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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, your home for

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Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,

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Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyon in this episode number two hundred

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Speaker 1: and seventy seven, and today in the show, we're joined

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Speaker 1: by Scott Manifold of Dreary Outdoors to discuss the story

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Speaker 1: of his Michigan hunting property, how habitat management hunting differs

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Speaker 1: between his farms in Michigan and Iowa, and detailed ideas

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Speaker 1: for improving food plots, hunting access, and much much more.

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Speaker 1: All Right, Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought

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Speaker 1: to you by on X and Todan. The show my

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Speaker 1: guest is Scott Manifold. He is originally a Michigan native

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Speaker 1: who has hunted and owned farms in Michigan and Iowa

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Speaker 1: and Missouri, and he's been all over the place across

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Speaker 1: the Midwest in the country hunt. And he's also a

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Speaker 1: longtime friend of Tom Ware who together the two of

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Speaker 1: them filmed for Our Bodies over at Drewy Outdoors. And

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Speaker 1: I somewhat recently discovered Scott uh and that he actually

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Speaker 1: lives not too far away from where I am in

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Speaker 1: southern Michigan. So recently he invited me to tour his

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Speaker 1: property take a look at what he's got going on.

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Speaker 1: So this past week, the two of us headed out

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Speaker 1: and walked his Michigan property. We explored all of the

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Speaker 1: different tweaks and changes and improvements that he made to

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Speaker 1: this farm over the years, and it kind of dovee

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Speaker 1: into how he's improved this little chunka dirt for deer

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Speaker 1: and other wildlife here in Michigan, and and that's just

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Speaker 1: cool to see. I I always geek out when I'm

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Speaker 1: getting to see firsthand how someone else goes about these

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Speaker 1: types of projects, because I've got all sorts of ideas,

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Speaker 1: and we listened to so many different people here on

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Speaker 1: the podcast about how they are actually trying to improve

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Speaker 1: where they hunt for deer and for a wildlife. It's

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Speaker 1: it's something that's endlessly fascinating to me. But when I

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Speaker 1: actually get to go out there and see it myself,

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Speaker 1: it takes it up to a whole another level. And

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Speaker 1: so I think it's really cool to be able to

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Speaker 1: help a conversation just after that talking about things that

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Speaker 1: both of us actually saw and hopefully we're able to

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Speaker 1: communicate that to you in a way that makes it

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Speaker 1: more helpful and interesting as well. So that's the game

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Speaker 1: plan for today. I think, um the property kind of

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Speaker 1: content is very interesting. I also found that Scott has

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Speaker 1: an attention to detail with everything that he does, whether

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Speaker 1: it be just hunting or managing and improving a property,

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Speaker 1: that was really interesting to see and to hear about.

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Speaker 1: He also has a lot of ideas around dear behavior

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Speaker 1: movement that I think could be helpful to anyone, regardless

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Speaker 1: of if you own and manage a property, or if

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Speaker 1: you lease property, or if you're hunting public or by permission.

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Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of things in here that

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Speaker 1: can be applicable to to any and all of you.

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Speaker 1: So in short, this was a really fun day in

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Speaker 1: the field and a fun conversation that I'm excited to

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Speaker 1: share with you. So I think we should just get

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Speaker 1: right to it, all right. I am sitting now in

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Speaker 1: southern Michigan in the basement of a home, and I

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Speaker 1: see over my left shoulder, I see like a hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighties something in deer and a hundred nineties something

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Speaker 1: inch deer and more one forties to one fifties, and

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Speaker 1: I can probably count, and I see several elk and

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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of mule deer and a pronghorn. Um.

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Speaker 1: I feel like I'm surrounded by royalty as far as

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Speaker 1: as far as white tails right now, and sitting next

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Speaker 1: to me is Scott Manifold. Um. Scott first up, thanks

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Speaker 1: for for today, Thanks for taking the time to chat

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Speaker 1: with me and for showing me around your place, because

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Speaker 1: what we did and I'm I'm rambling here before I

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Speaker 1: even let you talk, um, but Scott was so kind

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Speaker 1: as to take me out and walked me around his

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Speaker 1: Michigan hunting property. It really really cool place, show me

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Speaker 1: all all of what he's been up to, the projects

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Speaker 1: he has in the works, and what he's done in

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Speaker 1: the past. And uh, it's been a lot of fun. Scott.

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Speaker 1: So thank you and welcome to the show. Oh, thank you,

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Speaker 1: and it's great to have you. It's always going to

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Speaker 1: have another set of is. Everybody sees things a little differently,

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Speaker 1: so I appreciate your input. Yeah, and it's it's as

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Speaker 1: we were talking about out there, I just geek out

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Speaker 1: so much seeing how, just like you said, each different

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Speaker 1: person's mind goes about scheming out of property figuring it

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Speaker 1: all out. As we were walking, you're kind of talking

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Speaker 1: about that's the fun part when you get a farm,

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Speaker 1: is this scheming. It's like figuring out how you're gonna

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Speaker 1: do it, and where the deer going to move and

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Speaker 1: how this change could influence this movement and all that

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And I can see that we are

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Speaker 1: like minded in our excitement or all that. Well for

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Speaker 1: us whitetail nuts. I mean, that's that's all part of it.

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Speaker 1: And yes, it is fun to figure it all out.

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Speaker 1: And sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong, but it is.

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Speaker 1: It's a fun, fun journey. So that it's that journey's

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Speaker 1: that process. Yeah. So so Scott, I know of you

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Speaker 1: and knew you because of my relationships with the guys

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Speaker 1: over Drewy Outdoors. Um, and you are doing a lot

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Speaker 1: of stuff with them these days now too. Could you

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Speaker 1: give us like a real quick cliff notes on, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know what you're doing now? How I get to

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Speaker 1: this point? Sure? Sure? Well, Um, you know I grew

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Speaker 1: up hunting Michigan and farms around here and chasing the

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Speaker 1: white tails, and as I got older and maybe a

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Speaker 1: little more successful in life, I always dreamed of hunting Illinois. Well,

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Speaker 1: Pike County. That was the place, right, and you uh,

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Speaker 1: you see on TV people killing hundred sixty seventy inches

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Speaker 1: in Pike County. That Pike County. So I thought to myself,

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Speaker 1: someday I'd like to go there. And uh, leading up

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Speaker 1: to that, I had been clipping out articles in the back,

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Speaker 1: snippets in the back of the magazines that outfitters in

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Speaker 1: Pike County. Right. So the day came, you know, I

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Speaker 1: finally felt like I could actually go on this dream

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Speaker 1: hunt of mine of Pike County. So I delve into

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Speaker 1: my folder full of these little cutout ads and I

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Speaker 1: started thumbing through them all and I gravitate towards one

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Speaker 1: um and it was Bucks Beware and it was small,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of innocuous, and I thought maybe this

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Speaker 1: would be kind of houn I could afford. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: look too overbearing. And so I call the guy, you know,

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Speaker 1: and he answers the phone and oh man, he he

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Speaker 1: didn't have any spots left for that year or whatever,

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Speaker 1: and but he's like, go on my website, get on

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Speaker 1: the mailing list, and maybe something will turn up. Well,

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Speaker 1: turns out this guy that I was talking to was

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Speaker 1: Tom ware and for those of you the follow jury

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Speaker 1: know he's he's quite the land manager and what a

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Speaker 1: deer hunter as well. And uh, what he did was

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Speaker 1: eventually email me within the months saying, Hey, I've acquired

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Speaker 1: a new Missouri property. Are you interested in going out there.

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Speaker 1: I can't promise you that it's set up real good yet,

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Speaker 1: we've just got it. You'll be the first one to

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Speaker 1: hunt it. And uh, I said yes. So that kind

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Speaker 1: of got the ball rolling. I didn't actually meet Tom

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Speaker 1: when I went to Missouri. He sent somebody out to

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Speaker 1: get me organized in that. But after the hunt, I,

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Speaker 1: you know, sincerely thank him because it was it was

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Speaker 1: a great hunt, a great little cabin back in the woods. Uh.

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Speaker 1: I spent a week there and I had my crack.

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Speaker 1: I missed it one sixty bo. Yeah. And so just

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Speaker 1: I think the fact that I contacted him to say,

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Speaker 1: you know, I didn't kill anything, but I am extremely

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Speaker 1: happy with the way this turned out. And then I

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Speaker 1: had a very good time, thank you, you know. And

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Speaker 1: and then it wasn't long he said, you know, would

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Speaker 1: you be interested in shed hunting that property with us

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Speaker 1: in the spring. So I got a chance to meet

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Speaker 1: him and in subsequent fall, I did get to go

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Speaker 1: hunt Pike County, and while I did not kill anything there,

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Speaker 1: it was great to hang out with Tom and you know,

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Speaker 1: all his guides, and uh it just became a relationship

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Speaker 1: that Tom and I developed, and a lot of shed

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Speaker 1: hunting and then uh going to Iowa to help set

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Speaker 1: up his farm that he had, you know, had there,

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Speaker 1: and uh that was the sort of thing I really enjoyed,

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Speaker 1: was building the food plots and then figuring out where

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Speaker 1: they should go, what we should put in it. I

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Speaker 1: mean right down to figuring out what kind of fertilizers are,

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Speaker 1: how much lime needs to go in there. And so

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Speaker 1: we you know, became close friends over bonded over that,

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Speaker 1: as you can imagine, and uh eventually, uh it led

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Speaker 1: to a going hunting on his Iowa farm. He invited

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Speaker 1: me out just to hunt with him in Iowa and

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Speaker 1: uh so you know that continued for years. I even

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Speaker 1: took my children out in the shed hunts and we

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Speaker 1: always worked every August out there, and uh, you know

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Speaker 1: I started harvesting some deer and they were on camera

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Speaker 1: because I was a friend of his. And then uh,

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Speaker 1: you know a few years ago, um, you know, Mark

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Speaker 1: just kind of came to us and said, you know,

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Speaker 1: Scott should uh should be on the team. He's a

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Speaker 1: great contributor, and uh, you know, I like what's going

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Speaker 1: on here. You guys are making a good team. And

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Speaker 1: so our team blossomed with three man team. But it's

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Speaker 1: a kind of a dream come true for you know,

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Speaker 1: the guy growing up and uh never having a whole

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Speaker 1: lot of uh what I want to say, opportunity like that.

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Speaker 1: You know, hard work, dedication to the dream and it

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Speaker 1: gets there as you know, you know, sometimes you get

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Speaker 1: what you put out and put in, which yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: And I think for any Michigan hunter to to to

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Speaker 1: go from what we all know is can be challenging.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes here at home it could be great too, but

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Speaker 1: it can be channeling UM to a different kind of

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Speaker 1: great in i or Illinois and Missouri. I'm sure it's

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Speaker 1: just been a different experience out there. It is, uh

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Speaker 1: and I have had great success in Michigan, don't you know,

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Speaker 1: not knocking Michigan, but there is a lot more hunters,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot more pressure. So when you go to

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Speaker 1: Iowa or Missouri or even southern Illinois, it's a it's

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Speaker 1: a different world and the biggest thing that I noticed

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Speaker 1: right off the bat that has blown me away. And

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Speaker 1: I still tell people the biggest difference is how much

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Speaker 1: time you can spend watching deer b deer. Here, the

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Speaker 1: deer's primary focus is survival, you know, because there's someone

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Speaker 1: just walked down the other property line. You know they did,

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Speaker 1: and the wind has wafted through the woods. So they're

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Speaker 1: on edge all the time. Here. But when I started

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Speaker 1: hunting Iowa deer just did what dear did they come out?

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Speaker 1: They'd spar they decked normal, There was no they didn't

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Speaker 1: ext spookie. It was just so different. Rattling word, grunting word,

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Speaker 1: you know, and here good luck. Yeah. I just don't

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Speaker 1: rely on those tactics because they've been used too much

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Speaker 1: and the deer are two on edge and but out

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Speaker 1: there they really work and it's just really lack of pressure.

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Speaker 1: I mean, a lot more daylight movement out there. For

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Speaker 1: you know, you want to get a four year old

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Speaker 1: on its feet. In Michigan, who that can be? That

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Speaker 1: can be a challenge. There's a lot of them go nocturnal.

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Speaker 1: I've got one that I've pursued in Michigan now for

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Speaker 1: a few seasons, and uh, you know, I get pictures

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Speaker 1: every year and I've only ever laid eyes on him

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Speaker 1: once and it was right at dark Yep. That deer

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Speaker 1: has been on the farm for he's well, he's I

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Speaker 1: think eight this coming here. Yeah, so he's ancient and

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Speaker 1: he's always just been a really big eight point. But

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Speaker 1: the age is that is another reason I like to

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Speaker 1: go after him. He's mature, and boy is he tough

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Speaker 1: to beat. In in that book, I would say if

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Speaker 1: he were living in Iowa would be a lot easier

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Speaker 1: to kill because he's probably going to come out to

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Speaker 1: the food during daylight from the lack of pressure. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So a whole different set of challenges, it really is.

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Speaker 1: And then I can attest this some of the same

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Speaker 1: things you said to like growing up hunting in Michigan

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Speaker 1: and only knowing this, I had no idea what it

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Speaker 1: was like until you know, eight nine years ago or

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Speaker 1: whatever it was. Ten years ago I started traveling to

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Speaker 1: some of these other states, and yeah, when you go

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Speaker 1: to Iowa, Ohio or Illinois, Um, not only are you

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Speaker 1: seeing you know, older deer more often, you're seeing more

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Speaker 1: daily activity, You're seeing them act more normal. One of

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Speaker 1: the really cool things I noticed was the vocalizations you hear,

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Speaker 1: Like I never heard a buck roar or snort, wheeze

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Speaker 1: or anything, never once in twenties some years that ever

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Speaker 1: hurt some of that. And then I go to Iowa

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Speaker 1: and I'm seeing a buck lip curling and snort, wheezing

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Speaker 1: and grunting all sorts of crazy stuff, and and getting

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Speaker 1: to see, like you said, serious bucks fighting, and it's

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Speaker 1: just you know, whether or not you have goals of

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Speaker 1: of killing an old buck or a big buck or

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Speaker 1: whatever it might be, traveling to some of these other

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Speaker 1: states can just be a lot of fun simply because

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Speaker 1: of the like the wildlife experience is just different, like

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Speaker 1: getting to see it, like you said, of getting to

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Speaker 1: see these dear do dear things, Um, just doesn't happen

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Speaker 1: as much in super high pressure states. No, that's that's

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Speaker 1: very true. I mean in Michigan you heard grunting really

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Speaker 1: Uh usually there's the guy on the other that's that's

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Speaker 1: like grunting on his toe, That's right. Yeah, Or was

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Speaker 1: a year and a half ohold buck harassing the dome maybe,

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Speaker 1: but but out there that's the vocalizations are super common.

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Speaker 1: And you do here and see all that, and uh,

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Speaker 1: and it is during daylight. So it's a it's a

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Speaker 1: I hate to say it's more fun, but it's it's just, uh,

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Speaker 1: it's different. Then a topography is different out there. The

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Speaker 1: pieces of land tend to be larger. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of ten acre are forty acre pieces

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Speaker 1: around here, uh in Michigan, and so coming up with

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Speaker 1: a bigger piece of ground can be difficult. And when

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Speaker 1: you break black up a black being like a six

259
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Speaker 1: d acre a square mile whatever, a lot of times

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Speaker 1: there's on it where and if you get in some

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Speaker 1: of these other states, you know, the blocks are more

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Speaker 1: like two square miles, three square miles and there might

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Speaker 1: only be four homes on the whole thing. So just

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Speaker 1: a lot less, a lot less people, and a lot

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Speaker 1: more a lot less pressure. Now, all that said, despite

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Speaker 1: these challenges that we just mentioned here in Michigan, Um,

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Speaker 1: you just show me that you've still been able to

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Speaker 1: have a lot of success here in our home state

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Speaker 1: despite all of those challenges. Um. And it seems like

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Speaker 1: a lot of that has been kind of near where

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Speaker 1: we are right now, on some of this property we

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Speaker 1: just walked. UM. And that's that's kind of the I

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Speaker 1: do want to talk about once some of the things

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Speaker 1: you guys have been doing out in Iowa and Illinois Missouri. Um.

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Speaker 1: But I'm just selfishly particularly curious about Michigan too, since

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Speaker 1: I spent so much of my time here and you know,

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Speaker 1: starting to look into the possibility of of possibly trying

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Speaker 1: to find a little place that we can start fixing

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Speaker 1: up and and see what we can do with it. Um.

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Speaker 1: So I'm just really fascinating the story of how you

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Speaker 1: started that here. Um. How did the how did it

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Speaker 1: start for you buying your first hunting property and farm,

283
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Speaker 1: and what does that look like the beginning? Well, probably

284
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Speaker 1: nearly twenty five years ago now, but we my friend

285
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Speaker 1: and I knew about this property and it had you know,

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Speaker 1: you saw a lot of deer here and that was

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Speaker 1: that was a big thing. If you were seeing a

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Speaker 1: lot of deer, that's pretty special here in Michigan. Thirty

289
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Speaker 1: years ago and through simple asking permission to hunt, Uh,

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Speaker 1: she offered to sell the property to him. And we

291
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Speaker 1: you know, we were young then and him was a stretch,

292
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Speaker 1: but we did it, and uh he elected to try

293
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Speaker 1: and farm it ourselves. It was fifty seven acres, but

294
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Speaker 1: it butted up to an eight four acre woods, so

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Speaker 1: the deer naturally filtered into those corn fields, bean fields

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Speaker 1: wherever we had in there here. And I did that

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Speaker 1: a few years and you know, it worked well. We did.

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Speaker 1: We did harvest some deer, and at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, I think I had offered these CRP programs

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Speaker 1: and we decided that, wow, well for the money that

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Speaker 1: can come in on this, and and the fact that

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Speaker 1: we get to plant trees and brush and all that

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Speaker 1: into here, uh, I think flowering dogwoods, all kinds of

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Speaker 1: stuff were it was worth it to us to do that.

305
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Speaker 1: Because the end goal for us was deer hunting or

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Speaker 1: pheasant hunting. It really wasn't to be farmers. So we

307
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Speaker 1: simply took the fifty seven acres and said, okay, got

308
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Speaker 1: a clean slate here. Because there's nothing here, what can

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Speaker 1: we do? And in the program we were enrolling in,

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Speaker 1: we were gonna need to plant some pine trees along

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Speaker 1: with some switch grass and maybe I think golden rod

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Speaker 1: and some other shrubs and stuff that they expected us

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Speaker 1: to put in, and they were going to help pay

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Speaker 1: for that. So it was kind of a no brainer

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Speaker 1: when it came down to it to do that. And

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Speaker 1: so we watched this cornfield basically morph in to cover

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Speaker 1: over the last a couple of decades. But every year

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Speaker 1: it got better and better the pine trees, you know,

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Speaker 1: and from two ft to three ft to four foot,

320
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Speaker 1: and the weeds were better in the briers, and it

321
00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:40,840
Speaker 1: just got thicker and thicker, and we saw more and

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Speaker 1: more deer in it, and uh, we did. We did

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Speaker 1: leave out nine acres to two four and a half

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Speaker 1: acre field so that we could always have some grain

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Speaker 1: to offer, you know, the deer, and another couple of

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Speaker 1: acres for food plots out of fifty seven. But the

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Speaker 1: rest of it was really put into pine trees and

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Speaker 1: bedding area. And you know, if you don't have a

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Speaker 1: long term vision, you know you're never gonna get there.

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Speaker 1: And what you know, what I've always said is if

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Speaker 1: you have an idea that's going to take five years,

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Speaker 1: you might as well go for it, because at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, five years go and buy you

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Speaker 1: either way. You know five you know how five time goes.

335
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Speaker 1: So at the end of five years, you can either

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Speaker 1: have what you were dreaming about having or you can

337
00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:23,480
Speaker 1: still be stuck in that rud of Oh it takes

338
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Speaker 1: so long to do that so you know, sometimes it's

339
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Speaker 1: just a matter of kicking yourself in the button just

340
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Speaker 1: getting started on it. And it took a lot of

341
00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:33,080
Speaker 1: work to get this rolling, but now it's you know,

342
00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:35,280
Speaker 1: it takes care of itself and sit to seven aches

343
00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:38,480
Speaker 1: pretty well, well we gotta do is maintaining food plots. Yeah,

344
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Speaker 1: I feel like this is something that I know, um,

345
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Speaker 1: having looked at properties myself and talk to buddies who

346
00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:45,920
Speaker 1: have looked to properties and stuff, lots of times they'll

347
00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:48,680
Speaker 1: find like a big crop field or a property that's

348
00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:50,800
Speaker 1: a series of small fields or something and just see

349
00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:52,359
Speaker 1: how there's not a bunch of big timber on it,

350
00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:54,080
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of cover on it. Not what

351
00:17:54,119 --> 00:17:56,840
Speaker 1: I'm looking for. Um, But it seems like that's kind

352
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Speaker 1: of what you guys had and you transformed it into

353
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Speaker 1: something more. Um. Absolutely long did it take to to

354
00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:07,520
Speaker 1: to make that change a positive? One? After year one,

355
00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:11,600
Speaker 1: after year two did you start to see positive things? And? Um,

356
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Speaker 1: how long of a roadmap does someone have if they're

357
00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:19,200
Speaker 1: trying to convert oldfield to dear habitat? I would say

358
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Speaker 1: my favorite years actually after starting it was probably years

359
00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:26,240
Speaker 1: five through ten when the pine trees were at that

360
00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:29,000
Speaker 1: four ft to twelve feet level and there was a

361
00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:31,919
Speaker 1: lot of weeds in between them. Uh, those are some

362
00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:35,919
Speaker 1: of the better years. But having said that, it was

363
00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:39,880
Speaker 1: an instant improvement in that we were able to put

364
00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:42,840
Speaker 1: in some green plots to intermixed with it. And even

365
00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:45,800
Speaker 1: if it's just weeds or briars that are surrounding that

366
00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:49,040
Speaker 1: food flat like ours was the first couple of years. Um,

367
00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:51,560
Speaker 1: it still givesn't that sense of security that they'll come

368
00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:54,359
Speaker 1: out into that. And prior to that we had just

369
00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:56,960
Speaker 1: had you know, like I say, corn or beans, which

370
00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:00,359
Speaker 1: work than not knocking them. But when you through in

371
00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:04,520
Speaker 1: the green plots too, it really was a bonus and

372
00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:07,200
Speaker 1: they were drawn to it. The other thing we did

373
00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:09,320
Speaker 1: was we actually added a little water and it was

374
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Speaker 1: kind of a simple move at first seemed maybe a

375
00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:18,320
Speaker 1: little silly, but uh we took just a kiddy waiting

376
00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:22,040
Speaker 1: pool and yeah, submerged it and and kept that full

377
00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:24,880
Speaker 1: of water best we could. But you would be amazed,

378
00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:26,600
Speaker 1: since we don't have a lot of water right here,

379
00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:31,040
Speaker 1: how fast they would drink that down. And during the

380
00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:34,040
Speaker 1: rut we would literally have to fill that every five

381
00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:36,800
Speaker 1: days or so, take the tank back and fill it. Yeah,

382
00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:39,120
Speaker 1: and and you know, trail cameras come along. We get

383
00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:42,720
Speaker 1: pictures the deer standing in it bucks during the rut.

384
00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:45,439
Speaker 1: And granted, you know they weren't like we weren't being

385
00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:48,040
Speaker 1: over run with shooters or anything. But the point is,

386
00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:51,439
Speaker 1: um it kind of added to the smortgage port. Now

387
00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:54,120
Speaker 1: they've got some green, they got some water. Uh. Now

388
00:19:54,119 --> 00:19:56,879
Speaker 1: they're not traveling an extra three yards to get a drink.

389
00:19:57,160 --> 00:19:59,440
Speaker 1: They're gonna take that easiest drink that they can, even

390
00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:03,080
Speaker 1: if it is of an old kiddie pool. And they laughed,

391
00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:05,600
Speaker 1: but they really did use it quite well. And you know,

392
00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:07,720
Speaker 1: now we've maybe moved down a little bit from there

393
00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:11,000
Speaker 1: to make some better water sources, but that's all started.

394
00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:13,560
Speaker 1: That's cool. Another thing I saw that you did out

395
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:15,879
Speaker 1: there in that old field area is you've kind of

396
00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:19,960
Speaker 1: broken it into smaller sections with with screens um or

397
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:22,159
Speaker 1: something on those lines. Can you describe kind of what

398
00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:26,480
Speaker 1: you guys did there. Yeah, well, we we left to

399
00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:31,040
Speaker 1: four acre pieces for farming purposes, just to have grain

400
00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:34,680
Speaker 1: out there. But the one that is particular back there

401
00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:40,240
Speaker 1: by um our say our favorite blind. Uh, you get

402
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:41,640
Speaker 1: a lot of time in the blind, so you think

403
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:43,399
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of thoughts, and one of

404
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:45,840
Speaker 1: the thoughts that occurred to me one day was what

405
00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:48,760
Speaker 1: if this four and a half acre field and I

406
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:51,919
Speaker 1: have what if straight out from the blind I was

407
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:57,280
Speaker 1: to put in a hedgerow, build my own, you know, everybody,

408
00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:00,639
Speaker 1: And the thought being that we have why these deers

409
00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:03,960
Speaker 1: step out of the woods at the time and step

410
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,560
Speaker 1: into our field and the food's right there, you know,

411
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:10,359
Speaker 1: and they don't necessarily have to go very far to eat,

412
00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:14,720
Speaker 1: and or if it's a run, they could see the

413
00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:17,480
Speaker 1: whole field, so they knew, you know, if there was

414
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:20,000
Speaker 1: a dough there or what was going on in the

415
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:24,080
Speaker 1: whole field. So I don't whim, you know. I actually

416
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:25,719
Speaker 1: went out and bought a tree spade when I went

417
00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:29,120
Speaker 1: on the back of the tractor, you know, and started transplanting.

418
00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:31,840
Speaker 1: We remember, we planned. So I had a lot of

419
00:21:31,840 --> 00:21:35,520
Speaker 1: pine trees and and a lot of autumnble had come up,

420
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:37,480
Speaker 1: and a lot of honeysuckle to come up, and I

421
00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:41,560
Speaker 1: literally built a hedge row straight out from the blind

422
00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:45,160
Speaker 1: that divided that field and half. Now as you seeing

423
00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:47,520
Speaker 1: that today, it looks pretty thick and pretty big. It

424
00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:50,600
Speaker 1: wasn't always again long term vision, it didn't have a

425
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:53,280
Speaker 1: whole lot of effect on the deer first, but as

426
00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:57,200
Speaker 1: the years went on, Uh, it worked to the desired effect.

427
00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:00,200
Speaker 1: They step out into the field, they checked that field now,

428
00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:02,240
Speaker 1: and then they wonder what's on the other side of

429
00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,320
Speaker 1: the hedge road They can't see, so then naturally they're

430
00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:07,119
Speaker 1: gonna walk across and have a look sie on the

431
00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 1: other side of that. So it was just a simple thing.

432
00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:11,639
Speaker 1: It didn't take much crop out of a much field

433
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:14,200
Speaker 1: out of production, and it gave us a chance to

434
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:18,280
Speaker 1: bring the deer out further to investigate and maybe a

435
00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:21,360
Speaker 1: chance to harvest him at that point. But just one

436
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:24,080
Speaker 1: of the little features that we added over the years. Now,

437
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:26,760
Speaker 1: not all of them work like you hope. You know,

438
00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:28,960
Speaker 1: you try some things and you've gotta be willing to

439
00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:34,040
Speaker 1: change when it doesn't work. But overall, the experimentation part

440
00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:37,080
Speaker 1: of it is some of the funnest stuff. Uh. I

441
00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:41,040
Speaker 1: don't know if you recall how long ago that the

442
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:44,720
Speaker 1: tree coy came out. Okay, yeah, I think it was

443
00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:49,000
Speaker 1: Steve Bartila wrote an article. I I've seen his name

444
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:52,159
Speaker 1: right there. Yeah, yeah, he wrote an article and in

445
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:56,000
Speaker 1: uh he had placed a tree, dug a hole, put

446
00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:00,199
Speaker 1: a tree in the field, right, and uh it it

447
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:03,080
Speaker 1: seemed like a great idea. He said, it worked, well,

448
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,800
Speaker 1: why not? Right? So you know by now this is

449
00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,800
Speaker 1: uh I'm hunting with Tom now and it's an Iowan

450
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 1: but as an experiment on one of the Michigan food plots.

451
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:18,920
Speaker 1: Before I go telling everybody this great idea that Steve had,

452
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:20,960
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try it, right, So I put this tree

453
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:24,959
Speaker 1: quay on the field and yuh put a camera on

454
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:31,280
Speaker 1: it and pretty soon getting all these pictures and I said, Tom,

455
00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,800
Speaker 1: this works in bottom line. So he's like, okay, we

456
00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta do this and some of the Iowa plots.

457
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:40,200
Speaker 1: So we tried it on one plot that year for starters.

458
00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:44,840
Speaker 1: Phenomenal scraped up shredd and remember where I went out

459
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:47,160
Speaker 1: that you're doing there, want to do all the time

460
00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:51,600
Speaker 1: kind of sort of thing, and uh, phenomenal success with

461
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:55,200
Speaker 1: the the you know, the reconics over that tree koi

462
00:23:55,840 --> 00:24:00,040
Speaker 1: and scraped up tour up. Bottom line is now, that

463
00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:04,960
Speaker 1: is a tool in our arsenal that's used every single

464
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:08,440
Speaker 1: food plot. Yeah, you know, fifteen yards twenty yards on

465
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:10,160
Speaker 1: in front of the blind, we're putting a tree koi

466
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:13,920
Speaker 1: and if you watch much of the Dury stuff, you'll

467
00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:17,720
Speaker 1: notice that a lot of bucks are killed coming into that.

468
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:22,600
Speaker 1: That tree koi so very effective tool and just you know,

469
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:27,119
Speaker 1: simple idea, but again experimenting, and that was one of

470
00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 1: the things that I felt worked really well. Yeah, it's

471
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:31,480
Speaker 1: definitely something I've I've added to my repertoire too, and

472
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:34,280
Speaker 1: I haven't killed one coming into something like that yet,

473
00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:35,680
Speaker 1: but it certainly has helped me get a lot of

474
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:39,480
Speaker 1: good trail camera pictures in those areas. Um, and I'm

475
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:41,360
Speaker 1: sure it's you know, one of these days will work

476
00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:43,359
Speaker 1: out for a shot. So it makes a whole lot

477
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 1: of sense. Pretty cool. Well, we learned a very hard

478
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,119
Speaker 1: lesson this year over a tree KOI didn't Yeah, it

479
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:51,359
Speaker 1: wasn't actually me hunting. Tom was hunting with Brandon and

480
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:55,640
Speaker 1: in Illinois, and uh the tree koi is a particularly

481
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:59,879
Speaker 1: beautiful one that you loved it. But it had a

482
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 1: it had a lower limb that came off at about oh,

483
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,480
Speaker 1: I don't know, foot high maybe and angled upward right.

484
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:09,720
Speaker 1: And uh, usually you know, the if a deer comes in,

485
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:11,639
Speaker 1: they'll work their way around it or be near it

486
00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:15,479
Speaker 1: and you'll get your chance. But this particular deer. Uh

487
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:20,639
Speaker 1: was over, Yeah, and he came in. It was it

488
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:22,600
Speaker 1: was like it was scripted. He came into this tree

489
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 1: coy and for minutes he's shredding it. And for Brandon,

490
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,800
Speaker 1: I mean he's at full draw and and then he

491
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 1: has to let down, then he has to draw again.

492
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 1: But uh, the whole time this limb that was left

493
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:39,159
Speaker 1: on there, it was right smacked across the vitals. And

494
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:40,720
Speaker 1: I don't know about you. I probably could have aimed

495
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:42,119
Speaker 1: at the limb and I'd have got the deer just

496
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 1: how I wanted. But sure enough, if you aim to

497
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:49,200
Speaker 1: miss it, you probably hit uh. But the bottom line

498
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,440
Speaker 1: is he didn't feel like it was a clean opportunity.

499
00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:54,680
Speaker 1: And at the deer exited stage left walks straight away

500
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:57,000
Speaker 1: from him after two minutes that you had to have

501
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,639
Speaker 1: a boon? Who gross boon and buck that close? But

502
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: tried at the tree KOI for bringing him in and

503
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,720
Speaker 1: given two minutes of time to harvesting him. And if

504
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,560
Speaker 1: that limbs not there, it's it's a buck. They won't

505
00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:10,119
Speaker 1: even hear the string go off. His head was in

506
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 1: the limbs raking him and it was made for great,

507
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 1: great video, exciting stuff. Just a little tree KOI story there. Yeah, yeah,

508
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:21,920
Speaker 1: that's uh, that's pretty awesome that that kind of situation

509
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:25,400
Speaker 1: would arise because of that. Now, what about the reverse situation?

510
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 1: So have there been any things maybe on this the

511
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:30,480
Speaker 1: first City seven in particular, maybe if you can think

512
00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:33,400
Speaker 1: of any in which you tried something and found it

513
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 1: didn't work and had rewrite the script on some project

514
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:39,359
Speaker 1: you tried out here, some change you made to the

515
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 1: habitat Um, was it anything like that pop up on

516
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:47,359
Speaker 1: the first chunk or no? Yeah? Actually there. Uh. One

517
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 1: of the things that it may be regrettable is and

518
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,440
Speaker 1: it actually that this occurred, um when I was still

519
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,600
Speaker 1: trying to farm it. Uh well, first five years we

520
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,359
Speaker 1: owned and I farmed it, so uh to make the

521
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 1: farming life a little better, I removed a fence row.

522
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,200
Speaker 1: And you know, I look back on that and think,

523
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:10,920
Speaker 1: would you do that for it? Because you know eventually

524
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:12,880
Speaker 1: it was going to evolve into the way tail habitat

525
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:15,920
Speaker 1: it is. I would love to have that fence row back.

526
00:27:16,359 --> 00:27:18,080
Speaker 1: And it was, you know, because it was a mature

527
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:20,840
Speaker 1: fence row. And at the end of the day, I

528
00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 1: wasn't in it for the corn and the beans. I

529
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 1: was in it for the nearer turkey, pheasants and squirrels

530
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:29,479
Speaker 1: whatever would live in a nice thick fence rol like that.

531
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: So so yeah, that is one thing I wished I

532
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:37,680
Speaker 1: had had not have pulled that out. Um, I'm sure, yeah,

533
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:43,160
Speaker 1: I'm sure. As you've now expanded your um your projects

534
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 1: to to include other other farms and stuff, I'm sure

535
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,160
Speaker 1: there's all sorts of other things you've learned over the years,

536
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: and maybe we'll get into some of those. Um. But

537
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: but one other piece on the on the fifty seven,

538
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:58,360
Speaker 1: on the first chunk, Um, what about the hunting on

539
00:27:58,400 --> 00:27:59,879
Speaker 1: that because I think a lot of times one of

540
00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:03,400
Speaker 1: the questions people have, especially somewhere like Michigan, but anywhere

541
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:07,119
Speaker 1: really is can you take a small property like that

542
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:10,159
Speaker 1: forty acres or sixty acres or something smaller on that

543
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:13,960
Speaker 1: and really notice a change and actually see better hunting

544
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,919
Speaker 1: and better recreation or whatever it is. Um, did you

545
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:22,120
Speaker 1: see real change that improved your hunting and the time

546
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 1: you had out there in those early years when it

547
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:27,800
Speaker 1: was just turning from a corn field and to this

548
00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: new wildlife paradise. Did that did it come to fruition

549
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: for you? Yeah? The U from the beginning until no

550
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:44,160
Speaker 1: even it's so much better. If you're into deer hunting,

551
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:49,600
Speaker 1: it's a must. Just wow, I would say ten years in.

552
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 1: By then, um, we were seeing so many deer uh

553
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:56,720
Speaker 1: and and a lot of the reasons. Of course, now

554
00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:00,840
Speaker 1: we're in Michigan, so deer hunting pressure is so heavy,

555
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: and by us taking this fifty seven acres and just

556
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 1: making it this twisted up mess of pine trees and

557
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 1: Russian hall of and just an entire mess, it attracted

558
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:15,280
Speaker 1: as a safe haven so many deer. I remember taking

559
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 1: uh uh people hunting and seeing one deer in one night.

560
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 1: Now we were by yeah, so we were into the

561
00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:29,040
Speaker 1: taking those at that time too, because the numbers were

562
00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:33,240
Speaker 1: so high. But they weren't when it was just a cornfield.

563
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:35,800
Speaker 1: It wasn't like that. Once we thickened it up and

564
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: gave them this safe haven, they could go to hunted

565
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: the wind, and we were strategic and didn't push them

566
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 1: out of there like so many you know, people do

567
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:45,840
Speaker 1: by walking in the wrong times they're walking through or

568
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,360
Speaker 1: deer driving whatever it is. Those deer ended up on us.

569
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 1: So we were seeing tons of deer. I can't so

570
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 1: many year and a half bucks. You can't account him not.

571
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 1: It is still very hard to get him to three

572
00:29:56,840 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: or four or five years old Michigan. But the your

573
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 1: numbers were way up. I took my cousin one night

574
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 1: and he said, I just, Scott, I just want some

575
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,160
Speaker 1: some dough meat. And I said, I'll tell you what.

576
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 1: I'll take you back there on one condition. You don't

577
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 1: shoot a deer until we've seen forty yeah. Yeah. And

578
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 1: he's like, well, I did want some meat. And I

579
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:19,920
Speaker 1: said you'll have your meat, you know, so, and and

580
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:22,080
Speaker 1: it happened just like that, I mean, and we got

581
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: to the deer's anything like, okay, go ahead. But remember

582
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 1: now this is muzzle over season usually. But by then, um,

583
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 1: many of the deer have been pushed so hard that

584
00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:38,160
Speaker 1: they were really coming to us for for sanctuary. And

585
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,680
Speaker 1: the four acre woods next to us, which we'll get into.

586
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 1: UM that also harbord a great many of them. And

587
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:49,720
Speaker 1: you know it, if you can give him some sanctuary

588
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 1: and a high pressure situation, your odds go way up.

589
00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:55,920
Speaker 1: And every now and then, you know, a big one

590
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 1: slips up and you get that one forty, but you

591
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 1: just increase your odds. The downside is with that many doughs,

592
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:07,720
Speaker 1: you know, and you and if you do a late

593
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 1: season dough hunt on that, while it may be fun,

594
00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 1: you don't really know how many of the doughs that

595
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:17,800
Speaker 1: you're taking are actually yours because they get pushed in

596
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:20,560
Speaker 1: from all over the place. Yeah, that's one of the

597
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:22,960
Speaker 1: things I've always struggled with on on one of the

598
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 1: main spots of hunting Michigan is that it's usually the

599
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:27,280
Speaker 1: spot I've got the best chance that like a decent

600
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: buck in Michigan. It's the spot where I think I

601
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 1: can kill mature buck. But I'm always like on pins

602
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:33,960
Speaker 1: and needles every little thing I do on that farm,

603
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:36,520
Speaker 1: I know if it make like one mistake, I'll probably

604
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 1: never shot him because a lot of the best covers

605
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 1: on neighbors properties. So I'm just hoping for him to

606
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: you know, just be I'll have like one or two

607
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:47,920
Speaker 1: chances during the year, and if I screwed up at all,

608
00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: I'm just not gonna have those. So I'm very, very

609
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:52,960
Speaker 1: very particular about what I'm gonna go in and what

610
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hunt. So that's all to say that I've

611
00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 1: always been paranoid to go in there and try to

612
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 1: shoot does earlier because if I shoot a dough and

613
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:02,720
Speaker 1: it runs into that one main betting area and have

614
00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:06,360
Speaker 1: to go walking through there that that might completely eliminate

615
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,480
Speaker 1: any chance of seeing that mature buck and daylight again.

616
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:11,120
Speaker 1: So because of that, I always end up waiting until

617
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:16,719
Speaker 1: December to shoot does. And to your point, sometimes in wonder, well,

618
00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:19,960
Speaker 1: I'm seeing tons of does now, but now, yeah, there's

619
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:22,040
Speaker 1: just a lot deer in general. But um, but yes,

620
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 1: I'm always pushing it back late. I'm always rushing, rushing

621
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: at the end, trying to trying to fill enough dough tags. Um.

622
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:29,719
Speaker 1: And then to your point, you might be looking at

623
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 1: a large number of doughs that come from all over

624
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: the place, not necessarily representative of the home core range doughs.

625
00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: You might not even take one of your local dosts

626
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: happy when you have numbers like that rolling in. I

627
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:44,680
Speaker 1: mean to me, uh, you know, you're hunting, maybe an

628
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 1: agricultural feel, hoping that the deer to come from the

629
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:48,680
Speaker 1: cover and give you an opportunity to get to you

630
00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 1: in in daylight. So and another reason for taking a

631
00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:54,640
Speaker 1: piece of fishes of an acre piece and making it

632
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 1: into what it is is the person who holds the

633
00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 1: cover holds most of the cards, because that's where nine

634
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 1: of the daylight movements can take places and cover. So

635
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 1: if you're just hunting getting into cultural field, it's a

636
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:10,600
Speaker 1: lot harder on you. And and and for me, we

637
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 1: had a choice because it was ours. We could either

638
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: have the corn or we could have the cover. So

639
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 1: we elected to do a little bit of both. I mean,

640
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:23,560
Speaker 1: we went from fifties acres of food down to UH nine,

641
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,080
Speaker 1: but all that cover put some of the some of

642
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:29,880
Speaker 1: the cards in our hands, so we were getting a

643
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 1: whole lot more daylight walkers. Yeah, and something you said

644
00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 1: we were walking resonated with me, and that was that

645
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:40,800
Speaker 1: when you do have that cover, when you do have

646
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:45,000
Speaker 1: the ability to uh house more deer during daylight on

647
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 1: your ground, you all of a sudden have a good

648
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:50,400
Speaker 1: disproportionate impact on the future of the deer herd of

649
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 1: the entire area, because if more bucks are staying in

650
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:58,000
Speaker 1: your chunk during daylight and you're choosing not to shoot

651
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,720
Speaker 1: the young bucks, then these deer that maybe otherwise would

652
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 1: have been spread all over and shot by other people.

653
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 1: Maybe you now have a larger number of bucks than

654
00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: usual hang out during daylight and your property during the

655
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,200
Speaker 1: fall or during gun season that otherwise would have been shot,

656
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,319
Speaker 1: and you are maybe you know, even though you might

657
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 1: only fifty seven acres, if you make it the fifty

658
00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:18,799
Speaker 1: seven acres that from November, all these bucks want to

659
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:21,040
Speaker 1: be in because they know it's not nearly as as

660
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:23,319
Speaker 1: everybody out where else, all of a sudden, you could

661
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:26,200
Speaker 1: have a really significant impact on what bucks make it

662
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:29,319
Speaker 1: through for a whole large area. Maybe, um it past

663
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 1: sounds you kind of had that impact, right, Yes, you do.

664
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 1: To your point, most people get excited about opening Day.

665
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:38,160
Speaker 1: I mean, if Michigan get someone will go from a

666
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:40,840
Speaker 1: state holiday to a national holiday for the fift November,

667
00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 1: they would. And personally, I'm not a big fan of

668
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:46,319
Speaker 1: that date because it happens during the rut and I

669
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:51,880
Speaker 1: wish that would change. But to your point, I would

670
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:55,280
Speaker 1: generally not even get too excited about the gun season

671
00:34:55,600 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 1: until about the eighteenth and nineteen and the now by

672
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:03,840
Speaker 1: now you've had several day night cycles and several people

673
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,880
Speaker 1: just getting out the woods like a million hunters, you know,

674
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:11,839
Speaker 1: And so by the time we got to the we

675
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:14,719
Speaker 1: had a lot more deer on the property, and my

676
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:19,839
Speaker 1: odds of taking went way up. So you know, two

677
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:21,799
Speaker 1: point yeah, they get pushed in on it and having

678
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:25,560
Speaker 1: to cover and pays dividends and you can hold bucks

679
00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:27,840
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't normally hold. Now, who do you know

680
00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:30,319
Speaker 1: that would say to you, well, Mark, I don't care

681
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 1: for the opening day. I prefer to wait till the

682
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 1: twenty from my opening day. Not many people, but I'll

683
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:37,879
Speaker 1: tell you who it is. It's it's always with us

684
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:42,200
Speaker 1: with cover. So you know, for for me, if I

685
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:43,839
Speaker 1: can give him a place to feel safe and go

686
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:47,520
Speaker 1: to bed, I'm not doing something right. And then next relief,

687
00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:49,919
Speaker 1: I can give him something to eat prior to going

688
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:55,279
Speaker 1: out to the big agricultural fields. Better yet. Yeah, So,

689
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:57,080
Speaker 1: so you were able to do that to a degree

690
00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 1: on yourn, but then recently you were able to take

691
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:03,920
Speaker 1: it to a whole another level. You've you've alluded to this.

692
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,640
Speaker 1: Can you talk about how how you came to to

693
00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:12,959
Speaker 1: own that? Well, I mean it always had been next

694
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:18,839
Speaker 1: to us here on the fifty seven, but um, basically

695
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,320
Speaker 1: you know the fellows that and his wife they passed

696
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: away and the family offered to sell it to me,

697
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 1: and at that point, you know the idea of of

698
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:32,200
Speaker 1: having that tied into this original fifty seven was very

699
00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:34,400
Speaker 1: appealing to me. I had a at the time, I

700
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:37,879
Speaker 1: had a a Missouri farm. I was fond of it,

701
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:40,680
Speaker 1: but to me it was worth the trade. So I,

702
00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:43,440
Speaker 1: you know, was sold out of that property and and

703
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 1: into this one. And it has really made it so

704
00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:51,799
Speaker 1: I can take it to the next level. Uh. This

705
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:54,880
Speaker 1: it wasn't an overly hunted property, which is part of

706
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:56,839
Speaker 1: the reason something we asked me to around to begin with.

707
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:00,520
Speaker 1: But how often do you get a chance at a

708
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:03,640
Speaker 1: clean slate with eighty four acres September. I mean, there

709
00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:06,200
Speaker 1: was barely any paths in this to walk on or

710
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:08,799
Speaker 1: right a four whela and there with anything really in there.

711
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:13,960
Speaker 1: Quite a few tree stands, but um, I've always found that,

712
00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:15,920
Speaker 1: you know that that can be difficult if you have

713
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:17,840
Speaker 1: a tree stand out in the middle of a hardwoods.

714
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 1: I mean your winds going somewhere, so at best, you know,

715
00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:23,120
Speaker 1: it was kind of difficult the way they did hunt

716
00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:27,239
Speaker 1: it when they did, in my opinion. But now tying

717
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:29,239
Speaker 1: that back into the fifty seven, I've got that nine

718
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:32,200
Speaker 1: acres of grain out there in another couple of acres

719
00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:34,239
Speaker 1: of food plot, and then this eighty four acres of

720
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:37,840
Speaker 1: solid timber. It it was it was an opportunity. I

721
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:40,360
Speaker 1: mean I walked it with you know, with some people

722
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 1: and just picking the brain here one of them that

723
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 1: can see things. And I come back to the you know,

724
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:54,640
Speaker 1: land management. Uh, it's it's the clean slate thing is

725
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:57,200
Speaker 1: so exciting for me. Yeah, I am looking forward to

726
00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:58,960
Speaker 1: seeing how this turns out in five years. And I

727
00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:01,640
Speaker 1: and I have great feelings about it because you know,

728
00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:03,279
Speaker 1: I've been around and doing this long enough. I know

729
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,799
Speaker 1: it's gonna work, work really well. But you know, day

730
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:11,480
Speaker 1: one walking into this new timber and gone m And

731
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:14,799
Speaker 1: the thing is it was not a mature timber. It

732
00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:16,879
Speaker 1: wasn't like the kind of woods that you turned into

733
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:20,319
Speaker 1: a city park. So while that has a certain field

734
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:22,919
Speaker 1: to certain people, uh, it doesn't so much to the deer.

735
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:28,400
Speaker 1: And in this woods was um new by wood standards,

736
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:31,520
Speaker 1: I think probably seventy years ago. It was past year,

737
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 1: you know, and with some fence roads in it. And

738
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:37,520
Speaker 1: so it's been let go a very long time and

739
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:39,719
Speaker 1: it has grown mature enough to have been logged a

740
00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:43,719
Speaker 1: couple of times. But overall you saw it, it's just

741
00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:49,240
Speaker 1: loaded up with trees that are sixteen inches or less. Yeah,

742
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:51,799
Speaker 1: so a lot of light gets through and that gives

743
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:55,120
Speaker 1: you a lot of undergrowth, and so so walk me

744
00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:58,480
Speaker 1: through what those I don't know if you did this

745
00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:00,840
Speaker 1: in a matter of weeks or day or months, but

746
00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:04,040
Speaker 1: when you first took possession of it, and now you're

747
00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:06,799
Speaker 1: starting that process you just described. I have a blank

748
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:13,840
Speaker 1: slate acre rectangle of solid timber, relatively young, pretty thick,

749
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:16,799
Speaker 1: and then I know that there's food to my one side.

750
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,279
Speaker 1: That's on the fifty seven. You own to walk me

751
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:22,160
Speaker 1: through how you looked at it, what you were thinking,

752
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:24,560
Speaker 1: how you start planning. Okay, these are the first things

753
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:27,000
Speaker 1: I need to do. How did you walk through that plant?

754
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:30,160
Speaker 1: What did the plan look like? Well, the plan originated

755
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:33,240
Speaker 1: twenty years ago. I've been sitting next to this works

756
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:35,759
Speaker 1: for a very long time just dreaming about it. Well,

757
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:37,759
Speaker 1: you spend time at the tree stand, you get time

758
00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:40,839
Speaker 1: to think that. Boy, if I had that property, this

759
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:43,840
Speaker 1: is what I would do. But one of the first

760
00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:46,759
Speaker 1: foremost and obvious things that I had always said to myself, like,

761
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:50,279
Speaker 1: you know there's a power line running through this. Uh,

762
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:54,759
Speaker 1: you know it's up towards the front, and why why

763
00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:57,720
Speaker 1: not if the power company is gonna keep it clear anyway?

764
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:00,200
Speaker 1: Why why not put that all in clover of the

765
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:04,120
Speaker 1: deer something to to eat. So without even walking the property,

766
00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:06,040
Speaker 1: you know, I was able to identify something right off

767
00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:09,960
Speaker 1: the bat that I would do different. And uh then

768
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 1: once I sat down and you know, really thought, hey,

769
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,279
Speaker 1: I'm gonna own this, What what am I gonna do

770
00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:20,760
Speaker 1: to this property? It really comes down to one word access.

771
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 1: How am I going to access and not blow the

772
00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:26,919
Speaker 1: deer out? You know? How are we going to keep

773
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:30,640
Speaker 1: it very much a sanctuary yet make it honorable at

774
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:33,840
Speaker 1: the same time. So one of the first missions was

775
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:38,520
Speaker 1: to create, uh, some roads around the perimeter towards the

776
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:41,279
Speaker 1: outside edges of woods. You know, you've got to give

777
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:43,319
Speaker 1: something to get something. So some trees are gonna fall

778
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,640
Speaker 1: over and and you you know you're gonna have to

779
00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:48,360
Speaker 1: drive in there, You're gonna have to walk around it.

780
00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:52,719
Speaker 1: You can't hunt property without going into it. But being

781
00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:55,080
Speaker 1: attached to the fifty seven and being attached to the

782
00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:58,680
Speaker 1: road instantly, you know, I had access from three sides

783
00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 1: and that was key out there. So the first thing,

784
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:04,600
Speaker 1: I mean, the first thing we did. I did was

785
00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:07,600
Speaker 1: get a bulldozer and and navigate some trails along the edges.

786
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:09,799
Speaker 1: You know, wide enough to get a tractor down through

787
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 1: and and start the process. But um, the process of

788
00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:18,719
Speaker 1: deciding where to put food, you know, a little bit

789
00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:23,279
Speaker 1: more involved. So what I tried to do is identify

790
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:27,279
Speaker 1: what the deer, how the deer moved naturally anyway, So

791
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 1: in other words, I knew that out the back side

792
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:33,760
Speaker 1: of the woods, uh, that there was a big water source.

793
00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:36,560
Speaker 1: It was forty acres away, But it really was about

794
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:40,320
Speaker 1: doing things around back there. So my thought was, Okay,

795
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:42,520
Speaker 1: if I can get to that backside, maybe get a

796
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 1: little food source In the back of this was maybe

797
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 1: I can give them a little something to eat before

798
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,759
Speaker 1: they head out in the dark to go over and

799
00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:51,960
Speaker 1: get a drink from that lake. The one thing they're

800
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:55,600
Speaker 1: gonna need is water, period. They've got a drink, so somewhere,

801
00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:58,000
Speaker 1: I mean, I knew they were getting water, and this

802
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:02,319
Speaker 1: particular property had little to none on it, So that

803
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:04,719
Speaker 1: was a major consideration for me. What way are they

804
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:07,600
Speaker 1: already wanting to go, and how can I intercept them,

805
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:10,040
Speaker 1: you know, without much of an invasion along the way,

806
00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:13,359
Speaker 1: And and that that worked well. And on the other

807
00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:16,279
Speaker 1: side of the property, I know that they were going

808
00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:18,560
Speaker 1: out to a cornfield or a bean field, and from

809
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:21,720
Speaker 1: years of just monitoring deer activity from the road even

810
00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:25,800
Speaker 1: I had could see where these deer tended to exit

811
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:28,640
Speaker 1: the property, you know, and we can go in the

812
00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:32,280
Speaker 1: corn field. So you've got so you've got deer moving

813
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:35,040
Speaker 1: from the core of the eighty four betting area and

814
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 1: stank there. Some are heading out towards this corn field,

815
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:40,800
Speaker 1: Some are heading out towards this lake or water source.

816
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:43,400
Speaker 1: Some are probably heading out towards the fifty seven and

817
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:45,919
Speaker 1: the food up there. Would you say there's the three

818
00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:49,319
Speaker 1: main directions stuff emanates out of No, I would say

819
00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:52,319
Speaker 1: there's four out the other direction too. Yeah, yeah, they're

820
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 1: they're actually do exit on the roadside very heavily because

821
00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:00,600
Speaker 1: there's some some massive agricultural fields over there, and you know,

822
00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:04,280
Speaker 1: so you've probably hit some along the way, but you're

823
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:08,720
Speaker 1: not afraid across the road. And so I this this woods,

824
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 1: I mean, it looks great from satellite, it really does,

825
00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:16,279
Speaker 1: because it's it's big, and it's in the surrounded by

826
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:19,160
Speaker 1: food essentially, and so they're kind of migrate out of

827
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:23,359
Speaker 1: it in this case four directions, and of course, you know,

828
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:25,719
Speaker 1: the road being one of my access points, you know,

829
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:29,600
Speaker 1: it's not in base of at all, hardly to you know,

830
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:32,120
Speaker 1: pop in fifty sixty yards off the road and it's

831
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:34,160
Speaker 1: set up a good spot to hunt. And then then

832
00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:37,279
Speaker 1: the sides were a little more challenging, you know, to

833
00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:40,640
Speaker 1: to access, and some of them can only be accessed

834
00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 1: when the wind is just right. But being that I

835
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:47,719
Speaker 1: had the fifty seven acres with other road frontage and

836
00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:51,760
Speaker 1: been able to access the back quite easily too, so uh,

837
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:54,279
Speaker 1: good access, that's really what it comes down to. And

838
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:58,319
Speaker 1: then when I decided where approximately within this to put

839
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:01,719
Speaker 1: the first food plot, I simply looked for something that

840
00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:07,680
Speaker 1: could be farmed, somewhat flat maybe, and not too many

841
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:12,280
Speaker 1: humongous trees. So so when I found this little valley

842
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:14,399
Speaker 1: that I thought could be farmed and would be right

843
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:18,359
Speaker 1: in the migration path to the water, it was I'm

844
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:24,680
Speaker 1: gonna say, se sassafras soft maple trees that I didn't

845
00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:27,759
Speaker 1: mind losing, So you know, that just played into it

846
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:30,320
Speaker 1: all the better, you know. And then I knew that,

847
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:33,200
Speaker 1: you know, to the north of it and to the

848
00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 1: south of it through walking, the bedding was phenomenal, so uh,

849
00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:40,520
Speaker 1: you know, I was able to find a little spot

850
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:42,759
Speaker 1: to tuck this in that I don't feel tore up

851
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:46,320
Speaker 1: too much cover and it didn't destroy too many good trees.

852
00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:49,399
Speaker 1: And that's where we put it. That was the first

853
00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:54,440
Speaker 1: food plot in And it's secluded from all sides to right,

854
00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:58,640
Speaker 1: but but close enough on one edge that you can

855
00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:01,400
Speaker 1: walk the perimeter and then walk in I don't know,

856
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:05,399
Speaker 1: forty fifty yards or something that's into it right precisely. Yeah, yeah,

857
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:07,520
Speaker 1: that's that's the philosophy. I mean, if you if you

858
00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:09,399
Speaker 1: go in with the wind in your favor, then that

859
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:14,959
Speaker 1: forty yard trip from the outside end isn't so bad. Um. So,

860
00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:17,160
Speaker 1: so how did you go about carving that in? Did

861
00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:20,040
Speaker 1: you have any thoughts on how you shaped it any

862
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:23,480
Speaker 1: other things when it came to preparing it, um that

863
00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:26,520
Speaker 1: you were thinking about? Um? Walking through the details of

864
00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:29,360
Speaker 1: that first food plot, Well, this was this was some

865
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:33,240
Speaker 1: thick and nasty you know, because stuff because of the

866
00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:35,720
Speaker 1: sas frustrees and the vines. There's a lot of vines

867
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:39,440
Speaker 1: in here. And so you know, I walked it. I

868
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:42,120
Speaker 1: used you know, the on X app and I did

869
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:44,440
Speaker 1: some walking and I said, well, that's about three cores

870
00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:47,200
Speaker 1: of an acre, and and I saw the shape that

871
00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:50,000
Speaker 1: I had walked in and the shape was dictated somewhat

872
00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:53,880
Speaker 1: by the you know, the topography, and also by where

873
00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:56,080
Speaker 1: I just want to say, I'm not taking those big

874
00:45:56,120 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 1: trees out or whatever it is. So that that was

875
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:02,840
Speaker 1: a phase one of so UM identified a shape it

876
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:05,040
Speaker 1: I thought could be hontrible and accessible and where I

877
00:46:05,040 --> 00:46:08,759
Speaker 1: would put the blind all prior to the dos are

878
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:11,759
Speaker 1: going in. So then we fired up the dos and

879
00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:14,200
Speaker 1: my son and I and we dozed dozed this plot

880
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:17,480
Speaker 1: in and and last year was the first year hunting it,

881
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:20,399
Speaker 1: and it proved successful. My son got a nice buck

882
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:23,799
Speaker 1: there and my great nephew killed his first buck in there.

883
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:27,480
Speaker 1: It was great, but uh, you know, I think you

884
00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:31,279
Speaker 1: need to be ready to evolve when when you're doing

885
00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:35,600
Speaker 1: this stuff. So you know, it worked, but not quite

886
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:38,160
Speaker 1: to the degree I wanted it to. There was there

887
00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 1: was a fair amount of deer that were bypassing us

888
00:46:41,719 --> 00:46:43,440
Speaker 1: just because they were headed to the water. You know,

889
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:46,440
Speaker 1: water first, they must be better all day. However, it

890
00:46:46,440 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 1: worked out they were kind of skirting the plot and

891
00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:51,279
Speaker 1: then obviously the trail cameras would show us that they

892
00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:55,720
Speaker 1: were there after dark. So this year I went ahead

893
00:46:55,719 --> 00:47:00,160
Speaker 1: and modified it a little bit. I uh, increased the

894
00:47:00,200 --> 00:47:02,640
Speaker 1: one end of it to kind of get out into

895
00:47:02,640 --> 00:47:07,200
Speaker 1: that little travel corridor. So, um, it's a little out

896
00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:09,719
Speaker 1: of bowl range, but certainly easily within gun range. I

897
00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:13,279
Speaker 1: don't think there's a spot over about eight yards there

898
00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:16,480
Speaker 1: period in the whole plot. But the other thing I

899
00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 1: did was when we took out those trees this year,

900
00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:23,799
Speaker 1: was brought the stumps that remained in the brush and

901
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:27,319
Speaker 1: I placed them in a spot right across from the

902
00:47:27,360 --> 00:47:31,200
Speaker 1: blind building out from the structure was already there. What

903
00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 1: I ended up creating was a U shape. Okay, so

904
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:38,400
Speaker 1: any deer traveling this food plat from one end to

905
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:40,760
Speaker 1: the other was going to come past at the bottom

906
00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:43,960
Speaker 1: of the U. And you know that's the blind was

907
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:46,520
Speaker 1: at the very bottom edge of the U. And then

908
00:47:46,760 --> 00:47:49,040
Speaker 1: the bottleneck I created was kind of in the bottom

909
00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:53,240
Speaker 1: of the saddle of the U if you're following me there. Yeah.

910
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:57,879
Speaker 1: So basically now for archery season, I think that any

911
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 1: deer that passes through that plot, uh from east to west,

912
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:04,520
Speaker 1: even eating or not eating, it's gonna have to pass

913
00:48:04,560 --> 00:48:08,000
Speaker 1: by that thirty five yard point and hopefully it's a

914
00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:11,000
Speaker 1: it's a a good buck and he's interested in the trick.

915
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 1: Oi and he comes to twenty yards. But the bottom

916
00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:15,520
Speaker 1: line is, you know, there was a little bit of

917
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:19,360
Speaker 1: evolving that took place this spring on that back plot

918
00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:23,279
Speaker 1: one with shape and two was kind of pinching them

919
00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:25,760
Speaker 1: in so we could get the archery shots that we wanted.

920
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:28,759
Speaker 1: I also saw that you and you just mentioned one

921
00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:30,879
Speaker 1: example of it, but you definitely when you're when you're

922
00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,800
Speaker 1: pushing all these timber plots, I've seen that you're taking

923
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:36,960
Speaker 1: the debris from it, whether it be stumps and root

924
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:39,360
Speaker 1: balls or some leftover tops or whatever, and it seems

925
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:43,040
Speaker 1: like you're using those strategically to um to help manage

926
00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 1: where movement might be. Can you talk a little bit

927
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:48,680
Speaker 1: about how you think about that too, And it definitely

928
00:48:49,360 --> 00:48:51,960
Speaker 1: does make a difference. Well A, it can make him

929
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:54,480
Speaker 1: feel a little bit more secure, be it can give

930
00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:56,600
Speaker 1: you this screen that allows you to get to the

931
00:48:56,640 --> 00:49:02,799
Speaker 1: plot undetected but knocking and not knocking the trees down

932
00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:06,200
Speaker 1: and stacking up the root balls, and that helped us

933
00:49:06,239 --> 00:49:09,760
Speaker 1: with the bottlenecking of the deer. But uh, it also

934
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:13,000
Speaker 1: made it so that I could carve holes through there.

935
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:16,359
Speaker 1: It spots maybe twenty yards from the blind so if

936
00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:20,279
Speaker 1: they you know, wanted to travel across the plot. I

937
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:22,800
Speaker 1: know that good chance if they exit, they're going to

938
00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:25,120
Speaker 1: take the easiest path. Not saying they can't get out

939
00:49:25,120 --> 00:49:27,120
Speaker 1: of there, but I am saying that if you give

940
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:29,239
Speaker 1: a deer an easier place to walk a lot of

941
00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:31,719
Speaker 1: times you'll take it. And if that happens to be

942
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:34,600
Speaker 1: yards off the blind where you can get a shot

943
00:49:35,080 --> 00:49:37,800
Speaker 1: or power to you. So yeah, we definitely used the

944
00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:41,080
Speaker 1: brush strategically, and all the logs and that have been

945
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:45,600
Speaker 1: removed for fireworks or otherwise, and why not. You have it,

946
00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:48,600
Speaker 1: and you gotta put it somewhere. So I prefer to

947
00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:50,759
Speaker 1: have it a lot of times at my back so

948
00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:55,879
Speaker 1: that when I look um out across the plot as

949
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 1: much as possible, I can see deer filtering through the timber,

950
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:00,560
Speaker 1: because that's what I enjoy. You know, you see a

951
00:50:00,560 --> 00:50:03,120
Speaker 1: set of legs moving through and Europe with the binoculars

952
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:06,399
Speaker 1: instantly and you're just hoping, hoping, is it a good one?

953
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:08,200
Speaker 1: What is it? What? Something's coming through the brush. I

954
00:50:08,200 --> 00:50:10,800
Speaker 1: can see it. So I try not to screen myself

955
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 1: too much, but but I will play stumps in some

956
00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:15,480
Speaker 1: rus should order to push it to your closer to

957
00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:17,799
Speaker 1: me as I passed you the food plot. Yeah, yeah,

958
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:19,680
Speaker 1: I could definitely see that you put a lot of

959
00:50:19,800 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 1: thought into each one of these little aspects of the plots. Um,

960
00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:26,239
Speaker 1: it didn't seem like there was much done by accident.

961
00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:28,680
Speaker 1: And I feel that's a really consistent thing I see

962
00:50:28,840 --> 00:50:30,640
Speaker 1: with all the different people I talked to, those those

963
00:50:30,719 --> 00:50:35,120
Speaker 1: best hunters, Um, they always um our detail, worrant, and

964
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:38,640
Speaker 1: they're they're not cutting, you know, not making shortcuts. They're

965
00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:42,399
Speaker 1: they're thinking through the long run. Um. While all these

966
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:44,880
Speaker 1: things might mean how each little piece could stack on

967
00:50:45,040 --> 00:50:47,959
Speaker 1: top of each other and give you that best possible chance.

968
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:52,480
Speaker 1: Another thing that uh, we did was trying to incorporate

969
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:55,359
Speaker 1: some of our own water, you know. So so that's

970
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:58,000
Speaker 1: actually last year was the first year for that. And

971
00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:00,839
Speaker 1: I set up a nice blind over a water hole

972
00:51:00,880 --> 00:51:05,319
Speaker 1: that I created, uh, simply by dozing a depression into

973
00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:08,080
Speaker 1: an area and then lining that with a big tarp,

974
00:51:08,480 --> 00:51:12,160
Speaker 1: and then after that we put all a foot of

975
00:51:12,239 --> 00:51:14,480
Speaker 1: dirt back on it to protect it because you know,

976
00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:18,000
Speaker 1: from the deer's hoofs and uh, and then I've had

977
00:51:18,080 --> 00:51:20,400
Speaker 1: to fill it since I don't have water flowing on

978
00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:23,000
Speaker 1: the place, I I have you know, an old water

979
00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:26,480
Speaker 1: tank that maybe holds three warter gowns, and several trips later,

980
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:27,880
Speaker 1: I had it. I had it filled up in a

981
00:51:27,920 --> 00:51:32,120
Speaker 1: blindset overright now. In this particular case, the very first one.

982
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:34,960
Speaker 1: I liked it not to have any food sources around

983
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:37,560
Speaker 1: it because I thought, you know, that would be what

984
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:39,600
Speaker 1: an all day ruts that this could be. I was

985
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:42,160
Speaker 1: just picturing this in my mind. You know, we're just

986
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:45,080
Speaker 1: off some of the bedding and the thickets, and in

987
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:47,640
Speaker 1: these they are thirsty. They've been running, chasing dose on

988
00:51:47,760 --> 00:51:50,320
Speaker 1: the move all the time. How fun it could be

989
00:51:50,440 --> 00:51:54,919
Speaker 1: to sit in this timber location throughout a day set

990
00:51:55,080 --> 00:51:58,680
Speaker 1: and watch deer filter into this water through the woods

991
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:01,319
Speaker 1: and not have it be a great, big, wide open

992
00:52:01,400 --> 00:52:06,040
Speaker 1: space of of green. So again I'm experimenting behind you.

993
00:52:06,280 --> 00:52:09,400
Speaker 1: But what I saw last year made for some of

994
00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:12,400
Speaker 1: the most fun Michigan hunting that I've had in a

995
00:52:12,480 --> 00:52:15,440
Speaker 1: long time. That you know, even once they got cold,

996
00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:18,120
Speaker 1: the deer were coming in and punching their feet through

997
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:20,840
Speaker 1: the ice right along the edge just to get drinks.

998
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:23,920
Speaker 1: And it was steady flow. Now this first year, um,

999
00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:26,239
Speaker 1: you know, by the oldest deer I saw do that

1000
00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:29,160
Speaker 1: was two and a half. So not that we drew

1001
00:52:29,239 --> 00:52:30,920
Speaker 1: in a lot of big bucks right off the bat

1002
00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:32,879
Speaker 1: with that new water hole, but it drew the deer

1003
00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:34,840
Speaker 1: and and and my belief all these year and a

1004
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:36,960
Speaker 1: halfs that came in steadily will someday be three and

1005
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:38,560
Speaker 1: a half one and a half year old deer. They're

1006
00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:41,319
Speaker 1: accustomed to drinking there, and I'm hoping that will work.

1007
00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:45,960
Speaker 1: And the turkeys loved it just as much. Squirrels, raccoons,

1008
00:52:46,080 --> 00:52:48,000
Speaker 1: everything drinks out of this thing is pretty neat. Yeah,

1009
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:49,560
Speaker 1: the deer would punch holes in the ice and then

1010
00:52:49,600 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 1: the deer the turkey would come and drink out of

1011
00:52:52,200 --> 00:52:56,120
Speaker 1: all those of prints. Yeah, it was fun. Um. Another

1012
00:52:56,239 --> 00:52:58,880
Speaker 1: thing you mentioned me when it came to water is

1013
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:01,920
Speaker 1: the fact that you you've found that this definitely worked.

1014
00:53:02,360 --> 00:53:04,440
Speaker 1: And then there's a temptation though maybe like, oh, if

1015
00:53:04,480 --> 00:53:07,200
Speaker 1: I found a water hole works, if one water hole works,

1016
00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:09,160
Speaker 1: I bet you two and three and four or five

1017
00:53:09,200 --> 00:53:11,880
Speaker 1: and six and seven and fifteen water holes of work better, right,

1018
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:16,520
Speaker 1: And they would, But you said no, I actually want

1019
00:53:16,560 --> 00:53:19,960
Speaker 1: to be careful with how many, um can you describe? Ye?

1020
00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:22,320
Speaker 1: And I saw you you've got two other water sources

1021
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:24,000
Speaker 1: that you're working on but you wanted to keep it

1022
00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:27,040
Speaker 1: um a relatively low number. Can you Can you talk

1023
00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:32,040
Speaker 1: about why, well that the theory is anyway that, uh,

1024
00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:33,839
Speaker 1: if you have a lot of water holes, it's gonna

1025
00:53:33,840 --> 00:53:36,239
Speaker 1: be a little harder to have one be called a

1026
00:53:36,360 --> 00:53:39,520
Speaker 1: destination water hole, you know what I mean. So if

1027
00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:41,880
Speaker 1: I throw a water hole in every food plat and

1028
00:53:42,239 --> 00:53:44,920
Speaker 1: in every corner of the woods, I'm sure it's very

1029
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:47,440
Speaker 1: good for the deer and the critters, but I think

1030
00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:50,520
Speaker 1: that it, you know, spreads out your opportunities for harvesting

1031
00:53:50,719 --> 00:53:53,880
Speaker 1: those same animals. So while I want to have one

1032
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:58,320
Speaker 1: on each side, maybe that creates a stop point for

1033
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:00,879
Speaker 1: the deer to come and get a drink. I don't

1034
00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:03,200
Speaker 1: want so many that I have no clue where to hunt.

1035
00:54:03,280 --> 00:54:05,160
Speaker 1: So right now I'm looking at it like I'm going

1036
00:54:05,200 --> 00:54:08,239
Speaker 1: to have a three water holes at the end of this,

1037
00:54:09,120 --> 00:54:12,720
Speaker 1: and I'll have a particular deer I'm after who tends

1038
00:54:12,760 --> 00:54:15,040
Speaker 1: to spend more time on the reconics over on this

1039
00:54:15,160 --> 00:54:17,160
Speaker 1: side of the farm, or he's exiting into the grain

1040
00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:19,440
Speaker 1: fields on that side of the farm. I'll know that

1041
00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:21,840
Speaker 1: the water hole I want to pursue him over is

1042
00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:25,759
Speaker 1: this one one he's exiting near. So you know, one

1043
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:29,560
Speaker 1: thing I've learned that even with just eighty four acres,

1044
00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:32,200
Speaker 1: and I realized that's not a whole lot. Uh, I

1045
00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:36,360
Speaker 1: will find that my cameras do not turn up the

1046
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:39,800
Speaker 1: same buck on every camera. The bottom line is there's cameras.

1047
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:42,360
Speaker 1: I never saw bucks from the other end of the

1048
00:54:42,440 --> 00:54:45,160
Speaker 1: eighty four acres on that. That's kind of amazing to me.

1049
00:54:45,719 --> 00:54:49,680
Speaker 1: Yet it's true, and you would see constantly the same

1050
00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:53,520
Speaker 1: deer on the same cameras, occasionally capturing him on the

1051
00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:56,000
Speaker 1: others too, But there may be two or three cameras

1052
00:54:56,040 --> 00:54:59,000
Speaker 1: and you never saw that deer. It is because it's

1053
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:01,960
Speaker 1: not that much l in. It really isn't. But when

1054
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:04,799
Speaker 1: you picture a deer's home range, you don't know if

1055
00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:06,480
Speaker 1: you're in the middle of it or if you're on

1056
00:55:06,560 --> 00:55:09,000
Speaker 1: an edge of it. So when I get, you know,

1057
00:55:09,160 --> 00:55:11,800
Speaker 1: pictures of a buck just on one or two cameras

1058
00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:13,120
Speaker 1: all the way to one side of the farm, I'm

1059
00:55:13,280 --> 00:55:15,920
Speaker 1: I'm just making the assumption that I'm just on the

1060
00:55:16,040 --> 00:55:18,200
Speaker 1: edge of his core area. Now, I'm not gonna say

1061
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:21,319
Speaker 1: you'll never wander. You know, after the first brought's over,

1062
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:24,440
Speaker 1: he could be anywhere. It's true, but they do have

1063
00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:27,399
Speaker 1: a core area and I think they it's actually quite

1064
00:55:27,480 --> 00:55:31,160
Speaker 1: discoverable even on a small pieces like four acres. Yeah,

1065
00:55:31,600 --> 00:55:36,200
Speaker 1: what is your trail camera strategy on on these pieces here?

1066
00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:38,960
Speaker 1: We didn't really talk about that, But how do they

1067
00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:42,440
Speaker 1: work into your hunting? Do you? I know, you know,

1068
00:55:42,719 --> 00:55:45,320
Speaker 1: folks of Mark Drey are really big into getting a

1069
00:55:45,360 --> 00:55:49,640
Speaker 1: lot of photos, but mostly by using last year's photos.

1070
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:52,000
Speaker 1: Are you planning your hunts this year? Because he's looking

1071
00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:54,759
Speaker 1: a lot like annual patterns and trends like that. Um,

1072
00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:56,400
Speaker 1: are you are you doing that kind of thing? Are

1073
00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:58,040
Speaker 1: you just trying to see what kinds of deer are

1074
00:55:58,120 --> 00:56:01,719
Speaker 1: out here? Or are you using amorous to actively choose

1075
00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:04,080
Speaker 1: where to hunt right now? And you're getting pictures yesterday

1076
00:56:04,160 --> 00:56:06,520
Speaker 1: and you're hunting here the next day because of it?

1077
00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:11,000
Speaker 1: Where do you fall on that spectrum? Well? Inventory, for sure.

1078
00:56:11,160 --> 00:56:14,880
Speaker 1: I'm always taking inventory, and yes I do keep on

1079
00:56:15,040 --> 00:56:18,680
Speaker 1: all the pictures from previous seasons because one thing that uh,

1080
00:56:18,960 --> 00:56:21,719
Speaker 1: I've discovered, it's a if a deer tends to hit

1081
00:56:21,760 --> 00:56:25,560
Speaker 1: a particular area a particular time of the year, he'll

1082
00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:27,960
Speaker 1: be consistent with that the next year. Good chance if

1083
00:56:28,080 --> 00:56:30,600
Speaker 1: he's still around that two year old now is a

1084
00:56:30,680 --> 00:56:33,839
Speaker 1: three year old is likely to be hitting that same

1085
00:56:33,880 --> 00:56:37,279
Speaker 1: food plot in December, which just tells you something about

1086
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:39,239
Speaker 1: his character and and there's a good chance it will

1087
00:56:39,280 --> 00:56:42,960
Speaker 1: be the same the following year. Uh So there's the

1088
00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:46,400
Speaker 1: inventory side of things is just maybe well back when

1089
00:56:46,440 --> 00:56:48,200
Speaker 1: you could use mineral, you know, you get your mineral

1090
00:56:48,280 --> 00:56:50,440
Speaker 1: out there and and you just kind of take a

1091
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:53,919
Speaker 1: general inventory throughout your area of what bucks made it through,

1092
00:56:54,560 --> 00:56:58,600
Speaker 1: and then as season season approaches, you know, I'm moving

1093
00:56:58,680 --> 00:57:02,360
Speaker 1: off of that. I'm getting on green uh or in

1094
00:57:02,440 --> 00:57:05,640
Speaker 1: this case, maybe a water hole as well. But I'm

1095
00:57:05,680 --> 00:57:08,800
Speaker 1: getting it to the food plots, especially you know in

1096
00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:11,239
Speaker 1: the clover and that, and trying to see what what

1097
00:57:11,360 --> 00:57:15,200
Speaker 1: they're hitting particular food plots at that point. But by

1098
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:19,960
Speaker 1: the time October gets midway through, I'm changing that tactic

1099
00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:23,120
Speaker 1: as well, because dear the bucks in general, uh, you know,

1100
00:57:23,200 --> 00:57:25,320
Speaker 1: I was not thinking of their bellies quite as much now,

1101
00:57:25,720 --> 00:57:27,880
Speaker 1: So I'm moving the cameras off to get them on scrapes.

1102
00:57:27,920 --> 00:57:31,120
Speaker 1: At that point. By mid October, I've got them pretty

1103
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:34,000
Speaker 1: well all on scrapes and maybe just one per food

1104
00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:37,919
Speaker 1: plot as a general monitor, and you know, maybe even

1105
00:57:38,040 --> 00:57:40,439
Speaker 1: I have that, you know, on a on a food

1106
00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:42,760
Speaker 1: plot timer, and it's taking a picture every five minutes

1107
00:57:42,840 --> 00:57:45,640
Speaker 1: during the you know, the morning hours, in the in

1108
00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:48,440
Speaker 1: the evening hours like they do now. So UM a

1109
00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:50,720
Speaker 1: couple of different tactics, but the scrape has become my

1110
00:57:50,840 --> 00:57:55,440
Speaker 1: primary focus after mid October. When you put them on

1111
00:57:55,480 --> 00:57:58,680
Speaker 1: the scrapes, how far how close to the scrape do

1112
00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:01,280
Speaker 1: you do you sit your cameras. Some people talk and

1113
00:58:01,640 --> 00:58:03,720
Speaker 1: say that they're worried about spooking deer, so they don't

1114
00:58:03,720 --> 00:58:05,800
Speaker 1: want to have the camera right on the same tree

1115
00:58:05,920 --> 00:58:08,240
Speaker 1: that the scrape might be on UM or they'll try

1116
00:58:08,240 --> 00:58:10,680
Speaker 1: to put a high angle down. I've been kind of

1117
00:58:10,720 --> 00:58:14,840
Speaker 1: conflicted on this. I've ran scrape. I've ran cameras right

1118
00:58:14,920 --> 00:58:17,360
Speaker 1: in a tree that's ten yards away or five yards

1119
00:58:17,400 --> 00:58:20,040
Speaker 1: away from the scrape, and it seems fine. And I've

1120
00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:21,680
Speaker 1: had other times where there will be one buck and

1121
00:58:21,800 --> 00:58:23,439
Speaker 1: I get one picture of them, I never get it again.

1122
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:25,840
Speaker 1: I wonder, has that because I had that camera, there

1123
00:58:25,840 --> 00:58:28,600
Speaker 1: should be putting these high and farther away. I don't

1124
00:58:28,600 --> 00:58:30,880
Speaker 1: know what the answer is. Where are you on? UM?

1125
00:58:32,720 --> 00:58:35,120
Speaker 1: I think you're right, it can affect them, and and

1126
00:58:35,560 --> 00:58:39,520
Speaker 1: I've had the red light cameras, and I definitely feel

1127
00:58:39,600 --> 00:58:42,200
Speaker 1: that that does have an effect on them. I mean

1128
00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:44,960
Speaker 1: they do turn and look at it, so uh and

1129
00:58:45,120 --> 00:58:47,000
Speaker 1: you may not see that here again or I've even

1130
00:58:47,080 --> 00:58:49,600
Speaker 1: seen them in the third and fourth picture of them

1131
00:58:49,720 --> 00:58:53,800
Speaker 1: running away, so I know it affects them. But so

1132
00:58:53,920 --> 00:58:56,440
Speaker 1: what I tried to do is go, you know, all

1133
00:58:56,600 --> 00:59:00,400
Speaker 1: with cameras that don't have that, certainly not a regular

1134
00:59:00,440 --> 00:59:03,200
Speaker 1: flash anymore like they used to, but even gotten away

1135
00:59:03,240 --> 00:59:06,120
Speaker 1: from the red just to improve my odds there. But

1136
00:59:06,640 --> 00:59:09,600
Speaker 1: in question to where do you put it, um, I

1137
00:59:09,920 --> 00:59:14,240
Speaker 1: consider access usually you know, that's I'm putting it on

1138
00:59:14,320 --> 00:59:16,520
Speaker 1: a side of the tree that allows me the least

1139
00:59:16,560 --> 00:59:21,240
Speaker 1: invasive footwork from a standpoint of getting to and from it.

1140
00:59:21,960 --> 00:59:26,640
Speaker 1: And honestly, I like scrapes that occur on old old

1141
00:59:26,760 --> 00:59:30,160
Speaker 1: lane ways. Uh. The reason being, you can take an

1142
00:59:30,200 --> 00:59:33,080
Speaker 1: electric vehicle or you know, maybe a golf curtain slip

1143
00:59:33,120 --> 00:59:35,000
Speaker 1: back in there and never put your foot track down

1144
00:59:35,040 --> 00:59:37,680
Speaker 1: at all and roll right up to the camera with

1145
00:59:37,840 --> 00:59:40,720
Speaker 1: your gloves on and flip it open and change your card. Uh.

1146
00:59:40,880 --> 00:59:43,400
Speaker 1: The other the other thing that I've started doing for

1147
00:59:43,480 --> 00:59:46,240
Speaker 1: the food plats sake is I'm mounting the cameras right

1148
00:59:46,400 --> 00:59:48,880
Speaker 1: on the blinds, and that way, when I go to

1149
00:59:49,080 --> 00:59:52,800
Speaker 1: my blind to hunt, I can pull the card. So

1150
00:59:53,120 --> 00:59:55,280
Speaker 1: I use that type quite a bit. Two plus. Uh,

1151
00:59:55,560 --> 00:59:58,440
Speaker 1: you know, I'd like to put the tree coise out so, um,

1152
00:59:58,920 --> 01:00:01,400
Speaker 1: there's usually a tree twenty yards in front of the blind,

1153
01:00:01,480 --> 01:00:03,880
Speaker 1: so that gives me a natural spot. But whether they're

1154
01:00:03,920 --> 01:00:08,080
Speaker 1: just up there scent marking the tree or rubbing it

1155
01:00:08,200 --> 01:00:10,880
Speaker 1: or putting a scrape on the ground, A dozen bucks

1156
01:00:10,920 --> 01:00:13,760
Speaker 1: alike are attracted to those, and you do get quite

1157
01:00:13,760 --> 01:00:18,120
Speaker 1: a lot of pictures that way. UM. So back to

1158
01:00:18,200 --> 01:00:20,280
Speaker 1: your food plots. You're you're talking about, you know, having

1159
01:00:20,320 --> 01:00:23,840
Speaker 1: cameras over these food plots, monitoring what's there. Um in

1160
01:00:24,200 --> 01:00:27,920
Speaker 1: these kind of satellite food plots like you you described

1161
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:30,240
Speaker 1: one of those that you're you're carving into the timber,

1162
01:00:30,560 --> 01:00:32,720
Speaker 1: and there's two others like that on this piece that

1163
01:00:32,800 --> 01:00:35,960
Speaker 1: you carved in. UM. You described to me kind of

1164
01:00:36,680 --> 01:00:39,800
Speaker 1: seems like a relatively consistent food plot plan for each

1165
01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:43,160
Speaker 1: one of those. Um, can you walk through what that

1166
01:00:43,400 --> 01:00:49,000
Speaker 1: is why you chose to plant these several different varieties? Sure? Uh,

1167
01:00:49,280 --> 01:00:52,360
Speaker 1: you know, a basic philosophy of mine is with with

1168
01:00:52,520 --> 01:00:56,720
Speaker 1: your food sources um aside from grain, and we're just

1169
01:00:56,800 --> 01:00:59,920
Speaker 1: talking about typical food plots of you know, turn up

1170
01:01:00,040 --> 01:01:02,640
Speaker 1: some radishes and clover and the like. I like to

1171
01:01:02,680 --> 01:01:05,640
Speaker 1: see a balance of fifty six in the clover overall.

1172
01:01:05,960 --> 01:01:09,360
Speaker 1: And the reason is, uh, it's it's habit forming. Clover

1173
01:01:09,680 --> 01:01:14,439
Speaker 1: is works all year unless they completely annihilate it. They're

1174
01:01:14,440 --> 01:01:16,360
Speaker 1: gonna paw to it down to it in the snow.

1175
01:01:16,840 --> 01:01:19,040
Speaker 1: I mean, they're gonna go for it. And and that's

1176
01:01:19,040 --> 01:01:22,880
Speaker 1: not different in raddishes all the time. But raddishes are

1177
01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:27,480
Speaker 1: not there all year or turnips. Clover is. So it's

1178
01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:30,840
Speaker 1: it's awesome for the turkey hunting as well. Uh. But

1179
01:01:31,080 --> 01:01:34,360
Speaker 1: bottom line is a clover is fairly easy to grow,

1180
01:01:34,520 --> 01:01:37,600
Speaker 1: fairly easy to maintain, and it's a it's a year

1181
01:01:37,720 --> 01:01:41,320
Speaker 1: round attract And so to me, habit forming is good.

1182
01:01:41,560 --> 01:01:43,960
Speaker 1: If you're gonna hang onto a property for more than

1183
01:01:44,120 --> 01:01:47,760
Speaker 1: three years, you've got an opportunity here to form habits

1184
01:01:47,840 --> 01:01:50,400
Speaker 1: with those year and a half bucks there on your property.

1185
01:01:50,400 --> 01:01:52,640
Speaker 1: And there's usually a lot of them in Michigan. Yeah,

1186
01:01:52,720 --> 01:01:54,120
Speaker 1: and a few of them are going to make it through.

1187
01:01:54,200 --> 01:01:56,120
Speaker 1: And if you can form some good habits coming to

1188
01:01:56,200 --> 01:01:59,560
Speaker 1: the clover or whatever. That's a great thing. Now get

1189
01:01:59,720 --> 01:02:04,760
Speaker 1: fast forward. You're thinking about season in end of July.

1190
01:02:04,960 --> 01:02:07,920
Speaker 1: Of course I'm I'm burning down you know what's not clover,

1191
01:02:08,080 --> 01:02:10,800
Speaker 1: and I'm turning it up and getting it propping the soil,

1192
01:02:10,880 --> 01:02:14,160
Speaker 1: getting my lime on there. Usually actually that's more towards spring,

1193
01:02:14,280 --> 01:02:17,000
Speaker 1: but getting the fertilizer put in and worked into the soil.

1194
01:02:18,360 --> 01:02:22,200
Speaker 1: And then for uh, you know, planting strategy. A lot

1195
01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:25,800
Speaker 1: of times we'll put the clover. Uh, I like the

1196
01:02:25,840 --> 01:02:28,600
Speaker 1: non typical clover real well, and I'll put that around

1197
01:02:28,680 --> 01:02:31,720
Speaker 1: the outside edges of the food plot. And part of

1198
01:02:31,760 --> 01:02:35,360
Speaker 1: the reason is, you know, clover is pretty shade tolerant

1199
01:02:35,400 --> 01:02:38,400
Speaker 1: compared to other plants. It tolerates that well. And and

1200
01:02:38,520 --> 01:02:40,400
Speaker 1: the roots of the trees get out in there some

1201
01:02:40,680 --> 01:02:45,040
Speaker 1: and and well, you know, drain nutrients away from other plants.

1202
01:02:45,120 --> 01:02:49,200
Speaker 1: Clover will survive that, and and we'll keep on where

1203
01:02:49,280 --> 01:02:51,760
Speaker 1: other types of plants won't. So a lot of times

1204
01:02:51,760 --> 01:02:54,360
Speaker 1: there'll be an outside ring of clover. But then when

1205
01:02:54,360 --> 01:02:56,640
Speaker 1: it comes to the food is so self out in

1206
01:02:56,720 --> 01:03:01,960
Speaker 1: the center. I like to um, stay agger seasonally, stagger

1207
01:03:02,440 --> 01:03:05,480
Speaker 1: what's planted there. You can't run radishes or turn ups

1208
01:03:05,560 --> 01:03:08,480
Speaker 1: year after year in the same spot. So I may

1209
01:03:08,600 --> 01:03:10,520
Speaker 1: take a food plot and draw a line from my

1210
01:03:10,600 --> 01:03:15,280
Speaker 1: blind across the food plot. Left side, I might plant uh,

1211
01:03:15,840 --> 01:03:19,360
Speaker 1: you know, tall tine tubers or some sort of uh

1212
01:03:21,640 --> 01:03:26,440
Speaker 1: winter bulbs, sugar beets, last bite maximum for the brassica, okay,

1213
01:03:26,840 --> 01:03:29,240
Speaker 1: And then on the other half, maybe is a resting year,

1214
01:03:29,280 --> 01:03:33,320
Speaker 1: Maybe I plant some chicory um along some oats. Now,

1215
01:03:34,120 --> 01:03:35,800
Speaker 1: a lot of people plant rye and where are we

1216
01:03:35,880 --> 01:03:39,960
Speaker 1: and everybody's got there there's favorite thing. But you know,

1217
01:03:40,120 --> 01:03:42,200
Speaker 1: for me, generally, I find that it's pretty easy to

1218
01:03:42,280 --> 01:03:45,520
Speaker 1: get a good standard oats, and if you can mix

1219
01:03:45,600 --> 01:03:48,680
Speaker 1: that in with something else, you know, more power to you.

1220
01:03:48,800 --> 01:03:50,720
Speaker 1: But what it does is it really gives that land

1221
01:03:50,840 --> 01:03:54,320
Speaker 1: some time to rest because if you plant uh, and

1222
01:03:54,480 --> 01:03:56,480
Speaker 1: we've discovered this, you know, year over year, if you

1223
01:03:56,560 --> 01:03:59,640
Speaker 1: plant maximum in the same spot, it becomes less and

1224
01:03:59,720 --> 01:04:03,720
Speaker 1: less productive in the in the funguses and the insects

1225
01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:07,000
Speaker 1: that survived that in the soil tend to be there

1226
01:04:07,040 --> 01:04:09,520
Speaker 1: waiting for it next year. And it just seems like

1227
01:04:09,560 --> 01:04:11,960
Speaker 1: a snowball. So you know, we're trying to trying to

1228
01:04:12,080 --> 01:04:14,960
Speaker 1: alternate them just so that doesn't happen so much. It's

1229
01:04:15,040 --> 01:04:17,200
Speaker 1: tough when you've only got you know, one acre to

1230
01:04:17,320 --> 01:04:19,960
Speaker 1: work with, but you know, we all you can do

1231
01:04:20,120 --> 01:04:23,200
Speaker 1: is do your best and and that's a small effort

1232
01:04:23,280 --> 01:04:24,960
Speaker 1: right there to split them up. Yeah. No, Now you

1233
01:04:25,040 --> 01:04:27,480
Speaker 1: talked about the clover, you've got the clover ring and

1234
01:04:27,560 --> 01:04:29,240
Speaker 1: then also on one of those food pleats, I think

1235
01:04:29,240 --> 01:04:31,680
Speaker 1: it was the first one, you talked about how you

1236
01:04:31,760 --> 01:04:33,760
Speaker 1: were going to leave a larger section of that and

1237
01:04:33,800 --> 01:04:36,360
Speaker 1: clover as well, and we were we were, um, I

1238
01:04:36,440 --> 01:04:38,080
Speaker 1: was asking about how you maintained it because one of

1239
01:04:38,120 --> 01:04:39,840
Speaker 1: the things I've been dealing with lately is just trying

1240
01:04:39,880 --> 01:04:42,040
Speaker 1: to maintain a small clover plot that I've been working

1241
01:04:42,080 --> 01:04:44,200
Speaker 1: on a piece of property that I can hunt, um,

1242
01:04:44,680 --> 01:04:47,240
Speaker 1: and you know, just dealing with the weeds, dealing with

1243
01:04:47,280 --> 01:04:50,680
Speaker 1: different things, trying to make sure, um, make sure you're

1244
01:04:50,720 --> 01:04:53,360
Speaker 1: timing all the different maintenance things right. That's what I

1245
01:04:53,400 --> 01:04:55,760
Speaker 1: always have questions, like when shouldy mowing, or when should

1246
01:04:55,880 --> 01:04:58,919
Speaker 1: be springer when she would be It's just there's there's

1247
01:04:58,920 --> 01:05:00,440
Speaker 1: a little bit to it. And you said that you

1248
01:05:00,560 --> 01:05:03,240
Speaker 1: have kind of system for managing your your clover. Can

1249
01:05:03,280 --> 01:05:05,960
Speaker 1: you walk us through what your system is? Yeah, I

1250
01:05:06,040 --> 01:05:09,680
Speaker 1: mean kind of what we discovered a little bit by

1251
01:05:09,720 --> 01:05:13,000
Speaker 1: accident actually years and years ago, was that I went

1252
01:05:13,080 --> 01:05:16,360
Speaker 1: to burn down a clover plot. And you say that,

1253
01:05:16,440 --> 01:05:20,080
Speaker 1: you mean spray round up, but that, yeah, true, I

1254
01:05:20,200 --> 01:05:23,800
Speaker 1: am not fire right, Yeah, so we're bringing it down

1255
01:05:23,840 --> 01:05:26,880
Speaker 1: with a chemical burness is what it is. See, and uh,

1256
01:05:27,600 --> 01:05:29,280
Speaker 1: you know, I think I may have gotten a little

1257
01:05:29,320 --> 01:05:32,520
Speaker 1: bit light on the roundup or whatever. And and uh

1258
01:05:33,480 --> 01:05:35,000
Speaker 1: go back in a couple of weeks to get ready

1259
01:05:35,080 --> 01:05:37,880
Speaker 1: planet and what in the world the clover that's in

1260
01:05:38,000 --> 01:05:41,360
Speaker 1: it has survived and it's starting to spring back, and

1261
01:05:41,400 --> 01:05:45,600
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the heck is going on here? So, uh,

1262
01:05:45,800 --> 01:05:48,440
Speaker 1: long story, shortly occurred to me that, well, if clover

1263
01:05:48,520 --> 01:05:51,120
Speaker 1: could actually survive a heavy dose of round up, what

1264
01:05:51,320 --> 01:05:54,000
Speaker 1: happens if I spray my clover with a light dose

1265
01:05:54,040 --> 01:05:56,360
Speaker 1: a round up? You know, will it still be effective

1266
01:05:56,440 --> 01:06:00,360
Speaker 1: enough on the other weeds in that And again, not

1267
01:06:00,440 --> 01:06:03,400
Speaker 1: being afraid to experiment, it turned out to be quite

1268
01:06:03,400 --> 01:06:07,120
Speaker 1: affordable option to spray it that way, And uh, I

1269
01:06:07,240 --> 01:06:09,880
Speaker 1: ended up mixing about three quarters of an ounce to

1270
01:06:10,040 --> 01:06:14,120
Speaker 1: the gallon you know of of round up in the water,

1271
01:06:14,200 --> 01:06:16,240
Speaker 1: So that's a fairly light dose. But yeah, heavy enough

1272
01:06:16,320 --> 01:06:20,560
Speaker 1: it killed the weeds. So the clover would be stunted

1273
01:06:20,880 --> 01:06:25,080
Speaker 1: generally uh it yellow, and then it would wait for

1274
01:06:25,120 --> 01:06:27,600
Speaker 1: the rain. So I'm doing this since say the end

1275
01:06:27,640 --> 01:06:31,120
Speaker 1: of August, right and uh, you know, for a couple

1276
01:06:31,160 --> 01:06:33,000
Speaker 1: of weeks or they say that it's best to spray

1277
01:06:33,040 --> 01:06:36,480
Speaker 1: and go on vacation. It honestly is because I had

1278
01:06:36,520 --> 01:06:38,600
Speaker 1: done it in the past, and I went back and

1279
01:06:39,240 --> 01:06:42,280
Speaker 1: you know, ten days and went this time, I've really

1280
01:06:42,360 --> 01:06:44,680
Speaker 1: done it. You're not have anything to hunt over here.

1281
01:06:45,240 --> 01:06:47,760
Speaker 1: But but yet a month goes by and you've had

1282
01:06:47,800 --> 01:06:50,600
Speaker 1: some good rains and suddenly the only thing that's green

1283
01:06:50,680 --> 01:06:53,640
Speaker 1: in that plot is clover. And not only that, without

1284
01:06:53,680 --> 01:06:56,960
Speaker 1: in competition, it just blows up. So I've ended up

1285
01:06:57,000 --> 01:07:00,480
Speaker 1: with some very very good food plots of clover with

1286
01:07:00,680 --> 01:07:03,280
Speaker 1: that method. And by the time that October rolls around,

1287
01:07:03,320 --> 01:07:05,960
Speaker 1: it's had a solid six weeks of growing and it's

1288
01:07:06,040 --> 01:07:09,960
Speaker 1: it's lush, works really well. Now throughout the course of

1289
01:07:10,120 --> 01:07:12,720
Speaker 1: the spring and summer, I'll mow it a couple of times,

1290
01:07:12,840 --> 01:07:15,560
Speaker 1: you know, uh, just to keep the weeds in check

1291
01:07:15,760 --> 01:07:17,480
Speaker 1: that are trying to come up through the clover. But

1292
01:07:17,800 --> 01:07:20,920
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, usually long about end

1293
01:07:20,960 --> 01:07:23,680
Speaker 1: of August, mid August, I'm gonna go ahead and hit

1294
01:07:23,720 --> 01:07:26,160
Speaker 1: it with a dose of round up, and I kind

1295
01:07:26,200 --> 01:07:27,960
Speaker 1: of I try to look and see when there's some

1296
01:07:28,160 --> 01:07:30,120
Speaker 1: rain in the future. I want them round up to

1297
01:07:30,160 --> 01:07:32,720
Speaker 1: be effective enough to knock out the weeds. But you know,

1298
01:07:32,760 --> 01:07:36,120
Speaker 1: I don't want the clover suffering indefinitely on drought conditions

1299
01:07:36,160 --> 01:07:38,120
Speaker 1: with that round up on it. So you know, if

1300
01:07:38,120 --> 01:07:40,040
Speaker 1: it's going to rain in the next seven eight days,

1301
01:07:40,120 --> 01:07:42,440
Speaker 1: I'm I'm happy. And that's I try to shoot for

1302
01:07:42,480 --> 01:07:47,160
Speaker 1: those times. Um, and when when's the right time to mow?

1303
01:07:47,280 --> 01:07:49,040
Speaker 1: You said you most several times. What are you waiting

1304
01:07:49,080 --> 01:07:50,880
Speaker 1: for to say, Okay, now it's time to just wait

1305
01:07:50,960 --> 01:07:53,080
Speaker 1: till it starts seating out? Or are you waiting till

1306
01:07:53,120 --> 01:07:56,160
Speaker 1: the weeds reached a certain height? When do you choose

1307
01:07:56,160 --> 01:07:59,480
Speaker 1: to go in there and do that. Well, yeah, I

1308
01:07:59,520 --> 01:08:02,360
Speaker 1: would say, you know, wait forward, seat out. But here's

1309
01:08:02,440 --> 01:08:06,360
Speaker 1: here's the thing. I mean. In June, uh, when you

1310
01:08:06,480 --> 01:08:09,120
Speaker 1: think you're due for that first mowing, I've discovered that

1311
01:08:09,200 --> 01:08:12,520
Speaker 1: it's just not worth it. We hit fawns, so we

1312
01:08:12,600 --> 01:08:14,640
Speaker 1: stopped that practice. You know at the time that I

1313
01:08:14,760 --> 01:08:17,840
Speaker 1: felt like we should probably get on it because you know,

1314
01:08:17,920 --> 01:08:21,680
Speaker 1: the summer grasses are now starting up through the clover um,

1315
01:08:22,120 --> 01:08:23,960
Speaker 1: so you feel like, man, I should maybe get out

1316
01:08:23,960 --> 01:08:26,439
Speaker 1: there and get that mode before them get going. The

1317
01:08:26,560 --> 01:08:29,200
Speaker 1: downside was, you know, you hit a faun or two

1318
01:08:29,240 --> 01:08:31,360
Speaker 1: and it kind of discourages you from doing that. So

1319
01:08:31,760 --> 01:08:33,880
Speaker 1: so my first mowing of the year, generally it is

1320
01:08:33,880 --> 01:08:35,760
Speaker 1: a little later than I would have liked, and the

1321
01:08:35,800 --> 01:08:37,920
Speaker 1: grass is a little bit taller than I would have wanted,

1322
01:08:37,960 --> 01:08:39,600
Speaker 1: but at least the funds are on their feet and

1323
01:08:40,120 --> 01:08:42,479
Speaker 1: it's not an issue. And then a lot of times,

1324
01:08:42,680 --> 01:08:45,599
Speaker 1: you know more one more time, say, you know, towards

1325
01:08:45,640 --> 01:08:49,240
Speaker 1: the all right at the end of July, and then

1326
01:08:49,560 --> 01:08:52,240
Speaker 1: the weeds in the in the clover has a couple

1327
01:08:52,240 --> 01:08:54,720
Speaker 1: of few weeks to recover and by the time I

1328
01:08:55,200 --> 01:08:58,120
Speaker 1: actually do the round up application to knock out the weeds.

1329
01:08:58,760 --> 01:09:01,240
Speaker 1: But the other part of that equation is we to

1330
01:09:01,320 --> 01:09:03,200
Speaker 1: maintain a good clover plot if you wanted the last

1331
01:09:03,240 --> 01:09:05,519
Speaker 1: five years, you gotta feed it. You know, they make

1332
01:09:05,560 --> 01:09:08,479
Speaker 1: their own nitrogen, so that's not necessary. But but we

1333
01:09:08,640 --> 01:09:11,840
Speaker 1: fertilize it like like any others. We treated as a

1334
01:09:11,920 --> 01:09:14,920
Speaker 1: drop because it is and we can Tom and I

1335
01:09:15,000 --> 01:09:17,599
Speaker 1: have stretched some of these clover plots out to five

1336
01:09:17,640 --> 01:09:20,439
Speaker 1: and seven years in good shape. You know, eventually you

1337
01:09:20,800 --> 01:09:23,840
Speaker 1: you there's no doubt you need to start over. But um,

1338
01:09:24,200 --> 01:09:25,640
Speaker 1: so what we'll do is we'll knock it out of

1339
01:09:25,720 --> 01:09:28,400
Speaker 1: the rotation, you know, remove it from clover now. And

1340
01:09:28,439 --> 01:09:30,320
Speaker 1: this is not the ring style. This would be if

1341
01:09:30,320 --> 01:09:32,080
Speaker 1: we had a whole plot of clovers what I'm really

1342
01:09:32,120 --> 01:09:35,160
Speaker 1: referring to now. But so after five years, let's say

1343
01:09:35,680 --> 01:09:38,799
Speaker 1: we go ahead and and uh do a hard chemical

1344
01:09:38,840 --> 01:09:41,800
Speaker 1: burn on it with some more aggressive chemicals, and then

1345
01:09:42,280 --> 01:09:44,880
Speaker 1: go ahead and turn turn it under and we'll run

1346
01:09:45,040 --> 01:09:47,280
Speaker 1: a year of brassicas on it. I mean, the clovers

1347
01:09:47,320 --> 01:09:49,760
Speaker 1: just pumped it full of nitrogen, and you know, the

1348
01:09:49,840 --> 01:09:52,479
Speaker 1: turnips and the radishes are nitrogen hogs. So that first

1349
01:09:52,560 --> 01:09:54,880
Speaker 1: year out of Clover they tend to do really really good.

1350
01:09:55,560 --> 01:09:58,040
Speaker 1: And uh, if we were going right back into clover

1351
01:09:58,240 --> 01:10:01,120
Speaker 1: the very next year along with those reddishes, we see

1352
01:10:01,200 --> 01:10:05,040
Speaker 1: clover again and those Seaton links will take root. And

1353
01:10:05,760 --> 01:10:07,640
Speaker 1: you know, after our year of brassica is the next

1354
01:10:07,680 --> 01:10:11,280
Speaker 1: spring it comes up quite strong, and generally speaking, we

1355
01:10:11,439 --> 01:10:13,920
Speaker 1: will do some frost seating in March just to bolster

1356
01:10:14,040 --> 01:10:16,639
Speaker 1: the weaker spots in the clover, and you know it's

1357
01:10:16,720 --> 01:10:20,120
Speaker 1: it's not terribly expensive way to do something, so you

1358
01:10:20,240 --> 01:10:25,160
Speaker 1: generally would do that too. So speaking of food sources,

1359
01:10:25,600 --> 01:10:28,480
Speaker 1: another you've got all sorts of you have several strategically

1360
01:10:28,560 --> 01:10:32,800
Speaker 1: placed food plots, which we've talked about, um three of

1361
01:10:32,840 --> 01:10:35,560
Speaker 1: these being tucked on the edges of sort of on

1362
01:10:35,640 --> 01:10:38,240
Speaker 1: the edges of your big of your big timber um,

1363
01:10:38,479 --> 01:10:40,960
Speaker 1: but then scattered throughout the big timber. I saw you

1364
01:10:41,040 --> 01:10:43,800
Speaker 1: have a bunch of different apple trees throughout, and you've

1365
01:10:43,840 --> 01:10:47,759
Speaker 1: been doing some things to try to begin, um putting

1366
01:10:47,760 --> 01:10:51,120
Speaker 1: those apple trees in a better position by doing some

1367
01:10:52,120 --> 01:10:54,120
Speaker 1: girdling or some other things like that. Can you talk

1368
01:10:54,160 --> 01:10:56,400
Speaker 1: about what you're doing, why you're doing that? Was my

1369
01:10:56,680 --> 01:10:59,080
Speaker 1: my thought that you know, this was an old farmstead

1370
01:10:59,120 --> 01:11:01,320
Speaker 1: many years ago and at apple trees on it. Of course,

1371
01:11:01,360 --> 01:11:03,960
Speaker 1: people grew their own food more back then, but and

1372
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:05,880
Speaker 1: then when the pasture got let go, I think the

1373
01:11:06,000 --> 01:11:08,120
Speaker 1: birds and the animals did a good job of spreading

1374
01:11:08,120 --> 01:11:10,840
Speaker 1: apple seeds. So throughout this timber we've got a lot

1375
01:11:10,960 --> 01:11:14,679
Speaker 1: of apple trees. The issue really being is they're starting

1376
01:11:14,720 --> 01:11:18,639
Speaker 1: to be become shaded out killed by the more mature

1377
01:11:18,720 --> 01:11:21,000
Speaker 1: hardwoods that have taken so many years to get it going.

1378
01:11:21,800 --> 01:11:26,400
Speaker 1: And uh so you know, uh, it's such an advantage

1379
01:11:26,439 --> 01:11:29,280
Speaker 1: to have a good apple tree that it's worth to

1380
01:11:29,439 --> 01:11:31,960
Speaker 1: me girdling some of the trees that are shading them

1381
01:11:32,000 --> 01:11:33,960
Speaker 1: out to give them a look at the sun. They're

1382
01:11:34,000 --> 01:11:37,960
Speaker 1: just not tall enough and vines were trimming some vines

1383
01:11:38,000 --> 01:11:40,960
Speaker 1: away anything that's you know, trying to kill the apple

1384
01:11:41,040 --> 01:11:43,160
Speaker 1: tree off. And if we can stretch some more years

1385
01:11:43,200 --> 01:11:44,800
Speaker 1: out of that and get some apples on the ground

1386
01:11:44,960 --> 01:11:47,280
Speaker 1: all throughout the woods. Now, I know that's a scattered

1387
01:11:47,320 --> 01:11:50,120
Speaker 1: food source, but who wouldn't want a bunch of apple

1388
01:11:50,200 --> 01:11:52,960
Speaker 1: trees growing in their in their woods? So it does

1389
01:11:53,160 --> 01:11:56,640
Speaker 1: it does work. They eat them, Uh they they love

1390
01:11:56,760 --> 01:11:59,800
Speaker 1: to make scrapes under them. It's just a good low

1391
01:12:00,000 --> 01:12:02,760
Speaker 1: of a tree. But if you don't protect them by

1392
01:12:02,920 --> 01:12:05,360
Speaker 1: you know, something, they'll be gone. I can't tell you

1393
01:12:05,479 --> 01:12:07,639
Speaker 1: how many dead apple trees are are in this woods,

1394
01:12:07,640 --> 01:12:10,840
Speaker 1: and that's the whole reason they've been shaded out. So yeah,

1395
01:12:11,040 --> 01:12:13,639
Speaker 1: where you know, some of my cherry trees are having

1396
01:12:13,680 --> 01:12:16,760
Speaker 1: to get girdle to provide some light into the apple trees.

1397
01:12:16,840 --> 01:12:20,320
Speaker 1: But you can't have it all. So keep explaining what

1398
01:12:20,479 --> 01:12:23,400
Speaker 1: you mean by girdling, how exactly you're doing that. Yeah, well,

1399
01:12:24,120 --> 01:12:27,000
Speaker 1: basically taking the chainsaw and cutting a ring around the

1400
01:12:28,040 --> 01:12:30,599
Speaker 1: tree a couple inches deep, because that's where the nutrients

1401
01:12:30,680 --> 01:12:32,439
Speaker 1: move up through the trees, on the outsides of the

1402
01:12:33,160 --> 01:12:36,280
Speaker 1: at the tree, just underneath the bark. So like severing

1403
01:12:36,360 --> 01:12:39,240
Speaker 1: that lifeline to the tree, you know, the tree will

1404
01:12:39,320 --> 01:12:42,040
Speaker 1: die off. I don't necessarily want it laying on the ground.

1405
01:12:42,080 --> 01:12:44,720
Speaker 1: This wood is thick enough as it is, and in

1406
01:12:44,840 --> 01:12:46,920
Speaker 1: a in a thick woods, it's also very tough to

1407
01:12:47,120 --> 01:12:49,960
Speaker 1: topple a tree. Uh, when it's amongst other trees. It

1408
01:12:50,080 --> 01:12:52,720
Speaker 1: just stands there and leaning up against another tree. But

1409
01:12:53,160 --> 01:12:55,600
Speaker 1: so I found that, you know, girdling is probably the

1410
01:12:55,680 --> 01:13:00,760
Speaker 1: effective tool to just kill that that particular tree. Uh. No,

1411
01:13:00,920 --> 01:13:03,200
Speaker 1: I have to do it a lot. But if I

1412
01:13:03,240 --> 01:13:05,240
Speaker 1: can protect a small group of apple trees and you

1413
01:13:05,280 --> 01:13:07,040
Speaker 1: don't get him a few more years out of life,

1414
01:13:07,200 --> 01:13:11,880
Speaker 1: out of my will, it's it's it's worth that to me. Now,

1415
01:13:11,960 --> 01:13:13,800
Speaker 1: it's nice to have, like you're saying, it's nice to

1416
01:13:13,880 --> 01:13:18,280
Speaker 1: have those those little additional food sources scattered through Well,

1417
01:13:18,320 --> 01:13:21,759
Speaker 1: I've I've walked a lot of timber. You know from Iowa,

1418
01:13:21,920 --> 01:13:25,599
Speaker 1: Missouri to Illinois to here, and uh, I can tell

1419
01:13:25,640 --> 01:13:29,840
Speaker 1: you this is the first time I've really seen this

1420
01:13:30,120 --> 01:13:33,559
Speaker 1: many apple trees in a woods. It's it's rare. It's

1421
01:13:33,600 --> 01:13:35,920
Speaker 1: that rare. So yeah, I'm gonna do what I can

1422
01:13:36,000 --> 01:13:38,960
Speaker 1: to protect them. It's very cool between apple trees and

1423
01:13:39,000 --> 01:13:43,440
Speaker 1: the rolling topography in there, and uh, the already tremendous

1424
01:13:43,520 --> 01:13:48,400
Speaker 1: bedding cover. Um, it sets up really nice. Now tell

1425
01:13:48,479 --> 01:13:51,720
Speaker 1: me this, though, you have this farm here in Michigan hunt,

1426
01:13:51,720 --> 01:13:53,880
Speaker 1: and then you also have some farms you hunt and

1427
01:13:54,040 --> 01:13:57,439
Speaker 1: have in in Iowa, and you've had a Missouri farm

1428
01:13:57,520 --> 01:14:00,120
Speaker 1: and things like that. What do you have to do

1429
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:03,120
Speaker 1: here on the Michigan farm or what have you been

1430
01:14:03,160 --> 01:14:05,160
Speaker 1: thinking about in the Michigan farm as far as your

1431
01:14:05,200 --> 01:14:08,720
Speaker 1: habit at work or plan or process. What have you

1432
01:14:08,840 --> 01:14:12,400
Speaker 1: done if anything that's different here than on those farms

1433
01:14:12,560 --> 01:14:15,040
Speaker 1: because of the specific challenges we have here. Is there

1434
01:14:15,040 --> 01:14:17,560
Speaker 1: anything that comes to mind you you have to be

1435
01:14:17,640 --> 01:14:19,640
Speaker 1: more careful about certain things or do you have to

1436
01:14:20,320 --> 01:14:22,400
Speaker 1: put a little bit more thoughts into certain things or

1437
01:14:22,720 --> 01:14:25,519
Speaker 1: be more wary. I don't know if anything to jump

1438
01:14:25,560 --> 01:14:28,479
Speaker 1: in mind. Yeah, I think it might at least a

1439
01:14:28,520 --> 01:14:31,680
Speaker 1: surprise me. Maybe it'll surprise on other people. But uh,

1440
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:34,880
Speaker 1: you know, access is key. We've we've talked about that,

1441
01:14:35,360 --> 01:14:39,160
Speaker 1: uh a lot, and I think it may be even

1442
01:14:39,280 --> 01:14:41,600
Speaker 1: more key in Iowa. Now we've said, don do what

1443
01:14:41,680 --> 01:14:43,880
Speaker 1: de're do in Iowa, right, And they're more at home

1444
01:14:44,000 --> 01:14:46,680
Speaker 1: and they do and more free to make their vocalizations

1445
01:14:46,720 --> 01:14:49,760
Speaker 1: and do this stuff during daylight. So naturally you would think,

1446
01:14:50,080 --> 01:14:52,400
Speaker 1: you know that maybe Michigan is one you better be

1447
01:14:52,439 --> 01:14:55,400
Speaker 1: more careful with. But the truth of the matter is, um,

1448
01:14:56,120 --> 01:14:58,360
Speaker 1: if a person walks down defense line in Iowa, it's

1449
01:14:58,640 --> 01:15:01,600
Speaker 1: a lot less common place, it can be a lot

1450
01:15:01,680 --> 01:15:04,759
Speaker 1: more alarming to the deer. I think. So access actually

1451
01:15:04,800 --> 01:15:08,960
Speaker 1: becomes more important out there, uh whereas here while I

1452
01:15:09,560 --> 01:15:11,519
Speaker 1: you know, would never really want my son to blow

1453
01:15:11,560 --> 01:15:13,920
Speaker 1: through the timber, believe me. But at the end of

1454
01:15:14,000 --> 01:15:18,800
Speaker 1: the day, dear smell humans in southern Lower Michigan on

1455
01:15:18,920 --> 01:15:22,800
Speaker 1: a daily basis. So I mean, it's not like I

1456
01:15:22,880 --> 01:15:24,880
Speaker 1: want my jet stream blowing right at the deer they're

1457
01:15:24,920 --> 01:15:27,920
Speaker 1: coming to me. They won't come, But if they catch

1458
01:15:27,960 --> 01:15:31,160
Speaker 1: a passing whiff, it could just be the lady walking

1459
01:15:31,280 --> 01:15:33,400
Speaker 1: or dog down the road. You know, it could be

1460
01:15:33,560 --> 01:15:35,920
Speaker 1: just the farmer out checking the fences for the cattle,

1461
01:15:36,360 --> 01:15:38,960
Speaker 1: So they have to contend with people all the time.

1462
01:15:39,040 --> 01:15:42,639
Speaker 1: And if they always always, you know, ran every time

1463
01:15:42,640 --> 01:15:45,160
Speaker 1: they got a little whiff, they would never have a

1464
01:15:45,200 --> 01:15:47,960
Speaker 1: place to live. So while, you know, I think they'll

1465
01:15:47,960 --> 01:15:49,800
Speaker 1: avoid you for sure, and you can't have your son

1466
01:15:49,880 --> 01:15:51,760
Speaker 1: blowing it deer they're approaching you, they won't do it.

1467
01:15:52,240 --> 01:15:56,599
Speaker 1: I think that if your wind does drift across him

1468
01:15:56,600 --> 01:15:59,120
Speaker 1: as well, it's not steady at me, you may get

1469
01:15:59,160 --> 01:16:01,080
Speaker 1: away with that, say a little bit better in Michigan.

1470
01:16:01,120 --> 01:16:04,120
Speaker 1: I know it sounds kind of counterintuitive, but they're so

1471
01:16:04,880 --> 01:16:10,000
Speaker 1: inundated or indeed with human scent that occasional whiff I

1472
01:16:10,080 --> 01:16:14,000
Speaker 1: think is just a little more commonplaces. Um, it would

1473
01:16:14,000 --> 01:16:18,400
Speaker 1: be maybe the equivalent of hunting suburb bucks sometimes. Yeah,

1474
01:16:18,840 --> 01:16:20,880
Speaker 1: you know, and I wish that this you know, farm

1475
01:16:21,360 --> 01:16:23,040
Speaker 1: maybe was in a different part of the county where

1476
01:16:23,040 --> 01:16:27,040
Speaker 1: there wasn't so so much human traffic around. But it's

1477
01:16:27,080 --> 01:16:29,040
Speaker 1: just hard to come up with that piece in southern

1478
01:16:29,120 --> 01:16:31,200
Speaker 1: Lower Michigan. There's too many people and too many small

1479
01:16:31,200 --> 01:16:34,439
Speaker 1: pieces aground. Yeah, yeah, there certainly is a lot of that. Now,

1480
01:16:35,800 --> 01:16:38,320
Speaker 1: what's next, Like, what's the next big thing you want

1481
01:16:38,360 --> 01:16:39,920
Speaker 1: to do out here that you haven't started yet. Is

1482
01:16:40,000 --> 01:16:43,799
Speaker 1: there still like a bucket list big project you really

1483
01:16:44,080 --> 01:16:46,479
Speaker 1: wish you could be able to put into action out here,

1484
01:16:47,200 --> 01:16:51,960
Speaker 1: um or or where you see. Where's it going? Well? Uh,

1485
01:16:52,280 --> 01:16:54,800
Speaker 1: you know, it all takes time. So you know, in

1486
01:16:55,080 --> 01:16:59,080
Speaker 1: my my grand vision, so to speak, one of the

1487
01:16:59,120 --> 01:17:02,240
Speaker 1: things I would like to do is take a two

1488
01:17:02,280 --> 01:17:05,559
Speaker 1: agger piece it's kind of in the middle and put

1489
01:17:05,640 --> 01:17:09,920
Speaker 1: a food plot. Now that sounds a little again counter intuitive, Uh,

1490
01:17:10,560 --> 01:17:13,599
Speaker 1: but I've I've navigated it through the ups and downs

1491
01:17:13,640 --> 01:17:15,440
Speaker 1: of it, and I think that I can hunt that occasionally.

1492
01:17:15,840 --> 01:17:17,800
Speaker 1: But the but the bigger thing that I'm trying to

1493
01:17:17,840 --> 01:17:20,080
Speaker 1: accomplish with that is if I can get a spot

1494
01:17:20,160 --> 01:17:23,200
Speaker 1: that's two and a half acres to to and a

1495
01:17:23,200 --> 01:17:26,599
Speaker 1: half acres, I believe that I can you know, raise

1496
01:17:26,640 --> 01:17:30,160
Speaker 1: soybeans on that. And uh, I know, because of the

1497
01:17:30,200 --> 01:17:34,479
Speaker 1: deer numbers that it's gonna require an electric fence, you know,

1498
01:17:34,520 --> 01:17:35,960
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna have to once a week go out

1499
01:17:35,960 --> 01:17:37,960
Speaker 1: and change a battery on that or and make sure

1500
01:17:38,000 --> 01:17:41,519
Speaker 1: it's not knocked down. But I believe that I can

1501
01:17:41,600 --> 01:17:43,880
Speaker 1: grow a couple of acres of soybeans out of that

1502
01:17:44,240 --> 01:17:48,200
Speaker 1: and and then release those beans once November hit, or

1503
01:17:48,439 --> 01:17:49,880
Speaker 1: if I even want to wait till gun season, I

1504
01:17:49,920 --> 01:17:53,479
Speaker 1: could but release those beans, meaning take down the fence.

1505
01:17:53,760 --> 01:17:57,400
Speaker 1: And now I've suddenly got this big food source that

1506
01:17:57,520 --> 01:18:00,760
Speaker 1: should be able to feed the deer four a couple

1507
01:18:00,800 --> 01:18:03,960
Speaker 1: of months, maybe three. You know, it just depends on

1508
01:18:04,040 --> 01:18:06,040
Speaker 1: how many deer come in and eat there. But the

1509
01:18:06,160 --> 01:18:10,800
Speaker 1: idea behind that was really one of Uh, if I

1510
01:18:10,880 --> 01:18:13,519
Speaker 1: can feed the deer and give him something to drink,

1511
01:18:13,800 --> 01:18:16,000
Speaker 1: maybe a few of them are gonna be all lived

1512
01:18:16,040 --> 01:18:17,840
Speaker 1: to be four years old because they didn't step out

1513
01:18:17,840 --> 01:18:21,519
Speaker 1: in front of a slug you know acrost defense. And

1514
01:18:22,120 --> 01:18:24,599
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, if it works,

1515
01:18:24,720 --> 01:18:27,759
Speaker 1: I think everybody would benefit, even even the surrounding ground

1516
01:18:27,840 --> 01:18:29,840
Speaker 1: are going to see more in bigger box out of

1517
01:18:29,920 --> 01:18:32,519
Speaker 1: the deal because I've protected so many year and a half.

1518
01:18:32,640 --> 01:18:35,800
Speaker 1: Now will it work, like a tellgient before, it's all

1519
01:18:35,840 --> 01:18:37,639
Speaker 1: an experiment. I mean, I know a lot of things

1520
01:18:37,680 --> 01:18:40,240
Speaker 1: will work, and I do a lot of those things,

1521
01:18:40,320 --> 01:18:43,680
Speaker 1: but this definitely falls under the experimental part of it.

1522
01:18:43,960 --> 01:18:47,000
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, if it fails,

1523
01:18:47,400 --> 01:18:48,920
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't like how it worked, it

1524
01:18:49,000 --> 01:18:51,360
Speaker 1: was too impossible to keep the deer out of it. Uh,

1525
01:18:51,720 --> 01:18:53,200
Speaker 1: And I don't want a food plot in the middle

1526
01:18:53,240 --> 01:18:56,160
Speaker 1: of the woods. Mother nature will take care of that

1527
01:18:56,240 --> 01:18:58,080
Speaker 1: in about two years. And all I got to do

1528
01:18:58,200 --> 01:19:03,360
Speaker 1: is stop and and believe me, the the honeysuckle that's

1529
01:19:03,400 --> 01:19:07,440
Speaker 1: around and and all the prickers and blackberries and raspberries,

1530
01:19:07,479 --> 01:19:10,040
Speaker 1: everything's gonna thicken it up. The weeds are coming, you know,

1531
01:19:10,439 --> 01:19:14,000
Speaker 1: and then the small trees. So it's there. The risk

1532
01:19:14,439 --> 01:19:16,720
Speaker 1: is well worth it to me to see if this

1533
01:19:16,800 --> 01:19:19,960
Speaker 1: will work. And I'm kind of excited. It's just something

1534
01:19:20,040 --> 01:19:21,720
Speaker 1: I've never been able to do. Take a take a

1535
01:19:22,280 --> 01:19:25,000
Speaker 1: solid chunk of timber and put a put a big

1536
01:19:25,560 --> 01:19:28,479
Speaker 1: grain plot in the middle of it. So uh, it's

1537
01:19:28,479 --> 01:19:30,120
Speaker 1: gonna take some time, though. I mean, that's a that's

1538
01:19:30,120 --> 01:19:32,240
Speaker 1: a lot of trees, a lot of firewood, you know,

1539
01:19:32,360 --> 01:19:35,320
Speaker 1: and I gotta I will say, there's probably a few

1540
01:19:35,400 --> 01:19:37,080
Speaker 1: logs in that area, so I've got a logger coming

1541
01:19:37,120 --> 01:19:39,960
Speaker 1: out to look at those. And it's uh, it's forward looking,

1542
01:19:40,120 --> 01:19:43,639
Speaker 1: but I enjoy it. I really like doing this sort

1543
01:19:43,640 --> 01:19:46,280
Speaker 1: of thing. You made a good point out there earlier

1544
01:19:46,320 --> 01:19:50,360
Speaker 1: today in that um we're talking to there's all there's

1545
01:19:50,400 --> 01:19:52,519
Speaker 1: this thing I'm working on the same working on this thing.

1546
01:19:52,960 --> 01:19:54,880
Speaker 1: You know, there's there's so many of these apple trees

1547
01:19:54,920 --> 01:19:57,680
Speaker 1: I can only get to a handfully or whatever. Um.

1548
01:19:58,000 --> 01:20:00,760
Speaker 1: And then you made the point that you wouldn't want

1549
01:20:00,840 --> 01:20:03,920
Speaker 1: to try to go and do all this all at once. Um.

1550
01:20:04,280 --> 01:20:06,280
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of a good thing to say, well,

1551
01:20:06,320 --> 01:20:07,640
Speaker 1: I've got this thing I can do next year, and

1552
01:20:07,640 --> 01:20:10,600
Speaker 1: I'll stretch this out over several years, because because to

1553
01:20:10,680 --> 01:20:13,400
Speaker 1: your point, it's the it's the process, it's the journey,

1554
01:20:13,840 --> 01:20:17,519
Speaker 1: like managing a piece of ground for wildlife and hunting

1555
01:20:17,600 --> 01:20:21,720
Speaker 1: and deer and all these things. Um, it doesn't I

1556
01:20:21,800 --> 01:20:25,200
Speaker 1: would say, it shouldn't be just about like be able

1557
01:20:25,200 --> 01:20:27,920
Speaker 1: to shoot one giant bucket. It should be a really fun,

1558
01:20:28,040 --> 01:20:30,080
Speaker 1: year round process. It should be a great way for

1559
01:20:30,200 --> 01:20:32,519
Speaker 1: you to interact with this place and get to know

1560
01:20:32,720 --> 01:20:35,960
Speaker 1: this place, and yet hopefully it leads to some great hunting. Um.

1561
01:20:36,120 --> 01:20:38,680
Speaker 1: But you know, you said you want to enjoy it.

1562
01:20:38,720 --> 01:20:40,519
Speaker 1: And if you're stressing out because you have to cut

1563
01:20:40,600 --> 01:20:42,599
Speaker 1: down fifty different trees, or you have to be out

1564
01:20:42,600 --> 01:20:45,080
Speaker 1: there every single day, or or you're so stressed about

1565
01:20:45,120 --> 01:20:46,840
Speaker 1: not getting all these things done on your list that

1566
01:20:46,920 --> 01:20:50,599
Speaker 1: you don't enjoy it anymore, then what's the point? Exactly right?

1567
01:20:51,040 --> 01:20:53,200
Speaker 1: And the bottom line is, from the time I got

1568
01:20:53,240 --> 01:20:55,640
Speaker 1: the first food plot done, the place had improved and

1569
01:20:55,760 --> 01:20:58,560
Speaker 1: was better hunting than it was before. So if I

1570
01:20:58,680 --> 01:21:00,880
Speaker 1: need to, you know, work on my Iowa farm and

1571
01:21:01,160 --> 01:21:03,200
Speaker 1: tinker and put a food plot in their water hole

1572
01:21:03,240 --> 01:21:06,400
Speaker 1: out there or Missouri, whatever the case may be, uh,

1573
01:21:06,640 --> 01:21:09,240
Speaker 1: so be it. And it doesn't all have to happen

1574
01:21:09,280 --> 01:21:12,840
Speaker 1: at once. So you know, uh, I like to see

1575
01:21:12,880 --> 01:21:17,679
Speaker 1: things get done. Uh, But I also realized that there's

1576
01:21:17,680 --> 01:21:20,760
Speaker 1: gonna be a sense of loss that occurs once I've

1577
01:21:20,800 --> 01:21:23,880
Speaker 1: got all the big stuff done. You know, that'll always

1578
01:21:23,880 --> 01:21:27,160
Speaker 1: be little things. But once I get past that, I

1579
01:21:27,280 --> 01:21:29,960
Speaker 1: feel like I feel like some will be missing, all right.

1580
01:21:30,360 --> 01:21:34,000
Speaker 1: So so really my goal was just to you know,

1581
01:21:34,320 --> 01:21:37,679
Speaker 1: add one food plot a year, one water hole until

1582
01:21:37,720 --> 01:21:40,800
Speaker 1: I get where I'm going, and and then sit back

1583
01:21:40,880 --> 01:21:45,000
Speaker 1: and reap the rewards. But again, I'll I'll miss that

1584
01:21:45,120 --> 01:21:47,360
Speaker 1: part of it, and trust me. So anyway, yeah, I'm

1585
01:21:47,360 --> 01:21:49,120
Speaker 1: going to get a few years of enjoyment out of

1586
01:21:49,360 --> 01:21:52,200
Speaker 1: changing this piece around, or at least maybe I'll find

1587
01:21:52,240 --> 01:21:54,880
Speaker 1: another piece too. I would like to keep my eyes

1588
01:21:54,960 --> 01:21:57,799
Speaker 1: open for something but it is. It's pretty difficult Michigan

1589
01:21:57,840 --> 01:22:00,479
Speaker 1: find a clean slate like this one, I'd say. So.

1590
01:22:01,360 --> 01:22:04,479
Speaker 1: Something that I liked a lot um was that while

1591
01:22:04,520 --> 01:22:06,600
Speaker 1: we were looking at one of your food plots, you

1592
01:22:06,720 --> 01:22:11,240
Speaker 1: talked about the fact that, um, a lot of what

1593
01:22:11,400 --> 01:22:14,479
Speaker 1: you're trying to to do now is not just set

1594
01:22:14,560 --> 01:22:19,400
Speaker 1: yourself up for success personally, trying to find opportunities in

1595
01:22:19,479 --> 01:22:23,040
Speaker 1: ways to use something like this to help other people

1596
01:22:23,600 --> 01:22:26,400
Speaker 1: experience these things that we've come to love hunting in

1597
01:22:26,439 --> 01:22:29,600
Speaker 1: the outdoors, um, and how that's become part of of

1598
01:22:29,840 --> 01:22:31,840
Speaker 1: of your goals kind of maybe with this place and

1599
01:22:31,960 --> 01:22:34,400
Speaker 1: with what you're doing, can you can you just elaborate

1600
01:22:34,400 --> 01:22:36,280
Speaker 1: a little a little bit on and why that's something

1601
01:22:36,320 --> 01:22:38,320
Speaker 1: that matters to you now and how you're trying to

1602
01:22:38,520 --> 01:22:43,800
Speaker 1: try to do that. M hmm, yeah for sure. Well, uh,

1603
01:22:45,160 --> 01:22:47,040
Speaker 1: you know, I I have killed a few boon and

1604
01:22:47,120 --> 01:22:49,800
Speaker 1: crack a deer now and then it's very exciting and

1605
01:22:49,880 --> 01:22:55,040
Speaker 1: I love it. I'm all in trust me. But and

1606
01:22:55,280 --> 01:22:57,759
Speaker 1: if you've ever sat behind a nine year old shooting

1607
01:22:57,840 --> 01:23:02,240
Speaker 1: his first buck, you know that's something too. And you

1608
01:23:02,320 --> 01:23:04,160
Speaker 1: know it doesn't go home and hang on your wall

1609
01:23:04,280 --> 01:23:06,960
Speaker 1: or anything. But the memories that you make doing something

1610
01:23:07,080 --> 01:23:12,280
Speaker 1: like that are incredible. So for me, it's been I

1611
01:23:12,280 --> 01:23:14,920
Speaker 1: don't want to say giving back, but you know, a

1612
01:23:15,000 --> 01:23:17,200
Speaker 1: piece of ground like this does give you an opportunity

1613
01:23:17,280 --> 01:23:22,400
Speaker 1: to share that experience with others, and and particularly in Michigan,

1614
01:23:22,479 --> 01:23:25,120
Speaker 1: if it's you know, there's there's a lot of deer here.

1615
01:23:25,479 --> 01:23:28,679
Speaker 1: Uh And if you have the right place, the right setup,

1616
01:23:28,760 --> 01:23:30,760
Speaker 1: you can see a lot of deer. And I think

1617
01:23:30,840 --> 01:23:34,160
Speaker 1: that's a great way to get young people involved. You know,

1618
01:23:35,560 --> 01:23:38,760
Speaker 1: they've grown up now with a phone in their hands

1619
01:23:38,880 --> 01:23:42,200
Speaker 1: or some sort of electronic device that you know, it

1620
01:23:42,280 --> 01:23:45,720
Speaker 1: stimulates them constantly. So to take a deer hunting, like

1621
01:23:45,960 --> 01:23:48,360
Speaker 1: when I started in the seventies, take a kid deer

1622
01:23:48,479 --> 01:23:50,880
Speaker 1: hunting a boy, you had to be all in because

1623
01:23:50,880 --> 01:23:52,280
Speaker 1: you might hunt all day and I see a deer.

1624
01:23:53,000 --> 01:23:55,760
Speaker 1: But you know, with this, you know a piece of ground,

1625
01:23:55,800 --> 01:23:58,840
Speaker 1: the fifty seven, and now you know the additional ground

1626
01:23:58,880 --> 01:24:01,760
Speaker 1: it's with it. If I take somebody out, they're going

1627
01:24:01,840 --> 01:24:04,000
Speaker 1: to see some deer and they're gonna they're gonna have

1628
01:24:04,000 --> 01:24:06,760
Speaker 1: a good time seeing them. And what you've probably done

1629
01:24:06,800 --> 01:24:09,920
Speaker 1: there has created a lifelong deer hunter because you know,

1630
01:24:10,040 --> 01:24:13,439
Speaker 1: once it's in under your skin. You know, it's hard

1631
01:24:13,479 --> 01:24:15,760
Speaker 1: to get rid of that bud. Yeah, but you do

1632
01:24:15,920 --> 01:24:18,080
Speaker 1: have to enjoy it and and get something out of it,

1633
01:24:18,200 --> 01:24:20,759
Speaker 1: not be too cold. I've I've taken to using blinds

1634
01:24:20,840 --> 01:24:24,160
Speaker 1: now almost exclusively. For one, they contain your scent a

1635
01:24:24,240 --> 01:24:27,800
Speaker 1: lot better. But you know, you can uh move about

1636
01:24:27,880 --> 01:24:29,400
Speaker 1: in them a little freer, which is good. As you

1637
01:24:29,439 --> 01:24:31,439
Speaker 1: get older, you're a little more fidgety. You don't sit

1638
01:24:31,520 --> 01:24:33,880
Speaker 1: quite as still as you want to. But it's kind

1639
01:24:33,880 --> 01:24:35,880
Speaker 1: of like with the young guys, the nine year olds,

1640
01:24:35,920 --> 01:24:38,120
Speaker 1: eight year old to go out with you, or even younger.

1641
01:24:38,240 --> 01:24:41,760
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure with the right blind you take

1642
01:24:41,800 --> 01:24:43,200
Speaker 1: a two or three year old out. My kids have

1643
01:24:43,280 --> 01:24:45,000
Speaker 1: been hunting with me for a very long time out

1644
01:24:45,000 --> 01:24:47,840
Speaker 1: of a blind, and uh, the windows are high enough

1645
01:24:47,880 --> 01:24:49,320
Speaker 1: that they could play with their toys on the floor

1646
01:24:49,400 --> 01:24:50,800
Speaker 1: and get away with it. But at least when the

1647
01:24:50,840 --> 01:24:52,360
Speaker 1: deer came out and I could point them out, and

1648
01:24:52,360 --> 01:24:55,040
Speaker 1: then they were all excited, you know. So I'm doing

1649
01:24:55,040 --> 01:24:56,560
Speaker 1: a little bit of that. We're trying to get some

1650
01:24:56,720 --> 01:24:58,800
Speaker 1: youth out. And I've got a couple of people in

1651
01:24:58,880 --> 01:25:01,160
Speaker 1: mind this fall that a never killed a deer or

1652
01:25:01,680 --> 01:25:04,080
Speaker 1: never killed a buck, and I'm hoping to get them

1653
01:25:04,120 --> 01:25:06,479
Speaker 1: out and get them their first deer and I'll get

1654
01:25:06,520 --> 01:25:09,040
Speaker 1: as much out of as they will. And then, um,

1655
01:25:09,840 --> 01:25:12,240
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm hoping maybe to use that liberty

1656
01:25:12,320 --> 01:25:16,120
Speaker 1: hunt to get a disabled veteran out someone again that

1657
01:25:16,200 --> 01:25:19,080
Speaker 1: may not have that you know, easy place to go

1658
01:25:19,200 --> 01:25:23,000
Speaker 1: see some deer. Uh. And you know these new blinds

1659
01:25:23,000 --> 01:25:25,080
Speaker 1: are very easy to get into and out of and

1660
01:25:25,600 --> 01:25:28,240
Speaker 1: situated in. So I'm hoping to do something like that

1661
01:25:28,400 --> 01:25:33,760
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, And um, my son's girlfriend never been

1662
01:25:33,840 --> 01:25:35,680
Speaker 1: deer hunting, and she went with us last fall and

1663
01:25:36,000 --> 01:25:40,439
Speaker 1: she's like, Wow, this is really cool because you know,

1664
01:25:40,520 --> 01:25:43,240
Speaker 1: the deer and the turkeys and squirrels, it's it's a

1665
01:25:43,320 --> 01:25:46,280
Speaker 1: zoo out there. So you know there's another person right

1666
01:25:46,360 --> 01:25:48,360
Speaker 1: there that she's now going to go get her hunter

1667
01:25:48,439 --> 01:25:51,839
Speaker 1: safety this summer, and and she wants to go hunting.

1668
01:25:51,960 --> 01:25:55,360
Speaker 1: She wants to start shooting. And Paul so even know

1669
01:25:55,560 --> 01:25:58,599
Speaker 1: that that our sport is struggling to maintain its numbers

1670
01:25:58,960 --> 01:26:02,080
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of people that oppose it, so um,

1671
01:26:02,360 --> 01:26:05,479
Speaker 1: it behooves us to introduce people to the hunting. And

1672
01:26:05,760 --> 01:26:08,600
Speaker 1: so those of us that have a good piece to

1673
01:26:08,680 --> 01:26:11,439
Speaker 1: share and I should do it. Yeah, I think that's

1674
01:26:11,479 --> 01:26:15,439
Speaker 1: a great I think that's a great point because it

1675
01:26:15,640 --> 01:26:19,800
Speaker 1: definitely is I mean, of course, with this goes out saying,

1676
01:26:19,960 --> 01:26:21,400
Speaker 1: but to be able to be in a position to

1677
01:26:21,479 --> 01:26:24,559
Speaker 1: buy a piece of property, obviously in almost all cases,

1678
01:26:24,640 --> 01:26:26,599
Speaker 1: takes a whole lot of work in time and effort

1679
01:26:27,120 --> 01:26:29,439
Speaker 1: to to be able to be in a position to

1680
01:26:29,520 --> 01:26:32,760
Speaker 1: do that. But it also is is a is a

1681
01:26:32,880 --> 01:26:35,040
Speaker 1: privilege to be in that position too, and there are

1682
01:26:35,080 --> 01:26:37,000
Speaker 1: some people that maybe won't have that privilege. So I

1683
01:26:37,000 --> 01:26:40,040
Speaker 1: think it's really cool that you're taking that, um, that

1684
01:26:40,160 --> 01:26:43,120
Speaker 1: blessing of yours and helping others that maybe don't have

1685
01:26:43,240 --> 01:26:45,599
Speaker 1: that same opportunity. I think that's it's a great example

1686
01:26:45,680 --> 01:26:49,040
Speaker 1: for a lot of us to look at. Um another

1687
01:26:49,560 --> 01:26:52,160
Speaker 1: great privileges of yours that you're out getting to hunt

1688
01:26:52,160 --> 01:26:56,400
Speaker 1: in Iowa two spend most of my time, actually spend

1689
01:26:56,720 --> 01:27:01,320
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time there. Um. You know, is

1690
01:27:01,400 --> 01:27:04,439
Speaker 1: there just is there anything going on out there when

1691
01:27:04,479 --> 01:27:08,519
Speaker 1: it comes to the managing of a property or hunter habitat? Um?

1692
01:27:09,080 --> 01:27:13,080
Speaker 1: Is there anything out there that that is just other

1693
01:27:13,160 --> 01:27:15,000
Speaker 1: than you talked about access is a little bit different.

1694
01:27:15,000 --> 01:27:16,760
Speaker 1: But are there any other projects you guys are working

1695
01:27:16,800 --> 01:27:19,479
Speaker 1: out there on those farms. Um Or is there anything

1696
01:27:20,200 --> 01:27:24,280
Speaker 1: that Tom is doing out there that is just really

1697
01:27:24,400 --> 01:27:29,240
Speaker 1: different than what we've been talking about. M hm, I

1698
01:27:29,280 --> 01:27:32,120
Speaker 1: don't know. Well, we're talking about four acre wood. We're

1699
01:27:32,200 --> 01:27:34,680
Speaker 1: kind of in the detember, and that's something that we

1700
01:27:35,200 --> 01:27:38,160
Speaker 1: don't find ourselves doing out there. We're able to pick

1701
01:27:38,280 --> 01:27:41,800
Speaker 1: up field edges and turn those into food plots and

1702
01:27:41,880 --> 01:27:45,120
Speaker 1: draw them out of the thicker spots. So, um, technically

1703
01:27:45,200 --> 01:27:47,360
Speaker 1: it can be a little bit different out there, and

1704
01:27:47,479 --> 01:27:49,759
Speaker 1: that you don't hardly ever have to go in the timber.

1705
01:27:50,000 --> 01:27:51,960
Speaker 1: If we are in the timber, it's because it's the

1706
01:27:52,080 --> 01:27:56,840
Speaker 1: rut and it's on and so outside of the rut,

1707
01:27:57,040 --> 01:28:01,840
Speaker 1: we're pretty well hunting the food, so you know. Um,

1708
01:28:02,680 --> 01:28:05,040
Speaker 1: so that's a little different. If a person in Michigan

1709
01:28:05,120 --> 01:28:08,000
Speaker 1: has a piece of woods to hunt, he's gotta walk

1710
01:28:08,080 --> 01:28:10,960
Speaker 1: through a period. I mean, there's just no way to

1711
01:28:11,080 --> 01:28:14,200
Speaker 1: necessarily get around it otherwise. But it seems like out

1712
01:28:14,240 --> 01:28:17,719
Speaker 1: there we have a little bit better. It just seems roomier.

1713
01:28:17,960 --> 01:28:21,000
Speaker 1: You know, the pieces of ground are so much larger

1714
01:28:21,040 --> 01:28:24,479
Speaker 1: in general out there. If if someone has two or

1715
01:28:24,520 --> 01:28:27,200
Speaker 1: three hundred acre field here, it's pretty well. Fence rows

1716
01:28:27,240 --> 01:28:29,880
Speaker 1: are ripped out and it's just big old cornfield, you know.

1717
01:28:30,400 --> 01:28:33,840
Speaker 1: And those fields do exist out there, and even even bigger.

1718
01:28:33,920 --> 01:28:36,559
Speaker 1: But the tracks of land in general are so much

1719
01:28:36,600 --> 01:28:41,000
Speaker 1: bigger that uh, they take in a lot more um cover.

1720
01:28:41,120 --> 01:28:43,639
Speaker 1: You might be only four of you hunting a few

1721
01:28:43,720 --> 01:28:46,559
Speaker 1: hundred acres instead of four of you hunting forty acres.

1722
01:28:46,720 --> 01:28:51,920
Speaker 1: You know. Uh, in that difference in Missouri and Iowa. Uh,

1723
01:28:52,000 --> 01:28:55,200
Speaker 1: ellen Wis would probably another state that included that. What

1724
01:28:55,360 --> 01:28:58,000
Speaker 1: makes those states different than Michigan. And I don't know,

1725
01:28:58,320 --> 01:29:02,160
Speaker 1: maybe you've never thought of this, but uh, in those states,

1726
01:29:02,680 --> 01:29:07,160
Speaker 1: you don't have a swamp. It doesn't exist. In those states.

1727
01:29:07,240 --> 01:29:10,160
Speaker 1: Water moves period. If it falls down, it moves until

1728
01:29:10,200 --> 01:29:11,840
Speaker 1: it gets into a stream and then a river and

1729
01:29:12,360 --> 01:29:16,920
Speaker 1: off it goes. There are no swamps, just just and

1730
01:29:17,120 --> 01:29:19,719
Speaker 1: and so we have that to our benefit here because

1731
01:29:19,720 --> 01:29:22,559
Speaker 1: it does give a deer a great spot tide um.

1732
01:29:22,880 --> 01:29:25,200
Speaker 1: And so that makes us a little bit unique, is

1733
01:29:25,240 --> 01:29:27,960
Speaker 1: all the lowland and wetland that that we have here.

1734
01:29:28,040 --> 01:29:31,559
Speaker 1: But the other thing is most of that rolling ground

1735
01:29:31,800 --> 01:29:35,360
Speaker 1: in in say Iowa Missouri um was once upon a

1736
01:29:35,479 --> 01:29:39,479
Speaker 1: time cattle ranch. I mean they farmed for cattle, so

1737
01:29:39,600 --> 01:29:42,759
Speaker 1: all the rolling ground tended to be turned into grassy

1738
01:29:42,920 --> 01:29:48,120
Speaker 1: fields for them. Well, in keeping with that, they put

1739
01:29:48,920 --> 01:29:53,240
Speaker 1: reservoirs everywhere. So literally, if a rain drop falls out there,

1740
01:29:54,200 --> 01:29:58,080
Speaker 1: it's pretty much gonna go somewhere. So they created a lot,

1741
01:29:58,200 --> 01:30:02,960
Speaker 1: a lot of reservoirs, water holes for the for the cattle. So, uh,

1742
01:30:03,720 --> 01:30:06,960
Speaker 1: they're really all over So we don't use water holes

1743
01:30:07,040 --> 01:30:09,400
Speaker 1: quite as much out there, you know, as as we

1744
01:30:09,479 --> 01:30:11,240
Speaker 1: do here. Just seems like there's a lot of them

1745
01:30:11,320 --> 01:30:14,600
Speaker 1: and we're not well I'm not gonna say not. We

1746
01:30:14,680 --> 01:30:17,040
Speaker 1: do hunt over them, but it just doesn't seem to

1747
01:30:17,080 --> 01:30:19,800
Speaker 1: be quite as big a factor as a nice, big

1748
01:30:19,880 --> 01:30:23,439
Speaker 1: green food plot is, let's put it that way. But here, Um,

1749
01:30:23,960 --> 01:30:25,840
Speaker 1: you know, if a deer has to go three or

1750
01:30:25,840 --> 01:30:29,559
Speaker 1: four yards for water, he's likely to get shot at.

1751
01:30:30,360 --> 01:30:33,080
Speaker 1: So if you can put a water hole inside your timber,

1752
01:30:33,680 --> 01:30:37,960
Speaker 1: you've got a different it's a game changer. Uh. Something

1753
01:30:38,040 --> 01:30:42,439
Speaker 1: I've always liked to say, and this this is there's

1754
01:30:42,439 --> 01:30:44,439
Speaker 1: probably no factual basis to this. I'd just like to

1755
01:30:44,520 --> 01:30:46,439
Speaker 1: say it because I'm for Michigan. But I always like

1756
01:30:46,520 --> 01:30:49,160
Speaker 1: to say that if you can kill a mature deer

1757
01:30:49,240 --> 01:30:52,240
Speaker 1: in Michigan, you could do it anywhere. This is what

1758
01:30:52,280 --> 01:30:54,400
Speaker 1: I've always thought, like, this is one the same thing.

1759
01:30:54,439 --> 01:30:55,760
Speaker 1: You could say the same thing if you could kill

1760
01:30:55,880 --> 01:30:59,400
Speaker 1: mature about in New York or Pennsylvania or maybe George

1761
01:30:59,479 --> 01:31:01,240
Speaker 1: or one of these other high pressure states. I'm not

1762
01:31:01,320 --> 01:31:04,040
Speaker 1: sure what you know how it all ranks, but it's

1763
01:31:04,040 --> 01:31:06,040
Speaker 1: always been my thoughts. If you're kill in here, you

1764
01:31:06,040 --> 01:31:09,040
Speaker 1: can get done anywhere. So you can kill mature deer

1765
01:31:09,080 --> 01:31:10,920
Speaker 1: in Michigan, and you've been able to kill mature deer

1766
01:31:10,960 --> 01:31:14,040
Speaker 1: in Iowa. Now, I'm sure he won't listen to this,

1767
01:31:14,120 --> 01:31:15,760
Speaker 1: so don't worry about what he's gonna think about you

1768
01:31:15,840 --> 01:31:18,280
Speaker 1: saying this. But if you took Tom Ware from Iowa

1769
01:31:18,720 --> 01:31:23,640
Speaker 1: and through him in Michigan, could he kill mature deer here? Uh?

1770
01:31:23,880 --> 01:31:28,640
Speaker 1: Tom is good. Yeah, yeah, he's he's gonna find the

1771
01:31:28,720 --> 01:31:34,400
Speaker 1: most mature deer. Willie stay in Michigan. No, No, he's

1772
01:31:34,400 --> 01:31:38,080
Speaker 1: gonna he's gonna yeah yeah, No, Um, he'll be in

1773
01:31:38,240 --> 01:31:41,600
Speaker 1: back now he's not gonna be here probably with me

1774
01:31:41,760 --> 01:31:46,320
Speaker 1: this fall. No. Uh yeah. But to your point, Um,

1775
01:31:46,720 --> 01:31:49,120
Speaker 1: there's a lot of truth in what you say. If

1776
01:31:49,320 --> 01:31:52,559
Speaker 1: if you're a good hunter in Michigan, I'm sorry, You're

1777
01:31:52,600 --> 01:31:54,960
Speaker 1: gonna be very good in the Western states as well.

1778
01:31:55,240 --> 01:31:58,400
Speaker 1: Strategy is very a little bit. But um so, what

1779
01:31:58,640 --> 01:32:01,000
Speaker 1: you have to know in Michigan to be able to

1780
01:32:01,120 --> 01:32:05,360
Speaker 1: kill a good buck, it's simply translated out west means

1781
01:32:05,400 --> 01:32:08,280
Speaker 1: you will kill a good buck because it is easier

1782
01:32:08,320 --> 01:32:11,840
Speaker 1: in those states, a lot less pressure. So I mean,

1783
01:32:12,040 --> 01:32:14,800
Speaker 1: and you know, I don't know if the same is

1784
01:32:14,800 --> 01:32:17,519
Speaker 1: always true. I think that you know, well, there's plenty

1785
01:32:17,680 --> 01:32:20,519
Speaker 1: of uh, you know, old school farmers that just wait

1786
01:32:20,640 --> 01:32:22,400
Speaker 1: till the shotgun season and they go out and they

1787
01:32:22,479 --> 01:32:24,519
Speaker 1: sit in the same spot they always sitting for whatever reason,

1788
01:32:24,560 --> 01:32:27,280
Speaker 1: they always kill one there. Well, I don't feel that

1789
01:32:27,360 --> 01:32:29,360
Speaker 1: you could take those people and drop them in Michigan.

1790
01:32:30,160 --> 01:32:33,519
Speaker 1: It wouldn't work. You know, it's been a little bit

1791
01:32:33,560 --> 01:32:36,320
Speaker 1: too easy for him, and that there's not that many

1792
01:32:36,720 --> 01:32:39,920
Speaker 1: hunters out there. And you know, they've probably seen the

1793
01:32:40,000 --> 01:32:41,960
Speaker 1: deer coming out to the food plat for a month

1794
01:32:42,080 --> 01:32:44,880
Speaker 1: or two, an hour or just that spot's just always

1795
01:32:44,920 --> 01:32:48,360
Speaker 1: worked over there by the oak tree. And it's probably true.

1796
01:32:48,840 --> 01:32:52,519
Speaker 1: Um but yeah, turn about if I think Michigan hunters,

1797
01:32:52,560 --> 01:32:54,240
Speaker 1: if they're good here, are going to be good there.

1798
01:32:54,800 --> 01:32:57,400
Speaker 1: And they're gonna have more fun, probably because they're gonna

1799
01:32:57,439 --> 01:32:59,920
Speaker 1: see some some serious buck fights and they're gonna hear

1800
01:33:00,040 --> 01:33:03,439
Speaker 1: some snart leases and yeah, they're gonna they're gonna be excited.

1801
01:33:03,520 --> 01:33:07,160
Speaker 1: I know. Uh, the minute I started hunt out there

1802
01:33:07,200 --> 01:33:09,280
Speaker 1: over a decade ago, that was it for me. I

1803
01:33:09,360 --> 01:33:11,760
Speaker 1: had to be there. Yeah, it's it's hard to argue

1804
01:33:11,800 --> 01:33:13,439
Speaker 1: it's it's a whole lot of fun. I love hunting

1805
01:33:13,439 --> 01:33:15,800
Speaker 1: in Michigan. I love hunting these other states. It's just

1806
01:33:15,880 --> 01:33:19,320
Speaker 1: different kind of experience. But when you go somewhere like

1807
01:33:19,720 --> 01:33:24,080
Speaker 1: you know, Iowa, oor Ohio or another Western state, it

1808
01:33:24,360 --> 01:33:27,599
Speaker 1: is something special. Man. I would encourage anyone to give

1809
01:33:27,600 --> 01:33:29,120
Speaker 1: it a shot. And you don't need to own land

1810
01:33:29,160 --> 01:33:31,360
Speaker 1: to do it. You can certainly hunt public plan and

1811
01:33:31,400 --> 01:33:33,920
Speaker 1: have really cool experience. You can get permission still and

1812
01:33:34,000 --> 01:33:37,000
Speaker 1: have really cool experience. Um. But that's That's been one

1813
01:33:37,040 --> 01:33:40,040
Speaker 1: of my favorite things over the course of the last

1814
01:33:40,280 --> 01:33:42,800
Speaker 1: ten years that I started really traveling, is just having

1815
01:33:42,840 --> 01:33:46,920
Speaker 1: a diversity of hunting experiences, getting to hunt in different trains,

1816
01:33:47,040 --> 01:33:49,800
Speaker 1: different being around different cultures of deer hunters, being able

1817
01:33:49,800 --> 01:33:52,559
Speaker 1: to see all sorts of different scenarios from what's present

1818
01:33:52,600 --> 01:33:54,639
Speaker 1: in Michigan, to what's in Ohio to what's in Montana,

1819
01:33:54,800 --> 01:33:59,280
Speaker 1: to Iowa to Illinois to Pennsylvania. It's all different. It's

1820
01:33:59,280 --> 01:34:02,880
Speaker 1: all pretty cool its own um. And I'm kind of

1821
01:34:02,960 --> 01:34:06,040
Speaker 1: left with the fought that a deer is a deer

1822
01:34:06,720 --> 01:34:11,160
Speaker 1: in Michigan or Iowa. But in Michigan they're just more solf,

1823
01:34:11,600 --> 01:34:16,519
Speaker 1: just more self a deer. Everything's cranked up. It's a

1824
01:34:17,000 --> 01:34:22,920
Speaker 1: deer on edge, for sure. And I've spent my share

1825
01:34:22,960 --> 01:34:27,160
Speaker 1: of time on public ground in in states you know, Colorado, Nebraska,

1826
01:34:28,160 --> 01:34:31,639
Speaker 1: you name it, in New Mexico, and I have killed

1827
01:34:31,720 --> 01:34:35,040
Speaker 1: some game out there, and you're right it is. Now

1828
01:34:35,080 --> 01:34:38,040
Speaker 1: we're talking about maybe different species in white tail, but uh,

1829
01:34:38,320 --> 01:34:40,640
Speaker 1: a deer a meal, they're still a deer. But yet

1830
01:34:40,800 --> 01:34:42,880
Speaker 1: it's a whole different hunt. I mean, you're in the

1831
01:34:43,040 --> 01:34:47,439
Speaker 1: sage brush and oak brush and it's exciting to experience that.

1832
01:34:47,600 --> 01:34:49,639
Speaker 1: And I would encourage people to do it because it's

1833
01:34:49,720 --> 01:34:51,640
Speaker 1: not that expensive. A lot of those states are over

1834
01:34:51,720 --> 01:34:53,960
Speaker 1: the counter. And if you think you can't go out

1835
01:34:53,960 --> 01:34:56,920
Speaker 1: in public land and see something, you're wrong, and they're there. Yeah,

1836
01:34:57,000 --> 01:35:00,560
Speaker 1: you might not always get a giant, but I'll tell you,

1837
01:35:00,680 --> 01:35:03,719
Speaker 1: when you do something, it's out if your comfort zone

1838
01:35:03,800 --> 01:35:07,120
Speaker 1: and you go out to these public plans, success doesn't

1839
01:35:07,160 --> 01:35:11,160
Speaker 1: have to be measured in injas, because just managing to

1840
01:35:11,479 --> 01:35:14,640
Speaker 1: harvest one can be a small victory, and in a

1841
01:35:14,720 --> 01:35:18,120
Speaker 1: fun change of pace one even just going out there

1842
01:35:18,120 --> 01:35:20,519
Speaker 1: and surviving it at all would be a victory in

1843
01:35:20,640 --> 01:35:24,040
Speaker 1: many cases for some people. So yeah, I think this

1844
01:35:24,240 --> 01:35:26,400
Speaker 1: is I think that's great. What I what I enjoy

1845
01:35:27,160 --> 01:35:29,040
Speaker 1: about what I'm able to do is I gets talk

1846
01:35:29,120 --> 01:35:31,439
Speaker 1: to people from all different walks of life within the

1847
01:35:31,520 --> 01:35:33,160
Speaker 1: hunting world, and gets talked to some people that just

1848
01:35:33,360 --> 01:35:35,680
Speaker 1: hunt public land and they just get out there and

1849
01:35:35,760 --> 01:35:38,040
Speaker 1: they they're finding great deer and they're having a really

1850
01:35:38,160 --> 01:35:40,800
Speaker 1: great time, and they get they get a wide breadth

1851
01:35:40,840 --> 01:35:43,040
Speaker 1: of different experience because they're hunting all these different places

1852
01:35:43,080 --> 01:35:44,400
Speaker 1: all this time. And then you get to talk to

1853
01:35:44,520 --> 01:35:47,680
Speaker 1: someone who owns a farm maybe like you do, and

1854
01:35:47,760 --> 01:35:50,400
Speaker 1: you get to have a great experience, and you get

1855
01:35:50,439 --> 01:35:52,639
Speaker 1: to manage deer and hunt deer and kill some great deer,

1856
01:35:52,720 --> 01:35:54,840
Speaker 1: and you get to have like a really deep experience

1857
01:35:55,000 --> 01:35:58,519
Speaker 1: with a single place. And I think there's there's something

1858
01:35:58,600 --> 01:36:01,800
Speaker 1: cool and unique about all that. And I think all

1859
01:36:01,880 --> 01:36:05,360
Speaker 1: of these add to this great, big pot luck of

1860
01:36:05,720 --> 01:36:08,600
Speaker 1: of what it is to be a hunter, um. And

1861
01:36:08,640 --> 01:36:10,040
Speaker 1: I'm really glad that all of us are in that

1862
01:36:10,120 --> 01:36:12,200
Speaker 1: big pot together and that we can kind of learn

1863
01:36:12,280 --> 01:36:14,679
Speaker 1: from all of our different experiences. And so I've enjoyed

1864
01:36:14,720 --> 01:36:17,080
Speaker 1: hearing about your experience, how you're doing things here in Michigan,

1865
01:36:17,120 --> 01:36:18,840
Speaker 1: how you've been able to do some things out in

1866
01:36:18,880 --> 01:36:20,519
Speaker 1: these other states and bring it back and and it

1867
01:36:20,640 --> 01:36:23,799
Speaker 1: kind of makes a match, um. And it's encouraging exciting

1868
01:36:23,880 --> 01:36:26,680
Speaker 1: to see someone doing what you're doing here in a

1869
01:36:26,800 --> 01:36:29,000
Speaker 1: state that's not always easy, but you're still having a

1870
01:36:29,040 --> 01:36:31,160
Speaker 1: lot of great success and having a lot of fun.

1871
01:36:31,320 --> 01:36:34,320
Speaker 1: And uh, I just thoroughly enjoyed our chat and getting

1872
01:36:34,360 --> 01:36:36,400
Speaker 1: to see it here in person. So so thank you

1873
01:36:36,479 --> 01:36:39,040
Speaker 1: for Scott. I appreciate you coming out and I'd like

1874
01:36:39,080 --> 01:36:40,760
Speaker 1: to pick your brain too when we're out there, you know,

1875
01:36:41,120 --> 01:36:43,240
Speaker 1: another set of eyes. Hey, thank you for that. I'm

1876
01:36:43,600 --> 01:36:46,479
Speaker 1: always always going to be down for that. If people

1877
01:36:46,800 --> 01:36:49,360
Speaker 1: want to see some of your hunts in the future,

1878
01:36:49,439 --> 01:36:52,960
Speaker 1: is there anywhere you can direct them, Well, Drew has

1879
01:36:53,320 --> 01:36:55,160
Speaker 1: put a lot of them out on YouTube with their

1880
01:36:55,280 --> 01:36:57,599
Speaker 1: d d t V. There's a lot of out there

1881
01:36:57,600 --> 01:36:59,559
Speaker 1: you can actually search Scott Manifold, and I know I've

1882
01:36:59,640 --> 01:37:02,400
Speaker 1: done it to see what's out there, but yeah, there's

1883
01:37:02,400 --> 01:37:04,479
Speaker 1: actually actually quite a few of them out there. And

1884
01:37:04,880 --> 01:37:08,080
Speaker 1: currently I'm Tom and I are along with Mike Clementon

1885
01:37:08,160 --> 01:37:11,840
Speaker 1: are partners on Bowl Madness on the Outdoor Channel. Yeah,

1886
01:37:12,000 --> 01:37:14,720
Speaker 1: and then we do some stuff on Pursuit Channel for

1887
01:37:14,920 --> 01:37:17,360
Speaker 1: Natural Born Killers. That would be pretty much anything we've

1888
01:37:17,400 --> 01:37:21,200
Speaker 1: done with a gun gets put on that program. So yeah,

1889
01:37:21,600 --> 01:37:24,360
Speaker 1: there's some places out there, and if you especially if

1890
01:37:24,400 --> 01:37:26,600
Speaker 1: you have cable or this DV, you can get in

1891
01:37:26,680 --> 01:37:30,479
Speaker 1: there some of those channels and check it out. Excellent. Well,

1892
01:37:30,720 --> 01:37:33,160
Speaker 1: I'll definitely check them out, check out the YouTube videos here.

1893
01:37:33,240 --> 01:37:35,840
Speaker 1: That's what I'm always on. And I know you've had

1894
01:37:35,880 --> 01:37:38,280
Speaker 1: some some some great bucks that are out there. So

1895
01:37:38,640 --> 01:37:40,840
Speaker 1: we'll watch for us on deer Cast this fall. That

1896
01:37:41,120 --> 01:37:43,800
Speaker 1: that is a phenomenal app I use it religiously and

1897
01:37:43,920 --> 01:37:47,479
Speaker 1: I'm not just saying that. It works superbly. And it

1898
01:37:47,560 --> 01:37:49,679
Speaker 1: also gives us a chance to, you know, right after

1899
01:37:49,760 --> 01:37:52,639
Speaker 1: our harvests post to kill out there for for everybody

1900
01:37:52,720 --> 01:37:54,880
Speaker 1: to see what's happening. And I mean it's it's about

1901
01:37:54,880 --> 01:37:57,000
Speaker 1: as close to live as you can get on something

1902
01:37:57,080 --> 01:37:59,479
Speaker 1: like that, and just a great format that is a

1903
01:37:59,560 --> 01:38:02,040
Speaker 1: fun way to do it. So all right, well, thank

1904
01:38:02,080 --> 01:38:04,960
Speaker 1: you Scott and hopefully we'll be seeing some big old

1905
01:38:05,000 --> 01:38:09,240
Speaker 1: bucks on Deercast for me come fall. Thanks and that

1906
01:38:09,439 --> 01:38:11,720
Speaker 1: will be a rap today, So thank you all for

1907
01:38:11,840 --> 01:38:14,960
Speaker 1: tuning in. Best of luck on your upcoming turkey hunts

1908
01:38:15,080 --> 01:38:17,479
Speaker 1: or habita have projects or whatever it is you might

1909
01:38:17,479 --> 01:38:19,320
Speaker 1: be doing out in the woods and fields these days.

1910
01:38:19,680 --> 01:38:23,400
Speaker 1: Until next time, stay wired Ton