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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide

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Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,

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Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.

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Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.

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Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,

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Speaker 2: which is brought to by first Light. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about goblins kind of,

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Speaker 2: but also really not. It's mostly about deer hunting, but

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Speaker 2: a little about goblins. I guess I firmly believe there

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Speaker 2: are just certain traits that good hunters possess. Discipline is

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Speaker 2: a big one. Without discipline, you better have a hell

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Speaker 2: of a lot of money, otherwise your trophy room is

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Speaker 2: destined to be pretty sparse. I guess, you know, being

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Speaker 2: motivated as a trait that a lot of hunters possessed too,

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Speaker 2: But truthfully, that's just more of that discipline stuff. Curiosity

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Speaker 2: is another one, and I don't think this one gets

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Speaker 2: enough love, but it's pretty much an across the board

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Speaker 2: trait for hunters who figure things out in a wide

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Speaker 2: variety of environments and who tend to fill tags at

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Speaker 2: a pace higher than the average hunter. That's what this

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Speaker 2: podcast is mostly about, even though I'm going to take

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Speaker 2: an unlikely path to get there. I come from a

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Speaker 2: long line of nut jobs, so I'm interested in all

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Speaker 2: kinds of paranormal stuff and UFOs and strange Earth types

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Speaker 2: of topics, and probably only really bog my brain down

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Speaker 2: more than I should with stuff that doesn't matter. I

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Speaker 2: can go pretty deep on topics about cryptids, although unfortunately

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Speaker 2: I think the last of the sasquatch has died off

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Speaker 2: a long time ago. One mythical creature that I really

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Speaker 2: haven't thought about at all until recently is the good

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Speaker 2: old goblin. If you whind back the time clock nearly

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Speaker 2: a thousand years, you can find references to goblins in

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Speaker 2: French literature and medieval Latin writings. The Germans and the

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Speaker 2: Greeks and the English all had references to goblins at

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Speaker 2: some point a long long time ago as well. Multiple

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Speaker 2: European cultures and their respective folklores featured goblins as small,

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Speaker 2: grotesque creatures that were always up to no good. They

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Speaker 2: ranged from mischievous little tricksters to outright malicious beasts that

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Speaker 2: apparently you wouldn't want to have encountered in a dark

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Speaker 2: alley on your way home from grabbing a pine of

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Speaker 2: ale or whatever they called the night of bar hopping

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Speaker 2: in Europe in like the fourteenth century, it wasn't just

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Speaker 2: the Europeans that dealt with these mythical creatures. South Korea

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Speaker 2: had their own version Bangladesh, South Africa, and it seems

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Speaker 2: like some Middle Eastern cultures also had their own version

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Speaker 2: of a goblin. No, then you had the spinoffs like hobgoblins, dwarves, brownies,

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Speaker 2: gnomes in seleprechauns, and a few others. A lot of

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Speaker 2: them supposedly lived in caves and would not treat you

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Speaker 2: very well if you disturbed their peaceful lives communing with

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Speaker 2: the bats and the bugs that shared their subterranean abodes.

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Speaker 2: Their legend lives on to this day, and goblins still

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Speaker 2: find themselves in books and movies quite frequently. This has

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Speaker 2: absolutely nothing to do with anything, really, but there is

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Speaker 2: also a modern movement called goblin mode, which is one

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Speaker 2: of those phrases that made it into our zeitgeist and

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Speaker 2: ended up being the Oxford Word of the Year in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. Although to this writer Goblin mode sounds

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Speaker 2: a hell of a lot like two words. Anyway, Goblin mode,

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Speaker 2: in a nutshell describes someone who has had enough a

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Speaker 2: normal life, or who has rebelled against the bullshit disingenuous

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Speaker 2: world that we see presented in social media all the time.

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Speaker 2: I guess I can get behind that. But there's another

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Speaker 2: thing related to goblins that I really want to talk about,

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Speaker 2: which is a goblin shelf. We all know about the

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Speaker 2: bug eyed cave dweller in Lord of the Rings and

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Speaker 2: how fascinated he was by shiny objects, which actually is

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Speaker 2: not that different from humans if you think about it.

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Speaker 2: We're pretty interested in oddities too, And if you're the

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Speaker 2: kind of person who will pick up random things you

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Speaker 2: find interesting, you know, while you're on the beach or

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Speaker 2: in the woods wherever in nature, you might have yourself

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Speaker 2: a little goblin shelf. This is a spot in your

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Speaker 2: office or living room, trophy room, wherever, where you just

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Speaker 2: display the things you like. Now, I've never been to

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Speaker 2: Spencer Newhart's house, but I promise you it's loaded with

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Speaker 2: goblin shelves. I have been in Steve Vanella's house, and

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Speaker 2: while it's pretty organized, it also gives off a strong

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Speaker 2: goblin shelf vibe. That's probably no surprise to you listeners,

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Speaker 2: because those guys are just curious by nature. One of

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Speaker 2: my daughters is too, which is how I got onto

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Speaker 2: this whole goblin kick in the first place. I noticed,

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Speaker 2: after helping her and her sister moved their fish tank

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Speaker 2: from one bedroom to the other in I guess like

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Speaker 2: a shared custody situation, that she had several shelves in

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Speaker 2: her room that are just cluttered up with stuff she

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Speaker 2: finds interesting. On one shelf, she had a small painted

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Speaker 2: turtle shell that I found while blood trailing a deer

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Speaker 2: in Oklahoma this past fall. I knew she'd like it,

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Speaker 2: so I stuffed it in my pack and brought it

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Speaker 2: home to her. That turtle shell sits right next to

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Speaker 2: a swamp rabbit skull, which was a strange gift from

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Speaker 2: the world's greatest small game hunter, Kevin Murphy, when we

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Speaker 2: did a live event for Meat Eater last year. My

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Speaker 2: daughter has fossils and a small bird's nest, and spent

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Speaker 2: shotgun shells from successful turkey hunts, and a host of

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Speaker 2: other little trinkets that are, you know, truly one of

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Speaker 2: a kind in some way, and if I'm being honest.

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Speaker 2: I love that so much about her. I think that

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Speaker 2: curiosity is the key to a better life. I truly

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Speaker 2: believe that if we stop learning, if we stop trying

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Speaker 2: to find interesting things, I think we atrophy in ways

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Speaker 2: that ripple through our lives in a lot of negative ways.

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Speaker 2: My daughter's goblin shelves portend a life of looking for

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Speaker 2: things that are interesting to her. And you know what,

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Speaker 2: she'll find those things, probably wherever she's at, and she'll

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Speaker 2: hopefully always keep looking for them. Now, what does this

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Speaker 2: have to do with deer hunting. Well, we've taken the

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Speaker 2: curious element damn near out of it. For starters. The

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Speaker 2: goal for so many hunters is to lock up a

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Speaker 2: hunting spot, you know, where the questions are already answered,

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Speaker 2: and the formula for success is damn near written stone.

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Speaker 2: This is also, I might add, a movement that actively

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Speaker 2: convinces us to not hunt until the timing is just right,

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Speaker 2: so we can slip in, execute our plan and leave

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Speaker 2: the woods with a dead buck. Look, if that's what

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Speaker 2: you're into and what you're looking for out of your hunting,

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Speaker 2: great chase that dream and I hope you catch it.

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Speaker 2: I truly do. But a lot of people who get

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Speaker 2: that aren't really all that happy. It often leads to

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Speaker 2: way less time hunting, which sucks, even if it helps

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Speaker 2: you kill more big deer. Sitting in a tree watching

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Speaker 2: nature do its thing is a gift, and while there

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Speaker 2: are a lot of times you could do that with

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Speaker 2: very little chance to kill a big buck, is it

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Speaker 2: still not worth it for the act in and of itself.

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Speaker 2: That's up for you to answer, but I know what

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Speaker 2: my personal answer is. The strategy of locking up a

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Speaker 2: spot and staying out often leads to a single minded

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Speaker 2: focus on the best way to kill a big one,

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Speaker 2: which is a great way to get frustrated and disappointed

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Speaker 2: in any activity that should provides you with the opposite feelings.

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Speaker 2: You know, when the neighbor shoots your target buck, it

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Speaker 2: doesn't make hunting more fun, But it's not his fault

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Speaker 2: for taking a good opportunity anymore than it's your fault

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Speaker 2: for pinning your season on the fate of a wild

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Speaker 2: animal with a brain and four legs that can carry

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Speaker 2: it to wherever it wants to go. Can also lead

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Speaker 2: to a worse scenario, which is something you hear often

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Speaker 2: enough to know it's a real thing. Which is where

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Speaker 2: someone will say, you know, I don't have any bucks

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Speaker 2: to hunt this season. Imagine that for a second. We

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Speaker 2: come up with an age class or antler size that's

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Speaker 2: our standard, and if you know they aren't out there

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Speaker 2: according to our trail cameras, We're not going to hunt

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Speaker 2: until something worthwhile shows up again, you do you? But

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Speaker 2: on paper, that sounds pretty dismal to me. I've talked

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Speaker 2: to quite a few people who have good spots to

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Speaker 2: hunt who seem allergic to the idea of setting foot

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Speaker 2: on public land. I mean, after all, why go chase

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Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty inch year when you can wait

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Speaker 2: out a one point fifty. You know, in some ways

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Speaker 2: that's pretty hard to argue against. But there is a

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Speaker 2: challenge out there that can't be had with certain hunting spots.

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Speaker 2: And there is the reality that some people feel being

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Speaker 2: in the woods is damn near medicine and taking it

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Speaker 2: as often as possible only does the body and mind

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Speaker 2: good count me in that camp. I guess now there

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Speaker 2: is an intersection here that will allow me to stop

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Speaker 2: shitting on certain styles of white tail hunting while glorifying

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Speaker 2: others totally on an arbitrary basis. I might add, this

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Speaker 2: is where the desire to kill more and bigger deer

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Speaker 2: meets the reality of not having a great spot to

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Speaker 2: do that on. This is the gray area world that

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Speaker 2: most hunters probably live in. The desire to fill those

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Speaker 2: tags is real high, but the reality on the ground

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Speaker 2: they hunt is that consistent success won't be easy and

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Speaker 2: it won't follow the path you're being sold by a

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Speaker 2: lot of hunting hunting, this is where a goblin shelf

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Speaker 2: comes into play. As crazy as that might sound, but

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Speaker 2: a relatable way to think about this as how many

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Speaker 2: of you shed hunt? Most of you, at some point,

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Speaker 2: I would guess, go out. But why shed hunting is

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Speaker 2: a strategy for actually killing more bucks come fall is

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Speaker 2: connected by a pretty weak thread. You know, there's no

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Speaker 2: doubt that finding sheds can help you confirm proof of

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Speaker 2: life obviously and show you where bucks spend at least

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Speaker 2: some of their time in the winter. Neither of those

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Speaker 2: are bad things. But we also just like sheds because

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Speaker 2: we want to possess them and put them in our

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Speaker 2: man cave and look at them, admire them. They represent

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Speaker 2: a curiosity to us, a one of a kind find

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Speaker 2: that is our own little precious. If you will. I

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Speaker 2: think we all have a little goblin in us, the

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Speaker 2: task of going out into the woods to find something

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Speaker 2: that you can bring home with you, to deepen your

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Speaker 2: connection to the outdoors and remind you of the things

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Speaker 2: you love while you're in your house getting yelled at

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Speaker 2: by your wife, you know, because you took the dogs

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Speaker 2: out to do some retrieves and they got wet and muddy,

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Speaker 2: and then before you can wipe them off, one of

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Speaker 2: them jumped up on the couch where your wife was

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Speaker 2: watching Netflix. And honestly, she can feel free to work

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Speaker 2: the dogs anytime, but no, it's always your job and

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Speaker 2: you're just supposed to magically keep them clean in a

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Speaker 2: Minnesota winter. Anyway, Sorry about that tangent. Ask yourself why

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Speaker 2: you like chad antlers. It's pretty hard to put into words.

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Speaker 2: They are the representation of something that's a little beyond

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Speaker 2: an easy explanation, just like a dried out turtleshell that

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Speaker 2: comes home with you from Oklahoma, or a shark's tooth

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Speaker 2: scrounge up on the beach in Florida while you're on

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Speaker 2: a family vacation. So am I encouraging you to start

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Speaker 2: a goblin shelf of your own, No, I am not.

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Speaker 2: It wouldn't be a pere pursuit if you specifically set

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Speaker 2: out to find interesting things in nature to display in

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Speaker 2: your house. It's not a shopping trip. That would be like,

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Speaker 2: I don't know, kind of like high fenced deer hunting.

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Speaker 2: I guess. Sure, you can have an impressive shoulder mount

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Speaker 2: on your wall, but what's the story already behind the deer?

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Speaker 2: For most of us, that's what matters the most. What

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Speaker 2: I'm arguing for instead is to try to stay curious

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Speaker 2: about what the outdoors can provide for you. We tend

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Speaker 2: to focus on the big picture stuff like finding that

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Speaker 2: match set from your target buck, or you know, locating

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Speaker 2: that patch of sumac that has just rubbed up to

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Speaker 2: no end and shows you pretty clearly where some bucks

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Speaker 2: spent some real time staging in late October. That stuff's great,

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Speaker 2: but the singularity of focus there keeps us from a

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Speaker 2: lot of things. Now, maybe this is a bad example,

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Speaker 2: I don't know, but the first buck I ever shot

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Speaker 2: that I mounted was a two and a half year

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Speaker 2: old that came in during a mid October hunt when

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Speaker 2: I was I think twenty or twenty one, A long

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Speaker 2: time ago. Either way, that deer was moving on a

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Speaker 2: night that was hot and buggy, and when he betted

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Speaker 2: down facing me at thirty yards, I nearly lost my

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Speaker 2: mind from the no sums and the mosquitoes that I

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Speaker 2: couldn't swat, and the uncertainty of what was going to

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Speaker 2: happen next. Well, he got up and I eventually livershot

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Speaker 2: that buck while he drank from a tiny knot hole

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Speaker 2: at the base of a tree that I didn't know

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Speaker 2: was there until I went to look for my arrow

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Speaker 2: and found blood splattered the whole way down the trunk,

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Speaker 2: that little tiny drinking fountain at the base of the

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Speaker 2: tree that produced my first buck that wasn't a one

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Speaker 2: and a half year old anyway. It made me realize

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Speaker 2: how much of the whitetails world was barely accessible to me,

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Speaker 2: and that there are little features of the landscape out

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Speaker 2: there like that all over that will never find or

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Speaker 2: probably never understand. I think that's one of the coolest

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Speaker 2: things about deer hunting. I also think keeping your eyes

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Speaker 2: open for interesting things while you're in the woods it

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Speaker 2: just kind of puts you in a special place as

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Speaker 2: a hunter, developing and fostering a real level of curiosity

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Speaker 2: about nature. Leads to hunting on easy mode, at least

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Speaker 2: to some extent, because you never have to talk yourself

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Speaker 2: into going out. That's a bigger deal than most of

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Speaker 2: us realize, I would guess. So think about it this way.

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Speaker 2: Do you know a single weekend warrior or a hunter

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Speaker 2: who just spends a few days at the deer shack

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Speaker 2: who also spends a lot of time just being in nature.

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Speaker 2: Probably not. Most deer hunters go into the woods with

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Speaker 2: the explicit task of learning something that might help them

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Speaker 2: kill deer, or actively engaging in the act of trying

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Speaker 2: to kill a deer. They don't do a lot of

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Speaker 2: watering in march to maybe scoop up a shed antler

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Speaker 2: or find a fossil or whatever. They aren't going to

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Speaker 2: find that tiny knot filled with water at the base

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Speaker 2: of the tree that some buck might drink out of

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Speaker 2: someday after he gets a little thirsty from eating some acorns.

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Speaker 2: They aren't going to get distracted by all the exposed

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Speaker 2: rock and some ravine that might offer up a few

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Speaker 2: fossils from a time when the earth looked a lot

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Speaker 2: different from what it does today, and that ravine might

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Speaker 2: offer up something cool for the goblin shelf, or it

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Speaker 2: might get you to a spot where the deer cross

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Speaker 2: it simply to go from one side to the other

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Speaker 2: in the easiest route possible. Look, I know this is

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Speaker 2: a hard strategy to sell because it's so random, but

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Speaker 2: I'll give you another example before I sign off on this.

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Speaker 2: One last year, while setting up some blinds in the

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Speaker 2: summer in northern Wisconsin, my daughters and I walked out

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Speaker 2: of a property that I own, and we just took

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Speaker 2: a route that I often don't walk. This property was

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Speaker 2: farmed at one point a long time ago, and one

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Speaker 2: of the remnants of that activity is a big old

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Speaker 2: rock pile. I never pay much attention to it because

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Speaker 2: it really doesn't mean anything to me. But while crossing

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Speaker 2: it with my girls, I spotted a garter snake sunning itself,

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Speaker 2: so we try to catch it, which is what we

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Speaker 2: do with snakes and frogs and most little critters. He

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Speaker 2: was too fast, though, but we did find a rock

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Speaker 2: with a shed snake skin stuck to it, so that

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Speaker 2: ended up on my daughter's goblin shelf as well, and

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Speaker 2: since we were on a snake pattern, got a little distracted,

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Speaker 2: we checked the entire rock pile over to see if

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Speaker 2: we could catch a different one. During that process, I

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Speaker 2: realized that, well, it wasn't a heavy traffic trail. There

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Speaker 2: was a deer trail going right around that rock pile.

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Speaker 2: I guess deer don't like walking on loose rock, which

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Speaker 2: makes sense now. That trail was just interesting enough to

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Speaker 2: get me to put a camera on it, and I

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Speaker 2: got pictures of bucks last summer there that I just

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Speaker 2: never knew existed, and I got to peek into a

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Speaker 2: world of deer travel that I had totally overlooked. In

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Speaker 2: that little process, I also found an apple tree I

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Speaker 2: never knew existed, and discovered a tiny bird nest that

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Speaker 2: my daughter also wanted for a goblin shelf. I guess

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Speaker 2: this is the real message I'm trying to drive home

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Speaker 2: with this one, And even though I've said it before,

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Speaker 2: I want to say it again. I have to find

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Speaker 2: reasons to be in the woods that go beyond the

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Speaker 2: idea of winter scouting or checking a cam or just

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Speaker 2: trying to find a shed outner. It's important for us

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Speaker 2: to be in nature for a lot of reasons that

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Speaker 2: go far beyond killing deer with more frequency. But that

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Speaker 2: is a welcome side benefit. Not only is it generally

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Speaker 2: a good practice to stop looking at your phone and

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Speaker 2: start looking at nature. But staying curious and keeping an

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Speaker 2: open mind while you're out there will get you to

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Speaker 2: go places you wouldn't normally go if you had, you know,

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Speaker 2: different goals about deer. It'll get you into the micro

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Speaker 2: environment instead of staying stuck in the macro, and that

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Speaker 2: is as important as anything if you want to learn

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Speaker 2: about what deer do and what a hell of a

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Speaker 2: lot of other critters do. This goes for just a

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Speaker 2: short walk with the family on your deer lease, you know.

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Speaker 2: It goes for deciding to go troutfish a stream you've

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Speaker 2: always ignored for whatever reason, maybe taking a few hours

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Speaker 2: to walk some public land you have no intention of hunting,

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Speaker 2: but you also have nothing better to do because it's March. Whatever.

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Speaker 2: Find the reasons you need to go where the deer

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Speaker 2: live and some time with them. Fill up that goblin shelf,

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Speaker 2: go hardcore goblin mode, throw a pair of middle fingers

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Speaker 2: up to what you're supposed to do, and have some

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Speaker 2: fun with this stuff. And come back next week because

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Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about the logistics of traveling to

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Speaker 2: scout while not going broke. Doing the whole process. That's

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Speaker 2: it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has been

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Speaker 2: the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought to

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Speaker 2: you by First Light. As always, thank you so much

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Speaker 2: for listening, and thank you for all of your support.

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Speaker 2: Everybody here at meat Eater we truly appreciate it. Without you, guys,

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Speaker 2: we have nothing, so thank you for that. Now, if

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Speaker 2: you're real bored and you got some time to kill,

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Speaker 2: you want to head over to the medeater dot com

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Speaker 2: and you're going to find tons of articles, tons of podcasts,

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Speaker 2: video series dropping all the time, more than enough entertainment

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Speaker 2: to get you through until we can start catching a

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Speaker 2: few more trout and maybe call in a turkey