sounds like you should schedule a trip back to visit and eat some seafood.

After COVID I stopped buying stuff. I don't wanna die with a garage and basement full of junk that I really didn't need and for my kids to have to sell at an estate sale. Keepin it simple these days.

I want to hike the AP trail. I haven't figured out how to get volunteer layoff for six months yet to do it while I video blog. Someday though maybe. I like to think at retirement but you just never know when that may be and if you held up enough to be able to pull it off. Us outdoor types usually live a pretty rough life... its easy to have a bum knee or something by the time you get around to it.

I agree. I tend to go back to working and then wonder why I'm working so much. Old habits are hard to break.

I would share the gospel of Jesus Christ more fervently as we all have been called to do. My life is no longer my own. I would take a few trips to Israel and Muslim countries to share the gospel. The Amish community near me would likely get tired of me sharing the gospel with them as most of them are caught up in their own ordnung. I would continue to pray for those on here that still don't beleive. I would grow closer and closer with my Creator.

take a weeks vacation and do a section at a time you still see it but you break up the time and the wear and tear on your body.

The next 11 months, when I have already lived 942! I won't take the time to do much different at all other than make sure my wife, kids and grand kids know how to disperse a lot of my sfuff, if I have not got that done already and get trust set up for my wife and our assets. I would do almost exactly what I have been doing other than savor those things more.

Bryce

at 78.5 years of age that is the ideal answer.

I asked the pastors father Sunday after the pot luck. he is 75 and his answer was not so Ideal for a 75 year old who just beat cancer last year.

Bob loves to work and he measures a man by his work ethic he has his own small construction business as well as some antiques and auctions. he can't not see a way to make money off many things it probably isn't a massive sum of money but he gets his identity from work.

He also wants to get to more tractor shows , to the Theodore Roosevelt Library and some other things. I said you schedule your own work you should make a few long weekends and go to the tractor shows and go to the library , you are in good health right now do it. I hope he will.

I found that video to be pretty negative. I'm 66, so I'm in the middle of what he called the narrows. My experience at this age has been pretty dang good so far . To answer the question at the start of this thread I would do pretty much what I'm already doing.
Last weekend I went para sailing with my daughter and granddaughter for the first time. It was a blast. Spent the weekend with family at the beach enjoying each other's company.

Going to Argentina next week with a friend and my brother to shoot a bunch of ducks and doves and spend time with friends and family.
Work in my yard and garden almost every day during the summer. Canned a bunch of tomatoes and dill pickles this week. Picked chanterelles and made supper with them for the wife. Shoot sporting clays with a buddy every Wednesday. Did maintenance work at the hunt club on Tuesday and Thursday. Met with a couple of young men I am mentoring on Thursday and Friday. Went to my grandsons ball game last night. Watching my youngest granddaughter today.

Eat lunch and supper with my wife of 38 years every day and play Yahtzee with her every evening before we watch the braves game.

September is dove season. October and November is deer and doves. My wife and I are going to the SC/Georgia football game in November because she is a huge bulldog fan. December January and February is trapping at the hunt club. March is turkey scouting in SC and hunting turkeys in Florida with my son if we get drawn in the lottery. April is turkey hunting every day either by myself or with kids, mine are others.

About the only thing I would do different if I knew I had 11 months to live would be go out of state and country on more hunting trips and different states with my wife. I already do those things but we have to budget a couple of times a year. If I only had 11 months left I wouldn't have to factor in the expense of being able to make my retirement fund last longer.

We never know how long we have left so I'm trying to spend as much time as I can with the people who mean the most to me trying to pass along the things that are important to me. In the end it won't matter how much money I had but how much time I spent with friends and family and how how many lives I touched along my journey. I hope the positives outweighed the negatives and try to move the balance a little more in the positive direction each day.

Flock buster good to hear

the only things I would change are get some projects contracted out
buy a bigger boat so I could take more people fishing in less time and not fight my small boat
and quit working 40+ every week , well quit working in general.


what not everyone knows but it is worth looking into , Many life insurance policies pay out 70-100% pre death when 2 doctors agree you have less than a year to live. that is something to look into.

when we got to where my wife could not work any more well she still could but why she was out of sick time at work from all the chemo days and the recovery day from the chemo day.
at some point you have to call it.
she could work Monday Tuesday , take a day to rest before chemo because if your blood numbers are low , no chemo for you! then chemo day and a day to try and recover from that. then get some visiting in with the kids and family on Saturday then rest Sunday to be able to work Monday Tuesday.
for her that was Feb 12, 2025 after a month of chemo
early April after the first request we came back with all the updated medical records and her policy through her employer paid the life insurance she had through work 1 1/2 x your annual pay is common.
that let us pay what we had left on the house and take a trip.

We had been taking small trips mostly in state and camping that was what we liked to do , but the extra money let me take her back to SC for a week and a half. She loved the beach and seafood I knew in January if we were going to get a seafood trip in we needed to get it in before May the not good seafood months without an R thing

I was going to do it either way , I had all the papers in to take a 401k loan because I didn't have the cash available at the time we drove and stayed at some reasonably priced hotels so while not that much half the income also hurts.
the insurance money let it be a little longer with a lot less stress.

I had worked an estate with her in 2024 where we learned a lot about what not to do. it was my old scoutmaster had passed and he had asked me to help his widow with the guns as she wouldn't know what was what and he didn't want her to get taken.

I am glad to hear so many of you trappers are living the life you built with no regerts yes no regerts unless it is no ragrets this comes from a internet meme of people with No Regrets spelled wrong as a tattoo.

It is a good thing to hear. what you hate to hear is a laundry list of things that someone had been putting off for that someday , someday never comes work on it every day in little pieces.

Well Pete the tread did what you wanted and got me thinking. Im in the middle of huge transition phase . I guess its like when guys retire in some ways. Trying to find the grove and new pace, but much sooner than planed for. With a few twist added like also navigating a body with a mind of its own, the medical system and things like medical and insurance systems. Including disability both through the union and the government that will likely take 15 months.

In my mind I can do things and make plans. Once things get in a routine and lined out I like the idea of taking slow paced budget trips if I can afford them.. But then how will they really go. Will they be fun or just a bunch of frustration. Good example. I decided to check the wood burner( still running heating the hot water ) its 160' from the house. I shuffled out there on stiff legs a few days ago. Put a few small pieces in and looked at the back door and was wondering if my now weak legs were going to carry me back to the house. I had plans on checking the wood burner and maybe starting some light cleaning and organizing of the garage.

Nope made it back to my chair and watched some wine making videos and took a nap. So if on a trip days like that would be more frustrating than fun. I think im going to end up geting fat at this pace.