Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:01
Jeffrey Krug
The American Craftsman Podcast is sponsored by Hayfla. Hayfla offers a wide range of products and solutions for the woodworking and furniture-making industries, from hinges and drawer slides to connectors and dowels, sandpaper, wood glue, shop carts, and everything in between. Exclusive product lines such as Lux LED lighting and Slido door hardware ensure that every project you create is built to last. Learn more at hayfla.com.
00:00:25
Jeffrey Krug
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00:00:51
Jeffrey Krug
Located in Kansas, Ridgecar by Tools provides high quality products with outstanding customer service at a fair price. What are you cutting? shame book Enjoy the show. chain
00:01:06
Jeffrey Krug
All right. Welcome back to the show. What's going on? What are you doing this week?
Kitchen and Flooring Renovations
00:01:15
Jeffrey Krug
You're looking at it. ah oh Let's see. What's today? Tuesday.
00:01:21
Jeffrey Krug
So the week just started. um I spent the weekend and and some time on Friday working on my kitchen. um Friday, left here probably noon and so my plan was to set the last, I had ah five five cabinets to set, four base cabinets and one upper cabinet. And they were all sitting in place, you know, just a matter of,
00:01:49
Jeffrey Krug
getting them perfectly level, screwing them to the adjacent cabinets, screw them to the wall. I get home, and these are all right next to the oven. And my wife is like, oh, she had to go to physical therapy. She's like, could you put these baked potatoes in? I'm like, what? So oven's 400 degrees. I can't work anywhere near it. ah So I ended up ah installing the one upper. I had it just sitting on the countertop. You know, we're just using it like that for now. So cleared that out, put it up on the wall. When your countertops come,
00:02:18
Jeffrey Krug
So they're getting templated tomorrow. Nice. And they'll be installed on Monday. Wow. So you're going to make the the Thanksgiving. Yeah. With countertops at least. That's nice. Yeah. And the table's completely finished. You're using it. You've got. It has a tablecloth on it right now. um I do need to like ah get in there with some um steel wool and just give it a little buff.
00:02:42
Jeffrey Krug
because it you know it it was it was still like leaching a little bit of oil out on the surface. So when that polymerizes, it it's a little bit rough, so you got to get in there. and So you hit it with 4-0 steel wool, any kind of lubricant or just steel wool?
00:02:58
Jeffrey Krug
just steel wool and then I might go, you know, I could go over top with like a really, really thinned out coat of tongue oil just to to bring any of that little bit of like luster back, you know, because you'll, you'll dull it out with the steel wool kind of. And that's going to give you a good strong finish that's not going to stain. Yeah. Wow.
Wood Finishing Techniques
00:03:15
Jeffrey Krug
I have to try that finish. Yeah. I've, I've never used it. I mean, I've used water locks, but that, that becomes a film finish.
00:03:22
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, no, this doesn't. It just becomes one with the wood, you know, and it polymerizes into turns into plastic. It does. Yeah. OK. Will you add extra coats like over the years? um Yeah, like if it ends up needing it, you can you can sand it, scrape it, touch it up. um But like like I was saying, the cutting board that I have, I mean, you're never going to abuse a table like you do a cutting board.
00:03:49
Jeffrey Krug
I think it's used multiple times a day by multiple people. Same milk paint. Same exact finish. And it's made by um milk paint, right? real Real milk paint company. Yeah. Down in Tennessee. I'll have to try that. Yeah, that I've, I've hit with oil once. And it was within the first like year or two that I started using it. And I haven't touched it since I've had it for, you know, close to like six years.
00:04:15
Jeffrey Krug
Well, we have the walnut salt box and it held it's held up great. My wife loves that by the way. And I'm giving, you gave me a cherry one from the last run and um I'm giving that to my mom and she'll love it. She'll use it. I can't believe how much Laurel uses it all the time. And that has the, I don't want to like make myself sound bad or cheapen the thing or anything, but that has the most half-assed because you're putting it on there and letting it dry it's just dunked in and then yeah like there's no like a tabletop where you're working the finish multiple times yeah like so
00:04:48
Jeffrey Krug
Hunter had his last soccer game a couple weeks ago and I was like, oh, it'd be nice to bring the coach a box. So I pulled one out because Leilani did, ah we did like 20 test boxes a while back. So they're just sitting in a box. So I pulled one out, I sanded it with 600 and then I waxed it and it's like beautiful. What kind of wax? Cara Nuba wax. Okay. um And then I brought it home and my wife's like, he has two coaches. I'm like, wow, he has one main coach and then the other guy was like,
00:05:17
Jeffrey Krug
fill in, you know, but I didn't want to make everybody feel bad. So I ended up keeping it for myself. Yeah, I've had that happen with like jars of honey you go and you you have like one jar next, you know, there's like three people there and you're like, oh I'll just leave this in my car. Yeah. yeah um But yeah, with the wax, it's so nice. You know, I won't wax the top of the table. No, I'm sure it's tempting, but you can't do it because then you can't oil it again. Right. But I might wax the base.
00:05:44
Jeffrey Krug
I can see that. I could totally see that. Whenever I make a ah table, I apply like double the finish on the top that I do on the, ah in fact, the trestle table that I made about a year or so ago, I think I sprayed the base with lacquer. And then the top I finished with one or two coats of shellac just to get the white oak to pop. And then I finished it with Halcyon.
00:06:11
Jeffrey Krug
Nice. It's a strong finish. yeah And that way you can just get another coat. I think one of the strongest finishes that are just a ah finish that has lasted the test of time, I built my parents the table about 28 years ago.
00:06:31
Jeffrey Krug
And I finished it with a waterborne finish at a time. I think it was called diamond finish. I can't find it anymore, but that's what it was called. Sprayed it again using the shell, using the ah shellac first. And that's just held up to heavy, heavy abuse for 28 years. Yeah. I did have to go back into it. Like two years ago, my, my mother left a bag of some kind of some kind of a, like, ah I don't know what it was, some kind of bathroom kind of, I don't know, it was a nail polish, some kind of weird thing. And that actually ate into the finish. Oh, I think you told me about that. Yeah. So I ended up scraping it off with a razor blade, you know, using a razor blade as a scraper. Yeah, yeah. And then I went over it with Halcyon. And it looked completely different for a little while. But two years later, it's starting to look pretty similar. That's a table that gets a
Home Renovation Challenges
00:07:24
Jeffrey Krug
lot of use. Yeah, and you know hey, it's better off than if it had that big eat-and-away area, yeah even if it looks a little bit different.
00:07:30
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, the table. I mean, when I say it's gotten abused because she had somebody doing work at her house and there was a light fixture over the table and the guy was like standing on the table without anything on the table. Then he dropped the light fixture. So there's like, it's, it's becoming, um what are you, not rustic, but ah you know, when you beat up a piece of furniture, what do they call that? Distressed. Yeah, distressed. Yeah.
00:07:55
Jeffrey Krug
So you're telling me about something yesterday. What happened with the police? Oh, yeah. Let me just wrap up the kitchen stuff. So Saturday I went and I got a flooring cutter because I'm getting ready to do the flooring. I have a question about the floor. So OK. And then so then I was able to set those base cabinets. Finally, everything takes so much longer than you think. Like um Hunter and I left the house at Ali was working a wedding, left the house at like seven o'clock. We came here.
00:08:38
Jeffrey Krug
two o'clock or something to get all those cabinets set you know I pulled out the oh yeah pulled out the oven because I had to set the two cabinets on either side and then um I realized that the plumber put the gas line where it's into the cabinet the next the cabinet next to it so then I had to go to Jasmine and I had to get a new thing and take that all apart turn the gas off to the whole house dismantle that run new you know change the whole setup for the gas put a new braided line or whatever the uh not braided line you did all that on your own yeah wow um so that was saturday and then sunday i was so wiped out and just over it i kind of sat around until about nine o'clock until the guilt hit me and then i ended up installing all of the outlets which is a lot it's like one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve
00:09:36
Jeffrey Krug
12 or 13 outlets. What are you cutting the boxes out with? What are you cutting? It was all that, you know, the there were boxes with wires. I just had to install the actual outlets. But you had to cut through the cabinet. No, no. These are the ones like in the wall. Oh, OK. Yeah. Wow. Wow. And it's all 12 gauge wire. So it's super stiff. Yeah. And the ones that have two outlets, it's like brutal trying to like stuff it all in the box. How come you're using 12 gauge wire?
00:10:05
Jeffrey Krug
because they're all 20 amp. So my question about the floor, so what is the cutter that you picked up? It's like a guillotine almost. It's got like a big, long handle and it has like a table. Here, I'll pull it up on the screen. And that's what you're cutting your vinyl floor with. Yeah, so I've done it with a miter saw. But is this the one I got? No, I didn't spend that much. This one.
00:10:32
Jeffrey Krug
um I've done it with a miter saw but then it dulls the blades out really quick and also then I have to set up the saw I got to make sure that there's no dust and this is just like oh Sorry, so I thought it was up on the screen if you if you're going to notch though, what are you gonna use to notch? Well that I have to use like a jigsaw or whatever But this is just for the straight cuts and then you can cut angles, but I don't see why I would ask let's make a mental note and make a video just on on vinyl flooring.
Flooring Solutions Exploration
00:11:01
Jeffrey Krug
Okay. We can shoot it in the shop here because I actually want to know more about it. How much? Oh, 150 bucks? Yeah. It's not too bad. Well, if you need to borrow it. Yeah. Well, so what I'm thinking of doing, what's that about three eights, the ah vinyl flooring? ah Yeah, this this will cut like engineered flooring. It'll go up to like 10 millimeters. But but or no your flooring is about three eights. Yeah, probably.
00:11:26
Jeffrey Krug
Because what I'm thinking about doing now, like with my kitchen is we have this old, old tile and there's already a three quarter inch transition. Maybe not. Maybe like a five eighths transition between the dining room and then going into the kitchen where the where the tile is. The tiles lower or higher? Tiles higher. Yeah. So I'm thinking that.
00:11:50
Jeffrey Krug
I might just go just for a quick fix because I can build these cabinets and kind of redo. The thing that's holding me back is ripping out the floor. Yeah. And so I'm thinking, well, geez, I could just go and put a vinyl floor down. We don't like the floor anyway. And that'll give me a ah good kitchen for like I've sort of jokingly said for the, either the next two or 20 years. Yeah. You know what I mean? Um, but I want to move my oven And where the oven is, I don't want anything there. So I'm going to have to just sort of fill that in, and then I could go right over it with the vinyl. And it and as far as the, I have beadboard that goes into a baseboard, and then that has a shoe molding. So I could just take up the shoe molding and run the vinyl into the baseboard, put the shoe molding, or put a new sho shoe molding down, yeah and be super easy. yeah so i think that's And vinyl flooring is probably relatively inexpensive.
00:12:46
Jeffrey Krug
ah yeah I mean, you can get it as cheap as like $1 a square foot. Wow. Yeah, I think the stuff I got it's like close, closer to four. What'd you get? Close. I got it's called smart core just snaps together ultra. Yeah. Snaps together. Does it go down on a membrane of some type? Yeah. So this is I mean, the nice thing about it too, it's just bulletproof that stuff. Yeah.
00:13:16
Jeffrey Krug
and you know they have to this is more of like a character grade kind of thing but mine is like a dark not a dark brown but like a medium brown oak which is like that's a timeless floor medium brown oak it's been around forever it's still around you go with gray floors you're gonna be ripping them out yeah I mean if you're putting gray floors down now you're already late to the party but So I have cherry floors. I have number two cherries. So I've got a lot of sapwood in my floors. So it's probably super light now. It's actually not that light. There's not a lot of sapwood, but there's some sapwood, I should say. right There's also a lot of crazy figure in some of the... yeah So when we bought the house, the the prior owner had finished it with a water-based... He refinished it shortly before we bought the house with a cheap water-based finish.
00:14:08
Jeffrey Krug
And it it was looking terrible. I mean, because like we've talked about, water-based finish on cherry just does not look good. yeah Just kills, just takes away all the life.
00:14:19
Jeffrey Krug
So I ended up hiring Gorseigner. Yep. Did you ever use them? They're great. Oh my god. I didn't have that experience. Really? No. They're the best in the area. Well, this is 25 years ago. Yeah. So I think I just got a bad crew. I mean, it was horrendous. Really? Yeah. And I wanted to do an oil-based finish. I mean, you could just, every time we came back, because we had to take everything out of the house, we have one room that has tile. So we put everything in there and everything in the garage.
00:14:49
Jeffrey Krug
The rest of the house was getting done. Yeah, it's like a week for oil days. Yeah, so we like moved down to my mom's house. And and I would come by after like the supposedly the last coat and take a look. Footprints everywhere, sawdust. Oh, wow. Didn't go underneath the heat registers. And so I'm like GCing this job. It ended up costing me. and So I ended up paying the same exact price, but I ended up getting five coats instead of three coats.
00:15:18
Jeffrey Krug
because it kept having to be redone and I wasn't being a difficult person at all. The guys, like I showed up one time, these guys were just like wasted, just like totally, you know, they're, you know, just drinking and it was, like I said, this is 25 years ago. So I don't even know if John is running it anymore. I don't know. Cause that's who it was. Like, I think, I think, you know, back then I was a lot younger. I want to say it's Brian now. Yeah. So it's probably different, you know, probably,
00:15:47
Jeffrey Krug
probably one of his kids. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Anyway, and I had a friend who had a similar situation with the same company. I used to use beaten brothers. I haven't heard him brothers was out of the Point Pleasant area. Anyway, um so I have cherry floors, but it makes me wonder what would be the transition from a cherry floor into a ah vinyl floor.
00:16:15
Jeffrey Krug
what a What are you thinking in terms of the vinyl? What look? That's what I mean. Do I try to match cherry? That might be a bad idea. Maybe it's better to go with like a dark. Yeah, I would go with something but far away from Jerry. Yeah, because it's going to look plastic and fake. Otherwise. Yeah. So you think that you would go with a ah because they make vinyl that looks like tile. Yeah. Long piece. Maybe that's what I would do. Yeah. You know, go something dark.
00:16:44
Jeffrey Krug
Anyway, that's, I think that's what I'd like to do. Cause I, my kitchen's looking a lot better than it did just a couple of months ago. and And if I do just a few cabinets at a time, I can renovate the kitchen without everybody like moving out of the house. Yeah. And you probably don't have like how big is the kitchen? It's it's not as big at all. I mean, you're talking a couple of cabinets, like as big as this room. Uh, it's kind of like, I would say it's like,
00:17:10
Jeffrey Krug
but what What size do you think this room is? ah This is 20 by 16. Something like that. I measured it at at some point. I'm going to say the kitchen is 12 by 20.
00:17:23
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, so you can easily do the flooring today. Oh, yeah, that's what I mean. Like, the hardest thing will be prepping, you know, like, just cutting some of the moldings away and where the oven is, I don't know what's underneath it. So I might have to fill that in with some kind of what would you fill that in like a concrete board and then go over with a float or something? No, just use plywood.
00:17:48
Jeffrey Krug
Oh, there you go. Yeah. But what if you don't come up to the exact same height? Yeah, you got to stack up whatever, whatever gets you there, you know, just get you there. But isn't there like a isn't there something that you can level like floor leveler? Yeah, put that over top of that. Yeah, to get exactly there. And then what's the membrane made out of? There's, there's different ones. Mine is like a foam, you know, so it gives like another layer of like cushion and sound deadening and And it just snaps together. Yep. And you start at one side. It's like a like you put it in at an angle and then it like snaps down. Where did you start? I haven't started yet. Okay, so I've done it. I've done it several times before but you started like one end of the room just work your way over. Yep. And I would snap reference lines like if you have a place where it needs to sort of like meet up.
00:18:38
Jeffrey Krug
fine. Like for me, I have two doorways. So I'll find the center of both doorways, I'll pull lines back, okay, snap a line, and then make sure that I'm staying. And you're putting yours right on top of subfloor? ah Yes, well, no, it's actually it's, it's finished floor. Oh, you have finished floor in the kitchen right now. Yeah, it's for Oh, wow. I have yeah, VG for in the whole house. And that's what you're keeping in the rest of the house.
00:19:07
Jeffrey Krug
uh well the idea is to my son's room has not vinyl but has pergo the bathroom has some kind of crap that's you don't like fur why would why would it's it's just wrecked oh it's that bad yeah it's been saying it so many times it's down into down into the groove yeah tongue and groove i would love to have vg fur floors i know it's so nice they are nice that's like my favorite or like sugar pine I like the fur better. Yeah. I just like to straight. what What does Fiji stand for? Vertical grain. Oh, yeah. Okay. Fiji. Yeah. Well, you don't kind of see that these days because it's, you know, you're not seeing that kind of lumber. Yeah, you can still buy it, but it's expensive. Yeah, it's about $5 a board foot. Vertical grain fur wear.
00:19:54
Jeffrey Krug
Well, a place like O'Shea or Lewis. or right um You can get the flooring like at any of those flooring supply places. I've had to buy it there before. It was actually cheaper at the flooring places. um Like a couple bucks a linear foot. Yeah, I really like ah Douglas Farr. And I like the narrow boards.
00:20:16
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, I like that too. When we had the gallery in Red Bank, it was a butcher at one time. And then before we we went in, it was a a maternity store.
00:20:28
Jeffrey Krug
and um And then so we got it and the floors were painted gray, just like years and years of paint. And then I put the sander in there and sanded all that down. There's areas that I did hit the tongue and there's a lot of areas that I ended up filling with like what West system epoxy and sawdust.
00:20:47
Jeffrey Krug
And some areas, the paint was still there, but it turned into like this really nice old rustic, like perfect floor for like an art gallery. Yeah, yeah it was really, really nice. Yeah, there's something cool about like a worn in floor, you know, it looked like, ah you know, an old Soho building. Yeah, that's it's exactly what it looked like. Plus, it had 12 foot ceiling. So I i think Yeah, it must have had drops at one point, but we didn't get it with drops thankfully. So I didn't have to deal with all that. It wasn't a, it wasn't like a tin ceiling, but it was still 12 foot high ceilings and it was divided into like four by 12 panels. I don't know what, you know, it seemed like it was almost like Masonite or whatever. Yeah. And then it had a basement and had a full basement.
00:21:36
Jeffrey Krug
pretty shallow, but still useful. You know, when you're paying that much in rents, like anything you can find and you can, you know, little storage spots. Yeah, because there's always crap that you have to have around. Just filing cabinets. Yeah, just stuff like that. I had like a second office down there. I could go down there and like, you know, just do paperwork or whatever. yeah um But so tell me about what happened yesterday.
Community and Surveillance
00:21:59
Jeffrey Krug
ah So I came in here, Jackie was here ah working on my cabinet doors.
00:22:05
Jeffrey Krug
I came in here to do something, whatever, answering an email or something, and the the doorbell rings. So I go, open the door. It's this woman and her, I guess, teenage daughter. She's like, hey, I live across the street. And last night, my car was vandalized. And I saw you have these cameras. And I was wondering if you could check. I said, yeah, yeah, come in. So they came in. And I sat down. I pulled it up on my phone, because I have the app or whatever.
00:22:33
Jeffrey Krug
and i i sent it to this screen and we're looking at it. She starts telling me the story. There's this like love triangle, her husband cheated on her with this woman and she came to the house that night and ah barged her way in and then the cops came and then they arrested her husband and then the woman left and then the cops didn't arrest her. The woman the woman left and then she came back later and and wrecked their car. Oh my God. Totally wrecked it. It was parked right outside.
00:23:02
Jeffrey Krug
um kick the mirrors off, rip the license plates off, dump stuff in the gas, gee in the gas tank, ah windshield wipers ripped off, I think broke windows, and I got i got all of it on camera. I'll show it to you. So yeah. That's wild that you have it all on camera. Holy cow. Yeah, multiple angles. And like she even like walks down the sidewalk and like looks at the camera at one point, because she like would mess up the car, walk away, come back. I don't know who would think that they're not on camera today. That's what I said. I said it to the lady and the cops. I'm like, how stupid do you have to be? There's cameras everywhere. This i mean the main this is Main Street.
00:23:45
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, I mean, you can't do anything today. Like, youre you know, if you're like walking around, you think, oh, I'm going to. Well, I wouldn't do anything like lee just taking a leak or whatever. Like, say like, say you're going to a concert or something like, oh, I'll go. I don't want to, you know, I want to I don't want to be uncomfortable. Forget it. There's going to be a camera somewhere. Oh, yeah. I mean, you if you ever watch like any of those like murder mystery kind of shows, it's like they're like they got the guy because he went to Wal-Mart and bought a candy bar and they found the rapper like.
00:24:14
Jeffrey Krug
Your every move is being recorded. I think the only place that you might be safe is in the woods. And even then I'm like, I might be on deer cameras. If you have a cell phone, you're screwed, you know. If you have a cell phone because you're being. um Yeah, because they know you because you're being tracked. Yeah, right. um Yeah, I don't know how how people get away with stuff. today And it's funny, like, think about think about the um just.
00:24:39
Jeffrey Krug
just the stress that's going on in that whole love triangle there. Holy cow. Who needs that in your life? Yeah. So, um I mean, they were like so fired up. It was like an episode of like Maury in here. It was crazy. They're going crazy. I can't. Oh, yeah. Fuck. Yeah. I can't believe who the cops know these the lady because she was like real fired up about the whole thing. um How old? I'm trying to get a picture of everybody. Hard to tell. Maybe.
00:25:08
Jeffrey Krug
what mid 40s. All right. um So they call the cops. They go outside to wait for the cops. And I'm sitting here trying to. Oh, so I plug in the DVR into here to try and access everything on the hard drive, because on the phone, it's kind of grainy. Yeah. And I couldn't figure out how to because I knew the cops were going to want the the video. So I was trying to figure out how to get it off.
00:25:34
Jeffrey Krug
um So I hooked that up and it's asking me for a password and I remember either setting up or putting in a password with the guy the day that they installed it and none of the passwords are working.
00:25:46
Jeffrey Krug
So I can't figure out how to get in there. So then um then the cops finally come in here. I show them the video. And they're like, yeah, yeah, if you could send it to us. I'm like, OK. So then I like rebooted the thing and and reset the password. And then I go, and all the footage is gone. I'm like, what the hell?
00:26:06
Jeffrey Krug
so the footage is gone and I can't access it on my phone anymore. Oh my God. Yeah, because I could never access it on here because it kept asking me for the password. So then it's gone in both places. So then I'm on the phone with ADT. So that this all started about nine o'clock and it wasn't over until like 1.30. So your whole day? Yeah, but that's insane. Yeah. I mean, it's just your whole day is burned. i It's hard to do that when you work for yourself. I mean,
00:26:36
Jeffrey Krug
It's like you're just never gonna get that back. I know. But I finally, I got the password reset. I got on the phone with ADT and i I actually taught her something because it was like, when you reset, it's like, oh, you gotta reset the time. And she's like, don't reset the time. I'm like, I already reset the time.
00:26:57
Jeffrey Krug
because it it you will never be able to find the old footage. So what does it do? Cycle like every 24 hours or something? or Oh, no, this will hold months months worth of footage. Really? Yeah. And is it ah motion sensitive? Or is it just recording 24-7? It's just recording 24-7. Holy cow. How expensive is this? ah Cost me $1,600, something like that.
00:27:27
Jeffrey Krug
And then, and then I pay a monthly fee. Yeah. Okay. Which I don't know what I'm paying monthly for. And it's ADT. Yeah. Well, I think the monthly is for if the alarm goes off, they have access to the camera so they can see what. Okay. Oh, it's kind of neat to see that it worked. Yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing that video now. Yeah. Yeah. Now you could probably make some money with that on Instagram.
00:27:50
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, I mean it is public. It's the public. So yeah, well, that's the like all these dash cams. You see the things where I was watching something the other day where this woman is driving. She seems like a young woman and you never see her face and she's like, I don't know what these people are doing and they're trying to cut her off and then they pull in front of her and then they back into her. Yeah.
00:28:11
Jeffrey Krug
and It's like this whole scam. Those people got charged. I just saw. Oh, good. Yeah, that's terrible. Yeah, I've seen a bunch of videos. They get out of the car. You're like, Oh, man, what'd you do to us? yeah And it's like those. and Like if you didn't have a dash cam, you're screwed. Yeah, you'd be screwed because it's rear. You rear ended them. yeah That's what it looks like. That's great that they got caught. Yeah.
00:28:33
Jeffrey Krug
So what else is going on? ah'm Still just plugging away on the boxes. I'm really trying to focus on the kitchen because I got a lot to do and there's only what two weeks till Thanksgiving. Yeah, it's amazing. ah What's today? I took down the calendar. Today's the 12th. It's nice. We have an extra week this year. Yeah.
00:28:53
Jeffrey Krug
That's really nice. Yeah. Yeah. I'm doing a, I'm trying to do a project. I've got Brian making plans for it so I can put something up on like, I guess black Friday or maybe, or maybe a Thanksgiving day so I can like promote the plans and actually have a piece of furniture. It's just a fun little step stool. I love making step stools. They're cool. They're fun to make. I'm making out of cherry. I have to make a nice one when the kitchen's done.
00:29:21
Jeffrey Krug
So this one is just, it's got a ah back on it with a handle and a hole drilled into it. So it's easy to move around and it's just one 10 inch step. And for an eight foot ceiling it's like kind of perfect because you can, I can adjust lighting and stuff like that. I made it because in the basement we turn the water on and off for the outdoor shower. ah We haven't had to turn the water off yet, but myself and the kids use the outdoor shower all winter long. really ah if if it's ah you know If we get a string of days where it's not going to be below 32 degrees, we just keep it on. But then to to turn it off, you
00:30:04
Jeffrey Krug
Michael can reach it, but I can't really reach it. I'm i'm kind of like tippy toe trying to reach it. So I was like, I'll just make this little step stool and I can live right down here by the basement. Is it a gate valve or a ball valve? Two bolt ah gate is like a gate is like a wheel. No, it's a ball valve. Okay. All valve.
00:30:21
Jeffrey Krug
and it it works good, you know, and then we just, ah so we turn off the valves and then just open up all the water and it just drains out. Oh, you have hot water there. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. ah I was going to say, man, you guys are freaking crazy. ah We do. So we're, we're in the cold shower. So we haven't been doing the cold plunge because it's been so warm out still. And it's just hard to keep the water cold, but outdoor shower, freezing cold outdoor showers.
00:30:48
Jeffrey Krug
I did that today. It's great. just ah it and you know It's a whole Andrew Huberman thing. I think it's... Do you do you too warm afterwards? Nothing. think No. and so like I feel like you don't get clean, though, with a... Sometimes I'll take a hot shower. like The soap, does it I feel like it doesn't like wash off. so That's the thing. like It takes a while to get the soap and the shampoo out, and you're freezing. It's like showering at the Blackthorn. Yeah, yeah exactly.
00:31:14
Jeffrey Krug
um There's definitely something to be said for it. ah So um I find it really invigorating. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I've done it before. Yeah, it's good. It's good. I know that. ah So you were riding today. I thought, you know, I thought the other day I went mountain biking. I thought, man, Jeff should come on a ride with me ah because it's hard probably for you to get in the woods. You're a little further away. Yeah, I don't know. if Physically, I'm um even up to snuff yet. No, but you could ride with me on these bikes. Oh, my likes oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. you Just to check it out. I think you'd enjoy it because um
00:32:00
Jeffrey Krug
the they're just fun and then then you'd be like oh okay they're here because i know those woods like the back of my hand and i was out there i went out yesterday morning i think i was in the woods by maybe 640 and uh you get because of the daylight savings time yeah it's nice now so i usually leave at like 5 45 So when I'm coming back, the last 15 minutes or so, like the sun is coming up, it's the sky's all pink, it's it's nice. So were you warm on your way back, to because you had the wind behind you? ah Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:38
Jeffrey Krug
It's amazing how that'll happen. Like when you're when you're going against the wind, it's just like a total headwind. Yeah, then when you turn around, it's like you're getting it's almost like there's no wind. Yeah, it's like it's pushing you. Yeah. um Yeah, I gotta I have like stuff um like cold weather clothes, but I got to find you know, something that that'll work well for I end up having to wear almost ah almost like snowboarding gloves because that what gets cold are your digits. So youre you're um your fingers and your toes will get cold. I wear mountain bike shoes. They're always the same shoes, which are pretty good because you can really hurt your feet if you hit a root or something. As far as as far as clothing, i have my wife bought me a a Lulu lemon.
00:33:46
Jeffrey Krug
i'm warm and i'll stay warm even my digits will get warm and then you'll be warm the rest of the ride. It's when you're on the road, like, because you don't have the same wind when you're in the woods. You know, especially if you're deep in the woods, doesn't even have to be thick woods. But if you're deep into it, there's all this windbreak that oh you you're not even wind is like it's not it's a non-event where I am. It's like a wind tunnel coming down the highway. And then the the bay is right there. So I'm just on this little sliver between the bay and the highway. Yeah. Yeah, that's a wind tunnel. Yeah.
00:34:18
Jeffrey Krug
um Like I have, I have like mountain biking shorts that have like the padding. You need that. So I don't know if there's paint. I'm assuming. Have you gotten used to riding? Like, I know like the first two weeks, it's like, holy cow, this is pretty painful. and Yeah. This morning, like it was, ah it was bothering me more than it had. But sometimes I feel like you just sit differently in the shorts, kind of like shift or something.
00:34:40
Jeffrey Krug
I know that like, if I don't ride the bike for a long time, it's like one or two days. And then you just sort of get used to it again. Yeah. I don't, but anybody who I take on a ride who doesn't ride, they're always like complaint, not complaining, but like, um, yeah, kind of complaining like, wow, this is kind of rough. Yeah. Like I've gone ah on a couple of rides with Allie and Hunter, like on a Sunday or something, nothing crazy, but.
00:35:06
Jeffrey Krug
ah you know I don't wear them then, yeah and I didn't have any any discomfort at all. But yeah, the first, like when I first started riding on my old bike, it was painful. Yeah. It takes a while. It's like you kind of just build up a tolerance, but then there's not even any, doesn't even bother me. I just get on the bike. But I always wear bike shorts, and I have i have the short bike shorts, and then I have long bike pants, but you have to wear the shorts underneath it, ah look because there's no padding on the Fox.
00:35:34
Jeffrey Krug
I have like long Fox pants are made. Yeah, I was wondering if they had made pants that have the padding built, oh you know, good or just underwear go to Jensen. I think it's Jensen is a pretty good, ah pretty good supply store. Yeah, you can find good clothes there. That's where I i picked up some break shoes there recently and I picked up these Fox ah long pants.
00:35:57
Jeffrey Krug
You know what I did do is I moved my brake levers way down. And that helped with the discomfort in my hands because they were up too high. So I was having to rotate my wrists to really do them. So now it's in a way more natural spot. They're almost straight down. Yeah, that makes sense. Mine are probably at a 45 degree. Mine aren't that, they're not that severe, but they're definitely not up.
00:36:27
Jeffrey Krug
It's amazing how all those little things make a big difference. Yeah, so I've just been playing around with it. I'll ride and make a note in my head of what I think I need to adjust and and move them a little bit. like So I think I got the brake levers in a pretty good spot, but I want to move the shift levers a little bit now because I kind of have to like pull my hand up to get them so I want to rotate those a little bit. Cool. That's good that you're riding. So you think you'll do it all through the winter? Yeah, we'll see.
00:36:57
Jeffrey Krug
I guess depends on how cold on the day. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, so Monday I didn't ride because it was just like crappy out in the morning. Oh, that's right. Yeah. It was like real wet. That's why I rode, because the woods have been so dry that they they're pretty slick because they're too dry almost. So the rain locked it up. Yeah, yeah. Made it kind of nice. So this week, all right, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday instead of Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You do any other exercise or you're just riding right now? No, yeah, just that for now. Cool. Well, we'll see what it leads to. You have shoulder, any shoulder issues or
Fitness and Health Discussion
00:37:34
Jeffrey Krug
anything? ah Yeah, a little bit. All right.
00:37:37
Jeffrey Krug
So you can't do any upper for body without messing up your shoulders. Or you could do curls or fly. You could probably do flies. No, if like chest flies like this. Yeah. No, that gives me shoulder. Michael. Bench press too. Follows my shoulder. Push ups, everything.
00:37:54
Jeffrey Krug
Push-ups, I'm really fortunate because I i only have an issue with my wrists, and ah if I use dumbbells to do push-ups off of dumbbells, then it doesn't hurt my wrist. Michael, who got shoulder surgery, I think about a year ago, ah it was a big deal. He had injured his shoulder a few years before that on a skateboard and just kind of got progressively worse.
00:38:19
Jeffrey Krug
He ended up injuring his other shoulder, and he's in like an amazing shape. like he He does something like, I think it's like 100 or 200 push-ups in like 30 minutes. Not push-ups, pull-ups in like 30 minutes. I saw the one, he but what did he like run to? He ran somewhere crazy in back. Yeah, he's he's in like amazing shape.
00:38:43
Jeffrey Krug
so he was He was coming back home from somewhere, and he he saw this tree. He's like, oh, I'll do a tree sling when there were kids. You'd climb up a tree, and then you kind of kick off, and the tree lets you down. Oh, OK, yeah. And he pulled his shoulder out, injured his shoulder. And I was all nervous. I was like, oh my god. are you Because like he was really concerned that he had injured his shoulder seriously. You could almost feel it pop as he moved it. Right.
00:39:11
Jeffrey Krug
ah But it it did get better. Then he went to the doctor and the doctor looked at him and said, now you're fine. you're And he is fine now. But ah I was like, oh my God. Because he lives to work out. Yeah. And when you're, you know, when you're doing that all the time, next thing you know, you can't, you kind of fall into a little bit of a, ah you know, not a depression, but you just like, it's a bit of a rut. Yeah, it's falling to a rut. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure with some physical therapy, I could get my shoulder back to being fine. But you know, we got to make time for it. Yeah. And my back, my back is feeling a little bit better. I don't know what it is, but
Gardening Struggles
00:39:52
Jeffrey Krug
Doing any leaf cleanups at your place? ah ah So Saturday, actually, after yeah saturday after I finished in the kitchen, I went outside. I blew all the leaves into the grass because I have all the stone in the back. Blew them into the grass, mulched them. It was crazy. It was covered like thick, like six inches covered. Mulched it down. You can't even see the leaves anymore. Really? Mulched them right into your lawn? Yep. Wow.
00:40:18
Jeffrey Krug
Wow. So i i I have like three areas in the backyard and the rocks sort of kind of go. There's, in the back corner, there's a garden bed that I made that my wife doesn't use anymore. Then I have mulch with a swing set. Then I have a little patch of grass. And then I got the stones in the middle. Then the other side is the bigger area of grass, like the side yard. And um I blew a lot into the garden bed and mulched those too. And then there was just a little bit in the side yard. And the mower, your electric mower handles that, no problem. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. And the blade is like,
00:40:50
Jeffrey Krug
trash because sticks, I run them over. Yeah. Rocks, I hit them. I don't, you know, I'm not. Did you ever use the planter? No. So did it just sit outside? It's just sitting there. Yeah. You may be planted next year. Yeah. Tell you what, the bottom, all those bottom boards swelled up and they're like all sticking up in the air. Are they made out of oak? Yeah. Did we build that at a white or red oak? White oak. Okay. Yeah. So you just have to trim them down. Yeah. Yeah. That'll work.
00:41:20
Jeffrey Krug
ah can't believe I thought we left enough space. So did I. I was surprised. Wow. Yeah, because I think there was like a quarter inch between each one. And I think i think those were just finished with oil. I think I put on um like Danish tongue oil or something from Total Boat. yeah I think I finished it at my shop. Yeah. My wife loved it. She just didn't do anything with it.
00:41:45
Jeffrey Krug
Gardening you know, I think if you don't start guard like planting the garden like in May you sort of lose your interest Because I know like I get into July. I'm like, okay, I'm done done with the yard Well, her problem is she starts too early. So she'll start in like February or whatever in the house with seeds planting the seeds little greenhouse inside Well, you know let them um germinate and then sprout and then she plants them and then then she
00:42:17
Jeffrey Krug
phones it in. It's like this is the part where you have to like be out there every day watering them, weeding, you know. That's the thing. So my wife's really good gardeners. Like she loves planting flowers. She's not as much in the vegetables. I do most of that. But she gets some really great flowers growing. Then she loses interest and it becomes a weed bed. And then I get a little annoyed because I want like this time of year, not even this time of year, like a month ago, I want to cut everything back so I can do a better leaf cleanup. But some things you're supposed to cut back some things you're not supposed to cut back. And it just turns into a rat's nest. It's just terrible. Yeah. So like,
00:43:03
Jeffrey Krug
I don't know. And then I'll go out there and i'll I'll end up doing it anyway. And then just like, sometimes I'll just use the weed whacker and whack everything down. It seems to come back anyway. Yeah. But we have like really nice iris and poppies and a lot of nice things. It always looks good in the spring, but man, it looks terrible right now. And I'm not going to tell my wife that. I still have big elephant ears. Uh, yeah, I've got some of those. You're talking like hostas.
00:43:29
Jeffrey Krug
No, we talked about this one time. They're different. They are different. Okay. Yeah. But they seem like the same family. Hospice are like real low to the ground though. No, no. Not really. No. I mean, my elephant ears are like almost five feet tall. Oh, no. Yeah, this is a totally different thing. I'm i'm thinking like maybe 18 inches. Yeah, no, these, the stems are three. Okay. The leaves, I mean, leaves could be this big.
00:43:54
Jeffrey Krug
All right. Yeah. Well, you'll cut them back, right? You'll cut that back to the quick, won't you? They're a bulb. You're supposed to actually pull them up. But in the front um is my basement is right there.
Winter Challenges and Snow Removal
00:44:06
Jeffrey Krug
So I think enough heat emanates out like where they don't die because we didn't pull them up last year and they came back. You just came back. Yeah. And we're not getting that cold. Yeah. We're not getting these hardcore winters. It seems like when we when we moved into the house 27, 28 years ago,
00:44:24
Jeffrey Krug
We had a couple of winters where we had like three feet of snow. yeah I've got pictures of ah just you know pathways, but just trying to dig out that um just trying to dig out from the driveway. and that was I remember just digging that driveway and wishing I had a snowblower. Finally, I bought a snowblower about two or three years ago. And of course, we haven't really had any snow since.
00:44:52
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, we'll get like one shovel shovel a bowl or two. Using a snowblower is actually kind of fun because it's you know what you remember what it was like shoveling. Yeah.
00:45:06
Jeffrey Krug
the um the main thing is to make sure it'll start that's uh that's the worst when you have a snowblower and you get snow and you can't can't get it started yeah especially if you're not like a small engine guy and it's not like you know do you have a snowblower you don't need one no i've thought about it but again like we bought the house whatever it is, three, four years ago now, and I've only had to shovel half a dozen times. So I'm like, do I spend 1,500 bucks or whatever it costs, 1,000 bucks to get a snowblower and then what's just gonna sit there? Yeah, and then it'll sit there and then it's not gonna start because the gas is gonna go bad in the carburetor. Yeah, or I go electric and then it's insanely expensive. Do you think they're any good? Yeah, I mean, there's an ego snowblower. All right.
00:45:52
Jeffrey Krug
i Well, so I ended up buying whatever they sold at Lowe's and it worked great, but then I couldn't get started like the second year and then my brother helped me. He's like a, he's um he's a small engine whiz and we got it started and now what I do is I run it empty and then I put a little true fuel in it and then I run that empty.
00:46:20
Jeffrey Krug
I was using the stable, cleans everything did it didn't work yeah because I guess the ethanol, like the stable works great in my four wheeler and my chainsaw and my my ah Bobcat lawnmower, but i I think that the, I think that the snow blowers that you get from Lowe's are just crap. Yeah. What is it? Like a Toro or something? Yeah, yeah exactly. um Do they make fuel? Craftsman, it's a craftsman. Okay. Do they make fuel injected?
00:46:45
Jeffrey Krug
snowblowers I don't know that's the thing like your car always starts yeah how come they can't make a snowblower well motorcycles like my brother's really into motocross well not so much motocross but like enduro riding and ah all the all these motorcycles are now fuel injected yeah there's no carburetor And in fact, he he still uses it. he One of his bikes is a two-stroke. you You would have thought that they would phase out two-stroke, but the power that you get from a two-stroke just is so, so much more than a four-stroke.
00:47:21
Jeffrey Krug
that um like I think is KTM 300 with fuel injection and and it's oil injection too. You don't mix oh i don't mix oil in the gas. It's all done. ah It's way more powerful than is 530 KTM. And that's a four-stroke. yeah so like the And it's a much lighter. I mean, so it's the 300 is faster and lighter. It's you know it's amazing what these these bikes do today.
00:47:49
Jeffrey Krug
I wanted to ask like are there you know because I looked at like some trails and stuff are there like cross-country trails like I you know something that's like um not so severe yeah yeah yeah there's definitely trails like when I take somebody out there's trails that I avoid I'll be like you know I'll assess the guy I'm riding with I'm like let's not do this you know because it's no fun for it's no fun for me either the person's like freezing up on a trail. It's not that these trails though are not that aggressive, but there's still some areas that are really Rudy. The reason why you would do fine ah is with a pedal assist. You can keep your momentum up and that's all part of it sometimes like just going up a hill. Yeah. If you can go up a hill at
00:48:40
Jeffrey Krug
six or seven miles an hour, as opposed to two or three miles an hour, it's going to be easy, easier to keep, you know, centered. Oh, yeah. and That's what I've been trying to tell Hunter because we're, you know, teaching him how to ride a bike. I'm like, the faster you go, the easier it is to stay up. You know, it's a gyroscope.
00:48:57
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah. Well, is he six or seven? Six. So the the thing is, it's like you almost have to teach them when they're, they're not afraid yet. Like when you get into six or seven, they're starting to think they're, I think they're more afraid. Yeah. More afraid of falling or they, they realize it more. Yeah. we I mean, we've been trying for a long time for years and like, you know, he just sort of would write it off. And so we're just trying to get back into it.
00:49:23
Jeffrey Krug
I think we talked about this. If you can get him out on like even some of the fields where he's on the grass, it's not as scary to fall on grass. Yeah. We went, we took him on the Henry Hudson, like down Atlantic Highlands to like, not this past Sunday, but the Sunday before. So that's, that's not. um It's gravel. It's gravel. It's also kind of narrow. Like, so if he makes it, if he gets wobbly, he's going to go off the trail. Yeah.
00:49:52
Jeffrey Krug
You know, like I would probably bring them right over to Croydon Hall and just put them on the, on the field there, right on the baseball field. Yeah. And just give them a push. Uh, and you know, we've already talked about this where you put the seat lower so he can push and push and just pick his feet up. But that, that always seems to be, yeah, that he won't do. Cause he says it hurts. He says, Oh, it hurts my balls. I don't know. He sounds like a lot of excuses. Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:50:19
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, like, you know, Ali's like, I'm never going on a bike ride again because the last one, it was just like, you know, he gets real upset when he like. Well, you can't keep up of your own training and wheels. it's You don't have the flow and it's not even fun. It's like, I, I re I, I feel like I somehow remember that. Like it wasn't fun. Like you can't lean into your turns. You know what I mean? It's, yeah it's, um, it's like more awkward, but once, once he rides and this sort of feels that sort of flying sensation, he'll probably love it. That's what I keep telling him.
00:51:09
Jeffrey Krug
so there's a big difference you know when they're um when one of them is like 11 and the other one is seven, you know, in height. Yeah. So like Jack could touch the ground, like with one foot, Michael couldn't touch the ground or all ride this. I think I had a Honda.
00:51:27
Jeffrey Krug
Honda CRF 150 and they all, I just ah just so gave them a push and said, just go. But they were out on the field and they all learned how to ride it. kind of a they They had some funny, I think back at some of the things that the kids did. there's I have this one video of Michael. He's probably nine or 10. He's wearing a pair of jeans, no shirt.
00:51:51
Jeffrey Krug
And he's he's digging this hole and he's making this jump that's like three feet tall. it's just like He's just building this gigantic jump and the motorcycles on the kickstand. And i I have a video where I'm asking about it.
00:52:06
Jeffrey Krug
And I'm like, okay, go ahead to hit the jump and I'll hit it in slow motion. And of course I'm like, yeah, just be careful. Meanwhile, he's got no helmet on, no shirt, pair of sneakers, no socks. And he hits this jump and I've got this this video of him flying through the air with ah the front wheels super high. Like it's not like a very controlled thing, but it still looks cool.
00:52:28
Jeffrey Krug
And, uh, literally he must've been, I would say five feet high and probably went like 10 or 12 feet long. I got this whole thing on video and it's like one of those things I want to put on. And he lands the jump. He lands it. Yeah. Yeah. It's just funny. He's like to think about the stuff that the kids did. I'd be like, don't do that. I'm like, I don't want to go to the hospital right now. I guess I was just like, I don't know. I guess go for it. You know, they used to do snow, uh, snowboarding jumps one time.
00:52:57
Jeffrey Krug
We had this four-wheeler, it's a 250, it doesn't have four-wheel drive, it's just in the rear. And um we ended up getting probably seven or eight inches of powder on the hay field across the street from the Vermont house.
00:53:14
Jeffrey Krug
And I have all this video of these guys getting pulled around on this four-wheeler. It's wild. Oh, like with a sled behind? No, on snowboards. And they made these gigantic jumps. You know what it was? i like That's the kind of kid I was. I was always skateboarding and doing stuff like that. So when the kids like were interested in it, I was like, OK, let's go. And you know they would do these like insane things, like know jumps. and It's definitely, I think, there is something good about that. um I was never, I never did crazy stuff like that.
00:53:48
Jeffrey Krug
That's, I wasn't a football guy. I was like riding bicycles and motorcycles and skateboarding and doing jumps and stuff. So when the kids, you know, when the kids, uh, wanted to do stuff, I was like, yeah, let's go. And there's video of them like going down the the hill behind the house in Vermont and doing like backflips, you know, jumps, doing all kinds of stuff on a snowboard on a snowboard. Yeah. I got a video of Jack doing it, but I don't think the, I don't think Walter.
00:54:16
Jeffrey Krug
And Michael did back flips, but Jack definitely did. Wow. Yeah, we used to. ah So where I grew up, the house is just surrounded by fields. You know, one year would be corn, next to it would be soybeans. So so in the winter when it snowed a lot, my dad, we would tie a rope to the hitch of the truck and with one of those saucer sleds. First it was like a radio flyer. Then we got like the saucer and we and he would drive in the field. That's awesome. And like go real fast and then turn and that thing would like swing out, you know, like you see people in like a water. Yeah, a water swing shot. Yeah.
00:54:48
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, it's good to do all that stuff with the kids. And it'd be real with them, too, and tell them, OK, this is dangerous. Don't do this. I think I i mentioned this before. like we We would get in. I taught them all about the rivers. like you know yeah Have fun in the river, but be careful. you don't you know The river's really powerful. yeah you know like i I would say don't go near anywhere near logs, because you'll just get stuck under it. And there's nothing you can do. Oh, yeah. I listened to this podcast called um Let me pull it up so that I don't get it wrong. um It is called this is actually happening. And it's all of these crazy stories. It's a person, it's like a monologue, ah the you know, people telling these crazy stories about their life.
00:55:37
Jeffrey Krug
ah ranging from it runs a whole gamut like think of the craziest experience you can think of they've done a show about it really ah the one I was listening to today this woman um they went to this river there were like these waterfalls or something and she jumped in and she got stuck on something and a guy jumped in and saved her but then he got stuck and he died oh god um So yeah, and it, you know, talks about that whole experience in our life. And yeah, I mean, you see, so you can see people do things like even in the ocean, like people don't respect the ocean and you'll see people.
00:56:18
Jeffrey Krug
do such questionable things. And then especially on the internet, you'll like I saw somebody where it was like a couple in Russia, and they were going to get a photograph. And one of the waves just grabbed them. I don't think the the woman ever got out. And you could see, like how could that? You know what I mean? Because you can fight it for three or four minutes. And then if you're not in shape, you're just going to be completely gassed. Oh, yeah. And unfortunately, my my son Jack, he had a friend who was in Hawaii and he ended up dying. He wasn't a surfer. um He was just there and he and a friend were ah at some beach and ended up ah
00:57:04
Jeffrey Krug
getting pulled out and he didn't make it, like they they never found him, they never found his body. But then it turned out that like it's a notorious beach and it really, everybody was like, why isn't it, why isn't there more signage? right You know, but the thing is you,
00:57:21
Jeffrey Krug
I think if you're familiar with the ocean, you have more respect for the ocean and some people don't, they just, they don't realize, okay, that thing can come up and you know, that wave can come up, pull you out and you're never going to get back
Ocean Rescue Story
00:57:33
Jeffrey Krug
in. Yeah. ah Did I tell you about the guy who I, I saved this spring out in the ocean? Yeah, yeah it was a boogie boarder. I'll just tell the story real quick. I took my daughter Olivia, she wanted to go skimboard. This is probably April. And I had already been doing the cold plunge all winter long. So I wasn't, I was kind of like thinking about going in the ocean. And I saw this guy go out on a boogie board. And because he was on a boogie board, and he had a wetsuit on, I thought, Oh, this guy knows what he's doing, whatever. He was just sort of on in the corner of my eye.
00:58:08
Jeffrey Krug
and then um And then I saw the boogie board got washed in and he was sort of stuck in an area, but I thought he was just going to body surf in. I i was assuming that that he had fins on right because if he's out on a boogie board with a wetsuit in April, he probably has fins on and knows what he's doing. Then I look over and he's waving his hands and I go closer. Now he's screaming for help and I'm like, holy cow.
00:58:33
Jeffrey Krug
So I grabbed this boogie board and I went out to him. And so I stripped down to just my shorts. And it was cold, but it was like, it was good that I was doing that cold plunge. And now I'm getting close to him and I'm like, Oh man, this guy's going to drown me. So I get off the board and just pushed it to him. And it was, he was kind of getting to where he could touch and he grabbed the board and, and then a white welder came and pushed him and I swam in and he was so thankful. Like he was kind of, um,
00:59:07
Jeffrey Krug
He looked like a pretty rugged dude, like in his mid-20s. But he was gassed and he was frightened for his life. And then he just sat on the beach. Like, I i went over to my daughter where she was still skin-boarding and we were just talking. He sat there for probably 20 minutes. Like, he was just totally shooken up. Yeah. Yeah, I've been like overtaken by water before. It's just it's a terrifying feeling. Yeah. you know to just there's nothing you can do, no you know? Like I've been swept down river, fly fishing, like. Oh, that's with waders on? Yeah. Oh my God. Waiters full of water in cold water. Holy cow. That's scary. You know, when you can't touch the bottom and you're just, you're just going down. What time of year is that? That was ah April. When was that? Upstate New York. ah Two years ago. Freezing cold. Holy cow. So tell me how that what went wrong. I just walked out too far.
01:00:02
Jeffrey Krug
you know, you're you're just trying to fish different spots. And it was a spot where you cross and there's an island and you know, I'm trying to I'm walking downstream and You know, sometimes you just take a step out too far and it's a drop off or, you know, you just hit that buoyancy point and your feet come off the ground. There's nothing you do. Wow. You can't you can't get your feet back down. Now, as soon as they come up like this, I thought maybe you had slipped and went down, but no, you know, I've i've fallen in before because it's easy to fall because it can be a pretty slick bottom. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the currents real strong. So I fell in in February once. That was really cold. President's Day weekend.
01:00:42
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, that's terrifying. I was going to say, what was it Saturday? You texted me about the fish? Yeah, I did go. i It was Friday. When I texted you, I was like, I'm just probably working on his kitchen. Yeah, yeah. A friend of mine texted me, said the fish are out.
Fishing Adventures and Regulations
01:01:00
Jeffrey Krug
So it was like 2.30, I think, 3 o'clock. And my daughter didn't have school last week.
01:01:07
Jeffrey Krug
So I said, hey, you want to take a ride down there? And we we went down. There was a lot of guys on the beach. ah We went to parking lot, I think, see Sandy Hook. It's just easy to get to the beach there because you can take a right and then kind of walk over the jetty, cross the bike path, walk over the jetty in the oceans right there. Otherwise, you can have to walk a far distance to get to the water and Nobody was catching anything. ah And I couldn't I couldn't see any activity. There were no birds. So we just kind of looked at everything for a little while. But I know that people did catch him. Yeah. I don't know if they caught him off the beach or people were catching him in boats. The ah the guy I know that works on a boat so that they've been south of here on the beach. Really? Yeah. So down like ah Bayhead area. ah Yeah, I guess. Point Pleasant. Maybe maybe not even that far. Maybe Long Branch. Who knows. But because his boat comes out of Leonardo.
01:02:00
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, I'd like to get out. It's just, I don't know, I have a hard time, like, I just have a hard time getting out and fishing. I think... Yeah, I would like to just do a charter, you know, just get on a boat, just even if it's a party boat. Because then it's convenient. Yeah, it's... ah the The thing is, like a party boat, any boat, it's a time commitment. Yeah. I mean, I think I told you, I got super into them last year with Peter.
01:02:30
Jeffrey Krug
Didn't I tell you that one? So my my buddy Peter, he he has a boat, but he has friends with all like these crazy boats. And so he calls me up one day. He's like, hey, the fish are out. You want to go? We're going to take Scott's boat. I'm like, OK.
01:02:47
Jeffrey Krug
So we go out on his buddy's boat and we don't we were planning to go all the way over to um oh ah Coney Island. Yep. And we got right around where the ah ah the naval base is there. Yep. And they were just all over the place. Like so thick like you could like felt like you could walk on them. Was that the day you guys shot the video? Yeah.
01:03:11
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah. And we caught so many, but they were all too big because it's such a small... It's like 28 to 31 or something. 28 to 31. So you got a three inch you know yeah area where you you can't keep them otherwise. That's the only size you really want to keep though anyway. I know.
01:03:27
Jeffrey Krug
I tell you what though, I love blues, like a 15 inch blue, like what do they call those cocktail cocktail blues? Yeah, I mean, I like so I like snappers too. Snappers are great on the grill. I haven't tried them. ah They're really good because you don't have to even scale them. Do you have to scale blues? Are you just you? I don't know.
01:03:48
Jeffrey Krug
But you definitely have to do it. You definitely have to scale bass. Oh, yeah, their scales are big. Yeah. feel like ah Like a trout, you don't have to scale. You can eat the trout skin, the salmon, you can eat the salmon skin. I'm not sure about a blue. Yeah, I don't know.
01:04:02
Jeffrey Krug
i think I feel like they have that smooth kind of skin. I think they might, yeah. yeah But you get like a 16 inch long blue, just clean it out, fill the cavity with lemon and garlic salt. It's so good. ah It's delicious. I've eaten a handful of bluefish over the years and I just found them to be If they're too big, they're going to be gross. Yeah. But the trick is so fun to catch them. Oh, they are. It's one of the best fish. They kind of get looked at as like a I was like a nuisance. But I went to the mud flats once right there by Leonardo Marina between sort of like ah between the lighthouse and the marina. And, you know, somebody same thing got a call. The bluefish are going crazy in the mud flats. Drove down there with my buddy with waders went out there. You know, you end up taking off
01:04:51
Jeffrey Krug
one hook first, would so you just have one treble in the back, then you take off the treble, put a single hook because you'll pitch the bar, be exhausted. so piece of fish Every cast, every single cast, yeah big.
01:05:04
Jeffrey Krug
30-inch bluefish, the head is like you know a monster. Now, how are you getting them off of the hook? Because you're you're in the water, so you got a big pair of pliers. usually Usually, you drag them up onto the beach and then, yeah, grab the hook with a pair of pliers and just shake it until... Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they they are vicious. like They actually look to bite you, I think. like they ah yeah That's what Peter was saying. He's like, they actually are trying to bite you.
01:05:30
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, I wouldn't wouldn't be surprised. You know, call them like yellow eyed. They're like alligators. they They are so much fun to catch. i I'd actually rather catch blues than bass for two reasons. Every time I've been bass fishing lately, you can't keep them.
01:05:45
Jeffrey Krug
So and it's a different fight. Bass don't really fight. No, it's like pulling in ah a dead weight. Yeah, it's pulling a dead weight where the the blues. I mean, holy cow. Especially, you know, you go out in the river with some smaller tackle. It's like a lot of fun. Yeah, like I've caught big bass. like I caught it probably like a 40 pound bass and it wasn't like it wasn't like a fight that I'll remember, you know. And then you had to let it go, right? Yeah, I would have anyway, but You wouldn't keep a bass if it was um like in the slot in the 28 to 31? I used to keep one a year. That was a oddter so good. Yeah, it's not my favorite fish to eat. It's good, but I like it. What's yours, tuna? I like tuna. I mean, I like all fish, but um I'm mostly a catch and release kind of guy. It's also just talk about a time thing. You catch a big ass bass, you kind of bring it home, got it, then you got all the guts, the scales, the scales go everywhere.
01:06:41
Jeffrey Krug
Well, when I used to trout fish a lot up in Vermont, I would never, I i always used to pinch the barbs. And I was always fishing with a spinner because I was with the boys and they were like running around throwing rocks, whatever. I was always trying to keep like a couple, you know, 50 or a hundred feet away from them. Like I'd walk up river and they'd be playing down river.
01:07:05
Jeffrey Krug
And if you caught a fish, then he was like, okay, now I have to like carry the fish. Yeah, it's like, do I have ice? Yeah.
Fish Cooking Techniques and Tips
01:07:11
Jeffrey Krug
So, yeah, so I'm in the same boat where I wouldn't want to keep it. But occasionally, you'd get one where I would just suck the lure down. Yeah. And you're like, there's no way this trout's gonna make it. And then I'd bring them, you know, I just I'd throw it in the back of my vest had like a little pocket in it. Yep.
01:07:29
Jeffrey Krug
and clean them up and and it was good. But yeah, it's not my, but I love bass and I love those smaller blue fish are great there. So the trick is when you cook them on the grill, you got to really let them almost burn. Yeah. And then, and then flip them to cook a lot of that like oil out. Yeah. And it's just, uh, you're trying to like cook one side and cook the other side and then it's done, you know, and it's good. I like fluke a lot.
01:07:58
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, fluke are good. I think that I'm gonna be in the minority here, but one of the best eating fish that we have here is a porgy. I wouldn't know what that is. No? No. I think some some people call them spot. No. Oh no, a spot's different. You never caught these? no Yeah. No, that looks like a good eating fish though. Yeah, it's just like a little... Yeah. I don't know what that is. That's not a porgy like I've ever seen. They look like this.
01:08:28
Jeffrey Krug
These, um we went out towards like Coney Island one time and you these are like, they school up and it's like every drop. you get You hit doubles because you fish with like a high low and you'll get two on every. So what do they run? Like 16 inch, 12 inch? No, yeah, between four and id say 12 inches would be a big one. yeah have to They look like you have to scale those.
01:08:51
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, but it's really easy. Okay, so I would like scale it um Cut a couple of slits in it and just like cooking in hot oil on both sides like pan-fried nice So good or croaker croaker is another good one croaker. I think they call a spot. All right um It's almost like a little drum, okay, so it tastes like redfish Would you ever eat that like sushi though?
01:09:19
Jeffrey Krug
No, I wouldn't eat anything out of these waters. like so I've eaten bass. I've definitely eaten bass out of the ocean. I don't think that's only that's ah recommended. All right. You never filleted a bass and found the parasites and stuff in there? Yeah, um I haven't. But we've had filleted bass.
01:09:38
Jeffrey Krug
ah I didn't see them, you know, and this is a little while ago. So I guess everything's all right. Yeah. Bass to me, I don't know, has
Market Curiosities and Upcoming Content
01:09:46
Jeffrey Krug
almost like a dirty kind of taste to it sometimes. I don't know, man. I really like it. Yeah, whitefish. I just I like it a lot. And I think it's got a great texture. Oh, yeah. Yeah. One of myri good one of my favorite fishes for sure. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Stripe bass. So expensive. If you're trying to buy that in the market. Yeah, because they don't commercial fish for but I don't know how that works, though. I don't either. If they if you can't commercially fish for striped bass, how do they sell it? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if they can buy it from a regular person. No clue. Yeah. Well, I think that's all we got this week. All right. Oh, wow. We went an hour and 10. Holy crap. Video on Saturday on a auxiliary table saw fence.
01:10:31
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, I thought there was something I wanted to make a video about did we make it did I did we make a mental note or something about some video I want to shoot ah was um seemed like it was a good idea. I was wondering if I said it out loud or just thought it No, you did. Um,
01:10:51
Jeffrey Krug
So much for those mental notes. I should have put it in my phone. I can't remember. Well, somebody will listen and tell us. All right, there we go. Well, we could re-listen.
Closing Remarks and Video Announcements
01:11:01
Jeffrey Krug
So yeah, check out that video. And ah next week, I think we'll be putting out the ah first Enduro-centric video. Yeah. Well, not the first Enduro-centric video, but the first sponsored video with Enduro on the deep bass undercoat and 2K clear top coat.
01:11:21
Jeffrey Krug
Yeah, that stuff lays down nice. Yeah. Really cool. All right. Talk to you next week. See you guys. If you enjoyed this episode, please tell a friend or share it on social media. You can leave a review of this podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts. And don't forget today's Craftsman YouTube channel has an upload every Saturday morning at 8 30 a.m. Eastern. We'll see you next week.
01:12:02
Jeffrey Krug
A cold Sunday, ain't no shame but there's been a change.