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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the

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Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter, and now your host Mark Kenyon.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and today in the show, Tony Peterson and

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Speaker 1: I are breaking down the good, bad, and ugly of

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Speaker 1: our experiences with white tail habitat management. All right, welcome

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Speaker 1: to the wire to Hunt podcast, brought to you by

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Speaker 1: First Like and today we're talking whitetail habitat, but but

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Speaker 1: from a from a very different perspective than many of

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Speaker 1: the white tail habitat conversations you here. This is not

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Speaker 1: gonna be a conversation with experts. This is not gonna

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Speaker 1: be a conversation with consultant or paid I don't know,

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Speaker 1: spokespeople for food, plat, seeds or anything. This is gonna

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Speaker 1: be white tailed habitat from a couple of average joe

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Speaker 1: get their hands in the dirt, sometimes know what they're

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Speaker 1: talking about, sometimes don't. Kind of guys myself and Tony Peterson. Tony,

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Speaker 1: welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, buddy. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I gotta point out though I made this

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Speaker 1: whole long spiel about how we're just average joe's but

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Speaker 1: then as I was saying this, I recalled the last

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Speaker 1: time we were together, you called yourself the step Curry,

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Speaker 1: the Steph Curry of the deer ownning world. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: from humble beginnings here, folks that that was a tongue

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Speaker 1: in cheek statement. Uh, And I fully admitted that I

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Speaker 1: didn't realize that Steph Curry was considered the best basketball

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Speaker 1: player out there today. You can safely say that as

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Speaker 1: far as the habitat and movements and stuff, I definitely

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Speaker 1: don't consider myself the Steph Curry of that category. But

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Speaker 1: you're on the team, You're you're on the bench somewhere.

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Speaker 1: You're on You're on the team somewhere. I'm a screw up.

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Speaker 1: I'm on the bench. But yeah, yeah, man, how how

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Speaker 1: how are you? I'm good, man, I'm I'm scouting Turkey

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Speaker 1: is like mad and finding a few antlers, and I'm

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Speaker 1: getting ready to go cut down some trees this weekend.

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Speaker 1: And I'm I'm so happy to look out my window

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Speaker 1: and Nazi snow. It's been a long while, hasn't oh man? Yeah? Um,

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Speaker 1: since we chatted last, you also went to Florida. Uh,

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Speaker 1: totally unrelated to any of this, But how was the fishing.

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Speaker 1: The fishing was really good despite the weather and we

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Speaker 1: did not have the most ideal beach weather, but man,

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Speaker 1: we caught a lot of different fish, a lot of

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Speaker 1: different species, and just I still have it was such

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Speaker 1: a good trip. I still have fish spines stuck in

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Speaker 1: my fingers right now. I can't play guitar because I'm

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Speaker 1: in I'm on the I R right now. But it was.

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Speaker 1: It was a good trip. Man. That's sweet. Uh, your

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Speaker 1: daughters catch a bunch, Oh my god, they caught so many.

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Speaker 1: We we really kind of got some stuff dialed in

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Speaker 1: on this trip because I'm such a newbie with that

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Speaker 1: saltwater stuff. And we we figured out, you know, how

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Speaker 1: to catch some trout really well. And we found you know,

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Speaker 1: some ladyfish and some jacks and we actually got into

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Speaker 1: this catfish bite at our house that I've caught them before,

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Speaker 1: but never, you know, I've never really focused on them.

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Speaker 1: But I kind of figured those fish out and we

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Speaker 1: had a night bite that was so fun, Like I

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Speaker 1: finally figured out and you know, they fight pretty well.

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Speaker 1: And the girls, you know, the girls caught a lot

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Speaker 1: of fish. It was it was a blast. Man. Did

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Speaker 1: you get to eat some of those Um, we did

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Speaker 1: not because I can't eat fish. I'm allergic to fish,

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Speaker 1: and we didn't catch anything that I really felt like

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Speaker 1: cleaning on the vacation so somebody else could eat them. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I get that. Yeah, that's a bummer. I did. I

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Speaker 1: forgot that. That does suck. Yeah. I can't prove this,

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Speaker 1: but I think I hold the world record for most

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Speaker 1: fish clean and not eaten in my life because I've

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Speaker 1: cleaned a pile of fish and I don't get to

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Speaker 1: eat them. Yeah, it's definitely not worth it if you

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Speaker 1: don't get to enjoy them. There's some days where I

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Speaker 1: do enjoy them, and I'm still like, dangn. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if that was worth it, but it was not

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Speaker 1: not ever a good idea to do it and then

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Speaker 1: not be able to eat those suckers. Man, that's a bummer.

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Speaker 1: It's a bummer. I I can. I should say this too.

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Speaker 1: I can eat trout and salmon. So they think it's

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Speaker 1: a mercury allergy. And for some reason, you know, because

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Speaker 1: of the water that salmon and trout live in, they

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Speaker 1: don't they don't get the build ups of mercury and

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Speaker 1: their fat deposits. I guess, and I had to travel

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Speaker 1: nurse tell me that once and so I do actually

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Speaker 1: really enjoy eating salmon and trout, but everything else will

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Speaker 1: kill me. Dude, If that's not incentive to be against

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Speaker 1: pollution of our waters, I don't know what is. Um.

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm all for it, man. I do you know

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Speaker 1: people people they don't seem to understand this allergy. It's

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Speaker 1: a weird one, but every I haven't done this since

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Speaker 1: I quit drinking. When I when I used to be

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Speaker 1: a much bigger fan of like wild turkey everyone, like

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Speaker 1: once every ten years, I would just decide, you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna try it. Just see and if I take

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Speaker 1: a bite of fish, it feels like I swallowed poison.

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Speaker 1: I can feel it spread through my entire body. Wow,

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Speaker 1: So it's not good that, Uh, that's a good thing

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Speaker 1: for me. Keeping the back of my mind for the

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Speaker 1: next time of our outings, We're definitely not gonna have

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Speaker 1: a fish friend. I thought he meant a different way

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Speaker 1: if I started to get more popular than you, that

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Speaker 1: you're gonna slip some fish into my sandwich or something.

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Speaker 1: I've got more ideas. Uh, well, what what I really

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Speaker 1: want to talk to you about other than poisoning you

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Speaker 1: with delicious wallee filet Uh is that other stuff that

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Speaker 1: we're working on this spring? You're gonna be cutting some brush.

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Speaker 1: I'm heading out next week, I think to do some

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Speaker 1: frost seeding of clover up in northern Michigan. Uh So,

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Speaker 1: getting our hands dirty with some habitat work. And you

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Speaker 1: are not someone who I think anyone typically thinks about

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Speaker 1: when they think about habitat work, improving properties, working ground.

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Speaker 1: Because you, Tony have made such a name for yourself

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Speaker 1: on the you know, public land side of things. D

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Speaker 1: I y, traveling trips, all that kind of stuff. But

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Speaker 1: you're like a closet private land dude. No one realizes it,

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Speaker 1: but but you do this stuff kind of secretly in

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Speaker 1: the background. Are you willing to come clean today about

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Speaker 1: what you have done on private land with habitat Yeah?

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Speaker 1: This this can be my coming out party. Sure, okay,

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Speaker 1: So tell me give me the story, like when did

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Speaker 1: you first get into this kind of stuff and and

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Speaker 1: what does that look like? Because you you not only

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Speaker 1: have you worked ground, but you even own land. Yep. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And I actually I got a couple of Foundations episodes

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Speaker 1: coming out here pretty soon about kind of the land

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Speaker 1: buying process and what it took for me, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: all really shortened us up here. But you know, I

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Speaker 1: grew up it was never even like a thought to

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Speaker 1: own land like it was. It was never gonna happen.

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Speaker 1: Like I grew up with a poor mindset, and so

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Speaker 1: it never it never occurred to me that it might

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Speaker 1: be possible that I might be able to buy some

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Speaker 1: grounds someday. And I just randomly, I've got a buddy,

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Speaker 1: really good friend of mine who he bought some He

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Speaker 1: bought eighty acres in northern Wisconsin, like probably two thousand

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Speaker 1: and six or something. It was a while ago, and

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Speaker 1: it just it blew my mind when he called me

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Speaker 1: up and he's like, yeah, we've you know, we made

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Speaker 1: an offer. And back then the price I think he

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Speaker 1: paid was like seven or fifty bucks an acre or something.

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Speaker 1: You know, I mean, it would it would be different today,

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Speaker 1: But even then, I was like, I can't believe I

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Speaker 1: know anyone my age who bought land. And so I

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Speaker 1: started looking around there because I was up in him

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Speaker 1: work on his land, and I ended up finding a

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Speaker 1: property over there that was twenty eight acres and just

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Speaker 1: really weird shape and not all that appealing by the road,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of half high, half low, and it

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Speaker 1: was offered pretty cheap. And then it dropped and I

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Speaker 1: was like, man, you know, it was like finally a

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Speaker 1: piece of property that I had walked that was kind

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Speaker 1: of in my wheelhouse. And it was a horrible idea.

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Speaker 1: My wife was super pregnant with our daughters at that time.

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Speaker 1: But I drove over there and looked at it and

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Speaker 1: just it was like, you know, not ideal, dreamy, dear ground,

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Speaker 1: believe me, but it was it was within the realm

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Speaker 1: of possibility. So I made an offer on it, and

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Speaker 1: I got it, and I was terrified, and it was

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Speaker 1: I paid for it, so I'm not talking like, you know,

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Speaker 1: three dollars or something. And even then at that time,

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Speaker 1: I was terrified to take on that debt. And but

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Speaker 1: as soon as I did it, I was like, well,

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Speaker 1: now I know, like not I gotta pay the bank back, now,

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Speaker 1: I gotta I just gotta do it, you know. And

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Speaker 1: as soon as I got my hands on it, I

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Speaker 1: was just like, well, I could put a little kill

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Speaker 1: plot here, I could cut this trail here, and it

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Speaker 1: just opened up a world for me and really changed

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Speaker 1: how I look at you know, the possibility owning land

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Speaker 1: and just what I could do with my deer hunting.

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Speaker 1: So before we get any further than that, I guess

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Speaker 1: here's here's like a high level overview of where I

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Speaker 1: want to explore. Um, what I'm hoping by the end

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Speaker 1: of this we're gonna get to is a little bit

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Speaker 1: of insight into what you and I have both experienced

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Speaker 1: with these types of projects, as far as you know,

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Speaker 1: what we actually did. I think we should give an

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Speaker 1: overview of of like what our experience set is, because

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Speaker 1: I think lots of times we never hear that from people.

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Speaker 1: We just expect them to tell us a whole bunch

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Speaker 1: of stuff and we never really end up finding out

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Speaker 1: what they've actually done themselves. Let's like break down what

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Speaker 1: we have worked on the past. But then I want

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Speaker 1: to kind of get into, Okay, what was what was

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Speaker 1: the good side of the What did we do that

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Speaker 1: actually worked, what was fun about it, what was satisfying

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Speaker 1: about it? Did we enjoy it, didn't make a difference,

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Speaker 1: did we see positive impact? YadA, YadA, YadA, And then

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Speaker 1: the flip side. I kind of want to talk through

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Speaker 1: what was a ship hole, what didn't work, what was stressful,

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Speaker 1: what was upsetting, what was a waste of our time?

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Speaker 1: What made you never wanted to do it again? Anything

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Speaker 1: like that? And then hopefully by the end of this

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Speaker 1: we'll kind of have a no bs idea of you know,

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Speaker 1: the good and the bad of trying to improve whitetail

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Speaker 1: ground for hunting and for wildlife and who it's right

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Speaker 1: for and maybe who it's not right for, or what

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Speaker 1: are some things that people should think about before they

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Speaker 1: get into this, or for people to have started but

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Speaker 1: feel like they're just kind of muddling around maybe what

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Speaker 1: to think about next. That's kind of where I see

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Speaker 1: this going tony um, and feel free to press me

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Speaker 1: on some of these things too as we as we discuss.

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Speaker 1: But um, you know, how big was this property? Again?

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Speaker 1: You had that the first one I bought was twenty

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Speaker 1: eight okay, and then this you've you've got remind me

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Speaker 1: what it looks like now. You bought one, then you

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Speaker 1: had a second, and then you sold one recently into

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Speaker 1: relatively Yeah, so I bought a twenty eight acre property,

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Speaker 1: and a twenty nine acre property and a thirty acre property,

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Speaker 1: and so that's about where uh an outdoor writer, that's

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Speaker 1: that's the sweet spot there. I did the twenty nine

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Speaker 1: acre property we did sell last year because we had

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Speaker 1: some neighbors come in that we're not fun and it

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Speaker 1: was just it was a property I really wish had

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Speaker 1: not gotten ruined by other people, but it just was

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Speaker 1: really tough. So we got rid of that one. But

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Speaker 1: so now I have a twenty and thirty over in

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Speaker 1: northern Wisconsin. And are they like close to each other?

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Speaker 1: Are they adjacent? Are they two separate different worlds? Um?

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Speaker 1: They're about probably about ten minutes apart. Okay, all right,

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Speaker 1: So then what I want to know first is I guess, like,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll get into the d I'm curious about

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Speaker 1: getting the details, but like, give me the uh chapter

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Speaker 1: in debt and what is it table of contents? Given

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Speaker 1: the table contents, like a list of all the various

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Speaker 1: projects you can think of off the top of your

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Speaker 1: head that you've tried on those properties over the years.

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Speaker 1: If you could just like run through what you can

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Speaker 1: think of right now, what would those first things be

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Speaker 1: to come to your mind that you can remember? But

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Speaker 1: you know, probably very similar to your experience. A lot

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Speaker 1: of uh, you know, cutting trails, a lot of cutting brush,

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Speaker 1: a couple of little kill plots, a fair amount of

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Speaker 1: apple tree you know, planning apple trees and working with

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Speaker 1: some natural apple trees kind of open them up. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, that's that's primarily what I've done. You know,

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Speaker 1: I don't have I don't even have a four wheeler,

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Speaker 1: so everything I do is by hand. So every bag

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Speaker 1: a line I carry in by hand. And so I'm

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Speaker 1: into little, the little stuff I can do. But that's

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Speaker 1: that's mostly been my focus. And you know it's been well,

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Speaker 1: we'll get into this. It's been fun and not fun

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Speaker 1: at times. Yeah. Alright. So on my side of the coin,

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Speaker 1: I don't own anything, and I haven't owned anything, but

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Speaker 1: my family does own a forty acre piece up in

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Speaker 1: northern Michigan. So up there we've done some cutting and

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Speaker 1: basically like one small food plot up there. Um. And

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Speaker 1: then I have permission on a property down in southern

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Speaker 1: Michigan where I've done hinge cutting and screening and food plots. There.

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Speaker 1: I've been able to plant about two acres of food

249
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Speaker 1: plots on that property and I've done some hinge cutting.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if I said that, um. And then

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Speaker 1: I worked the back forty project of course which I

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Speaker 1: got experienced burning tree planting, using screening, cover planting, switch grass,

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Speaker 1: working on invasive species removals, and uh no till food

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Speaker 1: plots specifically, got to dive into that a little bit.

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Speaker 1: So that's that's kind of my experience set and I

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Speaker 1: started this. UM I did my first food plot, I

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Speaker 1: think thirteen years ago. And that first food plot, Tony,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever you probably have done

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Speaker 1: something like this. Well maybe you've done something even more smaller,

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Speaker 1: smaller than this, given what you just described. But my

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Speaker 1: very first food plot was on a property I had

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Speaker 1: permission on in outside of Annarbor, Michigan, so outside of

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Speaker 1: a college town. And I was renting this old, old,

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Speaker 1: old farmhouse. This is my first place I've ever lived

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Speaker 1: outside of college. This is my very first year after college.

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Speaker 1: And I was living in this little rundown farmhouse in

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Speaker 1: the edge of town and it was on a larger farm.

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Speaker 1: And the owner of this farm um was gonna allow

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Speaker 1: me to hunt it. And I had this idea, like, man,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to try food plotting and want to try

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Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff. So I, uh, I asked

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Speaker 1: if I could plant a food plot in this little

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Speaker 1: corner of grass that tucked into the wood lot that

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Speaker 1: was next to this farm, and the little part of

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Speaker 1: grass was a part of the landowner's yard. And so

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Speaker 1: basically I was asking, could I plant a food plot

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Speaker 1: in your backyard because it was the only place that

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Speaker 1: seemed like I might be able to do a food

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Speaker 1: plot with the tools I had available without messing with

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Speaker 1: the farm field. And so they let me do it.

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Speaker 1: And I'm trying to remember, I'm trying to remember where

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Speaker 1: this started. I think I went out there. I don't

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Speaker 1: know where I got it, but I must have rented

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Speaker 1: a road or tail, like a push road or till.

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Speaker 1: I must have got it like an equipment rental place

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Speaker 1: somewhere in town, because I had this little push road

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Speaker 1: to till, and I had like, I don't know, like

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Speaker 1: a twenty yard wide by ten yard wide little space

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Speaker 1: that I was trying to till up like this, and

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Speaker 1: the ground was really hard and dry, and the road

291
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Speaker 1: of tiller was not hardly making a dent, and I

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Speaker 1: just was out there for I don't know, two or

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Speaker 1: three hours, just kind of slowly chugging along trying to

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Speaker 1: break up this ground. And you know, I no idea

295
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Speaker 1: what I was doing, but I was really stoked to

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Speaker 1: be doing something. And uh and the landowner lived in

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Speaker 1: this yard, obviously living in the house at the front

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Speaker 1: of the yard, I think, kept looking at me, and

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Speaker 1: then finally he came out. He's like, you know, I

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Speaker 1: gotta tractor, don't. She's like, why don't. Why don't you

301
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Speaker 1: just let me make a pass here and then you

302
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Speaker 1: can be done with it. So he came up with

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Speaker 1: this little lawn tractor and uh just finished it off

304
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Speaker 1: for me. But that was my first food plotting experience,

305
00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:17,320
Speaker 1: was telling this guy's backyard, and Uh, I ended up

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Speaker 1: just like stomping on it with my feet to get

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Speaker 1: it packed. So I foot stomped the whole thing and

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Speaker 1: then I used like a little like plastic grass seeds

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Speaker 1: spreader to spread like some no till food plot seed

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Speaker 1: on this thing. And uh, sure enough though, stuff sprouted

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Speaker 1: and a food plot came in and UH, I remember

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Speaker 1: thinking it was the coolest thing to actually have planted

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Speaker 1: this little patch of ground and he was all this lush,

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Speaker 1: green looking stuff. I didn't really know what a lot

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Speaker 1: of it was. And uh, I got a trail camera

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Speaker 1: set up there in the first picture of a buck

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Speaker 1: in that food plot. I was like a kid opening

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Speaker 1: the best present on Chris this morning. I was so excited.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think I yelled out loud, probably, I

320
00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:05,360
Speaker 1: was so excited. I mean, it was just the coolest

321
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Speaker 1: thing to to just do something like that and see

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00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:14,840
Speaker 1: it come to life, both the plants and like animals

323
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Speaker 1: using it. That was like an eye opening experience for me,

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Speaker 1: that very first time when you could do something and

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Speaker 1: see that kind of fruition. Do you remember what what

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Speaker 1: you actually had planted in there? I remember as a mix,

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Speaker 1: it was like I think it was white tail institutes,

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Speaker 1: no plow or no til mix whatever that whatever that was,

329
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Speaker 1: So I'm assuming there was probably I think there was

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Speaker 1: some clover in there. There was some kind of brassica

331
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Speaker 1: in there, and there was some kind of cereal grain,

332
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Speaker 1: so probably oats or wheat or something like that, some

333
00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:45,840
Speaker 1: mixture of those things. Yep. I just remember it was

334
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Speaker 1: like a a blend. There was the leafy brassicas, there

335
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,040
Speaker 1: was some wheaty looking kind of stuff, um, and deer

336
00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:56,240
Speaker 1: in it. And I mean I I didn't I didn't um.

337
00:17:56,280 --> 00:17:58,560
Speaker 1: I never did shoot anything around that food plot, but

338
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Speaker 1: I had a camera, and only hunted there one year,

339
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:05,280
Speaker 1: I guess before I moved. But that that year I

340
00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:07,600
Speaker 1: got a bunch of pictures of deer using it, and

341
00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:13,120
Speaker 1: it just was it was surprising, actually how easy it

342
00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:16,320
Speaker 1: was to actually make something. It wasn't great, it wasn't big,

343
00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:19,120
Speaker 1: it wasn't like earth shattering, but I did a thing

344
00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:23,560
Speaker 1: like I actually planted something. Deer actually started really using it.

345
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Speaker 1: And uh and I was just like two years old

346
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Speaker 1: and really didn't know anything, and I was able to

347
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,720
Speaker 1: try it. So that was I guess that was encouraging

348
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Speaker 1: to to start, I suppose. So why why didn't you

349
00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:42,040
Speaker 1: hunt it more? Well? Um, I only hunted that property

350
00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:44,679
Speaker 1: one year because I moved. So the next year I

351
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:47,720
Speaker 1: moved about an hour away. Um, so that was my

352
00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:52,359
Speaker 1: only season there, and I didn't end up you know,

353
00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:54,480
Speaker 1: try and remember why I had a tree stand that

354
00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:59,440
Speaker 1: I set on the food plot. Um. And I'm sure

355
00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:01,879
Speaker 1: I hunted it few times. I really can't remember, Tony,

356
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:05,199
Speaker 1: I don't remember. I don't remember what the plan was

357
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Speaker 1: or why I didn't hunt there more often. I think

358
00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:11,159
Speaker 1: a lot of it came down to I was also

359
00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:14,320
Speaker 1: getting permission on some other spots where there was just

360
00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:17,560
Speaker 1: seemingly better deer hunting, so I end up traveling to

361
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:21,200
Speaker 1: those spots more often. Um. I can only remember a

362
00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:22,960
Speaker 1: few hunts on this property as I'm like trying to

363
00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:25,360
Speaker 1: rack my brain right now. I remember one like opening

364
00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:28,640
Speaker 1: day of that year. I know I wanted to hunt

365
00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:30,359
Speaker 1: the food plot, but must the wind must have been

366
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:32,520
Speaker 1: wrong or something, because I remember really wanted to hunt

367
00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:35,440
Speaker 1: that spot but couldn't, And I hunted a couple hundred

368
00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:37,920
Speaker 1: yards down this other corner of the property and shot

369
00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:43,119
Speaker 1: a doll opening night coming out of this little swale. Um.

370
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Speaker 1: But yeah, I can't. I can't recall why I never

371
00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:48,119
Speaker 1: hunted that spot, but I can't even remember actually sitting

372
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Speaker 1: on that food plot. I'm sure it must have, but

373
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Speaker 1: I can't actually remember an experience there. Um, But I'm

374
00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,399
Speaker 1: glad I did it still. Yeah, well, I asked you

375
00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:04,760
Speaker 1: that because I'm I love working on food plots, and

376
00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:07,480
Speaker 1: I love seeing that progress and getting the pictures on them.

377
00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:10,880
Speaker 1: I just don't like hunting them that much, Like it's

378
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:13,560
Speaker 1: at least the ones that I've created, but the process

379
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:15,600
Speaker 1: of making them is so worth it to me still,

380
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:17,320
Speaker 1: So I wondered if you kind of bumped into that

381
00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:20,280
Speaker 1: where you're like, man, this is a fun project to

382
00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:24,720
Speaker 1: take on, even though it's really you know, in like

383
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,480
Speaker 1: that little kill plot sense, probably not going to change

384
00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,000
Speaker 1: the outcome of your season a whole lot, But man,

385
00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:32,919
Speaker 1: they're fun to build. So let's let's talk about that. Well,

386
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:36,120
Speaker 1: let's let's talk about the fun part first. So what's

387
00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,960
Speaker 1: fun about him? Because I think some people look maybe

388
00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:41,840
Speaker 1: they haven't tried it. I might look at it and think, gosh,

389
00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:44,080
Speaker 1: that's that's like a big farming project that's just gonna

390
00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:48,160
Speaker 1: take time, energy and sweat, and um, maybe that doesn't

391
00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:51,160
Speaker 1: sound fun of people? Why was that fun for you? Especially?

392
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:53,000
Speaker 1: It might be. I mean, it's kind of surprising to

393
00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:54,359
Speaker 1: hear you say that, because you're a guy who I

394
00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:58,360
Speaker 1: expect wouldn't think that's fun. I don't know, man, It's

395
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,919
Speaker 1: just it's the same thing. Like I was talking to

396
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:03,120
Speaker 1: my wife about this weekend where we're gonna go cut

397
00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:05,440
Speaker 1: down a bunch of trees and some brush, and I

398
00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:09,280
Speaker 1: can't wait. And I just like watching trees ball down

399
00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:11,200
Speaker 1: like I could. I literally when I watch a tree

400
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,720
Speaker 1: fall down, I feel I can feel my chest hair grow,

401
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:16,520
Speaker 1: like I feel like I just become a little more manly.

402
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:21,480
Speaker 1: And you know, even though I know, you know, especially

403
00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:24,199
Speaker 1: for years I worked on those little kill plots on

404
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:28,080
Speaker 1: my properties, knowing almost without question I was never going

405
00:21:28,119 --> 00:21:31,240
Speaker 1: to sit them, or I might sit one one or

406
00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:32,960
Speaker 1: two days in like October and just try to shoot

407
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:36,159
Speaker 1: a dough. But I just love the process of just

408
00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:38,680
Speaker 1: looking at the woods and going, Okay, I'm gonna clear

409
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:40,960
Speaker 1: this part out and it's gonna take a couple of

410
00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:43,920
Speaker 1: years for the soft wood, you know, kind of work

411
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:45,879
Speaker 1: its way back into the soil and a a little stumps

412
00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:49,040
Speaker 1: and stuff, and just like start to see that process

413
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:51,880
Speaker 1: of building it up and start seeing does come back

414
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:55,359
Speaker 1: with fawns in the spring. And I love every part

415
00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:59,440
Speaker 1: about it except sitting on it to hunt. Why aren't

416
00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:05,000
Speaker 1: really hunting them? Ah, I think it's just where I'm

417
00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:10,080
Speaker 1: at as a hunter now. I plant those plots and

418
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:12,480
Speaker 1: then I do a lot of work on them, and

419
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,680
Speaker 1: then I drive down the road fifteen miles to public

420
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:19,760
Speaker 1: land and I go, you know, totally different style, and

421
00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:22,800
Speaker 1: I just want to do that. Like I it feels

422
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:27,000
Speaker 1: weird to me partially because it sort of feels like

423
00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:29,240
Speaker 1: you're just you know, I don't have a place where

424
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:31,840
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, there's big ones coming in here consistently,

425
00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:34,679
Speaker 1: Like that's not what I'm hunting, and so I know,

426
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 1: like there's an outside chance that one might show up,

427
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:40,560
Speaker 1: but I have a better chance of running into a

428
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:43,120
Speaker 1: deer I'm gonna want to shoot if I go and

429
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,320
Speaker 1: you give me a thousand acres a big timber, you know.

430
00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:48,280
Speaker 1: So it's just it feels like when I go sit

431
00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 1: down there, I'm like, Okay, I know, I know what

432
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:51,800
Speaker 1: I'm dealing with, and sometimes I love it because it's

433
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:54,160
Speaker 1: easy and I might get a crack at a dough,

434
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:56,600
Speaker 1: but most of the time I'd rather leave it for

435
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:59,280
Speaker 1: somebody else. And now with my my little girls hunting,

436
00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:01,640
Speaker 1: like I have a perfect excuse to just work as

437
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:03,800
Speaker 1: hard as I can on them and then you know,

438
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:06,439
Speaker 1: save them for the girls. Okay, So that was what

439
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:08,439
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask Next, is what's the point of

440
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:10,920
Speaker 1: planning them then if you don't never really want to

441
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 1: hunt those spots. So it's it's mostly now getting your

442
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:18,640
Speaker 1: your your girls a good opportunity. It's that's a big

443
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:22,160
Speaker 1: motivator right now. But I also, honestly, I just love

444
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:25,119
Speaker 1: making them and I just love having the excuse to

445
00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:28,800
Speaker 1: go over there and put some sweat equity into it.

446
00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:31,840
Speaker 1: And even though you know, I mean, I'm not, I shouldn't,

447
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,560
Speaker 1: like I should clarify this if if I started getting

448
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 1: pictures of like at inter coming in every day, I'm

449
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 1: gonna plant my ass on that plot. Believe me, it

450
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:42,960
Speaker 1: just doesn't really happen for me. Like it's never been

451
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:45,600
Speaker 1: the answer to my big buck problems. But I love

452
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:49,440
Speaker 1: the process and I love the just feeling of having it. Yeah, yeah,

453
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:06,600
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. I do. Agree with the weird

454
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 1: fun of just the project itself. I really have come

455
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,240
Speaker 1: to enjoy, you know, come from a background of like

456
00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 1: no experience whatsoever with farming or agriculture or anything like that.

457
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,240
Speaker 1: Just an excuse to learn about that stuff was really interesting.

458
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:28,399
Speaker 1: And then like getting out there and you know, telling

459
00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:33,480
Speaker 1: us some soil or spreading fertilizer, spreading seed or the

460
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,320
Speaker 1: the whole new appreciation I found for rain, Like I

461
00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:39,399
Speaker 1: never paid attention to the rain in any kind of

462
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 1: real way. And now all of a sudden, I've become

463
00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:46,200
Speaker 1: like hysterical obsessive, you know, checking the weather and monitoring

464
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:47,879
Speaker 1: radar and trying to figure out the right time to

465
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:50,160
Speaker 1: get out there. And do the work. UM, and then

466
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 1: how excited I get when that rain does come when

467
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:56,199
Speaker 1: I really need it. I mean those little kind of

468
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,679
Speaker 1: connective tissues that kind of bring me back to the

469
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:02,200
Speaker 1: land Because of those projects, because of working on food

470
00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 1: plot or something, I really came to enjoy that UM.

471
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,080
Speaker 1: And then you know, the payoff. One of my very

472
00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:11,359
Speaker 1: favorite things about the whole process is that first time

473
00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,239
Speaker 1: you go back out to the site after planting to see, like,

474
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 1: is it coming up? How does it look? And the

475
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:18,360
Speaker 1: first time you go out there and you see that

476
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:21,000
Speaker 1: all that work you put in is actually paying off

477
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:24,679
Speaker 1: and there's a lush, green carpet of something. UM. That

478
00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 1: is a really really cool feeling UM. Not to mention

479
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:31,359
Speaker 1: when you go out there and see animals using it.

480
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 1: Now I I different than you. I still like to

481
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:38,639
Speaker 1: hunt around my food plots sometimes, but it's to your point,

482
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: not often because I think I'm gonna kill a big

483
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:43,800
Speaker 1: buck there. It's more so because you know, it's a

484
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,240
Speaker 1: great spot to shoot does, it's a great spot to

485
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,400
Speaker 1: observe other things UM. And I just enjoy the fun

486
00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:54,119
Speaker 1: of watching deer use that place. UM. Especially early on,

487
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:56,400
Speaker 1: when like those first food plots, I was doing when

488
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 1: I still didn't really know what was going on, and

489
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: getting to see those changes in dear behavior and seeing

490
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:05,440
Speaker 1: those critters enjoying this thing I put that time into,

491
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:07,920
Speaker 1: or you know, on the back forty that was such

492
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,000
Speaker 1: a cool experience because there's so much work that went

493
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:14,199
Speaker 1: into that thing, and seeing the pretty dramatic changes in

494
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:16,879
Speaker 1: some case that you know it could come about because

495
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:19,960
Speaker 1: of that work and all of a sudden seeing I

496
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: don't know, there's a lot of stuff that we do

497
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,440
Speaker 1: tony like in day to day life or in our

498
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 1: careers or whatever, where you put in a bunch of

499
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:28,239
Speaker 1: work into something and then you don't see like a

500
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:32,520
Speaker 1: very tangible result. You don't get noticeable recognition of it

501
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,760
Speaker 1: or any kind of real payoff. Uh. With a food plot,

502
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,879
Speaker 1: it's very transactional in a way. Maybe that's not the

503
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 1: right word. But if I do A and if I

504
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:43,639
Speaker 1: do it right, I'm gonna get B. And B is

505
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:46,360
Speaker 1: the enjoyment of seeing this thing grow and seeing animals

506
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:49,680
Speaker 1: use it and and yeah maybe some hunting success, maybe not,

507
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 1: but um, it's it's there's not a lot of things

508
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 1: within the hunting world that you can control, right. You

509
00:26:57,280 --> 00:26:59,959
Speaker 1: can't go out on a deer hunt and guarantee your

510
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 1: gonna see a deer, shoot a deer, or I don't know,

511
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:05,520
Speaker 1: have a great encounter or anything like that. But if

512
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,600
Speaker 1: you work on some kind of land project like this,

513
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 1: you can at least be guaranteed some kind of result.

514
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:13,040
Speaker 1: Might not always be the best result, but some kind

515
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 1: of like growth happens, some kind of change happens, and

516
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 1: just seeing how nature adapts to the changes you make,

517
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 1: that's kind of a fun payoff. Um. I don't know

518
00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:24,240
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. I'm not sure if I'm describing

519
00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:28,639
Speaker 1: this right, but um, maybe I think I think it

520
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 1: makes sense. I mean, you know, one of the one

521
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: of the things that always has bothered me about being

522
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:38,120
Speaker 1: in the position that we're in is we were always

523
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 1: tasked with like, how's it? What's the point a to

524
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:42,719
Speaker 1: be to? You know, not kill a buck? To kill

525
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:47,119
Speaker 1: a buck? And you just realize so much of what

526
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 1: we do, like we we you know, we preached the

527
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:53,320
Speaker 1: scouting game and you know, long range glassing and boots

528
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:56,320
Speaker 1: on the ground, winner scouting, trail cameras, all this stuff,

529
00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:00,119
Speaker 1: and it's all sort of couched in this idea that

530
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:03,240
Speaker 1: this is the path to kill a big one, but

531
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:06,200
Speaker 1: really what it ends up being is, yeah, it might

532
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:08,879
Speaker 1: nudge you in the right direction any any given moment

533
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,200
Speaker 1: you spend in the woods, but the act in and

534
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: of itself is pretty enjoyable and it's it's something worthwhile

535
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 1: regardless of the fact that it probably doesn't take you

536
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:20,920
Speaker 1: that much closer, Like in any given scouting trip, probably

537
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:22,760
Speaker 1: doesn't take you that much closer to a big bucket

538
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 1: might help. But I kind of look at this the

539
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:27,399
Speaker 1: same way like this is, you know, working on the land.

540
00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:29,520
Speaker 1: It's a pretty good reason just to get into the

541
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 1: woods and enjoy yourself, regardless of whether you know there's

542
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,119
Speaker 1: gonna be a bunch of dead hut at the end.

543
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: And I think we've missed that message in the outdoor

544
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:41,680
Speaker 1: media space a little bit, where we're kind of conditioned

545
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,640
Speaker 1: to speak like we're always giving the answer to big

546
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:48,520
Speaker 1: dead bucks and a lot of this stuff, you know,

547
00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: it's like it's ancilarily might get you there, but mostly

548
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 1: it's just really fun for the process of doing this stuff,

549
00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: and you know, it's it's fun. It might help you

550
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:02,520
Speaker 1: on the hunting side, It certainly can help you on

551
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 1: the hunting side, and then the whole other thing. You know,

552
00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:08,960
Speaker 1: you're you're giving back in a way, right, I mean,

553
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:11,479
Speaker 1: we go out there, we shoot a deer, bringing home,

554
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 1: we eat it. This is a way to kind of

555
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,719
Speaker 1: come full circle of that. I really do, you know,

556
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 1: enjoy that part. I feel like in some kind of way,

557
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 1: I'm you know, balancing the scales a little bit. When

558
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:24,560
Speaker 1: I can go feed those deer, or feed the rabbits

559
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:27,280
Speaker 1: or the birds or whatever, do some kind of improvement

560
00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:29,720
Speaker 1: that helps out in a place. Um, I feel a

561
00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 1: little bit better about going out there and shooting something

562
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 1: the next day, UM because of that. UM. So it's fun.

563
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,080
Speaker 1: I feel like it does bring you into like a

564
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: closer connection. Like I said, like I've learned so much

565
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 1: about rain. I've learned a lot about soil. I've learned

566
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 1: about trees and plants and all these things that if

567
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,200
Speaker 1: I was just out there deer hunting, I don't think

568
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 1: I ever would have, or at least not as often

569
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: have had to learn about all those things. Um. But

570
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,120
Speaker 1: I think because I've had to learn about soil and

571
00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: water and sun and different tree type, some plant types.

572
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: Because because these kinds of projects have forced me to

573
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 1: start learning those things, my experience out there as a

574
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:11,840
Speaker 1: hunter is much richer, right when you know, like, oh,

575
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 1: that is uh, such and such plant, or this is

576
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: that kind of true or this you know, I just

577
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 1: I'm getting more and more tiny moments of joy when

578
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 1: I noticed something in the woods that I never would

579
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:24,360
Speaker 1: have noticed as a thing. I used to go through

580
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:27,600
Speaker 1: the woods just like on a terminator mission, with only

581
00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 1: one thing in mind. And as I've learned more and

582
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 1: as my experience has grown, all of a sudden, what

583
00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:35,960
Speaker 1: used to be like a blank what used to be

584
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 1: like a tunnel you just went through. All of a sudden,

585
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 1: you realize that there's murals on this tunnel all around you.

586
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:42,720
Speaker 1: And if you turn to look at them, you realize

587
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: there's some incredible artwork all around you. Right, it's like

588
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 1: a subway tunnel almost, And I'm noticing all the murals.

589
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 1: Now I'm seeing these different plants. I'm seeing, you know,

590
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 1: I'm taking a handful of soil. I'm looking at this,

591
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:55,040
Speaker 1: and I used to think this is just dirt, And

592
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 1: now I've realized that there's actually a whole lot of

593
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:03,680
Speaker 1: life and these unbelievable roots systems and um crazy things

594
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:05,880
Speaker 1: going on beneath the surface of the ground that allow

595
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:07,880
Speaker 1: plants to grow and trees to grow, and trees to

596
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: communicate and all this kind of stuff that's super fascinating

597
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 1: that I just never ever would have found out about

598
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:17,720
Speaker 1: if I hadn't taken this baby step into saying, you

599
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:19,760
Speaker 1: know what, I'm gonna try to do something on this

600
00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:21,440
Speaker 1: piece of ground and make it better for deer hunting,

601
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 1: and then fourteen years later find myself learning about, you know,

602
00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:31,360
Speaker 1: the importance of soil biology or how trees you know,

603
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean that there's just so many

604
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:37,440
Speaker 1: different wormholes you can go down into that are fun interesting,

605
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:39,680
Speaker 1: and then no, yeah, it can actually help your hunting too.

606
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: So I feel like that's like that's my big sales

607
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:47,640
Speaker 1: pitch too. Why for some people doing habitat work is

608
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 1: worth it because it can absolutely help. It's it's all

609
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 1: those things. But I think the biggest thing is just

610
00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:55,479
Speaker 1: this way it connects you to a place and opens

611
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 1: your eyes to so much more. It opens up all

612
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 1: these new doors to enjoy hunting and the outdoors. Um

613
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:04,840
Speaker 1: that that just don't come by way of just going

614
00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 1: out there trying to shoot stuff. Yeah, I mean, I

615
00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 1: totally agree. I mean, one of the things that I

616
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:14,360
Speaker 1: enjoy so much about this kind of stuff is like,

617
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:16,080
Speaker 1: like you said, you sort of get in tune to

618
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:18,880
Speaker 1: a lot more of the plant life around you. And

619
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:22,520
Speaker 1: one of my properties over there in Wisconsin that I

620
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:25,920
Speaker 1: the one that I really like. It has a ton

621
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 1: of crab apple trees and a ton of dogwood in there.

622
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:32,000
Speaker 1: And so when you go over there at the right

623
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:33,760
Speaker 1: at the right time of the year usually sort of

624
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 1: the end of September beginning of October, there are so

625
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:42,240
Speaker 1: many songbirds coming through and so many grouse feeding in there,

626
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:45,719
Speaker 1: and it's like it's just this like added bonus if

627
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:47,880
Speaker 1: you do sit there, you know, like when I'm sitting

628
00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:50,520
Speaker 1: there with my girls, were always looking at something cool

629
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:53,080
Speaker 1: because they're in there feeding on this stuff that was

630
00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:55,160
Speaker 1: there naturally. I mean, we we opened up some of

631
00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: the crab apple tree system sun so they're you know,

632
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:01,440
Speaker 1: they're doing really well now. But that kind of stuff

633
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 1: doesn't have anything to do with deer hunting, but it's

634
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 1: it sure makes those sits more fun. Yeah, So, of

635
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 1: the work that you've done on those properties, are there

636
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 1: any specific projects or ways you did anything, or is

637
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:19,160
Speaker 1: there anything that stands out as having actually made a

638
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:22,640
Speaker 1: real difference either in killing something or seeing something. I

639
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 1: don't know if you could point to a couple of

640
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:28,480
Speaker 1: your greatest success stories, does anything come to mind? Man,

641
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:32,400
Speaker 1: I'm so bad at this. Uh the one killed plot

642
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,720
Speaker 1: I have on that property with the dogwood and the crab.

643
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:38,160
Speaker 1: The crab apples that one. So I've shot a couple

644
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 1: of dollars on it over the years, and then my

645
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,239
Speaker 1: daughter's one of them shot a doll one of them

646
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:44,760
Speaker 1: shot of four key in there last year. That's sort

647
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,920
Speaker 1: of my crowning achievement because I've put I think I

648
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 1: bought that in so I've put quite a bit of

649
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 1: time and work into that, and you know, built a

650
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:56,520
Speaker 1: couple you know, cut a couple of entrance and exit

651
00:33:56,600 --> 00:33:59,320
Speaker 1: routes to get in there and park in different spots.

652
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:02,400
Speaker 1: And now when I you know, that one's probably the

653
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:05,080
Speaker 1: best I've done, but it's also the one that's I've

654
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:10,480
Speaker 1: put the most work into. So what about that? Like,

655
00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:12,479
Speaker 1: what what is the work that you've done? These things

656
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 1: actually made that as successful as has been? Uh? Cutting

657
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:20,600
Speaker 1: down you know when I when I bought it, when

658
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:24,000
Speaker 1: I bought that property, I just I don't I don't

659
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:26,719
Speaker 1: plan stuff very well and I just walked in there

660
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 1: and I was like, I feel like this would be

661
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,280
Speaker 1: a good spot to start cutting stuff down and started

662
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:34,920
Speaker 1: getting a food plot in here. And I way underestimated

663
00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:37,719
Speaker 1: the amount of work it would take to get something established,

664
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 1: and it was really it probably took me three years

665
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 1: of going back in there, cutting brush, clearing everything out,

666
00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:51,640
Speaker 1: uh you know, carrying bags a line in there because

667
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:54,239
Speaker 1: I did a soil test the first year, and you

668
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:56,279
Speaker 1: know I needed to. I needed to bump it up

669
00:34:56,280 --> 00:35:00,239
Speaker 1: a little bit and just a lot of a lot

670
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 1: of work to get it to even be like a

671
00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:04,440
Speaker 1: like most people would look at it be like this

672
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:08,080
Speaker 1: food plot sucks even now they'd be like, this was

673
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:11,520
Speaker 1: not done by a professional. But we have deer that

674
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 1: use it every year, and there's some dough groups that

675
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:16,000
Speaker 1: seem to really have figured it out, and the buck

676
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:20,520
Speaker 1: swing through sometimes and it's just it's just been. What

677
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:22,239
Speaker 1: I really like about it is it's been like a

678
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:25,919
Speaker 1: multi year process. Like in two weeks, I'm going over

679
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:28,160
Speaker 1: there to open it up a little more because I

680
00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 1: keep finding apple trees in there, and I keep finding

681
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:32,160
Speaker 1: cool stuff, and I'm like, man if I if I

682
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:35,279
Speaker 1: cut it another ten yards deep, this way, I'll have

683
00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:36,640
Speaker 1: a nice apple tree on the edge of it that

684
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 1: gets a bunch of sun and you know it can't hurt.

685
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:41,839
Speaker 1: And I just I love I sort of love that

686
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:45,560
Speaker 1: feeling of like not never being finished with it, Like

687
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:48,520
Speaker 1: there's always something I can go do over there, just

688
00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:51,120
Speaker 1: around that plot that's gonna eat up a couple of

689
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:53,120
Speaker 1: days of my time here and there, and I just

690
00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:57,120
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that option. Yeah, what's this area? Like?

691
00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:59,920
Speaker 1: Is this is this like big woods northern Wisconsin kind

692
00:35:59,920 --> 00:36:02,120
Speaker 1: of stuff or is the Agg country or like, what's

693
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,239
Speaker 1: what's the canvas you're working on this? It is right

694
00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 1: on the cusp of big woods. So you'll see some

695
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:11,800
Speaker 1: egg in the area. There really isn't any egg close

696
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:15,320
Speaker 1: to this property, but it's it's in an area where

697
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:18,560
Speaker 1: that the kind of the last messages of agg give

698
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,440
Speaker 1: way to real big woods. So I can you know

699
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:23,359
Speaker 1: a lot of the places that I that I hunt

700
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:26,040
Speaker 1: there that are public. You know, that's like a fifteen

701
00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:29,319
Speaker 1: minute drive and you're in thousands and thousands acres of

702
00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:33,960
Speaker 1: big wood stuff, So it's it's really not a very

703
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:37,359
Speaker 1: good place to hunt. I get I get as many

704
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:40,440
Speaker 1: pictures of bears and bobcats as I do deer on

705
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 1: that plot, and you know, I plant apple trees in

706
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:46,359
Speaker 1: there and cage them up, and the bears tear them down.

707
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:47,920
Speaker 1: And you put a blind in there, the bears tear

708
00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:52,400
Speaker 1: them down. It's not. This is not like Iowa stuff.

709
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:56,200
Speaker 1: It's it's it's a significant step down, but it was,

710
00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:58,759
Speaker 1: you know, where I could afford, and I love I

711
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:01,239
Speaker 1: love having the grouse there are, and you know some

712
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:03,319
Speaker 1: of the local trout streams and stuff. So it's not

713
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:05,799
Speaker 1: I would never give people advice and be like, hey, man,

714
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:07,919
Speaker 1: if you really want good deer hunting, this is where

715
00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:10,239
Speaker 1: you should go, because this is not it. But it's

716
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:13,759
Speaker 1: good enough. Well it's funny, Uh, it's kind of it's

717
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,319
Speaker 1: kind of like our northern Michigan spot, which, if I'm

718
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:19,239
Speaker 1: thinking of my success stories, our little food plot that

719
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 1: we've planted on our forty acres up north is one

720
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:26,080
Speaker 1: of my greatest successes and we've never once shot a

721
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:31,680
Speaker 1: deer anywhere near it. But but it's this, it's this

722
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:35,319
Speaker 1: spot that, right, I love for so many reasons, for

723
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:37,080
Speaker 1: all the history there and all the time I've spent

724
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:39,880
Speaker 1: up there. But it's a place where we've you know,

725
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:44,520
Speaker 1: have never seen very many deer at all. Haven't killed

726
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 1: a whole lot of deer over the years, at least

727
00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:49,320
Speaker 1: not in the last fifteen twenty since the old hey days, UM.

728
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:52,759
Speaker 1: And we we had this idea like, hey, maybe we

729
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:54,880
Speaker 1: could improve things a little bit with a food plot.

730
00:37:55,239 --> 00:37:57,440
Speaker 1: And what ended up happening kind of like what you described.

731
00:37:57,440 --> 00:37:58,800
Speaker 1: We cut down a whole lot of trees. It was

732
00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:00,479
Speaker 1: a lot more work than we realized it was gonna

733
00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,799
Speaker 1: be had. We didn't have big equipment, so we're we

734
00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:06,200
Speaker 1: did have a four wheeler, UM, but we were taking

735
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:09,319
Speaker 1: you know, loads around way around to get across this

736
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:12,719
Speaker 1: creek of lime and fertilizer and supercidic soil. So we

737
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,080
Speaker 1: really had to fix the soil up and had to

738
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:17,040
Speaker 1: cut a million pine trees to open up a little

739
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:19,520
Speaker 1: bit of space. And then we didn't really have a

740
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:21,920
Speaker 1: good plan for getting rid of a million tree stumps

741
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:23,880
Speaker 1: since like all that stuff all stacked up and end

742
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:26,920
Speaker 1: up being a heck of a project over multiple years.

743
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:29,279
Speaker 1: But we got a little something growing and then the

744
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:30,680
Speaker 1: next year is a little bit better, and the next

745
00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:34,160
Speaker 1: year is a little bit better, and we put cameras

746
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 1: on a couple of cameras on either side of this

747
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:38,359
Speaker 1: food plot, and all of a sudden we had our

748
00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:42,400
Speaker 1: eyes opened to what's out there. I mean, for years

749
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 1: and years and years, we would hunt and see very

750
00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:47,920
Speaker 1: few deer, like I said, and you know, even the

751
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:50,120
Speaker 1: couple of cameras we had up and around there did

752
00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:52,359
Speaker 1: not get very much activity because this was like big

753
00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:55,240
Speaker 1: woods habitat big woods, low deer density kind of stuff.

754
00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:58,880
Speaker 1: But by putting this little, tiny, I don't a third

755
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:01,160
Speaker 1: acre food plot in the middle of the big woods

756
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,080
Speaker 1: where there's no egg, no nothing, all of a sudden

757
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:08,279
Speaker 1: this spot really became a hot spot. Um. And even

758
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:10,080
Speaker 1: we only hunt there a few days a year, so

759
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:12,680
Speaker 1: we're not, you know, taking advantage of it necessarily. But

760
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:14,720
Speaker 1: what the cameras tell us is, all of a sudden,

761
00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:18,000
Speaker 1: there are deer out here, There are deer here consistently,

762
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:20,399
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, holy crap, there actually are bucks.

763
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:22,799
Speaker 1: And sometimes there's some pretty nice bucks out here. So

764
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:24,839
Speaker 1: what it did for us more than anything, was just

765
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 1: like give us a big boost of hope and excitement.

766
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 1: Like just checking the camera on that food plot is

767
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 1: so exciting to see, like, oh man, there was bucks

768
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:35,520
Speaker 1: here and that day and there was a buck here

769
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 1: that day, and there was a buck here that day.

770
00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:39,440
Speaker 1: And I can tell you seven years ago there was

771
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:42,799
Speaker 1: zero excitement like that. There was zero optimism like that.

772
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 1: And now all of a sudden, a little project and

773
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:48,080
Speaker 1: photos of what's going on on it when we're not

774
00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:50,759
Speaker 1: there have like shine this brand new light on this

775
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:54,160
Speaker 1: place for us and um, and you know, I think

776
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:55,640
Speaker 1: it just like you said, it becomes a thing you

777
00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:58,719
Speaker 1: can continue to tinker with and and I imagine some

778
00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:00,759
Speaker 1: days sitting there with my son while got actually got

779
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:02,879
Speaker 1: to sit I got to sit on this food plot

780
00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:05,360
Speaker 1: with my son last year, first first hunt up at

781
00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:08,200
Speaker 1: our deer camp of his life at three years old. Me,

782
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,600
Speaker 1: my dad and my son sat in a blind that

783
00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:16,279
Speaker 1: my grandpa built thirties some years ago and got to

784
00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:18,360
Speaker 1: look out over this food plot. We didn't see a deer,

785
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 1: but man, it was it was really cool to sit

786
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,480
Speaker 1: there together and be sitting somewhere that we put in

787
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:26,799
Speaker 1: work together to try to improve and uh see that

788
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:31,000
Speaker 1: kind of legacy that we started and with with Everett

789
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:34,759
Speaker 1: hopefully will be continued. Um. It's it's a cool thing

790
00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:37,600
Speaker 1: all the way around, that is. And you bring up

791
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:41,640
Speaker 1: a good point there. It does give you, It does

792
00:40:41,719 --> 00:40:44,280
Speaker 1: give you a weird sense of hope in a place

793
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:47,040
Speaker 1: that you know, like it would be very easy to

794
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:50,880
Speaker 1: just say there's no bucks here, no big Bucks. And

795
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:53,560
Speaker 1: that's That's one thing I've noticed on all my properties

796
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:56,719
Speaker 1: to is if I run a camera on a little

797
00:40:56,800 --> 00:41:00,480
Speaker 1: kill plot, at some point during the season, a buck

798
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:03,560
Speaker 1: that surprises me is going to show up, you know,

799
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 1: and it's always gonna be like a top end dear

800
00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,600
Speaker 1: for wherever, and it's just it's amazing, and you just

801
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: you think, like, man, he's he's in the neighborhood, you know,

802
00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:15,120
Speaker 1: like maybe clearly not living right on your property, but

803
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:17,359
Speaker 1: like you said, there's a chance, like when you know

804
00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 1: he's there, like, Okay, he knows this is here, he

805
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:21,279
Speaker 1: knows the does are here. Like when you go out

806
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:23,799
Speaker 1: there to hunt, even though it's low odds, like that

807
00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:26,759
Speaker 1: dude still could come down the trail, walk out into

808
00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 1: your plot. And I think, I think you know, when

809
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:34,960
Speaker 1: it comes to habitat work, Just like anything in the

810
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:39,720
Speaker 1: hunting world, the success you enjoy from any given idea

811
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:42,200
Speaker 1: or tactic or project, it's going to be on a

812
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 1: sliding scale, right, I mean, if you dabble in it,

813
00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:47,880
Speaker 1: there's less odds. If you really take it hardcore all

814
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 1: the way. Maybe you increase your odds if you're doing

815
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:52,080
Speaker 1: everything right and you know just the way to operate

816
00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 1: in YadA YadA, YadA. Um. So I mean, you can

817
00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:57,359
Speaker 1: go all the way like the Jeff Sturgeons approach and

818
00:41:57,360 --> 00:41:59,719
Speaker 1: and have it very very carefully planned out and of

819
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:01,759
Speaker 1: to land and a lot of food plots and a

820
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:04,040
Speaker 1: lot of land improvements and everything, and you can enjoy

821
00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:06,880
Speaker 1: some great success that way. Or you can just dabble

822
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:09,239
Speaker 1: and try to scrape in a little kill plot with

823
00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:11,640
Speaker 1: a Rhodo tiller or something and just have that little

824
00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:15,919
Speaker 1: bit of hope. Um. But I do think that if

825
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:19,160
Speaker 1: you like, like you said, there's always a little bit

826
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:21,319
Speaker 1: more of a chance. There's a little more hope if

827
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:25,280
Speaker 1: you do something versus nothing. And and I actually have seen,

828
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:28,640
Speaker 1: you know, even with my pretty pedestrian efforts compared to

829
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:30,960
Speaker 1: you know what, people have big equipment and a lot

830
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 1: of land experience do even my pedestrian efforts, I absolutely

831
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:42,239
Speaker 1: have seen some pretty um, pretty noticeable benefits from my

832
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 1: habit at work stuff that I can like point to

833
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:45,960
Speaker 1: and say, man, this just wouldn't have happened if I

834
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:50,000
Speaker 1: hadn't done this project or that project. I mean, you know,

835
00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:52,560
Speaker 1: none of these things are like silver bullets, right, You're

836
00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:54,040
Speaker 1: not just gonna throw out some seed and all of

837
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:57,080
Speaker 1: a sudden killed big bucks necessarily. But you know, like

838
00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:59,239
Speaker 1: I said, up north, we'd we'd spent all this time

839
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 1: putting this little any plot in the middle of the woods,

840
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:03,240
Speaker 1: and now like we're seeing deer and camera that's exciting.

841
00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:09,560
Speaker 1: Um or you could take it a look at something like, um, oh,

842
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:11,799
Speaker 1: like this farm I've hunted for a number of years

843
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:15,919
Speaker 1: down in southern Michigan where forever, um, I would see

844
00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 1: a lot of good deer, but they're always on the

845
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:20,719
Speaker 1: neighbor's property because the neighbor had all the really good cover.

846
00:43:21,239 --> 00:43:22,799
Speaker 1: And then all I had on the side of the

847
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 1: line that I could hunt were these big egg fields.

848
00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:29,319
Speaker 1: And as soon as that stuff was taken out, you know,

849
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 1: there'd be there'd be does and young bucks and stuff

850
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:33,680
Speaker 1: that would come out to those big white open fields.

851
00:43:33,719 --> 00:43:35,520
Speaker 1: But you would never get one of the bigger, older

852
00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:37,520
Speaker 1: bucks to come out in the open. So for years

853
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:40,120
Speaker 1: I just sat the edges of the property line because

854
00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:41,480
Speaker 1: I wanted to be as close as it could be

855
00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:43,040
Speaker 1: to that cover and hope that one of these bucks

856
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:46,319
Speaker 1: would pop out eventually, but they almost never ever did.

857
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:49,839
Speaker 1: UM eventuallyized there was a spot in a power line

858
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:52,719
Speaker 1: where I did have permission to make some improvements, so

859
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:55,560
Speaker 1: I dabbled with trying these different food plot ideas and

860
00:43:55,640 --> 00:43:59,319
Speaker 1: that helped. But like the big change for me in

861
00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:04,160
Speaker 1: this specific example was I started planting screening cover. So

862
00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 1: imagine like a swampy, thick, grassy, nice betting area adjacent

863
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:15,000
Speaker 1: to big, wide open like hundred and some acre you know,

864
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:17,799
Speaker 1: open bean field or corn field, and then there's a

865
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 1: little point that sticks out of that that would just

866
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:23,880
Speaker 1: be kind of like short grass underneath this power line.

867
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:26,759
Speaker 1: I converted this power line clearing, which is just another

868
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:30,040
Speaker 1: essentially more of this wide open country. I converted that

869
00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:35,600
Speaker 1: into a food plot with like thirteen foot tall Egyptian

870
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:38,319
Speaker 1: wheat all around the outside edges of it. And that

871
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:40,800
Speaker 1: is now right next to this thick, nasty betting area.

872
00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:43,600
Speaker 1: So what went from being, you know, no big bucks

873
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:45,239
Speaker 1: gonna want to go out of the thick cover out

874
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:47,600
Speaker 1: into that wide open field or that wide open power

875
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:50,279
Speaker 1: line clearing, to all of a sudden, now there's this

876
00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:54,439
Speaker 1: food that's covered with a wall all around it, making

877
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:57,120
Speaker 1: it seem like just a very nice, little secluded food

878
00:44:57,120 --> 00:44:59,920
Speaker 1: pocket right next to the betting area. It totally changed

879
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:04,880
Speaker 1: what happens there. So with that one improvement, there was

880
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:07,120
Speaker 1: now a reason for those bucks to come across the line.

881
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:10,480
Speaker 1: And so without big equipment, without a lot of money,

882
00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:12,520
Speaker 1: you know, I made these food plots with a four

883
00:45:12,520 --> 00:45:15,400
Speaker 1: wheeler and a little hundred and eighty dollar disc that

884
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:20,120
Speaker 1: went underneath the four wheeler. When I first started doing this, um,

885
00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the good bucks that are on

886
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:24,560
Speaker 1: the neighbors were willing to come out to mine in daylight.

887
00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:27,920
Speaker 1: And you know, I've shot two bucks in that spot.

888
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:30,680
Speaker 1: One was a three year old one was a five

889
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:34,160
Speaker 1: year old hundred six buck in Michigan that you know,

890
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 1: no way in hell would he have come out there,

891
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:38,680
Speaker 1: I think, out in the wide open if it hadn't

892
00:45:38,719 --> 00:45:41,200
Speaker 1: been for those types of things in the past. UM

893
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:44,120
Speaker 1: making that feel safe again. So you know, I do

894
00:45:44,239 --> 00:45:48,160
Speaker 1: think it's possible even these small little pedestrian projects in

895
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:51,680
Speaker 1: some cases, in some situations can have tangible like oh

896
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:56,400
Speaker 1: wow effects. UM. Not to mention many many fun hunts

897
00:45:56,400 --> 00:45:58,359
Speaker 1: for dose on them and then not to mention like,

898
00:45:58,719 --> 00:46:01,120
Speaker 1: even if these spots don't become places you actually sit

899
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:04,760
Speaker 1: and hunt, even a small food plot or a water

900
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:07,680
Speaker 1: hole or a patch of apple trees or something, even

901
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:10,440
Speaker 1: if you don't hunt right on them, I do think

902
00:46:10,480 --> 00:46:14,280
Speaker 1: like you can still utilize that within a hunting strategy,

903
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:16,239
Speaker 1: right because you now know, okay, this is a new

904
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:18,960
Speaker 1: destination of sorts. There will be deer relating to this

905
00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:21,920
Speaker 1: in some way or another. So a mature buck might

906
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:24,120
Speaker 1: not come to your little hudeyhole food plot in daylight,

907
00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:26,680
Speaker 1: but a very well might cruise down wind of it

908
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:29,080
Speaker 1: in the rut to be sent checking it, or he

909
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:31,000
Speaker 1: might swing past it on the way back to bed

910
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:33,279
Speaker 1: in the morning or whatever. I mean. I think there

911
00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:36,239
Speaker 1: are ways that that can only sweeten the pot if

912
00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:38,520
Speaker 1: you think about how it factors into the bigger picture.

913
00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:44,680
Speaker 1: You know, absolutely, um So, so let me see here

914
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:47,200
Speaker 1: I mentioned how the screening cover was one of those

915
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:49,759
Speaker 1: things that kind of disproportionately helped me out with some

916
00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:52,600
Speaker 1: of my small plots and improvements. Um you know, I've

917
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:57,240
Speaker 1: done some hinge cutting and that's helped in some spots

918
00:46:57,800 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 1: I have not been able to do anything really big

919
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:02,440
Speaker 1: timber provement. But I can tell you that hinge cutting

920
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:05,240
Speaker 1: was one of those deals that had, you know, pretty

921
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:09,560
Speaker 1: high impact for a relatively small amount of work from

922
00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:16,640
Speaker 1: relatively inexperienced kind of perspective. Um, I mean those have

923
00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:18,320
Speaker 1: been like the big things I did. You know on

924
00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:21,760
Speaker 1: the back forty we burned stuff, we planned switched grass,

925
00:47:22,360 --> 00:47:25,680
Speaker 1: we got rid of some invasive grasses and stuff, and

926
00:47:25,680 --> 00:47:28,160
Speaker 1: and I guess one big impact we had there was

927
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:30,560
Speaker 1: we were working with those old farm fields, you know, Tony,

928
00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:34,480
Speaker 1: And that year you came. You came the first year,

929
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:37,479
Speaker 1: the second year you came. The second year. Okay, so

930
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:41,480
Speaker 1: the year prior to you coming, those fields were way

931
00:47:41,520 --> 00:47:45,120
Speaker 1: more desolate, Like they were like really short and all

932
00:47:45,160 --> 00:47:47,759
Speaker 1: like just like it was Mare's tale. So it was

933
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,360
Speaker 1: like they almost looked like a beanstalk after all the

934
00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:53,239
Speaker 1: bean pods fall off, you know on the fall. Um,

935
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:55,279
Speaker 1: that's what that whole field looked like the year the

936
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:57,520
Speaker 1: year prior. But the year you came, I mean you

937
00:47:57,560 --> 00:47:59,759
Speaker 1: saw it there was a lot more not saying it

938
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:03,040
Speaker 1: was all thick and tall, but it was much more

939
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:06,319
Speaker 1: dear friendly in year two than year one. And you

940
00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:08,439
Speaker 1: saw not all of them, but a number of deer

941
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:10,359
Speaker 1: were willing to move through there and cross through there

942
00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:14,560
Speaker 1: and and utilize those spaces, um at least noticeably more

943
00:48:14,600 --> 00:48:17,320
Speaker 1: than they had the year before. UM. That was we're

944
00:48:17,360 --> 00:48:20,239
Speaker 1: definitely using that. When I was out there, and that

945
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:22,640
Speaker 1: was you know, that was another thing that didn't require

946
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:25,040
Speaker 1: anything fancy. I mean, we just we went out there

947
00:48:25,040 --> 00:48:29,479
Speaker 1: and did a spray and then hand broadcast um, hand

948
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:32,279
Speaker 1: broadcast switch grass. The spray knocked out the mare's tale.

949
00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:34,839
Speaker 1: The hand broadcast seed got some switch grass in there,

950
00:48:35,200 --> 00:48:37,200
Speaker 1: and that was all took to get switch grass to

951
00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:39,080
Speaker 1: get started a little bit and then to open up

952
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:42,560
Speaker 1: space for other native things to come back. UM. And

953
00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:45,799
Speaker 1: that was again like not the hardest, craziest thing to do,

954
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:47,960
Speaker 1: but actually made a noticeable difference. I think, like the

955
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:49,560
Speaker 1: point I'm trying to get here, Tony, I guess, in

956
00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:52,919
Speaker 1: a very long roundabout way, is that you don't need

957
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:55,000
Speaker 1: to be Mark Dury and have a huge John deer

958
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:58,000
Speaker 1: tractor to test these kinds of things out and to

959
00:48:58,120 --> 00:49:01,759
Speaker 1: see some kind of benefit. UM. I think that's that's

960
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:05,240
Speaker 1: been my overarching big picture lesson over the last thirteen

961
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:08,319
Speaker 1: years or whatever it's been, is that you can even

962
00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:11,000
Speaker 1: as a Joe Schmo like me, have fun with it

963
00:49:11,160 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 1: and see some positive, positive benefits well for sure. And

964
00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:19,120
Speaker 1: I think what was really impressive at the back ford

965
00:49:19,160 --> 00:49:20,960
Speaker 1: it was that you did all that in two years.

966
00:49:21,600 --> 00:49:23,560
Speaker 1: And I you know, anybody who was asking me like, hey,

967
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:24,719
Speaker 1: I want to do this stuff, I want to put

968
00:49:24,719 --> 00:49:27,200
Speaker 1: in a food plot, I would be my My first

969
00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:29,400
Speaker 1: bit of advice would be, like, make sure that you

970
00:49:29,480 --> 00:49:32,000
Speaker 1: have a couple of years to do this, because you're

971
00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:34,120
Speaker 1: gonna learn what you did wrong. And like, you know,

972
00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:36,320
Speaker 1: when you're you're kind of joking about paying attention to

973
00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:39,799
Speaker 1: the rain, but like, man, if you if you're in

974
00:49:39,840 --> 00:49:42,600
Speaker 1: the wrong situation and you plant that you know, plant

975
00:49:42,640 --> 00:49:46,160
Speaker 1: that seed and it stays dry, it's just hopeless. Like

976
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:49,239
Speaker 1: you know, like you just learn how to work with

977
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:52,200
Speaker 1: your individual property and your local weather, and you make

978
00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:54,239
Speaker 1: a lot of mistakes. So it's it might take a

979
00:49:54,239 --> 00:49:57,680
Speaker 1: couple of years to get some real tangible results and

980
00:49:57,719 --> 00:49:59,640
Speaker 1: you know, to maybe get through some of the frustration

981
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:02,799
Speaker 1: of the beginning stages, but it's so worth it. Well,

982
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:05,319
Speaker 1: so then I think that's a perfect segue though to

983
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:08,440
Speaker 1: the next kind of side of this conversation though, is

984
00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:11,239
Speaker 1: like while there are certainly things you can do that

985
00:50:11,320 --> 00:50:14,000
Speaker 1: make a difference, and it can be fun. It can

986
00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:16,799
Speaker 1: also be all the other things too. It can be

987
00:50:16,960 --> 00:50:18,680
Speaker 1: it can feel like a waste of time, it can

988
00:50:18,719 --> 00:50:20,920
Speaker 1: be a ton of work, it can cost money, it

989
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:24,640
Speaker 1: can be frustrating, and it might not lead to much

990
00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:28,279
Speaker 1: noticeable impact too. Um. You know there's a there's a

991
00:50:28,360 --> 00:50:34,200
Speaker 1: dark side to habitat work too. Um. I mean how

992
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:36,200
Speaker 1: much of that resonates with you? I mean how much

993
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:39,200
Speaker 1: if you if you look at like this whole world

994
00:50:39,200 --> 00:50:42,160
Speaker 1: of habitat work and the things you've done with would

995
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:44,640
Speaker 1: you say it's in that positive or sometimes like dang

996
00:50:44,680 --> 00:50:48,279
Speaker 1: this stuff stupid? Uh No, I would say it's in

997
00:50:48,360 --> 00:50:51,759
Speaker 1: that positive. I have a low I have low standards there.

998
00:50:52,160 --> 00:50:56,239
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not expecting I'm not expecting to create

999
00:50:56,239 --> 00:50:58,320
Speaker 1: a deer o wastis or anything like that. So I

1000
00:50:58,600 --> 00:51:00,680
Speaker 1: come at it maybe differently than a lot of people would.

1001
00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:03,799
Speaker 1: But you know, yeah, there's some frustrating parts to it.

1002
00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:07,719
Speaker 1: I mean, man, I I've I've spent a lot of

1003
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:10,120
Speaker 1: time cutting brush and doing some things where I'm just

1004
00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:12,600
Speaker 1: like I don't that's like all that was was like

1005
00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:15,560
Speaker 1: a exercise and just doing something like it's not going

1006
00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:19,120
Speaker 1: to change anything. And I've had times where I've I've

1007
00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:21,720
Speaker 1: tried to plan a food plot and for whatever reason

1008
00:51:21,719 --> 00:51:23,719
Speaker 1: it got overtaken by weeds because I couldn't get back

1009
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:26,080
Speaker 1: there to cut it, or you know, the weather didn't

1010
00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:28,880
Speaker 1: shake out right. And so yeah, I mean there's frustrating

1011
00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:30,400
Speaker 1: parts to it. I mean you're gonna get stung by

1012
00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:32,640
Speaker 1: bees and you're gonna pick up a bunch of ticks,

1013
00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:35,520
Speaker 1: and you know it's not like all you know, roses

1014
00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:38,640
Speaker 1: and unicorn farts here. Man, Like some of it sucks bad,

1015
00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:42,120
Speaker 1: but it's still so worth it. I look at it, like,

1016
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:44,080
Speaker 1: you know, I always talk to my daughters when we

1017
00:51:44,160 --> 00:51:46,000
Speaker 1: when we wake up to go fish Smally's in the

1018
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:49,000
Speaker 1: summer and you know, it's four thirty in the morning

1019
00:51:49,080 --> 00:51:51,319
Speaker 1: or whatever time it is, and if we go out

1020
00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:53,520
Speaker 1: and have we don't catch them there. I was like, oh,

1021
00:51:53,600 --> 00:51:55,520
Speaker 1: if we should have stayed in and and you know,

1022
00:51:55,600 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 1: slept in, it wasn't worth it. And I'm just kind

1023
00:51:58,120 --> 00:51:59,439
Speaker 1: of like, I don't know, I don't want to miss

1024
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:01,239
Speaker 1: the sunrise, Like I don't want to miss a chance

1025
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:03,640
Speaker 1: to work in the woods, even if it's you know,

1026
00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:06,480
Speaker 1: maybe not the greatest outcome that I expect, or it's

1027
00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:08,600
Speaker 1: you know, falls kind of flat. I still think that

1028
00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:23,920
Speaker 1: stuff is so worth it. It's so funny. We might

1029
00:52:24,080 --> 00:52:29,319
Speaker 1: we might be becoming like old men, Tony, because I

1030
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:32,480
Speaker 1: feel like we're kind of revolving around the same idea

1031
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:34,759
Speaker 1: that we were kind of talking about a few weeks ago,

1032
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:37,399
Speaker 1: when we're just kind of we're discussing kind of our

1033
00:52:37,560 --> 00:52:40,920
Speaker 1: evolutionist deer hunters in general. Right, And so much of

1034
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:43,040
Speaker 1: what I used to be focused on was the outcome, right,

1035
00:52:43,160 --> 00:52:44,640
Speaker 1: was all about like am I going to shoot a

1036
00:52:44,680 --> 00:52:47,840
Speaker 1: big buck? And how we're both you you know, have

1037
00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:51,160
Speaker 1: been figuring this out sooner than I did. But getting

1038
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:52,960
Speaker 1: more focused on what the journey looks like to get

1039
00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:55,560
Speaker 1: there in the process and enjoying everything along the way.

1040
00:52:55,640 --> 00:52:58,960
Speaker 1: I think the same thing is I'm realizing now applies

1041
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:01,680
Speaker 1: to all this habitat work too. It's like, if you

1042
00:53:01,719 --> 00:53:05,520
Speaker 1: adjust your expectations and how you judge a thing by

1043
00:53:05,600 --> 00:53:08,840
Speaker 1: in this case, you know, enjoying the process itself, you

1044
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:11,920
Speaker 1: know it's it's gonna make for a way better experience

1045
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:13,759
Speaker 1: all the way around. So I think that if you

1046
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:18,239
Speaker 1: approach land management or trying to improve your habitat and

1047
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:20,120
Speaker 1: you're just focused on Man, I want to do this

1048
00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:21,960
Speaker 1: because I want to kill more big bucks, or I

1049
00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:24,520
Speaker 1: want to kill a sevent buck, or I want you know,

1050
00:53:24,680 --> 00:53:26,759
Speaker 1: four or four year olds to be out here every year,

1051
00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:28,720
Speaker 1: whatever it is. If that's what you're gonna be judging

1052
00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:32,640
Speaker 1: your you know, success or the results of having bought

1053
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:35,560
Speaker 1: a piece of ground or started managing ground. If that's

1054
00:53:35,560 --> 00:53:38,439
Speaker 1: the way you're gonna look at things, you are giving

1055
00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:43,000
Speaker 1: yourself a very good chance of failure and frustration. If

1056
00:53:43,040 --> 00:53:45,600
Speaker 1: you instead can approach it as, hey, you know what,

1057
00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:48,200
Speaker 1: this is a thing that I think will be fun

1058
00:53:48,239 --> 00:53:51,560
Speaker 1: and worthwhile just for doing it, Like just the act

1059
00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:53,960
Speaker 1: of it, just the learning and just getting out here

1060
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:55,600
Speaker 1: and work in the ground and doing these things and

1061
00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:58,440
Speaker 1: hopefully making a positive difference, like that will be fun.

1062
00:53:58,880 --> 00:54:01,120
Speaker 1: And then also if I get to enjoy the hunting benefits,

1063
00:54:01,160 --> 00:54:04,399
Speaker 1: to which are certainly possible, if that ends up panting out, man,

1064
00:54:04,440 --> 00:54:07,000
Speaker 1: that's even better. If you can approach it that way,

1065
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:11,279
Speaker 1: I think that eliminates, you know, so much of the

1066
00:54:11,320 --> 00:54:14,800
Speaker 1: possible downside, um, because they're they're just gonna be a

1067
00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:16,640
Speaker 1: lot of bumps in the road. Like there, Like you said,

1068
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:21,240
Speaker 1: there's gonna be some really long, hot, sweaty, nasty, muggy

1069
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:26,960
Speaker 1: days in August or May, and there's gonna be broken equipment,

1070
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:31,040
Speaker 1: broken four wheelers, or broken lawnmowers or sprayers that blow up,

1071
00:54:31,200 --> 00:54:34,120
Speaker 1: or I mean, I've had so I don't know anything

1072
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:37,680
Speaker 1: about anything when it comes to mechanics and engines or anything.

1073
00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:40,400
Speaker 1: And I've had so many days sitting out there with

1074
00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:44,040
Speaker 1: a four wheeler with a dead battery, or a lawnmower

1075
00:54:44,040 --> 00:54:47,200
Speaker 1: that won't start, or a lawnmower that the blade the

1076
00:54:47,400 --> 00:54:49,719
Speaker 1: blades come off for the belts come off, for some

1077
00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:51,640
Speaker 1: ship is not working right, and I don't know what

1078
00:54:51,680 --> 00:54:53,040
Speaker 1: to do. I'm sitting out there in the middle of

1079
00:54:53,040 --> 00:54:54,800
Speaker 1: the woods and I'm trying to pull up a YouTube

1080
00:54:54,880 --> 00:54:56,800
Speaker 1: video on my phone and learn how to do this stuff.

1081
00:54:56,800 --> 00:54:59,799
Speaker 1: And I'm cussing, and you know, I mean, if it's

1082
00:54:59,800 --> 00:55:03,120
Speaker 1: so how many things like that, Um, that's what you're

1083
00:55:03,160 --> 00:55:05,279
Speaker 1: signing yourself up for if you want to go down

1084
00:55:05,280 --> 00:55:09,080
Speaker 1: this road. But if you can, if you can look

1085
00:55:09,120 --> 00:55:12,040
Speaker 1: at that is like the hairy side of a good time,

1086
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:15,480
Speaker 1: then you'll be okay. But you've got to be willing

1087
00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:18,399
Speaker 1: to eat your lumps in the Porridge with the whole deal.

1088
00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:23,360
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, I think it could really appropriate. Analogy

1089
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:25,279
Speaker 1: would be, you know, you and I get hit up

1090
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:28,440
Speaker 1: a lot of who people who want to go on

1091
00:55:28,520 --> 00:55:30,680
Speaker 1: their first out of state trip, right you know, they

1092
00:55:30,680 --> 00:55:32,520
Speaker 1: want to go to Kansas or Iowa or somewhere. They

1093
00:55:32,520 --> 00:55:34,920
Speaker 1: want to shoot a big buck, and you know, you

1094
00:55:34,960 --> 00:55:37,360
Speaker 1: start talking to them and then you hear the expectations

1095
00:55:37,400 --> 00:55:39,160
Speaker 1: and it's like, you know, I'd just be happy with

1096
00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:43,440
Speaker 1: a nice one type buck and you just go, you know,

1097
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:44,840
Speaker 1: I know, I know you think this way and I

1098
00:55:44,840 --> 00:55:46,399
Speaker 1: do too, Or in my head, I'm like, man, are

1099
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:48,719
Speaker 1: you you know, I don't care what state you're coming from.

1100
00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:52,120
Speaker 1: Are you killing like top end bucks pretty consistently? Like

1101
00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:54,680
Speaker 1: are you you know, are you really in this thing?

1102
00:55:55,320 --> 00:55:58,759
Speaker 1: Or are you just thinking that you know, I'm going

1103
00:55:58,800 --> 00:56:00,440
Speaker 1: to a good state and that's going to make up

1104
00:56:00,560 --> 00:56:02,480
Speaker 1: for everything. And if you if you go into those

1105
00:56:02,520 --> 00:56:05,839
Speaker 1: hunts with realistic expectations, you have a great hunt. If

1106
00:56:05,880 --> 00:56:08,840
Speaker 1: you go into them sort of blinded to the process

1107
00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:10,640
Speaker 1: and how much it can suck the camp and you

1108
00:56:10,719 --> 00:56:12,879
Speaker 1: might be camping in you know, three days of rain,

1109
00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:16,040
Speaker 1: or you might do that early velvet hunt and it's

1110
00:56:16,080 --> 00:56:18,319
Speaker 1: gonna be a hundred degrees every day, Like are you

1111
00:56:18,360 --> 00:56:22,040
Speaker 1: ready for all of the that stuff? And it's so

1112
00:56:22,120 --> 00:56:26,240
Speaker 1: tied into you know, this land management habitat work where

1113
00:56:26,840 --> 00:56:29,200
Speaker 1: a lot of it is really not that much fun,

1114
00:56:29,760 --> 00:56:32,279
Speaker 1: but it is worth the effort, and if you go

1115
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:34,200
Speaker 1: into it with kind of that mentality like, yeah, a

1116
00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:36,399
Speaker 1: lot of this is gonna suck, and you know if

1117
00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:40,080
Speaker 1: you look at you know, the the results that could

1118
00:56:40,080 --> 00:56:43,400
Speaker 1: be if you're in a place that just generally doesn't

1119
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:45,080
Speaker 1: have very good deer hunting. You know, like when you're

1120
00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:48,280
Speaker 1: talking about your Northern Michigan stuff, you know, like that's

1121
00:56:48,719 --> 00:56:50,879
Speaker 1: you're you're gonna make that better and you're gonna give

1122
00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:52,879
Speaker 1: yourself something to look forward to, and it's it's gonna

1123
00:56:53,120 --> 00:56:55,680
Speaker 1: enhance the hunt, but it's not going to be the

1124
00:56:55,840 --> 00:56:58,560
Speaker 1: silver bullet to killing a bunch of big woods bucks

1125
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:00,600
Speaker 1: all of a sudden. You know, like if you if

1126
00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:02,400
Speaker 1: you go to do this down in southern Iowa and

1127
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:05,359
Speaker 1: your grandma has a thousand acres, Yeah you can put

1128
00:57:05,360 --> 00:57:06,719
Speaker 1: in a little kill plot and have a hundred and

1129
00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:08,960
Speaker 1: sixty inch run around opening night. It's a different thing,

1130
00:57:09,280 --> 00:57:10,799
Speaker 1: but you've got to be aware of like what you're

1131
00:57:10,880 --> 00:57:13,400
Speaker 1: really dealing with here, and a lot of it is

1132
00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:15,839
Speaker 1: a lot of just you know, kind of nasty work

1133
00:57:16,360 --> 00:57:19,520
Speaker 1: that really isn't gonna pay off with tons of filled tags,

1134
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:22,959
Speaker 1: but the process is still absolutely worth it. Yeah, comes

1135
00:57:23,040 --> 00:57:26,400
Speaker 1: down to embrace in that process, Like if you if

1136
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:29,400
Speaker 1: you wanna go deep with a place, like I think

1137
00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:32,600
Speaker 1: there's there's a couple of ways to approach deer hunting.

1138
00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:35,480
Speaker 1: And you know, if you're someone who's learned that they

1139
00:57:35,600 --> 00:57:38,000
Speaker 1: love white tails and hunting of some kind, like you

1140
00:57:38,080 --> 00:57:40,920
Speaker 1: can go to two different directions. You can also do

1141
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:42,800
Speaker 1: both of these to varying degrees. But you can go

1142
00:57:43,080 --> 00:57:45,320
Speaker 1: like far in one direction, which is like I want

1143
00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:48,320
Speaker 1: to be like a d I Y traveling hunter and

1144
00:57:48,400 --> 00:57:50,720
Speaker 1: go to different places or get permission on a bunch

1145
00:57:50,720 --> 00:57:53,360
Speaker 1: of different places and you know, travel and do all

1146
00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:55,120
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. You can kind of go wide,

1147
00:57:55,920 --> 00:57:58,640
Speaker 1: or you can go deep into one place with your

1148
00:57:58,680 --> 00:58:01,920
Speaker 1: own back forty or your own whatever your grandpa's place,

1149
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:05,280
Speaker 1: or you buy a spot and you you learn this

1150
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:07,880
Speaker 1: small piece or whatever kind of size piece you can get.

1151
00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:10,480
Speaker 1: You learned that intimately, and there's something like really cool

1152
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:12,320
Speaker 1: with both of those, Like I've I've been lucky to

1153
00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:14,800
Speaker 1: be able to do both. UM and I really like

1154
00:58:14,920 --> 00:58:18,040
Speaker 1: the fact that I can do both UM and UM.

1155
00:58:18,440 --> 00:58:21,360
Speaker 1: You know, I think there's probably different types of people

1156
00:58:21,560 --> 00:58:24,840
Speaker 1: that one or the other appeals to, and then some

1157
00:58:24,920 --> 00:58:27,560
Speaker 1: folks probably would enjoy both just like I do. UM.

1158
00:58:27,960 --> 00:58:31,360
Speaker 1: But but they are very very different. UM. And I

1159
00:58:31,480 --> 00:58:36,000
Speaker 1: think this route, the habitat route, is for that person

1160
00:58:36,080 --> 00:58:40,440
Speaker 1: who wants to have like a a very for lack

1161
00:58:40,520 --> 00:58:42,800
Speaker 1: of a better word, like intimate relationship with a with

1162
00:58:42,880 --> 00:58:47,480
Speaker 1: a place with you know, a landscape with work itself

1163
00:58:47,560 --> 00:58:51,080
Speaker 1: like this is very work intensive. Um, but again I

1164
00:58:51,160 --> 00:58:53,439
Speaker 1: go back to like finding ways to make it fun,

1165
00:58:53,840 --> 00:58:56,320
Speaker 1: you know, like for me, like the work up on

1166
00:58:56,360 --> 00:58:58,960
Speaker 1: our northern Michigan property, Like that's a fun thing because

1167
00:58:59,040 --> 00:59:02,320
Speaker 1: it's not just the work itself, but it's an excuse

1168
00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:05,040
Speaker 1: to like spend time with my dad. Like knowing that Okay,

1169
00:59:05,040 --> 00:59:06,600
Speaker 1: we're gonna go work on the food plot means I'm

1170
00:59:06,600 --> 00:59:08,160
Speaker 1: gonna go pick up my day. We're going a drive

1171
00:59:08,240 --> 00:59:09,800
Speaker 1: or a go for breakfast. We're gonna have a two

1172
00:59:09,800 --> 00:59:11,800
Speaker 1: hour drive and talk about stuff they would never get

1173
00:59:11,800 --> 00:59:14,120
Speaker 1: to talk about otherwise. We'll get to go up there.

1174
00:59:14,440 --> 00:59:16,160
Speaker 1: He'll work for ten minutes and have to sit down

1175
00:59:16,240 --> 00:59:17,520
Speaker 1: and be sweating a lot, and I'll give him a

1176
00:59:17,520 --> 00:59:19,800
Speaker 1: hard time about how he's getting old, and like all

1177
00:59:19,880 --> 00:59:22,240
Speaker 1: that stuff becomes a part of it. And I think

1178
00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:24,400
Speaker 1: those are the things that make a lot of this

1179
00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:30,360
Speaker 1: stuff special. Um, it's not you know, it's not always

1180
00:59:31,240 --> 00:59:33,920
Speaker 1: the hundred and that walks out in the middle of

1181
00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:36,200
Speaker 1: food plot. It might be more about the night you sit,

1182
00:59:36,680 --> 00:59:38,720
Speaker 1: you know, sit there with your son and he sees

1183
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:40,400
Speaker 1: his first turkey come out in the food plot and

1184
00:59:40,480 --> 00:59:42,240
Speaker 1: he's freaking out and all excited and all that kind

1185
00:59:42,240 --> 00:59:44,280
Speaker 1: of stuff where it's that the day with your dad,

1186
00:59:44,400 --> 00:59:46,760
Speaker 1: or it's the day with your daughters, or it's that.

1187
00:59:47,640 --> 00:59:49,640
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just think it it comes to

1188
00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:52,720
Speaker 1: like all like the larger experienced stuff more than like

1189
00:59:52,880 --> 00:59:56,160
Speaker 1: the shooting stuff, final outcome. That's I mean, I guess

1190
00:59:56,200 --> 00:59:58,880
Speaker 1: I'm repeating myself over and over again, but that's that's

1191
00:59:58,920 --> 01:00:00,440
Speaker 1: what this stuff kind of comes down too for me,

1192
01:00:01,320 --> 01:00:03,840
Speaker 1: big time. I have something I want to talk about

1193
01:00:03,840 --> 01:00:05,680
Speaker 1: that is a negative to this that occurred to me though.

1194
01:00:06,200 --> 01:00:09,920
Speaker 1: Should we go that route? It? When you when you

1195
01:00:10,040 --> 01:00:12,240
Speaker 1: go through this process of you know, putting in a

1196
01:00:12,320 --> 01:00:17,640
Speaker 1: food plot and doing this work food plot specifically. One

1197
01:00:17,720 --> 01:00:21,160
Speaker 1: of the downsides to it, I think is the poll

1198
01:00:21,320 --> 01:00:24,520
Speaker 1: to always sit there, you know what I mean, because

1199
01:00:24,560 --> 01:00:26,920
Speaker 1: you always you know, the kind of goal with a

1200
01:00:27,000 --> 01:00:29,960
Speaker 1: lot of property management now is to create this the

1201
01:00:30,200 --> 01:00:33,400
Speaker 1: destination spot, right like put that food plot in, have

1202
01:00:33,600 --> 01:00:35,600
Speaker 1: that you know, box blind over it, maybe have a

1203
01:00:35,600 --> 01:00:38,640
Speaker 1: little pond in there situated just so you can get

1204
01:00:38,640 --> 01:00:40,880
Speaker 1: in and get out. And it's just like that place

1205
01:00:40,960 --> 01:00:45,040
Speaker 1: where it's so easy to default to that because it

1206
01:00:45,160 --> 01:00:47,000
Speaker 1: is an easy hunt, you know, and you expect to

1207
01:00:47,040 --> 01:00:48,680
Speaker 1: see stuff and you probably will, and you put that

1208
01:00:48,800 --> 01:00:53,000
Speaker 1: work in. But in the interest of you know, being

1209
01:00:53,040 --> 01:00:56,000
Speaker 1: an effective hunter, if that's something you're really concerned with,

1210
01:00:56,200 --> 01:00:58,320
Speaker 1: like not just not just like well I want to

1211
01:00:58,320 --> 01:00:59,680
Speaker 1: go sit there because it's a fun place to go,

1212
01:00:59,800 --> 01:01:02,400
Speaker 1: but actually be in the moment with every hunt and

1213
01:01:03,080 --> 01:01:07,000
Speaker 1: and maybe make better decisions. Sometimes this kind of stuff

1214
01:01:07,040 --> 01:01:09,240
Speaker 1: can set you back because it gives you such an

1215
01:01:09,280 --> 01:01:12,640
Speaker 1: easy out. So true, I think it's it's one of

1216
01:01:12,720 --> 01:01:16,600
Speaker 1: those anything that locks you into a spot, you know,

1217
01:01:16,680 --> 01:01:19,040
Speaker 1: whether that's a really nice comfortable box blind or a

1218
01:01:19,080 --> 01:01:23,680
Speaker 1: food plot you worked on or hard to move letder stand,

1219
01:01:23,760 --> 01:01:26,040
Speaker 1: like anything that just makes you more apt to be

1220
01:01:26,160 --> 01:01:28,640
Speaker 1: tempted to sit the same spot over and over again.

1221
01:01:29,640 --> 01:01:32,680
Speaker 1: Has that other side of the coin that can be dangerous,

1222
01:01:32,920 --> 01:01:35,720
Speaker 1: and you know you've got to kind of learn to

1223
01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:38,560
Speaker 1: work around that. Either it doesn't. Either you decide that

1224
01:01:38,640 --> 01:01:40,959
Speaker 1: you don't care and that you're fine just seeing does

1225
01:01:41,000 --> 01:01:42,720
Speaker 1: in that spot and like that's why you have it,

1226
01:01:43,360 --> 01:01:46,320
Speaker 1: and then that's fine, I guess, or you start to

1227
01:01:46,440 --> 01:01:50,320
Speaker 1: learn about, you know, how you adapt to those behaviors,

1228
01:01:50,360 --> 01:01:52,480
Speaker 1: and maybe you realize that, hey, you know what, this

1229
01:01:52,560 --> 01:01:54,440
Speaker 1: food plot has spent a lot of time on. I'm

1230
01:01:54,480 --> 01:01:56,000
Speaker 1: not gonna hunt on it, but I do know that

1231
01:01:56,080 --> 01:01:58,280
Speaker 1: if I hunt a hundred fifty yards over this way,

1232
01:01:58,920 --> 01:02:00,720
Speaker 1: a couple of times might be able to catch a

1233
01:02:00,720 --> 01:02:02,280
Speaker 1: buck cursing down wind of it. And then you can

1234
01:02:02,320 --> 01:02:05,880
Speaker 1: still take advantage of it. Um. So yeah, you gotta

1235
01:02:05,960 --> 01:02:08,840
Speaker 1: get you gotta get smart about all that kind of stuff. Um.

1236
01:02:10,080 --> 01:02:12,920
Speaker 1: And that's you know, it opens up a whole wormhole

1237
01:02:12,960 --> 01:02:15,120
Speaker 1: of possibilities if you want to go deep into it

1238
01:02:15,240 --> 01:02:17,880
Speaker 1: and start to really figure out, how can I take

1239
01:02:17,880 --> 01:02:19,880
Speaker 1: advantage of it still and how can I smartly design

1240
01:02:19,960 --> 01:02:21,600
Speaker 1: these things, and how can I make it so that

1241
01:02:21,640 --> 01:02:23,680
Speaker 1: I can still hunt it? Or can hunt nearby, or

1242
01:02:24,200 --> 01:02:27,200
Speaker 1: can do these things without spooking deer, or encourage mature

1243
01:02:27,280 --> 01:02:31,200
Speaker 1: buck use or whatever the goal is. Um it is

1244
01:02:31,520 --> 01:02:34,400
Speaker 1: a big, huge wormhole you can dive deep into and

1245
01:02:34,640 --> 01:02:36,440
Speaker 1: and really get crazy with if you want. I mean,

1246
01:02:36,520 --> 01:02:38,320
Speaker 1: that's that's a fun part of it for those that

1247
01:02:38,440 --> 01:02:41,479
Speaker 1: that appeals to. Yeah, and it does. It does open

1248
01:02:41,560 --> 01:02:44,360
Speaker 1: your eyes, you know. I know this has happened to

1249
01:02:44,400 --> 01:02:46,680
Speaker 1: me a bunch of times where I'll go out and

1250
01:02:46,960 --> 01:02:49,800
Speaker 1: shed hunter winter scout one of my little properties just

1251
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:52,200
Speaker 1: for the hell of it. And when I see the

1252
01:02:52,400 --> 01:02:54,920
Speaker 1: sign where it is, or if I run a camera

1253
01:02:55,040 --> 01:02:56,840
Speaker 1: in a spot that I'm just kind of curious about,

1254
01:02:57,680 --> 01:03:01,480
Speaker 1: it tells me, you know, how out it. Maybe maybe

1255
01:03:01,520 --> 01:03:03,920
Speaker 1: I'm putting a little too much into this, but I

1256
01:03:04,080 --> 01:03:06,320
Speaker 1: sure feel like I get a lot of lessons on

1257
01:03:06,400 --> 01:03:08,120
Speaker 1: how the deer, Like, yeah, that dude likes to go

1258
01:03:08,360 --> 01:03:10,880
Speaker 1: to that plot, or you know, every time that that

1259
01:03:10,920 --> 01:03:13,920
Speaker 1: truck pulls up, there's a good chance that somebody's going

1260
01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:17,080
Speaker 1: to be in that blind and they even on little properties,

1261
01:03:17,960 --> 01:03:19,960
Speaker 1: it can be a real eye opener if you have

1262
01:03:20,080 --> 01:03:23,560
Speaker 1: that default spot, how those deer are just working around you. Yeah,

1263
01:03:23,880 --> 01:03:33,560
Speaker 1: very true. So what is one, what's one takeaway you

1264
01:03:33,720 --> 01:03:36,480
Speaker 1: would say it is worth sharing for you when it

1265
01:03:36,560 --> 01:03:39,760
Speaker 1: comes to, you know, one one lesson learned you've had

1266
01:03:39,760 --> 01:03:41,480
Speaker 1: over the years dabbling in this stuff that you would

1267
01:03:41,520 --> 01:03:44,360
Speaker 1: like to pass along to someone who is either interested

1268
01:03:44,400 --> 01:03:47,200
Speaker 1: in doing this someday or who has began this journey.

1269
01:03:47,640 --> 01:03:51,320
Speaker 1: What's what's one thing you want to leave them with? Ah,

1270
01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:54,280
Speaker 1: this maybe this is like a greater life lesson. But

1271
01:03:54,960 --> 01:03:58,520
Speaker 1: just just figure out how to love the process, you know,

1272
01:03:58,800 --> 01:04:01,800
Speaker 1: like you, I know you're training for a half marathon

1273
01:04:01,920 --> 01:04:04,400
Speaker 1: this summer, and I do a lot of running, and

1274
01:04:06,000 --> 01:04:08,720
Speaker 1: there's so many things in life where we kind of

1275
01:04:08,880 --> 01:04:12,000
Speaker 1: just get locked into the end goal, Like I want

1276
01:04:12,000 --> 01:04:13,800
Speaker 1: to run that thirteen point one miles and I want

1277
01:04:13,800 --> 01:04:15,920
Speaker 1: to do it in two hours. Okay, that's a great goal,

1278
01:04:16,320 --> 01:04:20,880
Speaker 1: but like all of these weeks spent running building up

1279
01:04:20,920 --> 01:04:24,840
Speaker 1: to that, that's worth way more than that final product, right,

1280
01:04:24,960 --> 01:04:27,880
Speaker 1: Like it's awesome at the end of your season to

1281
01:04:27,960 --> 01:04:29,960
Speaker 1: have a great, big dead buck to send pictures out

1282
01:04:30,000 --> 01:04:31,960
Speaker 1: and post your grip and grins on Instagram and all that,

1283
01:04:32,720 --> 01:04:35,840
Speaker 1: but really it's so much more fun, Like there's there's

1284
01:04:35,880 --> 01:04:38,160
Speaker 1: so much that you're missing with just the focus on

1285
01:04:38,320 --> 01:04:41,560
Speaker 1: that like the process of doing this stuff like scouting

1286
01:04:41,680 --> 01:04:43,720
Speaker 1: deer and you know, if you want to go into

1287
01:04:43,760 --> 01:04:46,400
Speaker 1: public land on three states over and figure them out,

1288
01:04:47,160 --> 01:04:49,640
Speaker 1: so much of it is is so much more enjoyable

1289
01:04:49,680 --> 01:04:51,920
Speaker 1: than we kind of give it credit for because we

1290
01:04:52,400 --> 01:04:55,320
Speaker 1: tend to always talk about the end results of this stuff.

1291
01:04:56,120 --> 01:04:58,080
Speaker 1: And land management is the same way, Like you give

1292
01:04:58,120 --> 01:05:03,040
Speaker 1: yourself a chance to really of the process of cutting

1293
01:05:03,080 --> 01:05:05,840
Speaker 1: down brush and thinking about plants and thinking about what

1294
01:05:05,920 --> 01:05:07,720
Speaker 1: you're gonna do and how you'd approach it and how

1295
01:05:07,760 --> 01:05:10,240
Speaker 1: you design this and you know, what time of year

1296
01:05:10,280 --> 01:05:11,640
Speaker 1: do you have to go over there and get this

1297
01:05:11,800 --> 01:05:15,320
Speaker 1: work done? Now, Like all of that process it can

1298
01:05:15,400 --> 01:05:18,560
Speaker 1: be so enjoyable if you learn to just like really

1299
01:05:18,720 --> 01:05:21,800
Speaker 1: dive in and appreciate it for what it is. Yeah, yeah,

1300
01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:24,200
Speaker 1: I definitely second that, And I would kind of add

1301
01:05:24,360 --> 01:05:27,200
Speaker 1: to that in that, you know, one of the things

1302
01:05:27,280 --> 01:05:34,040
Speaker 1: that I often am guilty of is um making everything rushed,

1303
01:05:34,360 --> 01:05:36,880
Speaker 1: where I somehow feel like I'm always rushed. I guess

1304
01:05:37,040 --> 01:05:39,160
Speaker 1: I'm always always I never have time for anything, and

1305
01:05:39,240 --> 01:05:42,320
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm constantly behind the eight ball, and

1306
01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:46,760
Speaker 1: so I end up just being on like some kind

1307
01:05:46,800 --> 01:05:48,960
Speaker 1: of crazy mission like knock this thing out. Knocked this

1308
01:05:49,040 --> 01:05:50,680
Speaker 1: thing out, Get this thing done, Get this thing done,

1309
01:05:50,720 --> 01:05:54,760
Speaker 1: Get this thing done. Um And because of that, everything

1310
01:05:54,840 --> 01:05:57,040
Speaker 1: feels like very high pressure, Like if I don't get

1311
01:05:57,080 --> 01:05:59,640
Speaker 1: this food plot in right now, I'm gonna miss the rain.

1312
01:05:59,720 --> 01:06:02,080
Speaker 1: The food plot's gonna fail, this thing's gonna suck. And

1313
01:06:02,160 --> 01:06:04,800
Speaker 1: then I'm out there for seven hours in the ninety

1314
01:06:04,800 --> 01:06:07,360
Speaker 1: degree heat and I'm miserable, and I'm racing back home

1315
01:06:07,440 --> 01:06:10,120
Speaker 1: to make sure I don't miss lunch or whatever. It is. Like,

1316
01:06:10,680 --> 01:06:13,080
Speaker 1: I find myself getting to those types of positions a lot,

1317
01:06:13,680 --> 01:06:15,520
Speaker 1: and I'm out there, I'm doing it on my own.

1318
01:06:15,840 --> 01:06:20,200
Speaker 1: I'm time pressured. YadA, YadA, YadA YadA. What is a

1319
01:06:20,320 --> 01:06:22,720
Speaker 1: lot more fun is when I do a little bit

1320
01:06:22,760 --> 01:06:25,560
Speaker 1: better job planning these things, and I carve out time

1321
01:06:25,680 --> 01:06:28,280
Speaker 1: and I find a way to set the expectation like, hey,

1322
01:06:28,880 --> 01:06:31,720
Speaker 1: I'm gone for two days this thing. I'm gonna do

1323
01:06:31,880 --> 01:06:34,760
Speaker 1: this thing, and I'm gonna bring a family member along

1324
01:06:34,840 --> 01:06:37,080
Speaker 1: or i'm gonna invite some friends, and I'm gonna do

1325
01:06:37,280 --> 01:06:39,720
Speaker 1: the little extra preparing I need to do to make

1326
01:06:39,760 --> 01:06:42,720
Speaker 1: this a fun event and not like a quick mission

1327
01:06:42,760 --> 01:06:45,479
Speaker 1: that I have to get done before all hell breaks loose.

1328
01:06:46,040 --> 01:06:48,160
Speaker 1: If I can do that little planning and say, hey,

1329
01:06:48,240 --> 01:06:50,160
Speaker 1: like this this day, I'm just gonna do this thing.

1330
01:06:50,160 --> 01:06:52,080
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be stressed about it. I'm not gonna

1331
01:06:52,160 --> 01:06:53,840
Speaker 1: race back to try to get this other thing done.

1332
01:06:53,880 --> 01:06:57,240
Speaker 1: I'm just like, this day is gonna be for doing

1333
01:06:57,320 --> 01:06:59,200
Speaker 1: this stuff and to make a day like, make a

1334
01:06:59,240 --> 01:07:01,560
Speaker 1: fun day out of it. Make the time to allow

1335
01:07:01,640 --> 01:07:04,400
Speaker 1: you and your buddy to get breakfast beforehand, invite your

1336
01:07:04,440 --> 01:07:07,040
Speaker 1: friend to come on out and help out and you know,

1337
01:07:07,160 --> 01:07:10,160
Speaker 1: have some camaraderie, or go and pick up your son

1338
01:07:10,280 --> 01:07:11,880
Speaker 1: and your daughter, or in my case, like go do

1339
01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:14,160
Speaker 1: something with my dad and make it a fun thing

1340
01:07:14,240 --> 01:07:16,240
Speaker 1: instead of like a chore that has to get done,

1341
01:07:16,280 --> 01:07:18,400
Speaker 1: it could become an event that's fun to get done.

1342
01:07:18,880 --> 01:07:21,200
Speaker 1: And the more I do that, the more I enjoy

1343
01:07:21,280 --> 01:07:24,760
Speaker 1: that process. Um, So that's a thing that this is

1344
01:07:24,880 --> 01:07:28,720
Speaker 1: very much like a aspiration of mine. I don't do

1345
01:07:28,840 --> 01:07:31,040
Speaker 1: that enough, but the times that I do that, I'm

1346
01:07:31,080 --> 01:07:34,960
Speaker 1: always I'm glad I did it. So that would be

1347
01:07:35,160 --> 01:07:38,200
Speaker 1: a suggestion. So can we take the last two minutes there,

1348
01:07:38,240 --> 01:07:40,080
Speaker 1: cut that out, send it to Mrs Kenyon and see

1349
01:07:40,120 --> 01:07:45,160
Speaker 1: how hard she laughs. She would laugh Yeah, she's like

1350
01:07:45,240 --> 01:07:47,400
Speaker 1: this asshole thinks he's gonna get so much free time.

1351
01:07:47,760 --> 01:07:51,280
Speaker 1: Just wait till the boys are in t ball and basketball. No,

1352
01:07:51,440 --> 01:07:54,480
Speaker 1: but it's there's truth to this tot because it's like

1353
01:07:54,800 --> 01:07:56,960
Speaker 1: it comes back down to the expectations. Like I always

1354
01:07:57,000 --> 01:07:59,120
Speaker 1: find out if I try to like slip in like

1355
01:07:59,200 --> 01:08:00,640
Speaker 1: a little time to this, a little bit time to

1356
01:08:00,680 --> 01:08:03,400
Speaker 1: do that last minute, it's harder than if I, like

1357
01:08:03,560 --> 01:08:06,040
Speaker 1: a week or two ahead of time, said hey, I

1358
01:08:06,160 --> 01:08:08,160
Speaker 1: need to do this thing, when would be a good

1359
01:08:08,200 --> 01:08:09,360
Speaker 1: time for me to do it? And then I just

1360
01:08:09,440 --> 01:08:11,040
Speaker 1: need to carve out like this day or these two

1361
01:08:11,120 --> 01:08:13,000
Speaker 1: days or whatever like that always seems to work out

1362
01:08:13,040 --> 01:08:15,080
Speaker 1: better for me when I operate in that kind of

1363
01:08:15,120 --> 01:08:18,360
Speaker 1: way versus like Saturday saying, oh ship, I gotta get

1364
01:08:18,360 --> 01:08:20,360
Speaker 1: this food plot in, I'm gonna be gone to lunch,

1365
01:08:20,400 --> 01:08:22,720
Speaker 1: but I promise I'll be back before lunch, and then

1366
01:08:23,200 --> 01:08:25,200
Speaker 1: that you know, I meant up being two hours late

1367
01:08:25,400 --> 01:08:30,160
Speaker 1: and YadA, YadA, YadA, and that's no good. Hey, buddy,

1368
01:08:30,160 --> 01:08:32,479
Speaker 1: I get what you're saying. I do. I've just I've

1369
01:08:32,479 --> 01:08:34,120
Speaker 1: been married a little bit longer and had kids a

1370
01:08:34,120 --> 01:08:38,280
Speaker 1: little bit longer, and I'm just uh, I love your optimism, buddy. Well,

1371
01:08:38,479 --> 01:08:40,200
Speaker 1: I'll come back and talk to you in a decade

1372
01:08:40,200 --> 01:08:44,599
Speaker 1: and we'll see how it's going. Okay, So there's oh,

1373
01:08:44,680 --> 01:08:48,760
Speaker 1: you know one other thing I'll add, which is one

1374
01:08:48,920 --> 01:08:52,639
Speaker 1: like one tactical thing, if there's any one, if there's

1375
01:08:52,640 --> 01:08:56,280
Speaker 1: any one thing that I would say that has helped

1376
01:08:56,360 --> 01:09:00,640
Speaker 1: me from a strategic perspective, like actual some bolts of

1377
01:09:00,720 --> 01:09:04,360
Speaker 1: making habitat improvements work. There's any like overarching thing that

1378
01:09:04,439 --> 01:09:08,400
Speaker 1: I do think has been really important. It is to

1379
01:09:08,720 --> 01:09:12,480
Speaker 1: try to think about your property in like a holistic

1380
01:09:12,680 --> 01:09:16,600
Speaker 1: kind of way. Like any improvement, no, no improvement, no

1381
01:09:16,800 --> 01:09:20,200
Speaker 1: project lives in isolation. So by that I mean like

1382
01:09:20,320 --> 01:09:22,320
Speaker 1: if you go and you pick a random opening and

1383
01:09:22,360 --> 01:09:24,720
Speaker 1: you plan a food plot there, you've got to know

1384
01:09:24,800 --> 01:09:27,720
Speaker 1: that that's going to influence everything else. So if you

1385
01:09:27,800 --> 01:09:29,559
Speaker 1: plan a food plot, you've got to think about, Okay,

1386
01:09:29,600 --> 01:09:31,479
Speaker 1: how is that going to change, dear? Movement? How is

1387
01:09:31,479 --> 01:09:33,320
Speaker 1: that going to change how I can access a spot?

1388
01:09:33,360 --> 01:09:35,519
Speaker 1: How is that going to change how I exit the spot?

1389
01:09:35,920 --> 01:09:37,680
Speaker 1: How is that going to change? How dear? Maybe you're

1390
01:09:37,720 --> 01:09:41,600
Speaker 1: coming or leaving, and and then that should all be

1391
01:09:41,760 --> 01:09:45,280
Speaker 1: factored into your decisions when deciding what to improve, where

1392
01:09:45,360 --> 01:09:48,160
Speaker 1: to improve something, how to improve something, how to change

1393
01:09:48,200 --> 01:09:52,000
Speaker 1: how you travel or don't travel. All these things are

1394
01:09:52,080 --> 01:09:56,800
Speaker 1: connected and and that's something that has really been like

1395
01:09:57,000 --> 01:10:00,960
Speaker 1: continuously kind of brought home to me because I remember,

1396
01:10:01,080 --> 01:10:04,080
Speaker 1: like we talked about this couple don't a month ago

1397
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:06,760
Speaker 1: or something. We're out there, uh in Wisconsin Tonia. I

1398
01:10:06,840 --> 01:10:09,120
Speaker 1: was talking about one of the first food plots I

1399
01:10:09,200 --> 01:10:11,439
Speaker 1: planned and how I planted it in the one spot

1400
01:10:11,479 --> 01:10:13,479
Speaker 1: that seemed like the easiest spot to plan a food plot,

1401
01:10:13,520 --> 01:10:15,160
Speaker 1: and I thought, oh, this would be great, but I

1402
01:10:15,200 --> 01:10:17,160
Speaker 1: didn't really factor in the fact that it's also right

1403
01:10:17,240 --> 01:10:19,160
Speaker 1: next to the one way I can get in and

1404
01:10:19,240 --> 01:10:21,280
Speaker 1: out of this property, so it's constantly having to walk

1405
01:10:21,360 --> 01:10:23,840
Speaker 1: back and forth past it and spooking deer every time

1406
01:10:23,880 --> 01:10:25,760
Speaker 1: I came in the morning, spooking deer every time I

1407
01:10:25,840 --> 01:10:28,759
Speaker 1: came out in the evening, and that was negatively impacting

1408
01:10:28,840 --> 01:10:30,639
Speaker 1: my hunting. I was trying to do something to improve

1409
01:10:30,720 --> 01:10:33,600
Speaker 1: my hunting, and because I didn't think about the ramifications

1410
01:10:33,640 --> 01:10:36,240
Speaker 1: of attracting deer to a new spot, I was actually

1411
01:10:36,320 --> 01:10:38,559
Speaker 1: hurting things. And I think there's a lot of different

1412
01:10:38,600 --> 01:10:41,320
Speaker 1: examples of ways that can happen on a property. So

1413
01:10:41,560 --> 01:10:44,679
Speaker 1: just just thinking about that ahead of time and trying

1414
01:10:44,760 --> 01:10:47,479
Speaker 1: to plan things in a thoughtful way, we'll save you

1415
01:10:47,520 --> 01:10:50,640
Speaker 1: a lot of headaches in the long run. Um. And

1416
01:10:50,920 --> 01:10:53,479
Speaker 1: And that's a just one simple thing to think about

1417
01:10:53,479 --> 01:10:56,000
Speaker 1: when you get started with this is is consider what

1418
01:10:56,240 --> 01:10:59,400
Speaker 1: these changes will what these changes will lead to, and

1419
01:10:59,520 --> 01:11:02,720
Speaker 1: make sure that a good thing for you. Um. And

1420
01:11:02,760 --> 01:11:04,320
Speaker 1: then I guess the one other thing, And this is

1421
01:11:04,400 --> 01:11:07,720
Speaker 1: something that's been like a like a a journey for me.

1422
01:11:08,000 --> 01:11:11,360
Speaker 1: I went from early on just like what can I

1423
01:11:11,479 --> 01:11:13,240
Speaker 1: do that will help me get a buck in front

1424
01:11:13,240 --> 01:11:14,960
Speaker 1: of me to shoot it? Like that was what I

1425
01:11:15,040 --> 01:11:16,680
Speaker 1: was trying to do with that very first food ply

1426
01:11:16,840 --> 01:11:19,920
Speaker 1: planet thirteen or fourteen years ago to now I'm getting

1427
01:11:19,960 --> 01:11:22,439
Speaker 1: more and more interested in you know, what can I

1428
01:11:22,520 --> 01:11:26,000
Speaker 1: do to actually make this place better for everything? Um?

1429
01:11:26,439 --> 01:11:28,320
Speaker 1: Because you know, I think as you start to go

1430
01:11:28,400 --> 01:11:30,679
Speaker 1: down this road we like we talked about, you start

1431
01:11:30,800 --> 01:11:33,760
Speaker 1: noticing the trees, You start noticing the plants, You start

1432
01:11:33,880 --> 01:11:36,720
Speaker 1: noticing the butterflies and the birds and the frogs and

1433
01:11:36,920 --> 01:11:39,880
Speaker 1: the quail and the different stuff like that, and appreciating

1434
01:11:39,920 --> 01:11:42,439
Speaker 1: that stuff more. I think, especially once you start doing

1435
01:11:42,520 --> 01:11:44,920
Speaker 1: projects and seeing more of them show up or seeing

1436
01:11:45,000 --> 01:11:48,080
Speaker 1: them use your land more often. Um, like that's really

1437
01:11:48,120 --> 01:11:50,960
Speaker 1: fulfilling too. So I've gotten more and more interested in

1438
01:11:51,040 --> 01:11:53,160
Speaker 1: trying to learn how not just how I can improve

1439
01:11:53,240 --> 01:11:55,960
Speaker 1: my property for deer, but just how can I improve

1440
01:11:56,040 --> 01:12:00,360
Speaker 1: this place as a whole. And um, I think that's

1441
01:12:00,479 --> 01:12:03,000
Speaker 1: that's all the satisfying to do that as well, and

1442
01:12:03,200 --> 01:12:05,000
Speaker 1: it's going to help your deer hunting no matter what.

1443
01:12:05,360 --> 01:12:09,200
Speaker 1: So that's my final thought is open the aperture a

1444
01:12:09,280 --> 01:12:12,200
Speaker 1: little bit, and I think you'll you'll be rewarded in

1445
01:12:12,240 --> 01:12:16,200
Speaker 1: ways you never quite imagine. Yeah, I would say if

1446
01:12:16,240 --> 01:12:19,000
Speaker 1: I have like a concluding thought on kind of on

1447
01:12:19,160 --> 01:12:24,479
Speaker 1: that note, would be keep it simple right away. Like

1448
01:12:24,560 --> 01:12:27,519
Speaker 1: I remember when I started planting food plots and you know,

1449
01:12:27,640 --> 01:12:30,400
Speaker 1: messing with apple trees and stuff. I had a buddy

1450
01:12:31,240 --> 01:12:34,200
Speaker 1: he works in a in a co op, a feed store,

1451
01:12:35,040 --> 01:12:37,559
Speaker 1: and I was like not having very good luck getting

1452
01:12:37,560 --> 01:12:38,760
Speaker 1: stuff to grow. And I was doing the same thing

1453
01:12:38,800 --> 01:12:40,599
Speaker 1: you talked about when it was just like throw and grow,

1454
01:12:40,840 --> 01:12:42,800
Speaker 1: and you know, I had a soil test done, but

1455
01:12:42,840 --> 01:12:45,880
Speaker 1: I kind of didn't take it that seriously and he

1456
01:12:46,080 --> 01:12:49,720
Speaker 1: was just like, dude, bringing the lime, fertilize it, right,

1457
01:12:49,880 --> 01:12:53,000
Speaker 1: and He's like, use clover and oats. And I was

1458
01:12:53,040 --> 01:12:55,680
Speaker 1: like why and he said, because don't grow. He's like,

1459
01:12:56,000 --> 01:12:57,599
Speaker 1: I think he was reading me. He's like, I think

1460
01:12:57,640 --> 01:12:59,240
Speaker 1: that you're not very good at this, and you can

1461
01:12:59,320 --> 01:13:02,959
Speaker 1: get these two things to grow. And it made me realize,

1462
01:13:03,000 --> 01:13:05,200
Speaker 1: you know, like I kind of had this dream about

1463
01:13:05,920 --> 01:13:08,719
Speaker 1: you know, that came from seeing a lot of food

1464
01:13:08,760 --> 01:13:11,519
Speaker 1: plots on outdoor teller television and hearing about them from

1465
01:13:11,520 --> 01:13:13,519
Speaker 1: people who have a lot better equipment and a lot

1466
01:13:13,600 --> 01:13:16,120
Speaker 1: better chance to get it to work. And my buddy

1467
01:13:16,200 --> 01:13:18,560
Speaker 1: was just like, listen, you're dealing with shitty soil in

1468
01:13:18,600 --> 01:13:21,120
Speaker 1: northern Wisconsin. Just just do what you have to to

1469
01:13:21,320 --> 01:13:24,280
Speaker 1: get this to grow, and stop thinking about, you know,

1470
01:13:24,600 --> 01:13:26,760
Speaker 1: what you would do in someplace else, because that's not

1471
01:13:26,840 --> 01:13:28,479
Speaker 1: where you're working. And so you kind of just have

1472
01:13:28,560 --> 01:13:29,960
Speaker 1: to work with what you have in front of you.

1473
01:13:30,520 --> 01:13:32,080
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to

1474
01:13:32,120 --> 01:13:34,800
Speaker 1: be pretty. You know. Like that's such a great point,

1475
01:13:35,080 --> 01:13:38,720
Speaker 1: you know, I think so much of the expectations we

1476
01:13:38,840 --> 01:13:40,680
Speaker 1: placed on ourselves are based on what we see in

1477
01:13:40,720 --> 01:13:43,240
Speaker 1: the media and how great it looks and how amazing

1478
01:13:43,280 --> 01:13:45,320
Speaker 1: it looks, and how great the deer Hunting is everything,

1479
01:13:45,360 --> 01:13:47,400
Speaker 1: and if if your reality doesn't match up to that,

1480
01:13:47,520 --> 01:13:51,640
Speaker 1: it can be disappointing. Um but dear, don't, dear, do

1481
01:13:51,800 --> 01:13:56,759
Speaker 1: not need a perfectly manicured, beautiful carpet of of clover

1482
01:13:57,720 --> 01:14:02,960
Speaker 1: forty acres wide, um, next to fifty acres of perfect seaters.

1483
01:14:03,040 --> 01:14:06,000
Speaker 1: They don't need that to you know, come and hang out.

1484
01:14:06,680 --> 01:14:09,599
Speaker 1: So even a little tiny patch of crappy clover mixed

1485
01:14:09,640 --> 01:14:12,320
Speaker 1: with a bunch of weeds, like that's better than nothing. Um,

1486
01:14:12,800 --> 01:14:16,200
Speaker 1: So yeah, do what you can. Try stuff, have some

1487
01:14:16,320 --> 01:14:19,040
Speaker 1: things that work, have some things that don't work, Carving

1488
01:14:19,080 --> 01:14:22,679
Speaker 1: a little something. I think it's all when it comes

1489
01:14:22,720 --> 01:14:25,760
Speaker 1: down to enjoying that process, getting out there, getting your

1490
01:14:25,800 --> 01:14:28,680
Speaker 1: hands dirty, being outside, and yeah, trying to make a

1491
01:14:28,720 --> 01:14:31,000
Speaker 1: little bit of good stuff happen out there. Like, just

1492
01:14:31,400 --> 01:14:34,679
Speaker 1: just do something. I think that's that's a really good point.

1493
01:14:36,640 --> 01:14:38,320
Speaker 1: Well do you think do you think we wrapped her

1494
01:14:38,360 --> 01:14:40,920
Speaker 1: up good enough? Buddy? I don't know. I don't know

1495
01:14:41,000 --> 01:14:43,920
Speaker 1: if there's anything valuable that we've discussed this entire time,

1496
01:14:43,920 --> 01:14:46,720
Speaker 1: because mostly two guys that are kind of okay at

1497
01:14:46,760 --> 01:14:48,479
Speaker 1: this who kind of know what they're talking about. But

1498
01:14:48,560 --> 01:14:51,080
Speaker 1: we're not experts on this. Subject. We kind of like it,

1499
01:14:51,160 --> 01:14:52,800
Speaker 1: we kind of don't like it. We're saying, yeah, I

1500
01:14:52,880 --> 01:14:54,720
Speaker 1: kind of do this, but don't do that. I'm not

1501
01:14:54,800 --> 01:14:57,640
Speaker 1: sure what anyone will take away from this except for

1502
01:14:58,240 --> 01:15:03,240
Speaker 1: the fact that every one listening should feel one qualified

1503
01:15:03,439 --> 01:15:05,519
Speaker 1: to try habitat work. Because if a couple of bows

1504
01:15:05,560 --> 01:15:07,200
Speaker 1: I was like me and Tony can do it, you

1505
01:15:07,240 --> 01:15:09,200
Speaker 1: can do it too. And I think that is the

1506
01:15:09,240 --> 01:15:13,120
Speaker 1: big takeaway here today. Absolutely all right, buddy, Well, thanks

1507
01:15:13,160 --> 01:15:15,400
Speaker 1: for rambling on this one with me, and over the

1508
01:15:15,439 --> 01:15:17,320
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks we're going to bring on a

1509
01:15:17,439 --> 01:15:20,680
Speaker 1: series of more experienced folks with some different ideas and

1510
01:15:20,800 --> 01:15:25,160
Speaker 1: perspectives to help anybody who is interested into either going

1511
01:15:25,240 --> 01:15:27,479
Speaker 1: deeper into the habitat world or just trying it for

1512
01:15:27,520 --> 01:15:31,400
Speaker 1: the first time. Well, thanks for having me, buddy. All right,

1513
01:15:31,479 --> 01:15:34,040
Speaker 1: and that's a wrap. I appreciate you tune in. This

1514
01:15:34,240 --> 01:15:37,439
Speaker 1: is just the first of a series of Habitat related

1515
01:15:37,439 --> 01:15:40,360
Speaker 1: episodes we're gonna run this spring, so stay tuned. If

1516
01:15:40,400 --> 01:15:43,479
Speaker 1: this is something you're interested in learning more about, We've

1517
01:15:43,479 --> 01:15:46,360
Speaker 1: got a lot more coming, so appreciate your time. Thank you,

1518
01:15:46,600 --> 01:15:50,000
Speaker 1: and until next time, stay wired to