WEBVTT - Ep. 204: BEAR GREASE [RENDER] - Slate and Glass with Nathaniel Maddux 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.080 My name is Clay Nukelem and this is a production 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.720 of the Bear Grease podcast called The Bear Grease Render, 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:25.240 where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:30.160 scenes of the actual bear Grease podcast, presented by f 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:35.040 h F Gear, American made purpose built hunting and fishing 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:38.400 gear that's designed to be as rugged as the place 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:43.400 as we explore. Welcome to the Bear Grease Render. This 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:45.360 is going to be a good one. This is gonna 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:48.000 be a good one. It's been a while. I'll tell 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.440 you who I got around me here, Gary believer in 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:52.440 nukemb It's been a while since you've been here. Good 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:53.080 to have you back. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.200 Yeah, I thought I was fired. 0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:57.560 Check. 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.440 We thought maybe you were too, But it turns out 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:01.920 you weren't. 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.400 Well. I told Bart, I said, you know, your daddy's 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.240 really desperate when he when he causes mena guy up. 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.640 Yeah, no, good, Good to have you back. 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.160 I still got you still got your your retinas or 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:15.880 did you burn them out in the in the clips? 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:18.640 Say hey, I'm fine, man. I couldn't see good before 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.000 and I still can't. Yeah. 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:24.040 So yesterday was a mina where dad lives was in 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.800 the path of totality. So we went down there. Pretty 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.199 incredible experience. We'll talk about that. I'm gonna I'm gonna 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.760 skip over my two mystery guests. Bear John Newcom is here. 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:35.520 Good to see you, Bear, good to be here. You 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:37.560 ready to you ready for Turkey season? 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.640 I know you are been doing a lot of scouting. Yep, 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.520 So hopefully we can make it happen this year. Yep, yep, yep, yep. 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.600 Got Josh Lambridge Spillmaker here to my left. I'm here, 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:49.760 see Josh. Josh and I were wearing the same hat. 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.920 We didn't coordinate, but we got the same first light 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:54.080 hat on. It's a good looking hat. 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:55.000 It is a good looking hat. 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:56.520 I want to make a hat like this with a 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:57.320 bear grease patch. 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.240 I'd wear the heck of that. 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:04.960 Our guests, though, I've got Luke Naylor. Why don't you 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:08.120 introduce your position, Luke with the arkansassion. 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:10.880 I'd be happy to do that. Yeah, I'm the Wildlife 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:12.880 Management Division Chief of the Arkansas Game. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:18.480 Management Division Chief chief, and so you you oversee for 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:22.720 the Arkansas game and fish all the different like the 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.480 all the turkey projects, bear projects, deer projects, duck projects. 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.239 You're all those biologists and people's correct oversight. 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.360 Yes, we've got real simply, we're divided up. We've got 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.519 about fourteen I think what we call program coordinators, which 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:39.640 what what I used to be is a waterfowl program 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:44.440 coordinator or bear program coordinator. Turkey, all those theologists type 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:48.800 positions we've got, and then also all our wildlife management 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:52.160 area staff. So we've got seven different wildlife management regions 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:56.040 and several different staff out there doing doing w may work. Yeah, 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:57.600 along with a whole lot of other things. 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.480 You were the you were theterfile biologist for sixteen years. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:02.280 Sixteen years. 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.400 Yeah. Yeah, it's almost two years now since taking the 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.520 switch over here to the to an office jockey, I 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:11.760 guess an administrative role. 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:13.600 So we get you out of any meetings today. 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.440 Uh yeah, I got to cut one short. But let's 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:23.840 let's make sure our boss didn't hear about that. 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:23.240 Is very important public outreach. 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.480 It is very important, and it's talking turkeys. So I'm 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:27.360 passionate about that. 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.760 Man, I want I want to talk some turkeys. We 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:35.240 need to introduce our our mystery mystery guest. Luke's been 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:40.480 here before. Nathaniel Maddox from Lebanon, Missouri. Not Lebanon, Lebanon 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.640 you'd be tempted if you were just driving through Missouri to. 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:45.560 Say, looking for a case knife. 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.600 Where's Lebanon, Missouri? Lebanon? 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:51.040 So how we spot a newcomer? They said, Lebanon? 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:57.160 Yeah, yeah, yeah, Nathaniel is from Lebanon, Missouri. Yep, and uh, 0:03:57.640 --> 0:03:58.839 tell us what you do man? 0:03:59.360 --> 0:03:59.560 Yeah. 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.240 So I'm a filmmaker, own a company called Slatan Glass, 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.000 a production company, and we we've been established in my 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:11.560 hometown of Lebanon, Missouri since twenty fourteen. Moved back there 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:15.720 after starting the company in Seattle, and uh ended up 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:16.839 back on the family. 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.880 Farm, Slaton Glass. So there's a there's a's a that's 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:22.040 a turkey hunting. Those are turkey hunting words. 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.640 Yeah, and their production words as well, like really glass 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.080 for lenses and a slate is the little you know? 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:28.480 Actually? 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:29.080 Well is it? 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:29.240 Was? 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:30.520 It meant for turkeys though? 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:30.880 Both? 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:32.280 Oh it's a double on. 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.400 Yeah, it's one of those artsy Seattle things. Have you 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.400 really been from Missouri, you'd have called it turkey video work. 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:42.039 Yeah, yeah, that's right. 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.119 But slat and glass double meaning. 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:44.800 I like it. 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.719 So you uh, you've been in full time video production 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.800 for ten years with your own company. 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:54.919 Since Actually I had a company before that. I started 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:59.080 in twenty ten that I sold to a guy in Seattle. 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.240 So since twenty ten, fourteen years okay, yeah. 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.599 So I gotta get this on the table, Nathan. The 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:07.880 reason I know Nathaniel, we have a mutual friend in 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.120 Isaac Neil. But the main reason that your name has 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.680 popped up in my world the last ten days is 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:20.560 that you your company. You made the film The Colonel 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:25.480 and the Fox for Massy Oak, which came out April. 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:27.360 Fourth, yeah, last week. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:33.719 Yeah, and that film kyleie Man. When I saw the 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:37.200 trailer for it, I was with I was in Mississippi 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.440 turkey hunting. I saw the little two minute trailer and 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:44.240 I was just like, that is going to win. I really, 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.200 I mean, I was like, that film is gonna be good. 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.200 I can tell just from the quality of the trailer, 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:54.280 but also the content. So Dad, So, Gary the Believer 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:59.799 has not seen this film. The film is about Toxi 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.400 is the one who started Massy Oak. His father, Fox 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:05.839 Hayes is how old is mister Fox. 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.560 He's born in nineteen thirty, so do some quick math. 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:16.560 Midninet he's like ninety three, ninety four, ninety two. He 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.479 was so. The film is a documentary about his life, 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.880 but also the documentary of a man named Tom, Colonel 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:27.239 Tom Kelly, who they call the poet Laureate of turkey hunting. 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:29.400 He wrote a book in the nineteen seventies called The 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:35.560 Tenth Legion, which is an incredible turkey hunting book that 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:41.760 kind of shaped turkey hunting culture. And these two guys 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:45.200 are still alive, and they'd never met, and but the 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:49.279 story is about them, but it's really about their lives 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:52.960 and the restoration of the wild turkey and their influence 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.600 on the restoration. I probably should have let Nathaniel. 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:58.880 Yeah, he probably might have. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.159 Daniel was my guest. He drove down here and he 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:05.320 never spoke. I just I just looked at him. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:07.640 And talked about over here, mouthing to you. 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.000 I've known Nathaniel for like eight minutes. Let me tell 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.280 you about this guy. I mean, you know, he's he 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:16.640 is from Seattle. He's got his uh, what kind of 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:17.360 shoes are these? 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:19.080 These are PF flyers? 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:21.920 See, okay, this is the first is the first. Now 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.840 bars got some interesting shoes too, though that Gary made 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:30.680 a few comments about these ever the kind of blue shoes. 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:32.960 But no, it was cool so I could talk about 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.440 Nathaniel uh tell us about the film. 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:40.160 Yeah. So, uh, really, it's been an overwhelming past week, 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.200 so try to fair start. 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.440 I've been working with Mosoke for for a while and 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.000 they it's a company that's been important to me since 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.400 I was a kid, because my parents got a satellite 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.480 dish in nineteen ninety five and the first thing I 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.880 got introduced to was tn N Outdoors and so on 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:00.360 Sunday afternoons, there was all of a sudden these hunting shows, 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.120 and Hunting the Country was one that I gravitated to 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:04.600 and watched all the time. So I grew up watching 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:06.560 these guys turkey hunt. They taught me how to turkey hunt. 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.200 I live on a cattle farm in Missouri and there's 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:11.560 turkeys all around me, but I don't know how to 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:13.360 kill them, and my parents don't know how to kill 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.480 them or hunt them, and so those guys taught me 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.440 how to do it, you know. And so I have 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.200 a stack of VHS tapes that I actually recorded. You know, 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:23.200 you hit the play and the record button at the 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.640 same time. Absolutely, and uh, all these years later. 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:28.800 Wait a minute, was that a technology hack? 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.880 You just there? You go? Yeah, what do you mean 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:33.520 you recorded them off of the TV. 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.040 You know, you run the TV and the VHO and recorded. 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:38.720 Statue to limitations. 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:41.040 Right, yeah, there you go. 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.719 Uh So all these years later, you know, I'm I've 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.719 been working with the n WTF since twenty sixteen, uh, 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.240 doing a lot of the content for them because turkeys 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.280 have always been a very very important part of my life. 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:54.080 Turkey hunting has. 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:55.959 Would you say, turkey hunt is the main thing you're 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:57.600 interested in out in the outdoors? 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.800 Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah, Okay, that's it. I mean slate 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:02.560 in glass, Yeah yeah, And I mean I love some 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:05.120 bow hunting and do a lot of different things, but 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:09.160 turkey hunting is just, for whatever reason, has grabbed a 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:10.880 hold of me, you know, since I was a kid. 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:15.800 So over the years I've gotten to know Toxi and 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.199 Daniel and Neil and everybody at Mosioake and done a 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.160 couple of commercials, thirty second commercial spots for new products 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.719 and things. And they had come to me and said, hey, 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.240 we got you know, pop Off Fox and mister Tom 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.360 Kelly at camp together and there's a couple guys that 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:33.600 grab some footage, but we're not sure how to didn't 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:34.640 film that part. 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.200 I did not know. So they came. 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.240 Daniel and Neil came to me like maybe a year ago, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.439 and they said, we've kind of got this collection of footage. 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:44.760 The camp was one of them. 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:48.240 We've had a couple of other interviews with Tom Kelly's 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:51.200 daughter and a couple other people, and asked if I 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.520 would kind of take on the you know, responsibility of 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:56.400 figuring out how to make a story that honored both 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.240 of these guys. And started going through that footage, and 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:05.040 then I got really deep into the weeds with putting 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.319 together this big storyboard and I'm like, man, maybe it 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:09.440 can be a thirty minute film, but it feels like 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:13.000 there's a lot here. And so I started, me and 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:19.280 my guy started doing more interviews and really decided, you know, yes, 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:20.920 this is a story about these two guys that are 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:23.480 that have been turkey hunting since the nineteen forties and 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.280 not too many people can say that, but a lot 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.319 has happened since the nineteen forties and America as a 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.840 whole in our culture, and so how did not only 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:35.120 this idea that these turkeys were almost gone when they started, 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:39.719 and now we've got, you know, this beautiful thing called 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:41.800 turkey hunting in the population that all of us get 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.959 to enjoy. They came through that, but they also came 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.840 through World War two and Vietnam and all these other things. 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.400 And so my goal kind of became, how do we 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:53.800 tell the story of the wild Turkey through the eyes 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.800 of these two guys who are still hunting now, but 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.440 also through the eyes of America, you know, like our 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.640 culture and how it's shifted and changed over the years. 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.480 And it ended up becoming an hour and twenty minutes 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:06.480 instead of thirty minutes. 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:13.640 And man, what you did there by by connecting the 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:18.720 restoration of this this turkey to people is really powerful. 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:21.640 And I mean, I think that's a key component to 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:27.280 just all all of our endeavors as hunters. To show 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.120 a non hunting public, which is becoming increasingly important in 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:33.760 the sustainability of what we do, is that the non 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.320 hunting public understands and it is empathetic towards us and 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:39.960 sees the real value that we bring in so many ways. 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:46.200 And man, anybody would watch that film and just be like, wow, 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.200 I kind of get it, you know, because you just 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:54.240 see these guys who just dedicated their lives to turkey hunting, 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.440 but then you also see the human effort involved in 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.400 the restoration of the wild turkey, and specifically these two 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.480 guys in different ways. I mean, like Tom Kelly was 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:08.839 more influential at a cultural level in writing this book 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:14.040 that put words and put put some Yeah, just he 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.360 he helped build a turkey hunting culture through this powerful 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.960 work of literature, and then through mister Fox, who is 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:25.360 more hands on in some ways of getting turkeys brought 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.160 back in and released in the Mississippi. But you just 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.000 see their lives and dad in the film. They it's 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.439 like a documentary in a way about America, Like they 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.640 show World War Two and Colonel Tom Kelly was in 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:41.079 World War Two, and the shows I don't know, how 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:43.280 did you? Is that a good description of it? 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:43.720 I think so. 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:45.880 I mean I feel like in my head, we're all 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.640 very unique people, are you know? We all love the 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:51.560 turkey hunt, but that's not all of us, right, Like, 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:53.720 it's not the whole of who I am as not 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:55.960 just a turkey hunter. And I wanted that this film 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.760 to show that, and I think that sort of connects 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.400 people who maybe not turkey hunters to understand a little bit. 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.800 And we had a really cool screening down in Mississippi 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:08.440 and everybody from ostri Oak was there and it was 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:10.319 really fun and they were like, Hey, you need to 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:11.959 do one in Lebanon and I'm going, Man, we've got 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:13.439 like the Rich seven Theater. 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:15.120 I hope it's still standing kind of thing. 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:19.200 And so we had a premiere last week and two 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.120 hundred people there or something, and a lot of them 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:23.920 came out because they were our friends and family, and 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:26.080 but it was it was cool to me so many 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:30.080 people who know that I'm obsessed with turkey hunting, but 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:30.880 they're just kind of like. 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:32.280 Oh, that's just what this guy does. 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.719 He always has coming into coming up to me and 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:36.520 being like I get it now, like it makes sense. 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:39.560 And a couple of people who I never thought would 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:41.199 ever want to hunt were like, I think I'm gonna 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:43.960 I might want to try this. To me, that felt 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:46.199 like a success. You know, people in my community who 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.040 were going, I get it, you know. And so if 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:50.880 we could create a piece of content that makes someone 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.280 who doesn't hunt or doesn't understand hunting have a little 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:56.360 glimpse into what we're passionate about, then I feel like 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:57.760 we've done something cool. 0:13:57.800 --> 0:13:59.640 Have you made feature link films like that? 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:00.960 Before, not that long. 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.200 No, how long did you work on this? 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:08.120 That's a good question. So I was thinking about that 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.000 on the drive up, like how many hours went into this? 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:14.119 I started really really focusing on it hard early December, 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.839 and I think I finished finished at the end of February. 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:19.840 Oh for a while, So this isn't like that. I 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:21.280 thought it was like a I thought you were going 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.640 to say, since twenty two. 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.960 Yeah, well we were doing We were doing archiving and 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:32.600 research work probably since June through December. And then when 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:34.640 I finally got what I felt was all the pieces 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.120 of the puzzle, started putting it together, and it was 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:40.040 my wife will a test that. There are a lot 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.400 of nights when the kids went to bed and I 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.440 ran back over to the studio until one or two 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.360 in the morning because I have other clients too, But 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.000 I wanted to put everything I could into this project 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:53.160 because for me, it's like turkey hunting is the most 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:58.040 special thing that I know of when it comes to 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:03.560 relationships with people. You know that in my faith. Obviously 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:05.920 my faith is first, but but turkey hunting is this 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.000 way that I build relationships, that I maintain relationships. I 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.320 spend time with people I love and so I knew 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.520 this was my opportunity to really like sort of put 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.920 that into a story, and I wanted to pour everything 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:19.720 I could into it. 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:23.280 So what did y'all think about the film? Josh? 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:24.840 I thought it was fantastic. Man. 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:29.320 I I really appreciated getting to see because I didn't 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:31.360 know all the history of the reintroduction of the turkey. 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.800 So I love being able to see all that old 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.400 footage and you know, you get you get the impression 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:40.640 of you know, you think about market hunting and then 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:42.400 you think about hunting. 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.000 In the in the. 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.960 Around the turn of the century, even into the fifties, 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.320 that was you know, you just went out and you hunted, 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:51.200 you know what I mean, you hunted anything you could. 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.480 To watch these guys with such a commitment to bring 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.320 it back in the work and I mean even even 0:15:57.400 --> 0:15:59.520 looking at the turkeys that they were releasing, they look 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.040 so scrat you know what I mean. But it's produced 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:06.400 this thriving population. Obviously population decline in some areas, but 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:08.400 we still have we have this, We actually have a 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:10.480 turkey population thanks to these guys. 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.040 Yeah, even in the woe the current woes of the 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.680 Southeast and specifically here in Arkansas. We still got it 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:21.120 pretty durned good. I mean yeah, compared to what they had. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:26.120 I mean yeah, we're all all, you know, bummed out 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:28.920 about our turkeys here in Arkansas, but that gum, we 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:32.600 still got it exponentially better than what they had in 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:38.080 the sixties, forties, fifties, you know, big time dad. How 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.520 aware were when did you kill your first turkey? The eighties? 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:48.840 No, I think the late seventies. 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.560 Yeah, there was a polaroid picture you and a guy 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.800 holding a turkey that I remember being your first turkey. 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:58.840 Yeah, it could have been early eighties. 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:04.000 How aware were you of the restoration efforts going on? 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:05.639 Not not too much. 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.159 It's just kind of like there's turkeys and people are hut. 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:08.720 Yeah. 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.520 Yeah. And I took a interest in it, and you know, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:14.440 learned how to call. You know, when you were a 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.639 little guy. I was always going around the house calling. Yeah. 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:23.320 So you know that this relates to bear. 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:24.840 Louke. 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:25.880 How old are your kids? 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:27.920 Almost sixteen and thirteen? 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.000 Do they do they do? Some hunting daughters? 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.400 Now she's decided she's an angler, now okay, yeah, send 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:36.919 Josh a picture of that little dry Run Creek trout 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.480 not long ago. So she got hooked on flyfish and 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.639 last something in Colorado where I learned at flyfish. My 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:44.800 son kind of comes and goes on it. We've done 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:46.720 some dove hunts, a few duck hunts, and we'll go 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:48.840 turkey outing this year. A couple of times. He's not 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:50.840 tore up with it, like like Bear seems to be 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.520 at this point. But but he's did a little there's 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:55.160 a spark there. 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.600 Okay, okay, well here this is the reason I asked you. 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:03.600 That is when I was a kid, baron ukem, Britos 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:07.919 are ready. The It was like I was like in 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:12.960 military school to learn how to call turkeys. I remember 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:15.280 you were just like, you got to learn how to 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.920 call turkey. This is the PhD in hunting, and uh. 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.640 I remember I was so proud of myself because one 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:27.040 time I was working for buck Titsworth a construction project 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:28.840 and I saw a turkey and the guy I was 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.920 working for backyard, I was sixteen. I saw a strutting 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.200 turkey like down the hill I'm working, and I had 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:39.560 a mouth diaphragm call and I walked around the house 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:44.200 and got on the other side and that turkey strutted 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.159 in and I came home and told Dad about it, 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:50.679 and he was like, let me hear you call. And 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.399 he was like, Dad, that's okay. I remember you being like, 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:56.320 I don't know if that'd work on a real wild 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:58.439 turkey call. And I was like, Dad, I called him up. 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:00.600 I mean, he was a backyard turkey, was a real 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.959 wild turkey. It was a wild turkey, but it was 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:09.360 in his backyard. But point being, Bar needs to work 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:11.639 on his turkey call. And I'm gonna bring in the 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.720 Gary Newcomb critique and be like, buddy, you gotta get 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:15.160 on the way. 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:16.880 You're about to run through the gauntlet, my friend. 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:21.160 I mean, he's called kill turkeys. But but man, when 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:26.960 you're down in Mississippi, an eleven year old kid in 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:33.000 Mississippi can out call grown men in most states. And 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:34.520 so Bear, we've got a lot of work to do. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:35.560 Yeah, I remember. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.680 I hope all that made sense. I probably none of 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:40.800 that may have made sense. It made perfect sense in 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:41.160 my head. 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:46.760 Well from my perspective, I could call in a bird, 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.040 but I wasn't that great of a caller. And I 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:53.520 taught Clay what little I knew, and uh, within a 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.680 week he could call better than I could. I mean, 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.560 he had a natural ability to do it. It might not be. 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.359 Now I'm the best caller meat eater for sure. 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:06.320 Yeah yeah, proving anyway you had you had you had 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:07.040 a knack forward. 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.680 Well, when I go to Mississippi, I don't even call 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:20.240