Josh Blackshire, 39, currently lives in Troy, Ohio. After being hired by his current employer to mow the lawn and feed their captive white-tailed deer a few hours a week back in 2006, he somehow ended up managing an entire industrial park, in addition to numerous other properties. He ever so conveniently calls himself a “jack of all trades, master of none,” which is really just a polite way of saying he knows a little about everything and a lot about procrastination.
When he’s not wrangling property issues, Josh is throwing himself into search and rescue with LARA Miami Valley, a growing nonprofit he helps run. He’s still new to the SAR world, so think less “seasoned professional” and more “guy who Googles how to tie knots on the way to training.” He’s also an amateur extra ham radio operator (WF8Y) despite not knowing diddly squat about ham radio—because nothing screams excitement like talking to strangers over static.
Outside of work and SAR, Josh can usually be found outdoors, whether it’s attending his son, Benjamin’s soccer games, hiking, kayaking, chasing storms, photographing venomous snakes, or casually hanging out with whatever wild animals he can find (because apparently dogs and cats weren’t chaotic enough). Speaking of chaos, he also has a border collie named Milo, who operates at a speed best described as “wired on espresso.”
This blog is where Josh overshares just enough to keep things interesting (or not)—covering his mental health issues, life, relationships, and his misadventures in becoming the Hide-and-Seek world champion, only now the stakes involve real missing people.