00:00.20 archpodnet Welcome to the show. Everyone joining me today is Bill in California and Heather in California and I am in a glacier national park in Montana East Glacier national park in Montana it's a very historically. 00:04.74 succinctbill So howdy. 00:09.10 Heather Hi everyone. 00:17.66 succinctbill Um, yeah, yeah. 00:18.40 Heather I'm jealous. 00:19.91 archpodnet Rich area. Yes, the rocky mountains. Yeah, it's so so crazy how just like striking there I've seen the rocky mountains in pretty much every state that they exist in and then we also went up to Bamf in Canada a few weeks ago and I feel like it was even more striking up there because there's just more like. Just rock jutting up into the sky like Lord of the ring style. It doesn't even look real right? and it's more of that down here too. It's just crazy. Yeah. 00:41.92 succinctbill Ah, yeah, yeah, glacier is amazing I I spent a couple of years there with ah when I was a ph d student at University Of Arizona doing archeology projects. You know we were just talking before we started to record I think. 00:43.26 Heather A. 00:55.59 archpodnet Um. 01:01.23 succinctbill I did some excavations in the campground where Chris is at right now. But. 01:05.62 Heather None it. 01:07.20 archpodnet That's awesome. That's awesome I'm going to drop a shovel in our campsite here see if I can find anything. 01:09.79 succinctbill You gonna have to go deep man like I said it was like seventy centimeters before we started to find the good stuff. So it's it's quite a bit of work. 01:14.54 archpodnet Ah, oh my god nice nice well bill while you were out here. The little tiny town of st mary does not have a lot to offer and it's about the closest thing without driving an hour to somewhere else to ah a half decent grocery store. 01:18.16 Heather Ouch is. 01:25.58 succinctbill Um. 01:33.40 archpodnet So how did you? How did you? How did you survive with food in your in your hotel room with you guys camping like what was going on and and and this is the topic of the week bill brought this topic to us and we're talking about cooking cooking in the field. Basically. 01:34.80 succinctbill Yeah. 01:41.90 succinctbill Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, so the the topic you know, ah the I wrote a blog post on it actually eaten Well as an archeological technician which it got kind of I thought was interesting responses. 01:51.48 archpodnet Ah. 01:58.46 succinctbill Because if you read the if you read the blog post you you see right away what I was talking about about you know I'm not a nutritionist but I know that if you eat toquitos from a gas station for ten days in a row like it's not good for you. so ah yeah so I had some other techniques to get around it. But when we were in in a glacier. 02:00.78 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 02:08.86 archpodnet Probably not the best thing. Yeah. 02:10.34 Heather Next. 02:17.45 succinctbill We actually stayed at um duck or ah yeah, Duck Lake and it's on the um blackfeet reservation and it let me think I think there was power to like the one there was 1 building that had a refrigerator and there was power to that and I think there was like an outlet in each cabin. 02:21.12 archpodnet Okay. 02:35.91 archpodnet Oh yeah. 02:37.12 succinctbill But there was no running water or restroom or any of that we had to bring in all our water and everything. But at that place we actually had um a propane tank a grill and stuff and we had a fridge So I guess you know a lot of the stuff that I was talking about we could we we did there right. 02:52.60 archpodnet M. 02:53.82 succinctbill But I didn't have any facilities in my room. My room was just a cabin that had like 1 outlet to charge your phone and like 1 light bulb it was it was awesome. we we ah we took a bath every day in a glacial lake that wasn't always awesome if it was ° out or ° out in raining. We just kind of didn't take a. 02:58.84 archpodnet Right. 03:06.74 archpodnet That's awesome. 03:11.33 archpodnet Yeah, yeah, um, yeah. 03:12.69 succinctbill Bath that day because you know just wash your face. It's It's pretty chilly. There was like ah there was a boat dock right? So you'd get in with your bathing suit get wet and then sit on the dock freezing and scrub your body and then get in to rinse off and then scrub what's in the bathing suit. 03:24.71 archpodnet Ah. 03:30.46 succinctbill And if you have to wash your hair. You know you do it all that way because to actually be in the water for you know 10 minutes sucked yeah oh I was yeah I was there in the summertime. It never got over like ° there though. 03:31.62 archpodnet Wow I Imagine it did yeah you you so you must not have been here during like the summertime it must have or even in the summertime the lakes to cold. So yeah. 03:48.53 succinctbill It was awesome when you're when you're out I mean it wasn't hot but then the water is like ° so you know there's there's no real warming up, you just do that and then go sit by the fire put on your clothes and go sit by the fire in a good crazy times I had a blast though. Yeah, it was. 03:49.17 archpodnet Sheets. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice. Nice. 04:02.31 Heather Sounds like a good life actually. 04:06.96 archpodnet Yeah, yeah, yeah. 04:08.21 succinctbill Yeah, and there's no cell reception. No Wifi No monkey business to distract you just hang out and read books and you know whittle by the fireside. Yeah yeah, sure sure Yeah, the the blog post came out because. 04:08.96 Heather My step None 04:14.94 archpodnet Get it done. Yeah, nice all right? Well let's talk about some of your strategies for hotel Room Hotel room living. 04:27.88 succinctbill Ah, couple years ago we were talking about this. But then when I was doing the field school this summer someone asked me, you know? Well, what are you eating for breakfast before you go to the field I was thinking like um, kind of what I eat normally but but then I realized that you know not all of the you know, not all of the people. 04:28.43 archpodnet Um. 04:47.27 succinctbill We're really used to eating breakfast or whatever I I kind of suggest that people do that and then definitely for lunch. You have to bring your own lunch. Some folks are students where they can just go to residence halls and eat or just go to a restaurant. Well there's no restaurants when you're out in the field and you know you have to prepare for yourself. So. 04:50.10 archpodnet M. 05:01.63 archpodnet Yeah. 05:03.91 succinctbill You know over over the years I've figured out stuff that I like to eat that's good and when it's hot good when it's cold if it gets frozen partially it's still edible and not disgusting right? like don't get don't eat frozen pad thaies something I learned it's not fun to eat it and you know a block of noodles is not delicious. 05:11.00 archpodnet Um, yeah. 05:18.93 Heather Ah. 05:21.65 archpodnet Right? right. 05:22.69 succinctbill Ah, yeah, but then I started to think about you know how did I even know all this stuff. It's because for years when I was a field tech I used to save my per Dm and I did that a lot of times by just eating what was on the free breakfast bar and bringing groceries from home. 05:36.59 archpodnet Oh yeah. 05:41.13 succinctbill So then the question is like well how do you cook all this stuff and and there were some folks you know there's there's a couple different techniques. Some people are you know Ah they responded that they bring an entire rubber-made tote full of you know, ah instapots and all this other stuff and I was a lot of times I'd be in a truck and the companies I work for like There was None chairs in the truck that means there's None people who are riding in that truck all the way to the field. So the bed of the truck has to hold all your equipment plus all your field gear and the water and like you know we don't have space for each person to bring a rubber-made tote of instapots. 06:03.51 archpodnet And. 06:15.74 archpodnet Right. 06:17.19 succinctbill And you know crockpots. So it's got to fit in your duffel bag or your roller bag or whatever you bring and I just over time figured out this mess kit that was just one of those white Boiler pots I don't know like a hot pot thing where you can boil water. 06:28.19 archpodnet Um, yeah. 06:33.55 succinctbill And then I had a ceramic bowl that fits in that and then I had like ah I cut a a sponge as like a sink sponge into a smaller wedge and then had a thing of ah, um, dishwashing liquid. 06:41.34 archpodnet Ah. 06:48.77 archpodnet Um. 06:50.56 succinctbill And so all that stuff nested together and then I could fit the other stuff in my bag along with my clothes and everything else So I was only bringing one bag and then I had my field backpack and with that you know it It was kind of in the beginning it was like you know making ramen and stuff. But that's not really fulfilling. 07:07.46 archpodnet Right? right? You know you're you're making me think about something that I never really thought about before companies often you know for an excavation they provide all these things obviously screens and shovels and a lot of times you know I've been with companies that even provided a dig kit like my very None 07:08.75 succinctbill Ah, ah. 07:27.90 archpodnet Big excavation down in Miami you you walked on site and they gave you a bucket with all kinds of stuff in it had a line level a trial I mean a lot of people show up at these things but they didn't care. They just here take all these things and it had all this stuff in it and you just yeah and you just got to keep it right? Well, there are also. 07:37.46 Heather We do that? yeah. 07:44.78 archpodnet Now I haven't worked for a lot of companies I one there's one I can think of in Nevada that was particularly irritating for a couple like Rachel and I where we lived basically out of our truck and we had everything with us and he basically didn't get paid for the trip out to the basically field hotel room for the for the 10 day session. 08:00.44 succinctbill Um, ah. 08:03.45 archpodnet Unless you were well. It was an eight day session they did None and None unless you were in the field vehicle and I'm like well we have to take our trucks so we just decided one of us would ride in the field vehicle. So 1 of us would get paid and then the other one was taking our vehicle but either way. A lot of those guys they just they just got to the point where they they were taking less and less and they were taking like this one guy brought like a backpack with all his clothes in it and then he did unload those clothes and then that backpack was his like field pack for the week obviously but they weren't able they there was no space for them to bring anything else and I'm wondering why don't companies. Just. 08:28.25 succinctbill Um, yeah. 08:35.23 archpodnet Put together that rubber made tub with the instant pot with the cook thing with all that stuff and everybody just kind of shares it. Yeah, you guys do that heather. 08:35.93 succinctbill Yeah. 08:39.64 Heather That's a good point right? You know we don't do almost all of our projects we we have people in hotels. So um, yeah, so I mean are you talking about like when you're out camping. 08:40.35 succinctbill Yeah. 08:48.99 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 08:54.46 archpodnet No, no, no I I mean yeah, what? what isn't the company provide that stuff. Yeah. 08:55.40 succinctbill Um, yeah I'm just talking about like when we stay in hotels. 08:55.91 Heather Or you're saying even in the hotel I Yeah I You know what I think that's a really good I Think that's a really good point I don't think we have but I definitely I mean it's definitely putting that on my radar I think that that would be a great. A great idea. 09:10.63 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 09:14.89 Heather Especially for newer. Um for newer professionals who don't even know I mean like they're caught off guard. It's a good way of training. Um for them to to know that you know what? what they could have and what they should have as long as is explained to them that not all companies do that? um. 09:30.88 succinctbill Move. 09:30.91 archpodnet Sure sure would be ah, be a good precedent to set though. Yeah and you could even you what would be super fun too is from people who you have working for you in the field you could even collect recipes that are. 09:33.94 Heather I Think it's a great idea they am going to steal that. Yeah for sure. 09:36.27 succinctbill Yeah. 09:46.10 archpodnet You know, used by this equipment and then you know hand out a little pdf recipe book or something like that collected from you know employees. Yeah, that'll be that'll be really cool. Good bill. Yeah yeah. 09:46.37 Heather Yep. 09:49.40 succinctbill There. 09:50.80 Heather I Love that That's a great idea. 09:54.12 succinctbill Yeah, that's how the that's how the blog post first started too with recipes because that was the thing like you know if you you bring that stuff then you just get burned out on eating you know soup and ramen every day so you got to figure out what you're going to do and the the other thing too that. 10:04.39 Heather Yeah. 10:05.79 archpodnet Ah. 10:13.50 succinctbill I mean I guess I guess we can talk about this in the next segment because it's a much bigger thing but our health man like I'm 43 and there's some people whose health is hammered in archeology because and I do strongly feel like what you're eating is like 1 thing that. 10:18.16 Heather I was just going to say to? yeah yeah. 10:18.76 archpodnet Yeah, yeah, yeah. 10:32.60 succinctbill Determines how healthy you're going to be and I know some people can't necessarily get healthy food all the time and a lot of times we're going to these cities where they don't have any grocery store so that was also a common thing that way out there in Arizona. There's just ah, you know a mining community and that's it in a gas station. 10:32.70 Heather Okay. 10:36.52 archpodnet Month. 10:45.27 archpodnet Yeah. 10:50.87 succinctbill Has you know like you know mini tacos that are sitting there all day in corn dogs and that's like all your resources that you can get and you know some companies are you know all about the miles and like how far did you drive. Did you drive another eighty miles to go get food and back you know like how come you. 10:53.60 Heather And yeah, yeah, but. 11:05.26 archpodnet Who. 11:09.35 succinctbill Use the company vehicle and stuff. But then also if you've been out there for 10 hours and it's ° and you get to your hotel room. You know how? how likely is it that you're going to want to drive to the nearest town that has a Safeway pretty unlikely and you know the other folks in the field. They don't want to go either. So then you got to sit there and big. 11:19.82 archpodnet Yeah, yeah, yeah. 11:20.18 Heather Right. 11:27.46 succinctbill To get the truck to drive and then sometimes there's weird rules on the trucks and all that stuff. Ah whereas if you just were able to go to your room and you had you know some vegetables or some kind of you know, dried food or something like that that you could just cook and put together and eat a meal that's warm and you know doesn't have deep fat. 11:45.97 archpodnet Yeah. 11:46.32 succinctbill Grease all over it then you know you're going to survive a lot longer and I mean seriously I have seen it in the short term of folks that don't bring anything and every night they eat out and they have a huge burger and you know fries every evening and every morning they eat cereal off the breakfast bar. 11:57.78 Heather Yeah. 11:58.33 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 12:05.60 succinctbill And every lunch they just have like leftover cereal or leftover french fries and stuff after four or five days in a row of hiking miles digging. You know they're they're starting to get lethargic right? because they're just only eating grease every single day and haven't had anything like unfried whereas other people. 12:13.35 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 12:15.37 Heather Hey hey. 12:21.90 archpodnet F. 12:24.44 succinctbill You know that spend that have a mixture. It's more of a mixed result right? like they they seem to have energy at the end of the time and the other thing is a lot of the veterans were doing it too. So when I first started off I used to go to the bar every day and eat a burger and all that other stuff and like you know I was in my twenty s so. 12:41.19 Heather Your body's more forgiving. Yep. 12:42.10 succinctbill It wasn't really hurting me that much. But yeah, but the the old the older timers. They're the ones who were pulling out crockpots and like you know, putting together. You know Chicken Crockpot with vegetables and stuff and eating that in the room and I'm like you know where did you get chicken. 12:45.90 archpodnet London. 12:58.57 Heather I. 12:59.74 succinctbill A roast chicken or stew like how'd you get that and they're like I just made it in my room and I was thinking seriously you made that in your room and then all of a sudden after a while a light just went on to my head like yeah I can because I'm sitting there in this room like 12 hours there's nothing to do here in this rural town but watch Tv. 13:14.19 archpodnet Yeah. 13:17.36 succinctbill Ah, totally could make a crockpit and eat it for like two days and and that that was what ended up happening and the other side effect is that you save all your per Dm so so then you have whatever they're giving you and ah you know you just have all that money. 13:18.91 archpodnet Sure. 13:20.94 Heather Yep. 13:24.92 archpodnet Yeah. 13:31.74 archpodnet Ah. 13:31.75 Heather You know I I think I think the saving per Dm that's a big thing I think but I've noticed that the younger text the saving per Dm isn't always, they've almost given up on it. You know. 13:46.80 archpodnet 1 13:48.40 Heather And so I think there needs to be just as much of a stress on the fact that this is a much healthier way and more sustainable way of of living this lifestyle um over time and we you know we really do have to start stressing that to to people. Ah, you know, even in college to explain that you know this is just. 14:03.72 archpodnet Ah. 14:08.70 Heather It's not good for you down the road and it's definitely not good for you in the field. No matter how young you are your body needs certain things and in order to perform well and that's why you know that's why the military has Mras as much as they may be kind of gross to some people although my son insists there's. 14:22.89 succinctbill Um, yeah, her. 14:26.73 archpodnet Yeah. 14:26.88 Heather Some really good ones out there. But um, but they've gotten better and it's not just about making sure that the food can be consumed. Ah, even though it's been sitting in a packet for a long time. It has very specific traits that make sure that the soldiers have. 14:45.61 succinctbill Ah. 14:46.17 Heather You know everything they need to keep going and calories and protein and um, you know electrolytes and and vitamins and so you know I think we need to really as a profession we need to stress that um it's not just about saving money. It's about eating What's really good for your body. 15:01.21 succinctbill Um, yeah I hear that. 15:01.22 archpodnet Well and I think what this what a lot of this comes down to is you know what? both of you are alluding to is and something I say literally all the time when it comes to basically all the field work that you do in Crm. Especially if you're out on a 10 day. You're in a hotel room. You're camping. Whatever the case may be.. It's really hard when you're early in your career, especially if you're young and you're early in your career to not see it as something that's not Work. You know what? I mean like it like you almost feel like I mean obviously when you're at work. 15:29.50 Heather Ahead. 15:33.85 archpodnet You're at work you're at work you're surveying but when you get back, you're in a hotel room and you always associate hotel rooms with vacations until you get into Crm um, and then you get into that you get into that vacation mindset you're drinking every night. You're're you're eaten out every night like you said Bill and and you're just like. 15:37.27 Heather Yes, yeah, right? Very true. 15:38.67 succinctbill Yeah, party time. 15:47.18 Heather Really good point. 15:50.24 archpodnet You're doing those vacation things. But if you're on vacation for 15 years you're going to die soon and it's just not you know not ah not all of us are are Mtv you know Vjs who can just be on on vacation pretty much for your career right? that that's like unsustainable. 15:53.70 Heather Yes, ah. 15:54.53 succinctbill Um, yeah, yeah, but. 16:03.91 succinctbill Yeah, but think they they rotate through them. They rotate through them once and once they get 25 then you can't be a Vj right? You're too old so I don't want it to be that all the 25 year old archeologists like when you get to 25 you can't be an archeologist like we need people to stay longer. 16:04.00 Heather Well they die they die young too. Ah, yeah, yeah. 16:08.97 archpodnet Um, right? and it's not that. 16:17.88 archpodnet Well, it's not like and we think it's because they're too old but they're at 25 they've got diabetes and they're alcoholics so they just like can't physically do the job anymore. But no, it's. 16:25.10 succinctbill Um, ah. 16:30.75 archpodnet You're totally you guys are all you're hitting it on the head. It's um, it really is a mindset thing and you can control your environment and call it home. You know, bring equipment to do things plan ahead, do different things you know, um I'll I'll close out the segment with just 1 thing that I did for ah for a little while and then ah another. 16:36.97 Heather And. 16:49.85 archpodnet Brief story but ah food saver right? A vacuum seal food saver. Um, you can you can do lots of stuff with those I made soup one time when it was really like a really cold project and you just get in from the field and you want hot soup. Well if you make soup and then you put it. 16:50.90 succinctbill Yeah. 16:52.29 Heather And yeah. 17:06.83 archpodnet You you freeze it basically into like open um like tubwear containers and your freezer at home. So do this the weekend before you go out, you make a soup you freeze it and then you put that frozen block into the food saver and you seal it up and then. The ah the food saver can be warmed up either in a hot pot like Bill said like with just like boiling water. It can be microwaved. It can be. You know you can do a lot of things but in the meantime it's also ice for your cooler because guess what takes up a lot of freaking space in your cooler ice. So if you freeze none of your food. 17:23.77 succinctbill Who. 17:32.55 Heather S ice packs here. 17:34.83 succinctbill Yep. 17:37.33 archpodnet Just to get it out into the field now Now this is on the assumption that you're going to have a refrigerator in the hotel room If you're camping I always I always plan to like have some stuff frozen that I'm going to use for the first that I'm going to use other stuff for the first few days and eat the frozen stuff last right? because as it's thawing. 17:41.64 succinctbill Yeah. 17:55.50 archpodnet It'll like time itself out towards the end of the the end of the field session and then just None more quick thing. None of the best field experiences food wise I ever had was working for moak out of Utah um, montgomery they. We. We had None different camping projects that we did with them. Lots of people on there probably none people on these projects and we were all camping they brought out ah not only did they bring out a huge water tank on a truck for showers and and fresh water and they had this whole shower system set up that they'd constructed but they brought out a cook. 18:25.88 succinctbill Oh that rules. 18:26.92 Heather Nice. 18:27.50 archpodnet And there was a tent a big canvas tent that was set up that everybody could eat in and they prepared your breakfast in the morning they prepared bag lunches for you to bring out into the field and they had dinner waiting for you when you got home and it was yeah it was now you got a little bit less predeem obviously because the cook's got to get paid food. 18:34.74 succinctbill Wow. 18:34.87 Heather Wow, That's impressive. 18:42.71 succinctbill Ah, but with 30 people though 30 people putting in money though I mean it's not that big. Yeah. 18:45.30 archpodnet Food costs money. Oh yeah, it was amazing. Yeah, it was great. So um I think with that we'll just ah, call this segment and then we will come in on the other side and talk about some other stuff that we can do back in a minute. 18:45.44 Heather Yeah, but. 18:59.58 succinctbill All right.