
accused of murder very easily itwould be a.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
It would be one of those murder and did, did he do
it?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
stories right because it was, it was gnarly you would
have gone all the way down theface of suicide rock yep on ice,
so your your sleeping bag didso, her, your sleeping bag was
tied to the outside of the bagand for some reason it came
untied and in complete silenceit just slid right down the side
(19:40):
of that icy slope and it wasgone, disappeared.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, and it like did a jump off at the bottom Right.
It was like if you were skiingdown an alpine and went off a
big ass jump.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
We both just looked at each other like whoa Right.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It's a good thing that my sleeping bag from Amazon
, the down feathered $200 plussub-zero sleeping bag that I was
trying to get in time didn'tshow up and I bought it from big
five and it was like I don'tknow 50, 75 dollar backpack.
I mean um sleeping bag whichworked fine by the way um,
(20:22):
because the night was warmerthan we thought.
But yeah, it was a good thing.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I was like thank god oh, we had each other's body
heat.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Sleeping bed.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
We unzipped the bags, made it in bed.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
We didn't do individual body heat, but anyway
, so I didn't lose my expensivesleeping bag, right.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
And I didn't lose my bride.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, we weren't married yet, but hey, Right.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Now we get to tell it .
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yeah so we got through it and then we be be
lined out of there, and that wasthe end.
So that's where we turnedaround when we started the hike
to the peak After we got throughthat sketchy section.
Another little couple steps iswhere the trail had ended and it
was the turnaround point.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that was crazy, but Ithink the lesson for me was that
I had to learn to follow and Ihad to pay attention to some of
the things you did, even to getus through the situation, like
things that I was not accustomedto and not accustomed to that
you know how to do that.
(21:28):
I don't know how to do.
I'm sure I could figure it out,but I wouldn't have been able
to probably, like, react asquickly and do what you did to
get the fire out and to controlthe situation.
Um, I just, you know, just notmy brain's not trained that way
to think and plan ahead like theshovel, all that stuff.
(21:49):
I wouldn't have taken a shovelbackpack and be like, yeah, it's
too heavy, I don't put that inmy backpack, but there's a good
reason that you always have ashovel when you.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I want to make snowmen with you.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
That's funny, yeah, but we've had a few of those
situations, not like that,thankfully.
Now I listen to you Payattention.
But why does the wind love us?
Remember the other time we wentout and we were like out in
(22:23):
near Joshua Tree or whatever,and we had to the butterflies oh
yeah, the butterflies wereamazing, but no, we had to like
park in that like washout orwhatever, because the wind was
crazy and back your truck intoit.
And wherever we go, the wind'slike likes to kick up on us.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Overnight, yeah, in the desert yeah.
You get that a lot.
Yeah, the dramatic shift intemperature hot to cold night
yeah.
Draws in the wind pressurechange.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah, so I want to get like on that whole idea of
like hiking.
I want to get, I said earlier,but a woman by the name of
Allison Levine on our podcastand talk about her Mount Everest
.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
You know, she crafts survival.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, mount Everest.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
She did it twice.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Amongst the other six tallest peaks in the world
right.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Kilimanjaro, Denali.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I think she's done all of them, but she's done
Everest twice and she has a bookabout it and she's a speaker.
She speaks, she's prettyawesome and has her own health
condition that she deals withtoo.
She's pretty awesome and hasher own health condition that
she deals with too.
So, yeah, I would love to bringher on and talk about crafting
(23:39):
survival.
I think she'd be amazingAliving herself.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah, they're going to start talking about aliving.
Yeah, and sometimes it takesgetting sick or having a
traumatic event to kickstart oropen your eyes right.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah to change.
Can we talk about?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
that for a second.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I think you bring up a really interesting point
because at the Cancer Help Deskand the nonprofit, I spend time
on Facebook and Instagram andnow TikTok, and listening and
looking and reading what peoplewrite and say when on their
cancer journey there's, you know, hundreds of thousands of
(24:22):
people on social media withcancer and dealing with or
dealing with cancer and Isometimes like look at it and go
you know, is it an opportunityor is it a death sentence?
I'll be curious kind of yourthought, like as I mean, I think
(24:45):
you're unique in the way youhandled your own journey, but
you know how you conduct yourlife even now is like you talked
about survival, like you're asurvivalist.
It's like you're survivalist.
It's like you're, you know,caveman.
But um, I think it'sinteresting what you just said
(25:05):
because it's about.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
You know.
It presents new opportunity and, yeah, it's unfortunate that
you gotta.
That situation even arisesright and so makes you think
what would I be doing had thisnever happened?
Hiking mountains, but you stilldo it wouldn't have started my
own business that's scary tooyou know, yeah, I was on the
(25:32):
rebound, I was on disability.
I was like shit.
Now's the time.
Get all your ducks in a row andthen figure out what it's going
to take to run your ownbusiness hey, crafting survival
you.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
What's your business?
Because you craft, you're acrafter yeah, construction, yeah
, full circle builders thismessage is brought to you by.
Are you a sponsor now?
Yeah, full circle builders.
This message is brought to youby full circle builders inc.
Are you a sponsor now?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
you're number one sponsor, babe yeah, that's right
.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
The non-profit doesn't have any money, so
hopefully one day we'll getthere yeah, yeah, you can use it
for, you know, if you have theright mindset, opportun, and you
want to chase cancer away withpositive outcomes, or if you
want to be a victim right aboutin our kind of story in our
(26:36):
meeting, and one of the reasonsI moved away, that I wanted to
get out of that town, wasbecause I was held at gunpoint
and sexually assaulted when Iwas 15 and I refused in my mind
to be a victim.
I didn't.
I don't you know.
People would say I'm so sorrythat happened to you and even
when I bring it up now it makespeople uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
And where did this happen?
This was on the path that youwould walk home from school,
right?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
No, it was on my dad.
It was before they built back inthat area and my dad would yeah
, and my dad would um walk backthere and he, um, you know this
path he took.
So of course I mean, whywouldn't it be safe?
So anyway, that's here northere.
But people, people will say I'msorry that happened to you and
(27:21):
I'm like, but it happens, canhappen to anybody.
I mean, I could never like say,yeah, you know, I didn't, I
don't want to dwell in it, Ididn't want to be stuck in it
and I didn't want it to be partof my identity whatsoever.
I just wanted to move past itand and say you know, my answer
was always why not me?
And I still think that, evenwith my own health or anything
(27:43):
like, why not me?
Or why can't these thingshappen to me?
Um, cause they happen to a lotof people, um, so I personally
don't.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Well, that, that's a good mindset for prehabilitation
.
If you had a mindset of why notme?
And do you think tomorrow couldbe my day?
I could wake up and whatevercould change drastically.
And now I got to figure out howto get through it Right Fall
off the mountain.
Family member in a plane crash.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Car crash Right, whatever, sick illness, whatever
Figure it out, yeah, so why notme right off the mountain
family member in a plane crash?
I mean right crash?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
right, whatever sick illness, whatever figure it out
where, yeah, so why not me?
And so if you, like fear.
So then it's like fear todaythat tomorrow could be my day.
How am I going to approach it?
Am I going to, you know, havethat healthier choice at the
buffet, or am I going to decideto go do that yoga or that
workout, or you know?
(28:36):
Or am I gonna sit on the couchand and scroll, or or pour a
glass of wine, or are youtalking about me now?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
since I've been, I've been at a commission with my
knee all right?
No, I'm not talking about you,yeah, but I have been doing
those things right, it soundslike I not talking about you.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah, but I have been doing those things Right.
It sounds like I'm talkingabout you.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
That's not how I hate TV actually.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
I'm like later going to another yoga yeah and then I
get pissed off Me yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
It's not your fault.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
So with that, why not me?
Mindset you know why not me?
Give why not me a reason to whynot you.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Go to the gym, take those extra steps, do those
push-ups when you're layingthere watching TV.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Well, what if you're sick, Okay?
So I mean you're saying thosethings and you know it's not so
easy when you're sick already,like dealing with it.
Like you're like, hey, can yougo to yoga today, day?
And I'm like, do you see myknee?
It's not any better, right,it's fat and swollen and we
don't know why.
But you'll say, you know, I'mlike no, I mean I want to, but I
can't.
And it does get frustratingbecause I want to, I want to do
(29:41):
those things and I know that Ican't.
Now there's other things Icould be doing, right, not going
to hot yoga per se, where Ihave to use my legs to balance
my body, but I could be doingsit-ups and push-ups right in my
upper body, um.
But I get down and frustrated,probably just like most people
do who are not well, and so notthat I'm sitting there going,
why me, I just am frustratedwith the situation, and so I'm
(30:07):
not certain that it's so easy tojust flip that switch and go.
Oh, I'm just going to go to thegym now.
So you know, were there timeswhere which you I wouldn't say
your your journey with beingtreated with cancer wasn't like
easy, but you still continued togo to the gym or you know you
didn't lose too much groundbecause you were already in good
(30:28):
shape.
So I don't think you've gonethrough like debilitating, like
we have some friends who've beensick with cancer, who had
debilitating, you know, who wereathletes, and it became
debilitating because of theirsurgeries and things and it's
hard, it's really, really hardto find your way back.
But does that kind of like?
You know, I wonder, when I seesome of the cases that I see and
(30:51):
people talking about theirillness, with the like rushing
of like like you almost gotrushed into having surgery and
then somebody hit the pausebutton Right, like can we
encourage people to push thepause button and not be rushed
into like making a treatmentdecision?
You know that could change theirlife, that could change their
(31:15):
life and there's I see a lot ofthat in healthcare and and could
you maybe pre-plan kind of whatthat journey is going to look
like?
Okay, well, if I have surgeryand I lose part of my intestines
because that's what happensthen coming out of that, then
the post, post planning, right,but you already gone into it,
right, you plan for that fire,you plan for these different
things to happen in scenariosand I don't see a lot of that
(31:36):
happening.
But anyway, I kind of digress.
I went on a tangent, sorry.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Prehabilitation.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
But I think it comes back to like the.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
You want to preheat, rehabilitate or prehabilitate,
yeah Right.
So we're stuck in a societywhere we rehabilitate.
We're not doing the work before, we're doing it after.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, it's too late, but, as I said, the mindset
though I'm kind of going to themindset thing of the mindset of
why not me, or why me Right, orwhatever I think when you're
already in the situation it'sdifficult.
You know you can't just flipthat mental switch.
Sometimes, Right, and even ifyou could flip the mental switch
(32:19):
, you know you stay thatphysical, Physically you're able
, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
So I think you know if you could flip that switch,
you know, while you're goingthrough it and just do whatever
little stuff for yourself thatyou can, If it's you know you
can if it's you know yeahreading if it's meditating
crafting survival right, it'ssomething that is going to
de-stress your life is reallyultimately?
(32:45):
you know, cancer is a stressgrab that shovel and dig deep,
dig out of the snow, dig out ofthe fire right, yeah, in that
situation, do whatever you canand and that meditation, that 20
minute of breath work mightturn into 16 minutes of breath
work and four minutes ofpush-ups, and so that's breath
(33:06):
work.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
We gotta talk about breath work on a another time
because, uh, I want to talkabout, like the whole w Wim Hof
method and that whole dealbecause that's super interesting
.
His story is interesting too.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Oh yeah.
Well, breathwork in and ofitself is amazing, the responses
you can trigger from your body,your neurological system.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Oxygen to your cells and your brain.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, get revved up, ready togo for a marathon, and you're
not even running a marathon.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
He's got so many ideas of people he could bring
on.
Oh yeah, oh my gosh yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
We could do a podcast in an ice bath, oh my God.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I stay in longer than you, so I got more fat cells than
you, you can do a podcast in anice bath and I'll take off.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Go to hot yoga.
Yeah, you can leave me in theice bath and go to hot yoga.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
You would do that Sauna.
We can do a sauna.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah, anyway, we're going to have to wrap it up, am
I getting it?
Yeah, that's been another.
It's a wrap.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
We've got to get out of here.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Okay, okay, see, we gotta get out of here.
Okay, okay, see ya.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Remember, no matter the challenge, there are
extraordinary people out thereovercoming the unimaginable.
Their journeys remind us thatgrit and hope are powerful.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Join us next time as we continue to explore the lives
of those who face life'sbiggest challenges head on.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Until then, stay strong, stay hopeful and keep
crafting your own survival.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Tune in weekly and follow us on Instagram TikTok
and Facebook this is CraftingSurvival.
You.
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