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

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

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

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Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three

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Speaker 1: eighty and today in the show, we're discussing year two

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Speaker 1: of our efforts to transform the Meat eaterback forty into

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Speaker 1: a wildlife paradise and the roller coaster first hunt on

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Speaker 1: the property this year that led to my dad's very

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Speaker 1: first dear with the bow. All right, welcome to the

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Speaker 1: Wired Hunt podcast, brought to you by on X. Today

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Speaker 1: is a good day. We've got a great podcast for

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Speaker 1: you today, a story that I am just really really

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Speaker 1: excited to share. Um, we're coming off of one of

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Speaker 1: the best most memorable hunts of my life and probably

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Speaker 1: at least to some degree, uh, our guests on the

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Speaker 1: podcast here as well, definitely one of them that the

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Speaker 1: third member might think this is an oky story. I

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Speaker 1: don't know. Um, well, here's what we have with you

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Speaker 1: today in the show. We've got my father, David Kenyon

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Speaker 1: back on the show. Dad, thank you for being on

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Speaker 1: the podcast again. Dave Pleasure and then also, shoot, you

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Speaker 1: know what I was gonna try to check this with

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Speaker 1: you before we start our core. But we have Justin

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Speaker 1: and I'm gonna pronounce your name wrong. Is it Michell? Michelle? Michelle?

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Speaker 1: Dang it Justin Michelle. Sorry, I bost your name Justin.

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Speaker 1: Everyone does. For years, like before we actually worked together

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Speaker 1: or did anything, I always pronounced it my cow and

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Speaker 1: then and then someone recently was like, no, that's very wrong,

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Speaker 1: and everything I had I think Spencer had to ask

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Speaker 1: three times. So so so for everyone listening. Justin Um

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Speaker 1: is one of the cameramen for the Back forty TV show.

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Speaker 1: So Justin and my dad spent a lot of time

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Speaker 1: and myself, all three of us spent a lot of

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Speaker 1: time together last week hunting on the Back forty. It

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Speaker 1: was the first hunt of the year out there, and

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Speaker 1: we had a heck of a hunt. As as I

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Speaker 1: tease in the very beginning, you kind of get to

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Speaker 1: hear the ending before you hear the beginning. But it

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Speaker 1: was a successful hunt. It was an awesome hunt. But

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Speaker 1: I want you guys all to understand how we got here.

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Speaker 1: So I want to tell two stories that eventually become

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Speaker 1: intertwined and lead us to the culmination of last week.

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Speaker 1: One story is the story of the Back forty, how

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Speaker 1: that started this project and where that's led us to

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Speaker 1: now in year two, all the things and hopes and

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Speaker 1: goals and dreams we had in the beginning, all the

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Speaker 1: changes we had to make this year based off of

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Speaker 1: what we learned last year and everything that that kind

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Speaker 1: of came to fruition for us um inter October. And

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Speaker 1: then the second story I want to explore a little

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Speaker 1: bit is my dad's story and what led him to

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Speaker 1: this hunt in this past week, because I think there's

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Speaker 1: some interesting things we can learn from both of those stories,

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Speaker 1: and those stories come together in a really cool way,

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Speaker 1: and we'll come together in a really cool way in

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Speaker 1: uh episode four of season two of The Back Forty,

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Speaker 1: which for all of us listening now, that first episode

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Speaker 1: of the season will come out on November one, I believe,

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Speaker 1: or at least sometime in early November, and then Dad's

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Speaker 1: Hunt will be episode four, which will probably be towards

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Speaker 1: the end of November. So you're gonna get a sneak

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Speaker 1: peek as far as the story right now. So I

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Speaker 1: guess what I would like you two to do, if

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Speaker 1: you're willing, is jumping at any point I'm going to

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Speaker 1: kind of set the stage here with with a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a recap on the back forty. But if

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Speaker 1: you guys have any questions, or if you guys need

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Speaker 1: to clarify something, or if you think I'm totally off

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Speaker 1: based on something and you want to call bs, you

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Speaker 1: can do jump in and say that. Um, you know, Dad,

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Speaker 1: you got to see the farm last year a couple

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Speaker 1: of times. You got to hunt it last year, Justin,

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Speaker 1: you weren't here last year, but obviously this summer you

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Speaker 1: got to be part of a lot of that work,

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Speaker 1: um in August and now this hunt. So you guys

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Speaker 1: both have a different perspective and I think that can

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Speaker 1: help kind of color what I'm trying to share too.

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Speaker 1: So that is the game plan. Dad, Are you on

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Speaker 1: board for that? Justin? Justin? Are you on board for that?

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Speaker 1: For sure? Let's do it all right, So let's set

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Speaker 1: the stage from the beginning. For anyone who's new about

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Speaker 1: what this whole back forty things. The back forty is

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Speaker 1: a project that we started over at Meat Eater in

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Speaker 1: which we wanted to find and eventually purchase a small property,

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Speaker 1: kind of unremarkable, nondescript property. Uh and see if we

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Speaker 1: could transform this little piece of ground into something really special.

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Speaker 1: Could we take a small farm In this case, we

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Speaker 1: found a sixty four acre farm that was about half

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Speaker 1: old fields, half timber and swamp. Could we change the

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Speaker 1: thing that had not been managed in the past. Can

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Speaker 1: we change this thing and transform it into a great

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Speaker 1: deer hunting property and a great general holistic ecosystem for everything?

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Speaker 1: Can we manage not just for big deer, but can

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Speaker 1: we manage for bees and butterflies and birds and small

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Speaker 1: mammals and turkeys and native plant life and good soil.

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Speaker 1: Could we try to do the right thing for everything

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Speaker 1: and still have our cake to write, have our deer,

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Speaker 1: our big deer, our fun hunting. Can you do it all?

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Speaker 1: That was the question. That's what we've tried to do

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Speaker 1: and tried to learn about what does that mean and

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Speaker 1: how you can be a good steward while also having

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Speaker 1: something that you can harvest from the land as well.

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Speaker 1: And that led us to finding this little place last year,

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Speaker 1: purchasing it, started to do some work. We did some

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Speaker 1: initial habitatent provements last year, but it was all very

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Speaker 1: last minute. Um. We just got started in August. Basically,

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Speaker 1: we got to put in a few small food plots.

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Speaker 1: Um we got. I tried to plant some plot screens,

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Speaker 1: basically some tall sorghum, which I hoped was going to

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Speaker 1: break up these wide open fields. But a lot of

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Speaker 1: that stuff did not work out very well. Um. To

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Speaker 1: further illustrate what we're working with here, just a little

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Speaker 1: bit in case you aren't familiar with all this, the

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Speaker 1: sixty four acres, as it mentioned about half timber and

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Speaker 1: swamp half old fields. Uh, the old fields mostly last year,

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Speaker 1: we're just this invasive mayor's tail weed and a little

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Speaker 1: bit of golden rod. Then you had this big swamp

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Speaker 1: in the middle, and that was really the the hub

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Speaker 1: of the wheel of this property. That was the thing

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Speaker 1: that I was most excited about and that I thought

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Speaker 1: would be, um, the saving grace of this property, because

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Speaker 1: at least in places like southern Michigan they have a

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Speaker 1: lot of hunters. I've come to find that you really

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Speaker 1: need something like that, some kind of really great security

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Speaker 1: cover to keep at least the occasional older deer around.

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Speaker 1: So whenever I find a deep swamp, I know there

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Speaker 1: was at least a chance that some good deer could

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Speaker 1: be in there. Um, while in otherwise open timber or

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Speaker 1: ad country, it's just it's just tougher to find him

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Speaker 1: around me at least. So that's what I thought we had.

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Speaker 1: I had searched out a property that had that kind

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Speaker 1: of feature while also being in an area that generally,

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Speaker 1: from everything I could find out from any research I did,

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Speaker 1: from talking to neighbors that generally seemed to be in

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Speaker 1: a good neighborhood, so surrounded by folks that we're thinking

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Speaker 1: somewhat similarly to how we were, which was trying to

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Speaker 1: manage for wildlife, trying to manage for more deer or

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Speaker 1: older deer, or a better managed balanced deer her that's

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Speaker 1: what we're hoping to accomplish, and and I tried to

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Speaker 1: find a place where that seemed to be on the

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Speaker 1: minds of other people too. So that is what we

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Speaker 1: had last year. Um, you know, the hunting season did

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Speaker 1: not go the way I was hoping it would. Um.

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Speaker 1: A lot of the habitat improvements that tried to make,

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Speaker 1: as I just described, didn't come in. The food plots

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Speaker 1: were you know, not as impactful as they thought they

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Speaker 1: might be. They came in pretty thin and sparse. Um.

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Speaker 1: I think we probably I only had an acre and

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Speaker 1: a half of food total. Maybe the screens that I

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Speaker 1: tried to plant basically failed completely, and so these fields

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Speaker 1: were just wide open. That mayor's tale lost his leaves

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Speaker 1: once the fall arrived, and it was just just barren,

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Speaker 1: kind of a desert for wildlife. And because of that,

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Speaker 1: very little deer traffic in those things in those areas

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Speaker 1: during daylight, and it led to some relatively uneventful hunting. UM.

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Speaker 1: I saw some deer the first couple of nights, and

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Speaker 1: then it quickly quickly decreased, had a bunch of dud hunts,

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Speaker 1: hunted during the rut and saw very little deer activity.

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Speaker 1: Kind of got lucky on the fourth day of our

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Speaker 1: rut hunt and uh, there was a big mature buck

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Speaker 1: in the area, not very big antler wise, but a

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Speaker 1: big bodied but sure deer the wide eight. I called

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Speaker 1: him and I did get a crack at him. But

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Speaker 1: that was the only decent buck we saw a season,

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Speaker 1: the only mature buck we saw season. UM, so at

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Speaker 1: a high level of frustrating, disappointing. And Dad, you came out,

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Speaker 1: you got to have this hunt, and I know you

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Speaker 1: were really excited to come out on the back forty

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Speaker 1: I've been kind of hyping up this property we had

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Speaker 1: and we were trying to improve, and I wanted to

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Speaker 1: get you this great opportunity to to get a crack

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Speaker 1: at a buck with your crossbow. And it didn't really

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Speaker 1: pan out the way or hoping, did it. No, no,

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Speaker 1: what not, not as much as we had hoped, obviously,

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Speaker 1: And because of all the work that you had done,

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Speaker 1: even though I know it just started in August, um,

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Speaker 1: you've still done an awful lot of work to prepare

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Speaker 1: the property and all the working on the food plots, etcetera.

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Speaker 1: And then just just you know that the excitement of

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Speaker 1: being out there. I was looking forward to seeing a

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Speaker 1: lot of deer, and um just saw a couple and

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Speaker 1: passed on that five um, um, And that was pretty

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Speaker 1: much it from the time we wash. You know it

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Speaker 1: will elaborate on this more, but most of your hunting

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Speaker 1: has been up in northern Michigan, where we just don't

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Speaker 1: see very many deers. So I had these high hopes

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Speaker 1: of bringing you down to the southern part of the state,

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Speaker 1: at least farther south than we traditionally do, and being

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Speaker 1: in a higher deer density area, you'd you'd have an

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Speaker 1: exciting hunt and to didn't pan out, so it was

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Speaker 1: it was one of many disappointments last year. Um, justin

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Speaker 1: you watched the back forty I'm assuming maybe you didn't,

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Speaker 1: but I'm assuming you watched the back forty uh last

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Speaker 1: year from from from what? Yeah, from Afar from Afar?

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Speaker 1: What were what were your thoughts on the on the

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Speaker 1: whole idea, the gist of what we tried to do,

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Speaker 1: and then what you saw after year one? Was it

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Speaker 1: was it surprising? Does it? Was it kind of what

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Speaker 1: you expected from a year one of this kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, do you have any thoughts from that

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Speaker 1: first year? Yeah? I mean I I love the idea

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Speaker 1: of it because I thought that what it what it

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Speaker 1: did was, um created a situation that so many people have,

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Speaker 1: you know, like not everyone has the luxury of getting

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Speaker 1: three four pieces or leases and things like yeah, but um,

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Speaker 1: you know, sixty three acres is not out of the questions.

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Speaker 1: So and it's and it's not like you adopted even

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Speaker 1: a piece that was already established well enough that you

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Speaker 1: could sort of piggyback on it, you know. It was

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Speaker 1: like it really was super stripped down, which I guess

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Speaker 1: in a sense gave you, uh, you know, you could

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Speaker 1: do whatever you wanted. I never quite understood why. And

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Speaker 1: I was going to ask you as you were going

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Speaker 1: through that, like what did you think failed as far

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Speaker 1: as like what what were the causes of the plots

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Speaker 1: and everything just not taken off like it did this year. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so there's a few things I can point to, and

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Speaker 1: then there's still some unknowns. Um. I think you know,

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Speaker 1: one thing that I knew going into is that these

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Speaker 1: old fields, I just didn't know if they would stay

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Speaker 1: thick into the hunting season, and and then if they

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Speaker 1: did not, you know, would it hold any wild life

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Speaker 1: at all? And so I tried to plant that screening cover.

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Speaker 1: I knew that getting some kind of visual barriers to

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Speaker 1: break up these fields, to have some structure, I knew

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Speaker 1: that was gonna be really important. So I tried to

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Speaker 1: plant those things. But I tried to plant them in

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Speaker 1: a no till way. And and this is because we've

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Speaker 1: been trying to adopt this regenerative agriculture practice when planting

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Speaker 1: food plots and crops on the farm, where you try

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Speaker 1: to avoid disturbing the soil um for a whole bunch

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Speaker 1: of different reasons. By not plowing the soil, you can

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Speaker 1: keep more nutrient uh mic microbial life going in the soils.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that you keep in the

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Speaker 1: ground that you want in the ground by not plowing

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Speaker 1: it up. So early last year, I guess early summer

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Speaker 1: um when I knew I needed to plant the screening cover,

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Speaker 1: I was trying to say, Okay, how do I plant

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Speaker 1: this stuff no till when I don't have a no

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Speaker 1: till drill. We didn't have a drill. We later got

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Speaker 1: a drill um, but I didn't have one at that point.

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Speaker 1: So I had heard of approach called throwing mo Basically,

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Speaker 1: the idea was that you could um broadcast seed over

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Speaker 1: an area and then mow all the brush that was

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Speaker 1: there over top of it. And if you could do

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Speaker 1: that right around a rain, you would get the seed

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Speaker 1: on top of the soil, and then the grass and

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Speaker 1: brush would fall on top of the seed, and then

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Speaker 1: it would form a layer of mulch that would hold

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Speaker 1: moisture tight to that seed on the ground and get

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Speaker 1: you germination. That's the idea, and and this works. People

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Speaker 1: say this works, and it's a productive way to plant

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Speaker 1: no till food plots. If you don't have the equipment, Um,

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Speaker 1: it just didn't work well for us. I it didn't work.

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Speaker 1: So there were a few places we've got some grow,

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Speaker 1: but there was a lot that simply didn't come up

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Speaker 1: at all. So because of that, I didn't have the

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Speaker 1: cover we wanted. I came in and actually tried to

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Speaker 1: plant screens again the first week of August, and I

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Speaker 1: actually did try to lightly work the soil and get

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Speaker 1: something planted there, and I had a little growth, but

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Speaker 1: it wasn't, you know, just enough time. So that gave

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Speaker 1: us no structure, no visual barriers across the fields. And then,

264
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Speaker 1: as I described earlier, the cover that wasn't there, the

265
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Speaker 1: Mayor's tail, it essentially becomes like a bean stock with

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Speaker 1: no leaves, no beans, nothing on it. So it was

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Speaker 1: it was the worst kind of old field you could

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Speaker 1: ask for. So you had just a wide open barren field,

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Speaker 1: which I think was just a much more of a

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Speaker 1: detriment that I, you know, was imagining it would be.

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Speaker 1: I didn't think it would be that bad, but it was.

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Speaker 1: So that was a big thing. As far as the

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Speaker 1: food plots, I don't know what I did wrong last year,

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Speaker 1: but it was my first time ever using a no

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Speaker 1: till drill. It was my first time using a mix

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Speaker 1: quite like that, and for some reason the crops didn't

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Speaker 1: come in as full as I thought they would have.

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Speaker 1: I think one thing I have learned. I've been using

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Speaker 1: uh A Genesis three by RTP Outdoors, which is a

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Speaker 1: drill you can pull behind your UTV and it's it's great.

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Speaker 1: I love it. Um what I've learned, and I think

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Speaker 1: this is the privately the case with any drill that's

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Speaker 1: just the first time I've ever used a drill, is

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Speaker 1: that making one pass it's really easy. I thought I'll

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Speaker 1: just go over everything once and then that would cover

286
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Speaker 1: it all. But you kind of forget that it's easy

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Speaker 1: to miss a row, or it's easy to miss a spot,

288
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Speaker 1: or even when you have these kind of evenly spaced rows,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of space in between. Still um, and

290
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Speaker 1: I probably should have done like almost like a checkerboard pattern.

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Speaker 1: Maybe should have done a bunch of runs up one

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Speaker 1: way and then come across and criss cross him or something,

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Speaker 1: just to completely fill it out better. I didn't do that.

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Speaker 1: So in short, I underseated last year. So between underseating

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Speaker 1: and maybe not knowing exactly how to set the seed

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Speaker 1: right properly or different things. I was just sort of

297
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Speaker 1: figuring out. And then finally, UM, I just for some

298
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Speaker 1: reason did not get good germination of the Brassicas within

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Speaker 1: our plot mix. So I had a lot of oats

300
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Speaker 1: and wheat, but the Brassicas didn't take at all almost

301
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Speaker 1: so I had some good early early season attracting UH food,

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Speaker 1: but then nothing for the rest of the season. And

303
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Speaker 1: so for all those reasons UH and the fact that

304
00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:14,800
Speaker 1: I just didn't have a lot planted again last minute

305
00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:16,920
Speaker 1: trying to get something in the ground quick, I was

306
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Speaker 1: worried about also making the plots too big, because I

307
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Speaker 1: was worried about being able to get in and out

308
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Speaker 1: of the farm without spooking deer. So I thought, if

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Speaker 1: I keep the plots really tiny, and you know, if

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Speaker 1: I keep narrow and in these little low spots, we

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Speaker 1: might be able to sneak around without deer seeing us

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Speaker 1: and spooking all the time. UM. I thought that was

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Speaker 1: I thought that would be okay, And I have something little,

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Speaker 1: these little ice cream shops right out around the property,

315
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Speaker 1: and there'd be enough deer in the area using the

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Speaker 1: swamp and traveling back and forth and I didn't need

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Speaker 1: a ton of food in the farm. That's what my

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Speaker 1: thought was. But as the season progressed, I realized that

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Speaker 1: wasn't the case. Um. We just did not have a

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Speaker 1: lot of deer spending time in the farm, not a

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Speaker 1: lot of deer passing through. UM. Other than one or

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Speaker 1: two hunts, almost every set was like one deer, two dear,

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Speaker 1: no dear. It was very very very slow um. Which

324
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Speaker 1: led me to this year the spring thinking, okay, probably

325
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Speaker 1: the two very most important things we need to do

326
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Speaker 1: are related to these old fields, and that is number one.

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Speaker 1: Thicken them ups, find some way to turn this waste

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Speaker 1: land into some place that wildlife actually want to spend

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Speaker 1: in daylight. So that was number one, and the number

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Speaker 1: two dramatically increase the quantity and quality of the food.

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Speaker 1: Those are the two very most important things I saw

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Speaker 1: that would be able to transform this to to at

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Speaker 1: least be a viable place to see, you know, see

334
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Speaker 1: a lot of deer in turkeys and other critters. So

335
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Speaker 1: that is that was where my head was at as

336
00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:55,359
Speaker 1: wrapped up UM, which leads we had a lot of

337
00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:58,760
Speaker 1: high hopes. We had big plans, a lot of big products.

338
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Speaker 1: When we wanted to try, and then COVID hit and

339
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:05,720
Speaker 1: all of our spring plans, all of our spring guests,

340
00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,960
Speaker 1: all of our spring projects basically got canceled and put

341
00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:14,720
Speaker 1: on the back burner and just just really changed a

342
00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:16,840
Speaker 1: lot of what we're gonna do. So I kind of

343
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:19,320
Speaker 1: just threw together a couple of little things I could

344
00:18:19,359 --> 00:18:22,800
Speaker 1: do by myself or with a couple local people that

345
00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:25,720
Speaker 1: could help me with things. Um but I was able

346
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Speaker 1: to do a couple of things that didn't make a difference.

347
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Speaker 1: One thing I was able to do to address these

348
00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:34,080
Speaker 1: old fields was I wanted to get some new base

349
00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:39,280
Speaker 1: of grassy cover out there, so we frosted switch grass.

350
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Speaker 1: The way I did this is I first applied an

351
00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:48,720
Speaker 1: herbicide treatment too large swaths of these old fields that

352
00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 1: would kill off the mayor's tail and stop anything else

353
00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:54,359
Speaker 1: like that from growing up and give the switch grass

354
00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:58,840
Speaker 1: a chance to grow. That worked, I frosted the switch grass.

355
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Speaker 1: Frost seeding, for those that are familiar, is basically going

356
00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:05,200
Speaker 1: in and just broadcasting, so so spreading seed on top

357
00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:08,720
Speaker 1: of the ground during the early early spring when they're

358
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:11,720
Speaker 1: still freezing and thawing happening, So when you're still gonna

359
00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:14,200
Speaker 1: get hard frost and then thaws and freeze and thoughts.

360
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:18,720
Speaker 1: When that happens, the ground expands and contracts, expands and contracts,

361
00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:22,520
Speaker 1: and it slowly settles the seed down into the ground

362
00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:25,680
Speaker 1: by virtue of that effect. So that's what I did,

363
00:19:26,119 --> 00:19:30,800
Speaker 1: and this had to one expected benefit. One unexpected benefit

364
00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:34,280
Speaker 1: they expected was that the herbicide treatment knocked out the

365
00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:36,120
Speaker 1: mayor's tale and it allowed the sum of the switch

366
00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,560
Speaker 1: grass to get to get going. The second thing, which

367
00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:42,159
Speaker 1: I guess I knew in theory but I wasn't thinking about,

368
00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:45,840
Speaker 1: is that not only did it remove the mayor's tail

369
00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:48,840
Speaker 1: to help the switch grass, but even in places where

370
00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:51,160
Speaker 1: the switch grass didn't come in great, what it did

371
00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:54,720
Speaker 1: do is it opened up possibilities for all the other

372
00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:57,320
Speaker 1: seeds that were already in the seed bank. So what

373
00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:01,800
Speaker 1: came up across all these old fields was a vastly

374
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:07,320
Speaker 1: more diverse, thick, lush blanket of different types of vegetation.

375
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,880
Speaker 1: So we got all sorts of different types of grasses

376
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:13,240
Speaker 1: as well as my switch grass. That planet, we got

377
00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:17,080
Speaker 1: a number of different big bushy everything from golden rod

378
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:21,160
Speaker 1: to oh gosh, I'm blanking on some of the different

379
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,399
Speaker 1: things I've seen out there now. But if you were

380
00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:25,680
Speaker 1: to go and look at what these old fields looked

381
00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:29,720
Speaker 1: like last summer versus the end of this summer, It's

382
00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:34,000
Speaker 1: it's like the difference between looking at a monoculture soybean

383
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:38,520
Speaker 1: field and looking at a wildflower garden where there's just

384
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,639
Speaker 1: all these different types of things. Uh speaking. You know,

385
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:43,640
Speaker 1: it's funny, Mark because when you say that, I'm sorry

386
00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,600
Speaker 1: for interrupting, but yeah, you just really called out the

387
00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:49,719
Speaker 1: way I felt about it this year. I couldn't believe

388
00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:53,240
Speaker 1: the difference. Um. And you know, I kind of forgot

389
00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:57,160
Speaker 1: about how mono culture everything was last year, but when

390
00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:00,560
Speaker 1: I saw it this year, it was just just um uh,

391
00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:04,399
Speaker 1: so green and so full and so rich. Um. It

392
00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:06,760
Speaker 1: was hard for me to remember what it was like

393
00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:10,640
Speaker 1: last year. Just dramatically different. And what made me really

394
00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:12,480
Speaker 1: think about that was when you mentioned the golden rods.

395
00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:17,720
Speaker 1: There's wildflowers everywhere throughout the property, just incredible. Yeah, a

396
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:23,520
Speaker 1: lot of it's just a lot more vegetation at different heights,

397
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:27,720
Speaker 1: at different widths. Um. It's it's just we've seen a

398
00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:32,439
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of bird life, butterflies, bugs, um. We we

399
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:36,119
Speaker 1: flushed a woodcock last week. Do you remember that justin Uh,

400
00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:38,960
Speaker 1: that was pretty cool. Yeah, I was there with you too.

401
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:41,600
Speaker 1: It's it's really hard for me to believe, hard for

402
00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:43,800
Speaker 1: me to believe that this change occurred in one year.

403
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,080
Speaker 1: It's just dramatic. And I remember I asked you that mark,

404
00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:50,960
Speaker 1: you know, I said, it's hard for me to believe

405
00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:53,720
Speaker 1: that this could happen in one year and that the

406
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:58,000
Speaker 1: change be so pervasive and so broad across the property. Um,

407
00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:00,320
Speaker 1: it feels like you should have been worked on this

408
00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:03,560
Speaker 1: for three or four years to see that kind of result. Well,

409
00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:06,879
Speaker 1: I'd love to take credit for it all myself, but

410
00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:12,199
Speaker 1: but I also think that a lot of this, a

411
00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:14,159
Speaker 1: lot of this goes back to just the power of

412
00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:18,840
Speaker 1: mother nature. Right Sometimes if we just if we get

413
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:22,680
Speaker 1: some of if we clear a few obstacles all the way,

414
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,040
Speaker 1: mother nature can do amazing things if we let it

415
00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,440
Speaker 1: do what it naturally wants to do. And I think

416
00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:29,080
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, that's what we've tried to

417
00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:33,000
Speaker 1: do here. And so by removing one invasive species, which

418
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:34,800
Speaker 1: is this mayor's tale that came in here and the

419
00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:37,120
Speaker 1: reason why it came in here because the farm used

420
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:40,920
Speaker 1: to be you know, farmed over and over and over

421
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:43,119
Speaker 1: and over and over and over and over again the

422
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:46,240
Speaker 1: same way. And then when it stopped, when they stopped

423
00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:48,880
Speaker 1: farming it like that, the very first thing that's able

424
00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,280
Speaker 1: to take a foothold is this invasive weed May's tale

425
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:54,960
Speaker 1: and a few other things like it. So so that's

426
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:58,000
Speaker 1: what took over this farm and took over these fields.

427
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 1: But but naturally nature doesn't want that. Nature does not

428
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:04,800
Speaker 1: want a monoculture. There's no monoculture in the real world

429
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:08,160
Speaker 1: unless humans put it there or influenced it in some way.

430
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:11,080
Speaker 1: Nature wants diversity. And so what I did is we

431
00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:14,040
Speaker 1: use a little human intervention to knock out that monoculture,

432
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,480
Speaker 1: and then mother Nature came right back in and filled

433
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 1: it in with all the good stuff that that she

434
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:21,120
Speaker 1: wanted to and that ends up being great for all

435
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 1: the deer and birds and and everything. Um So, a

436
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:28,680
Speaker 1: little bit of what I'm finding is that you can

437
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:32,800
Speaker 1: press certain buttons, you can make an influence here or there,

438
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:36,200
Speaker 1: but it but it kind of comes down to finding

439
00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:40,840
Speaker 1: ways to not fight nature but kind of open up.

440
00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:45,440
Speaker 1: It's like, rather than trying to build a damn and

441
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 1: damn up a river, I'd rather work with the river

442
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:51,960
Speaker 1: and maybe put a put a log here that moves

443
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:54,200
Speaker 1: the current a little more to the left. Or maybe

444
00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:55,960
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put a boulder in the river over here

445
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 1: so it flows a little more to the right. Or

446
00:23:58,040 --> 00:23:59,800
Speaker 1: maybe if there's a dam in the river over here,

447
00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 1: I'm to open up a couple of holes in it

448
00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:04,440
Speaker 1: and and try to find ways to to do what

449
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:06,920
Speaker 1: Mother Nature wants to do. But but maybe just influence

450
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,160
Speaker 1: it help us in certain ways. Um. But when it's

451
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:12,720
Speaker 1: when it's kind of like give and take and you

452
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:14,919
Speaker 1: try to harness the power of what's already going on,

453
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 1: that seems to be when you see the most success.

454
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:21,080
Speaker 1: And and maybe that's what's going on here. Um. And

455
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:23,960
Speaker 1: and that certainly has been the case with those old fields.

456
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:26,679
Speaker 1: I also did do a little bit of seating of

457
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:30,280
Speaker 1: some pockets of wildflowers, so I did some of that myself,

458
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 1: but a lot of it naturally seated all over the place.

459
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:35,719
Speaker 1: So that was the case where I tried to help

460
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,040
Speaker 1: it along. But but nature did a whole lot more

461
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 1: than I did there. Mark, how much do you think

462
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:46,080
Speaker 1: the resident depopulation that you put in made an impact

463
00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:49,160
Speaker 1: on just the diversity and the flowering plants in particular.

464
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,600
Speaker 1: Obviously we're impacted by that to some extent. Did that

465
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 1: have any impact do you think or not? You know,

466
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:57,120
Speaker 1: I have no way to to be able to quantify that, because, yeah,

467
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:00,639
Speaker 1: I forgot to mention we we brought in to honey

468
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:05,200
Speaker 1: bee hives onto the property, which which they're definitely helping

469
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 1: with pollinating. There's something like a hundred thousand bees between

470
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 1: those two hives, so there's a lot of new pollinators

471
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 1: on the landscape. I just don't know how to put

472
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 1: any kind of figure behind that and tell you if

473
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,239
Speaker 1: it makes a noticeable difference. But I do know that,

474
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:20,680
Speaker 1: I mean, there are certainly farmers out there who bring

475
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:22,680
Speaker 1: in honey bee hives at certain parts of the year

476
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 1: to make sure their crops get pollinated well enough. Um,

477
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:28,720
Speaker 1: And we do know across a large parts of the

478
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:33,919
Speaker 1: country we're having significant reductions in pollinators species and honey

479
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:37,080
Speaker 1: bees and other bugs like that. There's some real issues

480
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 1: with with bugs out there, very important bugs that are

481
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 1: doing important things for our crops and our plant life.

482
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:46,480
Speaker 1: So I think you certainly could say that they must

483
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:50,080
Speaker 1: have helped some I just don't know. I don't know

484
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:52,360
Speaker 1: how to how to put a value on it, but

485
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:54,640
Speaker 1: some of it didn't certainly didn't hurt, that's for sure.

486
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 1: Well it's interesting you use that like that damn or

487
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:08,439
Speaker 1: that a river flow analogy. Um, but because I was thinking, man, uh,

488
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,399
Speaker 1: you know, I climbed and was like crawling through so

489
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:15,000
Speaker 1: much of that stuff filming that. I mean, I saw

490
00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:18,880
Speaker 1: I don't know what was there last year. But it's

491
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 1: like when you go in and you do your part

492
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 1: to get rid of that monoculture. Um, it's like everything

493
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 1: that should be there ended up there this year, you

494
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:32,920
Speaker 1: know what I mean, It's like there. I mean, I

495
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,200
Speaker 1: don't know how far ahead you want to get, but uh, man,

496
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 1: so many deer, so many insects, tons of not to

497
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,960
Speaker 1: want coyotes, but I mean, everything just seemed to be

498
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,760
Speaker 1: in place this year, you know what I mean. Yeah, Yeah,

499
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 1: it's a it's a jungle and uh and that's what

500
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:54,280
Speaker 1: all these critters wanted. So it was cool to see

501
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:56,439
Speaker 1: that happen. And it was cool to see that some

502
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 1: of that switch grass did come in. So we've got

503
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 1: a base of grass us with this diversity of other

504
00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:05,399
Speaker 1: things around it. We planned some of those wildflowers. I

505
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 1: also did try planting those sorghum screens again. And what

506
00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:12,120
Speaker 1: I took from last year is that, you know what

507
00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:15,480
Speaker 1: I want to practice for gender culture in a lot

508
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:17,160
Speaker 1: of ways. We want to experiment with it and learn

509
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,679
Speaker 1: about it, but I don't know how to make it

510
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:24,520
Speaker 1: work with these screens. I really need this screening cover

511
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:28,360
Speaker 1: in these old fields. We needed that vertical visual barrier

512
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:31,639
Speaker 1: to keep these things from being tennantcro open fields and

513
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:37,280
Speaker 1: instead be compartmentalized and have this diversity of of height

514
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:40,320
Speaker 1: and security for deer and other animals. So I decided

515
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,000
Speaker 1: that we were going to lightly disk a few spots

516
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:45,560
Speaker 1: to get that in. It's a compromise I had to

517
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: make um and I think for the greater the I

518
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,720
Speaker 1: don't know what, but it worked. It made a big difference.

519
00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:57,359
Speaker 1: It made a big difference. I mean you could just

520
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:00,320
Speaker 1: see again, jumping ahead a little bit, when we fat

521
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:04,320
Speaker 1: in that blind looking out over the food plot and

522
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 1: looking to the left and looking at the right, you

523
00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 1: could see those screens on all four sides of us right,

524
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:12,280
Speaker 1: and you could see why it made the deer feel comfortable.

525
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 1: It was funny because when we're up on the tree stand,

526
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 1: you know, I can see them across there, but It

527
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,160
Speaker 1: wasn't until I got on the ground again and looked

528
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 1: around me after you know, the next day and that

529
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,400
Speaker 1: sort of thing, and then realized just how tall those were.

530
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:28,480
Speaker 1: Those had to be eight ten ft tass screens. Um.

531
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:32,199
Speaker 1: It provided a lot of cover and protection for the deer. Yeah,

532
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 1: So for people at home, try to envision this. Imagine

533
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 1: you had six fields that last year. Essentially we're like

534
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 1: dried soybean fields. If you've ever been in soybean field

535
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:49,400
Speaker 1: after the leaves fall off, they're just those little gray stocks, um,

536
00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:51,760
Speaker 1: And that's that's it. That's kind of what the fields

537
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 1: are like last year. Now this year, imagine those six

538
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 1: old fields, which total about thirty two acres of our property,

539
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,640
Speaker 1: so about half. Now imagine those fields. Now have you know,

540
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 1: hip to chest height, to shoulder height in some case

541
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,320
Speaker 1: tall weeds and bushes and grasses and all this different

542
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 1: stuff that's everywhere. And then in each one of these fields,

543
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 1: some of them more, some of them less. We have

544
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 1: long strips. Sometimes it was a straight line. Sometimes it's

545
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 1: a half circle of this crop sorghum, which essentially it

546
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:32,400
Speaker 1: looks like corn, but it's grown to twelve fourteen foot tall.

547
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:35,880
Speaker 1: So you have these walls and these half circles of

548
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:40,800
Speaker 1: what looks like corn, which is totally creating these big barriers. Essentially,

549
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:44,320
Speaker 1: it's like a jungle of trees in this area that

550
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: now is spread out in different pockets across these fields.

551
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 1: So instead of being a why don't get right open

552
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: bean field? Essentially, now you almost have a crp field

553
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:59,600
Speaker 1: mixed with forest kind of created in a haphazard way

554
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 1: in one year, um you get that kind of effect

555
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:04,840
Speaker 1: at least, so all of a sudden, deer can walk

556
00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 1: out there instead of feeling they're in the open ten acres,

557
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:09,920
Speaker 1: they can be in a little area of a half

558
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 1: acre and they don't realize that there's all this other

559
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:15,600
Speaker 1: stuff around them because they're enclosed, and they feel a

560
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:18,920
Speaker 1: lot more comfortable. That the ideas that hypothetically they feel

561
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: a lot more comfortable coming out there. That was the

562
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 1: hope coming into this hunting season. So we did the screens,

563
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:29,080
Speaker 1: we did the herbicide treatment, we planned the switch grass,

564
00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 1: we planted the wildflowers. In August, we came in and

565
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 1: we planted trees. We planted pockets of trees across the property,

566
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,600
Speaker 1: across all these old fields. We mowed out little areas,

567
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 1: maybe I don't know, ten yards by ten yards wide,

568
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 1: little circles, and we would plant three or four or

569
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:49,400
Speaker 1: five evergreen trees in each one of these pockets. And

570
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:53,080
Speaker 1: I tried to choose areas where there's little rises in

571
00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:56,120
Speaker 1: the topography that might be the kind of spot that

572
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:58,560
Speaker 1: someday a few deer might want to bed where this

573
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:02,080
Speaker 1: winter I did see some deer beds um places where

574
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:04,640
Speaker 1: where wildlife would naturally want to be if they had

575
00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:06,920
Speaker 1: the cover they needed there. And that's where I planted

576
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:09,720
Speaker 1: these pockets of evergreens. We planned some white pines, some

577
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:14,560
Speaker 1: white cedar, some spruce um, a few things like that.

578
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 1: So the idea here is that these grasses that we planted,

579
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 1: the sorghum we planted, the all the native stuff that

580
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 1: came up. That all helps right now, but a long

581
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,480
Speaker 1: term solution to get more, you know, long term cover

582
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:30,840
Speaker 1: and structure out there that we don't need to continuously

583
00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:34,520
Speaker 1: be replanting like we will with the sorghum trees. Eventually,

584
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:36,680
Speaker 1: in year one, year, two year, three down the road,

585
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:39,640
Speaker 1: those are gonna grow out, They're gonna fill out, they're

586
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,080
Speaker 1: gonna become these little islands of a different type of

587
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:45,520
Speaker 1: cover out there, where deer can bed, where rabbits can hide,

588
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:50,240
Speaker 1: where birds can nest. You again have a different type

589
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 1: of cover out there. So we keep adding diversity. So

590
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:57,680
Speaker 1: we went from this same blank canvas too, now a

591
00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:00,600
Speaker 1: canvas that has splotches of all these different things all

592
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 1: over the place. And that's what nature wants. That's what

593
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,200
Speaker 1: deer one, that's what turkeys want. They want edge, they

594
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 1: want diversity, they want security. With the trees, we add

595
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 1: a new bit of that. And this year it's not

596
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:15,240
Speaker 1: gonna do a ton for us because they're young trees,

597
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:17,880
Speaker 1: the three ft four foot tall trees, they're spaced out.

598
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 1: But a couple of years from now, whoever's hunting and

599
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:23,280
Speaker 1: enjoying this place, I think it's going to see a

600
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 1: lot of activity going from tree pocket to tree pocket

601
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:28,280
Speaker 1: and little bedding areas, a couple of does here and there,

602
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 1: bucks checking these spots, um sign posting on these spots.

603
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:34,280
Speaker 1: I think it's goll be very cool down the road.

604
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 1: So that's another thing we did. We then went on

605
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 1: and worked on version two of the food plots. Version

606
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: two of the food plots was trying to address all

607
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:48,520
Speaker 1: those issues. I listened out to you earlier. So I

608
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:51,720
Speaker 1: tried to plant um a little thicker than I did

609
00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: last year. I tried to um not only UM make

610
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:01,080
Speaker 1: sure I am a mixed right, but also I wanted

611
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:03,959
Speaker 1: to cover off and kind of give myself a safety

612
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 1: valve on that so that even if I underseated with

613
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 1: the drill too much, I was gonna go over top

614
00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:13,440
Speaker 1: of it and broadcast a mix of brassicas as well.

615
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 1: So basically that that late season food source that we

616
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 1: didn't get last year. I was a little worried that

617
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:20,080
Speaker 1: by drilling it in there with the oats and wheat

618
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,600
Speaker 1: and all that stuff, maybe it was it was wasn't

619
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:26,160
Speaker 1: getting the right soil depth or for whatever reason wasn't

620
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: coming up well within that mix. So I I drilled

621
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 1: in a mix from drop time seed. It was it

622
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:33,960
Speaker 1: was called the fall reload, which was a mixture of

623
00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:39,720
Speaker 1: brassicas and oats and clovers and triggic ically and I

624
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:42,440
Speaker 1: don't know all all sorts of different things rape and turnips.

625
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 1: Drilled that in and then we went over top of

626
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,680
Speaker 1: it all and just broadcast more brassica's to spread out

627
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:53,000
Speaker 1: all over to fill in any gaps we might have

628
00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 1: had UM just to cover off on any mistakes when

629
00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:59,040
Speaker 1: it came to my seating. So I did that, and

630
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 1: maybe most importantly, I significantly increased the size of these

631
00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 1: food plots. We went from about an acre and a

632
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,839
Speaker 1: half of plots last year to somewhere around three three

633
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:12,759
Speaker 1: and a half acres this year, so essentially three x

634
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:17,239
Speaker 1: or close to three x the quantity of food on

635
00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:20,279
Speaker 1: the property. And we also changed the design of the

636
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:22,480
Speaker 1: food plots a little bit. Last year, I kind of

637
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,520
Speaker 1: plopped them down a few places, and I was worried

638
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 1: about them being too big. And this year I kind

639
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 1: of learned after seeing how some deer used the property

640
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:32,440
Speaker 1: last year, I learned how the deer wanted to travel,

641
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:34,719
Speaker 1: and I discovered that there are some some spots that

642
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:38,120
Speaker 1: I wanted to hunt last year, but the wind would

643
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:40,799
Speaker 1: be blowing to where deer want to go too, and

644
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 1: so they come into our food plots. But because of

645
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: where I put those plots, when they did come into them,

646
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 1: they'd eventually get into my wind. Uh. This year I

647
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:51,520
Speaker 1: rechanged that. I changed the directions and these plots moved.

648
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:54,479
Speaker 1: I went more from like a square shape for those

649
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 1: plots too long linear shaped plots um kind of like

650
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 1: a highway of green stretching across a couple of different places.

651
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:04,720
Speaker 1: This is an idea that Jeff Sturg just really pounded

652
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:06,839
Speaker 1: home with me and with a lot of people took

653
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:11,920
Speaker 1: his idea and implemented that here. Um. So that's what

654
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:15,319
Speaker 1: we did from the food plot perspective. The last thing

655
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:16,799
Speaker 1: we did, and this was done in the spring. I

656
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,040
Speaker 1: forgot to mention this, but we did some improvements to

657
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:22,319
Speaker 1: the area we called the honey Hoole. This honey hole

658
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 1: is this ridge that runs along one part of the

659
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:27,840
Speaker 1: property that last year we found out had a native

660
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,719
Speaker 1: prairie remnant native prairie ecosystem in there. So it's a

661
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:35,040
Speaker 1: part of the property where there is still the native

662
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:37,960
Speaker 1: grassland species that we had a hundred years ago, two

663
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:41,960
Speaker 1: years ago before we farmed everything down. We have a

664
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: little pocket of this stuff. It's big blue stump grass,

665
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:48,120
Speaker 1: little blue stump grass, a bunch of other species that

666
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:49,800
Speaker 1: I can't remember the names of. But we had in

667
00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 1: the colleges come out and he told us that this

668
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:53,840
Speaker 1: was a really special, rare place that we we should

669
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:56,799
Speaker 1: really try to nurture. Um. He recommended to do that

670
00:35:56,840 --> 00:35:58,800
Speaker 1: we should cut down all the trees and the brush

671
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,560
Speaker 1: in there, and we should burn it. Now. That kind

672
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:04,239
Speaker 1: of concerned me though, because this area was full of

673
00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:08,360
Speaker 1: cedar trees and automolive and buck thorn and just thick,

674
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:12,400
Speaker 1: nasty bushes and great looking deer habitat. So one of

675
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 1: the big questions last year is can we do the

676
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,640
Speaker 1: thing that that our ecologist Dan is recommending we do

677
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 1: to to nurture this native prairie while still keeping the

678
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:24,160
Speaker 1: good deer habitat in there. That was the question. The

679
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:25,799
Speaker 1: way I tried to answer this year was to do

680
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:28,239
Speaker 1: a little bit of both. I tried to remove some

681
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 1: of the autumn olive and buck thorne by going in

682
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:33,360
Speaker 1: there early this spring and cutting down a bunch of

683
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:37,319
Speaker 1: that and then applying an herbicide to the trunk of

684
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 1: those cut trees to keep them from coming back. So

685
00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 1: I cut out pockets of it. I didn't cut it

686
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,719
Speaker 1: all out, but I cut out pockets. So instead of

687
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 1: a big wine open ridge of just grass, it was

688
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:51,920
Speaker 1: coves and little bays and some strips and some openings.

689
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:54,000
Speaker 1: But then other ompenings or other spots where there's still

690
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:57,840
Speaker 1: were cedars, there still were bushes, so again diversity. And

691
00:36:57,880 --> 00:36:59,799
Speaker 1: then we did go in there and do a prescribed fire.

692
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:04,760
Speaker 1: In May April April, I guess April or May somewhere

693
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:07,439
Speaker 1: in there, we did a prescribed burn with the help

694
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:12,200
Speaker 1: of Dan and burned it, which essentially takes all the

695
00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 1: old stuff, the dead thatch that was out there, removes

696
00:37:15,719 --> 00:37:19,080
Speaker 1: any leaf, litter, dead grass, anything was on top of

697
00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:21,360
Speaker 1: the soil. So it opens up everything to new sunlight.

698
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:25,440
Speaker 1: It that heat kind of reinvigorates the soil and the

699
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:27,880
Speaker 1: nutrient life in there and kind of makes everything more fertile.

700
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:33,440
Speaker 1: It brings in a thicker, more diverse growth the next

701
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:36,600
Speaker 1: summer after the burn. And and that's what we saw

702
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:38,799
Speaker 1: when we came back in later in the year and

703
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:40,520
Speaker 1: took a look at the honey Hoole after the burn.

704
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 1: You know, justin you were there with me when we

705
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:46,440
Speaker 1: walked in there. Not only was there tons of grass

706
00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:48,680
Speaker 1: and flowers and all sorts of different things in there now,

707
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:53,840
Speaker 1: but there was still deer beds everywhere, dear turds everywhere.

708
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:56,120
Speaker 1: I mean, the place was littered with deer sign So

709
00:37:56,680 --> 00:38:00,400
Speaker 1: we we improved and helped nurture along that native prairie,

710
00:38:00,760 --> 00:38:03,800
Speaker 1: but we made it maybe even better for deer um,

711
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:10,640
Speaker 1: which was again a really nice um illustration or example

712
00:38:10,719 --> 00:38:12,640
Speaker 1: of something that we're trying to do, trying to do

713
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:16,000
Speaker 1: both of these things, you know, So that was what

714
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:17,880
Speaker 1: we did from a habitate perspective. Do you feel like

715
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 1: I missed anything justin that you saw or that's worth

716
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:23,920
Speaker 1: bringing it up? Well, I it was interesting to me

717
00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:27,000
Speaker 1: that as we were going through that after the burn

718
00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:31,359
Speaker 1: and after the regrowth that I mean that that big

719
00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:34,600
Speaker 1: blue stem was chest and head high. I mean, it

720
00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:37,800
Speaker 1: looked so rich. And you know what we noticed too,

721
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 1: was like that was definitely something that you wanted to

722
00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:46,000
Speaker 1: kind of nurture back you know, from a state that

723
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:49,439
Speaker 1: you know, like you said, when the farm came through

724
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 1: a kind of like jarred everything backwards. But you know,

725
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 1: we noticed when we were sitting in that blind the

726
00:38:57,560 --> 00:39:00,520
Speaker 1: first night that that big blue stem now has like

727
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:03,839
Speaker 1: started to seat itself outside of the honey hole where

728
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:07,200
Speaker 1: it was originally burned. Yeah, exactly, which is awesome to see.

729
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:11,080
Speaker 1: It's it's going to continue to expand its footprint. And

730
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 1: that's another example of just kind of help my other

731
00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:17,120
Speaker 1: nature along and let her do her thing. And uh,

732
00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:21,919
Speaker 1: I think we're starting to see that too. So from

733
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:26,200
Speaker 1: a habitat perspective. That's what we did. Um. We also

734
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:29,960
Speaker 1: made some hunting changes. Primarily the biggest things we did

735
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:35,040
Speaker 1: UM in August was trying to better set up the

736
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 1: property for our guest hunters last year. Um, everything came

737
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:41,840
Speaker 1: together kind of last minute. So I did some scouting.

738
00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:44,200
Speaker 1: I kind of prepped some trees to hunt with a saddle,

739
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:46,960
Speaker 1: but I didn't really have anything very well set up

740
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 1: for our guests, people that weren't going to hunt from

741
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,239
Speaker 1: a saddle or portable trees. Damn. So like for my

742
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:54,800
Speaker 1: hunt with you, Dad, I just have some ground blends

743
00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:57,600
Speaker 1: that had to pop up at the last minute. UM,

744
00:39:57,680 --> 00:39:59,840
Speaker 1: And you know, I think for both of us it

745
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:02,279
Speaker 1: was hard to see from those it was bad not

746
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:07,320
Speaker 1: great positioning. Um. Would you agree that those ground blinds

747
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:10,759
Speaker 1: setups were okay but certainly not nearly as ideal as

748
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 1: the setup we had this time around? Oh no, comparison, Yeah,

749
00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:17,960
Speaker 1: absolutely great. What we had this time was phenomenal. Yeah.

750
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,600
Speaker 1: So so what we had this time was we decided

751
00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:26,440
Speaker 1: to get three big tower blinds. UM. The ones we

752
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 1: got are called Landmark blinds. They're from a company called

753
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:32,640
Speaker 1: River's Edge, and basically it's it's like a box blind

754
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: up on a tower, but instead of being made from

755
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:38,440
Speaker 1: wood or fiberglass or anything like that, this is just

756
00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:44,240
Speaker 1: like a metal frame with waterproof canvas exterior. Um which

757
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:47,400
Speaker 1: was relatively easy. I mean, it was the challenge to

758
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:49,440
Speaker 1: put together a little bit. And I gotta tell you

759
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:51,560
Speaker 1: that we had some guys from the company come and

760
00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:54,560
Speaker 1: help us, a guy in particular, Jake your Godsend, thank

761
00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:56,279
Speaker 1: you for your help. He came and helped us put

762
00:40:56,320 --> 00:41:00,799
Speaker 1: together some of these um uh. But what they're not

763
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:03,040
Speaker 1: crazy heavy, they're not crazy hard to move around. It

764
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 1: ended up being a pretty cool thing that we were

765
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:08,319
Speaker 1: able to do with myself and Tony Peterson. We were

766
00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:10,360
Speaker 1: put up one of them by ourselves, and then Justin

767
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,440
Speaker 1: and Charlie other cameraman helped us with a couple more. So.

768
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:16,400
Speaker 1: We have these three ten foot tall towers with a

769
00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:19,200
Speaker 1: box blind on top that we set up in three

770
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:23,239
Speaker 1: different fields overlooking some of these food plots. Each one

771
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:27,040
Speaker 1: of these I put next to a betting area. So

772
00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:31,960
Speaker 1: every one of these setups is next to a food

773
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:33,920
Speaker 1: plot that's right on the edge of one of our

774
00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:37,719
Speaker 1: best betting airs in the farm. And one of them

775
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 1: was set up just outside the honey hoole as you

776
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:43,440
Speaker 1: alluded to justin. One of them was set up in

777
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:45,960
Speaker 1: field number four, right by where you and I hunted

778
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:49,160
Speaker 1: last year dead and then one of them was in

779
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:53,400
Speaker 1: field three on the west side of the property, so

780
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:57,400
Speaker 1: we have one east wind spot. Um and yeah, I

781
00:41:57,440 --> 00:41:59,279
Speaker 1: was hoping for something to give people a better view

782
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:02,120
Speaker 1: as far as distance, that would give people better shot opportunities,

783
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:06,040
Speaker 1: that would, um, you know, just just be much better

784
00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:09,520
Speaker 1: position for for you, Dad, or for our hunt winners

785
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:11,839
Speaker 1: coming out later this year, or a new hunter that's

786
00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:15,080
Speaker 1: coming out this year. Um, I'm hoping for more comfortable,

787
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:20,640
Speaker 1: more productive sets for those people. And uh. And and

788
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:23,839
Speaker 1: that led us to the first hunt to to test

789
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 1: on all these things, which just happened last week. UM.

790
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 1: So that's the story in the habitat stuff. Dad, Do

791
00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:33,480
Speaker 1: you have any questions as far as habitat or anything

792
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:35,400
Speaker 1: else you want to bring up as far as what

793
00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:38,720
Speaker 1: you saw or things you were curious about, Um, anything

794
00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 1: as far as the farm and the changes we made

795
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,759
Speaker 1: or things like that. Well, you know, all I would

796
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:46,799
Speaker 1: say is just reiterating the things that you've already brought up.

797
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:49,960
Speaker 1: I was really surprised at the difference. And I didn't

798
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time um at the farm you

799
00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:55,239
Speaker 1: know last year, a couple of days, but just the

800
00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:59,080
Speaker 1: just the difference in the on the cover, particularly the

801
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:01,799
Speaker 1: star gum and you know, the food plot layouts. I

802
00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 1: mean it was it was like being on a I

803
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:06,440
Speaker 1: guess it was frontant purposes. I was hunting on a

804
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:10,080
Speaker 1: completely different property, um, and just the difference was so

805
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:13,120
Speaker 1: dramatic to me. I was really surprised. Um. And back

806
00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:16,400
Speaker 1: to those uh, those uh elevated minds. The other thing

807
00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:19,200
Speaker 1: I really liked about those is the flexibility had in

808
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:22,840
Speaker 1: the windows, right setting those up and opening and closing.

809
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 1: And we had a couple of several times where we

810
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:26,960
Speaker 1: just had a you know, an inch inch and a

811
00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:31,279
Speaker 1: half crack basically in the back around the side, just

812
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:33,080
Speaker 1: enough that you be kind of looking through it and

813
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 1: get an idea for dear coming through. I think it's

814
00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 1: just the whole setup was a lot more um conducive

815
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:44,920
Speaker 1: to really being stealth and really having not just a

816
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 1: comfortable set, but also being well positioned when you did

817
00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:50,759
Speaker 1: see there. Yeah. Yeah, the windows, I really do like those.

818
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:54,920
Speaker 1: You essentially have sliding canvas. I don't know it means

819
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:57,440
Speaker 1: it's just the canvas exterior, but they're almost like how

820
00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:00,479
Speaker 1: you can slide curtains, But these curtains could go either

821
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:03,640
Speaker 1: horizontally or vertically, so you can slide them left and right,

822
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:06,600
Speaker 1: or you could slide them up and down and essentially

823
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:09,840
Speaker 1: customize whatever size or shape opening you want. If you

824
00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:12,520
Speaker 1: want vertical windows, you can make them. If you want

825
00:44:12,560 --> 00:44:17,840
Speaker 1: horizontal windows, you can make them. I really like that. Um. Okay,

826
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:24,600
Speaker 1: So that brings us to the beginning of hunting season. Um.

827
00:44:24,640 --> 00:44:29,480
Speaker 1: This hunt was exciting for me for two reasons. Particularly

828
00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:32,440
Speaker 1: exciting for me for two reasons. One was on the

829
00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:36,160
Speaker 1: selfish side, and that was I wanted to see the

830
00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:39,400
Speaker 1: results of everything we did. As I just described. You know,

831
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:41,919
Speaker 1: I put a lot of work, and we all put

832
00:44:41,920 --> 00:44:44,479
Speaker 1: in a lot of work this spring and summer, whether

833
00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:46,520
Speaker 1: it be the camera guys like you justin, whether it

834
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:50,200
Speaker 1: be the guests that came out and helped me. Um.

835
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:52,680
Speaker 1: You know, there was a lot of time and sweat

836
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:55,000
Speaker 1: and energy putting this. So big thank you to people

837
00:44:55,000 --> 00:45:00,800
Speaker 1: like Doug During, Dan j Jo, Tony Peterson, Dan's a Um,

838
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:03,880
Speaker 1: Rob Hobby, Nick George, all the various folks over the

839
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:07,800
Speaker 1: course of the year that have lended a hand, thank you. UM.

840
00:45:07,880 --> 00:45:12,160
Speaker 1: So all of that just had me so interested and

841
00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:15,800
Speaker 1: excited to to see, Okay, can you actually change something

842
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 1: in a year and see a big difference the way

843
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:22,760
Speaker 1: I was hoping you could. So the first hunt obviously

844
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 1: is the real litmus test of that. So I was

845
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:29,040
Speaker 1: excited for that. But number two, I was really excited

846
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:31,759
Speaker 1: because I was trying to I wanted to fulfill a

847
00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:37,040
Speaker 1: promise or fulfill a hope that I had that we

848
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 1: started last year, which is helping you Dad have a

849
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:45,800
Speaker 1: really special hunt. UM. And you know, as some folks

850
00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:49,479
Speaker 1: have heard and some of our prior podcasts um last

851
00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:54,160
Speaker 1: year's episode. UM, you know, you've dealt with a variety

852
00:45:54,160 --> 00:45:56,480
Speaker 1: of challenges over the course of your hunting life that

853
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:59,239
Speaker 1: have made things tougher than some other people. And you

854
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:02,120
Speaker 1: haven't one or be some stuff you've dealt with or

855
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:04,879
Speaker 1: the places you've hunted. You know, our deer camp up north,

856
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:06,759
Speaker 1: you wan't say a lot, dear. There's a number of

857
00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:09,200
Speaker 1: things that have just kind of made it tougher for

858
00:46:09,239 --> 00:46:10,880
Speaker 1: you to have a good chance at a buck or

859
00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:13,279
Speaker 1: a deer of any kind with your bow. And I thought, man,

860
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:14,839
Speaker 1: we're gonna get my dad down here in the back

861
00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:16,440
Speaker 1: forty and we're gonna get him that first dear with

862
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:18,839
Speaker 1: the bow. We're gonna get you your biggest buck ever.

863
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:22,560
Speaker 1: And last year was just a flop. So I thought,

864
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:25,279
Speaker 1: maybe this is the year we could do it. Uh.

865
00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:27,440
Speaker 1: And so many of the changes I made, I was

866
00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:32,080
Speaker 1: actually thinking specifically about this hunt, so really setting up

867
00:46:32,080 --> 00:46:35,040
Speaker 1: these blinds and food plots and locations, thinking about, okay,

868
00:46:35,719 --> 00:46:38,719
Speaker 1: on October five, where do I need to have this

869
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,279
Speaker 1: tower blind? So my dad's gonna get a good crack

870
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:45,040
Speaker 1: in a buck. Um. So all that was leading up

871
00:46:45,040 --> 00:46:49,319
Speaker 1: to this point. Um, So that's where my head was

872
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:54,080
Speaker 1: a dead. Would you be willing at all to talk

873
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:56,319
Speaker 1: to me a little bit about or talk to us

874
00:46:56,440 --> 00:46:58,399
Speaker 1: a little bit about where your head was a leading

875
00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:01,279
Speaker 1: up to this um and kind of talk about some

876
00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:04,040
Speaker 1: of the challenges you dealt woods leading up to this

877
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:08,680
Speaker 1: um with getting into archery and bow hunting. Um. I

878
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:10,759
Speaker 1: think getting a little history there would be helpful to

879
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:16,480
Speaker 1: kind of color color this whole week. Sure. Sure, yeah, So, Um,

880
00:47:16,520 --> 00:47:18,719
Speaker 1: you know, as you know, Mark, we've hunted for a

881
00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:21,440
Speaker 1: long time as a family, right Grandpa had me out

882
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:23,719
Speaker 1: in the woods hunting when I was four or five

883
00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:25,680
Speaker 1: years old. Like I had you out in the woods

884
00:47:25,680 --> 00:47:28,400
Speaker 1: when we were four or five years old. The difference

885
00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 1: was we always rifle hunted, so we really did very

886
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 1: little bow hunting when I grew up, very low. Grandpa

887
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:37,440
Speaker 1: had a straight bow, but I don't think I ever

888
00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:41,239
Speaker 1: saw him shoot it. For us, it was just and

889
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:46,839
Speaker 1: and we we were for us November fift through was

890
00:47:47,239 --> 00:47:49,799
Speaker 1: hunting Seasan. That's when we went up and when we

891
00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:52,160
Speaker 1: got the cabin, and you know, we had the you know,

892
00:47:52,239 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 1: it was it was a religious right. We went up there,

893
00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 1: you know, the day before maybe two days before opening day,

894
00:47:58,560 --> 00:48:01,600
Speaker 1: and we stayed an entire week if we could, or

895
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:04,880
Speaker 1: came up the following weekend and and Thanksgiving weekend and

896
00:48:05,160 --> 00:48:07,879
Speaker 1: um as you know, um, you know our cabin up north.

897
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:10,279
Speaker 1: Uh we had a lot of deer for a number

898
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:14,319
Speaker 1: of deer, never big deer years ago, but that kind

899
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:18,560
Speaker 1: of for whatever reason, um, the number of deer leveled

900
00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:21,719
Speaker 1: off quite a bit ten fifteen years ago. And uh

901
00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:24,080
Speaker 1: so you know, we still went up as a family,

902
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:26,560
Speaker 1: we still did our hunt, but we had really low

903
00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:29,319
Speaker 1: expectations about you know, the number of deer. We're gonna

904
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:31,400
Speaker 1: see and the number of antlers we're gonna see, and

905
00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:34,040
Speaker 1: everyone's you know, occasionally every year or two we'd get

906
00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:36,319
Speaker 1: a deer between the four or five of us that

907
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:40,440
Speaker 1: went up, but just not not the numbers and the quantity.

908
00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:42,359
Speaker 1: So you know, that's part of what I was so

909
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,000
Speaker 1: excited about. And and not that I don't love to

910
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:46,839
Speaker 1: hunt it up at the cabin, because I really do,

911
00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:49,920
Speaker 1: but it's for to some extent, its for different reasons.

912
00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:52,920
Speaker 1: You know, I'd love to see a big buck of

913
00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:55,359
Speaker 1: mature deer walk out in front of me, but I

914
00:48:55,440 --> 00:48:59,319
Speaker 1: don't typically expect that. Um So, yeah, back to your

915
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:02,359
Speaker 1: your point about you know some of the challenges. Um So,

916
00:49:02,440 --> 00:49:05,799
Speaker 1: I've always rifle hunted my entire life, and as as

917
00:49:05,840 --> 00:49:08,360
Speaker 1: you know, and we've talked about before. Um you know,

918
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:12,600
Speaker 1: I I have a low vision, visually paired. So for me,

919
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:17,360
Speaker 1: basically what my vision is without correction is what you

920
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:21,200
Speaker 1: can see at two hundred feet I see at twenty um.

921
00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:24,799
Speaker 1: And you know, I have a telescope, a small telescope

922
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:27,800
Speaker 1: of my glasses that gives me a magnified vision of

923
00:49:28,520 --> 00:49:30,719
Speaker 1: whatever is I'm looking at. But it's really hard to

924
00:49:30,800 --> 00:49:32,719
Speaker 1: use something like that in the woods. Right, it just

925
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:35,080
Speaker 1: doesn't work well at all. And as you and I

926
00:49:35,120 --> 00:49:38,120
Speaker 1: talked about Mark, you know, you asked me sometime over

927
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:40,279
Speaker 1: the week, you said, what, Dad, why do you why

928
00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:42,360
Speaker 1: do you why aren't you wearing your glasses with the

929
00:49:42,360 --> 00:49:45,120
Speaker 1: telescope when we go out in the woods. And what

930
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,360
Speaker 1: I explained was, Um, I used to do that. It

931
00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:49,280
Speaker 1: used to build out all the time. And I've spooked

932
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:52,200
Speaker 1: a lot of deer because of this, because there's a

933
00:49:52,840 --> 00:49:57,680
Speaker 1: you know, going between the glasses, um, the binoculars and

934
00:49:57,680 --> 00:50:01,759
Speaker 1: then ultimately your scope on your for on a cross bow. Uh,

935
00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:04,799
Speaker 1: there's this too much movement. It's too difficult to do

936
00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:07,640
Speaker 1: all that, be able to see the deer, see the movement,

937
00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:09,759
Speaker 1: see the you know, whatever it is you're you're trying

938
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:12,839
Speaker 1: to determine as a deer or not, and um, and

939
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 1: just not spook. So UM, I tried something different the

940
00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:19,759
Speaker 1: last couple of hunts where I just have left the

941
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:24,200
Speaker 1: classes behind. And uh so I'm particularly blind in that case.

942
00:50:24,719 --> 00:50:28,520
Speaker 1: But the advantage is it minimizes the amount of movement

943
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:31,440
Speaker 1: and the blind so that I'm basically working between the

944
00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:35,200
Speaker 1: binoculars and the scope and use the binoculars for the

945
00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:37,040
Speaker 1: most part, because that gives me the ability to be

946
00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 1: able to see the deer. So you know, those are

947
00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:41,759
Speaker 1: some challenges that I've had. I guess the other thing

948
00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:45,440
Speaker 1: is because you and I, UM, and I can't recall

949
00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:48,680
Speaker 1: whether it's your idea or my idea or both. You know,

950
00:50:48,760 --> 00:50:51,480
Speaker 1: we got into bow hunting back in the early two thousand's,

951
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:54,680
Speaker 1: right and one, and bought a couple of compound bows

952
00:50:54,800 --> 00:50:57,840
Speaker 1: and uh, you know you took to that right away,

953
00:50:57,840 --> 00:51:01,240
Speaker 1: and that was that was really your passion pretty quickly. UM.

954
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:03,600
Speaker 1: And I was always kind of a casual hunter with

955
00:51:03,640 --> 00:51:06,239
Speaker 1: the bowl, Um, go out behind the house or up

956
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:09,880
Speaker 1: a ken roban or whatever. But you know, I'm honest

957
00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:12,760
Speaker 1: and it would say that I've never had the certainly

958
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:15,680
Speaker 1: the level of proficiency and the level of skill that

959
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:18,799
Speaker 1: you have. UM. And you know that's kind of compounded

960
00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:23,320
Speaker 1: by for me, it's quite honestly, UM, it's really difficult

961
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:26,919
Speaker 1: for me to see target. So UM, that's why ten

962
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:29,680
Speaker 1: years ago or so, maybe eight years ago, I moved

963
00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:33,080
Speaker 1: over to a crossbow, not so much because of the

964
00:51:33,120 --> 00:51:35,600
Speaker 1: cross bow itself, but because you could use the scope.

965
00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:38,239
Speaker 1: For me, that gives me the ability to be able

966
00:51:38,239 --> 00:51:40,920
Speaker 1: to you know, see the animal and make sure that

967
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:43,560
Speaker 1: I can get a good bearing on it. So you know,

968
00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:46,400
Speaker 1: those are some of the things that uh uh, you know.

969
00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:50,040
Speaker 1: I just say in general, everybody has something. Some of

970
00:51:50,120 --> 00:51:53,640
Speaker 1: us have physical elements, some of us have other kinds

971
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:55,840
Speaker 1: of challenges that we work with in life. And um,

972
00:51:55,920 --> 00:51:58,480
Speaker 1: so I don't consider that to be any different than

973
00:51:58,480 --> 00:52:00,360
Speaker 1: anybody else. I just have to work on them in

974
00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:03,719
Speaker 1: different ways. And that's how I did it did hunting.

975
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:08,319
Speaker 1: Has has you make it sound really easy when you

976
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:11,560
Speaker 1: say all that I think I'm getting it. You make

977
00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:14,440
Speaker 1: it sound really easy. Um, but I don't think it

978
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:19,280
Speaker 1: has been. Has it been tough? Have you had times

979
00:52:19,280 --> 00:52:22,279
Speaker 1: when you thought why am I doing this? Or can

980
00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:25,080
Speaker 1: I do this? Or have you done things and thought,

981
00:52:26,440 --> 00:52:28,840
Speaker 1: you know, this is never gonna come together? Because because

982
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:34,319
Speaker 1: I know that the vision I We've said this a

983
00:52:34,320 --> 00:52:36,440
Speaker 1: thousand times. I never can really know what it is

984
00:52:36,480 --> 00:52:39,200
Speaker 1: that you're seeing and experiencing, but I can I know

985
00:52:39,280 --> 00:52:44,680
Speaker 1: it can't be easy. Um, how have you How is

986
00:52:44,719 --> 00:52:48,200
Speaker 1: that I'm having a horrible time coming up with the

987
00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:51,520
Speaker 1: right question. You're dad, but maybe you're you're my dad

988
00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:52,840
Speaker 1: and you get me. Do you do you get what

989
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:57,719
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say, how how have you dealt with that? Yeah, well,

990
00:52:57,800 --> 00:53:01,120
Speaker 1: you know, quite honestly, I was quite a bit of time,

991
00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:03,480
Speaker 1: a good part of that period of time, where I

992
00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:06,800
Speaker 1: went hunting fully expecting that I wasn't gonna see a deer,

993
00:53:08,200 --> 00:53:11,480
Speaker 1: expecting I wasn't gonna shoot anything. And that does you know,

994
00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:13,759
Speaker 1: at first, you kind of work your way through that,

995
00:53:13,840 --> 00:53:16,400
Speaker 1: and but after a while that does get a little discouraging.

996
00:53:16,560 --> 00:53:20,359
Speaker 1: So I think you know when um uh all that

997
00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:23,799
Speaker 1: really began to change four or five, six years ago,

998
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:25,920
Speaker 1: and a lot of that was because of humor. I mean,

999
00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:28,000
Speaker 1: I think you've certainly taught me a lot, But I

1000
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:30,640
Speaker 1: think also we've had the opportunity to do a lot

1001
00:53:30,719 --> 00:53:35,200
Speaker 1: of these things together, right, and uh, I think I

1002
00:53:35,239 --> 00:53:38,040
Speaker 1: think the just being able to get out of the

1003
00:53:38,040 --> 00:53:42,239
Speaker 1: woods have the opportunity to really, um uh sit and

1004
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:46,320
Speaker 1: have the opportunity and I guess maybe just not take it.

1005
00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:48,360
Speaker 1: So when I say not take it so seriously, I

1006
00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:51,319
Speaker 1: don't mean I don't mean not trying to be the

1007
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:55,160
Speaker 1: best hunter you can be, but not not take it

1008
00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:58,160
Speaker 1: as a personal affront. If you don't see a deer

1009
00:53:58,320 --> 00:54:00,440
Speaker 1: or shoot a deer in the woods, Um, I had

1010
00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:02,000
Speaker 1: to kind of get over that, is what I'm saying,

1011
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:04,520
Speaker 1: because that was definitely a challenge because the number of deer.

1012
00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:06,520
Speaker 1: I mean, how many times have you been You and

1013
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:08,080
Speaker 1: I have been in the woods together and we tell

1014
00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:10,319
Speaker 1: the story about you know, the two or three deer

1015
00:54:10,360 --> 00:54:14,120
Speaker 1: out of ahead of us yards you see them clear

1016
00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:16,920
Speaker 1: as day and I can't see them. I mean, I

1017
00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:19,400
Speaker 1: have a lot of stories like that, and uh, but

1018
00:54:19,520 --> 00:54:21,239
Speaker 1: to some extent, I just had to get over it,

1019
00:54:21,440 --> 00:54:24,040
Speaker 1: right and say, if I don't see him, fine, Um.

1020
00:54:24,080 --> 00:54:27,359
Speaker 1: You know, the biggest challenge is not that you don't

1021
00:54:27,400 --> 00:54:31,520
Speaker 1: see the deer. It's it's knowing that there's probably dear

1022
00:54:31,760 --> 00:54:33,960
Speaker 1: that I should have seen or could have seen but

1023
00:54:34,120 --> 00:54:37,120
Speaker 1: didn't and then lost the opportunity to take a shot.

1024
00:54:37,480 --> 00:54:41,359
Speaker 1: That's actually I think a little more um frustrating from

1025
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:44,359
Speaker 1: me than the ladder. And I've kind of adapted over

1026
00:54:44,400 --> 00:54:46,520
Speaker 1: the years, and like I said, that's why I hunt

1027
00:54:46,719 --> 00:54:51,120
Speaker 1: um entirely with binoculars now and I scan much more

1028
00:54:51,160 --> 00:54:53,800
Speaker 1: than I ever did before, which I know is a

1029
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:56,360
Speaker 1: little frustrating for you sometimes, Mark, because you know that's

1030
00:54:56,400 --> 00:54:58,520
Speaker 1: that's certainly a risk that I'm going to be spotted

1031
00:54:58,560 --> 00:55:01,160
Speaker 1: and there's more movement than normally would you would have

1032
00:55:01,280 --> 00:55:03,560
Speaker 1: on the woods. But for me, if I can't see them,

1033
00:55:03,719 --> 00:55:05,759
Speaker 1: it kind of doesn't matter whether it's dare in front

1034
00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:08,880
Speaker 1: of me, right, So that's kind of the technique that

1035
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:11,560
Speaker 1: I that I use. Yeah, Like I tell you, there's

1036
00:55:11,600 --> 00:55:15,719
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of things throughout life, UM, that

1037
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:19,520
Speaker 1: I've noticed growing up with you, and in a consistent

1038
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:26,560
Speaker 1: thing is that that you have always taken the situation

1039
00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:30,319
Speaker 1: head on and never complained about things. You never said

1040
00:55:30,360 --> 00:55:34,120
Speaker 1: woe was me, or you never would let it really

1041
00:55:34,160 --> 00:55:36,399
Speaker 1: get to you or make you give up. You would

1042
00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:41,000
Speaker 1: simply adapt and make the best of situations and then

1043
00:55:41,160 --> 00:55:43,880
Speaker 1: learn how to to enjoy whatever it was. And I

1044
00:55:43,880 --> 00:55:46,760
Speaker 1: think that's something that you've illustrated in a really clear

1045
00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:50,600
Speaker 1: way with hunting. For me, growing up, I I had

1046
00:55:50,600 --> 00:55:53,000
Speaker 1: the tendency, as anyone listening to the show knows too,

1047
00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:56,440
Speaker 1: to get overly wrapped up in the results and to

1048
00:55:56,480 --> 00:56:01,040
Speaker 1: get so mission focused. I'm very achievement oriented, as you know, UM,

1049
00:56:01,080 --> 00:56:03,759
Speaker 1: and you're a great example of you are that way

1050
00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:06,040
Speaker 1: too in many cases. But there are also other parts

1051
00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:08,840
Speaker 1: of your life where you've gotten really good at enjoying

1052
00:56:08,920 --> 00:56:12,320
Speaker 1: things just for the process or just for the activity itself.

1053
00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:17,000
Speaker 1: Results be damned. And and that's a really important reminder

1054
00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:18,319
Speaker 1: for a lot of us to not give up, to

1055
00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:21,680
Speaker 1: not uh quit something just because it doesn't come easy

1056
00:56:21,760 --> 00:56:27,680
Speaker 1: for you, but but to to to push through, to persevere,

1057
00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:32,080
Speaker 1: to to find the joy in it. Still. Um, yeah,

1058
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:37,120
Speaker 1: that's go ahead say something. Yeah, well I was going

1059
00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:39,400
Speaker 1: to say that. I think I think you can also

1060
00:56:39,520 --> 00:56:44,200
Speaker 1: overcome an awful lot if you just um, focus and

1061
00:56:44,200 --> 00:56:47,680
Speaker 1: and try not to get frustrated. I think that's uh um.

1062
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:51,520
Speaker 1: And as you say to persevere, um, there's we're we

1063
00:56:51,600 --> 00:56:54,879
Speaker 1: are capable of as human beings of much more than

1064
00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:58,799
Speaker 1: we sometimes give ourselves credit for. And um, and you

1065
00:56:58,840 --> 00:57:02,880
Speaker 1: can overcome lots of different disabilities and challenges and issues

1066
00:57:03,560 --> 00:57:07,799
Speaker 1: m through sheer force of will and hum. And there's

1067
00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:09,560
Speaker 1: some things you can write. I mean, if you deer's

1068
00:57:09,600 --> 00:57:11,800
Speaker 1: out ahead of me fifty yards or a hundred years,

1069
00:57:12,320 --> 00:57:14,080
Speaker 1: you know, and I can't see it. I can't see it.

1070
00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:17,160
Speaker 1: But as as we tell the story about the hunt,

1071
00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:20,440
Speaker 1: you know, there's there's some things that happened in that

1072
00:57:20,440 --> 00:57:24,080
Speaker 1: that you know, if if it had been five years ago,

1073
00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:26,600
Speaker 1: ten years ago, Um, I don't think I would have

1074
00:57:27,120 --> 00:57:30,360
Speaker 1: had a chance to to shoot or kill that deer. Um,

1075
00:57:30,400 --> 00:57:35,000
Speaker 1: But because of strategies and techniques and then the uh,

1076
00:57:35,680 --> 00:57:39,080
Speaker 1: what I've learned over the years is you know, by darn,

1077
00:57:39,200 --> 00:57:41,880
Speaker 1: I'm going to do whatever it takes to to accomplish

1078
00:57:41,880 --> 00:57:44,000
Speaker 1: this task. And if I don't, I'm not going to

1079
00:57:44,120 --> 00:57:46,880
Speaker 1: kick myself. I mean, this is not about about me

1080
00:57:47,080 --> 00:57:53,720
Speaker 1: being um less than or not capable of it's it's

1081
00:57:53,760 --> 00:57:56,640
Speaker 1: it's life and we all have those challenges. But that

1082
00:57:56,680 --> 00:57:58,560
Speaker 1: doesn't mean I'm gonna let up, and it doesn't mean

1083
00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:00,480
Speaker 1: that I'm not going to strive and right to be

1084
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:04,440
Speaker 1: better at whatever I'm doing and do my best to

1085
00:58:04,560 --> 00:58:06,720
Speaker 1: be the very best that I can be at whatever

1086
00:58:06,760 --> 00:58:09,760
Speaker 1: the task is. And that's that's kind of the and

1087
00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:11,800
Speaker 1: that's the way we've lived our lives, Mark, and I

1088
00:58:11,840 --> 00:58:14,520
Speaker 1: think you certainly do too. And I think that's a

1089
00:58:14,560 --> 00:58:17,440
Speaker 1: perfect setup then to move into this hunt. So we

1090
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:20,240
Speaker 1: did all these things, we did this work. Um, we

1091
00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:22,800
Speaker 1: had this history that kind of was leading us to

1092
00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:24,720
Speaker 1: this hunt, Dad, where you and I had hunted together

1093
00:58:24,760 --> 00:58:27,280
Speaker 1: and we've had our challenges and you've had your challenges,

1094
00:58:27,440 --> 00:58:31,479
Speaker 1: and I've wanted to, you know, be able to share

1095
00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:33,320
Speaker 1: some hunts with you again in a place where we

1096
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 1: could see some deer and where you might have a

1097
00:58:35,680 --> 00:58:38,960
Speaker 1: different kind of opportunity. All brings us to here, to

1098
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:40,960
Speaker 1: season two of the back Ford. The first ton of

1099
00:58:40,960 --> 00:58:44,200
Speaker 1: the year, we made all these changes, put a bunch

1100
00:58:44,200 --> 00:58:46,680
Speaker 1: of trail cameras out, and at the end of the

1101
00:58:46,720 --> 00:58:48,880
Speaker 1: summer I started checking them, and I start checking them

1102
00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:52,800
Speaker 1: through September, and so prior to our first day of hunting,

1103
00:58:52,800 --> 00:58:55,200
Speaker 1: I pulled up all the trail camera pictures and I

1104
00:58:55,240 --> 00:58:57,440
Speaker 1: showed you all the bucks that have been showing up

1105
00:58:57,440 --> 00:59:00,919
Speaker 1: on the back Fording and people that last year, you'll

1106
00:59:00,960 --> 00:59:03,520
Speaker 1: know that for the first couple of months, like August

1107
00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:06,280
Speaker 1: and September, there was hardly any bucks at all, hardly

1108
00:59:06,280 --> 00:59:08,520
Speaker 1: any deer at all that the hunting season. There was

1109
00:59:08,560 --> 00:59:10,320
Speaker 1: a couple. There was the wide eight that I killed,

1110
00:59:10,360 --> 00:59:13,920
Speaker 1: but there was not a lot of action. Basically one

1111
00:59:13,960 --> 00:59:17,400
Speaker 1: mature buck, two mature bucks storry, but one that just

1112
00:59:17,520 --> 00:59:21,040
Speaker 1: so a couple of times dead. What did you think

1113
00:59:21,120 --> 00:59:24,440
Speaker 1: when I started taking you through the one, two, three, four,

1114
00:59:24,520 --> 00:59:28,360
Speaker 1: or five, six, seven, eight, nine different possible mature bucks

1115
00:59:28,480 --> 00:59:30,560
Speaker 1: that had been moving in and out of the property.

1116
00:59:31,160 --> 00:59:33,960
Speaker 1: I got pumped. I really got pumped. I really got excited,

1117
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:37,000
Speaker 1: just the sheer number and the size, and then just

1118
00:59:37,040 --> 00:59:40,520
Speaker 1: the beautiful deer um and what was the count mark

1119
00:59:40,640 --> 00:59:44,880
Speaker 1: fifteen I think at one count of relatively mature deer

1120
00:59:44,960 --> 00:59:48,600
Speaker 1: that we've seen very irregularly across all the the sell

1121
00:59:48,720 --> 00:59:51,240
Speaker 1: cams and and tro cams that you had around property.

1122
00:59:51,440 --> 00:59:53,919
Speaker 1: I mean, I was I couldn't believe what I saw. Yeah,

1123
00:59:54,000 --> 00:59:55,760
Speaker 1: and I don't. I don't remember what the exact numbers,

1124
00:59:55,800 --> 00:59:57,680
Speaker 1: but there's at least eight that I showed you in

1125
00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:00,560
Speaker 1: the beginning, and that was three or four year old

1126
01:00:00,600 --> 01:00:02,400
Speaker 1: bucks I thought were three or four year old bucks.

1127
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:07,240
Speaker 1: So they're three or sorry, three or older. So there

1128
01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:09,080
Speaker 1: was a handful of two year olds and stuff on

1129
01:00:09,120 --> 01:00:11,200
Speaker 1: there that I don't think I did show you at all. So, yes,

1130
01:00:11,960 --> 01:00:15,080
Speaker 1: at a high level, a night and day difference as

1131
01:00:15,120 --> 01:00:17,400
Speaker 1: far as the number of deer, both bucks and dozes,

1132
01:00:17,440 --> 01:00:19,840
Speaker 1: and the property, a night and day difference, as far

1133
01:00:19,840 --> 01:00:22,200
Speaker 1: as how many bucks in the quality of bucks that

1134
01:00:22,240 --> 01:00:25,000
Speaker 1: are hanging out and hanging around consistently. It wasn't like

1135
01:00:25,400 --> 01:00:27,800
Speaker 1: it was a one time showing. We are seeing these

1136
01:00:27,840 --> 01:00:30,440
Speaker 1: deer show up on camera over and over and over again.

1137
01:00:30,760 --> 01:00:34,000
Speaker 1: That's what I was, just a resident population, a big

1138
01:00:34,040 --> 01:00:37,160
Speaker 1: mature duct box. I mean that was surprising to me. Yeah,

1139
01:00:37,480 --> 01:00:41,400
Speaker 1: so that I'll lead us to hunt number one. I

1140
01:00:41,480 --> 01:00:44,720
Speaker 1: was very excited. You were very excited, justin where you excited.

1141
01:00:44,720 --> 01:00:47,720
Speaker 1: What were you thinking at this point? I was excited.

1142
01:00:47,720 --> 01:00:54,600
Speaker 1: I I mean, your dad, I'm gonna back up here, um, man, Like, uh,

1143
01:00:55,120 --> 01:00:59,840
Speaker 1: he is amazing because you know, despite the fact that

1144
01:01:00,160 --> 01:01:05,480
Speaker 1: he was you know, we've addressed the issue that you

1145
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:08,960
Speaker 1: know of his vision, but man, I feel like he

1146
01:01:09,200 --> 01:01:13,200
Speaker 1: had such a refreshing way of seeing things that I

1147
01:01:13,320 --> 01:01:18,680
Speaker 1: might be doing in a mundane way that was super

1148
01:01:18,720 --> 01:01:23,760
Speaker 1: inspiring to me. So even even going through those trail

1149
01:01:23,840 --> 01:01:27,240
Speaker 1: camp pictures, you know, like, I mean like I've been

1150
01:01:27,240 --> 01:01:29,400
Speaker 1: to ken Rove and now and I've heard the stories

1151
01:01:29,440 --> 01:01:34,040
Speaker 1: and I've seen the buck wall, and I mean he,

1152
01:01:34,760 --> 01:01:38,640
Speaker 1: like Dave was just so dang pumped to see deer

1153
01:01:38,920 --> 01:01:42,360
Speaker 1: and that was super fresh for me, you know. So,

1154
01:01:42,840 --> 01:01:46,160
Speaker 1: I mean he is like Christmas morning. Every time you

1155
01:01:46,280 --> 01:01:52,080
Speaker 1: flipped to a new deer. It was amazing because I

1156
01:01:52,200 --> 01:01:54,240
Speaker 1: kind of knew what was coming and you were like,

1157
01:01:54,280 --> 01:01:56,960
Speaker 1: what is that the last one? You want to see another?

1158
01:01:57,440 --> 01:02:01,280
Speaker 1: And Yeah, he was. He was just riding the roller coaster.

1159
01:02:01,400 --> 01:02:03,720
Speaker 1: It was amazing. Yeah. Well, and you know, some of

1160
01:02:03,720 --> 01:02:06,520
Speaker 1: it was just the contrast from last year too. Just

1161
01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:11,840
Speaker 1: it was so neat to to see the fruits of

1162
01:02:11,880 --> 01:02:15,040
Speaker 1: your labor, mark and the labor of everybody else that

1163
01:02:15,120 --> 01:02:18,480
Speaker 1: went into this. I mean, yes, I was really excited

1164
01:02:18,520 --> 01:02:20,800
Speaker 1: to see all these really big year but I was

1165
01:02:20,840 --> 01:02:23,800
Speaker 1: just really excited that that you've been so successful. And

1166
01:02:23,840 --> 01:02:26,280
Speaker 1: again I think you mentioned at a minument a good mark,

1167
01:02:26,320 --> 01:02:29,720
Speaker 1: But I guess to me, these weren't passing through deer.

1168
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:32,480
Speaker 1: They were residents on the property. You saw him in

1169
01:02:32,480 --> 01:02:34,160
Speaker 1: the mornings, you saw him at night, you saw him

1170
01:02:34,200 --> 01:02:37,160
Speaker 1: a week later. They were staying in that area, which

1171
01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:40,720
Speaker 1: I think to me indicated that there's a lot they

1172
01:02:40,840 --> 01:02:44,000
Speaker 1: want in that property. They aren't just passing through. So yeah,

1173
01:02:44,000 --> 01:02:45,800
Speaker 1: it was I was really excited, I admit it, and

1174
01:02:45,840 --> 01:02:47,880
Speaker 1: that probably set me up a little bit for the

1175
01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:51,280
Speaker 1: first time in a good and a bad way. All right.

1176
01:02:51,560 --> 01:02:54,800
Speaker 1: So it's night number one. We're very excited. We saw

1177
01:02:54,800 --> 01:02:57,880
Speaker 1: a bunch of bucks on trail camera. Um, all this

1178
01:02:57,960 --> 01:03:00,000
Speaker 1: work had been put into the property, were set up

1179
01:03:00,560 --> 01:03:03,400
Speaker 1: in this tower blind that is right on the edge

1180
01:03:03,440 --> 01:03:05,240
Speaker 1: of the honey hole. So we have like the best

1181
01:03:05,280 --> 01:03:08,760
Speaker 1: betting air and the property with a beautiful little green

1182
01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:11,760
Speaker 1: food plot right next to it, and then our tower

1183
01:03:11,840 --> 01:03:14,919
Speaker 1: blind on the down wind side of all that, there's

1184
01:03:14,960 --> 01:03:17,120
Speaker 1: a oak tree just on the edge of the honey hoole.

1185
01:03:17,120 --> 01:03:20,439
Speaker 1: It's trapping acorns. Um. I have a camera in their

1186
01:03:20,520 --> 01:03:22,720
Speaker 1: cell camera that was telling us that deer had been

1187
01:03:22,720 --> 01:03:25,000
Speaker 1: in there a lot and coming out. I had another

1188
01:03:25,120 --> 01:03:28,120
Speaker 1: camera about a hundred yards behind us down wind of us.

1189
01:03:28,400 --> 01:03:30,560
Speaker 1: Were not quite down within us, but but down into

1190
01:03:30,560 --> 01:03:32,520
Speaker 1: the south of us that have been getting a lot

1191
01:03:32,560 --> 01:03:34,920
Speaker 1: of bucks going that way. So a new we were

1192
01:03:34,920 --> 01:03:38,040
Speaker 1: in between the two, and all that told me that

1193
01:03:39,080 --> 01:03:40,800
Speaker 1: this should be a really really good spot. This should

1194
01:03:40,840 --> 01:03:43,120
Speaker 1: be a good night. We got all settled in there.

1195
01:03:43,440 --> 01:03:47,280
Speaker 1: Um it looked beautiful. I mean it really. It looked

1196
01:03:47,880 --> 01:03:50,800
Speaker 1: like the way things are supposed to look when you're

1197
01:03:50,800 --> 01:03:52,840
Speaker 1: gonna have a hunt. Right Like you're sitting there like, oh, yeah,

1198
01:03:52,880 --> 01:03:59,240
Speaker 1: this looks this looks good, right, just said what just

1199
01:03:59,440 --> 01:04:04,440
Speaker 1: add deer exactly? And uh, and dad, you wanna you

1200
01:04:04,440 --> 01:04:08,360
Speaker 1: want to walk us through the the rest of the

1201
01:04:08,440 --> 01:04:11,080
Speaker 1: hunt in the deer setings because justin madding, justin made

1202
01:04:11,080 --> 01:04:13,160
Speaker 1: a great point. You were like a kid in the

1203
01:04:13,160 --> 01:04:17,640
Speaker 1: candy store every time we saw something. Yeah, so I

1204
01:04:17,680 --> 01:04:20,480
Speaker 1: was really excited, obviously, and I was overlooking this this

1205
01:04:20,560 --> 01:04:23,400
Speaker 1: food pot. The other thing I don't think you mentioned it, Mark,

1206
01:04:23,520 --> 01:04:25,280
Speaker 1: is that there was another food plot a little bit

1207
01:04:25,320 --> 01:04:27,840
Speaker 1: to the it would have been the north right, um

1208
01:04:28,000 --> 01:04:30,480
Speaker 1: that we kind of overlooked him. We were watching the

1209
01:04:30,520 --> 01:04:33,280
Speaker 1: main food plot. Going back to the elevator blinds and

1210
01:04:33,360 --> 01:04:36,560
Speaker 1: the way these these windows work and stuff. The visibility,

1211
01:04:36,640 --> 01:04:38,600
Speaker 1: the ability to be able to see across this food

1212
01:04:38,600 --> 01:04:41,640
Speaker 1: plot was just incredible. It was amazing. And we thought

1213
01:04:41,640 --> 01:04:44,120
Speaker 1: we'd see deer coming out of the hunting hole into

1214
01:04:44,160 --> 01:04:47,240
Speaker 1: the food plot. Um, maybe from the left from the

1215
01:04:47,280 --> 01:04:49,080
Speaker 1: field or to the left that might come in, or

1216
01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:52,040
Speaker 1: as Mark indicated, from the back. I don't think Mark,

1217
01:04:52,120 --> 01:04:54,360
Speaker 1: that we expected the deer to come from where they

1218
01:04:54,360 --> 01:04:57,360
Speaker 1: came from, did we? Did? You? I knew that some

1219
01:04:57,440 --> 01:04:59,320
Speaker 1: would you know? Last year I saw some deer were

1220
01:04:59,320 --> 01:05:02,080
Speaker 1: going to that plot. Um, I didn't. I didn't expect

1221
01:05:02,520 --> 01:05:04,360
Speaker 1: the vast or all of the deer to come out

1222
01:05:04,360 --> 01:05:07,400
Speaker 1: there though. That didn't set that Yeah, yeah, that to me,

1223
01:05:07,560 --> 01:05:11,000
Speaker 1: I was just really surprised by that. But anyway, so

1224
01:05:11,360 --> 01:05:14,040
Speaker 1: we went through the night really excited. Um the sun.

1225
01:05:14,160 --> 01:05:16,680
Speaker 1: So we're facing west pretty much due west, maybe a

1226
01:05:16,720 --> 01:05:19,680
Speaker 1: little bit um northwest, but so we were seeing the

1227
01:05:19,720 --> 01:05:22,240
Speaker 1: sunset as it came down. It was just a beautiful day.

1228
01:05:22,680 --> 01:05:26,680
Speaker 1: And uh, we get to maybe six o'clock or so,

1229
01:05:26,840 --> 01:05:29,520
Speaker 1: you know, the long shadows were forming across kind of

1230
01:05:29,520 --> 01:05:34,080
Speaker 1: the witching hour and uh um and you know, I

1231
01:05:34,160 --> 01:05:36,280
Speaker 1: think it was you Mark that saw it first. There

1232
01:05:36,360 --> 01:05:40,480
Speaker 1: was a deer that came from to this food plot

1233
01:05:40,560 --> 01:05:42,920
Speaker 1: to the north. It's just adjacent to the one we

1234
01:05:42,920 --> 01:05:46,240
Speaker 1: were really overlooking, and came from the left from the

1235
01:05:46,280 --> 01:05:49,640
Speaker 1: west out into this food plot, just feeding. Um. And

1236
01:05:49,680 --> 01:05:51,960
Speaker 1: I can't remember Mark, that was a that was a dough.

1237
01:05:52,120 --> 01:05:54,520
Speaker 1: The first year I think we saw was justin first

1238
01:05:54,520 --> 01:05:55,720
Speaker 1: of it was the year and a half? All bluck,

1239
01:05:56,160 --> 01:05:57,840
Speaker 1: that was the year and a half? Was that the one? Oh,

1240
01:05:58,000 --> 01:06:00,720
Speaker 1: that's probably the one. Wasn't that one? Wasn't It wasn't

1241
01:06:00,880 --> 01:06:05,160
Speaker 1: It was a spike um And you know, let's let's uh,

1242
01:06:05,280 --> 01:06:08,040
Speaker 1: let's hit pause here because there's one thing that happened

1243
01:06:08,080 --> 01:06:10,560
Speaker 1: before the deer showed up that's important to point out.

1244
01:06:11,360 --> 01:06:14,400
Speaker 1: Before the deer came out, we had a little conversation.

1245
01:06:14,480 --> 01:06:18,560
Speaker 1: We said, okay, Dad, what are what are the what

1246
01:06:18,640 --> 01:06:21,440
Speaker 1: are the goals or standards for the hunt tonight? What

1247
01:06:21,480 --> 01:06:23,919
Speaker 1: do you want to shoot? And so walk me through

1248
01:06:23,960 --> 01:06:25,880
Speaker 1: what you decide you wanted to do for night number

1249
01:06:25,920 --> 01:06:28,720
Speaker 1: one and through the rest of the hunt. Because right

1250
01:06:28,800 --> 01:06:31,520
Speaker 1: for me, right I target mature bucks. That's like my thing.

1251
01:06:31,720 --> 01:06:34,800
Speaker 1: But given everything we talked about, that's not necessarily your thing.

1252
01:06:35,040 --> 01:06:37,760
Speaker 1: What was your plan? Yeah, so as I thought, it

1253
01:06:37,800 --> 01:06:40,840
Speaker 1: was perfectly logical, right, a very logical approach. We have

1254
01:06:41,640 --> 01:06:45,840
Speaker 1: um five nights to hunt at that point, and I said, well,

1255
01:06:45,880 --> 01:06:48,680
Speaker 1: you know, since we have so much time, we've got

1256
01:06:48,680 --> 01:06:51,440
Speaker 1: this all planned out. We've got to three different places

1257
01:06:51,520 --> 01:06:54,040
Speaker 1: we can hunt throughout the property. You know, I'm going

1258
01:06:54,080 --> 01:06:55,919
Speaker 1: to go after a two or three year old deer

1259
01:06:55,960 --> 01:06:59,720
Speaker 1: tonight and and go after a mature buck for me anyway,

1260
01:07:00,080 --> 01:07:02,600
Speaker 1: typically mature buck, and um, you know, I'm gonna be

1261
01:07:02,640 --> 01:07:04,760
Speaker 1: a little pick here and then maybe it'll be a

1262
01:07:04,800 --> 01:07:08,080
Speaker 1: little less picky tomorrow and then the last couple of

1263
01:07:08,200 --> 01:07:10,800
Speaker 1: days of the hunt. But I hadn't shot anything by then,

1264
01:07:10,840 --> 01:07:13,800
Speaker 1: then I'll know I'll break my standards down and shoot

1265
01:07:13,840 --> 01:07:17,480
Speaker 1: anything that's legal at that point. And so that's especially

1266
01:07:17,560 --> 01:07:20,000
Speaker 1: what I said, right, Mark. Yeah, and I think you

1267
01:07:20,080 --> 01:07:22,800
Speaker 1: said you even more specifically said you wanted to shoot

1268
01:07:22,840 --> 01:07:26,160
Speaker 1: one of those targed buck the first night. Um, that's

1269
01:07:26,280 --> 01:07:28,960
Speaker 1: one of those those big eight ones. Um. Yeah, I

1270
01:07:29,000 --> 01:07:30,720
Speaker 1: think you called up the heavy eight. That was the

1271
01:07:30,720 --> 01:07:31,920
Speaker 1: one that was trying. Well, he was the one you

1272
01:07:32,000 --> 01:07:33,760
Speaker 1: really wanted, was the heavy eight. But then there was

1273
01:07:33,800 --> 01:07:36,720
Speaker 1: another like six or seven other like nice three year

1274
01:07:36,760 --> 01:07:38,720
Speaker 1: old or older bucks that have been shown up. Yeah,

1275
01:07:38,760 --> 01:07:40,280
Speaker 1: I believe me, I was going to be a real picky.

1276
01:07:40,280 --> 01:07:42,760
Speaker 1: I wouldn't taken any of them. Yeah, they're all they're

1277
01:07:42,760 --> 01:07:46,800
Speaker 1: all nice, dear. Um, that felt really doable that first

1278
01:07:46,880 --> 01:07:50,360
Speaker 1: night as well. It did. It did, especially after seeing

1279
01:07:50,400 --> 01:07:54,240
Speaker 1: all the trail camp pictures. Yeah. So okay, So as

1280
01:07:54,280 --> 01:07:57,960
Speaker 1: you stated, that first deer stepped out in the neighboring field,

1281
01:07:58,040 --> 01:07:59,640
Speaker 1: it was a year and a half old spike or

1282
01:07:59,680 --> 01:08:03,960
Speaker 1: four or something in You're excited, we're seeing deer. And

1283
01:08:04,000 --> 01:08:05,640
Speaker 1: you could see it well too, right with your ban

1284
01:08:05,640 --> 01:08:07,640
Speaker 1: oculars on that Yeah, I could see it well from

1285
01:08:07,640 --> 01:08:10,600
Speaker 1: the boculars. Right. It was still probably seventy five hundred

1286
01:08:10,680 --> 01:08:12,439
Speaker 1: yards away. It was ways away, but I could see

1287
01:08:12,440 --> 01:08:15,800
Speaker 1: it Um, the lighting was good, you know, he was

1288
01:08:15,880 --> 01:08:18,479
Speaker 1: down feeding. Um, he walked a little bit. And then

1289
01:08:18,640 --> 01:08:21,479
Speaker 1: a few minutes later Mark said, oh, there's another or

1290
01:08:21,520 --> 01:08:24,000
Speaker 1: another deer coming again. I can't remember if that was

1291
01:08:25,560 --> 01:08:28,240
Speaker 1: you know. Um. By the time we're done, we saw

1292
01:08:28,280 --> 01:08:32,320
Speaker 1: so many deer. It was, I mean, it was. It

1293
01:08:32,400 --> 01:08:35,800
Speaker 1: was one of the most exciting hunts of my life.

1294
01:08:35,880 --> 01:08:39,880
Speaker 1: Even though even though ultimately, uh you know, it didn't

1295
01:08:39,880 --> 01:08:42,400
Speaker 1: work out. It was the most exciting hunt of my life.

1296
01:08:42,439 --> 01:08:45,400
Speaker 1: I think I'm short of the other night. So just

1297
01:08:45,439 --> 01:08:48,040
Speaker 1: because of the number of deer we saw. Yeah. So eventually,

1298
01:08:48,080 --> 01:08:51,120
Speaker 1: at one point there was four different Bucks in the

1299
01:08:51,120 --> 01:08:53,519
Speaker 1: food plot, which had you ever seen four Bucks at

1300
01:08:53,520 --> 01:08:57,000
Speaker 1: once ever before? No, I haven't, so four Bucks, and

1301
01:08:57,040 --> 01:08:59,519
Speaker 1: they were both all they were fighting. So it's two

1302
01:08:59,600 --> 01:09:02,160
Speaker 1: pairs of two sparring with each other in the food plot,

1303
01:09:02,720 --> 01:09:04,960
Speaker 1: which which is really cool. You've never seen a dear

1304
01:09:05,040 --> 01:09:08,960
Speaker 1: fight before? No, I had it. Um, So there was

1305
01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:10,800
Speaker 1: a whole lot of first happening that was it was

1306
01:09:10,840 --> 01:09:15,559
Speaker 1: so it was I had leading into this hunt anxiety around.

1307
01:09:15,600 --> 01:09:17,559
Speaker 1: I just wanted to give you a show, like a

1308
01:09:17,560 --> 01:09:20,800
Speaker 1: really good time. I wanted this to be like what

1309
01:09:20,880 --> 01:09:24,280
Speaker 1: you dreamed it would be. So when those bucks. For

1310
01:09:24,320 --> 01:09:26,120
Speaker 1: when the first buck came out in the second buck,

1311
01:09:26,160 --> 01:09:27,880
Speaker 1: and I saw how excited you were, and then a

1312
01:09:27,920 --> 01:09:29,640
Speaker 1: third one and the fourth one. You're saying, I've never

1313
01:09:29,720 --> 01:09:32,200
Speaker 1: seen this, and you were so excited right there. I

1314
01:09:32,240 --> 01:09:34,360
Speaker 1: was like, yes, I did it, Like we did it.

1315
01:09:34,479 --> 01:09:38,080
Speaker 1: This is this is it, this is awesome. They were

1316
01:09:38,200 --> 01:09:41,240
Speaker 1: deering the property. You were really excited about doing something,

1317
01:09:41,280 --> 01:09:44,160
Speaker 1: seeing something you've never seen before. It was it was

1318
01:09:44,560 --> 01:09:47,679
Speaker 1: that was a super cool moment. Um. So the bucks

1319
01:09:47,680 --> 01:09:51,000
Speaker 1: are fighting, some does come out. It's awesome. And I'm

1320
01:09:51,040 --> 01:09:52,320
Speaker 1: telling you all a long kid. That's a year and

1321
01:09:52,360 --> 01:09:54,240
Speaker 1: a half old spike. That's a year and a half old.

1322
01:09:54,240 --> 01:09:57,280
Speaker 1: Four pointer. That's a year and a half old. Six pointer.

1323
01:09:57,800 --> 01:10:00,559
Speaker 1: That's a year and a half old seven pointer. Um.

1324
01:10:00,560 --> 01:10:02,160
Speaker 1: But they're all just year and a half and they're

1325
01:10:02,200 --> 01:10:05,120
Speaker 1: doing the thing. They're doing the thing. And then eventually

1326
01:10:05,160 --> 01:10:07,600
Speaker 1: some of them start kind of walking our way, so

1327
01:10:07,720 --> 01:10:13,000
Speaker 1: going from field five towards us in field six. Um,

1328
01:10:13,040 --> 01:10:16,400
Speaker 1: and how about so this is all happening, we're watching it.

1329
01:10:16,439 --> 01:10:23,080
Speaker 1: We're excited. Um. But they then start coming into our

1330
01:10:23,120 --> 01:10:24,760
Speaker 1: plot and I'm gonna let you take it from here.

1331
01:10:24,840 --> 01:10:28,960
Speaker 1: Dead the four pointer and the seven pointer. Two year

1332
01:10:29,000 --> 01:10:31,320
Speaker 1: and a half olds step into our side of the

1333
01:10:31,320 --> 01:10:33,680
Speaker 1: fence row. So there's a tree line between these two

1334
01:10:33,720 --> 01:10:37,599
Speaker 1: food plots. They step on to our side. Um, take

1335
01:10:37,640 --> 01:10:42,040
Speaker 1: it from there. Yeah, So the southern pointer came in

1336
01:10:42,360 --> 01:10:47,080
Speaker 1: and he's probably would just say thirty five years mark years.

1337
01:10:47,200 --> 01:10:49,880
Speaker 1: Well you're really you're really, you're really fast forward it here.

1338
01:10:50,600 --> 01:10:53,960
Speaker 1: I was going to give a little more in between. So, um,

1339
01:10:54,800 --> 01:10:57,040
Speaker 1: so they're all over in the tree line and oh man,

1340
01:10:57,040 --> 01:10:58,519
Speaker 1: they're coming in. They're coming in. Him like, yeah, he's

1341
01:10:58,520 --> 01:11:01,400
Speaker 1: at seventy yards. Um, just that year and a half old, though,

1342
01:11:01,760 --> 01:11:05,040
Speaker 1: and then he keeps walking closer and and then I

1343
01:11:05,080 --> 01:11:07,599
Speaker 1: see you pull your crossbow up, and I'm like, all right, uh,

1344
01:11:07,680 --> 01:11:09,599
Speaker 1: well he's coming in. It's your hunting daddy. Do whatever

1345
01:11:09,680 --> 01:11:13,280
Speaker 1: you want, but just just a year and a half old, um.

1346
01:11:13,360 --> 01:11:15,320
Speaker 1: And then uh, and then I'll let you take a

1347
01:11:15,320 --> 01:11:19,840
Speaker 1: fair Things progressed so quickly there they did. And of

1348
01:11:19,840 --> 01:11:24,360
Speaker 1: course I didn't know appropriate deer hunting etiquette with my son,

1349
01:11:25,960 --> 01:11:28,840
Speaker 1: so you know, I brought up the brought up the crossbow,

1350
01:11:28,920 --> 01:11:31,559
Speaker 1: and of course all the conversation we had had at

1351
01:11:31,560 --> 01:11:35,000
Speaker 1: the beginning of the night, I just totally forgot quite honestly,

1352
01:11:35,360 --> 01:11:38,600
Speaker 1: I got pumped. I got popped. Steer coming across the

1353
01:11:38,640 --> 01:11:42,160
Speaker 1: field and I brought up a crossbow and uh, you know,

1354
01:11:42,240 --> 01:11:45,519
Speaker 1: put the scope on that that southern point right now.

1355
01:11:45,520 --> 01:11:49,000
Speaker 1: He was moving, not not real fast, but he was

1356
01:11:49,080 --> 01:11:53,559
Speaker 1: moving a bit. And um, he came across the field

1357
01:11:54,040 --> 01:11:56,680
Speaker 1: and or the food pot, and I think, you know,

1358
01:11:57,080 --> 01:12:00,679
Speaker 1: I definitely had a case of deer fever fever going

1359
01:12:01,120 --> 01:12:03,880
Speaker 1: and as he was coming across, he turned a little

1360
01:12:03,920 --> 01:12:07,800
Speaker 1: bit towards us, and I think at that point so

1361
01:12:07,880 --> 01:12:10,920
Speaker 1: I neither one of you anything noticed if I turned

1362
01:12:11,080 --> 01:12:14,200
Speaker 1: or I took my safety off. But at that point

1363
01:12:14,240 --> 01:12:17,679
Speaker 1: I decided. I didn't verbalize it, apparently, but I decided

1364
01:12:17,680 --> 01:12:21,120
Speaker 1: I was going to take this deer. There was a

1365
01:12:21,160 --> 01:12:25,960
Speaker 1: lot of chatter going on in Dave's Yeah, there's a

1366
01:12:26,000 --> 01:12:31,040
Speaker 1: lot of oh shoot, uh should I do? Oh shoot?

1367
01:12:32,200 --> 01:12:34,360
Speaker 1: You know, trusting, a whole lot of chatter. It was

1368
01:12:34,439 --> 01:12:36,960
Speaker 1: just I just whatever reason, when I saw that deer,

1369
01:12:36,960 --> 01:12:38,599
Speaker 1: I got to that point, I just said I'm gonna

1370
01:12:38,680 --> 01:12:41,200
Speaker 1: do it. I just did share. It wasn't my inside voice,

1371
01:12:41,240 --> 01:12:45,000
Speaker 1: it was my outside voice. I was like, oh crap,

1372
01:12:45,120 --> 01:12:46,800
Speaker 1: I don't know what he's about to do, but I

1373
01:12:46,800 --> 01:12:49,960
Speaker 1: gotta try and do this camera. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry

1374
01:12:50,000 --> 01:12:53,200
Speaker 1: about that, buddy. Well anyway, you know, um, I think

1375
01:12:53,240 --> 01:12:56,120
Speaker 1: at that point it was shaking pretty good and excited

1376
01:12:56,439 --> 01:13:01,120
Speaker 1: and just determined to take this deer and put it

1377
01:13:01,600 --> 01:13:04,519
Speaker 1: put it on the deer um Again. I don't think

1378
01:13:04,600 --> 01:13:06,840
Speaker 1: Mark had any idea I was going to shoot. I

1379
01:13:06,880 --> 01:13:12,840
Speaker 1: did the c you know, I wasn't. The deer just

1380
01:13:13,200 --> 01:13:16,280
Speaker 1: jumped in the air and ran back towards the towards

1381
01:13:16,360 --> 01:13:18,679
Speaker 1: the woodline at the far end of the food plot.

1382
01:13:18,920 --> 01:13:21,120
Speaker 1: And and quite honestly, I didn't know if I'd hit

1383
01:13:21,160 --> 01:13:23,439
Speaker 1: him or not. I think get a good view as

1384
01:13:23,479 --> 01:13:25,280
Speaker 1: the as the bolt came out of the cross bowl

1385
01:13:25,360 --> 01:13:29,479
Speaker 1: and didn't know. Mark almost immediately said, Dad, I think

1386
01:13:29,479 --> 01:13:31,120
Speaker 1: it went over his back. You know, I think you

1387
01:13:31,160 --> 01:13:34,680
Speaker 1: think you missed it, sure that we probably missed it.

1388
01:13:34,880 --> 01:13:36,680
Speaker 1: And I'm kind of thinking my back when how do

1389
01:13:36,760 --> 01:13:42,120
Speaker 1: you know you didn't shoot it? Uh? You know? Then

1390
01:13:42,200 --> 01:13:45,000
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, you probably right and I'm probably wrong.

1391
01:13:45,520 --> 01:13:48,800
Speaker 1: But and then of course the adrenaline starts winding down

1392
01:13:48,880 --> 01:13:51,240
Speaker 1: and thinking, oh crap. Now, the good news is I'd

1393
01:13:51,320 --> 01:13:54,640
Speaker 1: much rather miss a deer than wounded deer. Um. So

1394
01:13:54,760 --> 01:13:57,240
Speaker 1: on the one hand, um, you know, I'm feeling really

1395
01:13:57,280 --> 01:14:00,960
Speaker 1: disappointed that I probably missed the steer. But the other

1396
01:14:01,000 --> 01:14:03,040
Speaker 1: part of me is saying, well, yeah, but you know,

1397
01:14:03,080 --> 01:14:04,960
Speaker 1: I'd rather do that than take a bad shot and

1398
01:14:05,400 --> 01:14:07,680
Speaker 1: have an animal that's eventually going to die out in

1399
01:14:07,720 --> 01:14:11,479
Speaker 1: the woods, etcetera, etcetera. Um, and so you know, kind

1400
01:14:11,479 --> 01:14:14,240
Speaker 1: of did the adrenaline crash, right, So this is this

1401
01:14:14,320 --> 01:14:17,200
Speaker 1: is the proverbial roller coaster, you know, the adrenaline Russia

1402
01:14:17,200 --> 01:14:20,559
Speaker 1: and the adrenaline crash. And as we're sitting there talking

1403
01:14:20,600 --> 01:14:24,160
Speaker 1: about it, etcetera, and I'm thinking about the events that occurred, etcetera.

1404
01:14:24,360 --> 01:14:27,200
Speaker 1: Now it's getting closer to what would you guys say,

1405
01:14:27,320 --> 01:14:32,000
Speaker 1: six you know, maybe twenty minutes before, maybe a little

1406
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:34,599
Speaker 1: bit more than that, maybe half an hour before last night.

1407
01:14:35,280 --> 01:14:41,960
Speaker 1: And suddenly Mark says, our deer. And sure enough, here

1408
01:14:41,960 --> 01:14:45,120
Speaker 1: comes another deer coming from that same food pot to

1409
01:14:45,160 --> 01:14:48,080
Speaker 1: the to the north, um and the same path that

1410
01:14:48,160 --> 01:14:52,120
Speaker 1: the other deer took. And uh again, um again Mark,

1411
01:14:52,160 --> 01:14:54,960
Speaker 1: I don't remember if that was the one of the dope,

1412
01:14:55,000 --> 01:14:56,800
Speaker 1: because we did see a couple of dough in that batch.

1413
01:14:57,320 --> 01:14:59,799
Speaker 1: But but there are another four bucks that came across

1414
01:14:59,840 --> 01:15:03,599
Speaker 1: with that too, right. Yeah, this was right at last light,

1415
01:15:03,640 --> 01:15:06,000
Speaker 1: with like ten minutes left a daylight or fifteen minutes

1416
01:15:06,000 --> 01:15:09,720
Speaker 1: of daylight. And yeah, another four bucks came across the

1417
01:15:09,760 --> 01:15:14,120
Speaker 1: way heading towards us. And then two of these bucks

1418
01:15:14,160 --> 01:15:18,120
Speaker 1: were shooters. Um. One was like a tight and tall

1419
01:15:18,160 --> 01:15:21,200
Speaker 1: I think eight or nine pointer, and the other one

1420
01:15:21,560 --> 01:15:25,400
Speaker 1: was the buck we're calling little dropping, a beautiful ten

1421
01:15:25,520 --> 01:15:28,280
Speaker 1: pointer with a kind of a drop time coming off

1422
01:15:28,280 --> 01:15:32,120
Speaker 1: of his main beam. Uh, real nice buck. And they

1423
01:15:32,320 --> 01:15:35,280
Speaker 1: they were coming in but kind of hung up at

1424
01:15:35,280 --> 01:15:37,920
Speaker 1: about eighty yards, just on the edge of the kind

1425
01:15:37,920 --> 01:15:39,840
Speaker 1: of connecting point between the two plots, and they hung

1426
01:15:39,880 --> 01:15:42,000
Speaker 1: up there. It's kind of looking around and weren't really

1427
01:15:42,000 --> 01:15:44,360
Speaker 1: happy of the situation. Um, And it should be pointing

1428
01:15:44,400 --> 01:15:47,080
Speaker 1: out that after you shot at that buck, it spooked

1429
01:15:47,080 --> 01:15:49,080
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of does and other young bucks. And

1430
01:15:49,120 --> 01:15:51,200
Speaker 1: then he does behind us. So for like a half

1431
01:15:51,200 --> 01:15:54,080
Speaker 1: hour forty minutes we had does blowing behind us and

1432
01:15:54,120 --> 01:15:58,040
Speaker 1: all sorts of crap. So there was some commotion there.

1433
01:15:58,080 --> 01:15:59,800
Speaker 1: So I don't know what, but those bucks came and

1434
01:15:59,840 --> 01:16:02,960
Speaker 1: just didn't quite like the situation, but they didn't spook.

1435
01:16:03,000 --> 01:16:06,559
Speaker 1: They just stopped and then fed right there until dark

1436
01:16:07,120 --> 01:16:12,759
Speaker 1: and that was and that was the night. Just going

1437
01:16:12,800 --> 01:16:16,240
Speaker 1: back to emotionally, for me, it was one of the

1438
01:16:16,280 --> 01:16:19,680
Speaker 1: neatest experiences of the best hunt I've ever had, just

1439
01:16:19,800 --> 01:16:22,439
Speaker 1: because of the ups and downs on the number of

1440
01:16:22,520 --> 01:16:25,639
Speaker 1: deer we saw right and just the way they came in,

1441
01:16:25,720 --> 01:16:27,519
Speaker 1: and I mean, it was just really exciting. So I

1442
01:16:27,560 --> 01:16:30,439
Speaker 1: had a ball, even though I shot Mr Deer, I

1443
01:16:30,439 --> 01:16:32,559
Speaker 1: had a ball. And it's just amazing to me that

1444
01:16:32,640 --> 01:16:34,960
Speaker 1: those uh, you know, four or five six deer that

1445
01:16:35,040 --> 01:16:38,439
Speaker 1: came in after the shot still came in and even

1446
01:16:38,439 --> 01:16:41,519
Speaker 1: though they didn't come quite into our food pot. Um.

1447
01:16:41,560 --> 01:16:44,120
Speaker 1: You know, they didn't seem like they were terribly bothered.

1448
01:16:44,120 --> 01:16:49,200
Speaker 1: They didn't seem spooked at all. I like your optimism. Um,

1449
01:16:51,040 --> 01:16:53,320
Speaker 1: they were a little bothered. They were definitely they were

1450
01:16:53,360 --> 01:16:56,880
Speaker 1: definitely on edge, um, but not so much that they

1451
01:16:56,920 --> 01:17:00,479
Speaker 1: didn't leave. But they were head up staring at direction

1452
01:17:00,560 --> 01:17:03,400
Speaker 1: for a while, and just you know, they were something

1453
01:17:03,479 --> 01:17:06,679
Speaker 1: was off, but not so much that they left. So

1454
01:17:08,680 --> 01:17:13,160
Speaker 1: you're very happy and you're very upbeat right now because

1455
01:17:13,439 --> 01:17:16,519
Speaker 1: of how it all ended. But we need to talk

1456
01:17:16,560 --> 01:17:20,719
Speaker 1: about how you felt that night, because when the night ended,

1457
01:17:20,800 --> 01:17:23,360
Speaker 1: and we filmed all the crap way to film, and

1458
01:17:23,479 --> 01:17:25,120
Speaker 1: we went and we looked for your bolt, and we

1459
01:17:25,240 --> 01:17:27,320
Speaker 1: double checked, and we watched the footage to make sure

1460
01:17:27,320 --> 01:17:29,280
Speaker 1: we didn't see a hit. And we went and searched

1461
01:17:29,280 --> 01:17:31,200
Speaker 1: and search for any blood, made sure there was no blood,

1462
01:17:31,200 --> 01:17:33,040
Speaker 1: made sure all that stuff. So it took a long time.

1463
01:17:33,640 --> 01:17:36,519
Speaker 1: We finally got back to the truck, Um, and you

1464
01:17:36,600 --> 01:17:40,759
Speaker 1: and I were driving home. Um, you weren't all fuzzy,

1465
01:17:40,840 --> 01:17:43,280
Speaker 1: smiley happy. Best hunt in my life that night. And

1466
01:17:43,320 --> 01:17:45,720
Speaker 1: I think it's worth talking about this because a lot

1467
01:17:45,760 --> 01:17:47,519
Speaker 1: of people have missed dear, A lot of people will

1468
01:17:47,560 --> 01:17:50,559
Speaker 1: miss dear. This is something that we all kind of

1469
01:17:50,560 --> 01:17:53,320
Speaker 1: have to deal with at one point or another. UM,

1470
01:17:53,560 --> 01:17:55,839
Speaker 1: talk to me about that. How how are we processing?

1471
01:17:55,880 --> 01:17:58,439
Speaker 1: How are you thinking about it? You were You're pretty

1472
01:17:58,439 --> 01:18:02,080
Speaker 1: low at the moment. Yeah, you know, UM, I think

1473
01:18:02,080 --> 01:18:05,439
Speaker 1: it was really when Justin went back and went through

1474
01:18:05,479 --> 01:18:08,519
Speaker 1: frame by frame and saw the boat go over the

1475
01:18:08,560 --> 01:18:11,720
Speaker 1: deer's back. That's when I realized, because you know, uh,

1476
01:18:12,200 --> 01:18:15,000
Speaker 1: that was still holding out some hope that maybe, you know,

1477
01:18:15,200 --> 01:18:17,240
Speaker 1: we had gotten a good hit, and and that he

1478
01:18:17,400 --> 01:18:21,439
Speaker 1: just you know, he's back behind the food plot and

1479
01:18:21,439 --> 01:18:23,720
Speaker 1: that back in the hunting hole right waiting for us

1480
01:18:23,760 --> 01:18:26,680
Speaker 1: to pick him up. So once once I heard that

1481
01:18:26,720 --> 01:18:29,760
Speaker 1: from from Justin again, you know, I'm kind of looking

1482
01:18:29,800 --> 01:18:31,880
Speaker 1: at the bright side. I'm glad I didn't wound the deer.

1483
01:18:31,920 --> 01:18:34,200
Speaker 1: I'd rather miss him than wound him. But yeah, Mark,

1484
01:18:34,400 --> 01:18:39,880
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, um, you know, shoot especially with all

1485
01:18:39,880 --> 01:18:43,880
Speaker 1: the talk, especially with all the preparation. Um, you know,

1486
01:18:43,920 --> 01:18:46,120
Speaker 1: I still missed the deer. Now, I know some of

1487
01:18:46,160 --> 01:18:49,599
Speaker 1: that was was a little bit of buck fever, but

1488
01:18:49,840 --> 01:18:53,400
Speaker 1: you know, I take that very seriously, and I'm not frivolous,

1489
01:18:53,520 --> 01:18:57,080
Speaker 1: and uh you know, I don't shoot wild. I'm very

1490
01:18:57,120 --> 01:19:00,320
Speaker 1: intentional about shooting any animal right because we were taught

1491
01:19:00,360 --> 01:19:03,120
Speaker 1: that as kids. You know, you respect nature and respect

1492
01:19:03,120 --> 01:19:04,760
Speaker 1: the animals. You're if you're going to shoot them, you

1493
01:19:04,800 --> 01:19:08,920
Speaker 1: shoot to kill. And uh so, yeah, I was discouraged

1494
01:19:09,400 --> 01:19:13,439
Speaker 1: Monday night, and you know, thinking about so I had

1495
01:19:13,479 --> 01:19:16,439
Speaker 1: to tell you this, Mark. I actually you know I

1496
01:19:16,479 --> 01:19:18,320
Speaker 1: told Mom later on, I said, when you know, so,

1497
01:19:18,400 --> 01:19:21,280
Speaker 1: you're seriously Monday night, I was almost thinking about saying, hey, Mark,

1498
01:19:21,360 --> 01:19:24,320
Speaker 1: you know, maybe maybe we ought to call it and

1499
01:19:24,400 --> 01:19:26,439
Speaker 1: you know, you can go hunt for the next three

1500
01:19:26,560 --> 01:19:28,679
Speaker 1: or four days and um, then you have a chance

1501
01:19:28,680 --> 01:19:30,200
Speaker 1: of getting one of these big deer. I don't want

1502
01:19:30,240 --> 01:19:32,120
Speaker 1: to miss another deer out there, and I don't want

1503
01:19:32,120 --> 01:19:37,240
Speaker 1: to you know, uh, you know, provide a bad perspective

1504
01:19:37,280 --> 01:19:41,320
Speaker 1: for you and the group. But as we talked about

1505
01:19:41,320 --> 01:19:43,000
Speaker 1: it in the way back and as I thought about

1506
01:19:43,000 --> 01:19:46,000
Speaker 1: it more that night and then on Tuesday, of course, well,

1507
01:19:46,080 --> 01:19:48,439
Speaker 1: I guess a couple of things. One is, we did

1508
01:19:48,479 --> 01:19:52,360
Speaker 1: a lot of shooting on Tuesday, and um, that was

1509
01:19:52,400 --> 01:19:55,720
Speaker 1: really helpful for me. Not that I hadn't practiced quite

1510
01:19:55,760 --> 01:19:58,760
Speaker 1: a bit before, but but there was just I think

1511
01:19:58,880 --> 01:20:05,760
Speaker 1: just m taking that time in the in the in

1512
01:20:05,840 --> 01:20:09,360
Speaker 1: the having had that experience on Monday night with the hunt,

1513
01:20:10,080 --> 01:20:13,360
Speaker 1: um really forced me, I think to do a couple

1514
01:20:13,400 --> 01:20:17,120
Speaker 1: of things. One was to to really look at my technique.

1515
01:20:17,200 --> 01:20:19,360
Speaker 1: We did sit in the crossbow and we I think

1516
01:20:19,360 --> 01:20:21,560
Speaker 1: we found that the sighting wasn't quite right. Whether that

1517
01:20:21,880 --> 01:20:25,599
Speaker 1: I can't blame the miss on that, but um, it's

1518
01:20:25,680 --> 01:20:29,840
Speaker 1: certainly impacted my confidence. Um when I saw that, you

1519
01:20:29,840 --> 01:20:33,320
Speaker 1: know that the that the wasn't cited in properly to

1520
01:20:33,360 --> 01:20:35,840
Speaker 1: the extent that it should have been either. So I think,

1521
01:20:35,920 --> 01:20:37,800
Speaker 1: you know, doing what we did on Tuesday to to

1522
01:20:38,600 --> 01:20:41,880
Speaker 1: practice and and sit it in again and do some

1523
01:20:41,920 --> 01:20:43,759
Speaker 1: of the other things we did. And I I also

1524
01:20:43,840 --> 01:20:46,519
Speaker 1: kind of stepped back and looked at my technique and

1525
01:20:46,640 --> 01:20:49,559
Speaker 1: evaluating my technique a little bit more and came up

1526
01:20:49,600 --> 01:20:54,639
Speaker 1: with some little small things that I think, um improved

1527
01:20:54,640 --> 01:20:57,719
Speaker 1: my confidence and improved the you know, my grouping as well.

1528
01:20:58,280 --> 01:21:01,080
Speaker 1: And um, and I just I think decided on Tuesday

1529
01:21:01,120 --> 01:21:04,679
Speaker 1: that I'm going to be a lot more deliberate when

1530
01:21:04,680 --> 01:21:07,720
Speaker 1: I shoot a deer next. And secondly, I'm going to

1531
01:21:07,800 --> 01:21:11,439
Speaker 1: apply some of these uh these uh things that that

1532
01:21:11,520 --> 01:21:13,719
Speaker 1: we've talked about and that I was trying to practice

1533
01:21:14,200 --> 01:21:18,320
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. So yeah, And then but having said that,

1534
01:21:18,800 --> 01:21:22,320
Speaker 1: I think, um, I was so excited about the number

1535
01:21:22,360 --> 01:21:24,639
Speaker 1: of deer that we had seen and the fact that

1536
01:21:24,720 --> 01:21:29,000
Speaker 1: even after the misshot, we had a large number, including

1537
01:21:29,040 --> 01:21:32,759
Speaker 1: a couple of more mature deer come into into the

1538
01:21:32,800 --> 01:21:35,680
Speaker 1: shooting area, that I wanted to go back to the

1539
01:21:35,720 --> 01:21:38,280
Speaker 1: honey hall. And when we debated back and forth, and

1540
01:21:38,520 --> 01:21:40,280
Speaker 1: you know, UM, so I let's you take it from

1541
01:21:40,320 --> 01:21:42,680
Speaker 1: their mark because you can provide your perspective. Yeah, I

1542
01:21:42,720 --> 01:21:45,680
Speaker 1: want to I want to talk a little bit more

1543
01:21:45,680 --> 01:21:50,640
Speaker 1: about what's going on here um, because again it was

1544
01:21:50,640 --> 01:21:53,320
Speaker 1: a real inflection point in the whole hunt. UM, and

1545
01:21:53,320 --> 01:21:58,360
Speaker 1: I think maybe even for your future hunts to some degree. UM.

1546
01:21:58,400 --> 01:22:00,800
Speaker 1: A lot of new hunters get it into this and

1547
01:22:00,800 --> 01:22:04,280
Speaker 1: they right away think that, you know, they can. They're

1548
01:22:04,320 --> 01:22:07,080
Speaker 1: watching people on TV shoot big mature bucks or shoot deer,

1549
01:22:07,120 --> 01:22:08,640
Speaker 1: and they think they should be able to go out

1550
01:22:08,640 --> 01:22:10,320
Speaker 1: there right away and do it just like they washed,

1551
01:22:10,400 --> 01:22:12,200
Speaker 1: or just like they heard on the podcast, or just

1552
01:22:12,240 --> 01:22:17,000
Speaker 1: like they've seen the magazines. And you can learn a

1553
01:22:17,080 --> 01:22:20,280
Speaker 1: lot from listening to a podcast or watching a show,

1554
01:22:20,720 --> 01:22:24,120
Speaker 1: or you know, having a buddy walking through the woods

1555
01:22:24,120 --> 01:22:26,439
Speaker 1: and talk to you about stuff. But there's some things

1556
01:22:26,479 --> 01:22:32,840
Speaker 1: you can only truly learn and grow from by way

1557
01:22:32,840 --> 01:22:37,559
Speaker 1: of experience. And one of those things is shots at deer.

1558
01:22:38,680 --> 01:22:41,800
Speaker 1: And I think that this is something where you were

1559
01:22:41,840 --> 01:22:43,960
Speaker 1: put in a position that you haven't been in very often,

1560
01:22:44,400 --> 01:22:49,320
Speaker 1: and that every time you have this experience, you're gonna

1561
01:22:49,320 --> 01:22:51,439
Speaker 1: get a little better at. And there was a lot

1562
01:22:51,479 --> 01:22:54,439
Speaker 1: of stuff that happened that you know, you hadn't lined

1563
01:22:54,520 --> 01:22:57,080
Speaker 1: up on a deer with the crossbow and ever, or

1564
01:22:57,120 --> 01:22:58,920
Speaker 1: who knows when, I don't know when you've been able

1565
01:22:58,960 --> 01:23:00,040
Speaker 1: to line up on a dealer with a cross. But

1566
01:23:00,240 --> 01:23:01,800
Speaker 1: this is something you have not been able to do

1567
01:23:01,920 --> 01:23:03,920
Speaker 1: very often, So it shouldn't have been a surprise to

1568
01:23:03,960 --> 01:23:06,599
Speaker 1: you at anyone that a lot of things would happen

1569
01:23:06,680 --> 01:23:12,240
Speaker 1: that would be new or surprising, buck fever or whatever. Um.

1570
01:23:12,320 --> 01:23:14,360
Speaker 1: So that was something we talked about that night. Another

1571
01:23:14,400 --> 01:23:16,600
Speaker 1: thing we talked about is something that I've had to

1572
01:23:16,640 --> 01:23:20,720
Speaker 1: do when I've missed here, and I've missed plenty over

1573
01:23:20,760 --> 01:23:24,000
Speaker 1: the years, and that is after it happens that night,

1574
01:23:24,160 --> 01:23:29,599
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna feel the pain. I'm gonna kick myself,

1575
01:23:30,520 --> 01:23:34,439
Speaker 1: I'm gonna beat myself up, I'm gonna feel how crappy

1576
01:23:34,479 --> 01:23:36,680
Speaker 1: it feels to have missed a deer and to have

1577
01:23:37,080 --> 01:23:40,519
Speaker 1: let myself down in that way. And I'm gonna let

1578
01:23:40,560 --> 01:23:44,920
Speaker 1: myself have that. But the next day, when I wake up,

1579
01:23:45,680 --> 01:23:49,120
Speaker 1: now it's done. What happened, happened, The water's under the bridge.

1580
01:23:49,400 --> 01:23:52,400
Speaker 1: I can't change that. All I can change. All I

1581
01:23:52,439 --> 01:23:55,960
Speaker 1: have control over now is what I do next, how

1582
01:23:56,000 --> 01:23:59,000
Speaker 1: I grow from it, how I learned from it, how

1583
01:23:59,040 --> 01:24:01,600
Speaker 1: I move forward. And so everything from day two on

1584
01:24:01,960 --> 01:24:05,000
Speaker 1: is all about growing from it. How do we make

1585
01:24:05,040 --> 01:24:07,599
Speaker 1: sure that doesn't happen again. And so I basically said,

1586
01:24:07,600 --> 01:24:11,040
Speaker 1: all right, tonight, it's shitty, It's okay. You can be mad,

1587
01:24:11,560 --> 01:24:13,760
Speaker 1: go to sleep, lose a little sleep, whatever it is.

1588
01:24:13,960 --> 01:24:16,839
Speaker 1: Feel it fully experienced that emotion right now. But tomorrow

1589
01:24:17,600 --> 01:24:20,360
Speaker 1: it's done and over with. We're gonna make sure that

1590
01:24:20,400 --> 01:24:23,240
Speaker 1: thing is started in amazing and you're gonna shoot and

1591
01:24:23,280 --> 01:24:28,200
Speaker 1: shoot and shoot and shoot until you feel confident again.

1592
01:24:28,240 --> 01:24:30,040
Speaker 1: We're gonna double check all your equipment to make sure

1593
01:24:30,080 --> 01:24:33,800
Speaker 1: everything's consistent, everything's the same. We ended up changing your broadheads.

1594
01:24:33,800 --> 01:24:35,800
Speaker 1: We did a few other things to make sure that

1595
01:24:35,840 --> 01:24:38,920
Speaker 1: everything was as dialed as we possibly could and get

1596
01:24:39,000 --> 01:24:41,360
Speaker 1: you to a place where you felt confident with both

1597
01:24:41,360 --> 01:24:45,320
Speaker 1: your gear and just your mental state, which I think

1598
01:24:45,479 --> 01:24:48,920
Speaker 1: is is is important to do both of those things.

1599
01:24:51,479 --> 01:24:53,040
Speaker 1: And so and so that's what we did. And we

1600
01:24:53,080 --> 01:24:55,080
Speaker 1: decided to go back to the same place the next

1601
01:24:55,160 --> 01:24:58,439
Speaker 1: night because we did see a lot of dear. Uh,

1602
01:24:58,479 --> 01:25:01,000
Speaker 1: we did spook some dear, but other deer still came back,

1603
01:25:01,040 --> 01:25:02,759
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of other deer on camera

1604
01:25:02,960 --> 01:25:06,120
Speaker 1: that weren't there that night that maybe could move through um.

1605
01:25:06,160 --> 01:25:08,320
Speaker 1: And it wasn't the best place of anywhere in the farm.

1606
01:25:08,360 --> 01:25:10,080
Speaker 1: I think that was our best spot in general, as

1607
01:25:10,160 --> 01:25:13,559
Speaker 1: far as cameras and historical data could tell us. And

1608
01:25:14,080 --> 01:25:16,760
Speaker 1: so I went back in on day two. In my head,

1609
01:25:16,800 --> 01:25:20,960
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, Dad, Um, you were you had all

1610
01:25:21,000 --> 01:25:23,840
Speaker 1: your emotions going on from night number one. I had

1611
01:25:23,880 --> 01:25:29,200
Speaker 1: a sort of a different set of emotions. Um, you

1612
01:25:29,320 --> 01:25:31,240
Speaker 1: really threw me off when you shot that deer. I'll

1613
01:25:31,280 --> 01:25:35,840
Speaker 1: tell you that first. Uh, you scared the crap on

1614
01:25:35,960 --> 01:25:39,000
Speaker 1: of me. Literally, I haven't seen the footage, but I

1615
01:25:39,040 --> 01:25:41,200
Speaker 1: have a good verbal I go or something. I made

1616
01:25:41,200 --> 01:25:42,920
Speaker 1: some kind of verbal noise when you shot because it

1617
01:25:42,960 --> 01:25:44,760
Speaker 1: scared me so much because I didn't know you're gonna

1618
01:25:44,800 --> 01:25:48,360
Speaker 1: do that. Um, but then you know it just it.

1619
01:25:50,240 --> 01:25:53,120
Speaker 1: I saw my plan coming together exactly how I thought

1620
01:25:53,120 --> 01:25:55,760
Speaker 1: it was gonna come together, and then this changed it,

1621
01:25:56,320 --> 01:26:01,000
Speaker 1: and my all, like my specific some dreams for what

1622
01:26:01,080 --> 01:26:02,880
Speaker 1: I thought was gonna happen in the big box coming

1623
01:26:02,920 --> 01:26:04,960
Speaker 1: for you, all that like kind of shattered down around me.

1624
01:26:05,080 --> 01:26:08,599
Speaker 1: And so my selfish side in my head was thinking, oh, ship,

1625
01:26:08,720 --> 01:26:12,240
Speaker 1: this is screwing everything up. Uh, what are we gonna do?

1626
01:26:12,479 --> 01:26:14,519
Speaker 1: This could blow up the whole area. How are we

1627
01:26:14,560 --> 01:26:16,760
Speaker 1: going to make up for this? Tomorrow is tomorrow gonna

1628
01:26:16,760 --> 01:26:20,280
Speaker 1: be horrible. Um. You know I got I got negative

1629
01:26:20,280 --> 01:26:22,800
Speaker 1: in my head too, and so I kind of had

1630
01:26:22,840 --> 01:26:27,760
Speaker 1: to go through a similar mental talk kind of situation

1631
01:26:27,800 --> 01:26:29,479
Speaker 1: as you had to do your own thing. I had

1632
01:26:29,520 --> 01:26:31,479
Speaker 1: my own thing where I had to say, Okay, that happened,

1633
01:26:31,479 --> 01:26:35,080
Speaker 1: what happened, happened, that's hunting things happen. How do we

1634
01:26:35,160 --> 01:26:38,000
Speaker 1: carry on the next day and so and so. Eventually

1635
01:26:38,040 --> 01:26:40,519
Speaker 1: we made the decision we made, and I think we

1636
01:26:40,560 --> 01:26:42,600
Speaker 1: can move through hunt number two pretty quick because we

1637
01:26:42,640 --> 01:26:46,320
Speaker 1: went in there and I was moderately optimistic. It was

1638
01:26:46,400 --> 01:26:51,040
Speaker 1: mostly just hopeful. Um, you seem to be very optimistic. Um.

1639
01:26:51,200 --> 01:26:54,639
Speaker 1: But in the back of my head I was thinking, well,

1640
01:26:54,840 --> 01:26:57,000
Speaker 1: we did. We did spook some deer. We did have

1641
01:26:57,040 --> 01:26:58,640
Speaker 1: to walk all over the food plot looking for the

1642
01:26:58,680 --> 01:27:01,760
Speaker 1: bolt and everything and for blood. Um. We certainly made

1643
01:27:01,800 --> 01:27:04,160
Speaker 1: an impact. My hope was just that there was enough

1644
01:27:04,200 --> 01:27:06,600
Speaker 1: other targets in the area and you weren't quite as

1645
01:27:06,640 --> 01:27:09,480
Speaker 1: picky that night that we could get away with it. Um.

1646
01:27:09,520 --> 01:27:12,360
Speaker 1: But in short, it was a rough night. We only

1647
01:27:12,400 --> 01:27:15,920
Speaker 1: saw three deer total, um one day and two year

1648
01:27:15,960 --> 01:27:19,960
Speaker 1: and a half old bucks and um very slow and

1649
01:27:20,080 --> 01:27:23,800
Speaker 1: definitely had that feeling like, oh no, um, look how

1650
01:27:23,840 --> 01:27:25,760
Speaker 1: different it was from night number one to number night

1651
01:27:25,880 --> 01:27:31,479
Speaker 1: number two. Dramatic difference. And uh, the weather was changing,

1652
01:27:31,560 --> 01:27:34,479
Speaker 1: getting hotter and hotter and hotter. Weather was looking bad.

1653
01:27:34,560 --> 01:27:37,360
Speaker 1: The deer settings were looking bad. And by the end

1654
01:27:37,360 --> 01:27:39,360
Speaker 1: of night number two, which is technically night number three

1655
01:27:39,360 --> 01:27:41,200
Speaker 1: of the trip because we also hunted one day up

1656
01:27:41,200 --> 01:27:44,880
Speaker 1: at ken Raven Um, so we're now fifty done with

1657
01:27:44,880 --> 01:27:48,400
Speaker 1: our trip down to the last three days, and um,

1658
01:27:48,479 --> 01:27:50,640
Speaker 1: now I'm starting to think, oh boy, are we in

1659
01:27:50,680 --> 01:27:54,760
Speaker 1: trouble here a little bit? Um? What do you think

1660
01:27:54,760 --> 01:27:57,360
Speaker 1: in justin or dead? Any thoughts after night number two

1661
01:27:57,479 --> 01:28:00,000
Speaker 1: different than that? Well, I wasn't going to be picked

1662
01:28:00,200 --> 01:28:02,160
Speaker 1: about the deer. I think I mentioned that to you too,

1663
01:28:03,520 --> 01:28:07,919
Speaker 1: So I was gonna if there was a legal um

1664
01:28:08,160 --> 01:28:09,680
Speaker 1: three on a side, I was going to take it

1665
01:28:10,720 --> 01:28:15,160
Speaker 1: that night number two, No number two. You said you're

1666
01:28:15,160 --> 01:28:18,120
Speaker 1: holding for two year old. Yeah, I'm talking about number three.

1667
01:28:18,280 --> 01:28:19,840
Speaker 1: So by the time we went to night number three,

1668
01:28:19,880 --> 01:28:22,679
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna be picky. Okay, so you're fast forward

1669
01:28:22,680 --> 01:28:24,080
Speaker 1: a little bit, but I was. I wanted to get

1670
01:28:24,120 --> 01:28:27,000
Speaker 1: justice thoughts or your thoughts still just night number two,

1671
01:28:27,000 --> 01:28:30,160
Speaker 1: any thoughts after that, justin anything or your where was

1672
01:28:30,160 --> 01:28:33,519
Speaker 1: your head? I had? I still had high hopes. I know,

1673
01:28:33,920 --> 01:28:36,640
Speaker 1: I knew that we had buggered things a bit on

1674
01:28:36,840 --> 01:28:40,000
Speaker 1: night one. Uh, I was like you though, I know,

1675
01:28:40,160 --> 01:28:43,320
Speaker 1: we were like fifty fifty on what we should do.

1676
01:28:43,920 --> 01:28:47,879
Speaker 1: We had a fresh blind that seems like it would produce,

1677
01:28:48,000 --> 01:28:52,760
Speaker 1: but um, you know, I think we calculated that that

1678
01:28:52,760 --> 01:28:56,640
Speaker 1: that was the best setting night number two and uh,

1679
01:28:56,800 --> 01:28:59,240
Speaker 1: I mean I was glad to see dear and we

1680
01:28:59,320 --> 01:29:02,360
Speaker 1: saw you know, that first dough popped out pretty early,

1681
01:29:02,400 --> 01:29:04,280
Speaker 1: and so I was like, oh, man, like this really

1682
01:29:04,320 --> 01:29:09,240
Speaker 1: could this really could go well still? And uh yeah,

1683
01:29:09,320 --> 01:29:13,599
Speaker 1: as as it got darker, more and more air, we're

1684
01:29:13,640 --> 01:29:15,559
Speaker 1: out of my balloon. As I'm sure it did both

1685
01:29:15,600 --> 01:29:22,040
Speaker 1: you guys too. But man, I like, just knowing the

1686
01:29:22,120 --> 01:29:26,439
Speaker 1: property now and seeing the activity, I still had I

1687
01:29:26,479 --> 01:29:29,559
Speaker 1: still had high hopes that like we could pull it off.

1688
01:29:29,640 --> 01:29:37,320
Speaker 1: And obviously establishing that Dave's standards aren't uh that it's

1689
01:29:37,360 --> 01:29:43,519
Speaker 1: a moving target. Like I knew that we would come

1690
01:29:43,560 --> 01:29:50,040
Speaker 1: across something that it would make him happy. Yes, Um,

1691
01:29:50,080 --> 01:29:55,840
Speaker 1: I think that I think that I still felt my

1692
01:29:55,920 --> 01:29:58,400
Speaker 1: mind told me what you're telling me, justin that we

1693
01:29:58,400 --> 01:30:01,320
Speaker 1: would have an opportunity, and that things that happened. But

1694
01:30:02,479 --> 01:30:05,479
Speaker 1: a little bit of my gut, a little bit my

1695
01:30:05,600 --> 01:30:09,720
Speaker 1: soul was starting to see little reminders of last year,

1696
01:30:10,000 --> 01:30:13,719
Speaker 1: and I was like that. I was like, oh, please,

1697
01:30:13,800 --> 01:30:16,559
Speaker 1: don't let night number one just being anomaly. Don't let

1698
01:30:16,600 --> 01:30:19,800
Speaker 1: it have been this like crazy, amazing fluke of a night.

1699
01:30:19,920 --> 01:30:22,599
Speaker 1: And then very quickly or the other thing I thought,

1700
01:30:22,680 --> 01:30:25,400
Speaker 1: Especially by part way through hunt number three, I'm thinking,

1701
01:30:26,320 --> 01:30:28,559
Speaker 1: my gosh, these are the most on edge deer I've

1702
01:30:28,600 --> 01:30:31,559
Speaker 1: ever seen. I mean, Michigan deer in general are very

1703
01:30:31,680 --> 01:30:34,519
Speaker 1: very affected by hunting pressure, and they're very, very edgy,

1704
01:30:34,640 --> 01:30:36,840
Speaker 1: and there I feel like you can't make many mistakes

1705
01:30:36,880 --> 01:30:39,479
Speaker 1: at all with them. But from night number one to

1706
01:30:39,600 --> 01:30:41,880
Speaker 1: nine number two and part of three, I was thinking,

1707
01:30:41,920 --> 01:30:44,000
Speaker 1: my goodness, this thing went from full of deer to

1708
01:30:44,160 --> 01:30:50,120
Speaker 1: empty in twenty four hours. These guys are just on eggshells.

1709
01:30:50,120 --> 01:30:54,000
Speaker 1: If that's the case. Um, So I had this little

1710
01:30:54,000 --> 01:30:56,320
Speaker 1: whisper of negativity in the back of my mind that

1711
01:30:56,479 --> 01:31:01,479
Speaker 1: was like back all over again. And yeah, well, and

1712
01:31:01,479 --> 01:31:03,200
Speaker 1: and like you said before, Mark, I mean, it kept

1713
01:31:03,200 --> 01:31:06,439
Speaker 1: getting warmer, right, So each day we were five degrees

1714
01:31:06,479 --> 01:31:09,639
Speaker 1: warmer than the previous day and uh, yeah, I mean

1715
01:31:09,880 --> 01:31:13,200
Speaker 1: that's true. Yeah, which brings us all to the last

1716
01:31:13,320 --> 01:31:17,320
Speaker 1: to nine number three. Um, we decide to go back

1717
01:31:17,400 --> 01:31:20,559
Speaker 1: to the area that you and I had hunted last year,

1718
01:31:21,160 --> 01:31:24,080
Speaker 1: So this is field number four. But now instead of

1719
01:31:24,080 --> 01:31:26,120
Speaker 1: being a ground blind down at the bottom of the

1720
01:31:26,200 --> 01:31:28,400
Speaker 1: hill on the edge of the timber looking out, now

1721
01:31:28,439 --> 01:31:32,680
Speaker 1: we're on a hill looking back towards the timber up high,

1722
01:31:32,800 --> 01:31:34,760
Speaker 1: and we have the betting areas in front of us,

1723
01:31:34,800 --> 01:31:37,440
Speaker 1: and to the side of us. We have tall sorghum

1724
01:31:37,439 --> 01:31:40,080
Speaker 1: on three sides, and we have this beautiful lush green

1725
01:31:40,160 --> 01:31:45,519
Speaker 1: food plot that runs along our west and south. Uh right, yeah,

1726
01:31:45,560 --> 01:31:50,880
Speaker 1: west and south and uh again, great view from up there, right,

1727
01:31:51,080 --> 01:31:54,639
Speaker 1: and uh certainly seemed like there should be deer coming

1728
01:31:54,640 --> 01:31:59,680
Speaker 1: out of this neighboring timber, which historically had Um. So

1729
01:31:59,720 --> 01:32:01,519
Speaker 1: I think we had decent hopes. And you had said

1730
01:32:01,560 --> 01:32:06,400
Speaker 1: that night, right, you were readjusting your expectations again, right.

1731
01:32:06,520 --> 01:32:08,960
Speaker 1: I think I think what you said was a nice

1732
01:32:09,000 --> 01:32:12,440
Speaker 1: year in Affle. They'll take him now, right, right, exactly,

1733
01:32:12,880 --> 01:32:14,680
Speaker 1: you know. Mark. The other thing I would say is

1734
01:32:14,760 --> 01:32:17,960
Speaker 1: I think that was the best example of kind of

1735
01:32:18,000 --> 01:32:22,599
Speaker 1: bringing together all the different habitat improvements and and things

1736
01:32:22,600 --> 01:32:24,920
Speaker 1: that you had done are really set up that that

1737
01:32:25,000 --> 01:32:28,400
Speaker 1: space kind of came all together at that location. From

1738
01:32:28,439 --> 01:32:31,120
Speaker 1: what I could see, you know, I had four plantings

1739
01:32:31,120 --> 01:32:35,280
Speaker 1: of sorghum almost on each side of us. That provided

1740
01:32:35,360 --> 01:32:38,920
Speaker 1: that that that that barrier and that protection. The food

1741
01:32:38,960 --> 01:32:42,040
Speaker 1: plot was beautiful, I mean, that came in so well.

1742
01:32:42,120 --> 01:32:45,240
Speaker 1: It was just lush and um. And then as you said,

1743
01:32:45,280 --> 01:32:48,920
Speaker 1: you know, we're looking back towards the woods where the

1744
01:32:48,960 --> 01:32:51,479
Speaker 1: blind was that we sat in last year, and that

1745
01:32:51,640 --> 01:32:54,679
Speaker 1: also was really thick and looked like an ideal place

1746
01:32:54,720 --> 01:32:57,000
Speaker 1: for gear to come out of their beds and into

1747
01:32:57,040 --> 01:32:59,600
Speaker 1: the field and an ultimately into the food plot, and

1748
01:32:59,720 --> 01:33:02,160
Speaker 1: looked a perfect setup. And we had a strong wind

1749
01:33:02,479 --> 01:33:05,200
Speaker 1: coming from the west, but we had the strong wind,

1750
01:33:05,240 --> 01:33:06,720
Speaker 1: I think even on the first night we had a

1751
01:33:06,720 --> 01:33:10,920
Speaker 1: pretty strong wind. Um. But it was again perfect direction. Um.

1752
01:33:10,960 --> 01:33:13,519
Speaker 1: It seemed like a beautiful setup, and and it kind

1753
01:33:13,560 --> 01:33:15,479
Speaker 1: of the culmination of all the work that you guys

1754
01:33:15,479 --> 01:33:17,960
Speaker 1: have done in the and the on the property from

1755
01:33:17,960 --> 01:33:20,599
Speaker 1: what I could tell, looked like it all came together

1756
01:33:20,640 --> 01:33:23,800
Speaker 1: at that location. And so you know, maybe I'm the

1757
01:33:23,920 --> 01:33:27,400
Speaker 1: eternal optimist, but I was really excited about Wednesday night too,

1758
01:33:27,880 --> 01:33:30,360
Speaker 1: um with a little you know, a little bit of

1759
01:33:30,520 --> 01:33:34,519
Speaker 1: humility coming out of Tuesday night, you know, unlike um.

1760
01:33:35,280 --> 01:33:37,040
Speaker 1: You know, I guess I could have really been discouraged

1761
01:33:37,080 --> 01:33:40,240
Speaker 1: about Tuesday night and only seeing three deer. But one

1762
01:33:40,240 --> 01:33:43,320
Speaker 1: thing that I was really encouraged about coming out of that,

1763
01:33:43,360 --> 01:33:46,040
Speaker 1: the silver lining was we didn't blow out one of

1764
01:33:46,080 --> 01:33:49,040
Speaker 1: these other really good locations other one of the you know,

1765
01:33:49,080 --> 01:33:52,280
Speaker 1: the other two elevated blinds. And you had told me that,

1766
01:33:52,320 --> 01:33:54,640
Speaker 1: you know, next we probably go after the location that

1767
01:33:54,680 --> 01:33:57,360
Speaker 1: we had seen the deer last year at. So I

1768
01:33:57,400 --> 01:34:01,360
Speaker 1: was pretty excited about that. And then the first hour

1769
01:34:01,479 --> 01:34:04,880
Speaker 1: passed and we saw zero deer. Yeah. And then the

1770
01:34:05,320 --> 01:34:09,000
Speaker 1: second hour and we saw zero deer. In the third

1771
01:34:09,040 --> 01:34:12,479
Speaker 1: hour past and we saw zero deer. And uh. And

1772
01:34:12,520 --> 01:34:15,560
Speaker 1: this is when my my whisper really became a loud whisper.

1773
01:34:16,080 --> 01:34:18,480
Speaker 1: This became like a Dave Kenny in the blind whisper

1774
01:34:20,160 --> 01:34:22,880
Speaker 1: that's more of like, hey, what about that one thing

1775
01:34:22,920 --> 01:34:33,840
Speaker 1: we did or yeah, this is the um but all

1776
01:34:33,880 --> 01:34:38,000
Speaker 1: the things you shouldn't do in the blind. It's so

1777
01:34:38,160 --> 01:34:41,120
Speaker 1: funny being an adult and sitting with your dad again

1778
01:34:41,520 --> 01:34:42,920
Speaker 1: after you used to sit with him when you were

1779
01:34:42,920 --> 01:34:45,960
Speaker 1: a little kid, and like all those things come rushing

1780
01:34:46,000 --> 01:34:47,880
Speaker 1: back to you when you're an adult and you're sitting

1781
01:34:47,880 --> 01:34:51,080
Speaker 1: in the blind. Why did I ever listen to him?

1782
01:34:53,240 --> 01:34:56,719
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put together a collage after this projects done,

1783
01:34:56,720 --> 01:34:59,680
Speaker 1: of all your facial expressions of very noise that your

1784
01:34:59,720 --> 01:35:05,880
Speaker 1: dad made in the blind. You have no idea how

1785
01:35:05,920 --> 01:35:11,080
Speaker 1: hard justin. I was trying to be nice during those moments,

1786
01:35:11,120 --> 01:35:13,240
Speaker 1: so bad that it started to wear off on me,

1787
01:35:13,320 --> 01:35:20,439
Speaker 1: and I would have the same expression that you would.

1788
01:35:21,479 --> 01:35:28,160
Speaker 1: You were so appalled at everything. The good news is

1789
01:35:28,200 --> 01:35:32,240
Speaker 1: I was oblivious to it all. That was the perk

1790
01:35:32,320 --> 01:35:34,400
Speaker 1: with growing up with dad. You never you never knew

1791
01:35:34,439 --> 01:35:42,680
Speaker 1: the bad looks I was giving him. Oh God. The

1792
01:35:42,760 --> 01:35:47,680
Speaker 1: problem here is that I am so and we we

1793
01:35:47,720 --> 01:35:49,639
Speaker 1: wouldn't joke that night because we're sitting there and I'm

1794
01:35:49,760 --> 01:35:53,000
Speaker 1: so focused. I'm glassing NonStop. I'm really trying to see

1795
01:35:53,000 --> 01:35:55,960
Speaker 1: a deer. I'm thinking in my head. Dad keeps lifting

1796
01:35:55,960 --> 01:35:58,120
Speaker 1: his binoculars up and down all the time, and the

1797
01:35:58,160 --> 01:36:00,600
Speaker 1: sun shining, and if a deer side, he's going to

1798
01:36:00,640 --> 01:36:02,400
Speaker 1: see us right away. And I want this hunt to

1799
01:36:02,439 --> 01:36:05,320
Speaker 1: come together so badly, and so I'm like, I have

1800
01:36:05,439 --> 01:36:07,280
Speaker 1: to be watching the woods. I need to see these

1801
01:36:07,320 --> 01:36:10,080
Speaker 1: deer when they're fifteen yards in the wood still and

1802
01:36:10,520 --> 01:36:13,439
Speaker 1: tell everyone to stop moving because if those if these

1803
01:36:13,479 --> 01:36:15,360
Speaker 1: deer pop out there and spot us. So I'm thinking

1804
01:36:15,360 --> 01:36:18,559
Speaker 1: that glassing the whole town doing that YouTube, are laughing

1805
01:36:18,560 --> 01:36:21,679
Speaker 1: and telling recipe stories and talking about different different food

1806
01:36:21,720 --> 01:36:26,040
Speaker 1: you want to make. I'm finally like, what are you

1807
01:36:26,040 --> 01:36:28,680
Speaker 1: guys doing over here? You're like a couple of housewives

1808
01:36:28,680 --> 01:36:32,840
Speaker 1: exchanging the latest fish fry. Were we were making the

1809
01:36:32,920 --> 01:36:39,040
Speaker 1: best out of a dud hunting situation. You're walking away

1810
01:36:39,080 --> 01:36:42,880
Speaker 1: with something, you know. Finally we get to the point

1811
01:36:42,880 --> 01:36:48,240
Speaker 1: where Mark's about ready to do clothes right, Yeah, and

1812
01:36:48,240 --> 01:36:52,360
Speaker 1: and yes, And I want to finish my thought thro though,

1813
01:36:52,360 --> 01:36:55,800
Speaker 1: which is that I get too intent sometimes and I

1814
01:36:55,840 --> 01:36:58,760
Speaker 1: need to relax a little bit. And Dad, you do

1815
01:36:58,800 --> 01:37:01,080
Speaker 1: a great job of the opposite that stay nice and

1816
01:37:01,120 --> 01:37:06,040
Speaker 1: relaxed and happy and so at times. At times it

1817
01:37:06,120 --> 01:37:09,280
Speaker 1: wears on me, but I'm very glad that you do it,

1818
01:37:09,400 --> 01:37:11,360
Speaker 1: and I'm glad that you are your own person out

1819
01:37:11,360 --> 01:37:14,840
Speaker 1: there and having a good time. And I'm glad that

1820
01:37:14,920 --> 01:37:19,360
Speaker 1: Justin got to document that interesting father son dynamic. I

1821
01:37:19,439 --> 01:37:27,680
Speaker 1: almost brought a bought a pressure cooker today. Dude, I

1822
01:37:27,680 --> 01:37:32,080
Speaker 1: don't want to buy Mark for Christmas set of earplugs.

1823
01:37:32,720 --> 01:37:40,439
Speaker 1: Better at it. Hey. Now, we eventually got you two

1824
01:37:40,840 --> 01:37:43,880
Speaker 1: uh children focused and dialed in on what we're trying

1825
01:37:43,960 --> 01:37:46,479
Speaker 1: to do. And it does get to an hour until

1826
01:37:46,560 --> 01:37:49,320
Speaker 1: dark and we still haven't seen a deer, and we

1827
01:37:49,400 --> 01:37:52,559
Speaker 1: do a little, uh, a little dialogue session where we're

1828
01:37:52,560 --> 01:37:55,000
Speaker 1: on time at our left and this has gonna be

1829
01:37:55,080 --> 01:37:57,640
Speaker 1: what it's gonna happen, and still no dear. And then

1830
01:37:57,680 --> 01:38:00,400
Speaker 1: it gets to thirty minutes of daylight left and still

1831
01:38:00,439 --> 01:38:03,080
Speaker 1: no dear. And I remember staying at that point, I

1832
01:38:03,120 --> 01:38:06,160
Speaker 1: was feeling pretty down in my head, um, thinking man,

1833
01:38:06,400 --> 01:38:10,800
Speaker 1: zero dear tonight, um, and there was gonna degrees the

1834
01:38:10,800 --> 01:38:14,040
Speaker 1: next day or something, and I was feeling pretty bummed.

1835
01:38:14,040 --> 01:38:16,640
Speaker 1: But then I was kept on reminding myself and then

1836
01:38:16,640 --> 01:38:18,000
Speaker 1: I said it out loud to you. Did I don't

1837
01:38:18,000 --> 01:38:20,360
Speaker 1: know if you remember, but I said, I've had so

1838
01:38:20,400 --> 01:38:23,599
Speaker 1: many hunts like this where it looks horrible and it's

1839
01:38:23,600 --> 01:38:26,360
Speaker 1: seeming like it's going to be a complete Remember that, Mark,

1840
01:38:26,520 --> 01:38:29,400
Speaker 1: I remember that, and it can all change. It all

1841
01:38:29,520 --> 01:38:32,000
Speaker 1: changes in a second, just in a flip of a switch.

1842
01:38:32,360 --> 01:38:36,320
Speaker 1: It happens, and it might have been thirty seconds. Yeah,

1843
01:38:36,600 --> 01:38:39,439
Speaker 1: I mean I don't know how long was after saying that,

1844
01:38:39,520 --> 01:38:46,320
Speaker 1: but very soon after saying that, Um, what happened. So

1845
01:38:46,960 --> 01:38:49,400
Speaker 1: you said that, Dad, there's a bucket coming out of

1846
01:38:49,400 --> 01:38:53,960
Speaker 1: the woods, and that deer came out. And again I

1847
01:38:54,000 --> 01:38:55,840
Speaker 1: didn't see it, so you have to fill in that

1848
01:38:55,920 --> 01:38:57,679
Speaker 1: gap markers. I didn't see it come out of the woods.

1849
01:38:57,680 --> 01:38:59,600
Speaker 1: I didn't see it come across the field. Well, I

1850
01:38:59,600 --> 01:39:01,280
Speaker 1: didn't see it till it came into the food pot.

1851
01:39:01,640 --> 01:39:05,400
Speaker 1: So justin, yeah, I'd like to mention I stopped talking

1852
01:39:05,439 --> 01:39:08,400
Speaker 1: about recipes long enough to point out that there was

1853
01:39:08,439 --> 01:39:12,240
Speaker 1: a hitting a scrape on the edge of the woodline. Yes, oh,

1854
01:39:12,560 --> 01:39:15,040
Speaker 1: you saw first up. Yeah. I thought it was smart.

1855
01:39:15,320 --> 01:39:19,160
Speaker 1: Oh no, I forgot that. Justin. Justin got two gold

1856
01:39:19,240 --> 01:39:22,080
Speaker 1: stars for doing this. He got the spot there. Uh,

1857
01:39:23,320 --> 01:39:25,479
Speaker 1: and so he spotted it. I pull up and see

1858
01:39:25,520 --> 01:39:28,960
Speaker 1: him right away there and it was his antlers are

1859
01:39:29,040 --> 01:39:32,080
Speaker 1: up in the tree working a scrape. And right away

1860
01:39:32,080 --> 01:39:34,960
Speaker 1: I said, nice year and a half a seven pointer,

1861
01:39:35,800 --> 01:39:39,960
Speaker 1: that is what I thought. And um, and basically seeing

1862
01:39:40,040 --> 01:39:43,800
Speaker 1: him and thinking myself, man, that's that's that's a dear

1863
01:39:43,840 --> 01:39:49,120
Speaker 1: you shoot basically, that's that's a shooter dead. Um. And

1864
01:39:49,200 --> 01:39:53,240
Speaker 1: so the deer then starts walking our way. I mean,

1865
01:39:53,280 --> 01:39:55,880
Speaker 1: he came out of the timber in front of us

1866
01:39:55,880 --> 01:39:57,960
Speaker 1: and just a little bit to the west, and then

1867
01:39:58,040 --> 01:40:00,160
Speaker 1: he you know, you tell exactly where he was when

1868
01:40:00,240 --> 01:40:02,200
Speaker 1: he was coming right to that food plot, straight up

1869
01:40:02,240 --> 01:40:05,479
Speaker 1: wind of us, right to where you're beautiful clear shot

1870
01:40:05,520 --> 01:40:07,800
Speaker 1: into the food plot would be. And I'm just thinking,

1871
01:40:07,840 --> 01:40:10,840
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, this is exactly like we wanted to

1872
01:40:10,920 --> 01:40:13,120
Speaker 1: write it up. And actually I think I told you.

1873
01:40:13,120 --> 01:40:15,840
Speaker 1: I told you this, but I told you just before

1874
01:40:15,840 --> 01:40:18,880
Speaker 1: the hunt and after the hunt. But when I was

1875
01:40:18,920 --> 01:40:22,160
Speaker 1: setting up this blind with Tony in the summer, I

1876
01:40:22,200 --> 01:40:24,400
Speaker 1: even said, I bet you this is gonna be where

1877
01:40:24,400 --> 01:40:26,160
Speaker 1: my dad kills one. We're gonna go right back to

1878
01:40:26,160 --> 01:40:28,280
Speaker 1: the same place we went last year. He's gonna come

1879
01:40:28,280 --> 01:40:30,320
Speaker 1: out of this timber, he's gonna walk across up towards

1880
01:40:30,320 --> 01:40:31,800
Speaker 1: his food plot, and he's going to get a shot.

1881
01:40:31,800 --> 01:40:34,880
Speaker 1: And I kind of acted it all out, um, And

1882
01:40:35,040 --> 01:40:38,439
Speaker 1: it didn't come exactly the route I thought he would take.

1883
01:40:38,760 --> 01:40:42,439
Speaker 1: But he comes walking in and I just remember thinking,

1884
01:40:42,479 --> 01:40:46,880
Speaker 1: we can't screw this up. So the deer's walking and

1885
01:40:46,920 --> 01:40:49,240
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm whispering, tell you gotta get turned dead,

1886
01:40:49,280 --> 01:40:51,640
Speaker 1: shoot out the window and trying to ask, just like,

1887
01:40:51,680 --> 01:40:53,439
Speaker 1: are you on him? Can you see him? And the

1888
01:40:53,680 --> 01:40:56,280
Speaker 1: deer stops at like fifty yards and kind of stares

1889
01:40:56,320 --> 01:40:59,759
Speaker 1: in our direction. And this was that moment where it's like, Okay,

1890
01:41:00,400 --> 01:41:02,719
Speaker 1: is this happening or not? That was the moment of truth.

1891
01:41:03,240 --> 01:41:06,599
Speaker 1: And I was just heart running a million miles a minute.

1892
01:41:07,240 --> 01:41:08,920
Speaker 1: And then he put his head down and kept walking

1893
01:41:08,960 --> 01:41:12,040
Speaker 1: and the brush and grass is so tall all you

1894
01:41:12,080 --> 01:41:14,200
Speaker 1: can see was the tips of his antlers almost over

1895
01:41:14,240 --> 01:41:17,240
Speaker 1: most of that stuff. Um, but he's coming right in

1896
01:41:17,280 --> 01:41:22,680
Speaker 1: and basically from there it was from there it was

1897
01:41:22,840 --> 01:41:25,760
Speaker 1: all on you. Um. So, now walk me through what

1898
01:41:25,800 --> 01:41:27,439
Speaker 1: you were thinking when when you heard there was a

1899
01:41:27,439 --> 01:41:29,680
Speaker 1: buck and I said, that's a it's a nice year

1900
01:41:29,680 --> 01:41:32,240
Speaker 1: and a half old seven pointer. Now walking me through

1901
01:41:32,280 --> 01:41:35,240
Speaker 1: your mind, is this is all happening? So you know

1902
01:41:35,280 --> 01:41:40,080
Speaker 1: it's funny. I I unlike Monday night, I was very

1903
01:41:40,160 --> 01:41:44,840
Speaker 1: calm that night on Wednesday night, so I didn't I

1904
01:41:45,160 --> 01:41:49,720
Speaker 1: know buck favor. What adrenaline I had was apparently not

1905
01:41:49,880 --> 01:41:53,559
Speaker 1: so much that you know the big thing that happened, though, Mark,

1906
01:41:53,560 --> 01:41:56,040
Speaker 1: because you said that's coming in the food pot. You now,

1907
01:41:56,200 --> 01:41:59,599
Speaker 1: by this time, we're probably ten minutes from from last life, right,

1908
01:41:59,640 --> 01:42:01,479
Speaker 1: I mean, it's getting dark. We're still ten minutes from

1909
01:42:01,479 --> 01:42:04,360
Speaker 1: shooting light. But I'm looking out in the food pot.

1910
01:42:04,400 --> 01:42:07,240
Speaker 1: I can't see it. It's and it's mostly I think,

1911
01:42:07,280 --> 01:42:10,200
Speaker 1: because it's so it's you know that everything's looking kind

1912
01:42:10,200 --> 01:42:13,519
Speaker 1: of the same color of of gray and um, and

1913
01:42:13,560 --> 01:42:15,760
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, oh crap, you know here that

1914
01:42:15,920 --> 01:42:18,600
Speaker 1: this nice dare finally come out. It's coming to the

1915
01:42:18,600 --> 01:42:21,080
Speaker 1: food pot. It's right in front of me. You arranged it,

1916
01:42:21,120 --> 01:42:23,720
Speaker 1: I think at three or four yards, um, and I

1917
01:42:23,760 --> 01:42:29,200
Speaker 1: can't see it. And so I brought up my crossbow, uh,

1918
01:42:29,400 --> 01:42:32,280
Speaker 1: scoped in the general area where I thought the deer was,

1919
01:42:32,400 --> 01:42:34,880
Speaker 1: and thank god, I can see the deer through the

1920
01:42:34,920 --> 01:42:39,240
Speaker 1: skull and uh, um, you know, I and I did

1921
01:42:39,280 --> 01:42:43,160
Speaker 1: the obligatory market I think to take a shot. Justin

1922
01:42:43,240 --> 01:42:46,200
Speaker 1: got out of and I, uh, you know, brought the

1923
01:42:46,240 --> 01:42:49,360
Speaker 1: crossbow up and used a couple of the techniques that

1924
01:42:49,360 --> 01:42:53,280
Speaker 1: that I had kind of uh learned and perfected a

1925
01:42:53,280 --> 01:42:55,240
Speaker 1: little bit on Tuesday and the shooting that we did,

1926
01:42:55,840 --> 01:42:59,439
Speaker 1: and it just went one to three. I mean, I

1927
01:42:59,439 --> 01:43:02,680
Speaker 1: didn't have any any of them Buck Favor that I

1928
01:43:02,720 --> 01:43:04,759
Speaker 1: had on Monday night, just put right behind his shoulder

1929
01:43:04,800 --> 01:43:09,519
Speaker 1: and pulled the trigger and he immediately I think you immediately, Mark,

1930
01:43:09,600 --> 01:43:11,120
Speaker 1: and I knew that I had him because you could

1931
01:43:11,120 --> 01:43:13,439
Speaker 1: you know, obviously hear the sound and but you knew

1932
01:43:13,520 --> 01:43:16,000
Speaker 1: right away, Mark, right you said, you got a good shot.

1933
01:43:16,080 --> 01:43:18,120
Speaker 1: And he ran eight yards right in the middle of

1934
01:43:18,160 --> 01:43:20,680
Speaker 1: the food pot and dropped and we could see him

1935
01:43:20,680 --> 01:43:23,400
Speaker 1: at the top of the hill. What do you think

1936
01:43:23,439 --> 01:43:27,760
Speaker 1: about that? You know, it's It's the funniest thing. It

1937
01:43:27,840 --> 01:43:31,760
Speaker 1: was just such it was so surreal, I think, I

1938
01:43:31,800 --> 01:43:37,040
Speaker 1: think that, well, I was so excited to see that

1939
01:43:37,080 --> 01:43:40,760
Speaker 1: he came in when he did, but I was so intentional,

1940
01:43:41,280 --> 01:43:44,519
Speaker 1: intentionally focused on making sure I didn't miss this deer

1941
01:43:45,400 --> 01:43:49,439
Speaker 1: that you know, it was surreal to pull the pull

1942
01:43:49,479 --> 01:43:52,920
Speaker 1: the triggers, see the bolt go through him and then

1943
01:43:53,000 --> 01:43:55,080
Speaker 1: have him run up and drop that it was kind

1944
01:43:55,080 --> 01:44:00,439
Speaker 1: of like, oh, I just shot a deer. It wasn't

1945
01:44:00,479 --> 01:44:03,120
Speaker 1: until you know, a few minutes later that it just

1946
01:44:03,120 --> 01:44:06,240
Speaker 1: just hit me hard that that it actually, you know,

1947
01:44:06,400 --> 01:44:09,200
Speaker 1: got it done, and he's there and he's not you know,

1948
01:44:09,360 --> 01:44:12,160
Speaker 1: he's not running into the woods with a bolt, you know,

1949
01:44:12,840 --> 01:44:16,160
Speaker 1: over his back. So yeah, it was great, and we

1950
01:44:16,240 --> 01:44:18,280
Speaker 1: ended up had a bunch of deer pile out in

1951
01:44:18,320 --> 01:44:20,960
Speaker 1: the next five minutes after that. Yeah, that was the

1952
01:44:21,000 --> 01:44:23,080
Speaker 1: other thing. That's funny, just like Monday night, right, So

1953
01:44:23,479 --> 01:44:25,679
Speaker 1: shoot the deer and that seems to be the trigger

1954
01:44:25,720 --> 01:44:28,320
Speaker 1: that brings a bunch of other deer out. I guess

1955
01:44:28,320 --> 01:44:31,040
Speaker 1: we gotta learned that for next time. Yeah. Yeah, so

1956
01:44:31,160 --> 01:44:32,760
Speaker 1: a bunch of deer and even saw the deer you

1957
01:44:32,800 --> 01:44:34,880
Speaker 1: missed on nine number one. He came back. It was

1958
01:44:34,960 --> 01:44:39,799
Speaker 1: twenty yards behind us. Um. But but yeah, it was amazing.

1959
01:44:40,000 --> 01:44:43,040
Speaker 1: I mean, I was so so excited for you and

1960
01:44:43,560 --> 01:44:46,960
Speaker 1: thrill that it all worked out and it was it

1961
01:44:47,040 --> 01:44:50,400
Speaker 1: was super cool. The only thing, the only thing I

1962
01:44:50,479 --> 01:44:54,960
Speaker 1: regret a little bit, not regret, but it just is

1963
01:44:55,000 --> 01:44:57,639
Speaker 1: the nature of the beast of what we were doing

1964
01:44:58,439 --> 01:45:02,160
Speaker 1: is that I felt like you never really got to

1965
01:45:02,479 --> 01:45:06,160
Speaker 1: celebrate it fully because we had to film this thing

1966
01:45:06,200 --> 01:45:07,640
Speaker 1: that we had to go and walk over here and

1967
01:45:07,680 --> 01:45:09,360
Speaker 1: film this thing that we had to go walk over there,

1968
01:45:09,360 --> 01:45:11,800
Speaker 1: and there was just so much work around it to

1969
01:45:11,840 --> 01:45:14,640
Speaker 1: film this show that I don't think you ever I

1970
01:45:14,640 --> 01:45:17,040
Speaker 1: mean I know you eventually did, but there was a

1971
01:45:17,040 --> 01:45:19,840
Speaker 1: lot of rigamar role that had to be layered into

1972
01:45:19,880 --> 01:45:21,880
Speaker 1: it for you to just get to enjoy your moment.

1973
01:45:22,320 --> 01:45:24,639
Speaker 1: So from I don't know, do you did you get

1974
01:45:24,680 --> 01:45:26,920
Speaker 1: to enjoy the moments? Did you get to soak it

1975
01:45:27,000 --> 01:45:29,360
Speaker 1: in enough? Oh? Yeah, you know, I think when I

1976
01:45:29,400 --> 01:45:32,240
Speaker 1: really did, because again I don't quite know how to

1977
01:45:32,280 --> 01:45:34,840
Speaker 1: describe the emotions that I was feeling at the time

1978
01:45:35,320 --> 01:45:38,000
Speaker 1: because it was in stark contrast to Sunday night or

1979
01:45:38,240 --> 01:45:41,720
Speaker 1: Monday night. Um, it was I was unbelievable, I guess

1980
01:45:41,760 --> 01:45:43,200
Speaker 1: it would be the best way to describe it. It

1981
01:45:43,320 --> 01:45:45,599
Speaker 1: was almost like somebody needed to pinch me and say,

1982
01:45:45,880 --> 01:45:48,759
Speaker 1: you really did shoot the deer. Um. It wasn't until

1983
01:45:49,240 --> 01:45:54,120
Speaker 1: Justin did his you know, uh uh portrait pictures with

1984
01:45:54,200 --> 01:45:55,840
Speaker 1: me and the deer that I really kind of sank in.

1985
01:45:56,240 --> 01:45:59,120
Speaker 1: And then when you and I got it, uh, you know,

1986
01:46:00,160 --> 01:46:04,200
Speaker 1: it was a surreal experience. And seeing how the sausages

1987
01:46:04,240 --> 01:46:08,040
Speaker 1: made Is us really that thing that the filming of

1988
01:46:08,120 --> 01:46:10,479
Speaker 1: the show. Yeah, yeah, the whole filming of the show

1989
01:46:10,520 --> 01:46:12,559
Speaker 1: and all the process you guys go through, and you

1990
01:46:12,560 --> 01:46:14,840
Speaker 1: know that the retakes and you know, all the other

1991
01:46:14,880 --> 01:46:17,839
Speaker 1: things Um, it was. It was really quite the experience

1992
01:46:17,880 --> 01:46:20,880
Speaker 1: and I just yeah, I mean I that was kind

1993
01:46:20,880 --> 01:46:22,960
Speaker 1: of this in interesting again. I think it kind of

1994
01:46:23,000 --> 01:46:28,120
Speaker 1: had the long the long boil with the celebration of

1995
01:46:28,120 --> 01:46:30,640
Speaker 1: shooting the deer. Um, you know, when I talked to

1996
01:46:30,720 --> 01:46:33,280
Speaker 1: mom on the way home, that was part of it.

1997
01:46:33,479 --> 01:46:37,360
Speaker 1: Talking to my friends on on Thursday about it, going

1998
01:46:37,360 --> 01:46:40,120
Speaker 1: back out there on Thursday and maybe to some extent,

1999
01:46:40,280 --> 01:46:42,880
Speaker 1: just seeing where we shot the deer, seeing the blind

2000
01:46:43,400 --> 01:46:46,559
Speaker 1: walking through it all again, was it really got me

2001
01:46:46,640 --> 01:46:49,639
Speaker 1: pumped again and and really excited about what happened. So yeah,

2002
01:46:49,720 --> 01:46:52,439
Speaker 1: it was. It was phenomenal. The whole thing was just great.

2003
01:46:53,760 --> 01:46:57,320
Speaker 1: Any thoughts for you just know how that all went down. Yeah,

2004
01:46:58,240 --> 01:47:01,479
Speaker 1: Dave went from being like giddy on night one to

2005
01:47:01,680 --> 01:47:07,559
Speaker 1: like being stone stone cold, and he shot shot that deer,

2006
01:47:07,600 --> 01:47:09,960
Speaker 1: and I thought you and I were gonna lose it,

2007
01:47:10,080 --> 01:47:13,200
Speaker 1: like we were. We were both shaken, and Dave's just

2008
01:47:13,240 --> 01:47:20,759
Speaker 1: putting his crossbow away like just say the sandwich, like yeah,

2009
01:47:20,840 --> 01:47:24,400
Speaker 1: I I you know, I felt like I mean, we

2010
01:47:24,479 --> 01:47:28,759
Speaker 1: all rode the roller coaster together, you know, like seeing

2011
01:47:28,800 --> 01:47:32,080
Speaker 1: what happened on Monday and having high hopes and obviously

2012
01:47:32,160 --> 01:47:36,920
Speaker 1: like I know you had plans, your plans for your dad. Um,

2013
01:47:36,920 --> 01:47:40,800
Speaker 1: but it was cool to see Um. I mean, I

2014
01:47:40,840 --> 01:47:43,160
Speaker 1: don't think he could have been happier. Man. And like

2015
01:47:43,200 --> 01:47:48,080
Speaker 1: he said, like it as much as a process it

2016
01:47:48,160 --> 01:47:51,800
Speaker 1: is to film this stuff and whatnot, it in a

2017
01:47:51,880 --> 01:47:56,000
Speaker 1: way he did get to relive it so many times.

2018
01:47:56,040 --> 01:47:58,880
Speaker 1: I mean it does get to be stretched out. I mean,

2019
01:47:59,680 --> 01:48:03,560
Speaker 1: you know, the next day at your house and and

2020
01:48:03,560 --> 01:48:07,519
Speaker 1: and uh, you know it it's kind of you know

2021
01:48:07,520 --> 01:48:10,680
Speaker 1: when I shoot a deer, it's like I go, I

2022
01:48:10,760 --> 01:48:13,080
Speaker 1: get you know, thirty minutes and then go drop it

2023
01:48:13,120 --> 01:48:16,800
Speaker 1: off process or whatever and like it. So it did

2024
01:48:16,880 --> 01:48:21,280
Speaker 1: have a cool sense, I mean for the story and

2025
01:48:21,320 --> 01:48:25,320
Speaker 1: the way it went down, and and hearing the history

2026
01:48:25,360 --> 01:48:28,080
Speaker 1: that you guys have at Ken Rovan and Man, it

2027
01:48:28,200 --> 01:48:32,120
Speaker 1: was just like the perfect culmination to to those two

2028
01:48:32,160 --> 01:48:36,960
Speaker 1: that week. Yeah, it was. It was awesome. It was

2029
01:48:38,520 --> 01:48:42,320
Speaker 1: It was really cool to see how much just to

2030
01:48:42,320 --> 01:48:44,200
Speaker 1: see you having a good time out their dad, to

2031
01:48:44,320 --> 01:48:48,080
Speaker 1: be all the after everything that you've you know, to

2032
01:48:48,080 --> 01:48:50,240
Speaker 1: to be a son for a moment here, for after

2033
01:48:50,320 --> 01:48:52,599
Speaker 1: everything that you've done for me and all the things

2034
01:48:52,600 --> 01:48:55,160
Speaker 1: you introduced me to and and and and how you

2035
01:48:55,320 --> 01:48:58,720
Speaker 1: raised me to be the person I am now and

2036
01:48:58,760 --> 01:49:00,400
Speaker 1: to give me these opportunities that I have now and

2037
01:49:00,439 --> 01:49:03,800
Speaker 1: to hunt and to do the things I love. Um,

2038
01:49:03,840 --> 01:49:06,320
Speaker 1: But knowing that you know you hadn't been able to

2039
01:49:06,320 --> 01:49:08,120
Speaker 1: have some of these experiences that I now get to

2040
01:49:08,120 --> 01:49:10,760
Speaker 1: have a lot, I just so badly wanted you to

2041
01:49:11,400 --> 01:49:14,439
Speaker 1: get that reward that I knew you deserved, and to

2042
01:49:14,479 --> 01:49:16,720
Speaker 1: see you get your first deer with a bow and

2043
01:49:16,760 --> 01:49:19,599
Speaker 1: your biggest buck yet, and and to have these kinds

2044
01:49:19,640 --> 01:49:21,360
Speaker 1: of fun sightings and see a bunch of deer and

2045
01:49:21,360 --> 01:49:23,160
Speaker 1: see a bunch of bucks and sea bucks fighting, and

2046
01:49:23,200 --> 01:49:25,479
Speaker 1: see your biggest buck and all that stuff. It was

2047
01:49:25,560 --> 01:49:27,240
Speaker 1: it was like a dream come true for me too.

2048
01:49:27,360 --> 01:49:31,320
Speaker 1: So UM, I just no one deserves it more. And

2049
01:49:31,400 --> 01:49:34,920
Speaker 1: I was just really really happy for you. And um,

2050
01:49:35,120 --> 01:49:38,320
Speaker 1: you have all my life inspired me with how you

2051
01:49:38,360 --> 01:49:44,680
Speaker 1: push through tough things and and achieve incredible things despite

2052
01:49:45,040 --> 01:49:47,240
Speaker 1: whatever obstacle might be in the in front of you.

2053
01:49:47,680 --> 01:49:52,160
Speaker 1: This is just another perfect example of that, UM, where

2054
01:49:52,200 --> 01:49:54,479
Speaker 1: a credit thing happened and you dealt with it, and

2055
01:49:54,479 --> 01:49:56,799
Speaker 1: you pushed through it and you kept a good attitude

2056
01:49:56,800 --> 01:49:59,080
Speaker 1: and a smile on your face. And here we are

2057
01:49:59,439 --> 01:50:02,000
Speaker 1: a couple of day years later and you're cool as

2058
01:50:02,000 --> 01:50:06,080
Speaker 1: a cucumber. You learned, you adapted, you push through, and

2059
01:50:06,160 --> 01:50:08,800
Speaker 1: you uh, you did a great thing. So it was

2060
01:50:08,920 --> 01:50:10,760
Speaker 1: just a terrific moment. As a son, it was a

2061
01:50:10,800 --> 01:50:14,600
Speaker 1: terrific learning experience. Um, you continue to inspire me and

2062
01:50:14,920 --> 01:50:18,240
Speaker 1: many others, I think too. And uh put a hell

2063
01:50:18,240 --> 01:50:20,400
Speaker 1: of a shot in that buck too. So it was

2064
01:50:20,439 --> 01:50:24,080
Speaker 1: just really cool all the way around. And I don't know, Dad,

2065
01:50:24,479 --> 01:50:25,920
Speaker 1: I think it used to Let you wrap it up

2066
01:50:25,920 --> 01:50:30,480
Speaker 1: here if you have any final thoughts on the experience

2067
01:50:30,640 --> 01:50:35,160
Speaker 1: or any final takeaways from what you learned or I

2068
01:50:35,200 --> 01:50:37,400
Speaker 1: don't know anything this whole journey you've been on as

2069
01:50:37,439 --> 01:50:39,360
Speaker 1: a as a bow hunter, in the ups and downs

2070
01:50:39,439 --> 01:50:42,920
Speaker 1: and where all this has taken you, um, or any

2071
01:50:42,960 --> 01:50:45,280
Speaker 1: thoughts for other people that have struggled as new hunters

2072
01:50:45,360 --> 01:50:49,160
Speaker 1: or hunters who have dealt with anything. Um, I don't know.

2073
01:50:49,360 --> 01:50:52,840
Speaker 1: What's What are your parting words for folks listening to

2074
01:50:52,960 --> 01:50:55,760
Speaker 1: this story? Well, you know, I guess what I would say. Work.

2075
01:50:55,800 --> 01:50:57,799
Speaker 1: First of all, thank you, and it was an amazing

2076
01:50:57,840 --> 01:51:01,160
Speaker 1: trip and I really just just incredible. It was the

2077
01:51:01,240 --> 01:51:04,280
Speaker 1: best hunting experience of my entire life. And thank you

2078
01:51:04,360 --> 01:51:06,040
Speaker 1: justin for being a part of that as well, and

2079
01:51:06,160 --> 01:51:09,640
Speaker 1: just being a really good uh comrade in arms. And

2080
01:51:09,920 --> 01:51:13,679
Speaker 1: you know all the times you're probably back there giggling

2081
01:51:13,680 --> 01:51:18,080
Speaker 1: at the old man with the cross ball. But you know,

2082
01:51:18,360 --> 01:51:21,479
Speaker 1: I think Mark, for me personally, this has had such

2083
01:51:21,520 --> 01:51:25,400
Speaker 1: a big personal impact in that UM. And I've always

2084
01:51:25,520 --> 01:51:27,479
Speaker 1: loved to deer hunt, but for all the things we

2085
01:51:27,560 --> 01:51:29,439
Speaker 1: talked about before, I've never been very good at it.

2086
01:51:29,439 --> 01:51:31,880
Speaker 1: I've always had a sense of, you know, I'm kind

2087
01:51:31,880 --> 01:51:33,800
Speaker 1: of I'm just going through the motions, right, I'm not

2088
01:51:33,840 --> 01:51:35,439
Speaker 1: going to see a deer even if it walks right

2089
01:51:35,439 --> 01:51:38,160
Speaker 1: out in front of me. Um. You know, over the

2090
01:51:38,240 --> 01:51:41,800
Speaker 1: last four or five six years, UM, that's changed a bit,

2091
01:51:42,280 --> 01:51:45,639
Speaker 1: um to a great extent because of you and UM

2092
01:51:46,040 --> 01:51:48,840
Speaker 1: and that really is neat. Thank you. You You've you've

2093
01:51:48,880 --> 01:51:53,920
Speaker 1: real ignited, um my passion for bow hunting in particular,

2094
01:51:54,040 --> 01:51:56,640
Speaker 1: but just hunting in general at a level that it

2095
01:51:56,680 --> 01:51:59,400
Speaker 1: hasn't been in a long time. And that's really neat.

2096
01:51:59,439 --> 01:52:01,720
Speaker 1: It's exciting. I mean, I bow hunted and I've been

2097
01:52:01,720 --> 01:52:04,680
Speaker 1: out in the woods every year for I don't know,

2098
01:52:04,760 --> 01:52:08,400
Speaker 1: forty five years whatever, but uh, but i haven't had

2099
01:52:08,439 --> 01:52:11,920
Speaker 1: so much fun. And I'm not nearly. Have never been

2100
01:52:11,960 --> 01:52:14,960
Speaker 1: as excited as I am about the sport right now.

2101
01:52:16,320 --> 01:52:20,639
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Well, I see more exciting hunts like this

2102
01:52:20,760 --> 01:52:22,719
Speaker 1: in your future, Dad. I know we were already spit

2103
01:52:22,800 --> 01:52:25,799
Speaker 1: Ball must some new ideas for next year. So hopefully

2104
01:52:25,840 --> 01:52:28,559
Speaker 1: we can keep keep them coming, and we'll have more

2105
01:52:28,600 --> 01:52:30,920
Speaker 1: podcasts like this next year and the year after that,

2106
01:52:31,439 --> 01:52:33,160
Speaker 1: and before we know it, you're gonna be yelling at

2107
01:52:33,160 --> 01:52:36,880
Speaker 1: me for making too much noise in the blind that

2108
01:52:36,920 --> 01:52:39,639
Speaker 1: will be Remember, remember there's only one prophecy that always

2109
01:52:39,640 --> 01:52:42,160
Speaker 1: comes true, Mark and ask me your children treat you

2110
01:52:42,200 --> 01:52:47,040
Speaker 1: the same way. Everett will be out in the woods

2111
01:52:47,080 --> 01:52:49,280
Speaker 1: one of these days and he'll be saying, Dad, don't

2112
01:52:49,280 --> 01:52:51,920
Speaker 1: make me too much noise. Dad, let me go first. Dad,

2113
01:52:51,960 --> 01:52:54,160
Speaker 1: Can I have your ball? I need to shoot that dear. Yeah,

2114
01:52:54,479 --> 01:52:56,200
Speaker 1: I don't think you're too far off. He was already

2115
01:52:56,200 --> 01:52:59,880
Speaker 1: sneaking around today with his little pretend deer hunting rifle

2116
01:53:00,439 --> 01:53:02,280
Speaker 1: and I was trying to work, and he was trying

2117
01:53:02,280 --> 01:53:04,960
Speaker 1: to hunt, and he was sneaking up when he was

2118
01:53:05,000 --> 01:53:07,240
Speaker 1: grunting at a buck and I was, I think, talking

2119
01:53:07,280 --> 01:53:09,920
Speaker 1: to his mom, and he turned at me and he

2120
01:53:10,000 --> 01:53:17,240
Speaker 1: literally goes there's a deer buck, so he's he's well

2121
01:53:17,280 --> 01:53:21,160
Speaker 1: on his way. That he's well on his and uh,

2122
01:53:21,320 --> 01:53:24,160
Speaker 1: I guess with that, guys, thank you both for not

2123
01:53:24,240 --> 01:53:26,920
Speaker 1: only being a part of awesome hunt, but for now

2124
01:53:27,000 --> 01:53:29,800
Speaker 1: sticking around here tonight talking all about it and reliving it.

2125
01:53:29,800 --> 01:53:32,519
Speaker 1: It was an awesome experience, an awesome hunt. I can't

2126
01:53:32,560 --> 01:53:35,960
Speaker 1: wait for all of you listening to get to see it. Uh.

2127
01:53:36,000 --> 01:53:37,880
Speaker 1: The episode is going to be on season two of

2128
01:53:37,920 --> 01:53:42,080
Speaker 1: the Back forty, which should be airing this November. UM,

2129
01:53:42,120 --> 01:53:44,479
Speaker 1: so take a look over on the meat Either YouTube

2130
01:53:44,560 --> 01:53:47,040
Speaker 1: channel keeping that out here in the coming weeks. We'll

2131
01:53:47,040 --> 01:53:50,360
Speaker 1: have the first episode coming out very soon, and you

2132
01:53:50,400 --> 01:53:53,639
Speaker 1: can also watch season one. They're in the Mediator YouTube

2133
01:53:53,720 --> 01:53:56,519
Speaker 1: channel right now, which has that first hunt with my

2134
01:53:56,600 --> 01:53:58,680
Speaker 1: dad and I and the hunt when I killed the

2135
01:53:58,680 --> 01:54:01,519
Speaker 1: Wide eight and that background I talked about in the beginning.

2136
01:54:01,520 --> 01:54:04,640
Speaker 1: You can watch them that too. So with that, I

2137
01:54:04,680 --> 01:54:07,479
Speaker 1: guess we'll wrap it up. Thank you all for listening,

2138
01:54:07,520 --> 01:54:10,679
Speaker 1: Thanks for being a part of this community, for tuning in.

2139
01:54:11,320 --> 01:54:13,479
Speaker 1: Best of luck on your hunts. Get your family members

2140
01:54:13,520 --> 01:54:16,679
Speaker 1: out there, whether it's your son or daughter, wife, father, mother,

2141
01:54:17,160 --> 01:54:19,280
Speaker 1: whatever it is. Uh. These kinds of things that my

2142
01:54:19,360 --> 01:54:23,000
Speaker 1: dad and I got to share our um. You know,

2143
01:54:23,080 --> 01:54:25,560
Speaker 1: you just you can't put a price tag on it.

2144
01:54:25,560 --> 01:54:28,360
Speaker 1: It's it's special stuff. Go out there and create those

2145
01:54:28,439 --> 01:54:32,800
Speaker 1: memories of your own, and until next time, stay wired

2146
01:54:33,400 --> 01:54:33,920
Speaker 1: to Hunts.