Day 7 - Say Goodbye to Bland

Weight 181.8

“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise"

I started out today with a delicious breakfast of steamed broccoli rabe and a soft boiled egg with a pinch of sea salt. In our garden we have one medium sized patch of broccoli rabe that popped up as the first green crop of the season - beating out the asparagus patch by a nose. The asparagus are coming - I can see their tips starting to break ground level. There was one full stalk that I ate raw on the spot but I'm guessing in about a week there will be many more to harvest. In the mean time, the broccoli rabe has been fantastic. I'm trying to ration wisely and only trim off enough from this patch for each serving. It's got a slight bitterness but not nearly as bitter as dandelion greens. I know the dandelions pack the most nutritional benefits of anything I have to eat but I still just can't get past the taste. I'd have to be pretty desperate to have a dandelion salad again. I had one many years ago and the memory of that still troubles me.

Broccoli Rabe

Cooks quickly

Breakfast

I had a pretty easy day at work and I didn't pack any lunch.  When I came home around noon I had another egg, some rice and water.  I've really been overindulging in my egg gift.  I'm not doing a very good job of rationing them.  I ate another for dinner.  Maybe tomorrow I'll try to lay off the eggs as I have some plans for my trout.

I spent about an hour today de-boning all of my cleaned trout.  I think there were 13 fish in all.  I did a little YouTube research and figured out the method I will use to smoke and preserve my fish for long term.  I used salt and honey as a brine and have my fillets soaking in it overnight.  Tomorrow the plan is to dry the fillets and then test out the new smoker.

I unpacked the smoker which was no small task.  I didn't realize it had to be assembled.  It took over an hour just to put it all together following pretty poor instructions.  It looks fairly simple to operate.  After I dry my trout I will put the smoker to use tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, this day will conclude my first week and therefore I will receive my first reward - butter and spices.  Say goodbye to the bland food and hello to butter!  The first week is always a challenge with all the bland food.  I have to say however, that broiling the trout, making the sea salt and the broccoli rabe have all added quite good tastes to my meals without seasoning.  Not to mention the egg yolks.  They are quite yummy.  Looking forward to some new flavors tomorrow.

As I type this, my super smelling is detecting hamburgers cooking downstairs.  It's 12 AM and Ty is cooking up a midnight snack of burgers and it smells amazing.  I can almost taste it.  I want to go lick the burger fat off the bottom of the pan.

No luck so far with the squirrel trap although the 'walk the plank' trap has gone off twice.  I think the squirrel is able to just away before landing in the can - or it jumps out of the can.  I haven't witnessed it yet.  I put a Gopro camera to work to try to get a video but so far nothing.  The tube trap is not working either.

Trap sprung!

I tried fishing for trout again today and I got skunked for the first time,  It was quite nice outside today hitting the mid 70's and sunny.  I'm thinking the trout did not like this sudden heat wave.  A large goose was paddling nearby while I was fishing so I took a cast in his direction.  I had thoughts of 'accidentally' snagging the goose with my fishing lure but it was out of range after my first attempt.  Still trying to come up with a duck or goose capture plan. 

Day 6 - A Gift, a Gadget and a Green

Weight 181.8
BP 141/87

"Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life."

Yesterday was long and draining and as a result, I woke up very tired today. To prepare for a work day I wrapped up a trout fillet and some rice in foil and seasoned it with a little salt and a touch of honey.  I didn't have much to eat for breakfast other than rice and water.

At lunch time I broiled my fish and rice and it made a big difference in my energy level.  I also received a wonderful gift from my patient, Renee.  She has a flock of chickens that she raises nearby for their eggs and she donated a dozen newly laid eggs to my cause!  How about that?  I was so excited to taste something other than trout and rice.  During my lunch break I soft boiled an egg and pealed it perfectly.  I cut it in half and sprinkled a little sea salt on top and it was the BEST tasting egg I think I have ever had.  Thanks Renee!

FYI - to make the best soft boiled egg, boil about a half inch of water in a very small pot with a lid.  Then put the egg in and cover for exactly 5 minutes.  Rinse under cold running water and peel.  Then cut it in half and sprinkle a pinch of salt on top.  The warm runny yolk is so good and 5 minutes is the precise amount of time to fully cook the whites while leaving the yolk a perfect consistency.  So good.

I have a love/hate relationship with my senses during the SDC as they start to become much more acute.  That's the love part.  The hate part is the fact that I have to deprive myself of all things yummy so that I can appreciate the love part.  Everything smells so delicious to me now and every new food is like a million taste buds exploding in my mouth with flavor.

So far my squirrel trap has failed to do its job.  No surprise there.  I've been outsmarted by these critters every year.  I did a little more research into humane trapping methods and I saw a contraption that is designed to catch mice.  I thought I could modify it a little in order to trap a squirrel.  It's a pretty simple design and I had all the stuff I needed right in my garage and back yard.  I quickly assembled a 'prototype' and hung it from a tree with some bird seed for bait.

Walk the plank!

It's called the "Walk the Plank Trap" and it's designed to have the target animal walk out on a long plank to get the food/bait.  As it gets to the end, the plank tips down from the body weight of the animal and it falls into a large garbage pail.  The mouse version has them falling into a bucket of water where they drown.  My squirrel version just has a large round garbage can.  First I'll see if it works but then I may need to modify the garbage can a bit so the squirrels can't jump or climb out.

After work I hope to put together the smoker grill and at some point I'm going to have to clean up the bee hive because I think the bees will be arriving soon.  I ordered them two months ago in preparation for this.

Good news on the green food front.  The first asparagus has arrived!  And not a moment too soon.  While clearing out debris from the garden today, Debbie spotted the asparagus stalk (ready to eat) as well as some broccoli rabe leaves, some kale, wild garlic and of course some dandelion greens.  After almost a week of no greens, I'm really missing them in my diet.  The dark leafy green vegetables should provide a boost of vitamins and minerals that my fish and rice alone could not.

The first sign of Spring

Day 5 - An Hour and a Half at a Time

Weight 186.0

"Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other."

I was extremely busy today.   I was off from work so I took advantage of the nice weather and got my butt outside.  After dropping Jamie off at school I took a ride to the lake and tried a little trout fishing.  Almost immediately I caught one fish and then another.  That's the way to start a fishing trip.  And then it was nothing for the next hour and a half.  Strange.  Happy to have landed a couple trout today, I headed off to tennis practice.  That's right - I have tennis practice once a week.

I was a little concerned about my energy levels for tennis.  I had a piece of fish for breakfast and some water but that's all.   Surprisingly, I felt pretty good during tennis and got a pretty good work out for about and hour and a half.  There were a couple of times when I got really tired after a long rally and I need water more times than usual.  But for the most part I got through it unscathed.  Tennis ended around noon and I knew that low tide in the Navesink River was 1:20 PM today.  My window of opportunity for clamming was closing fast.

I usually like to go clamming about 2 hours before the scheduled low tide.  Today I would only have a short period of time to get clams before the tide started to come in.  I prepared by bringing all of my clam gear to tennis so that I could shoot right over to the river as soon as I was finished.  When I finally got to the water it was about 12:30.  I still had about an hour and a half of decent water for clamming.  I did the best I could under the circumstances and managed to dig up a bunch of steamers as well as some hard clams.

Navesink River Clamming

It wasn't easy.  Clam digging is very hard work and my energy was already quite low from tennis.  It's smelly and dirty and cold and wet.  But my window of clam opportunity was only open for a short while so I had to do it.  I was almost glad when the tide came in because it forced me to stop.  The long walk back to my truck while carrying a load of clams and all of my stuff was a difficult one.  Not to mention being wet and cold and dirty (and smelly).  Man, the smell!  I couldn't wash this muck smell out from under my fingernails no matter how hard I scrubbed with soap and water and lemon juice and a scrub brush.  I had to cut all of my nails a low as possible and then scrub some more.  I was even wearing gloves the whole time but it didn't seem to matter.

Ok - next, I picked up Jamie from school and we headed back out to the trout pond to see if I could score a few more trout.  Again, it was fast and furious right out of the gate with my magical bait.  I managed to catch four more within a half hour.  Now I have a nice stockpile of trout but I actually have a little too much.  I couldn't eat it all before it went bad and I don't really like freezing fish.  An idea I had the other day was to get a smoker so that I could cook and smoke some trout fillets in order to preserve them for longer periods of time.  So that's what I did.  I treated myself to a new smoker grill.

In the past I used a few old bbq grills that I had in the yard and converted them into smokers to make fish jerky.  I seemed to always run into problems controlling the smoke and temperature.  I need to learn how to do this right and this should be the right tool for the job.  Surviving in the wild would certainly have more challenges without the use of smoker grills and other appliances I have at my disposal.  Perhaps by learning how to properly smoke fish I will better equipped in the future to do it with more primitive methods.

I hope to have this smoker up and running by the weekend.  In the mean time, I got home after fishing and realised that I still had a lot of work to do before I could even rest.  I cooked up some rice.  I rinsed off the clams and separated out the ones with cracked shells.  These would be tonight's dinner because they would not survive lone.  The rest of the clams I put in a cooler in the garage submerged in saltwater from the river.  I also got a small aerator from Amazon in the mail today so I plugged it in and I am using it to keep my clams alive and healthy for long time (hopefully).  I've never tried this before so I'm curious to see how successful it is.  Next I had to scale and clean six more trout which had been sitting in ice slush for most of the day.

Today's Catch

I spent about an hour and a half cleaning these fish and then packing them in the refrigerator.  Then I had to shuck and clean all of the broken steamer clams for dinner.  I ate a couple raw but I didn't really like the taste because all I could think of was the smelly much that still left traces of yuck on my hands.  I broiled the rest and added a little sea salt for flavor.  It was a good change to have clams tonight instead of trout.

By the time I cleaned everything up I was downright pooped!  Finally I got to lay down on the couch and watch some television.  Guess what was on?  Yup - Survivor!  Pretty cool.  Lots of hidden immunity idols at play tonight.  They didn't talk too much about the food situation or any actual surviving.  A little more social drama than I like to see.  However, in scenes for next week's show it looks like there is going to be a nasty food eating contest for the remaining players.  That's always a fan favourite to watch.

Did I miss anything?  Sheesh.  Today was a busy day for sure.  Next time on Survivor Diet Challenge. . . The new bees should be arriving soon!  I need to get their home ready and in move-in condition.  Also need to figure out the smoker so I can put it to use this weekend.  Gotta figure out how to find some green food asap.  No garden asparagus yet due to a harsh winter. Stay tuned. . .

Day 4 - Not Your Normal Day at the Beach

Weight 183.4
BP 141/89

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."

Last night I went to the beach with the intention of getting a bucket of sea water for salt making.  When I arrived I couldn't believe what I was watching.  I saw hundreds of birds flying all around and diving into the water right off shore.

These birds were gannets.  A gannet is a very large sea bird similar to a large gull but larger.  The interesting part about gannets is that they typically flock up when there are herring present.  They all fly up in the air together, locate a school of herring and then proceed to dive bomb the fish like a squadron of kamikaze pilots.  It's truely a 'National Geographic' type event when you see it live.  These birds dive into the water from a hundred feet up and then swim underwater attacking the school of fish.  Amazing to see.  I tried to take a video of it but it was so cold and windy and I only had my phone camera.  You can get a glimpse in this video but there's nothing like seeing it in person.  Once again, the SDC gets me out off the couch, out of the house to do one thing (like getting a bucket of sea water) and I happened upon something pretty spectacular in nature.  Pretty cool.

diving gannets

I got my bucket of seawater and I also met a nice fisherman on the beach who gave me some pretty good information.  He said that he caught a small striped bass about five minutes ago and he was telling me all about the birds.  Then he went on about some other close-by freshwater fishing opportunities that I might take advantage of in the near future.  I tried a few casts with a fishing lure but it was so cold and windy that I didn't last long.  Not to mention that I snapped off my $12 fishing lure while trying a really long cast.

Windy Beach

After having half a trout and rice for dinner, I filtered the seawater and put it into a large stainless steel pot and boiled it down for about five hours before going to bed.  I still have some boiling to do that I can finish up later.  It sure will be nice to add some sea salt to my trout.  I'm also thinking about trying to stockpile some trout fillets and dry smoking them to last longer.  Perhaps it's time to invest in a legitimate smoking grill rather than the makeshift grills I have been using for the past few years.  We'll see.

Most of this post is from the evening of Day 3 so I thought I would add a little bit on Day 4 as well.  Today was a long work day in which I brought a trout fillet and some rice with me to cook at lunchtime in the convection oven.  I followed this up with another half trout broiled with rice for dinner.  Still a bit bland but it's just nice to have some fish to eat compared to previous SDCs.

Dinner

I can remember all too well not having any fish and not being able to catch one no matter how hard I tried.  This is bordering on too easy.  Another positive about having abundant fish is that it frees up my time and creative thinking in order to continue to evolve and come up with new ideas and plans.

Tomorrow I am going clamming - weather permitting.  The tide is low around noon so it should work out as long as it's not too cold.  I should prepare for that.  I was thinking about clams and how to preserve them for a long while.  If I get a lot (which is what I expect) then I want to be able to keep them alive for several weeks - well beyond the closing of clam season which is the end of April.

I talked to a friend who uses a small aquarium aerator and a cooler to keep clams alive in his garage for quite a long time.  I may try that method and additionally turn over the water in the cooler every other day in order to make sure the clams do not sit too long in their own waste.  In the past when I dug up a lot of clams I can remember several of them dying in the refrigerator after a week.  I also remember getting sick of clams because that's all I had to eat for the first weeks.  By preserving them longer I can eat less, not get tired of them and also have them for a much longer time.

Forward thinking.  That's what this SDC has been about for me so far.  Learn from past successes as well as failures and keep moving forward.

Salt from the sea

I finished my salt tonight.  A large pot full of seawater yields about a cup and a half of salt.  Can't wait to try it out on my fish tomorrow.  I made a video of the salt making process that I will try to compile and post in the next couple of days when I have the time.

Day 3 - Starting the Work Week

Weight 184.6

BP 142/100

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

Today I brought lunch to work in the form of a filet of trout and a portion of rice.  I wrapped it in aluminium foil and baked it in the toaster oven for about 12 minutes at 350.  It was actually pretty good.  These little trout are quite tasty on their own but I could really use a little salt and a little fat to make it better.  I think it's time to go to the beach and get a bucket of Atlantic Ocean in order to make some salt.  I'll probably do that after work tonight and boil down the salt water overnight.

I was thinking about the fat/oil issue as well and one of the best sources of natural fats that I can think of would be from roasting a duck or a goose.  I have never trapped a live duck or goose during a SDC in the past so I am going to push this up to the top of the priority list.  There are many geese in the park down the street from my house but I don't know how to go about capturing one in a humane way without someone seeing me and getting upset.  Of course, I would let it go but I do need to capture one in order to take advantage of the Small Animal Clause in the rules.  I will give this some serious thought because a goose would be a great resource for many meals.

I went out to a restaurant today and had water while watching my co-workers enjoy their lunch.  I know it's only been 3 days but the burger that Kathy got at the Red Rock was photo worthy and made me salivate a little.

my lunch

Kathy's lunch

Day 2 - The Dreaded Detox Headache

“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”

I had a feeling it was coming but didn't expect it so soon.  Almost immediately after the elimination of sugar from my diet, I got a banger of a headache.  Typically, I would take a few Motrin at the first sign of a headache and that would pretty much take care of it.  However, this is the Survivor Diet Challenge and Motrin is not on the menu.  I'm going to have to tough this one out and see how long it lasts. . .

(fast forward 16 hours)

Holy crap.  What a hellacious day.  My head was pounding for so long that I started getting worried that something else might have been wrong with me.  I took a hot shower for about a half hour just letting the water rain down on my head.  That helped - but only temporarily.  As I write this (the next day) I still feel lingering pressure like I'm either on the verge of a headache or on the verge of recovery.  It's an odd feeling.  Because it is MUCH better than I was feeling yesterday, I am so grateful that I am no longer suffering.  Let's hope that it just continues to improve from here.

I do have some history to refer to on this matter which is another very helpful reason to write these logs of my experiences.  I knew this was coming.  Sometimes it's Day 2 and sometimes Day 3 but the trend is too obvious to ignore. On the bright side, I also know from experience that after I suffer through this headache hell it usually means clear sailing for a long time afterwards.  Knowing this, makes it worth it to me to push through the pain in order to get the gain.

In my opinion, people (like me) who suffer from headaches on a regular basis can absolutely manage them by controlling their weight and sugar intake.  I have gone through this experience enough times to know that many ailments of the body can be managed in a similar way - it's just up to the person and their will-power to make a change.  The healing mechanisms in our bodies will automatically do the rest if we feed ourselves the right fuel.

On the survival front, today I mustered up the energy to go trout fishing in the afternoon and I am very glad that I did.  In about one hour at the local pond I caught my daily limit of six trout.  The secret to my success today was in the bait - butterworms.  In the past I have been out-fished by several people who had the right bait while I could only sit and watch.  Not this time.  This time I was the one catching while other anglers were watching in amazement. One after the other I just kept getting bites and landing fish.  It was awesome.

On my way out I decided to ''pay it forward" and give the other fishermen the insight that I had learned from past experience.  Additionally, I gave them several butterworms to use for bait and they were very appreciative.  I didn't stick around to see if they were as successful as I, but I have a gut feeling that there were some pretty big smiles shortly after I left.

Later at home I rummaged around in the garage looking for parts to build a squirrel trap (see the 'Small Animal Clause' on the SDC Rules page).  I came up with a PVC tube contraption that is a non-lethal trap intended for catch and release.  It's a relatively simple design.  The squirrel goes in to get the nuts inside.  As it crawls to the rear of the tube its body weight causes the tube to tip up enough to trigger the front door to close.  I glued a powerful magnet inside the front of the tube which locks the metal door as it shuts.  We'll see.  I'm sure I will have to make modifications to this device after the first batch of squirrels outsmart me as usual.  I have a few other ideas in the works for bird and small animal traps that I can place in my backyard.  With my headache today I was pretty impressed that I was able to do anything at all.

Squirrel Tube

Day 1 - Learning from the Past

Weight 190

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Doug Peterson - Survivor

This ain't my first rodeo! From past experience I have now accumulated knowledge in the form of timing, fishing locations, bait, gear and weather. Today, with relatively minimal effort I was able to catch 3 nice rainbow trout which will serve me well as I embark upon a new Survivor Diet Challenge.

Trout on the first day!

I began my challenge this year at a weight of exactly 190 pounds. I should also get a baseline blood pressure reading. This is the lightest I have ever been to start a SDC which should prove interesting. This partially means that I have been able to keep and maintain a 'somewhat' lower weight than I have had in previous years. Perhaps I'm doing something right in the off-season. Hopefully, it also means that instead of focusing so much on weight loss during this diet, I can concentrate more on health and nutrition. I know for a fact that simply eliminating things like refined sugars, white foods like bread, and other junk will immediately put me on the right track.

Should be another interesting journey... Stay tuned!

Here We Go Again!

Starting another SDC adventure April 7, 2017.  Let the fun begin. . .

Day ??? - I really suck this year!

To whomever is reading. . . I'm sorry for being a bad blogger.  I just can't seem to get into it this year.  I've been doing a half-assed job for 45 days now.  I started to do it whole-assed last Wednesday so I'd actually say I've been doing Ok for about 6 days.  I'm still not 100% into it.  Hopefully something will click and I will get my head in the game soon.  Not going to quit though.

Day 1-6 Survivor Diet Challenge 2017 has begun

For anyone reading this log, I have been neglectful in my writing and reporting for some time now.  I have successfully completed the SDC every year since the start and now I am in the first week of the adventure in 2017.  I did not document at all in 2016 and most of 2015.
Interestingly, I went back to review some old posts and saw that some folks had, in fact, made comments on some of my entries.  I thought no one out there was reading.  Now that I see there is some interest, I will try to stay up to date.

I started this year on April 1st which is the earliest I have ever started the SDC.  The weather is still cold and drippy and we're not ruling out the possibility of snow.  This will be a challenge for sure.

The month of April is prime time for clams and hopefully trout. These will be my primary sources for protein.  This should be no surprise if you have read any prior year SDC log entries.  The significant difference that I have noticed is in my ability to find clams.  It's almost comical when I look back to the first few seasons.

Last year and this year I have become quite the experienced clam digger.  Now I have very reliable spots for hard shell clams of all sizes (little neck, cherry-stone, quahog, etc), long-neck or steamer clams (of all sizes) and new to this year I have started finding a decent amount of East coast razor clams - which are my favorite.  Having such a variety allows me to utilize clams for many meals without getting tired of them.  Well, I shouldn't really say that right now should I?  I always seem to get tired of them after about a month.

It seems like I would get tired of eating just about ANYTHING after eating it every day for an extended amount of time.  This is something that really separates humans from other animals.  My pets, for instance, eat the same bowl of the same food day after day after day.  They just don't seem to mind - or maybe they just can't communicate it to us that they want something different.  I don't know for sure but the dog seems to eat just about anything you throw her way without even tasting it.  People need variety.