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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. Today in the show,

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Speaker 1: I am joined by Nate and Thomas Crick, host of

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Speaker 1: Identical Draw, to discuss their experience as young twentysomethings diving

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Speaker 1: head first into white tail land management and their experiences

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Speaker 1: managing their famili's eighty acre farm. All right, welcome back

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

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Speaker 1: First Light, and we are continuing here with our white

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Speaker 1: tail land management series of sorts that I'm doing here

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Speaker 1: this month. And it's kind of taken a kind of

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Speaker 1: an average Joe spin because last week it was me

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Speaker 1: and Tony sharing our experiences, and this week I got

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Speaker 1: the did to talk to a couple folks who I

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Speaker 1: don't think we would normally be looking to for advice

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Speaker 1: on how to dive into white tail land management. Usually,

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Speaker 1: you know, usually the people we talked about these things

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Speaker 1: are consultants. They're experts in the field who have been

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Speaker 1: doing it for forty years. These are guys who owned

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Speaker 1: two thousand acres and killed big bucks every year, YadA, YadA, YadA.

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Speaker 1: But what about the rest of us. What about young people?

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Speaker 1: What about folks who don't know everything and who are

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Speaker 1: just trying to figure it out? I think that is

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Speaker 1: an interesting perspective to explore, too, and that's why today

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Speaker 1: I asked Nate and Thomas Crick to join me on

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Speaker 1: the show. These two guys, they are brothers there and

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Speaker 1: their early twenties. They host a show on their YouTube

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Speaker 1: channel called Identical Draw and their die hard deer hunters,

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Speaker 1: and a handful of years ago their family decided they

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Speaker 1: were going to buy a family farm somewhere and Naton

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Speaker 1: Thomas were going to be in charge of the search

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Speaker 1: for that farm, and they were going to be in

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Speaker 1: charge of managing it, managing it, turning this into something

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Speaker 1: that could be great for their white tail hunting and

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Speaker 1: for the other goals they had as a family for

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Speaker 1: this place and as twenty year olds when this all started,

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Speaker 1: I think that probably was a pretty intimidating thing, and

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Speaker 1: I'm interested in that. I'm interested in what it looks

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Speaker 1: like for a young couple of kids to try to

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Speaker 1: figure this kind of stuff out. They can be kind

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Speaker 1: of intimidating figuring out how to plan a white tail management.

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Speaker 1: You know, the series of years. What are you gonna

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Speaker 1: do over the next decade, How are you going to

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Speaker 1: plant food plats to timber work burned anything like that.

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Speaker 1: That's a lot for me to consider thirty four years old.

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Speaker 1: I know a lot of forty five and fifty year

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Speaker 1: olds who probably feel the same way. Let alone, if

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Speaker 1: you were twenty and these guys did it. They dove in,

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Speaker 1: they read everything they could, they talked to everyone they could,

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Speaker 1: They brought in some people to help point them in

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Speaker 1: the direct direction, and they learned and they learned and

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Speaker 1: they learned, and over the last three years they have

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Speaker 1: been enjoying the fruits of that labor and those learnings.

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Speaker 1: And that's what we're going to discuss today. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: find out how Thomas and Nate figure this haul out themselves.

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Speaker 1: And in short, I think it's pretty inspiring. You know,

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Speaker 1: if you're a young person yourself, if you're twenty or

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Speaker 1: five or thirty, and you've been seeing people on TV

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Speaker 1: doing this land management thing, and maybe your family has property,

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Speaker 1: or maybe you have been in a position where maybe

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Speaker 1: you could buy your own little piece. But that seems

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Speaker 1: like a whole lot to consider, and it's pretty intimidating. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think this conversation today might just empower you to

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Speaker 1: give it a shot. And if you're in a different

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Speaker 1: position but still have been wanting to dive into this world,

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Speaker 1: I think what Nate and Thomas have to share will

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Speaker 1: be very useful to you as well. They share with

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Speaker 1: me a lot about what they've learned on the side

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Speaker 1: of food plot. We discussed a lot about timber management

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Speaker 1: and what you can do with very limited resources to

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Speaker 1: really improve a property the timber management. We talked about

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Speaker 1: fire and what it takes to kind of go down

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Speaker 1: that road and begin trying something like that, and a

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Speaker 1: lot more too. So I enjoyed this one. I think

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Speaker 1: you all will as well. This isn't like, uh yeah,

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Speaker 1: this isn't Craig Harper diving in from a university professors

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Speaker 1: standpoint right. This is real people sharing real experiences, and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think that's something that's that's pretty cool

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Speaker 1: to dive into. So I will give you two other

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Speaker 1: quick reminders before we get into this one. Number one,

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Speaker 1: if you are not already subscribed to the Wired to

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Speaker 1: Hunt newsletter, please go do that. Go over to the

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Speaker 1: meat Eater dot com and you'll see options in the

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Speaker 1: menu there to subscribe. That's where we send out our

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Speaker 1: weekly updates on the new content, the new articles, were publishing,

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Speaker 1: the new podcast. If you miss any of those new videos,

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Speaker 1: I I send a weekly little note I guess with

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Speaker 1: updates from my world or interesting things going on, or

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Speaker 1: suggestions or tips or things I might recommend you guys

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Speaker 1: think about this time of the year. Tony Peterson jumps

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Speaker 1: on there sometimes too, so make sure you're signed up

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Speaker 1: for that. Speaking of videos, I want to remind you

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Speaker 1: all that Tony and I and the team are continuing

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Speaker 1: to pump out weekly how to videos over on the

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Speaker 1: wired Hunt YouTube channel. So go on over to YouTube

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Speaker 1: search for wired to Hunt, hit subscribe. Then we're cranking

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Speaker 1: them out. It's it's a lot of work the team's

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Speaker 1: putting in the hours to get quick, helpful and and

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Speaker 1: I think you know pretty pretty um oh, heck, I

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Speaker 1: don't know useful. I guess maybe it's the simple word,

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Speaker 1: looking for useful, quick videos that I think will give

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Speaker 1: you quick tips and suggestions to point you in the

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Speaker 1: right direction, whether it's the off season right now or

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Speaker 1: as we move into this summer and then the fall.

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Speaker 1: The information you need to take into the field right away.

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Speaker 1: So that's all I got for you today. Guys, appreciate

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Speaker 1: you listening. Let's get to my chat with Nate and

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Speaker 1: Thomas Crick. All right, hear I mean now I've got

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Speaker 1: Nate and Thomas Krick. Gentlemen, thank you for joining me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah you better. Yeah, I think you guys are the

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Speaker 1: perfect people to talk to today for the conversation I

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Speaker 1: want to have, um because I don't know how to

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Speaker 1: put this in a way that doesn't sound slightly offensive,

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Speaker 1: but but I think you guys are are kinda just

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Speaker 1: rosy eyed knuckleheads just like me. And by that I

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Speaker 1: mean like you've dove into a big, crazy project without

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Speaker 1: a ton of experience, just wanting to learn a lot.

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Speaker 1: When I when you think about your Kansas City project

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Speaker 1: in your your dreams to transform a piece of property,

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Speaker 1: does what I said does that sound accurate? Yeah? I

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Speaker 1: mean that's like perfect mark because we didn't like have

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Speaker 1: the Grandpa that had a couple of thousand acres, like

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Speaker 1: we just hunted some some public like public land and

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Speaker 1: a little bit of private that we had permission on.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, exactly, Yeah, we had I mean zero land

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Speaker 1: managing experience. Before. I mean, yeah, still really knew, definitely

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Speaker 1: feel a lot better where we are now as land

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Speaker 1: managers than we were three years ago. But yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: I think that one of the things that at least

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Speaker 1: I felt when I started doing this kind of stuff,

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Speaker 1: and I'm guessing a lot of other people out there

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Speaker 1: feel too, is you know, when you hear about most

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Speaker 1: white tail land management or white tail improvement projects or advice,

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Speaker 1: you know it's coming from these people who have been

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Speaker 1: doing it for thirty years or forty years, and they've

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Speaker 1: got thousands of acres, or if you watch somebody on TV,

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Speaker 1: they've got two thousand acres and they're doing this perfect thing,

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Speaker 1: and their their food plots look like perfectly manicured golf grains,

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Speaker 1: and they've got twenty seven different box lines across it,

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Speaker 1: and they shoot a hundred eight inch bucks four times

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Speaker 1: a year, and and on and on and on, and

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Speaker 1: it seems both so outside of the realm of possibility,

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Speaker 1: and it seems intimidating when I hear about the nineteen

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Speaker 1: different fertilizer types and the seven different tractors I need

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Speaker 1: to have, and YadA, YadA, YadA. I think all of

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Speaker 1: that can for some people be paralyzing, and it keeps

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Speaker 1: people from ever wanting to actually dive in and and

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Speaker 1: try it if they just have thirty acres or eighty

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Speaker 1: acres or sixty acres and a four wheeler. Um. And

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Speaker 1: I think your story is one that I think and

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Speaker 1: hopefully we're gonna find out here in a second, I

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Speaker 1: think it kind of flips out in its head. Um.

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Speaker 1: So so can you can you just set the stage

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Speaker 1: for me, Like, how did the Kansas A d come about? Like?

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Speaker 1: I know that this is a property that your your

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Speaker 1: family bought and you guys have kind of taken the

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Speaker 1: lead on it. But how did this this whole idea

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Speaker 1: come together? Yeah? So basically, I mean we've been avid

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Speaker 1: into the outdoors, um for forever, it seems, um, And

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Speaker 1: so I don't know for us it which just like

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Speaker 1: this like general like accumulating want to like have our

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Speaker 1: own ground because like we have we have a lot

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Speaker 1: of generous friends that would let us hunt. But man,

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Speaker 1: in the back of our minds for so long, we're like, man,

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Speaker 1: wouldn't it be sweet to have just even the smallest

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Speaker 1: little chunk of ground that we could manage ourselves, like

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Speaker 1: actually like have some food sources and do all this stuff,

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Speaker 1: and so kind of we sat down with the parents

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Speaker 1: because obviously, um what we were teenagers basically at the

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Speaker 1: time we were trying to figure this all out. We're like,

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Speaker 1: obviously we have like ten bucks to our name. So

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Speaker 1: luckily we have amazing parents that also wanted property just

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Speaker 1: for like the family's sake and just like kind of

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Speaker 1: a family legacy that you can start and have for

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Speaker 1: generations and stuff like that. Um. And so we kind

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Speaker 1: of combine our efforts and um man I had Luckily,

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Speaker 1: I was friends with a few different land agents in uh, Nebraska, Iowa,

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Speaker 1: and Kansas, and I kind of, I mean, I went

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Speaker 1: to look at a lot of properties and I I

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Speaker 1: kind of told him. I was like, Hey, this is

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Speaker 1: what the family is looking for. It needs to be

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Speaker 1: like less than this far away from the house. So

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Speaker 1: we wanted it to not be a super long drive

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Speaker 1: away from our home home. And then we wanted to

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Speaker 1: have a certain structure for um, not only just like family,

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Speaker 1: Like we'd like to have like a build side, like

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Speaker 1: we uh could build a shed so we could have

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Speaker 1: families stay down here sometimes. Um. And then also we

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Speaker 1: wanted to have a hunting side and so I told

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Speaker 1: those guys like, hey, if you see this perfect property

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Speaker 1: of things we want line up, you better I better

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Speaker 1: be the first one you text. And so it's show enough.

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Speaker 1: It should be noted that I mean that we were

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Speaker 1: looking pretty aggressively, like at at properties for two years, uh,

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Speaker 1: leading up to when we purchased a d So we

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Speaker 1: kind of I mean, it wasn't just like a right

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Speaker 1: away thing that we found this. So you always have

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Speaker 1: people reaching out asking like how how we decided to

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Speaker 1: buy a property, because one it's a huge financial investment,

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Speaker 1: but then secondly, it's just like you wanted to be

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Speaker 1: the perfect thing if you're gonna put the money down.

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Speaker 1: So we always just had a kind of a scale

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Speaker 1: one to five what's most important, And then every time

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Speaker 1: we'd roll up to a property, you wet, um, we

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Speaker 1: kind of go through that list and it kind of

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Speaker 1: made it easy for us to decide. So and the

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Speaker 1: white tail side of me like we grew up in

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Speaker 1: a breast pretty good white tail hunting, um, but like

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Speaker 1: not to fin mind a Braska friends, but it's not

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Speaker 1: on the level of like an Iowa in Kansas, um.

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Speaker 1: And so I was looking in Iowa and Kansas because

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Speaker 1: we live We lived down south, like south southeastern Nebraska,

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Speaker 1: so like Iowa Kansas. We're getting to both those states

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Speaker 1: like within an hour. So I was like, the white

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Speaker 1: tail side of me is like, Okay, I'm definitely gonna

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Speaker 1: be looking at Iowa Kansas a little more than Nebraska, um,

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Speaker 1: just because I know they managed or stay a little

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Speaker 1: different and they grew getting big white tails. Um. So

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Speaker 1: sure enough. One of my buddies from the Land real

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Speaker 1: Estate company text me is, actually we're at the Archer

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Speaker 1: Trade Association trade show between nineteen and he's like, I've

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Speaker 1: got a property. You want to see this? And he's

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Speaker 1: like it's gonna go like on the market market like

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Speaker 1: next week, and like everything's gonna be shown, like they

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Speaker 1: have a bunch of big buck trail camps and stuff.

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Speaker 1: Was like, so if you want like stab at, that's

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Speaker 1: seeing I get down to your fast and so we, uh,

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Speaker 1: that's what we did. We were there early that next week,

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Speaker 1: and I mean we saw the property, loved it, parents

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Speaker 1: loved it, um, and we shot, we shot low and

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Speaker 1: we got it. So that's that's basically. It was freaking perfect.

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Speaker 1: So what were those you mentioned. You've got a bunch

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Speaker 1: of different criteria that you were looking at, and you

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Speaker 1: were kind of like a one to five scale of

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Speaker 1: what's most important everything like that when you were looking

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Speaker 1: for this perfect property that would both achieve your white

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Speaker 1: tail goals but also the family goals. What were those

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Speaker 1: perfect things you were looking to check the boxes on. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so it was there kind of like two lists or

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Speaker 1: like what the parents wanted to see and then what

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Speaker 1: means they wanted to see, and then we kind of

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Speaker 1: men in the middle. But um, ideally we wanted water

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Speaker 1: on it, some sort of water, whether it be a

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Speaker 1: pond or or a creek. And we've got a creek

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Speaker 1: on ours basically running all the way north to south

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Speaker 1: that most years is has water in it u flowing

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Speaker 1: and the whole whole time. So um that we checked

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Speaker 1: the box there. Um distance from home right at two hours, Um,

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Speaker 1: we didn't want to go close to three uh. Two

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Speaker 1: hour drive to us is much more dooble than at

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Speaker 1: in an hour, so it worked for our for our distance,

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Speaker 1: um size wise, UM, I wasn't going to break the bank. UM,

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Speaker 1: So I don't know me what else doing. We wanted

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Speaker 1: definitely just diversity on it. Um. So we noticed on

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Speaker 1: this piece we had. It was mainly like at least

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Speaker 1: sixty five seventy acres of the eighty acres that we

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Speaker 1: own is like all timber, um. We love that. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then there was also like some um just grassy

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Speaker 1: fields and stuff like that that we were picturing. Okay,

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Speaker 1: easily food pots, but also just good um, just good

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Speaker 1: grassy mixture up there on top. And so those are

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Speaker 1: kind of the things. We wanted to be able to

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Speaker 1: access it pretty easily. And one of the sides has

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Speaker 1: a road that we can that runs right along the

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Speaker 1: side of it, so um, we didn't have to worry

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Speaker 1: about not being able to get in there certain times

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Speaker 1: of the year there being like really rainy or something

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Speaker 1: like that. But I wanted to the parents really wanted

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Speaker 1: to build location kind of like I already mentioned for

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Speaker 1: like a shed or a cabinet at some point. Um.

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Speaker 1: And so yeah, those are kind of the checkbox. And

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Speaker 1: this one just this one just met It was in

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Speaker 1: the price range and also just a size like I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think that's one thing that Thomas and I really

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Speaker 1: tried to stress through our channels is like small properties

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Speaker 1: can be deadly. You don't need anything crazy. So this

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Speaker 1: ad acres fit that perfectly as well. It certainly seems

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Speaker 1: like it from the you know, from watching the videos

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Speaker 1: and everything that now you mentioned there's there's a stream,

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Speaker 1: there's this road access, there's timber, there's grass. When you

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Speaker 1: stepped foot on the property for the first time after

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Speaker 1: you guys had you know, it became your family's property,

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Speaker 1: and you stepped foot and you realized, wow, this is

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Speaker 1: this is ours? What did that? Can you remember what

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Speaker 1: that first day felt like? Are those first moments stepping

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Speaker 1: foot out there, walking across it was? It was it overwhelming?

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Speaker 1: Was it just exciting? Uh? What was going through your

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Speaker 1: guys heads? Yeah, it was like where do we start?

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Speaker 1: Like we uh, since identical draw was the thing back then,

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Speaker 1: we we filmed it so you can actually watch like

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Speaker 1: our first time walking it as landowners on our YouTube

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Speaker 1: channel and it's we like, I go back and watch

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Speaker 1: that episode because sometimes you get just so in the

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Speaker 1: mix of trying to kill a white tail and you

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Speaker 1: just gotta uh get that feeling of what I felt

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Speaker 1: like the first time you're on it. But um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was it was a really snowy day. Actually the

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Speaker 1: first day it was gosh, it was like sixtight six

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Speaker 1: eight inches down, I think, um, so it was just

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Speaker 1: like where do we start and like, let's just see

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Speaker 1: what this place has, because we did a walk through

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Speaker 1: before we put an offer on and we just it

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Speaker 1: was quick, like I know, maybe thirty minutes to an

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Speaker 1: hour walk through, and um, I think it's just excitement

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Speaker 1: of what we were gonna what we're gonna find. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean right off the bat you could uh just

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Speaker 1: see the deer travel was like really thick. So that

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Speaker 1: was exciting. Um. Our Ad is definitely a big turkey hunter.

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Speaker 1: He hasn't he hasn't dabbled as much into there, but

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Speaker 1: I remember seeing some turkey tracks. I remember him being

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Speaker 1: really excited about that. But I do think the overwhelming

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Speaker 1: thing was like, man, what are we going to turn

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Speaker 1: this into? Like it felt like we had like a

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Speaker 1: just a clean slate, like you have almost eighty acres

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Speaker 1: of just pure timber that you can just open up

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Speaker 1: where you want to open up, leaf thick where you

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Speaker 1: want to leaf thick, and um, I don't know, it

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Speaker 1: just seemed like a mixture of like really daunting and

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Speaker 1: super exciting that I mean, this ground that we're walking on.

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Speaker 1: His arts like that I mean, it was a really surreal,

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Speaker 1: crazy feeling. I can imagine I've I've I've had sort

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Speaker 1: of like that, Like when we when I got to

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Speaker 1: be a part of the back forty with Mediator and

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Speaker 1: I got to essentially steward and head up that project.

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Speaker 1: I was there for all those types of things, and

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Speaker 1: I put in helped put in the offer, and I

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Speaker 1: got to be on the property and all that kind

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Speaker 1: of stuff. So I was the pseudo owner of the

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Speaker 1: farm for two years, and I felt a kind of

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Speaker 1: similar things like that, but but knowing that there was

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Speaker 1: gonna be this heartbreak some number of years down the

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Speaker 1: road when I'd have to walk away. So you guys

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Speaker 1: got to get to keep enjoying it. So I'm jealous

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Speaker 1: about that one, um. But I do know one of

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Speaker 1: the very first things I had to be thinking about

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Speaker 1: during that was right off the gate, you know, before

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Speaker 1: I even started making plans or thinking about plans. I

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Speaker 1: remember sitting down and thinking through, Okay, before I can

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Speaker 1: know where I'm going, or before I can do anything,

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Speaker 1: I need to know where I'm trying to go. I

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Speaker 1: need to know what the goals are going to be

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Speaker 1: for this property. Explicitly is it just to kill the

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Speaker 1: biggest buck ever? Is it to kill a lot of deer?

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Speaker 1: Is it to have deer and turkeys and squirrels? Is

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Speaker 1: it to do this and that and this and that

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Speaker 1: and have all these different people and all these different things.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of different questions I was working through

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Speaker 1: when trying to figure out what we should do with

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Speaker 1: that place. So what was that process like for you guys?

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Speaker 1: How did you guys go about figuring out what the

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Speaker 1: goals were? Was that simple? Was that like a debate

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Speaker 1: between you and the family? What did that look like?

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Speaker 1: And then where'd you end up? Like what was the

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Speaker 1: what was the goal list once you guys came to

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Speaker 1: some kind of agreement if if you did, yeah, so

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Speaker 1: those I mean definitely right off the bat, we uh,

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Speaker 1: we did think about management things. But it's also like, man,

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Speaker 1: the parents like really wanted like a ship or something

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Speaker 1: down here because it's like, you know, we come down here,

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Speaker 1: there's nowhere like if you work on it, there's nowhere

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Speaker 1: to shower, Like, there's nowhere to just like like chill out,

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Speaker 1: to canna eat or anything. So it's like, okay, that

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Speaker 1: was that was definitely a high goal. But that was

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Speaker 1: like kind of out of me and Tom's rown back then,

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Speaker 1: because again we were just poor kids back then. UM.

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Speaker 1: So it's like, okay, parents, you can work on putting

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Speaker 1: maybe a shed up on the property somewhere. Um. And

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Speaker 1: there were a lot of discussions about where we're gonna

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Speaker 1: put the shed, um and when we're gonna there's a

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Speaker 1: tricky situation mark because they're they're funding the project, but

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Speaker 1: at the same time we're trying to convince them on

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Speaker 1: when to do it, like during the summertime, uh not

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Speaker 1: during the fall. Actually ended up happening like in the

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Speaker 1: smack dab of October were which which didn't actually have

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Speaker 1: a huge effect, but it was definitely like one of

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Speaker 1: those like I'm just gonna we're gonna have to let

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Speaker 1: you do this one day because you did buy it,

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Speaker 1: so we're just gonna There were a couple of sits,

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Speaker 1: like mid October, late October. You could just hear like

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Speaker 1: the construction guys music blairing like a couple hud yards

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Speaker 1: and when you're like, okay, like this might have an effect,

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Speaker 1: probably have an effect. We'll see I don't really have

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Speaker 1: a choice here, but um, I don't know. So that

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Speaker 1: was definitely something we discussed a lot um management side

385
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Speaker 1: of things. We really like had no idea where to start.

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Speaker 1: So I think one of our best um ideas we

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Speaker 1: had was that first spring we had the property, we

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Speaker 1: had a few people from q d M A now

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Speaker 1: NDA come down and walk the property with us, Matt

390
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Speaker 1: Ross being one of them, and he is just a

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Speaker 1: wealth of knowledge and we walked the whole eight with him,

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Speaker 1: and man like, I think that really lit our management

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Speaker 1: fire for like our management goals, um, just because she's

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Speaker 1: like a wealth of knowledge. He knew every tree we're seeing,

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Speaker 1: he knew like good dear food, he knew the structure

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Speaker 1: we wanted on that property. So like that's when our

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Speaker 1: management goals really kicked in. But other goals, I mean,

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Speaker 1: obviously we're just like hunting was like number one, Like

399
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Speaker 1: let's kill a giant white tailed big Kansas white tail

400
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Speaker 1: down here. Um, we didn't really have like we didn't

401
00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:15,159
Speaker 1: need to be like, Okay, this next season we need

402
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Speaker 1: to kill like a hundred and eight inch year. We're

403
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Speaker 1: just like let's just um trying to hunt this as

404
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Speaker 1: well as possible and just like be really really patient

405
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Speaker 1: with it. Um. But yeah, the goals were definitely some

406
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Speaker 1: of those things that shed and this different management stuff.

407
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Speaker 1: But it's still like working propers, like our our goals

408
00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:34,280
Speaker 1: are kind of changing throughout, but also like we're achieving

409
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Speaker 1: some goals and then like a year later down the road,

410
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Speaker 1: we realized that, Okay, that's not really goal we want

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Speaker 1: to attain. We're going to switch it up a little bit. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: some of them were reaching, some of them we don't.

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Speaker 1: So what about that planning process you mentioned how Matt

414
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Speaker 1: you know, came out walked it with you, helped you

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Speaker 1: kind of get a better sense of what you had

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Speaker 1: and what you could have. But but walk me through

417
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Speaker 1: you know what that plan, you know how that plan

418
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Speaker 1: came together and how that's evolved. Yeah, he I would say,

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Speaker 1: he just really opened up our eyes. All all we

420
00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:09,479
Speaker 1: had like really known, um was was what we had

421
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,320
Speaker 1: like washed on outdoor TV. Like how are these like

422
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Speaker 1: food plot everywhere that there's any uh crack in the

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Speaker 1: timber anywhere that you can fit a plot with any sunlight? Um,

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Speaker 1: that's like what we had thought before Um Matt introduced

425
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Speaker 1: us to t S I all these different things. UM,

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Speaker 1: but he all like one of the biggest things he

427
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Speaker 1: mentioned to us was uh, kind of separating the eight

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Speaker 1: into different management units and going about it that way,

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00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,359
Speaker 1: which was I would say the most helpful thing he

430
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Speaker 1: told us the whole time. So we broke eighty acres

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Speaker 1: into six different management units. Um, and then we would

432
00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:46,840
Speaker 1: decide what we were going to do in eacht unit,

433
00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:50,399
Speaker 1: whether we're going to completely leave it alone, or food

434
00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:52,960
Speaker 1: plot here, some t s I work here, maybe a

435
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:56,520
Speaker 1: prescribed fire um. So that kind of helped us really

436
00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:59,400
Speaker 1: just slow down and look at it a big picture. Yeah,

437
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:02,399
Speaker 1: and I would say, a, UM, one of one of

438
00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:04,679
Speaker 1: the things the first thing he was like, he was like,

439
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:06,720
Speaker 1: the first thing I do, guys, is make roads on

440
00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:09,600
Speaker 1: the property. Make a road around the entire perimeter, make

441
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:12,600
Speaker 1: roads throughout. And when he told me that the first time,

442
00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:17,040
Speaker 1: I was like, mhm, Like I don't completely agree with

443
00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:18,720
Speaker 1: that being the first thing that you should do. But

444
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:22,639
Speaker 1: now three years later, I'm like, one, Like, if you're

445
00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:25,119
Speaker 1: a new landowner, put roads on that property so you

446
00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:29,000
Speaker 1: can get around. Um, why is that so important? Because

447
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,040
Speaker 1: I bet you there's a lot of people skeptical just

448
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:34,919
Speaker 1: like you were. Yeah. So one, fire breaks. If you're

449
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:37,640
Speaker 1: going to prescribe fire, roads are perfect fire breaks. Yeah,

450
00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 1: and if I mean that was like one of the

451
00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:43,080
Speaker 1: biggest things that um he he and so many other

452
00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:46,280
Speaker 1: landmakers we talked to stents have just like prescribed fire

453
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:48,960
Speaker 1: is just like one of the if you ask any

454
00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:51,480
Speaker 1: land managers, it's in the top three things that you

455
00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:53,720
Speaker 1: want to do with the property. So, um, it makes

456
00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:57,119
Speaker 1: sense just to have that that road. Yeah. So that

457
00:22:57,560 --> 00:22:59,800
Speaker 1: and then just being able to access different pieces is what.

458
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:01,600
Speaker 1: Or you shoot a deer back there and don't have

459
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,720
Speaker 1: to drag it out a half mile, or if you're

460
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:08,120
Speaker 1: carrying a twenty pound chainsaw and fuel and water and

461
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,280
Speaker 1: chaps and all that stuff during a hot day or something.

462
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: I mean, just getting around places has been like we

463
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:17,679
Speaker 1: didn't have like really decent roads until this last year

464
00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:20,639
Speaker 1: and it has made like a night and day difference

465
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:22,760
Speaker 1: just with like being able to finish things faster. And

466
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:24,760
Speaker 1: then also like with our eighty, it's so thick, the

467
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:27,840
Speaker 1: structure so thick that deer use them as highways. Like

468
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:30,040
Speaker 1: if you cut something, if you cut a path through

469
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:32,040
Speaker 1: the eight, the structure is so thick around here that

470
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,560
Speaker 1: it becomes a highway. Like I walked some roads this

471
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:37,880
Speaker 1: this offseason that we cut and I had I hadn't

472
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:42,240
Speaker 1: been there since like probably last spring, and I mean

473
00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,000
Speaker 1: scrapes all over it, rubs running up and down because

474
00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:47,200
Speaker 1: deer can get there now and they couldn't get there before.

475
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:49,440
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean it just made our our work

476
00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 1: go way faster. So these management units that Matt recommended,

477
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,880
Speaker 1: you guys use, uh, why why does that matter? Why

478
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,440
Speaker 1: is that something that you guys actually found relief valuable?

479
00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:02,879
Speaker 1: And then can you kind of describe to me what

480
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:08,000
Speaker 1: those management units look like in your specific example. Yeah,

481
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:13,320
Speaker 1: so we we really broke up the management units. Um uh,

482
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,159
Speaker 1: all because of Matt, because like we'd be just walking

483
00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:18,240
Speaker 1: and he would just like stop and be like, all right,

484
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 1: we're in a brand new management unit, just because he

485
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:24,800
Speaker 1: could tell timber change, structure, change of the forest floor.

486
00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 1: Um but what they look like are either basically differentiate

487
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:36,080
Speaker 1: them because uh, there would be really good um like

488
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 1: like oaks and really good timber, and then you'd go

489
00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 1: over one ridge and then it'd be crappy, crappy bowl

490
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 1: on the maybe honey locust hedge. So he'd differentiated how

491
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,000
Speaker 1: we're going to handle the differences there and what we

492
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 1: want to utilize, what we want to get rid of

493
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,400
Speaker 1: so um we always just we we went, we came

494
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 1: on the eight thinking like okay, it's just all timber,

495
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 1: that's it was just all one unit to us. But

496
00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:01,679
Speaker 1: him studying this is completely different. This needs to be

497
00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 1: managed completely different. Um was huge. Yeah. So, like we

498
00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:08,680
Speaker 1: had again we had six different units, like Unit one,

499
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:10,760
Speaker 1: I remember Unit one and two. They were in like

500
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:13,480
Speaker 1: our southeast corner, which has been like traditionally like we

501
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 1: have like the some of the most son back there.

502
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:18,080
Speaker 1: And then also like it's like a cedar just like

503
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 1: really good like betting area, and so we kind of

504
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:23,159
Speaker 1: like designated those, okay, is like we're not gonna like

505
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 1: really hunt those and we're not really gonna, um like

506
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:28,520
Speaker 1: go in there very often. That's kind of be the

507
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:32,160
Speaker 1: sanctuary kind of. And those things have actually changed because

508
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,160
Speaker 1: we killed two bucks in December and the unit one

509
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,200
Speaker 1: this last year. But like basically like it gave us

510
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:39,679
Speaker 1: like really specific jobs we needed to do, so we

511
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,239
Speaker 1: could go through every single management unit and then have

512
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,160
Speaker 1: tasks we wanted to do in each one of those.

513
00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:48,439
Speaker 1: So like management Unit three on our property was on

514
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:50,480
Speaker 1: the west side of the ground and it was all

515
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:53,200
Speaker 1: like food plots so it's like, okay, there's zero timber

516
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 1: cutting here, but like in April May, you're gonna need

517
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 1: to figure out some food plots and maybe you wanted

518
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 1: the fall plot. Yeah, it wasn't food plot when we bottom,

519
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:03,480
Speaker 1: it's all just pasture ground. The owner previously just ran

520
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 1: cattle through it. Also, no food there. We we just

521
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,280
Speaker 1: got the soil tested in UM. That was an easy

522
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 1: management unit's up again for people who might UM own

523
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: smaller tracts for just find property. We have no farming equipment.

524
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:19,960
Speaker 1: We just talked to a local farmer and he'll come over.

525
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 1: We pay him hourly, cover all expenses for stuff, and

526
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,879
Speaker 1: he comes over and he puts in beans, corn um, Egyptian,

527
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 1: we stuff like that. UM then comes back and sprays

528
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 1: it and checks. So that's been super easy. So yeah,

529
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,240
Speaker 1: that was like Management Unit three were UM and then

530
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 1: Management Unit six was in our northeast corner and that

531
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: was like, okay, this is like supermature walnut oak. He's like, okay,

532
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:44,440
Speaker 1: you don't really like this would be a really good

533
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,160
Speaker 1: UM hunting unit because like you have like a really

534
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 1: interesting creek system right here that the deer would probably use.

535
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:52,800
Speaker 1: But like you're like you should get a like a

536
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 1: forester in here to harvest some of this timber. So

537
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:56,359
Speaker 1: it just gave us a really good way to break

538
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 1: up the unit into smaller sections and just have really

539
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: really sent goals instead of like looking at a whole lady,

540
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:04,359
Speaker 1: be like, wow, I just so much. What should we

541
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,800
Speaker 1: where should we even start? Just like, Okay, let's start

542
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:08,840
Speaker 1: a unit one today and then next week we can

543
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: maybe work on food plus unit three stuff like that.

544
00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:14,280
Speaker 1: So yeah, that seems I can make it a lot

545
00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:17,720
Speaker 1: less intimidating. Hum. That makes that makes a lot of sense.

546
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,760
Speaker 1: So then back to developing this plan. So other than

547
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,719
Speaker 1: Matt being there on the ground with you and showing

548
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:41,400
Speaker 1: you stuff, what were the what were the most useful

549
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,199
Speaker 1: resources or people or books or I don't know, what

550
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,440
Speaker 1: were the other things that you were utilizing in those

551
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 1: early months when you were trying to figure out what

552
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: the heck do I do with all this ground and

553
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:56,359
Speaker 1: all this everything? What were the most helpful things to

554
00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:00,119
Speaker 1: get started? It came it was nice Mark, because you

555
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:02,239
Speaker 1: were on your first year at the back forty two,

556
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:04,639
Speaker 1: So I'd be watching those YouTube videos like what's what's

557
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 1: Mark dealing with? And he's trying to start this more

558
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:10,159
Speaker 1: and and then I felt better about what we were

559
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:13,680
Speaker 1: doing on the e D and we started far more.

560
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:17,640
Speaker 1: We got issues too, but it's just like I don't

561
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 1: know that the new things we are are big time mentors,

562
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 1: I would say in the outdoor industry or the Harlem

563
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:27,359
Speaker 1: Bill hunter guys um so Sean and Mike, they've been

564
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: a huge resource and obviously they give us tips on

565
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 1: some timber things and also just prescribed fire opened up

566
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: our eyes a big time on there um. But um

567
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 1: landing Legacy guys have been pretty huge with land managing

568
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: over the past few years as well. I would say

569
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 1: that was more in the last few years we've really

570
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 1: hooked onto some of their their thoughts and ideas and

571
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 1: the way they managed properties. The early on, it was

572
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 1: a lot of reading and then having that farmer helped

573
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:55,720
Speaker 1: us really is. He helped us with the first prescribed fire.

574
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 1: He helped us um understand where a good food plot

575
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,440
Speaker 1: start um starting point would be for our bigger plots.

576
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 1: And then we that first year we did also have

577
00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:09,239
Speaker 1: um gosh, just one clover plot. Um. He helped us

578
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: get in there, till it up a little bit, and

579
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 1: we we decided that first year that we were going

580
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 1: to do minimal change because we wanted to see really

581
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 1: how the deer used the property property naturally. And I

582
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 1: think we did. I think that was a good decision

583
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,880
Speaker 1: because um we did. Uh. We did end up having

584
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,560
Speaker 1: like a really really good hunt um early October, and

585
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: we haven't killed an early season buck since. Um. But

586
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,600
Speaker 1: we just kind of laid off of it, and besides

587
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 1: doing maybe some little cutting here and there during the

588
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:45,920
Speaker 1: during the summer and putting in food plots, we just said, Okay,

589
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:49,560
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna see what this eight does Natchurally, yeah, Matt.

590
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,000
Speaker 1: Having Matt down to the property definitely like lift the

591
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: fire on us though, to like learn the timber and

592
00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:57,120
Speaker 1: the plants there. Um. And one of the most helpful

593
00:29:57,160 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 1: things I had on my phone was actually like a

594
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:03,440
Speaker 1: plant identification app. And I'm like, hey, if you don't

595
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:05,600
Speaker 1: want to play for pay for the subscription, that's up

596
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:08,720
Speaker 1: to you. But the few bucks a month has paid

597
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 1: off huge for me. Um. So I'm just like, I'm

598
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 1: a freaking plant tree nerd now and basically just take

599
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 1: picks of everything I don't know and then when I

600
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:20,240
Speaker 1: get service, I can download those and see what they are,

601
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 1: and then I literally will google different resources and try

602
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:24,360
Speaker 1: to find out if they're good or bad to be here.

603
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:27,480
Speaker 1: So it's been it's been a lot of that, just

604
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 1: like own research and just doing some digging. But there

605
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 1: have been like a few different books, Like you can

606
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 1: get different books of like trees, like the Eastern and

607
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:37,680
Speaker 1: half United States, things like that. But like finding it

608
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: and like equating it to white tails and food sources

609
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,080
Speaker 1: is tough, like finding what trees and plants are really

610
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: solid for for white tails and different um, I mean

611
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:50,200
Speaker 1: any type of animal that's using the property and stuff

612
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 1: like that. So um really, I mean just having those

613
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 1: few individuals that helped us out and we'd we'd send Matt.

614
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: We still send mat text every once in a while

615
00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:00,040
Speaker 1: be like is this good? Should we get rid of it? Is?

616
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 1: Should we keep it around? Things like that. So it's

617
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 1: just a little by little, Um that's that's the biggest thing,

618
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 1: because it I mean coming to uh in eighty acres

619
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: or however big property somebody owns, I mean, there's gonna

620
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 1: be hundreds of different things that you probably don't know

621
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:16,360
Speaker 1: on on the plant and tree side of things. So

622
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 1: just pick off a few every single time, figure out

623
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,600
Speaker 1: if they're helping gear not helping gear, and then deal

624
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:25,760
Speaker 1: with them as you wish baby steps. I think that's

625
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 1: that's definitely something I learned to. You know, I don't

626
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:30,160
Speaker 1: know if you guys have seen this book, but Dr

627
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:33,840
Speaker 1: Craig Harper has a great book UM about food plots

628
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:37,640
Speaker 1: and early successional plants and grasses. And within that one,

629
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 1: he's got a bunch of species UM I D pages.

630
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:44,040
Speaker 1: I guess where it breaks down. Okay, this is what

631
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: this plant looks like, and then a whole bunch of

632
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,360
Speaker 1: different nutritional information and how preferred it is by deer

633
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:52,160
Speaker 1: and wildlife and other stuff. That was a good one

634
00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:54,680
Speaker 1: for me with the back forty UM. I used one

635
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:56,440
Speaker 1: of those apps too. I can't remember the name of it.

636
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 1: I think it's I Naturalist is the one I've used UM,

637
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 1: and that was pretty good. UM. But I want to

638
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: I want to go back to something you mentioned a

639
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 1: second ago, because it sounds like something I wish I

640
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 1: could find at a I don't know, Cabela's or Bess

641
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 1: pro shops, or I don't know, on the Mediator's store.

642
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 1: You mentioned that you have got a farmer who helps

643
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:19,280
Speaker 1: playing your food plots and tells you what to plan.

644
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 1: How can I get me one of those that would

645
00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:25,160
Speaker 1: be very helpful? In all seriousness, how how did you

646
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:29,000
Speaker 1: go about, you know, developing a relationship with this person

647
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:30,840
Speaker 1: enough so that he would help you out? Because that

648
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:32,440
Speaker 1: is a huge thing I think for a lot of

649
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: people that most probably aren't you know, able to either

650
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:38,280
Speaker 1: find somebody like that or have the confidence to ask

651
00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 1: for that kind of help. How did that come about

652
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,320
Speaker 1: for you? Guys? What's really worked well for us Mark

653
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:47,320
Speaker 1: is is actually getting these contacts through land agents in

654
00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: the area because they're talking to so many different farmers

655
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 1: and they most of the time that's that's how we

656
00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:57,240
Speaker 1: got our farmer. He's helping us um most of the time.

657
00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:00,320
Speaker 1: They're pretty integrated to the area and they know who's

658
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:03,160
Speaker 1: going to be willing to help you out or um

659
00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:05,960
Speaker 1: work some hourly rate out for you. So I would

660
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:09,560
Speaker 1: say land agents number one are farmer Kevin. He's I mean,

661
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: he's awesome. He He also shows us things, which is

662
00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 1: like he has he has patients for us two year

663
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:18,560
Speaker 1: olds to like actually like dive into learning the equipment

664
00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 1: and why he's spraying this or why like how deep

665
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:23,440
Speaker 1: he's planned seeds, which is like a huge I mean

666
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:25,960
Speaker 1: huge help. But he's also just an avid white tail hunter.

667
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:28,400
Speaker 1: I asked him, I'm pretty sure his last year is like,

668
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: how like, did you hunt as much of the season? Oh?

669
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 1: I hunted every day. I was like, every day? Are

670
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:36,600
Speaker 1: you serious? Every day? And he's like, he's like a

671
00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: die hard. I think he does a lot of like

672
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 1: traditional bow hanging. He literally hunted every day of the season.

673
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, that's that's awesome. Like he he also

674
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 1: I mean if you hunt every day of the season,

675
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 1: I mean, even if you hunt half the days in

676
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 1: the season, you're gonna really know white chill as well.

677
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 1: And so like he's coming at it with like a

678
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 1: really white till my mind frame two. But yeah, we

679
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,280
Speaker 1: just got lucky with the land agent that helped us

680
00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:58,880
Speaker 1: out with the property just knew him in the area UM,

681
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:01,320
Speaker 1: and so it was just like asking around. I think

682
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:03,360
Speaker 1: even just knocking on some doors on our neighbors were

683
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 1: really fortunate. Even if we did have our buddy Kevin,

684
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:08,799
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's some neighbors in the area that we've

685
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:12,200
Speaker 1: created relationships with UM that would totally help us out

686
00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:14,640
Speaker 1: that was one thing that we kind of haven't talked about.

687
00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:17,400
Speaker 1: Like the second time we came down here, Tom Snyd

688
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:20,279
Speaker 1: went around to every school neighbor on the eight and

689
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:22,799
Speaker 1: knocked on doors and shook their hands and we're the

690
00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:25,000
Speaker 1: new guys in town. It's nice to meet you. Um,

691
00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 1: that's kind of what we're about, and stuff like that.

692
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 1: And just like having those relationships, getting some phone numbers

693
00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:33,640
Speaker 1: here and there has i mean paid dividends. But yeah,

694
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:36,680
Speaker 1: I would just man reach out to anybody in the

695
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:39,440
Speaker 1: area because you'll they're out there. There's more there's more

696
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:41,759
Speaker 1: of them out there that can also lead to um

697
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:44,680
Speaker 1: different things down the road. Maybe they want to bail

698
00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 1: some like uh crp on your ground or anything like that.

699
00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 1: Um or or if you want to like have some

700
00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 1: cows roam around. Um. There's all different avenues that can

701
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:59,680
Speaker 1: lead in that relationship. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's hard to

702
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:03,040
Speaker 1: their state just how important that is. I mean, there's

703
00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:05,200
Speaker 1: it's just a hard not to understand how important that

704
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,800
Speaker 1: is because there's not only everything you describe, but also

705
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:11,640
Speaker 1: just like all the weird things that can happen when

706
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:14,040
Speaker 1: you hunt next to other people and you know, deer

707
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:17,200
Speaker 1: crossing property lines or other people showing up, or just

708
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:19,879
Speaker 1: a million things that if you have a relationship, it

709
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 1: makes so much easier to deal with. Um. The other day,

710
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: we had a prescribed fire and it was at night,

711
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:29,840
Speaker 1: and I got text from like every single neighboring area.

712
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 1: Like we we try to text a lot of the

713
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:33,200
Speaker 1: people that like the smoke would be going on too

714
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:35,000
Speaker 1: or something, just let him know. I was like, Man,

715
00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 1: if someday the eight starts lying on the fire, we're

716
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 1: gonna have that taken care of because the neighbors are

717
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 1: watching out for us. Yeah, And it was that was

718
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:45,279
Speaker 1: that night. Yea. So it's a great thing to have. Uh.

719
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit more about the food

720
00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:49,879
Speaker 1: because I mean, if there's if there's anything that deer

721
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 1: hunting land managers like to geek out about its food plots.

722
00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:57,120
Speaker 1: All right, Um, how how did that start for you?

723
00:35:57,160 --> 00:35:59,640
Speaker 1: I know you had somebody there who had some experience

724
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:01,759
Speaker 1: who was able to help direct you guys and do

725
00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:04,479
Speaker 1: a bunch of that. Um, but what do those first

726
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:07,120
Speaker 1: food plots look like? What did you guys choose? How

727
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:09,759
Speaker 1: did you plan you know, the shapes, the size, all

728
00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:11,840
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And then how has that changed

729
00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:16,880
Speaker 1: over the last two and at three years Yeah, again

730
00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:19,560
Speaker 1: it's like what did we see, Uh, what do we

731
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 1: see the HP guys filming their bucks overs? Like, hey,

732
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:24,400
Speaker 1: we gotta do beans. We gotta do do what we

733
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 1: see on the outdoor channel. So we did beans right away,

734
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:29,600
Speaker 1: and um we told Matt Ross that. We were like

735
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:31,360
Speaker 1: we're just gonna do We're gonna do beans in this

736
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:33,600
Speaker 1: big field. And he's like why, Like why would you

737
00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:35,520
Speaker 1: do why would you do I was almost like taken back.

738
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 1: We were like at breakfast drinking coffee and I just

739
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: said like nonchaline, like, We're gonna do a bean food plot.

740
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:43,799
Speaker 1: He's like like, why would you do beans? Like like

741
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:47,239
Speaker 1: you're if you're going to manage just for for for deer,

742
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:50,640
Speaker 1: like do something like a little extra maybe, um, something

743
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:53,440
Speaker 1: that's that we won't find on every other property around

744
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:57,000
Speaker 1: that your neighbors have. But um, he wasn't like against it.

745
00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 1: He was just like he just was asking the question. Um.

746
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:02,960
Speaker 1: And we did end up doing beans um there, but

747
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,400
Speaker 1: we we definitely um kind of changed it up with

748
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 1: our clover plot and braska game. We did. Uh yeah,

749
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,359
Speaker 1: we did beans. All I don't know was it maybe

750
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 1: three acre Our biggest plot is a three acre plot,

751
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:19,239
Speaker 1: three to four acres, and we did beans um both

752
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:21,319
Speaker 1: our first dand second year and then switched it up

753
00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:24,160
Speaker 1: this year. But yeah, that first year we did all

754
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:27,120
Speaker 1: beans and then clover um in one small spot. And

755
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:29,320
Speaker 1: those beans that we did, we did stripped some Braska

756
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:31,480
Speaker 1: mixed in there, so you kind of had strips. It

757
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:33,520
Speaker 1: was kind of like you have ten feet of beans.

758
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:35,239
Speaker 1: But we had beans all through this summer, and then

759
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:38,200
Speaker 1: the fall, Kevin, our farmer, came through and like put

760
00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:41,600
Speaker 1: a few, um a kind of late season um food

761
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:44,400
Speaker 1: plot stuff, so we had like peas in their winter pieas,

762
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:47,399
Speaker 1: and we had we had there's a Braska mix in there,

763
00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:49,719
Speaker 1: um kind of stripped out in there. So that was it.

764
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:51,600
Speaker 1: I mean, it was basically we kind of just took

765
00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 1: like easy approach, like Okay, we don't really need to

766
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,280
Speaker 1: remove any timber, let's just do a big old food

767
00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,000
Speaker 1: plow right here. Just I mean, I don't I mean,

768
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: whether you can find beans on our property or other properties,

769
00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:04,080
Speaker 1: like it's it's still a food source there right next

770
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 1: to really good betting. So we just kind of went

771
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:09,520
Speaker 1: at that and what makes it um extra good for

772
00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:11,080
Speaker 1: the deer on our ground is that we just we

773
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,120
Speaker 1: don't we obviously don't cut it. We just leave it

774
00:38:13,200 --> 00:38:16,680
Speaker 1: standing all all through uh the fall, through the winter.

775
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 1: So they definitely like hammered that December and January. Yeah.

776
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:24,719
Speaker 1: And then Clover, we only had one clover plot that

777
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:27,319
Speaker 1: first year, and it was we had to do a

778
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:30,799
Speaker 1: lot of timber removal to find this clover plot. But

779
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,359
Speaker 1: it was kind of the we kind of went after

780
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,520
Speaker 1: with it being really easy to access um and then

781
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:40,200
Speaker 1: there's some really good um travel corridors through there UM

782
00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:41,799
Speaker 1: and so that that kind of led us to it.

783
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 1: Wasn't like we weren't I don't know if we made

784
00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:47,000
Speaker 1: like the most knowledgeable decision. It's like it paid off

785
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:48,880
Speaker 1: because it's still a really good spot. But we were

786
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:51,399
Speaker 1: just kind of like, Okay, we need to remove quite

787
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:53,480
Speaker 1: a few trees, but it already looks like it's a

788
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:55,560
Speaker 1: really good travel route UM and be easy to get too.

789
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 1: So that was kind of our our basis of Clover.

790
00:38:57,560 --> 00:38:59,080
Speaker 1: And then we just know Clover is just an easy

791
00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:02,319
Speaker 1: one to do. UM. We just had that first year,

792
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:05,759
Speaker 1: we had our farmer just till up that area, so

793
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:07,200
Speaker 1: we made a road back there and he tiled it

794
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:09,600
Speaker 1: up so we could just frost seed clover and it's

795
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,040
Speaker 1: been it's been a money plot for us the last

796
00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:15,680
Speaker 1: few years. We haven't like shot a buck like in

797
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:18,200
Speaker 1: the clover, but we've we've shot mine this November like

798
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:20,719
Speaker 1: right next to it, and then it's just been it's

799
00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:23,320
Speaker 1: been like dough Central. So like obviously if you have

800
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:25,759
Speaker 1: something that's like dough Central in the October November, then

801
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:28,120
Speaker 1: you start getting those bucks through there um. And so

802
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 1: that's that's basically that was our first year and kind of,

803
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:32,719
Speaker 1: like Tom said earlier, that first year, we kind of

804
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:35,480
Speaker 1: just wanted to leave hands off, don't do anything like

805
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:37,560
Speaker 1: crazy on the management side, and just kind of see

806
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:40,759
Speaker 1: how the deer naturally used the property. So you throw

807
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:43,520
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff at the wall. That year what

808
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:45,919
Speaker 1: stuck the best? I mean you mentioned that clover turned

809
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:49,320
Speaker 1: out great, but what what were the big lessons learned?

810
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:53,600
Speaker 1: I guess from that first year of trying those different things. Man.

811
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:57,000
Speaker 1: I I would say obviously like the food horses were huge,

812
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:00,960
Speaker 1: like we but are but would almost say like not

813
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:03,279
Speaker 1: as not as big as we thought they were going

814
00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:05,280
Speaker 1: to be, And we're just starting to get there because

815
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:09,600
Speaker 1: bucks like nobody none of the deer knew that like

816
00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:13,080
Speaker 1: associated the property with food because it had never really

817
00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:15,920
Speaker 1: been there besides what was naturally there with the brows.

818
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 1: But um, they just we would not have like crazy

819
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:23,040
Speaker 1: nights where the bean plots were just absolutely full like

820
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:25,520
Speaker 1: that just never happened. And we're just starting to get

821
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:28,680
Speaker 1: there because now it's been gosh, this will be our

822
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:32,879
Speaker 1: fourth spring that the fonds will have been born. So um,

823
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:35,279
Speaker 1: if you're a four year old deer, then you've known

824
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 1: the eighty how we've how we've managed it. So we're

825
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:41,799
Speaker 1: starting to starting to get that that age class up

826
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:47,040
Speaker 1: from our ownership. But yeah, I would say honestly, the

827
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:50,880
Speaker 1: our second hunt ever on the eighty, Thomas shot a

828
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:54,319
Speaker 1: hundred fifty buck coming after the beans on October three,

829
00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:57,840
Speaker 1: and I think that kind of ruined us for a

830
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:00,560
Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, Like I think it was like, oh

831
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,680
Speaker 1: my go gosh, yeah, this is this is this is

832
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:07,440
Speaker 1: what we're talking about, like Kansas, Like I'm like so

833
00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:09,359
Speaker 1: pumped about this, and I mean, don't get me wrong,

834
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:11,439
Speaker 1: it was like the best hunt ever. I mean there's

835
00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:14,120
Speaker 1: a massive could for anyone. Like I think we shot

836
00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:16,239
Speaker 1: him on a Wednesday or I think Wednesday and I

837
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 1: think the Tuesday before was like ninety degrees and that

838
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:20,239
Speaker 1: day it was like forty, so like pulled front to

839
00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:23,000
Speaker 1: the nines. You had a rainstorm that night, so like

840
00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 1: everything was like leading up to it. Um, And yeah,

841
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:30,279
Speaker 1: I mean that evening a freaking the biggest buck. I

842
00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:32,440
Speaker 1: mean Thomas had shot at that point, walked out in

843
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,040
Speaker 1: ten yards right to a scrape tree. We put up

844
00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 1: that evening and shot like hard shot and was like, man, like,

845
00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 1: this is it. This is all we have to do.

846
00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:42,920
Speaker 1: And I think it like made us trust in like

847
00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:47,680
Speaker 1: the food plot hunting too much. Um, definitely for the

848
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:50,120
Speaker 1: rest of that year, and then the next year was

849
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:52,960
Speaker 1: like we definitely had to like figure things out, kind

850
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:56,360
Speaker 1: of reset our minds, like, Okay, that did happen, but like,

851
00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:58,920
Speaker 1: don't think it did because that's still like there are

852
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:01,680
Speaker 1: a lot of things that came up to that moment

853
00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,440
Speaker 1: um that we're also going in our favorite besides just

854
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:07,319
Speaker 1: sitting in a tree on a bean edge and early tour.

855
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:09,879
Speaker 1: So it was that was definitely a good thing, but

856
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:12,799
Speaker 1: I think we also did put too much emphasis on

857
00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:15,919
Speaker 1: the field. But um, those things definitely stuck. And then

858
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:17,960
Speaker 1: the I think one of the biggest things that stuck

859
00:42:18,040 --> 00:42:21,360
Speaker 1: was just seeing how um the deer were using it.

860
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:24,200
Speaker 1: Having a full year of trail camp picks all over

861
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:27,640
Speaker 1: the property that we could analyze and all that stuff. Yeah,

862
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,600
Speaker 1: I would say, Um, getting back to our goals, like

863
00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:34,400
Speaker 1: what you asked earlier, Mark, we we did buy a

864
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:36,840
Speaker 1: little I would say, it's little, but it's just a

865
00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:41,200
Speaker 1: like a twenty six inch mower that we basically um

866
00:42:41,239 --> 00:42:46,000
Speaker 1: walked behind. And um having that and creating paths um

867
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:48,760
Speaker 1: was a huge, huge piece and they kind of already

868
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:50,640
Speaker 1: talked on it, like when we created a path, it

869
00:42:50,719 --> 00:42:54,239
Speaker 1: became a highway. So figuring that out, Um, we had

870
00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:57,800
Speaker 1: never really seen that happened before on anything else we've hunted,

871
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:01,239
Speaker 1: so UM, having that that little um walk behind more

872
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:03,840
Speaker 1: was was huge. Yeah, I mean to kind of paint

873
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:06,359
Speaker 1: the picture, like, so most of our eighty is like

874
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:10,400
Speaker 1: a hunt like crown closure, which means like it's basically

875
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:13,920
Speaker 1: all shaded. So then um, it's all shade and then

876
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 1: like up to like up to your waist. Basically you've

877
00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:21,120
Speaker 1: got buck brush, you have multi flour rows, mazoovery gooseberry,

878
00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:25,560
Speaker 1: are there raspberry? So like I mean walking through anywhere,

879
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 1: most of those things have thorns that are getting you,

880
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:32,680
Speaker 1: grabbing you, um, and like it's not trudging basically. So

881
00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:36,120
Speaker 1: as soon as you mow like a path with like

882
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:38,120
Speaker 1: two inches of grass at the bottom, now, like that's

883
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:40,000
Speaker 1: why it becomes a highway because obviously do you want

884
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:42,840
Speaker 1: to use least resistance and stuff. UM. So we really

885
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:45,480
Speaker 1: realized that that was huge and we kind of hunted

886
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 1: according to that. So did you end up changing how

887
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:52,840
Speaker 1: and where you mowed to get deer where you wanted them?

888
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:55,919
Speaker 1: Or did you just recognize, Okay, the paths that we're

889
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:58,400
Speaker 1: using where they are dy are start being used and

890
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:00,359
Speaker 1: then that changed where you hunted? Like s what I'm

891
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 1: trying to say, did you change where you mode or

892
00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:03,960
Speaker 1: did you change where you hunted because of that observation.

893
00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:05,759
Speaker 1: We did a little bit of both. It kind of

894
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:09,320
Speaker 1: dependent in the area. We definitely mode certain areas after

895
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:13,120
Speaker 1: that first season to be able to UM because we

896
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:14,879
Speaker 1: knew we could hunt them easily and we knew they'd

897
00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:17,359
Speaker 1: get used UM. But that also we did we did

898
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:19,920
Speaker 1: move some of our hunting spots to UM places that

899
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 1: we already had mode that we realized we're just getting

900
00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:25,440
Speaker 1: trampled on basically and also we did um, some of

901
00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:27,880
Speaker 1: those mode areas we would we realized like, man, okay,

902
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:30,839
Speaker 1: this is getting like a ton of traffic. Um, let's

903
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,040
Speaker 1: move it a little bit more and add another clover plot.

904
00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:37,240
Speaker 1: So like right now in two we have three clover

905
00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:40,239
Speaker 1: plot for four clover plots now, um, so you can

906
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 1: kind of see how that's expanded. Um, And that a

907
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:45,399
Speaker 1: lot of that came through mowing certain areas and kind

908
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:47,719
Speaker 1: of seeing where the deer wanted to go now that

909
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:50,120
Speaker 1: we had opened some areas up. Yes, so tell me

910
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:53,520
Speaker 1: more about that. So you know, on the food plot side,

911
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:55,719
Speaker 1: year one, you had the big food plot up front,

912
00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:59,279
Speaker 1: you did some different things. Um. I'm sure over the

913
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:03,240
Speaker 1: years you've you've you've adjusted, you've tweaked, some things didn't

914
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:06,120
Speaker 1: work out, some things did. Where do things stand now

915
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:08,479
Speaker 1: with how you look at food and how you're putting

916
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:12,359
Speaker 1: in those food plots? Because I mean, even though you

917
00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:14,640
Speaker 1: have a guy who's helping you put in these plots,

918
00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:16,439
Speaker 1: you still have to pay him for his hourly works.

919
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:18,440
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're trying to get more efficient and more

920
00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:21,919
Speaker 1: cost effective with all of that. So where has has

921
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:25,839
Speaker 1: your several year long lesson taking you to now? What's

922
00:45:25,840 --> 00:45:30,000
Speaker 1: it gonna look like here? In Yeah, so one of

923
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:33,719
Speaker 1: the first things Matt Ross Tolis was just because there's

924
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:37,600
Speaker 1: open canopy here does not mean that you should put

925
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:39,600
Speaker 1: a food plot here. And that kind of led us

926
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:42,799
Speaker 1: to um like deciding to not do a lot of

927
00:45:42,800 --> 00:45:46,239
Speaker 1: work that first year. But yeah, from from first year

928
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:52,399
Speaker 1: to this management season, UM, we just we did put

929
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:56,160
Speaker 1: a couple of plots in where UM, we tested the

930
00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:58,040
Speaker 1: soil and we thought it would be the best. Um,

931
00:45:58,080 --> 00:46:00,960
Speaker 1: where did we find like those soil maps? With that

932
00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:04,240
Speaker 1: trying to think about where we found those soil maps

933
00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:07,279
Speaker 1: that UM Matt like Ross printed off a ton of

934
00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:10,120
Speaker 1: things and gave it to us. UM I should ask him, um,

935
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:14,319
Speaker 1: but we got basically a map of what soil would

936
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:15,880
Speaker 1: be good. So we went off of those for the

937
00:46:15,920 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 1: future years and UM, I guess just getting off what

938
00:46:19,239 --> 00:46:23,760
Speaker 1: they said seeing about seeing where those dense travel areas were,

939
00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:26,400
Speaker 1: we would start with doing timber work in those spots,

940
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:29,440
Speaker 1: and then then that was probably more. Year two is

941
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:31,960
Speaker 1: is let's let's work the timber around this area and

942
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:34,319
Speaker 1: maybe gets more sunlight and then see how they use it.

943
00:46:34,360 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 1: And then year three was okay, let's burn this area

944
00:46:37,200 --> 00:46:40,719
Speaker 1: now since there's been more sunlight UM and it's able

945
00:46:40,719 --> 00:46:44,319
Speaker 1: to actually run fire through it. And then UM, this

946
00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:46,359
Speaker 1: year has kind of turned into a great let's let's

947
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 1: plan it with something, whether that's um, some warm season

948
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:54,000
Speaker 1: grasses we have or clover mix. Yeah, we're wanting to

949
00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:57,120
Speaker 1: get into the more like natural just uh, let's just

950
00:46:57,280 --> 00:47:00,040
Speaker 1: make the food sources that are naturally in the in

951
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:03,160
Speaker 1: the seed bank. Let's like just try to build those up.

952
00:47:03,200 --> 00:47:06,120
Speaker 1: So that's why we're doing so much timber cutting, because UM,

953
00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:07,879
Speaker 1: you have food plots are great, but we really want

954
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:10,160
Speaker 1: like the whole ady to just be a food source

955
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:13,879
Speaker 1: for these deer. UM. But I guess like one thing

956
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:17,279
Speaker 1: that's really transformer plots is not um just not being

957
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:19,480
Speaker 1: boxed in and also just like trying to get as

958
00:47:19,520 --> 00:47:22,480
Speaker 1: many resources as possible. UM. We have one of our

959
00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:26,600
Speaker 1: best plots. It's like basically smack middle of our ground. UM,

960
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:28,719
Speaker 1: really close like surrounded by good betting, but also like

961
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:31,880
Speaker 1: only a hundred yards yards from our big bean in

962
00:47:31,960 --> 00:47:34,719
Speaker 1: corn plot that we rotate. UM. And Sean Lucto from

963
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:36,799
Speaker 1: Harland bow Hunter, we had him down to walk last

964
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:39,120
Speaker 1: year and he was like, Man, this area right here,

965
00:47:39,120 --> 00:47:40,879
Speaker 1: it's already a little open, but this would be like

966
00:47:41,239 --> 00:47:44,120
Speaker 1: primo for a nice transition pot of clover before they

967
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:47,520
Speaker 1: got out there. Um, so we've taken just these ideas

968
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:51,239
Speaker 1: from other land managers that they've really liked it and clover. Man,

969
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:53,000
Speaker 1: it's just so easy, Like that's I think why we

970
00:47:53,080 --> 00:47:56,880
Speaker 1: just we we go to clover because um, obviously you

971
00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 1: could just frost see that, try to get some open

972
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:01,520
Speaker 1: soil on there, which we usually mow and then spray

973
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:04,399
Speaker 1: to try to kill that grass. Um yeah, if you're

974
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:07,480
Speaker 1: if you're able to spray it early, burn it and

975
00:48:07,520 --> 00:48:11,120
Speaker 1: then frosted, I mean you can really cut out the farmer. Yeah.

976
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:13,960
Speaker 1: And then basically are our most recent plot that we

977
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:16,840
Speaker 1: actually are just making this year. We have haven't hunted

978
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,160
Speaker 1: it just like in the works right now. Um, we

979
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:21,560
Speaker 1: were just it was it's in our southeast corner where

980
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:24,360
Speaker 1: we uh we shot two bucks right in this area.

981
00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 1: Actually we've shot three over the last three years within

982
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:30,279
Speaker 1: fifty yards of where we are making this plot. Because

983
00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:33,280
Speaker 1: we're just like, man, they do so many different trails

984
00:48:33,280 --> 00:48:36,040
Speaker 1: in this area. Let's just have like a tiny I mean,

985
00:48:36,719 --> 00:48:38,759
Speaker 1: is it an eighth of an anchor? Maybe back there

986
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:41,080
Speaker 1: we're just like we just have a little clover right

987
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:42,719
Speaker 1: here just to stop them, like just get them to

988
00:48:42,760 --> 00:48:45,160
Speaker 1: pause when they're coming through here, just have like a

989
00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:47,960
Speaker 1: little destination before they go and chase the dough or

990
00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:50,160
Speaker 1: go and bed down or something like that. So it's

991
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:51,799
Speaker 1: just been kind of learning where they want to be

992
00:48:51,880 --> 00:49:08,880
Speaker 1: in adding that, so you talked about how much timber

993
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:12,040
Speaker 1: factored into things than year two and in these years since.

994
00:49:12,680 --> 00:49:14,880
Speaker 1: That's another one of those deals that I think probably

995
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:19,800
Speaker 1: is maybe underutilized by new land managers because it seems

996
00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:21,920
Speaker 1: a little bit harder or a little bit more intimidating.

997
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:24,560
Speaker 1: What was that like for you guys early on? Was

998
00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:26,320
Speaker 1: that like, hey, let's just jump right into it, or

999
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:29,160
Speaker 1: were you a little bit like I don't know exactly

1000
00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:31,520
Speaker 1: what we're doing here? You were you were pretty ancy,

1001
00:49:31,640 --> 00:49:33,799
Speaker 1: almost too anty. Like looking back at it, I would

1002
00:49:33,800 --> 00:49:35,399
Speaker 1: have been like if I could go back in time

1003
00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:37,840
Speaker 1: and telling myself, like, you need to slow down and

1004
00:49:37,920 --> 00:49:39,520
Speaker 1: you need to go learn a bunch of things before

1005
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:43,280
Speaker 1: you get into this, because um, it's definitely like definitely

1006
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:47,000
Speaker 1: learning curb and like man, timber cutting can like not

1007
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:48,799
Speaker 1: just scary, but like timber cutting can like put you

1008
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:50,440
Speaker 1: in a bad way if you're not if you're not

1009
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:53,600
Speaker 1: being safe about it just because you're dealing with um

1010
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:56,719
Speaker 1: big heavy trees some of them have if you're if

1011
00:49:56,719 --> 00:49:58,600
Speaker 1: you're cutting a honeymocus like we have down here, they

1012
00:49:58,640 --> 00:50:02,200
Speaker 1: have three storms and so like just being like overly safe,

1013
00:50:02,239 --> 00:50:04,640
Speaker 1: I think, Um, it was definitely something I would tell

1014
00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 1: my my previous self. But like we just we were

1015
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:09,120
Speaker 1: Auntie his heck to just like start cutting different things.

1016
00:50:09,120 --> 00:50:11,120
Speaker 1: And we we really knew what timber we wanted to

1017
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:13,040
Speaker 1: get rid of. We wanted to get rid of hedge

1018
00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:16,879
Speaker 1: locus um. We wanted to get rid of small wallnuts

1019
00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:18,920
Speaker 1: that weren't going to be any good for the timber market.

1020
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:22,640
Speaker 1: And then we really wanted to open up our oaks um.

1021
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:25,480
Speaker 1: We wanted to kind of we had different like tree

1022
00:50:25,520 --> 00:50:27,520
Speaker 1: species we wanted to hinge cut. We wanted to hinge

1023
00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:29,560
Speaker 1: cut some elms and things like that, and then some

1024
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:31,080
Speaker 1: trees we just wanted to kill off. We wanted to

1025
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:33,560
Speaker 1: kill off hickories um. And so we kind of just

1026
00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:36,080
Speaker 1: went through, we went to those management units and we're like,

1027
00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:37,520
Speaker 1: what do we need to get rid of here? And

1028
00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:39,040
Speaker 1: then we would just start getting rid of it and

1029
00:50:39,239 --> 00:50:41,680
Speaker 1: where we want to have more sunlight, and basically the

1030
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:44,279
Speaker 1: whole lady could have more sunlight still to this day,

1031
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:46,799
Speaker 1: it could have more sunlight basically everywhere. But we just

1032
00:50:46,880 --> 00:50:49,920
Speaker 1: kind of picked certain days and we would, UM, we

1033
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:53,400
Speaker 1: would girdle cut the entire tree down or hinge cut

1034
00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:56,960
Speaker 1: depending on what which trio was or where it was, UM,

1035
00:50:57,000 --> 00:50:59,239
Speaker 1: and then we'd we'd spray it and just knock out

1036
00:50:59,239 --> 00:51:02,600
Speaker 1: some of those species. But I would almost say you

1037
00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:05,880
Speaker 1: can do more help to wildlife management with the chainsaw

1038
00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:09,600
Speaker 1: than you can with with a food plot, just because

1039
00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:14,160
Speaker 1: it does so much for other animals and species as well, um,

1040
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:16,839
Speaker 1: all the birds and the property. Um. And then you've

1041
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:19,000
Speaker 1: got to talk. You can think about all the all

1042
00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:22,439
Speaker 1: the food sources that are now getting sunlight. UM. One

1043
00:51:22,440 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 1: thing that said to us that really stuff was like

1044
00:51:24,719 --> 00:51:28,360
Speaker 1: right now and year one, we have all shade loving species.

1045
00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:31,440
Speaker 1: What you want is some loving species. And that like

1046
00:51:31,560 --> 00:51:34,359
Speaker 1: really man, that that triggers something to us. We were like, okay,

1047
00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:36,840
Speaker 1: we need way more sund to hit the force floor. Um.

1048
00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:42,040
Speaker 1: Even just this UM this shed shed hunting season, we

1049
00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:45,040
Speaker 1: we dropped a ton of timber this offseason again and

1050
00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:48,359
Speaker 1: in one of our timber cutting spots. I was doing

1051
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:50,440
Speaker 1: some shed hunting around and sure enough I found the

1052
00:51:50,440 --> 00:51:52,719
Speaker 1: shed to the biggest buck we know that made it

1053
00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:55,960
Speaker 1: through literally in a pile of chainsaw dust that we

1054
00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:59,240
Speaker 1: had cut like a few ge people. So he's hanging

1055
00:51:59,239 --> 00:52:02,920
Speaker 1: out in this new servants and it's, uh, it's a

1056
00:52:02,920 --> 00:52:04,919
Speaker 1: good betting area. But also he has this new food

1057
00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:07,400
Speaker 1: source right now in Kansas, Like it's a little earlier

1058
00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:09,600
Speaker 1: for things to be butting up, but it's it's starting.

1059
00:52:09,680 --> 00:52:12,239
Speaker 1: The green up is about to happen. So you and

1060
00:52:12,320 --> 00:52:14,080
Speaker 1: that deer is probably betting in that area with the

1061
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:16,520
Speaker 1: new cover or eating on some of those brows that

1062
00:52:16,520 --> 00:52:19,000
Speaker 1: that had been a hundred feet up in the air

1063
00:52:19,719 --> 00:52:21,719
Speaker 1: before this. And I mean that was just like a

1064
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:24,680
Speaker 1: eye opening finger right there. So yeah, those are some

1065
00:52:24,719 --> 00:52:29,000
Speaker 1: of the biggest um cutting things we've done. You mentioned

1066
00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:32,760
Speaker 1: several different types of timberwork. Though there's taking down full trees,

1067
00:52:32,840 --> 00:52:35,520
Speaker 1: it was hinge cutting, there was girdling. How did you

1068
00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:38,600
Speaker 1: guys go about you know, how are you choosing where

1069
00:52:39,120 --> 00:52:41,520
Speaker 1: to use each one of those different tools or when

1070
00:52:41,680 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 1: or how big of an area, like, how did you

1071
00:52:43,560 --> 00:52:47,480
Speaker 1: go about making those decisions? Yeah, it really just depends

1072
00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:51,239
Speaker 1: on the true. So if the tree leaves, which is

1073
00:52:51,239 --> 00:52:54,320
Speaker 1: what the deer. Okay, so deer really tree leads orderly

1074
00:52:54,520 --> 00:52:56,719
Speaker 1: like a fruit, so like an a corner or something

1075
00:52:56,760 --> 00:52:59,920
Speaker 1: like that. Um. And so basically it went off that

1076
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:02,600
Speaker 1: decision knowing like, okay, um, some of these leaves the

1077
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:05,680
Speaker 1: deer will eat and some of them they don't really

1078
00:53:05,719 --> 00:53:08,839
Speaker 1: care for. So that was that was a big thing. UM.

1079
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:12,160
Speaker 1: And other other trees like a hedge tree, you basically,

1080
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:14,919
Speaker 1: I mean at least the hedge trees on our ground.

1081
00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 1: You can't really cut the whole tree down. It's kind

1082
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:21,080
Speaker 1: of they're so like big and just entangled and massive

1083
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:23,399
Speaker 1: that in the heart in the woods so hard that

1084
00:53:23,719 --> 00:53:28,080
Speaker 1: it's basically like, okay, we need to um these puppies

1085
00:53:28,360 --> 00:53:30,520
Speaker 1: to try to kill them, which girdling is like just

1086
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:32,719
Speaker 1: killing the outer can be in layer and then we'll

1087
00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:35,279
Speaker 1: spray it um, which will kill the tree. But you

1088
00:53:35,320 --> 00:53:37,200
Speaker 1: don't have to cut it down because once you cut

1089
00:53:37,239 --> 00:53:39,520
Speaker 1: the tree down, man, you can just cover it up

1090
00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:41,960
Speaker 1: a tone of ground and then you have a ton

1091
00:53:42,040 --> 00:53:43,920
Speaker 1: more work to do. So we're like, let's kill some

1092
00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:47,520
Speaker 1: of these trees without covering up the entire having a

1093
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:52,239
Speaker 1: huge footprint on the ground, and then other trees say like, um,

1094
00:53:52,239 --> 00:53:55,360
Speaker 1: we know like elms, dear love to tell you ton elm.

1095
00:53:55,440 --> 00:53:59,040
Speaker 1: So we just hinge cut those things in certain areas

1096
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:01,920
Speaker 1: that we want deer to like have food source. So

1097
00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:05,160
Speaker 1: it hinge cut, which basically like we're we're hinge cutting

1098
00:54:05,160 --> 00:54:08,000
Speaker 1: on these small trees and we can basically cut the

1099
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:10,120
Speaker 1: tree through and then push them over with our hands.

1100
00:54:10,160 --> 00:54:11,960
Speaker 1: So it's like a I don't know, a six inch

1101
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:15,359
Speaker 1: diameter tree or less, and so that will that will

1102
00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:16,640
Speaker 1: create a food source, and we know, what do you

1103
00:54:16,719 --> 00:54:19,040
Speaker 1: like that food source? And then I don't know. Um,

1104
00:54:19,040 --> 00:54:21,319
Speaker 1: so other ones cedars we just would get rid of

1105
00:54:21,360 --> 00:54:23,680
Speaker 1: because we don't want them to be too thick. Um,

1106
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:25,640
Speaker 1: I kind of wanted to just that that like a

1107
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:30,360
Speaker 1: dispersed area. I would say, um, gosh, if it was

1108
00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:34,320
Speaker 1: a big like a tree like eighteen inches in diameter,

1109
00:54:34,360 --> 00:54:38,840
Speaker 1: a bigger, we're almost always just girdling it because um

1110
00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:42,200
Speaker 1: one that like just starts the dyeing process with that tree.

1111
00:54:42,200 --> 00:54:45,800
Speaker 1: And uh, those some of those first trees that we girdle. Um,

1112
00:54:46,160 --> 00:54:48,359
Speaker 1: we've been starting to cut down and there's so much

1113
00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:51,879
Speaker 1: easier to manage. And um, if like we found out

1114
00:54:51,880 --> 00:54:54,799
Speaker 1: really quickly. If we dropped a big tree, um, we

1115
00:54:54,800 --> 00:54:57,280
Speaker 1: weren't getting very much done in the day. So girdling

1116
00:54:57,320 --> 00:55:01,080
Speaker 1: is just the easy quick way. It doesn't um kill

1117
00:55:01,160 --> 00:55:03,040
Speaker 1: all the shade, but it does the pretty dang good

1118
00:55:03,120 --> 00:55:06,759
Speaker 1: job for really, I don't know, two minutes, uh two

1119
00:55:06,760 --> 00:55:09,840
Speaker 1: minute cut around the tree. Yeah, and uh we're actually

1120
00:55:09,960 --> 00:55:12,800
Speaker 1: on our property this uh the next two days because

1121
00:55:12,800 --> 00:55:15,600
Speaker 1: we're we're just uh dropping a ton of timber in

1122
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:17,880
Speaker 1: little betting pockets that we want. Now. Now that we

1123
00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:20,200
Speaker 1: have our kind of our food plots established on the property,

1124
00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:22,879
Speaker 1: we're just gonna cut them basically where the wind would

1125
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:24,880
Speaker 1: be good for us hunting and then also for accessing

1126
00:55:24,920 --> 00:55:27,040
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So it's just getting the sunlight

1127
00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:29,560
Speaker 1: there and then opening up those areas. Um. And then

1128
00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:31,319
Speaker 1: you just kind of have to learn with species you

1129
00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:33,239
Speaker 1: have in the property, which one you should keep around,

1130
00:55:33,239 --> 00:55:35,480
Speaker 1: which ones you should hear it of. Um. This last year,

1131
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:39,399
Speaker 1: we've actually cut down a few oaks because in our

1132
00:55:39,440 --> 00:55:41,719
Speaker 1: oak area they're just two cluttered so they're not really

1133
00:55:41,719 --> 00:55:44,360
Speaker 1: producing them many acorns. So it's kind of like, Okay,

1134
00:55:44,400 --> 00:55:46,640
Speaker 1: I have to cut some some oaks down in order

1135
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:49,840
Speaker 1: to really have healthy oaks. So it's been just a

1136
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:51,560
Speaker 1: learning curve on which ones we want to keep round

1137
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:56,399
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. What's the biggest um lesson you've

1138
00:55:56,480 --> 00:56:00,640
Speaker 1: learned on the timber side of things four years in now? Um,

1139
00:56:00,680 --> 00:56:02,959
Speaker 1: is there anything that you would like to go back

1140
00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:06,640
Speaker 1: and tell, you know, twenty nineteen Natan Thomas about that

1141
00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:10,680
Speaker 1: might have made things happen faster or better? Has anything

1142
00:56:10,719 --> 00:56:13,560
Speaker 1: come to mind? Yeah? Right away, I would say, what's

1143
00:56:13,640 --> 00:56:18,440
Speaker 1: really only begin to hit Like in starting year four, Um,

1144
00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:21,160
Speaker 1: we would cut down like a handful of trees in

1145
00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:22,799
Speaker 1: a in a unit and be like, man, we did

1146
00:56:22,840 --> 00:56:27,000
Speaker 1: so much work. In reality, I wish my self would

1147
00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:31,080
Speaker 1: have known to like make it make this whatever like

1148
00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:34,239
Speaker 1: one like one eighth acre area, like cut it all,

1149
00:56:34,640 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 1: cut like cut most of the most to all the

1150
00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:40,399
Speaker 1: trees in that area, because that's when you're actually gonna

1151
00:56:40,400 --> 00:56:43,759
Speaker 1: see noticeable changes. We'd see like we dropped a couple

1152
00:56:43,760 --> 00:56:46,040
Speaker 1: of trees or girl a couple here. And while yeah,

1153
00:56:46,080 --> 00:56:50,280
Speaker 1: sure I was starting to get to a better unit, UM,

1154
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:53,239
Speaker 1: we didn't really find out till the last last year

1155
00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:56,920
Speaker 1: that um, it took quite a bit of really opening

1156
00:56:56,960 --> 00:56:59,359
Speaker 1: up an area to get that sun really to the

1157
00:56:59,360 --> 00:57:02,240
Speaker 1: forest floor because as the sun is like rotating throughout

1158
00:57:02,239 --> 00:57:05,279
Speaker 1: the day. Um, it's really only in that if you

1159
00:57:05,280 --> 00:57:08,040
Speaker 1: don't cut a ton in the area, it's really only

1160
00:57:08,040 --> 00:57:10,440
Speaker 1: on that the little sun spot for a little a

1161
00:57:10,440 --> 00:57:14,680
Speaker 1: little bit of time. So um, cutting cutting more than less,

1162
00:57:14,719 --> 00:57:17,840
Speaker 1: I would say, and then just patients. Still to this day,

1163
00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:20,400
Speaker 1: we have to amount ourselves that there is a tone

1164
00:57:20,400 --> 00:57:23,080
Speaker 1: of timber, like you could you could cut timber every

1165
00:57:23,080 --> 00:57:25,480
Speaker 1: single day and like still have a ton of timber

1166
00:57:25,520 --> 00:57:28,320
Speaker 1: out here. So just being patient and also just just

1167
00:57:28,360 --> 00:57:32,040
Speaker 1: absorbing it um and just making it um, just making

1168
00:57:32,040 --> 00:57:33,760
Speaker 1: it a thing that you look forward to instead of

1169
00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:35,480
Speaker 1: just like a job or task that you're trying to

1170
00:57:35,800 --> 00:57:37,960
Speaker 1: trying to get done with, because it can drive you

1171
00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:40,160
Speaker 1: crazy when you cut for ten hours a day and

1172
00:57:40,200 --> 00:57:41,600
Speaker 1: then you just do walk out and be like, man,

1173
00:57:41,880 --> 00:57:44,880
Speaker 1: there's so much more that needs to be changed. Um.

1174
00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:46,720
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's just it's just gonna be a long

1175
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:49,520
Speaker 1: term thing. I mean, this property still won't be exactly

1176
00:57:49,560 --> 00:57:51,600
Speaker 1: what we want in ten years. But that's just it's

1177
00:57:51,640 --> 00:57:55,440
Speaker 1: it's a it's a constant progression. Basically, there's there's certain

1178
00:57:55,560 --> 00:57:57,919
Speaker 1: like there's certain areas in the property room like man,

1179
00:57:58,360 --> 00:58:01,000
Speaker 1: like we have we have areas of hedge that are

1180
00:58:01,240 --> 00:58:05,040
Speaker 1: completely unpassable. Like it's like, man, how are we ever

1181
00:58:05,080 --> 00:58:07,560
Speaker 1: gonna make change in that area? But just a little

1182
00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:11,080
Speaker 1: by little tree by tree, um, And that's yeah, that's

1183
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:15,640
Speaker 1: that's a basic thing we've learned. So food plots first,

1184
00:58:16,080 --> 00:58:19,760
Speaker 1: cutting tree second. Third. I know you mentioned that fire

1185
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:23,880
Speaker 1: was the next big step you guys took. How did

1186
00:58:23,920 --> 00:58:26,280
Speaker 1: you learn to safely use fire? Like? What was that

1187
00:58:26,320 --> 00:58:30,240
Speaker 1: process like? And then what have those prescribed burns been

1188
00:58:30,360 --> 00:58:34,000
Speaker 1: like to actually manage and be a part of. Yeah,

1189
00:58:34,040 --> 00:58:37,800
Speaker 1: So again, our farmer buddy Kevin that first year, he

1190
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:40,320
Speaker 1: was like, you want to do a fire, And we're like,

1191
00:58:41,280 --> 00:58:44,200
Speaker 1: want to do a fire? So he brought the drip

1192
00:58:44,200 --> 00:58:46,400
Speaker 1: torches and we kind of talked to some lines and

1193
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:48,120
Speaker 1: stuff like that where we wanted to fire, to go

1194
00:58:48,240 --> 00:58:52,360
Speaker 1: in direction, humidity, all that stuff. Um Man, that's a

1195
00:58:52,480 --> 00:58:54,520
Speaker 1: That's another thing. If I'd go back in time, I

1196
00:58:54,560 --> 00:58:58,520
Speaker 1: would definitely do things different. I would how would have

1197
00:58:58,600 --> 00:59:02,760
Speaker 1: way more hands on deck because no matter how protected

1198
00:59:02,840 --> 00:59:05,360
Speaker 1: your fire is, no matter how good your lines are,

1199
00:59:05,600 --> 00:59:08,040
Speaker 1: like being like new with fires, so it's going to

1200
00:59:08,120 --> 00:59:10,840
Speaker 1: scare the hell out of you, like watching your beloved

1201
00:59:10,880 --> 00:59:13,760
Speaker 1: ground just like just go to ten foot flames on

1202
00:59:13,800 --> 00:59:16,520
Speaker 1: certain areas. IS's just like, wow, Okay, I hope that stops.

1203
00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:19,880
Speaker 1: Um things like that. But it's basically just like being

1204
00:59:20,080 --> 00:59:23,280
Speaker 1: overly safe. Um, that's that's the biggest thing. The nice thing.

1205
00:59:23,440 --> 00:59:25,680
Speaker 1: Like what we talked about. On the west side of

1206
00:59:25,680 --> 00:59:29,120
Speaker 1: our property, it's all road, big gravel road, so I'm like, okay,

1207
00:59:29,160 --> 00:59:31,520
Speaker 1: it's not going there. And then through our property we

1208
00:59:31,560 --> 00:59:33,160
Speaker 1: have to creek, so I was like, okay, it's not

1209
00:59:33,200 --> 00:59:35,320
Speaker 1: going there. You basically got to worry about it. It's

1210
00:59:35,440 --> 00:59:37,200
Speaker 1: like going out to the neighbors in the north and south.

1211
00:59:37,480 --> 00:59:39,120
Speaker 1: So usually try to burn with like an east or

1212
00:59:39,120 --> 00:59:41,439
Speaker 1: west wind and then have some really good burn lines

1213
00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:44,400
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But just being overly safe to

1214
00:59:44,400 --> 00:59:46,560
Speaker 1: where like you can be confident like, Okay, even if

1215
00:59:46,600 --> 00:59:49,160
Speaker 1: the winds for gusts in twenty miles and the humanity

1216
00:59:49,240 --> 00:59:53,080
Speaker 1: was ten percent, it's going nowhere. That's like, that's like

1217
00:59:53,240 --> 00:59:56,480
Speaker 1: being just being overly safe. But I would say, um,

1218
00:59:57,440 --> 00:59:59,440
Speaker 1: one of the biggest things that I it took me

1219
00:59:59,480 --> 01:00:02,000
Speaker 1: forever to my head around, was like, how the heck

1220
01:00:02,120 --> 01:00:03,640
Speaker 1: with all this shade, how are we going to get

1221
01:00:03,680 --> 01:00:06,480
Speaker 1: any fire through our timber which it was always like

1222
01:00:06,560 --> 01:00:10,480
Speaker 1: good to burn the like brom and and hot the

1223
01:00:10,480 --> 01:00:14,200
Speaker 1: warm grasses. But really to make change in our eight

1224
01:00:14,320 --> 01:00:17,360
Speaker 1: we wanted to get the end timber burns. And only

1225
01:00:17,440 --> 01:00:19,640
Speaker 1: like this year do we really like wrap our hand

1226
01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:22,760
Speaker 1: head around, like what do we really need to see

1227
01:00:22,760 --> 01:00:25,680
Speaker 1: in the weather front moving forward to get a good

1228
01:00:25,720 --> 01:00:28,600
Speaker 1: productive burn, And um, we finally got I don't know,

1229
01:00:28,640 --> 01:00:32,760
Speaker 1: we probably burnt eights ten acres in the timber this year,

1230
01:00:32,840 --> 01:00:36,080
Speaker 1: which we like maybe done like a a quarter of

1231
01:00:36,120 --> 01:00:39,400
Speaker 1: that in the past, and just it really just comes

1232
01:00:39,400 --> 01:00:43,160
Speaker 1: down to having higher high enough wind speed and low

1233
01:00:43,280 --> 01:00:46,480
Speaker 1: enough humidity to to do that burn. Some some some

1234
01:00:46,600 --> 01:00:51,440
Speaker 1: of those days are um are like quote unquote like

1235
01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:54,680
Speaker 1: risky days to burn, um because of the low humidity.

1236
01:00:54,720 --> 01:00:58,720
Speaker 1: But if you have really really good fire fire breaks, um,

1237
01:00:58,720 --> 01:01:00,640
Speaker 1: it's some of the only days you can burn if

1238
01:01:00,680 --> 01:01:03,920
Speaker 1: you're in a really really shaded area. And and girdling

1239
01:01:03,960 --> 01:01:06,360
Speaker 1: and dropping trees has only only helped the fuel source

1240
01:01:06,400 --> 01:01:09,520
Speaker 1: on the e d So Fells. The first time landowner,

1241
01:01:09,560 --> 01:01:12,040
Speaker 1: I'd be I'd be making sure that there's more sun

1242
01:01:12,120 --> 01:01:14,560
Speaker 1: eating the ground if I plan on doing a burn

1243
01:01:14,720 --> 01:01:18,440
Speaker 1: in year two. And um, just knowing being with people

1244
01:01:18,440 --> 01:01:20,160
Speaker 1: that know what they're doing and what's to look out

1245
01:01:20,160 --> 01:01:22,880
Speaker 1: for on the weather. I think we're talking to the

1246
01:01:22,960 --> 01:01:24,800
Speaker 1: land leg sea guys and they're like, man, if you

1247
01:01:24,880 --> 01:01:26,960
Speaker 1: have a hard time like finding people that will help

1248
01:01:27,000 --> 01:01:28,800
Speaker 1: you out to burn, just go to the local fire

1249
01:01:28,800 --> 01:01:30,800
Speaker 1: department and see if you can find some guys that

1250
01:01:30,800 --> 01:01:33,080
Speaker 1: would volunteer, like a few hours of their time. Because

1251
01:01:33,320 --> 01:01:35,840
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're volunteering at a firefighter, they're like, okay,

1252
01:01:35,840 --> 01:01:39,160
Speaker 1: you either like you either maybe board some days or

1253
01:01:39,200 --> 01:01:41,640
Speaker 1: you're like your your pyro, like you want to burn stuff.

1254
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:44,280
Speaker 1: So he's like, go go to the local fire departments

1255
01:01:44,280 --> 01:01:45,960
Speaker 1: and I bet you can find a handful of guys

1256
01:01:45,960 --> 01:01:48,400
Speaker 1: that would help you know, know what they're doing with fire,

1257
01:01:48,400 --> 01:01:50,040
Speaker 1: and then also just be able to be more hands

1258
01:01:50,040 --> 01:01:53,720
Speaker 1: on deck. Um. But yeah, every fire, we have UM

1259
01:01:53,920 --> 01:01:56,600
Speaker 1: burn lines around the entire circumference of what we are burning,

1260
01:01:57,000 --> 01:01:59,720
Speaker 1: and then we have um tons of water. We got

1261
01:02:00,040 --> 01:02:02,000
Speaker 1: a bunch of like high power leaf blowers that will

1262
01:02:02,040 --> 01:02:04,040
Speaker 1: put up fire, we have drift torches, UM and a

1263
01:02:04,120 --> 01:02:05,840
Speaker 1: ton of guys trying to help us out. So that's

1264
01:02:06,280 --> 01:02:08,480
Speaker 1: the I think. I think the biggest mistake you can

1265
01:02:08,480 --> 01:02:12,280
Speaker 1: make with fire is like rushing into it in a day. Um,

1266
01:02:12,560 --> 01:02:17,960
Speaker 1: like not having your fire breaks all all in the clear, um,

1267
01:02:18,120 --> 01:02:21,000
Speaker 1: all all set. That's like the biggest thing that would

1268
01:02:21,080 --> 01:02:24,400
Speaker 1: have warned about, Like just have everything ready to go,

1269
01:02:24,920 --> 01:02:26,919
Speaker 1: whether you're doing that in January and then you burn

1270
01:02:27,000 --> 01:02:30,760
Speaker 1: it in in February or March. Um, definitely have everything set.

1271
01:02:30,800 --> 01:02:34,080
Speaker 1: Don't ever like just light a fire thinking it's hopefully

1272
01:02:34,160 --> 01:02:39,600
Speaker 1: gonna gonna be a good situation. Yeah, And the feedback

1273
01:02:39,640 --> 01:02:42,240
Speaker 1: from that has also been amazing, Like the turkeys on

1274
01:02:42,320 --> 01:02:46,240
Speaker 1: the fire, just they love that stuff. Um. And just

1275
01:02:46,360 --> 01:02:49,040
Speaker 1: so the different plants and stuff that have come out

1276
01:02:49,040 --> 01:02:51,640
Speaker 1: of that has been really interesting to see. Um. The

1277
01:02:51,680 --> 01:02:56,360
Speaker 1: same day I found the shed angler this offseason, um

1278
01:02:56,440 --> 01:02:59,480
Speaker 1: from the biggest buck we have hanging around by a

1279
01:02:59,480 --> 01:03:01,920
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff, by a bunch of timber that we

1280
01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:04,960
Speaker 1: we felt in the property. We did was the day

1281
01:03:05,000 --> 01:03:07,400
Speaker 1: after we did a prescribe burn, And when I was

1282
01:03:07,440 --> 01:03:09,240
Speaker 1: walking to go get the u TV, I bumped like

1283
01:03:09,320 --> 01:03:11,440
Speaker 1: fifteen turkeys off off of the burn that we did

1284
01:03:11,440 --> 01:03:14,080
Speaker 1: the day before. So I'm like, man, this stuff has

1285
01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:16,760
Speaker 1: like sometimes it feels like this management is such a

1286
01:03:16,800 --> 01:03:19,960
Speaker 1: slow process. But within like those like few hours I

1287
01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:21,800
Speaker 1: found a shed by a bunch of timber we dropped,

1288
01:03:21,920 --> 01:03:24,200
Speaker 1: and I've just found ten or fifteen turkeys off of

1289
01:03:24,240 --> 01:03:26,600
Speaker 1: a fresh burn we did the day before. And like, man,

1290
01:03:26,680 --> 01:03:28,960
Speaker 1: when you make change and you just stirred the property,

1291
01:03:29,320 --> 01:03:32,120
Speaker 1: you are going to see the changes for sure. So

1292
01:03:33,120 --> 01:03:34,880
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you kind of just answered it.

1293
01:03:34,920 --> 01:03:38,160
Speaker 1: But would you say that even though this prescribed fire,

1294
01:03:38,880 --> 01:03:42,280
Speaker 1: those projects, I mean, as you're describing them, it's it's

1295
01:03:42,360 --> 01:03:46,400
Speaker 1: a good amount of work. It takes special care and preparation.

1296
01:03:46,920 --> 01:03:49,040
Speaker 1: It's kind of a lot for the average person to

1297
01:03:49,040 --> 01:03:54,120
Speaker 1: try to do. Is it worth all that headache? Yeah?

1298
01:03:54,160 --> 01:03:57,040
Speaker 1: I mean the hunting on our little track of eighty

1299
01:03:57,080 --> 01:03:59,840
Speaker 1: acres has has only gotten better. And like it's just

1300
01:04:00,040 --> 01:04:03,480
Speaker 1: in like we have been managing through our brains. We

1301
01:04:03,480 --> 01:04:05,840
Speaker 1: always say that everybody, we managed the property way more

1302
01:04:05,880 --> 01:04:08,840
Speaker 1: than we hunted, like way more. Um, and it has

1303
01:04:08,920 --> 01:04:12,160
Speaker 1: just been I mean, our church population in our area

1304
01:04:12,200 --> 01:04:14,400
Speaker 1: has like boomed, and then you can't like just say

1305
01:04:14,440 --> 01:04:16,920
Speaker 1: it's our eighty acres, but like it has to have

1306
01:04:16,960 --> 01:04:19,439
Speaker 1: been helping. I mean when we were here our first frame,

1307
01:04:19,760 --> 01:04:23,440
Speaker 1: you couldn't hear gal And I mean we've I mean

1308
01:04:23,560 --> 01:04:25,720
Speaker 1: last year we called in a group of eight toms

1309
01:04:25,760 --> 01:04:27,480
Speaker 1: to our ground. And so it's like, Okay, how much

1310
01:04:27,520 --> 01:04:29,680
Speaker 1: can it change? How much can our eight change in

1311
01:04:29,720 --> 01:04:31,320
Speaker 1: the in the grand scheme of things and stuff. But

1312
01:04:31,320 --> 01:04:33,400
Speaker 1: it's like, man, you gotta you just have to think

1313
01:04:33,440 --> 01:04:35,360
Speaker 1: as a land manager that like every little thing you're

1314
01:04:35,360 --> 01:04:37,919
Speaker 1: doing is making a difference. Um, I mean this last

1315
01:04:38,040 --> 01:04:40,160
Speaker 1: year in our in our timber, and we're also learning

1316
01:04:40,160 --> 01:04:42,440
Speaker 1: to hunt it better, but just with the management stuff,

1317
01:04:42,680 --> 01:04:46,400
Speaker 1: I mean, we had a series of hunts. Yeah, I

1318
01:04:46,400 --> 01:04:48,040
Speaker 1: mean we saw at least at three and half real

1319
01:04:48,120 --> 01:04:52,080
Speaker 1: bucker better like six seven, eight hunts in a row,

1320
01:04:52,440 --> 01:04:56,919
Speaker 1: and that that just that just shows you, man, like, Okay,

1321
01:04:56,960 --> 01:04:58,720
Speaker 1: we have eighty acres, but we are seeing good deer

1322
01:04:59,000 --> 01:05:01,240
Speaker 1: every single hunt. So they want to be here like that.

1323
01:05:01,720 --> 01:05:03,720
Speaker 1: So that's just like I mean, like and even like

1324
01:05:03,760 --> 01:05:05,920
Speaker 1: turkeys being in the in the burn the next day,

1325
01:05:05,960 --> 01:05:08,120
Speaker 1: like they know changes happening and they want to be

1326
01:05:08,160 --> 01:05:10,640
Speaker 1: there and they're gonna be there. So man, if even

1327
01:05:10,680 --> 01:05:14,080
Speaker 1: if you own ten twenty acres, implement as much as

1328
01:05:14,080 --> 01:05:16,280
Speaker 1: you can of this stuff because they will in our

1329
01:05:16,360 --> 01:05:20,040
Speaker 1: in our view, in our opinion, it's making fast, fast difference.

1330
01:05:21,480 --> 01:05:24,320
Speaker 1: What's the most satisfying part of this kind of work,

1331
01:05:24,360 --> 01:05:26,880
Speaker 1: this project in general. Is it just the better deer hunting?

1332
01:05:27,520 --> 01:05:32,680
Speaker 1: Is it? Is it the better wildlife sightings? Is it

1333
01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:35,560
Speaker 1: just the act of doing it? I mean, what is

1334
01:05:35,600 --> 01:05:39,640
Speaker 1: it about this that's been the most rewarding for it? Well,

1335
01:05:39,720 --> 01:05:43,840
Speaker 1: that's a tough question. I mean, I mean definitely, Uh,

1336
01:05:44,000 --> 01:05:49,240
Speaker 1: deer hunting has been a huge thing. Um. Like there's

1337
01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:52,200
Speaker 1: there's a few deer um that we've killed in the

1338
01:05:52,240 --> 01:05:53,919
Speaker 1: last I would say the last two years. The first

1339
01:05:53,960 --> 01:05:57,320
Speaker 1: year was basically just dumblok. I feel like, um, just

1340
01:05:57,400 --> 01:05:59,400
Speaker 1: being on a good property. Where do you want to

1341
01:05:59,440 --> 01:06:02,000
Speaker 1: be nashurally eight um in killing deer. For the last

1342
01:06:02,040 --> 01:06:04,400
Speaker 1: two years we have killed deer because of how we

1343
01:06:04,440 --> 01:06:12,240
Speaker 1: manage UM. The what was when we had Spencer new

1344
01:06:12,240 --> 01:06:15,280
Speaker 1: hearth obviously to the ground and he he shot an

1345
01:06:15,320 --> 01:06:20,680
Speaker 1: awesome buck in our late um late season still standing

1346
01:06:20,720 --> 01:06:22,640
Speaker 1: beans um. And that's why something as land mamager just

1347
01:06:22,640 --> 01:06:25,800
Speaker 1: like leave food out there. Um. And he came out

1348
01:06:25,800 --> 01:06:27,720
Speaker 1: of an area that we had dropped a bunch of

1349
01:06:27,720 --> 01:06:30,040
Speaker 1: timber and we knew like that was really good betting

1350
01:06:30,160 --> 01:06:33,440
Speaker 1: and so that's like, okay, they're gonna bed there. You

1351
01:06:33,520 --> 01:06:36,440
Speaker 1: have late season food source. I mean I see that

1352
01:06:36,480 --> 01:06:39,320
Speaker 1: as like, Okay, yeah, Spencer's rifle killed that deer, But

1353
01:06:39,560 --> 01:06:42,240
Speaker 1: that's management in the offseason that killed that deer. Um.

1354
01:06:42,320 --> 01:06:44,720
Speaker 1: And then you also look at like this last December,

1355
01:06:45,080 --> 01:06:49,200
Speaker 1: we Thomas killed a buck December eighteen, and then our

1356
01:06:49,400 --> 01:06:51,960
Speaker 1: brother in law Tony killed him on the twenty nine.

1357
01:06:52,440 --> 01:06:57,240
Speaker 1: And so we killed two late season December bucks in

1358
01:06:57,400 --> 01:06:59,840
Speaker 1: the timber. They weren't on the food plot um, and

1359
01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:02,240
Speaker 1: were in the standing crops. They were in the timber

1360
01:07:02,320 --> 01:07:06,960
Speaker 1: where we had drop trees, created sunlight, really warm betting

1361
01:07:07,040 --> 01:07:10,600
Speaker 1: for a cold December day, and food sources that the

1362
01:07:10,640 --> 01:07:14,200
Speaker 1: deer wanted to eat. Um. And so man like those

1363
01:07:14,240 --> 01:07:17,520
Speaker 1: deer like, that's that's the land management is killing those deer.

1364
01:07:17,960 --> 01:07:21,080
Speaker 1: So like like that has been probably some of the

1365
01:07:21,160 --> 01:07:24,360
Speaker 1: most rewarding stuff. I don't know, Tom, you have any Yeah, no,

1366
01:07:24,480 --> 01:07:29,120
Speaker 1: I I would say it's when December thirty one, because

1367
01:07:29,120 --> 01:07:31,800
Speaker 1: that's that's the last day year in Kansas to shoot buck.

1368
01:07:32,040 --> 01:07:34,800
Speaker 1: When it flips over to January one, it's it's really

1369
01:07:34,880 --> 01:07:38,640
Speaker 1: honestly not a depressing day. Um. Towards those last days

1370
01:07:38,640 --> 01:07:41,080
Speaker 1: of December, you're almost like looking forward to management season

1371
01:07:41,160 --> 01:07:46,600
Speaker 1: because um, you're just like the tens and the stress

1372
01:07:46,640 --> 01:07:50,760
Speaker 1: from the season is just all lifted and now it's

1373
01:07:50,760 --> 01:07:53,560
Speaker 1: the pressure that we all put on ourselves. But it's like, oh,

1374
01:07:53,640 --> 01:07:55,520
Speaker 1: now I can go walk around the eighty. This is

1375
01:07:55,520 --> 01:07:58,120
Speaker 1: gonna be fun. Like I've done this like ten times

1376
01:07:58,200 --> 01:08:00,480
Speaker 1: since owning it in three years because we're is always

1377
01:08:00,520 --> 01:08:03,800
Speaker 1: so so careful about it. But gosh, just the just

1378
01:08:03,880 --> 01:08:07,280
Speaker 1: the cycle, I would say, the cycle of deer hunting

1379
01:08:07,320 --> 01:08:11,240
Speaker 1: and what it brings um each each different season, whether

1380
01:08:11,240 --> 01:08:16,639
Speaker 1: it's management, shed season, UM, scouting season, velvet season, UM,

1381
01:08:16,880 --> 01:08:20,720
Speaker 1: the fall. It's just it's this, It's this cycle that

1382
01:08:21,040 --> 01:08:26,160
Speaker 1: you just love. What do you not like? Well, like,

1383
01:08:26,280 --> 01:08:29,280
Speaker 1: what when you when you look at what all the

1384
01:08:29,280 --> 01:08:32,640
Speaker 1: different things that this kind of project entails, what are

1385
01:08:32,640 --> 01:08:34,960
Speaker 1: the parts that suck? What are the parts that make

1386
01:08:35,000 --> 01:08:37,680
Speaker 1: you think, gosh, some days I wish it took a

1387
01:08:37,840 --> 01:08:40,400
Speaker 1: golfing or something else. I don't know. Is there anything

1388
01:08:40,720 --> 01:08:45,040
Speaker 1: that stands out there is um and that is still

1389
01:08:45,800 --> 01:08:47,280
Speaker 1: I don't know. When you when you get the text

1390
01:08:47,320 --> 01:08:50,839
Speaker 1: that you're definitely the two underninch bucket shot by the neighbor,

1391
01:08:51,080 --> 01:08:54,360
Speaker 1: that that's never good. But no, like that's like that

1392
01:08:54,439 --> 01:08:56,960
Speaker 1: was the most frustrating thing. The first two years we

1393
01:08:57,000 --> 01:09:00,840
Speaker 1: had like massive um Kansas buck in this place and

1394
01:09:00,920 --> 01:09:05,960
Speaker 1: we couldn't like we're still figuring out our hunting strategies here,

1395
01:09:05,960 --> 01:09:07,799
Speaker 1: and we I mean we left slip through our fingers.

1396
01:09:07,800 --> 01:09:10,200
Speaker 1: Looking back on that, it's like, Okay, give us that

1397
01:09:10,320 --> 01:09:12,240
Speaker 1: deer this year, because that deer is done for just

1398
01:09:12,240 --> 01:09:14,439
Speaker 1: because we've learned how to hunt it better. But no, like,

1399
01:09:15,200 --> 01:09:17,559
Speaker 1: in all seriousness, even that's great. I mean that's Nebraska

1400
01:09:17,600 --> 01:09:19,880
Speaker 1: boys that didn't want any property were like, oh man,

1401
01:09:20,000 --> 01:09:22,320
Speaker 1: chasing deer that are way bigger than we ever thought

1402
01:09:22,320 --> 01:09:26,599
Speaker 1: we'd see. It is just amazing. But we honestly, every

1403
01:09:26,640 --> 01:09:30,320
Speaker 1: day down here is like a drink of true whether

1404
01:09:30,360 --> 01:09:32,519
Speaker 1: I'm going into the stand on November one or I'm

1405
01:09:32,760 --> 01:09:36,719
Speaker 1: ripping the saw January feverory time frame. Um man, it's

1406
01:09:36,760 --> 01:09:39,000
Speaker 1: just every single day is great. I don't care hard

1407
01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:41,680
Speaker 1: to work like we work ourselves way too our most days.

1408
01:09:41,680 --> 01:09:43,759
Speaker 1: You don't need launch words out there just hammering away.

1409
01:09:44,240 --> 01:09:47,880
Speaker 1: Um And so it's just like I don't know whether

1410
01:09:48,280 --> 01:09:51,719
Speaker 1: you're just sweating like crazy in the summer and putting

1411
01:09:52,200 --> 01:09:56,960
Speaker 1: I mean, I've we've had some seriously long and tough

1412
01:09:57,040 --> 01:10:00,280
Speaker 1: days out here. But it's just the whether you're driving

1413
01:10:00,320 --> 01:10:02,200
Speaker 1: home after it or you're just hanging out of the

1414
01:10:02,240 --> 01:10:04,320
Speaker 1: property and just likes, howd you put in a full

1415
01:10:04,400 --> 01:10:06,280
Speaker 1: day of work. It's just rewarding every single day, no

1416
01:10:06,280 --> 01:10:08,240
Speaker 1: matter what you're doing. So, I don't know if there's

1417
01:10:08,240 --> 01:10:10,759
Speaker 1: a I don't know if it's a bad I can't

1418
01:10:11,040 --> 01:10:13,519
Speaker 1: I can't think of anything. Yeah, So you're driving down

1419
01:10:13,560 --> 01:10:17,000
Speaker 1: the road and you come around the corner, come over

1420
01:10:17,040 --> 01:10:19,639
Speaker 1: a bridge you dropped down towards a nice creek, and

1421
01:10:19,760 --> 01:10:22,559
Speaker 1: you see two guys standing off the side of the road,

1422
01:10:22,720 --> 01:10:26,120
Speaker 1: their trucks parked off there. They've got Camo boots on.

1423
01:10:26,600 --> 01:10:29,320
Speaker 1: Maybe they're pulling an STUV or not SUV, a u

1424
01:10:29,320 --> 01:10:31,679
Speaker 1: TV off the trailer. And you pull off the side

1425
01:10:31,720 --> 01:10:33,479
Speaker 1: next to him and start chatting with him, and they

1426
01:10:33,479 --> 01:10:36,360
Speaker 1: tell you, hey, you know, we just bought this forty

1427
01:10:36,400 --> 01:10:38,960
Speaker 1: acres here. It's been a dream. We finally were able

1428
01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:41,160
Speaker 1: to afford it. We went on it together. Whatever it is,

1429
01:10:41,520 --> 01:10:43,280
Speaker 1: we're gonna try to make this thing into a great

1430
01:10:43,280 --> 01:10:48,240
Speaker 1: place to hunt. You've got a minute, you have one

1431
01:10:48,280 --> 01:10:50,439
Speaker 1: minute before you need to hit the road again and

1432
01:10:50,479 --> 01:10:53,679
Speaker 1: get back to your family's What would be the very

1433
01:10:53,840 --> 01:10:56,439
Speaker 1: most important thing you could leave with those two guys

1434
01:10:56,600 --> 01:11:00,480
Speaker 1: if you had just that minute to share with them

1435
01:11:00,520 --> 01:11:03,479
Speaker 1: the most distilled bit of wisdom you've gained over the

1436
01:11:03,560 --> 01:11:08,280
Speaker 1: last four years. What would you tell him, Okay, this

1437
01:11:08,400 --> 01:11:10,559
Speaker 1: is Nate. First, I'll give him my manute. You talkic.

1438
01:11:10,640 --> 01:11:12,720
Speaker 1: You can get yours in after this. Okay. First of all,

1439
01:11:13,040 --> 01:11:15,639
Speaker 1: location is huge. I was I was going to Iowa

1440
01:11:15,680 --> 01:11:17,320
Speaker 1: and I was going to Kansas because I wanted to

1441
01:11:17,360 --> 01:11:20,519
Speaker 1: find a property where i'd kill a big baby. Isn't Yes,

1442
01:11:20,760 --> 01:11:22,439
Speaker 1: they're there, So I'm like, I'd shake their hands to

1443
01:11:22,479 --> 01:11:26,559
Speaker 1: the congrats guys, like, Okay, it's a good area because

1444
01:11:26,800 --> 01:11:29,840
Speaker 1: in our first year, we're like, we had a buck,

1445
01:11:29,880 --> 01:11:31,280
Speaker 1: and then our next year we had a two hundred

1446
01:11:31,320 --> 01:11:33,360
Speaker 1: and fifteen two interchange buck that we were chasing. So

1447
01:11:33,360 --> 01:11:35,880
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, we picked we picked the right area.

1448
01:11:35,920 --> 01:11:38,719
Speaker 1: So my guys, great job, you picked the right area. Secondly,

1449
01:11:38,720 --> 01:11:41,040
Speaker 1: I'd be like, Okay, Um, I don't know how much

1450
01:11:41,040 --> 01:11:42,280
Speaker 1: work do you want to put in here, but if

1451
01:11:42,320 --> 01:11:44,639
Speaker 1: you want to like really manage this wealth of properties,

1452
01:11:44,640 --> 01:11:47,439
Speaker 1: I'd go to your local dealer and I'd buy um

1453
01:11:47,520 --> 01:11:50,320
Speaker 1: a couple of nice chainsaws. I'd buy a more and

1454
01:11:50,320 --> 01:11:52,600
Speaker 1: then I'd start knocking on doors and introducing yourself to

1455
01:11:52,640 --> 01:11:54,240
Speaker 1: the neighbors. Just get to know the area, get to

1456
01:11:54,240 --> 01:11:57,919
Speaker 1: know the farmers in the area, and have fun. Guys.

1457
01:11:58,439 --> 01:12:03,240
Speaker 1: All right, that's a good minute. Oh man, I think

1458
01:12:03,320 --> 01:12:05,960
Speaker 1: I would uh might would be might would be much

1459
01:12:06,320 --> 01:12:09,720
Speaker 1: uh much less complex than they. I would just look

1460
01:12:09,760 --> 01:12:12,920
Speaker 1: him in the eye and tell him to to enjoy

1461
01:12:13,160 --> 01:12:16,560
Speaker 1: every like, every single minute of it, because sometimes I

1462
01:12:16,600 --> 01:12:19,120
Speaker 1: guess it could be a downside of being in the

1463
01:12:19,160 --> 01:12:23,880
Speaker 1: hunting industry, But there are sometimes when I'm just like, like,

1464
01:12:23,920 --> 01:12:25,519
Speaker 1: we just went down to the eight and that was

1465
01:12:25,600 --> 01:12:27,960
Speaker 1: that was the work trip. That wasn't a fun hunting trip.

1466
01:12:28,000 --> 01:12:30,000
Speaker 1: We need to we need to slow down, and we

1467
01:12:30,040 --> 01:12:32,840
Speaker 1: need to enjoy this property for the really the reason

1468
01:12:32,880 --> 01:12:36,880
Speaker 1: we purchased it, which is being, um spending time on it,

1469
01:12:37,160 --> 01:12:39,880
Speaker 1: being around the wildlife, but ultimately being around our family

1470
01:12:39,880 --> 01:12:43,640
Speaker 1: and um, I think just not not taking the management

1471
01:12:43,880 --> 01:12:47,280
Speaker 1: and everything that you have professionally going on too seriously

1472
01:12:47,280 --> 01:12:49,880
Speaker 1: when you're on your ground, just just enjoy for for

1473
01:12:49,920 --> 01:12:52,720
Speaker 1: what it is and and bring the people down there

1474
01:12:52,720 --> 01:12:54,800
Speaker 1: that you want to have a fun time with. So

1475
01:12:55,040 --> 01:12:57,880
Speaker 1: months months simple and not even really deer hunting and related.

1476
01:12:57,960 --> 01:13:01,120
Speaker 1: So yeah, I love it. So what's next? What do

1477
01:13:01,160 --> 01:13:04,599
Speaker 1: you guys see as the the things you're most excited

1478
01:13:04,640 --> 01:13:06,680
Speaker 1: to work on next or that you think are going

1479
01:13:06,720 --> 01:13:09,479
Speaker 1: to make the biggest difference in the coming year. Two?

1480
01:13:09,640 --> 01:13:14,240
Speaker 1: What's really getting you excited to see? What's gonna happen? Man?

1481
01:13:14,360 --> 01:13:18,439
Speaker 1: We uh, I don't know, Like like obviously we've done

1482
01:13:18,479 --> 01:13:21,200
Speaker 1: all of like we've done insane amount of timber work

1483
01:13:21,320 --> 01:13:23,280
Speaker 1: this year, so like, okay, that's gonna be better hopefully

1484
01:13:23,280 --> 01:13:25,360
Speaker 1: just more do you want to be here? But as

1485
01:13:25,360 --> 01:13:26,880
Speaker 1: far as like I'll just go on, like the hunting

1486
01:13:26,920 --> 01:13:29,519
Speaker 1: side of things, Um, we're just kind of waiting for

1487
01:13:29,800 --> 01:13:32,200
Speaker 1: like that really uh next big deer to chase. That's

1488
01:13:32,240 --> 01:13:35,920
Speaker 1: kind of been like our anti thing this last year. Um,

1489
01:13:35,960 --> 01:13:39,160
Speaker 1: it was like kind of a weird hunting year for

1490
01:13:39,240 --> 01:13:41,040
Speaker 1: us on the eight at least, like I was kind

1491
01:13:41,040 --> 01:13:43,479
Speaker 1: of saying all years prior, like we had a lot

1492
01:13:43,479 --> 01:13:45,960
Speaker 1: of big deer to chase at least one or two

1493
01:13:46,000 --> 01:13:49,280
Speaker 1: biggest again and the natural cycle of a big deer

1494
01:13:49,360 --> 01:13:51,360
Speaker 1: coming through. We just had one of those like off

1495
01:13:51,479 --> 01:13:53,880
Speaker 1: years last year, which is three and a half year

1496
01:13:53,880 --> 01:13:57,719
Speaker 1: olds just everywhere just gosh, hate to ten different ones

1497
01:13:57,760 --> 01:14:01,479
Speaker 1: just um hundred and twenty hundred and fifty three and

1498
01:14:01,520 --> 01:14:03,439
Speaker 1: a half ruld maybe a four and a half yoruld

1499
01:14:03,479 --> 01:14:06,680
Speaker 1: in there, um and like and I mean it was

1500
01:14:06,680 --> 01:14:08,720
Speaker 1: amazing because we're seeing like those deer every single time.

1501
01:14:08,760 --> 01:14:10,960
Speaker 1: But like now we're kind of licking our lips just

1502
01:14:11,000 --> 01:14:14,680
Speaker 1: waiting for like another um big stud to give us

1503
01:14:14,880 --> 01:14:17,720
Speaker 1: an opportunity to hunt it, just because we have kind

1504
01:14:17,720 --> 01:14:20,040
Speaker 1: of figured out the hunting and the managing side of

1505
01:14:20,040 --> 01:14:21,880
Speaker 1: things well enough where like we feel like we might

1506
01:14:21,920 --> 01:14:24,080
Speaker 1: have a shot at it. Of course, it's a big,

1507
01:14:24,840 --> 01:14:27,720
Speaker 1: smart deer and they'll price, they'll get the best of us.

1508
01:14:27,760 --> 01:14:29,760
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, we're kind of this way at least

1509
01:14:29,800 --> 01:14:32,080
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for like that next big one to show

1510
01:14:32,160 --> 01:14:35,880
Speaker 1: up to be able to put these things the use again. Um.

1511
01:14:35,880 --> 01:14:38,519
Speaker 1: But yeah, we also thought it would be a kind

1512
01:14:38,560 --> 01:14:41,800
Speaker 1: of a fun idea. We haven't we haven't finalized this yet,

1513
01:14:41,840 --> 01:14:43,760
Speaker 1: but we thought would be fun if one of us

1514
01:14:43,880 --> 01:14:46,719
Speaker 1: hunted public the whole fall and one of us hunted

1515
01:14:46,760 --> 01:14:49,240
Speaker 1: the eighty Um we have public, I mean a couple

1516
01:14:49,240 --> 01:14:53,280
Speaker 1: of different parcels within five mile radios, so we were

1517
01:14:53,320 --> 01:14:56,960
Speaker 1: thinking to be kind of fun to split up the fall.

1518
01:14:57,080 --> 01:14:58,680
Speaker 1: One of us is hunting the public, one of us

1519
01:14:58,720 --> 01:15:01,479
Speaker 1: is hunting the ore a seeing you can tell you

1520
01:15:01,520 --> 01:15:03,880
Speaker 1: out first if if having private land is really that

1521
01:15:04,280 --> 01:15:08,400
Speaker 1: big of a advantage or not so so, if the

1522
01:15:08,439 --> 01:15:11,080
Speaker 1: public land guy kills a better deer than the private

1523
01:15:11,160 --> 01:15:13,920
Speaker 1: land guy, what's the reward he gets? Does he get to, like,

1524
01:15:14,560 --> 01:15:16,080
Speaker 1: I don't know, you got you got drag all of

1525
01:15:16,160 --> 01:15:18,840
Speaker 1: the deer for the next five years or something. Yeah,

1526
01:15:18,920 --> 01:15:20,479
Speaker 1: maybe he's gonna be a cameraman for a while. I

1527
01:15:20,520 --> 01:15:26,040
Speaker 1: don't know. That's yeah, that's awesome. Well, where can where

1528
01:15:26,080 --> 01:15:28,439
Speaker 1: can folks go to see this? I know you guys

1529
01:15:28,479 --> 01:15:30,760
Speaker 1: have been documenting what you've done so far. Can you

1530
01:15:30,800 --> 01:15:32,920
Speaker 1: fill everyone in on on where they can find these

1531
01:15:33,040 --> 01:15:35,000
Speaker 1: videos that you have done so far and how they

1532
01:15:35,000 --> 01:15:37,920
Speaker 1: can stay up to date. Yeah, so you can watch

1533
01:15:37,960 --> 01:15:40,800
Speaker 1: a lot of our Kans eight Lanes Serry stuff on

1534
01:15:40,800 --> 01:15:43,599
Speaker 1: our YouTube channel, which was just identical draw you can

1535
01:15:44,160 --> 01:15:47,519
Speaker 1: wash the shoot that buck over the beans, Spencer's hunt,

1536
01:15:47,800 --> 01:15:50,080
Speaker 1: and then we also filmed like our whole conversation with

1537
01:15:50,120 --> 01:15:52,280
Speaker 1: mat Ross where you can see us breaking down all

1538
01:15:52,479 --> 01:15:57,040
Speaker 1: the different management units there. So um, you can basically

1539
01:15:57,080 --> 01:15:59,679
Speaker 1: see everything we've talked about on that YouTube channel, and

1540
01:15:59,680 --> 01:16:02,479
Speaker 1: and Stiff for another public land haunts that we've done,

1541
01:16:02,760 --> 01:16:06,080
Speaker 1: and gosh, Nebraska's Outdakota to the Western States. Um, we

1542
01:16:06,200 --> 01:16:09,240
Speaker 1: try to put out just a lot of knowledgeable stuff

1543
01:16:09,280 --> 01:16:12,000
Speaker 1: as well, just like if you are wanting to learn

1544
01:16:12,040 --> 01:16:15,920
Speaker 1: how to cut certain things or whatnot. Hopefully we put

1545
01:16:15,920 --> 01:16:18,360
Speaker 1: out information that is useful to people learning how to

1546
01:16:18,680 --> 01:16:21,280
Speaker 1: whether it's a girdle cut, hinch cut, how we make

1547
01:16:21,360 --> 01:16:24,599
Speaker 1: little betting pockets, why we put food plots in certain areas,

1548
01:16:24,600 --> 01:16:27,200
Speaker 1: how we're accessing. So we we really try to break

1549
01:16:27,200 --> 01:16:29,439
Speaker 1: down our eight as much as possible on the hunting

1550
01:16:29,520 --> 01:16:35,080
Speaker 1: and the managing side on all our social channels. So yeah, awesome. Well,

1551
01:16:35,240 --> 01:16:37,800
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys sharing this experience. It's it's pretty

1552
01:16:37,840 --> 01:16:40,280
Speaker 1: fun to hear about, you know, what a couple of

1553
01:16:40,280 --> 01:16:42,840
Speaker 1: young guys can do with some sweat, some stick, tuativeness

1554
01:16:43,000 --> 01:16:45,360
Speaker 1: and uh and a good attitude. So I can't wait

1555
01:16:45,400 --> 01:16:48,439
Speaker 1: to see what happens next on the Kansas City. Yeah,

1556
01:16:48,479 --> 01:16:51,799
Speaker 1: it's more appreciate. Thank you. All right, that's it for today.

1557
01:16:52,040 --> 01:16:54,600
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in. Get out there if you

1558
01:16:54,640 --> 01:16:57,559
Speaker 1: own land and get your hands dirty, get to work.

1559
01:16:57,960 --> 01:17:00,559
Speaker 1: If Nayton Thomas can do it, you can too. And

1560
01:17:00,800 --> 01:17:02,640
Speaker 1: if you do not own land, but it's something you

1561
01:17:02,760 --> 01:17:05,559
Speaker 1: thought about, or if your family is thinking about going

1562
01:17:05,600 --> 01:17:08,440
Speaker 1: down this road, I hope you'll pass along this episode,

1563
01:17:08,840 --> 01:17:11,919
Speaker 1: share it, let other people be inspired by and remember

1564
01:17:12,000 --> 01:17:15,760
Speaker 1: that it is possible. So without all out of the way,

1565
01:17:16,280 --> 01:17:20,880
Speaker 1: thank you and until next time, stay wired, don't