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

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

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

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Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and this week on the show, I'm joined

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Speaker 1: by two new hunters that I had the privilege to

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Speaker 1: mentor this year on the Back forty, and we're talking

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Speaker 1: first dear stories, learning to hunt and more. All Right,

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

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Speaker 1: by First Life, and today, folks, we're talking new hunter mentorship.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna get you updated on what's happened with the

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Speaker 1: Back forty, and then we're gonna dive into a couple

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Speaker 1: of great stories about two new hunters that I had

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Speaker 1: the privilege of helping mentor on their first successful deer hunts.

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Speaker 1: So joining me today, we've got those two aforementioned new hunters,

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Speaker 1: Forrest Wagner and Evan Barrett. And then we also have

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Speaker 1: Hank Forrester, the director of Hunting at the National Deer Association,

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Speaker 1: who's the mastermind behind this field to fork mentorship program

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Speaker 1: that I was doing all this through. So why should

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Speaker 1: you listen to this? Well, if you're a new hunter,

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking this one's going to inspire you. You're gonna

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Speaker 1: hear from two folks who likely went through the exact

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Speaker 1: same things that you are, who struggle to figure things out,

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Speaker 1: who sought out help, and who ultimately had a pretty

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Speaker 1: life changing experience. I think this conversation is gonna give

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Speaker 1: you some hope. I think it's gonna excite you. I

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Speaker 1: think it's I think it's going to motivate you. So

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Speaker 1: if that's you, this is absolutely an episode you want

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Speaker 1: to listen to. But on the flip side, if you're

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Speaker 1: an experienced deer hunter, I think this is still going

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Speaker 1: to be one. Maybe it's even more important for you,

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Speaker 1: because at least for me, hearing Evan and Forrest stories,

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Speaker 1: it was it was a breath of fresh air. It

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Speaker 1: was it was exactly what I needed after a long

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Speaker 1: season of worrying about all the minutia of deer hunting,

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Speaker 1: you know, obsessing over specific deer or strategies or my

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Speaker 1: goals or what's going well, what's not going well, all

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff that you get wrapped up when

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Speaker 1: you're so so into this thing. These guys helped kind

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Speaker 1: of lift me out of that fog. And remember, I

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Speaker 1: don't know remember why we do this stuff in the

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Speaker 1: first place. There their stories were just um god, they

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Speaker 1: were just really really cool. It was it was, it

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Speaker 1: just kind of filled me with good feelings, I guess,

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Speaker 1: for lack of a better word, And you know what,

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Speaker 1: these days, uh, we need that kind of stuff sometimes.

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Speaker 1: So that's that's my pitch and short, I think, uh,

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Speaker 1: I think at least what I felt was a sense

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Speaker 1: of new energy after this conversation, new excitement to get

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Speaker 1: out hunting myself and help other people. And if that

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Speaker 1: sounds good to you, I think you'll enjoy this one.

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Speaker 1: So without further ado, why don't get into it, here's

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Speaker 1: my chat with Evan, Forrest and Hank. All right, so

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Speaker 1: now hear me on the show is Hank Forrest, or

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Speaker 1: Forrest Wagner, and Evan Barrett. We've got the Field to

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Speaker 1: Fork crew back together again, and uh, I'm very excited

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Speaker 1: to get to kind of wax nostalgic on a couple

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Speaker 1: of really fun weekends we had over the course of

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Speaker 1: the past I don't know, six seven months, I guess

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Speaker 1: has been so thank you each and every one of

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Speaker 1: you for for making time here to jump back on. Um.

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Speaker 1: I want to jump right into stuff though, rather than

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Speaker 1: the pleasantries. I'm just gonna jump into the story if

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Speaker 1: you don't mind, And Hank, you are the one I

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Speaker 1: want to jump into this with. First, we'll get to

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Speaker 1: Evan and Forrest and you guys stories about what led

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Speaker 1: you to wanting to learn to hunt and what led

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Speaker 1: you to the field of fork program. But Hank, you

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Speaker 1: and me kicked off well, heck, I don't know when

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Speaker 1: this was. I think it was late December twenty twenty.

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Speaker 1: We hunted together on the Back forty and we did

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Speaker 1: a podcast Asked afterwards with Nick CEO over at the NBA,

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Speaker 1: and we talked about the plan for the Back forty,

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Speaker 1: how we were donating it to the National Deer Association,

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Speaker 1: the hopes and dreams for what would happen on the

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Speaker 1: property in the months and years to come, you know,

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Speaker 1: the plan to try to use this place as a

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Speaker 1: you know, as a as a training ground for new hunters,

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Speaker 1: as a place to help teach people about hunting, to

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Speaker 1: demonstrate different things about hunting and land management and all

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And we kind of left that

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Speaker 1: conversation that day. I think we talked in January one

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Speaker 1: then at that point about you know, this is what

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Speaker 1: we hope is going to happen. This is what we

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Speaker 1: dream will happen someday. Now stuff has actually happened. So

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Speaker 1: I'm hoping you can help us, you know, filling the

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Speaker 1: gas between then and now, at least up until one

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Speaker 1: hunt started. And tell me from your perspective, coming off

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Speaker 1: of that conversation with the three of us and then

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Speaker 1: you going out on your own, like what happened in

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Speaker 1: the intervening months leading up to anybody stepping foot on

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Speaker 1: the property. What kind of things had to be organized?

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Speaker 1: What was the story internally for you guys at the

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Speaker 1: NBA to figure out, you know, how are we going

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Speaker 1: to manage this place? What are we gonna do with

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Speaker 1: this place? What were those next steps? Absolutely thanks for

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Speaker 1: having me Mark. Um. You know, I wish I would

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Speaker 1: have listened to that podcast before we got on here

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Speaker 1: today so I can remember exactly what we had said.

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Speaker 1: But I think we followed the the battle plan fairly closely. Um.

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Speaker 1: We of course said that we were going to reach

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Speaker 1: out and form a committee, a volunteer committee, um, to

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Speaker 1: oversee the property. You know, some local some state representatives

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Speaker 1: for India from Michigan, and of course a few of

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Speaker 1: our staff members. But we we did form a habitat

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Speaker 1: committee and kind of a property management committee made up

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Speaker 1: of a diverse group of guys UM in the area.

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Speaker 1: And UM they've really taken the lead on UM, you know,

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Speaker 1: day to day oversight of the property, property improvements and

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Speaker 1: really prepping it for the hunt. UM. You know, of

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Speaker 1: course there were some logistic things to figure out, but

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Speaker 1: we did in fact write a full management plan for

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Speaker 1: the property. UM. My colleague Matt Ross helped a lot

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Speaker 1: with that from the Conservation Department. But of course a

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Speaker 1: lot of our volunteers on the committee UM, either UM

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Speaker 1: you know, professionally or UM just as a passion do

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Speaker 1: a lot of land management, habitat management in the local area,

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Speaker 1: many long time India members and many from the Southeast

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Speaker 1: Michigan branch was which is kind of local to that area.

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Speaker 1: So UM we came out in March and you were

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Speaker 1: gracious to join us again and give them a kind

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Speaker 1: of a personal tour of the back forty, which I

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Speaker 1: know really jezz them up, and they really appreciated that,

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Speaker 1: and that's kind of how they formulated the plan. They

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Speaker 1: they wanted to you know, maximize the potential to back

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Speaker 1: forty four wildlife and and diverse wildlife, but also maximize

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Speaker 1: the opportunity for new hunters to harvest their first year

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Speaker 1: and of course carry on the legacy that both you

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Speaker 1: and meat either you know, began. And so that was

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Speaker 1: a lot of what went into our our zoom discussions

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Speaker 1: to kind of create this management plan. But a quick highlight, UM,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I should just go, you know,

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Speaker 1: through their names real quick, just to thank them for

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Speaker 1: their service. But we had two India interns that actually

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Speaker 1: stayed on and uh they were interns the semester that

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Speaker 1: we kind of took over management that March, and they

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Speaker 1: stayed on full year. And and you know, people have

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Speaker 1: seen them in the photos from the back forty and

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Speaker 1: and they helped the mentor the new hunters. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: they'll come up. But Sam Hog and Xavier Austin really

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Speaker 1: helped us out um in an intern capassing later as

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Speaker 1: a volunteer, but kind of the leads with the Southeastern

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Speaker 1: Michigan branch of Corey Francis and John Neville, Drew Gilby

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Speaker 1: UM and from kind of a state level UM Chad

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Speaker 1: Feeling and Eric Schnell helped out a lot and so

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Speaker 1: just briefly, I'll just say that, you know, we planted

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Speaker 1: acres of switch glut grass. They maintained the nine acres

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Speaker 1: of food plots and added line and fertilize their seed. Um.

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Speaker 1: They added four acres of native prairie seed with forbes

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Speaker 1: and wildflowers, two acres of short grass. They planted an

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Speaker 1: American chestnut orchard. Um that we're hoping we will get

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Speaker 1: FDA approval for like a genetically modified American chestnut that

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Speaker 1: will not be susceptible to the blight and actually create

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Speaker 1: kind of a um, you know, a foster area for

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Speaker 1: you know, chestnuts to come back in that part of Michigan. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, we're working on some water, added great a

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Speaker 1: gait and stuff like that. We added birdhouses to the property.

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Speaker 1: U five multrily cell cameras, just um, you name it.

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Speaker 1: They put in a lot of work. They checked on

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Speaker 1: the bees for you a lot of spraying and planning

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Speaker 1: and even in and I think April or May, um

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Speaker 1: Xavier our interns that never killed a turkey and they

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Speaker 1: took him out there and he got the first game

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Speaker 1: animal off the back party under our management of turkey. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's really Uh, it's you read through that

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Speaker 1: so quickly, it's easy to overlook. Oh yeah, they did

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Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff like it. It sounds like, oh

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Speaker 1: so easy. They planted nine acres of this, they planted

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Speaker 1: twenty acres of that, They planned an acre of this.

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Speaker 1: That is a ton of work. I mean, those folks

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Speaker 1: put in a lot of time and they weren't getting

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Speaker 1: paid for it. I mean, these are people just volunteering.

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Speaker 1: So I want to second what you said as far

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Speaker 1: as giving those volunteers kudos to to really really make

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Speaker 1: a point that that was a tremendous gift of their

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Speaker 1: time and energy and their tools and their equipment and

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Speaker 1: all that stuff. Um, it was. It was really cool

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Speaker 1: to get to watch that from a far and get

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Speaker 1: updates and see what was happening, and just to see what,

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Speaker 1: you know, what we began really take an awesome step forward. Um.

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Speaker 1: So it's it's a citing from my perspective to see

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Speaker 1: that property continue to flourish and continue to see it. Uh,

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Speaker 1: I mean, it really is morphing into what we dreamed

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Speaker 1: it would be someday. You know, it started out it's

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Speaker 1: just this kind of raw piece of dirt and the

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Speaker 1: hope was like, man, someday this might be a wildlife

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Speaker 1: paradise and it's sure trending that direction. Um, I mean

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Speaker 1: it really is. So it's a great work to you

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Speaker 1: and all the guys there that were doing all that. Um,

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Speaker 1: that was that was exciting to see. So from there, Hank,

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Speaker 1: Habitat work was done in the spring and in the summer,

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Speaker 1: and then in late August we had our first educational

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Speaker 1: event for the Field to Fork program. Um, can you

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Speaker 1: quickly set the stage for what you know, the what

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Speaker 1: was the game plan for that? And then I want

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Speaker 1: to get Evan and Forced to kind of introduce themselves

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Speaker 1: and tell us a little bit more about them. But

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Speaker 1: but real quick, Hank, from your perspective, what was in

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Speaker 1: your mind? What was your hopes for this thing we're

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Speaker 1: going to put on in August? Sure? So, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: we kind of discussed it with the group of both

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Speaker 1: the Habitat and you know, people interested in helping us

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Speaker 1: with the programmatic aspect of the field the forts on

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Speaker 1: the back forty Um, So we decided that we wanted

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Speaker 1: to do what we kind of term a community based events,

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Speaker 1: so like a long time you know, a filled the

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Speaker 1: Fort program that happened over the course of a season,

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Speaker 1: and most of ours do. But sometimes, you know, the

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Speaker 1: actual organized event will be condensed into like a four

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Speaker 1: day weekend or something, and then you know they're hopefully

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Speaker 1: be uh you know, follow up opportunities to get honey,

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Speaker 1: but it's it's kind of not in a package deal.

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Speaker 1: But we wanted because of the opportunity, you know, a

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Speaker 1: branch and volunteers and and and Michigan has always been

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Speaker 1: a strong state for the National Beer Association, but we

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Speaker 1: wanted to incorporate the local community, recruit local new hunters,

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Speaker 1: and really try to just build on that kind of

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Speaker 1: community and local field. So we went out and we um,

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Speaker 1: you know, we recruited hunters via a Google survey. We

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Speaker 1: survey potential new hunters. We also had to recruit more mentors, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, to facilitate these hunts, and also hosts properties

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Speaker 1: because uh, you know, the back forty is a great

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Speaker 1: piece of property, but we we really can only hunt

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Speaker 1: about four people at a time on the property, so

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Speaker 1: we wanted to um, you know, be able to take

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Speaker 1: a few more hunters and that in the program. And

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Speaker 1: we ended up selecting ten hunters for our first year. Um,

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Speaker 1: and we set about kind of training them and giving

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Speaker 1: them the background they need to be successful. So we

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Speaker 1: offer all of our field to fort participants free online

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Speaker 1: hunter education and free access to our deer hunting one

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Speaker 1: on one course with hunter ad dot com. And so

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Speaker 1: they kind of do the initial you know, prerequisite at

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Speaker 1: home education. And then we brought them in in September

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Speaker 1: for a training day before the season started. Excuse me,

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Speaker 1: august Um, I guess it was before the season started

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Speaker 1: late August Um. We utilized a local Michigan d in

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Speaker 1: our range for the shooting portion, uh cook some venison mills.

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Speaker 1: You know, they had gotten a lot of the dear

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Speaker 1: biology and and that kind of stuff from the online courses.

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Speaker 1: They even got, you know, the hunter education courses. But

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Speaker 1: we like to reiterate safety and a few other things.

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Speaker 1: But I'd say the highlight of the event was the

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Speaker 1: property tour that you you helped us lead. Yes, So

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Speaker 1: we brought everybody out to the property and then I

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Speaker 1: kind of walked everyone through to see all the most

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Speaker 1: important locations in the farm. And throughout that time I

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Speaker 1: tried to share as much as I thought might be

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Speaker 1: relevant about you know, how dear use the property, how

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Speaker 1: different things in the property might be representative of stuff

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Speaker 1: that you could see out on your own hunting on

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Speaker 1: public land or somewhere else. Kind of talk through hunt

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Speaker 1: setups and mindset and things I'm thinking about when I'm

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Speaker 1: out there and I don't know, try to try to

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Speaker 1: be as helpful and and use this landscape as as

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Speaker 1: a sort of a template for a whole bunch of

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Speaker 1: different deer hunting discussions. So that that's that's what that

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Speaker 1: looked like from my perspective. Let's hear from the guys though,

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Speaker 1: that were actually learning so Forced, Evan, Let's let's get

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Speaker 1: a little bit of what led you to this point, um, Forced,

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Speaker 1: Can you kick me off here with a little bit

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Speaker 1: about what led you to want to win a deer

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Speaker 1: hunt and how you ended up making your way to

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Speaker 1: get involved here with the Field of Port program. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: absolutely so. Um. It pretty much started out with growing

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Speaker 1: up fishing all the time and seeing some friends as

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Speaker 1: I was a kid, going hunting with their family and

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Speaker 1: friends and being curious about that. And as years went on, UM,

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Speaker 1: I was never really invited or or had enough interest

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Speaker 1: to move forward, um to really pursue it. Um, mostly

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Speaker 1: because you know, when you're young, you're looking for an

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Speaker 1: adults day. Hey let's go hunting, you know, but that

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Speaker 1: just never worked. Doubt and for fishing for many years

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Speaker 1: and getting more and more into other types of fishing,

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Speaker 1: starting to get surrounded by people who, um can now

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Speaker 1: say hey, have you ever killed his ear? It's like, well, no, like,

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Speaker 1: well you should do that. Sometimes it's like okay, how

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Speaker 1: do I do that? And I say, well, you've got

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Speaker 1: to find a mentor, and well, like okay, and then

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Speaker 1: I just kind of sit there and wait for an

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Speaker 1: invitation and nothing happens, and I'm like okay. And UM.

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Speaker 1: Then about five years ago, I UM, when I discovered

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Speaker 1: the Meat Eater podcasts and the Meat Eater episodes and seeing, um,

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Speaker 1: the the culture of cooking and conservation and everything that

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Speaker 1: was lining right up with my main interests at the

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Speaker 1: time was was you know, fly fishing and fishing and rivers,

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Speaker 1: and um, when that became a huge passion of my life.

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Speaker 1: Conservation is natural, like this is so beautiful. I want

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Speaker 1: to take care of this forever for generations to come.

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Speaker 1: And then um, seeing the meat Eater platform being exposed

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Speaker 1: to that and seeing oh there's this isn't just about

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Speaker 1: harvesting deer or getting large antlers. There is a giant

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Speaker 1: conservation effort behind it, and that was was a big

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Speaker 1: part of it to me. And then the top or

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Speaker 1: was you can make wild game taste good, and you

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Speaker 1: know you can. You can have you know, at the

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Speaker 1: most complete lifestyle surrounding it if you want to, and

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Speaker 1: if not, that's okay too. There's plenty of options to

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Speaker 1: get outside and experience your your state or your you know,

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Speaker 1: local natural resources UM without having the need to. I

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Speaker 1: feel like you have to go on a vacation every

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Speaker 1: six months somewhere UM in order to enjoy yourself and

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Speaker 1: reconnect and that type of thing. So at that point,

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Speaker 1: after doing some networking over the past few years, asking

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Speaker 1: you know, start with friends, then I started with friends

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Speaker 1: of friends, co workers, co workers friends, and I did.

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Speaker 1: I did get a few people interested to talk to

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Speaker 1: me and would answer my questions about equipment and places

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Speaker 1: to go, our resources to check out, but UM just

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Speaker 1: had a few closed doors where I could tell that

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Speaker 1: there's still no invitation and you know, after all the

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Speaker 1: reading and resources online, it's it's like, Okay, I get it.

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Speaker 1: They want that time for themselves and you know I

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Speaker 1: could respect that, and UM, I just did not could

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Speaker 1: not find an avenue to get out in the field.

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Speaker 1: So it was it was very tempting to go afield myself.

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Speaker 1: But um, the field dressing, I think is is where, Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, as many videos as you watch, or books

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Speaker 1: as you read, or diagrams that you study, there's still

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Speaker 1: if there's a worst case scenario, I don't want to

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Speaker 1: be in that worst case scenario and feel so So

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Speaker 1: from there, how did you discover the field of fork program?

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Speaker 1: How did that eventually fall in your lap? Um? I

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Speaker 1: was just on my phone on Instagram looking through things,

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Speaker 1: and UM memory serves correct. I believe it was spring

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Speaker 1: last year or maybe early summer. Um, I believe it

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Speaker 1: was the first light add in my in my Instagram

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Speaker 1: feed with just I believe it was field of fork

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Speaker 1: or backboarding too fork or there's something along that line.

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Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh wow, this is okay, this is

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Speaker 1: something where oh adult lead or for adults to learn

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Speaker 1: how to harvest deer for their own consumption. Okay, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's exactly what I want. I'm not looking for somebody

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Speaker 1: to teach me how to shoot a big buck or

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Speaker 1: anything like that. I just want to get out there

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Speaker 1: and get food clicked on that UM and that began

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Speaker 1: the whole process with engaging with the n p A

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Speaker 1: and the forms, filling up the forms, and the application process,

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Speaker 1: and you know, Hank just kind of took it from

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Speaker 1: there with us, and I was like, oh my gosh,

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Speaker 1: this is happening. And um, I have four small kids

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Speaker 1: at home and I know that hunting takes a lot

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Speaker 1: of time. And I'm like, oh no, did I just

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Speaker 1: do something I'm I can't handle with when the time

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Speaker 1: and I told my wife says She's like okay, and

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Speaker 1: I said, are you all right? I think she said, yes,

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Speaker 1: I know you've been wanting to do this for years.

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Speaker 1: Go for it. I'm like, oh, And then just you know,

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Speaker 1: I've been on cloud nine ever since that that UM,

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Speaker 1: that invitation to have the opportunity. Yeah, that's that's so cool.

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Speaker 1: Uh Well, I want I want to dive into a

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Speaker 1: bunch more of that, but but first let's get evans

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Speaker 1: Oudt of the story. Evan, can you can you give

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Speaker 1: us your version? Yeah? Oh great? UM, A lot of

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Speaker 1: it follows you know what what forests described, but I

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Speaker 1: think the you know what sort of drew me in

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Speaker 1: initially was my passion for food. I've I've spent most

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Speaker 1: of my life cooking UM for a good portion of

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Speaker 1: it professionally, but you know, now more more as a hobby.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I got used to and and almost

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Speaker 1: you know, tired of the same chicken, pork and beet right,

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Speaker 1: And so I felt I could come very far with

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Speaker 1: with the typical meats that you can you can get

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Speaker 1: at a supermarket, and then you know, push that further

364
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Speaker 1: and start you know, sourcing those better and and doing better.

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Speaker 1: But you know, at the same time, like there was

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Speaker 1: this just wide variety out there that was different and

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Speaker 1: exotic and was going to be much more challenging. And

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Speaker 1: and so that is what sort of drew me in

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Speaker 1: initially UM and and I had this this sort of

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Speaker 1: feeling or calling or what what happened. But well before

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Speaker 1: I knew about UM meat eater and and that there

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Speaker 1: was a community out there that that was hunting and

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Speaker 1: fishing for food. And and what shocked me was the caliber,

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Speaker 1: the caliber of of cuisine and the caliber of cooking

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Speaker 1: and thoughtfulness that went into the harvest, and that went

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Speaker 1: into the execution of the raw product. And I was

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00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:52,560
Speaker 1: hooked immediately. I mean that was it. Like I don't

378
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Speaker 1: think I'd ever fit into a mold so perfectly. And

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Speaker 1: and and finding a community out there that that was

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Speaker 1: inspired and and was was into taking wild game and

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Speaker 1: and you know, harvesting your own proteins and and doing

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Speaker 1: that thing. And then and also foraging and all these

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00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:19,439
Speaker 1: other you know, all these other ingredients sourcing methods and

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Speaker 1: then applying like really really excellent, really really um high technique.

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Speaker 1: I mean it was just it was fascinating. Um and

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00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,919
Speaker 1: so that was a huge, huge draw. And then and

387
00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:38,440
Speaker 1: then as it went further, they started with birds. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, I did what I what I feel is

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Speaker 1: a very typical Michigan thing where you get a shotgun,

390
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:45,960
Speaker 1: you get a pump, you get a pump acts and

391
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Speaker 1: shotgun because you can change the barrels, you can use

392
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Speaker 1: it for her own and you can use it for

393
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:51,320
Speaker 1: you know, it's just it holds a lot of purpose

394
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Speaker 1: and uh And and so I started I started by

395
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Speaker 1: by hunting birds and doing upland I just fell in

396
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:01,800
Speaker 1: love with upland and uh and it just kept kind

397
00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:05,200
Speaker 1: of growing from there. You know, I wanted to after

398
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Speaker 1: hunting peasants. I wanted to hunt grouse, and after grouse,

399
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:09,399
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to move on to the to

400
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:11,520
Speaker 1: the next thing. And eventually it was you know, turkeys,

401
00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:15,560
Speaker 1: and then it was deer, and and uh, I had

402
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:19,719
Speaker 1: been successful. I had been successful, um, through reading and

403
00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:22,439
Speaker 1: watching videos and doing a lot of research on my

404
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:25,639
Speaker 1: own and and in some cases getting guys and and

405
00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:30,200
Speaker 1: and you know, different methods. But I was unsuccessful and

406
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:32,600
Speaker 1: put in a lot of effort, more effort into deer

407
00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:37,480
Speaker 1: hunting and than than really any other type of hunting

408
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:39,480
Speaker 1: that I had tried up until that point. And and

409
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,800
Speaker 1: it was very uh, it's very disheartening at a certain

410
00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,320
Speaker 1: point where it was it was you know, it was

411
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:48,080
Speaker 1: very challenging, and I was just I was started to,

412
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:52,760
Speaker 1: you know, feel conflicted about it, and and uh um.

413
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Speaker 1: And it was when my sister had, like, you know,

414
00:23:57,280 --> 00:23:59,640
Speaker 1: but she hadn't even you know, heard of the back

415
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:02,359
Speaker 1: four Tell you know TV show at the time YouTube

416
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 1: show at the time. Um. Of course by this point,

417
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:08,080
Speaker 1: I'm you know, deep in it. I'm listening to the

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00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:11,680
Speaker 1: podcasts and and uh and watching the shows, and so

419
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 1: she sends over this, like I think it was she

420
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,880
Speaker 1: got an email from the Michigan Department Natural Resources, and

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00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:20,639
Speaker 1: and it was just like, Hey, does this looks like

422
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:22,040
Speaker 1: something to be interested in doing. It looks like a

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00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:24,199
Speaker 1: mentorship for adult hunters for deer. And I was like,

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00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 1: do you have any idea what this is? Like? Do

425
00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:31,520
Speaker 1: you have any any clue? Just fine, we need to

426
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 1: sign up for this. And and lucky for us, we

427
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:38,119
Speaker 1: we both we were both accepted. Um and it just

428
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:53,120
Speaker 1: turned up to be just just an unbelievable parparence. So

429
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:57,359
Speaker 1: from there then okay, that's that's that's it's great to

430
00:24:57,400 --> 00:24:59,720
Speaker 1: get both of your stories and hear what lads you there,

431
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:04,400
Speaker 1: and and it's it's it's encouraging to hear just how

432
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:08,159
Speaker 1: spot on this whole program sounded like. Once you discovered it,

433
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:09,679
Speaker 1: you were like, Oh, this is the thing I've been

434
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:12,920
Speaker 1: waiting for forever. Uh what I'm what I'm curious about.

435
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:16,199
Speaker 1: The next is that first experience, so that you know,

436
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:18,399
Speaker 1: the day you went out and went on the range

437
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 1: and you got to eat some venison with folks and

438
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 1: you met the mentors and we came out to the

439
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:25,000
Speaker 1: back forward and I watched you guys around. What was

440
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,120
Speaker 1: your take after that? So that was your first real

441
00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:30,159
Speaker 1: experience with the program. UM, now you kind of have

442
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 1: an idea of what you're in for. UM, I guess

443
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,400
Speaker 1: maybe Evan will keep going. U. Since we're just heard

444
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:37,720
Speaker 1: from me, what was your thoughts on how that went?

445
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:40,440
Speaker 1: You know, was that a helpful day? Was the whole

446
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:43,639
Speaker 1: process up to that point what you're hoping? UM? Curious

447
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 1: about that? Yeah? No, So there was great communication leading

448
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:52,760
Speaker 1: up to it. Uh as at Tank pointed out, they

449
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,320
Speaker 1: they gave us a ton of resources so that we

450
00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,639
Speaker 1: can do a bunch of homework because you had a

451
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 1: excure of people that were coming to this program. I

452
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:07,919
Speaker 1: had some hunting experience, I had hunting license. I was

453
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:12,679
Speaker 1: familiar with firearms and crossbows at the time, and others,

454
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:14,399
Speaker 1: you know, we're not. So it was it was. It

455
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:18,719
Speaker 1: was well managed for sort of like all of the

456
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,639
Speaker 1: range of people that were that we're going to be coming,

457
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 1: and I thought that there was a good level of

458
00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:29,680
Speaker 1: communicating sort of prapping people and knowing what expectations were coming. Net.

459
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: So it was it was. Although it was, you know,

460
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: it was a bit intimidating, it was not in any

461
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:40,360
Speaker 1: way it was handled well enough that it was not intimidating.

462
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:42,959
Speaker 1: At all to such that you wouldn't want to show up.

463
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 1: You were excited when you got there. You know, I

464
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:49,120
Speaker 1: think that I think that there was any intimidation there.

465
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 1: It's just that you you you know, you wanted to

466
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:55,320
Speaker 1: be president of Mind and you know, and uh and

467
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 1: you didn't want to you know, um screw anything type

468
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,280
Speaker 1: of thing. And so but the way that they handled

469
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 1: you from the time you arrived, there wasn't an opportunity

470
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 1: to screw anything up. It was very very very well

471
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: managed um introductions all around. It was great to see

472
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:12,399
Speaker 1: a lot of different people from a lot of different

473
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:14,640
Speaker 1: backgrounds who were there for a lot of different reasons,

474
00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: and I think that really started to bring down the

475
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:21,679
Speaker 1: level of, you know, of any sort of caution that

476
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:25,080
Speaker 1: anybody may have had, because people come to this program

477
00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:28,359
Speaker 1: and come to hunting in different ways and from different backgrounds,

478
00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:31,440
Speaker 1: and so to hear the stories and was was really

479
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 1: great and to get to know each other. And then

480
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:38,919
Speaker 1: it was orchestrated in a very safe manner, so you know,

481
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: people who may have never handled a firearm or across

482
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 1: or anything like that, we're we're treated very very well.

483
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: And again, so the longer you were there, the more

484
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:57,640
Speaker 1: that it became more comfortable. And then from there, Uh,

485
00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 1: you know, Hank will not brag about how good his

486
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:05,200
Speaker 1: cooking is, but his cooking and his thoughts is unbelievable,

487
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:10,320
Speaker 1: and so don't listen to him when when he does. Um,

488
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 1: that was really fun because then it was like it

489
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 1: was like a sneak peek into into the future. Uh.

490
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:19,920
Speaker 1: And then the of course the the tour. Uh. And

491
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,919
Speaker 1: and you're showing up for that, um, Forrest and I

492
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 1: almost famous, And that was cool. Uh. We we held

493
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:30,560
Speaker 1: each other up. And no, I mean just the fact

494
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 1: that that you know that everyone was was was like

495
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 1: there to put their time in. I mean, the mentors

496
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 1: were there to put the time into. The NBA was there,

497
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:42,080
Speaker 1: and then you were there. I mean it just kept

498
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 1: on like reinforcing just how special this was and and

499
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:52,360
Speaker 1: and what it meant and what kind of commitment it meant. Uh.

500
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 1: And so then as a mentee, and I think I

501
00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 1: can speak for the mentees, it was like, wow, this

502
00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 1: is this is amazing and and and we um, you know,

503
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 1: we're we're gonna we're gonna be handled well, like this

504
00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 1: is this is gonna go well because you're you know

505
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 1: again you're you're you're in a new circumstance around new people,

506
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:15,240
Speaker 1: and you're you're ultimately out there, uh to do something

507
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:18,280
Speaker 1: that a lot of people have learned over many years,

508
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:20,200
Speaker 1: and we're trying to shore that up into a very

509
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 1: small period of time. But it just kept feeling better

510
00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:27,000
Speaker 1: every single minute with with how well it was was

511
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:32,600
Speaker 1: put together. That's awesome. What's your what was your take force? Yeah,

512
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,720
Speaker 1: same same thing along the organization of the whole event

513
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:40,320
Speaker 1: myself and I was too amazed by the other mentees

514
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 1: in the backgrounds of all of us have different reasons

515
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,840
Speaker 1: and it was really neat to see the broad spectrum

516
00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:51,120
Speaker 1: um And yeah, there was that same amount of apprehension

517
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:53,760
Speaker 1: about is this you know, am I in the right area?

518
00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 1: And my way out of my lane here? And and

519
00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But once the introductions and hearing

520
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 1: everybody's um story, which takes a little bit of courage

521
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 1: because you just meet all of these strangers and you

522
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,640
Speaker 1: you're standing around and it's Okay, why do you want

523
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 1: to do this? And so it's I think that's kind

524
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 1: of the beginning of the journey, is everybody kind of

525
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:23,280
Speaker 1: kind of announcing out loud, you know, what there, what

526
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:28,200
Speaker 1: with their hopes and dreams are for this and UM yeah,

527
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:30,400
Speaker 1: that was that was the big part to kind of

528
00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 1: instantly kind of break the ice in a way and

529
00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: understand that we all have a common a common goal

530
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 1: and and you know, the conversations and and everything just

531
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,240
Speaker 1: started to flow so well after that. But for for me,

532
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: I think, UM, you know, just the time UM spent

533
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:56,320
Speaker 1: to take the mentees, to coordinate with the UM with

534
00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 1: the mentors and UM with with the rain in UM

535
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:07,800
Speaker 1: was was way beyond my expectations. UM. The amount of

536
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,960
Speaker 1: the number of mentor mentors that were available to help

537
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 1: people like me who are not as familiar with rifles

538
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:19,040
Speaker 1: and crossbows, UM was was more than expected as well.

539
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:20,960
Speaker 1: It was you know, I felt like it was one

540
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,360
Speaker 1: on one and if there was any any question, anything needed,

541
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:28,520
Speaker 1: any apprehension, it was it was very well addressed. And

542
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:33,120
Speaker 1: because for me it is UM, you know, if you're

543
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:35,920
Speaker 1: gonna take the shot, you wanted to be the ethical

544
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:38,480
Speaker 1: kills you don't want to you know, you want to

545
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:40,600
Speaker 1: be as best as you as you can be. And

546
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of for me, I feel like,

547
00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:47,720
Speaker 1: can I really learn to shoot a rifle and a

548
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 1: crossbow and in one day and then you know, actually

549
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 1: ethically kill a deer, you know, the next time we

550
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:59,240
Speaker 1: meet up. That was the big thing. And like I said,

551
00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:04,000
Speaker 1: with one on one instruction with the rifles and crossbow,

552
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 1: the mentors really where helped you affirm that no, this

553
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 1: is good. You know. You you take a few shots

554
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,440
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, that's not on. We're exactly where

555
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,200
Speaker 1: I was Amy like, that's a dead deer. I was like, okay,

556
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:19,280
Speaker 1: all right, that's a dead deer. That's all I used

557
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:22,200
Speaker 1: to hear. You know, because you could I suppose you

558
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 1: could go out, you could join a gun range, you

559
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:28,520
Speaker 1: could buy a rifle. You could you know, take all

560
00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:31,480
Speaker 1: your safety courses and everything and show up at a

561
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 1: rifle by or I'm sorry I had arranged by yourself

562
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 1: and do that. But how long would somebody spend trying

563
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:42,920
Speaker 1: to hit a bullseye from fifty yards out and not

564
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 1: accomplish that and feel like they can't go afield? So

565
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:53,360
Speaker 1: that was a big confidence boost, a big primer um

566
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:57,840
Speaker 1: that was that was really well executed. Yeah, it was

567
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:01,200
Speaker 1: you know in mind too, just just getting too yeah,

568
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 1: getting to the point when we were there on the

569
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:07,320
Speaker 1: property and getting to meet all you guys and here

570
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 1: a little bit about each of your stories, and and

571
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:14,240
Speaker 1: then walking around answering questions, sharing all those things. I

572
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:17,800
Speaker 1: remember having a moment we were standing on I think

573
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 1: it would have been like in the back five back

574
00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:24,200
Speaker 1: field five, maybe somewhere back there, and remember looking back

575
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:25,920
Speaker 1: and you know, when you're on those pills, you can

576
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 1: look back down towards the swamp and it's kind of

577
00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:31,840
Speaker 1: a pretty good wide view because of the topography there.

578
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:34,280
Speaker 1: Remember kind of looking over and I saw these ten

579
00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: new hunters are aspiring hunters and ten mentors, and this

580
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:40,720
Speaker 1: property with all these habitat improvements that we've been doing

581
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:42,880
Speaker 1: over the years, and the blinds we put up, and

582
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 1: I had this kind of flash where you kind of see,

583
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:49,320
Speaker 1: like the movie montage reel of all the things that

584
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:51,600
Speaker 1: led up to this, and it was like one of

585
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:53,959
Speaker 1: those one of those weird times in life where you

586
00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:56,640
Speaker 1: step out of yourself just a little bit and can

587
00:33:56,720 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 1: see it for what it is. And I had that's

588
00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:03,080
Speaker 1: just like just wow that it actually happened. We actually

589
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: have done something that maybe matters, Like maybe this is

590
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 1: a really cool thing that actually came to the others

591
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:12,799
Speaker 1: and gonna help people. And here's exhibit A of it

592
00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:16,799
Speaker 1: actually coming to fruition. And uh, that was. That was

593
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: exciting to see, an encouraging um to see that you know,

594
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:24,239
Speaker 1: what began as a inkling of an idea sitting in

595
00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 1: my office and then led to a whole bunch of

596
00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:31,400
Speaker 1: debating and talking and uh arguing and brainstorming, you know,

597
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:35,160
Speaker 1: in conference rooms four years ago, which then led to

598
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:37,920
Speaker 1: you know, just a whole lot of crazy things happening.

599
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,479
Speaker 1: So um, so it was it was wild to see

600
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,600
Speaker 1: this next step all coming to life. And then it

601
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:48,360
Speaker 1: even got wilder when we fast forward another month or

602
00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:53,839
Speaker 1: so to the first hunt on the property, and interestingly,

603
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:58,200
Speaker 1: Forrest was paired to hunt with me that weekend. And

604
00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:03,879
Speaker 1: then I think your kids got sick something like that. Yeah, yep, yep, yeah,

605
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:10,080
Speaker 1: so sick kids kept forced from getting to go. Yeah.

606
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:12,799
Speaker 1: I decided, you know, well that was that was one

607
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 1: of the toughest things, one of the toughest choices I

608
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 1: ever had to had to come to come to peace with.

609
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:23,480
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, maybe it's a lot of fisherman

610
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:26,520
Speaker 1: and hunters and hunters I don't know what agree with

611
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:28,760
Speaker 1: me or not, but I'm a big fan of having

612
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:32,160
Speaker 1: really good what I called good juju, like good harma.

613
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 1: And so you know, if if I'm if I'm skipping

614
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 1: out of work to go fishing, I'm probably not going

615
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:43,200
Speaker 1: to kids in fist, you know. Um, But this opportunity

616
00:35:43,239 --> 00:35:45,600
Speaker 1: was huge, but it took me. It took me about

617
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:48,680
Speaker 1: twenty four hours to really come to that right decision.

618
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 1: And that was could call in calling the sick the

619
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:55,040
Speaker 1: sickness and be like you, I can't do it. I

620
00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:57,720
Speaker 1: got it. And and that's a good thing, right because

621
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 1: if I probably would have went, I probably been driving.

622
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 1: They're probably not going to shoot be because I leave

623
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:07,360
Speaker 1: my family at home. Yeah, it all worked out in

624
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:11,040
Speaker 1: the end. And uh, and since Forest couldn't go, Evan

625
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:14,080
Speaker 1: you got to join me, and uh we had a

626
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 1: pretty darn cool first hunt on the back Ford, do

627
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:20,320
Speaker 1: you want to tell the story we have? I guess

628
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:23,560
Speaker 1: quickly before you do that. The first hunt we're gonna

629
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,680
Speaker 1: have was gonna be an early Antler Lists season hunt.

630
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:29,360
Speaker 1: So we're gonna bring all these folks out, some folks

631
00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 1: will each each mentee was paired with a mentor and

632
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:34,919
Speaker 1: then we split up from there as far as where

633
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:36,799
Speaker 1: we would go I think there was three or four

634
00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:38,279
Speaker 1: pairs of us that we're gonna hunt in the back

635
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,720
Speaker 1: forty different corners of the farm, and then other groups

636
00:36:41,719 --> 00:36:43,920
Speaker 1: of folks went to some other properties that we had

637
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 1: access to in the general region. Um so you and me,

638
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,880
Speaker 1: Evan were paired together for that trip. Talk to me

639
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:53,960
Speaker 1: about how you're feeling leading me into it and everything

640
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:59,799
Speaker 1: that happened. Let's let's let's hear this uh wild story. Yeah, yeah,

641
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:04,200
Speaker 1: so it was. It was. It was pretty uh it

642
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:07,520
Speaker 1: was it was a lot uh to to put it,

643
00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:09,839
Speaker 1: you know, to put it in those terms. I mean,

644
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:13,160
Speaker 1: you know, you show up and again, you know, it's

645
00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:15,520
Speaker 1: just being a part of this is is already a big,

646
00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:19,000
Speaker 1: big deal in itself, and then you know, about ten

647
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:21,439
Speaker 1: minutes after arriving, you know, it was like, oh hey,

648
00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:25,000
Speaker 1: uh you're you're cool, You're with Mark, You're good with that, right,

649
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:28,000
Speaker 1: we're gonna film you and it's your first time and yeah,

650
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:31,880
Speaker 1: so it was kind of like oh okay, cool, um

651
00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:40,319
Speaker 1: but a little maybe a little bit take along. It

652
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:44,000
Speaker 1: really didn't. I mean, everyone was you know, again, it

653
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:47,920
Speaker 1: was very well organized. Uh So it just you know,

654
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,560
Speaker 1: it took a little time and then uh, and that

655
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:53,719
Speaker 1: was really our first time like meeting and you know,

656
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:56,279
Speaker 1: and and you know, you were great and and just

657
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 1: really down to earth and Mark, our camera guy, was

658
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 1: just terrific and and he you know, he was just

659
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:04,719
Speaker 1: just a blast of be with and so the three

660
00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 1: of us really sort of hit it off well, I

661
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:09,960
Speaker 1: think early, and that that made a big difference and

662
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:13,920
Speaker 1: really brought down that it went from you know, feeling

663
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 1: uh so large and intense and and it kind of

664
00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:19,800
Speaker 1: boiled down to like, hey, let's go hunt like this.

665
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:22,279
Speaker 1: This feels like this feels like a hunt, you know,

666
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:26,120
Speaker 1: and so um, it was cool to have that experience

667
00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:28,800
Speaker 1: where we got the tour with you the property before

668
00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:31,760
Speaker 1: because we we sort of had an idea the layout

669
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:34,359
Speaker 1: of the layout of land and the layout and and

670
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:37,960
Speaker 1: where we'd be and what we'd be doing. Um and

671
00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:41,239
Speaker 1: uh and I picked up a few tricks from you

672
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:45,520
Speaker 1: even just that you know, even that that day I

673
00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:50,560
Speaker 1: carry nose jammer with me now everywhere a goo and

674
00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:54,319
Speaker 1: so so that was cool and um, and then you know,

675
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:58,360
Speaker 1: the thought process of between how we enter uh to

676
00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:01,399
Speaker 1: not you know, interfere we had to be careful because

677
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:04,239
Speaker 1: we had so many hunters going out to different parts

678
00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:06,200
Speaker 1: of the property that we had to be very strategic there.

679
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:09,879
Speaker 1: So there were lessons picked up and um and and

680
00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 1: also like the you know, I I think that part

681
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,920
Speaker 1: of what I struggled with was truly understanding the impact

682
00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:21,719
Speaker 1: of sense and you know, a lot of what you

683
00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:25,800
Speaker 1: read and listen to and watch is you know, focus

684
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 1: around like very intelligent, very you know, knowledgeable, mature, fear

685
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:36,200
Speaker 1: um And and that's not exactly what I'm going for. Uh,

686
00:39:36,239 --> 00:39:38,480
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm looking to to fill freezers. And

687
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:42,160
Speaker 1: so there's a there's a margin there that that we

688
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:44,160
Speaker 1: could get away with. And I thought that was kind

689
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:47,560
Speaker 1: of an interesting thing to learn as well. Um, I

690
00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:51,080
Speaker 1: don't think it's a great margin, but but it wasn't. Uh,

691
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:53,200
Speaker 1: it wasn't so you didn't have to drop out of

692
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:56,319
Speaker 1: a helicopter basically, is what I'm getting at, um and

693
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:58,319
Speaker 1: to get back there. And so those were lessons learned

694
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:00,920
Speaker 1: and we but we still took a long way to

695
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:05,080
Speaker 1: get to the blind. It was an elevated blind. Um

696
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:07,520
Speaker 1: when we got in it, we realized there was no

697
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:11,600
Speaker 1: carpet in it. So we we were doing a quick

698
00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 1: check in and and and figuring out how we can

699
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:17,200
Speaker 1: position ourselves so we wouldn't make a lot of noise

700
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 1: if we had to turn um and then we got

701
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:23,719
Speaker 1: right into it. We got right into you know, running

702
00:40:23,760 --> 00:40:28,480
Speaker 1: through the scenarios and which which ended up being you know,

703
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:32,880
Speaker 1: the most critical part and and and and what you know,

704
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:36,360
Speaker 1: what made that so critical and elevated the level, uh

705
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:40,120
Speaker 1: was the fact that we could easily make noise if

706
00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:44,239
Speaker 1: we turned a certain way or um drop something. So

707
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:51,279
Speaker 1: it was a total uh check and balance of Okay,

708
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:53,680
Speaker 1: this is the scenario, this is the way the DearS something,

709
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:56,200
Speaker 1: What are we gonna do? Where's where's mark going to go?

710
00:40:56,239 --> 00:40:58,239
Speaker 1: Where's the other marking to go? Where are you gonna go?

711
00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:01,080
Speaker 1: How you know? Can you see? Can you turned? Can

712
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:05,319
Speaker 1: you even shoulder the firearms? Um? And So there were

713
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:08,279
Speaker 1: several angles. I think there was really three angles in

714
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:12,240
Speaker 1: which we could you know, have a pretty decent chance

715
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:16,160
Speaker 1: of not only seeing dear but get a shot at

716
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:19,719
Speaker 1: them and uh and and we had just kind of

717
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 1: walked through that and I think we figured out really

718
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 1: good positions for each one. And how long were we talking?

719
00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:28,680
Speaker 1: Like fifteen minutes after that? Yeah, I feel like I

720
00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 1: feel like it was a ten or fifteen minute kind

721
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:35,359
Speaker 1: of thing and then bam, yes, we just started, uh

722
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:37,920
Speaker 1: the kind of okay, you know, the business part of

723
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:42,120
Speaker 1: the stunt, like let's have a conversation, let's chat and

724
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:45,880
Speaker 1: and and then your face just turned like I my

725
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:49,719
Speaker 1: back was to this part of the blind. You're facing

726
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:55,359
Speaker 1: out that window, um, looking onto this this trail that

727
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:59,080
Speaker 1: butts up to some woods about forty five fifty yards out,

728
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:01,600
Speaker 1: and you're it just stopped in your and you raise

729
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,879
Speaker 1: your hand and you just point, You're like, that's here,

730
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:10,719
Speaker 1: that's and I was like, I was kind of like, well,

731
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:12,600
Speaker 1: you know, because it's like five o'clock in the afternoon

732
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:17,719
Speaker 1: at this point, and earlier than that, right exactly, it

733
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:21,560
Speaker 1: was super early in the afternoon, and uh so we figured,

734
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 1: you know, we had a couple of hours to just

735
00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:26,200
Speaker 1: sit around and and and chit chat. And so all

736
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:30,000
Speaker 1: of the sudden it was this game on and this dough,

737
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:34,360
Speaker 1: this nice mature dough, was cruising down this trail. And

738
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:38,080
Speaker 1: the trail, uh was a warrant trail that led right

739
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:42,239
Speaker 1: in front of our blind and then cut through this

740
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:46,520
Speaker 1: little um you know this this this basically, if for

741
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:48,840
Speaker 1: lack of a better term of funnel between you know,

742
00:42:48,960 --> 00:42:51,360
Speaker 1: so the wood line where we were kind of butted

743
00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:52,919
Speaker 1: up to, and then a woodline on the other side

744
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:55,239
Speaker 1: near the honey of bowl, and there was this there

745
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:57,480
Speaker 1: was a food source right there, and that's that's where

746
00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:01,279
Speaker 1: she was headed. She was cruising fat and so the

747
00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:05,320
Speaker 1: first move was to just like you know, turn without

748
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:09,880
Speaker 1: spooking her, without too much movement, without too much sound. Um.

749
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:12,840
Speaker 1: But you know, her head was up. She was krugan,

750
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 1: So you know, we had to be very cautious and

751
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:19,160
Speaker 1: careful about not making two sudden of a movement. And

752
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:21,759
Speaker 1: she came right up to the blind I mean, we're

753
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,440
Speaker 1: in an elevative line. She came up within five yards

754
00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 1: of it. And that's when she decided to okay, sums up,

755
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:31,880
Speaker 1: kind of spooked, turned and and and ran up the

756
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 1: ran back up the trail. And at this point I'm thinking,

757
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:36,880
Speaker 1: all right, that was cool. Like, man, there's tons of

758
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:39,239
Speaker 1: deer out here, like we're done for you know, for

759
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:42,440
Speaker 1: a minute, and you're like, get your gun up, you know,

760
00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:45,400
Speaker 1: get in position. She's gonna stop. She's gonna get right

761
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:48,960
Speaker 1: to the top of that hill and stop. And as

762
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:52,680
Speaker 1: if like you could like see that in the future,

763
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:55,440
Speaker 1: that's exactly what she did. She she went in forty

764
00:43:55,480 --> 00:44:00,000
Speaker 1: yards back up the trail, broadside stop and she stopped

765
00:44:00,719 --> 00:44:05,239
Speaker 1: for so long that I got the gun mounted, I

766
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:08,360
Speaker 1: got set up, I got my sticks on, I mean everything,

767
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:12,000
Speaker 1: and and it seemed like an eternity, although I'm sure

768
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 1: in hindsight it wasn't that long. But um, it was

769
00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:18,960
Speaker 1: just picture perfect. And you said, you said, if you're comfortable,

770
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:21,839
Speaker 1: take the shot, and uh, I said, I'm gonna take

771
00:44:21,840 --> 00:44:25,600
Speaker 1: the shot. And the shot rang, and that parts kind

772
00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:27,560
Speaker 1: of a blur for me. I really relied on you

773
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:32,439
Speaker 1: and Mark to tell me like like did it look good?

774
00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 1: Like did it look like you know it? And um,

775
00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:38,319
Speaker 1: and it was, I mean, and after that it was

776
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:42,080
Speaker 1: just just shitters and shakes and emotions and I mean

777
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:45,799
Speaker 1: just just utter disbelief, Like I don't know that I've

778
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:51,040
Speaker 1: ever had that much disbelief all at once. It was

779
00:44:51,120 --> 00:44:54,280
Speaker 1: pretty It was pretty crazy, even for me. I remember

780
00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:56,880
Speaker 1: just being I was shaking. I was shaking. I was

781
00:44:56,920 --> 00:45:00,960
Speaker 1: so excited it was. That was awesome and uh, and

782
00:45:01,080 --> 00:45:03,640
Speaker 1: so well fast forward, you know, I don't know, I

783
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:05,480
Speaker 1: can't remember how long we waited. We didn't wait too

784
00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:08,759
Speaker 1: terribly long, because um, we felt good about the hit.

785
00:45:09,120 --> 00:45:11,759
Speaker 1: And we went back there and she ran I don't know,

786
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:16,520
Speaker 1: fifty some something like that, fifty yards something on those lines,

787
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:18,160
Speaker 1: and we found it right there in the honey hole.

788
00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:22,560
Speaker 1: What was that like walking up to that deer and

789
00:45:22,640 --> 00:45:28,319
Speaker 1: seeing that you'd actually did this thing? It was, it

790
00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:32,320
Speaker 1: was It was a huge relief in so many ways.

791
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:37,560
Speaker 1: I mean, there was so much pressure built up to

792
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:43,040
Speaker 1: this point by prior hunt and you know, um, the

793
00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:47,399
Speaker 1: hours in the in the dollars that were invested, um,

794
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:51,120
Speaker 1: and the time that was put in you know, selfishly

795
00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:53,200
Speaker 1: my own, but then by others as well. I mean

796
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:57,480
Speaker 1: there was you know, it just felt it all of

797
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:00,880
Speaker 1: a sudden felt like it was doable. It all of

798
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:05,280
Speaker 1: a sudden felt like this this happens, and this can happen,

799
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:09,680
Speaker 1: and this is a real thing, and and and it's

800
00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:12,319
Speaker 1: and and it's right there and and and there was

801
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:16,759
Speaker 1: this very um she was she was pretty, I mean,

802
00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 1: she was very she was a very like regal and

803
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:26,200
Speaker 1: majestic animal and and uh and it didn't feel um

804
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:29,719
Speaker 1: as as sad. I don't know, like you know, there's

805
00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:31,319
Speaker 1: there's a there's a part of it that's you know

806
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:33,360
Speaker 1: the part that there's it's the harvest. Can you know,

807
00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:36,799
Speaker 1: I didn't know how I feel about that, um, because

808
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:39,680
Speaker 1: I hadn't done it, and I'm an animal lover and

809
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:41,440
Speaker 1: and I know we all are, and and we get

810
00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:44,080
Speaker 1: into the sport. But I didn't know how exactly how

811
00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:47,400
Speaker 1: that would feel. But it it didn't feel. Um. It

812
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:52,040
Speaker 1: was more grateful than any sort of sadness than it was. Um.

813
00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:55,520
Speaker 1: It was just an overwhelming experience and and I was

814
00:46:55,680 --> 00:47:01,520
Speaker 1: basically speechless. And I think back to it often and fondly.

815
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:05,239
Speaker 1: Um and and it was just it was inspiring and

816
00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:09,880
Speaker 1: it was just and and honestly, it was fun. It

817
00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:12,080
Speaker 1: was it was a lot. It was fun. It was

818
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:14,880
Speaker 1: so much. It was so much fun. It was it

819
00:47:14,960 --> 00:47:20,800
Speaker 1: was energetic. It was real energy there. That's that's ah,

820
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:25,000
Speaker 1: that's really well said. I mean it was it was

821
00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:27,839
Speaker 1: all those things, even for me, which is what's kind

822
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:31,279
Speaker 1: of crazy and pretty darn cool about this pursuit, is

823
00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:34,920
Speaker 1: that I've been doing this for thirty years and getting

824
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:37,319
Speaker 1: to just be with someone experiencing those things for the

825
00:47:37,360 --> 00:47:40,920
Speaker 1: first time was was so incredibly rewarding. And it just

826
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:45,319
Speaker 1: feels it's so yeah, for lack of a better term,

827
00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 1: cool to to see someone getting to step into this

828
00:47:49,719 --> 00:47:53,560
Speaker 1: world and and get to experience these things that I

829
00:47:53,640 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 1: found so rewarding and profound and you know, uh so satisfied.

830
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:03,160
Speaker 1: So it was just it was an awesome, awesome day.

831
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:04,960
Speaker 1: It was so cool to see it work out for you.

832
00:48:05,040 --> 00:48:08,399
Speaker 1: And you know, even though that hunt specifically went really

833
00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:11,200
Speaker 1: really fast. You know, he said, you had been trying

834
00:48:11,239 --> 00:48:13,160
Speaker 1: for a long time, You've been working hard to try

835
00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:15,120
Speaker 1: to figure these things out yourself, and so it felt

836
00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:19,799
Speaker 1: like this really great, ah, moment of a fruition where

837
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:22,360
Speaker 1: all that work finally did pay off. And uh, and

838
00:48:22,360 --> 00:48:24,480
Speaker 1: I was just very happy for you, Evan, and uh

839
00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:28,480
Speaker 1: and great shooting too. Oh yeah, no, I mean it

840
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:30,640
Speaker 1: was it was awesome. I mean all three of us

841
00:48:30,719 --> 00:48:33,760
Speaker 1: were freaking out. I mean it was it was truly

842
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:36,680
Speaker 1: like you know, you're feeling Mark dealing to Miami. They

843
00:48:36,719 --> 00:48:39,120
Speaker 1: were all super genuine. I mean it was we had

844
00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:41,759
Speaker 1: set out to do something and and and I mean

845
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:44,360
Speaker 1: it must have been a great feeling to uh, to

846
00:48:44,719 --> 00:48:47,600
Speaker 1: to to see the back forty do what the back

847
00:48:47,719 --> 00:48:49,960
Speaker 1: forty you know, was meant to do as well, and

848
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 1: and so quickly, yeah, crazy, and then and then you

849
00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:58,480
Speaker 1: were able to go back out the next morning with

850
00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 1: a different set of men tours and reinvent the wheel

851
00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:06,240
Speaker 1: all over again. You did it two days in a row. Yeah,

852
00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:09,319
Speaker 1: that was nuts. Yeah, we we I got to go

853
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:13,400
Speaker 1: out with the xavier Um the next morning and and

854
00:49:13,560 --> 00:49:16,880
Speaker 1: uh and of course at this point, like you know,

855
00:49:17,040 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 1: pressures off, like you know, the feelings is, you know, like, hey,

856
00:49:21,600 --> 00:49:25,520
Speaker 1: I'm here, let's do it. Let's go see what we see.

857
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:28,440
Speaker 1: And we we get out there well before first light.

858
00:49:28,520 --> 00:49:33,040
Speaker 1: We get up in a different elevated box line and nothing.

859
00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:36,120
Speaker 1: I mean, we were overlooking the field and and uh,

860
00:49:36,239 --> 00:49:38,200
Speaker 1: we're having a good time. We're you know, we're we're

861
00:49:38,239 --> 00:49:43,160
Speaker 1: chatting it up and and we're looking around. But you know,

862
00:49:43,239 --> 00:49:45,040
Speaker 1: we didn't have a great line of sight where we were.

863
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:48,400
Speaker 1: We were looking over some really tall grass and he says,

864
00:49:48,440 --> 00:49:51,799
Speaker 1: he goes, you know, I really think that if they come,

865
00:49:51,840 --> 00:49:53,759
Speaker 1: they're gonna come down this. They're gonna come down this

866
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 1: area over here, which was a trail that was cut

867
00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:00,920
Speaker 1: there for for power you know, foam holes and power

868
00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:03,440
Speaker 1: lines and things like that. And so he kind of

869
00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:05,320
Speaker 1: knew it well enough to know that if anything was

870
00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:07,160
Speaker 1: gonna happen, it's gonna happen over that way, and it

871
00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:11,760
Speaker 1: was about sixty five yards so uh, once it got

872
00:50:11,920 --> 00:50:14,000
Speaker 1: you know, you know, light enough that you could kind

873
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:16,359
Speaker 1: of see what you were doing in there, we ran.

874
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:19,160
Speaker 1: We did the same thing. We ran through the motions like, okay,

875
00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:22,239
Speaker 1: you know, unlikely scenario, they come here, but still it's

876
00:50:22,280 --> 00:50:25,359
Speaker 1: still a lane. Let's try it, let's try it, let's

877
00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:28,560
Speaker 1: try it. And thank god we did, because you know,

878
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:31,040
Speaker 1: a little bit of fatigue were setting in about nine thirty.

879
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:34,359
Speaker 1: You know, we're kind of like you know, people are,

880
00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:36,879
Speaker 1: you know, we're starting to communicate with others and talking

881
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:39,239
Speaker 1: about when we're gonna wrap it up. And all of

882
00:50:39,239 --> 00:50:42,399
Speaker 1: a sudden, right down that trip, just like he thought,

883
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:44,439
Speaker 1: you know, right down that trailer, we see a head

884
00:50:44,440 --> 00:50:46,879
Speaker 1: pop out and it's a it's a line of dough

885
00:50:47,640 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 1: and another mature dough really pretty much equal in size

886
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:55,160
Speaker 1: to the one the day before. And he threw out

887
00:50:55,160 --> 00:50:57,520
Speaker 1: a call, you know, he he gave her a you know,

888
00:50:57,560 --> 00:51:01,120
Speaker 1: a map to to stop her. She stopped roadside, and

889
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:03,279
Speaker 1: while he was doing that, I was getting set up.

890
00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:06,000
Speaker 1: And because we we had the plan and played it

891
00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:10,239
Speaker 1: went quickly, even faster than the day prior, and got

892
00:51:10,239 --> 00:51:12,520
Speaker 1: a shot on her and she went. You know, I

893
00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:17,920
Speaker 1: went to probably twenty thirty yards. Hank came out, Um,

894
00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:20,280
Speaker 1: Pink came out to help with that one, and uh

895
00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:22,680
Speaker 1: and it was just I just couldn't, I mean again,

896
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:27,359
Speaker 1: just just under utter disbelief. Two deer in two days.

897
00:51:27,480 --> 00:51:35,160
Speaker 1: Not bad, my friend, not that at all. So so

898
00:51:35,239 --> 00:51:37,440
Speaker 1: let's let's jump over to you force and fast. For

899
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:39,879
Speaker 1: a couple of months. You had to put your aspirations

900
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:43,040
Speaker 1: on hold because of the because of family obligations, which

901
00:51:43,040 --> 00:51:45,440
Speaker 1: is a good call and a good man move, so

902
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:49,600
Speaker 1: kudos to you. Um. But we get to December and

903
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:52,239
Speaker 1: we hosted another hunt for anyone who wanted to come

904
00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:54,720
Speaker 1: out and try again, or anyone like in your case,

905
00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:56,640
Speaker 1: where you hadn't mail to hunt or hadn't maimal to

906
00:51:56,680 --> 00:51:59,800
Speaker 1: get a deer yet. Um, same kind of thing. Everyone

907
00:51:59,840 --> 00:52:01,799
Speaker 1: came came out, a bunch of mentors came out. We

908
00:52:01,800 --> 00:52:04,600
Speaker 1: all split up to hunt in different places. Group of

909
00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:08,279
Speaker 1: us went to different locations on the back forty Um,

910
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:13,200
Speaker 1: because I guess I got first DIBs on locations. I

911
00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:16,440
Speaker 1: picked the honey hoole again for us, And that's what

912
00:52:16,480 --> 00:52:19,399
Speaker 1: we're gonna do. So Forest, can you can you do

913
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:21,560
Speaker 1: for us what Evan just did, kind of fill us

914
00:52:21,600 --> 00:52:23,560
Speaker 1: in on how you're feeling leading up to the hunt.

915
00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:26,400
Speaker 1: Can you walk us through what happened and in your

916
00:52:26,440 --> 00:52:30,960
Speaker 1: perspective on on that whole experience. Yeah, So, leading up

917
00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:36,320
Speaker 1: to the hunts, it was um, uh typical mid December

918
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:40,439
Speaker 1: Michigan day, super overcast, some snow on the ground, kind

919
00:52:40,440 --> 00:52:44,000
Speaker 1: of melting. Um, you know in between that thirty two

920
00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:46,600
Speaker 1: and thirty three mark where I would like to see

921
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:51,040
Speaker 1: some snow rather than some freezing rain. And you know

922
00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:54,840
Speaker 1: the weather alone was um a little bit of already

923
00:52:55,320 --> 00:53:00,640
Speaker 1: a mental challenge for me thinking, um about going through

924
00:53:00,680 --> 00:53:03,640
Speaker 1: in my mind about am I gonna get super cold?

925
00:53:03,800 --> 00:53:06,560
Speaker 1: Is this? Um? You know, am I going to be

926
00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:08,799
Speaker 1: shivering when I try and take the shot? And and

927
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:12,120
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, and running through scenarios in my head,

928
00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:15,359
Speaker 1: Um what questions should I ask? And that type of thing.

929
00:53:15,440 --> 00:53:20,839
Speaker 1: And once we once we all met up, and uh, Mark,

930
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:23,160
Speaker 1: you and I when we just started walking, you just

931
00:53:23,200 --> 00:53:26,000
Speaker 1: started pressing me for everything and giving the heads up

932
00:53:26,040 --> 00:53:27,600
Speaker 1: this is what we're gonna do, just like Evan was

933
00:53:27,640 --> 00:53:32,560
Speaker 1: talking about before, and getting the you know, starting to

934
00:53:32,600 --> 00:53:36,040
Speaker 1: walk to the blind and the heart rate just started

935
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:42,040
Speaker 1: to kind of elevate hair with excitement, and um, you know,

936
00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:45,160
Speaker 1: I kind of felt like it was like when you

937
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:48,200
Speaker 1: stood on a roller coaster and you're just when you

938
00:53:48,320 --> 00:53:49,640
Speaker 1: when you get in the seat, and then all of

939
00:53:49,680 --> 00:53:53,359
Speaker 1: a sudden, you're just start climbing like up. I mean

940
00:53:53,840 --> 00:53:56,640
Speaker 1: like you're at cedar point or something and you're like, okay,

941
00:53:56,680 --> 00:54:00,359
Speaker 1: I'm not turning back now, I'm not walking away, and

942
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:04,960
Speaker 1: here we go. So um, yeah I got into the blind.

943
00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:07,880
Speaker 1: It was still kind of missing. Um you know, there

944
00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:12,400
Speaker 1: was ice on the on the on the ladder steps. Uh,

945
00:54:12,880 --> 00:54:15,480
Speaker 1: yeah it was. And um, you know, it wasn't really

946
00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:19,759
Speaker 1: bright out, real low clouds. Um. And I'm thinking, oh man,

947
00:54:19,800 --> 00:54:22,560
Speaker 1: it might get dark before before our shooting hours or

948
00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:28,280
Speaker 1: even are approached, you know. And um, but from there

949
00:54:28,840 --> 00:54:31,799
Speaker 1: once he started talking us through the if the deer

950
00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:33,719
Speaker 1: comes from this direction and that direction, that's what we're

951
00:54:33,719 --> 00:54:36,839
Speaker 1: gonna do. Okay, now let's practice and do you feel

952
00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:40,920
Speaker 1: comfortable and you know that kind of thing, and and

953
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:44,360
Speaker 1: then um, just the initials sit down and holding the

954
00:54:44,480 --> 00:54:49,000
Speaker 1: rifle and looking out. Um was a pretty surreal experience.

955
00:54:49,080 --> 00:54:52,640
Speaker 1: Like here I am, I'm you know, officially doing it

956
00:54:52,680 --> 00:54:58,400
Speaker 1: in my mind, and um, yeah, that was that was

957
00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:00,880
Speaker 1: a huge it's so of it sounds it was a

958
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:04,960
Speaker 1: very big experience because there's a reflection of everything that

959
00:55:05,080 --> 00:55:11,239
Speaker 1: had come up to that point. And um, so we

960
00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:14,480
Speaker 1: sat there and talked about where there could be showing

961
00:55:14,560 --> 00:55:17,040
Speaker 1: up from. And I don't know, I think an hour

962
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:20,000
Speaker 1: went by and nothing happened, and I think another hour

963
00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:23,759
Speaker 1: went by and nothing happened, and we entered the our

964
00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:29,400
Speaker 1: prime time and I think, um, shooting hours ended. I

965
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:34,200
Speaker 1: think around five thirty one, I believe, and um, I

966
00:55:34,200 --> 00:55:39,600
Speaker 1: think right around uh five, right right around five o'clock.

967
00:55:39,640 --> 00:55:42,680
Speaker 1: I start thinking to myself, okay, all right. I started

968
00:55:42,719 --> 00:55:45,640
Speaker 1: talking through thoughts and had like this, probably I could

969
00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:49,279
Speaker 1: that happens. That's okay. I would like to say that's okay.

970
00:55:50,120 --> 00:55:54,200
Speaker 1: That kind of thay and and just and hearing from

971
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:56,920
Speaker 1: Mark and the other guys in general, like it can

972
00:55:56,960 --> 00:55:59,400
Speaker 1: happen back, it can happen with snap of the things.

973
00:55:59,719 --> 00:56:03,080
Speaker 1: And you know that that was the optimism, you know,

974
00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:05,719
Speaker 1: my mind I was combating the negative thoughts with and

975
00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:09,200
Speaker 1: so we were just sitting there and it was it

976
00:56:09,320 --> 00:56:13,000
Speaker 1: was just I think five tennis and then Mark, I

977
00:56:13,080 --> 00:56:15,799
Speaker 1: believe you yeah, you spotted the first yeer. Oh there's

978
00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:20,200
Speaker 1: a deer way asked over the first hill, and I

979
00:56:20,239 --> 00:56:22,279
Speaker 1: believe it was. Yeah, it was out of range. There

980
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:26,120
Speaker 1: were two of them, and we moved into position right

981
00:56:26,239 --> 00:56:31,279
Speaker 1: and put a scope. I believe it was. I know

982
00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:33,120
Speaker 1: it was at least one dough. I don't know if

983
00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:36,160
Speaker 1: it was you If you remember there was a spike

984
00:56:36,239 --> 00:56:38,759
Speaker 1: in a dell and they were they were like one

985
00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:41,480
Speaker 1: hard to get to position that we'd had to practice,

986
00:56:41,560 --> 00:56:43,160
Speaker 1: like I would have to get out of my chair,

987
00:56:43,239 --> 00:56:45,000
Speaker 1: moved to the other side of the blind, you'd have

988
00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:48,400
Speaker 1: to move forward. But like you said, we'd practice like, okay,

989
00:56:48,480 --> 00:56:51,359
Speaker 1: if this scenario happens, we've got to do this whole thing,

990
00:56:51,360 --> 00:56:55,920
Speaker 1: and we figured it out. M hmm. Yeah, that was

991
00:56:56,160 --> 00:56:59,680
Speaker 1: That was crucial because you were sitting to the right

992
00:56:59,719 --> 00:57:02,000
Speaker 1: of me and that was the window I needed to

993
00:57:02,000 --> 00:57:06,120
Speaker 1: shoot out of. And without practicing that, I mean, something

994
00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:09,160
Speaker 1: kind of dropped or a scuffle or some kind of

995
00:57:09,400 --> 00:57:14,600
Speaker 1: noise potentially ruined it. But so yeah, get the scope

996
00:57:14,680 --> 00:57:18,880
Speaker 1: on the dough and you ranged ranged her, and I

997
00:57:18,880 --> 00:57:21,480
Speaker 1: believe it was just out a hundred yards a little

998
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:24,760
Speaker 1: bit out of my comfort zone for you know, pretty

999
00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:29,360
Speaker 1: much being a novice marksman, if you will, And and um,

1000
00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:32,000
Speaker 1: I believe they just kind of started quartering away and

1001
00:57:32,040 --> 00:57:35,040
Speaker 1: just kind of fading, walking back further and further in

1002
00:57:35,080 --> 00:57:40,200
Speaker 1: the opposite direction, you know. And from there it was like, okay, well,

1003
00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:43,960
Speaker 1: all right, there there was the opportunity. That's that's cool.

1004
00:57:44,080 --> 00:57:51,040
Speaker 1: I'm happy, I'm good, you know. And um, I believe

1005
00:57:51,960 --> 00:57:56,720
Speaker 1: Mark cameraman brought his camera back in and Mark, I

1006
00:57:56,800 --> 00:57:59,240
Speaker 1: think you were just I don't know, I just think

1007
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:02,080
Speaker 1: something or but not looking out and I was just

1008
00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:07,240
Speaker 1: on the scope and all of a sudden, from the right, Um,

1009
00:58:07,320 --> 00:58:11,200
Speaker 1: it's just it was like Christmas morning I saw. It's

1010
00:58:11,240 --> 00:58:13,880
Speaker 1: like that first image of presence. It was like ten

1011
00:58:14,960 --> 00:58:21,840
Speaker 1: those just started walking very very gracefully right right from

1012
00:58:21,920 --> 00:58:25,200
Speaker 1: the other side of the field, and um, I was

1013
00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:28,440
Speaker 1: just like, oh now this is the first sure And

1014
00:58:28,480 --> 00:58:30,960
Speaker 1: it was I feel like it was half the distance.

1015
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:33,920
Speaker 1: It was twice as close as the as the first

1016
00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:37,080
Speaker 1: year I saw. And I'm like, okay, here we go.

1017
00:58:37,240 --> 00:58:39,440
Speaker 1: And now it was when I talked about the Mither coasters,

1018
00:58:39,520 --> 00:58:41,000
Speaker 1: like now I'm just like I feel like I could

1019
00:58:41,040 --> 00:58:45,920
Speaker 1: just scream, but I can't. You gotta focus now, you know,

1020
00:58:46,760 --> 00:58:51,560
Speaker 1: and um that was that was the image that I

1021
00:58:51,960 --> 00:58:56,240
Speaker 1: play almost every day since. Um in my mind that

1022
00:58:56,760 --> 00:59:01,960
Speaker 1: and um seeing those you're walking so slowly and with

1023
00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:05,840
Speaker 1: I don't know, five seven ten minutes left of shooting time,

1024
00:59:05,920 --> 00:59:10,760
Speaker 1: and um key. Then on the first I think there

1025
00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:14,440
Speaker 1: are two or three that first rolled in and then uh,

1026
00:59:14,520 --> 00:59:17,720
Speaker 1: Wanda Kian on the largest dough, and I think it

1027
00:59:17,800 --> 00:59:21,200
Speaker 1: was like the second or third one, and then they

1028
00:59:21,240 --> 00:59:25,760
Speaker 1: started to overlap after getting the scope, Um, the bigger

1029
00:59:25,800 --> 00:59:28,520
Speaker 1: of the two or three, and then it's like, okay,

1030
00:59:28,560 --> 00:59:31,040
Speaker 1: we're just waiting, and then I think there's another five

1031
00:59:31,360 --> 00:59:35,560
Speaker 1: six seven more. Uh. What appeared to me was very

1032
00:59:36,600 --> 00:59:39,080
Speaker 1: like larger mature dough. And I'm like, oh man, I

1033
00:59:39,160 --> 00:59:41,600
Speaker 1: just gotta wait for this to break up and and

1034
00:59:41,640 --> 00:59:44,280
Speaker 1: go from there. And Mark, you are talking me through it,

1035
00:59:44,560 --> 00:59:48,200
Speaker 1: and you know all the minor details like hey, do you

1036
00:59:48,160 --> 00:59:52,040
Speaker 1: you like talk to hammer? No? Not yet, okay, and

1037
00:59:52,040 --> 00:59:55,120
Speaker 1: then what's confirming that we were both on the same

1038
00:59:55,160 --> 00:59:58,800
Speaker 1: page with the range and the exact dere Um I

1039
00:59:58,840 --> 01:00:01,280
Speaker 1: was gonna take a shot at you know, it was

1040
01:00:02,080 --> 01:00:05,320
Speaker 1: I just remember, you know, taking the breath, and I

1041
01:00:05,360 --> 01:00:09,680
Speaker 1: remember still being nervous but not shaking. Nervous and I

1042
01:00:09,720 --> 01:00:15,120
Speaker 1: was surprised by that and and took the shot and

1043
01:00:16,440 --> 01:00:21,960
Speaker 1: I remember actually seeing seeing the dope get hit and

1044
01:00:22,120 --> 01:00:24,880
Speaker 1: I thought it was too high. Um, it looked like

1045
01:00:24,880 --> 01:00:30,600
Speaker 1: it's the shot hit the spines potentially. UM. But luckily

1046
01:00:31,400 --> 01:00:35,560
Speaker 1: having market cameraman there to kind of replay and see,

1047
01:00:35,920 --> 01:00:39,960
Speaker 1: you know, possibly upper upper long shot, you know, we

1048
01:00:39,960 --> 01:00:44,480
Speaker 1: should be okay and that kind of thing. And UM.

1049
01:00:44,680 --> 01:00:49,320
Speaker 1: From there it was yeah, all the pure adrenaline rush

1050
01:00:49,680 --> 01:00:53,440
Speaker 1: and and shaking and not being able to stop smiling

1051
01:00:55,080 --> 01:01:00,160
Speaker 1: and yeah, that was that was you know, just you

1052
01:01:00,160 --> 01:01:03,560
Speaker 1: see on all the TV shows and whatnot and hear

1053
01:01:03,600 --> 01:01:06,760
Speaker 1: about UM. I was unsure about how I would feel,

1054
01:01:07,960 --> 01:01:12,400
Speaker 1: um taking the shot UM on an animal that I,

1055
01:01:12,520 --> 01:01:15,480
Speaker 1: you know, I love and like I haven't mentioned being

1056
01:01:15,520 --> 01:01:17,760
Speaker 1: animal lover and that kind of thing, but taking the

1057
01:01:17,880 --> 01:01:20,240
Speaker 1: lifetile different thing. I'm going to feel about that? And

1058
01:01:21,160 --> 01:01:23,480
Speaker 1: amazingly enough I did not. I did not have those

1059
01:01:23,560 --> 01:01:27,480
Speaker 1: kinds of thoughts for feelings, UM. And I kind of

1060
01:01:27,520 --> 01:01:29,960
Speaker 1: attribute that maybe to just human nature, I don't know,

1061
01:01:30,520 --> 01:01:35,080
Speaker 1: for for survival or whatnot. But yeah, so that was

1062
01:01:35,360 --> 01:01:42,160
Speaker 1: that was the shot and UM decide what we waited

1063
01:01:42,200 --> 01:01:45,480
Speaker 1: there for. I don't know. I cannot remember how long

1064
01:01:45,480 --> 01:01:47,440
Speaker 1: we would feel like it was about forty five minutes

1065
01:01:47,520 --> 01:01:52,920
Speaker 1: or so an hour, and I know I remember it

1066
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:57,600
Speaker 1: was it was definitely dark, like the headlamps throughout everything

1067
01:01:57,640 --> 01:02:02,560
Speaker 1: like that. Um, other mentors came over to our field

1068
01:02:03,520 --> 01:02:08,160
Speaker 1: and began the tracking process, and UM, that was something

1069
01:02:08,200 --> 01:02:13,160
Speaker 1: that I didn't I didn't um really think through previous

1070
01:02:13,200 --> 01:02:16,720
Speaker 1: that that would be actually kind of a challenge And

1071
01:02:17,800 --> 01:02:23,600
Speaker 1: another thing later in retrospect I'm really grateful for because, UM,

1072
01:02:23,760 --> 01:02:26,480
Speaker 1: when I when I read or try and educate myself

1073
01:02:26,480 --> 01:02:29,040
Speaker 1: about checking deer, it's like, oh, yeah, it's fall the blood, okay,

1074
01:02:29,360 --> 01:02:32,480
Speaker 1: you know, just mark reeve then and just follow it.

1075
01:02:32,560 --> 01:02:35,800
Speaker 1: But then when we started to track the deer and

1076
01:02:35,880 --> 01:02:38,680
Speaker 1: finding the blood and then finding the next drop and

1077
01:02:38,720 --> 01:02:40,520
Speaker 1: finding the next drop, and then we hit kind of

1078
01:02:40,560 --> 01:02:43,120
Speaker 1: a wall there and even though it was only like

1079
01:02:43,160 --> 01:02:47,360
Speaker 1: ten minutes, it was that feeling was not fun. That

1080
01:02:47,440 --> 01:02:53,080
Speaker 1: was that was yeah, that's so that that's when that's when, UM,

1081
01:02:53,120 --> 01:02:57,200
Speaker 1: I started to feel concerned, but not like oh I

1082
01:02:57,320 --> 01:03:02,000
Speaker 1: might not find the deer, but almost a concern like uh,

1083
01:03:02,640 --> 01:03:08,600
Speaker 1: a responsibility almost like you you let somebody down almost,

1084
01:03:09,480 --> 01:03:12,320
Speaker 1: And from there I'm like, oh my gosh, there's there's

1085
01:03:12,400 --> 01:03:14,040
Speaker 1: the I think that was the first time to me

1086
01:03:14,200 --> 01:03:18,120
Speaker 1: of the connection was formed with the animal. And then

1087
01:03:18,640 --> 01:03:23,680
Speaker 1: walking up and finding the blood trail again and then

1088
01:03:23,920 --> 01:03:31,560
Speaker 1: um uh seeing seeing the deer, seeing the dough and

1089
01:03:31,640 --> 01:03:36,720
Speaker 1: discovering it was was just absolutely amazing. I felt attached

1090
01:03:37,120 --> 01:03:39,440
Speaker 1: to the deer. I felt like it was almost like

1091
01:03:39,520 --> 01:03:42,640
Speaker 1: my pet. And then there I had that melancholy thought

1092
01:03:42,640 --> 01:03:45,240
Speaker 1: of but I just I just took it to life.

1093
01:03:45,640 --> 01:03:55,600
Speaker 1: But the beauty of the deer and um and just

1094
01:03:56,560 --> 01:03:58,640
Speaker 1: the whole the whole process of the finding. It was

1095
01:03:58,680 --> 01:04:04,240
Speaker 1: a sense of relief and now I felt like, um,

1096
01:04:04,520 --> 01:04:08,120
Speaker 1: kind of I've completed the process and now I want

1097
01:04:08,120 --> 01:04:11,680
Speaker 1: to do whatever it takes to take the ultimate care

1098
01:04:11,720 --> 01:04:19,720
Speaker 1: of this of this self. Right. So yeah, from there, um,

1099
01:04:19,720 --> 01:04:23,280
Speaker 1: that was that was when I think a switch was flipped,

1100
01:04:23,440 --> 01:04:26,200
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like having a kid or getting

1101
01:04:26,240 --> 01:04:29,760
Speaker 1: married or any any major accomplishment or just something that

1102
01:04:29,800 --> 01:04:34,760
Speaker 1: triggers you to change your mindset. What did you think

1103
01:04:34,800 --> 01:04:37,560
Speaker 1: about the field dressing process You mentioned that is one

1104
01:04:37,560 --> 01:04:39,800
Speaker 1: of the things before getting to go on the mentor

1105
01:04:39,880 --> 01:04:42,880
Speaker 1: experience that was you know, was concerning to you. You

1106
01:04:42,960 --> 01:04:44,280
Speaker 1: wondered if you'd be able to do it, if you

1107
01:04:44,360 --> 01:04:46,280
Speaker 1: know how to you can figure it out. How difficult

1108
01:04:46,320 --> 01:04:48,760
Speaker 1: it would be. Um, you know we we walked through

1109
01:04:48,800 --> 01:04:52,520
Speaker 1: that together. Um, and you completed the job. How did

1110
01:04:52,560 --> 01:04:57,480
Speaker 1: that go? Anyway? So I was right, that was the

1111
01:04:57,520 --> 01:05:00,400
Speaker 1: part of the whole process that really kind of waunched me.

1112
01:05:00,400 --> 01:05:03,480
Speaker 1: I'm the whole you know, seeking mentors and whatnot. And

1113
01:05:03,520 --> 01:05:06,160
Speaker 1: I was I'm the kind of person that gets kind

1114
01:05:06,200 --> 01:05:11,360
Speaker 1: of queasy around um, animals being dissected. And I didn't

1115
01:05:11,400 --> 01:05:13,320
Speaker 1: do well in biology class. I had to stand in

1116
01:05:13,320 --> 01:05:17,040
Speaker 1: the hall because I could handle it. And so and

1117
01:05:17,120 --> 01:05:20,280
Speaker 1: that was like my big, my big, Okay, this is

1118
01:05:20,640 --> 01:05:23,880
Speaker 1: where I'm I'm confronting. I'm going I'm leaving my comfort

1119
01:05:23,960 --> 01:05:29,400
Speaker 1: zone and I'm gonna start cutting into this animal. And

1120
01:05:29,440 --> 01:05:31,920
Speaker 1: I just hope I don't throw up or make make

1121
01:05:31,960 --> 01:05:36,360
Speaker 1: a fool out of itself. And um, you know when

1122
01:05:36,360 --> 01:05:38,000
Speaker 1: people would say it's not as bad as you think,

1123
01:05:38,080 --> 01:05:39,880
Speaker 1: it was not as bad as I thought. You know,

1124
01:05:39,960 --> 01:05:42,560
Speaker 1: the initial cut into the skin mark, you shown me

1125
01:05:42,640 --> 01:05:48,240
Speaker 1: exactly where to start and um, and just start making

1126
01:05:48,240 --> 01:05:52,560
Speaker 1: the incision and whatnot. Um. I was I was amazed

1127
01:05:52,600 --> 01:05:58,480
Speaker 1: at how how clean and um simple of a process

1128
01:05:58,160 --> 01:06:02,240
Speaker 1: that it was. And um, but I saw that here

1129
01:06:02,240 --> 01:06:03,920
Speaker 1: in my mind like when I get to the stomach

1130
01:06:03,960 --> 01:06:07,240
Speaker 1: part and stuff starts falling out everywhere, am I going

1131
01:06:07,320 --> 01:06:09,920
Speaker 1: to lose it? And um, I don't know if it

1132
01:06:10,000 --> 01:06:11,520
Speaker 1: was the adrenaline or not, but I kind of feel

1133
01:06:11,560 --> 01:06:15,240
Speaker 1: like it was just that connection, Like I'm it didn't

1134
01:06:15,240 --> 01:06:19,440
Speaker 1: even cross my mind cutting across the belly, going through

1135
01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:24,280
Speaker 1: getting everything out, making cuts you know, um in certain

1136
01:06:24,280 --> 01:06:30,919
Speaker 1: areas that you're pointing to do. Um was a lot

1137
01:06:31,000 --> 01:06:34,240
Speaker 1: lot easier than I thought. I think I was expecting

1138
01:06:34,320 --> 01:06:38,160
Speaker 1: like blood to be gushing out everywhere, or you know,

1139
01:06:38,320 --> 01:06:41,960
Speaker 1: arteries with blood like flattering everywhere and things. But it's

1140
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:44,680
Speaker 1: not that at all. And that was a big That

1141
01:06:44,800 --> 01:06:50,680
Speaker 1: was a big relief for me, and um it went

1142
01:06:50,760 --> 01:06:54,840
Speaker 1: quick as than I thought, and um it was. It

1143
01:06:54,920 --> 01:06:57,440
Speaker 1: was a big sense of accomplishment and a big confidence

1144
01:06:57,440 --> 01:07:02,600
Speaker 1: booster for Okay I I I definitely feel like I

1145
01:07:02,640 --> 01:07:05,680
Speaker 1: can do this on my own now, And that was

1146
01:07:05,760 --> 01:07:07,840
Speaker 1: the big thing, like can I do this on my own?

1147
01:07:09,000 --> 01:07:11,640
Speaker 1: And I felt like I had that after leaving that

1148
01:07:11,720 --> 01:07:14,720
Speaker 1: even though Markie helped me with so much on where

1149
01:07:15,240 --> 01:07:19,600
Speaker 1: and how it was getting my hands in there and

1150
01:07:19,880 --> 01:07:23,760
Speaker 1: physically doing it. That said that, that gave me the

1151
01:07:23,800 --> 01:07:26,000
Speaker 1: confidence to say that, yeah, I can do something own.

1152
01:07:26,000 --> 01:07:28,040
Speaker 1: To do it, well, I need to refer to some

1153
01:07:28,080 --> 01:07:30,360
Speaker 1: things and how like what cuts and where to make

1154
01:07:30,400 --> 01:07:32,200
Speaker 1: it again. Yeah, but I can. I can look that

1155
01:07:32,280 --> 01:07:33,720
Speaker 1: up and they say, oh, yeah, okay, that's what I

1156
01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:37,240
Speaker 1: have to do. But I'm not apprehensive about going to

1157
01:07:37,320 --> 01:07:40,440
Speaker 1: field and harvesting a deer because I might get i

1158
01:07:40,480 --> 01:07:45,440
Speaker 1: don't know, gross out or screw up something, um with

1159
01:07:45,520 --> 01:07:49,800
Speaker 1: the dressing. That would make for a really bad experience. Yeah. Yeah,

1160
01:07:50,200 --> 01:07:52,800
Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear you feel that way now after

1161
01:07:52,880 --> 01:07:56,040
Speaker 1: having done it, and I think your experience and your

1162
01:07:56,080 --> 01:07:59,640
Speaker 1: apprehensiveness leading into it was Yeah, that's not uncommon. And

1163
01:07:59,720 --> 01:08:03,120
Speaker 1: so to your point, it's you just got to get

1164
01:08:03,160 --> 01:08:04,880
Speaker 1: in there and do it once and then once you've

1165
01:08:04,960 --> 01:08:07,800
Speaker 1: crossed that bridge, it's a whole lot easier to to

1166
01:08:07,880 --> 01:08:11,360
Speaker 1: walk it again in the future. Um. So, so what

1167
01:08:11,400 --> 01:08:16,120
Speaker 1: I want to know next is about what happens next

1168
01:08:16,360 --> 01:08:20,200
Speaker 1: for both of you guys. But before we get to that,

1169
01:08:20,840 --> 01:08:25,400
Speaker 1: I want to kind of hit pause on your personal

1170
01:08:25,439 --> 01:08:28,519
Speaker 1: stories and and and put a little call to action

1171
01:08:28,600 --> 01:08:34,080
Speaker 1: here for anyone listening, who has found themselves in your shoes,

1172
01:08:35,000 --> 01:08:38,479
Speaker 1: Anyone who's listening, who has been intrigued by hunting, who's

1173
01:08:38,560 --> 01:08:41,880
Speaker 1: hunting curious, who who maybe has tried it and been

1174
01:08:41,920 --> 01:08:44,439
Speaker 1: getting started but it is struggling. Or maybe this is

1175
01:08:44,479 --> 01:08:47,760
Speaker 1: someone who's never done it ever before but kind of

1176
01:08:47,760 --> 01:08:49,880
Speaker 1: has this little voice in the back of their mind

1177
01:08:49,920 --> 01:08:51,800
Speaker 1: that makes them think, man, I should try it. And

1178
01:08:51,840 --> 01:08:55,200
Speaker 1: somehow they stumbled on this podcast and they would love

1179
01:08:55,280 --> 01:08:57,639
Speaker 1: to get a chance to go through what you guys did.

1180
01:08:58,280 --> 01:09:01,800
Speaker 1: If there's anyone listening who's in the those shoes, Hank,

1181
01:09:02,320 --> 01:09:08,320
Speaker 1: my friend, can you drop in from your expert perspective

1182
01:09:09,400 --> 01:09:13,200
Speaker 1: where people can find these opportunities, how they can find

1183
01:09:13,200 --> 01:09:16,320
Speaker 1: these opportunities? Can you can you give us that right

1184
01:09:16,360 --> 01:09:17,840
Speaker 1: now rather than at the very end of the show.

1185
01:09:17,920 --> 01:09:20,320
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that right now. Also, because I know, Hank,

1186
01:09:20,320 --> 01:09:22,000
Speaker 1: you might need to leave, and I want to make

1187
01:09:22,000 --> 01:09:24,519
Speaker 1: sure you get to say this before you do. Where

1188
01:09:24,560 --> 01:09:29,840
Speaker 1: can people just find this? Yeah, just Dear Association dot

1189
01:09:29,880 --> 01:09:33,679
Speaker 1: com slash ft um. You'll find my email on their

1190
01:09:33,760 --> 01:09:37,439
Speaker 1: Hank and Deer Association dot com. We also have Dear

1191
01:09:37,520 --> 01:09:41,400
Speaker 1: Association dot com slash new Hunter. And if they're a

1192
01:09:41,400 --> 01:09:44,600
Speaker 1: new hunter, it will um, you know, we asked it

1193
01:09:44,680 --> 01:09:47,360
Speaker 1: for their personal information, we can plot them on a map.

1194
01:09:47,439 --> 01:09:50,559
Speaker 1: It'll send them some resources, most of them free, and

1195
01:09:50,720 --> 01:09:53,360
Speaker 1: advertise a couple paid ones, but it will put us

1196
01:09:53,400 --> 01:09:56,680
Speaker 1: on the map. And that's how we notify individuals of

1197
01:09:57,080 --> 01:10:00,599
Speaker 1: a new programs coming online or other opportunities around them.

1198
01:10:00,880 --> 01:10:04,240
Speaker 1: We really try to keep these programs states specific because

1199
01:10:04,320 --> 01:10:06,960
Speaker 1: of licensing and that kind of thing. UM, and we

1200
01:10:06,960 --> 01:10:08,960
Speaker 1: want to teach people how to hunt where they come from.

1201
01:10:09,040 --> 01:10:12,760
Speaker 1: So UM, if you'll go to any of those contact us,

1202
01:10:12,800 --> 01:10:16,439
Speaker 1: fill out that New Hunter survey. UM. It just lets

1203
01:10:16,520 --> 01:10:19,719
Speaker 1: us figure out where you are and will will contact

1204
01:10:19,760 --> 01:10:22,479
Speaker 1: you with opportunities. We also have a mentor sign up

1205
01:10:22,520 --> 01:10:25,439
Speaker 1: for potential mentors out there if they're willing to mentor

1206
01:10:25,560 --> 01:10:29,519
Speaker 1: for us, and and it's built to do the same

1207
01:10:29,520 --> 01:10:31,920
Speaker 1: thing from the opposite side to connect those mentors with

1208
01:10:31,920 --> 01:10:35,559
Speaker 1: new hunters and programs we have. So I appreciate that,

1209
01:10:35,680 --> 01:10:38,880
Speaker 1: mark UM, if you, if you'll allow me, I'd like

1210
01:10:38,960 --> 01:10:42,000
Speaker 1: to roll back a couple things before we move on

1211
01:10:42,080 --> 01:10:45,000
Speaker 1: to what's next for these guys, Just a few comments

1212
01:10:45,040 --> 01:10:49,719
Speaker 1: and stuff. UM. Well, first off, for us said something

1213
01:10:49,800 --> 01:10:53,360
Speaker 1: just a minute ago about having the confidence to continue.

1214
01:10:53,400 --> 01:10:55,519
Speaker 1: And really that's what it comes down to here. That's

1215
01:10:55,520 --> 01:10:58,360
Speaker 1: all we're doing is we're given these new hunters the

1216
01:10:58,439 --> 01:11:01,120
Speaker 1: confidence to realize that this is attainable and something that

1217
01:11:01,160 --> 01:11:03,639
Speaker 1: they can bite off and chow. And that's really what's

1218
01:11:03,680 --> 01:11:07,519
Speaker 1: happened here. They've they've managed to be successful, which is great.

1219
01:11:08,280 --> 01:11:11,599
Speaker 1: They got their hands dirty, um, but it's really about

1220
01:11:11,640 --> 01:11:15,120
Speaker 1: just building that confidence. And and yes, the gutting is

1221
01:11:15,160 --> 01:11:18,400
Speaker 1: often a very daunting, monumental things that they need to

1222
01:11:18,400 --> 01:11:21,040
Speaker 1: figure out because you know, just like forests, a responsible

1223
01:11:21,040 --> 01:11:23,519
Speaker 1: person isn't gonna go out there and take that shot

1224
01:11:23,560 --> 01:11:26,000
Speaker 1: if they can't take care of it. But lastly, just

1225
01:11:26,640 --> 01:11:29,080
Speaker 1: you know, answering the question that I am a hunter

1226
01:11:29,479 --> 01:11:32,679
Speaker 1: is just a confidence level. It's just saying that's something

1227
01:11:32,720 --> 01:11:34,680
Speaker 1: I can do and I'm gonna do it. And so

1228
01:11:34,800 --> 01:11:36,880
Speaker 1: coo to those guys, I hope, I hope we got

1229
01:11:36,920 --> 01:11:39,040
Speaker 1: you there. But there's there's a lot more to it.

1230
01:11:39,080 --> 01:11:42,080
Speaker 1: And and they told their stories, and they told about

1231
01:11:42,160 --> 01:11:43,960
Speaker 1: how they found the program and that stuff and the

1232
01:11:44,080 --> 01:11:46,600
Speaker 1: and their stories are not unique. I mean we I

1233
01:11:46,720 --> 01:11:50,519
Speaker 1: see hundreds of these every year and and and their

1234
01:11:50,520 --> 01:11:54,200
Speaker 1: stories are very common. Um, you know, what you guys

1235
01:11:54,200 --> 01:11:56,400
Speaker 1: have done at Meat Either. There's been a lot of

1236
01:11:56,479 --> 01:12:00,719
Speaker 1: negative press about our three programs and sharing on social

1237
01:12:00,760 --> 01:12:05,880
Speaker 1: media recently, UM, and it's it's really sad, but you

1238
01:12:05,920 --> 01:12:10,120
Speaker 1: know what you've done at Meat Eater and the responsible

1239
01:12:10,160 --> 01:12:13,360
Speaker 1: approachable you know, just awesome view of hunting and that

1240
01:12:13,479 --> 01:12:18,240
Speaker 1: lifestyle just what both of them attested to, um, you know,

1241
01:12:18,800 --> 01:12:21,720
Speaker 1: just a little while ago. And and that being on

1242
01:12:21,800 --> 01:12:25,840
Speaker 1: Netflix has offered entirely new generations and people who have

1243
01:12:25,880 --> 01:12:29,840
Speaker 1: never run into hunting in such a responsible and beautiful light,

1244
01:12:30,160 --> 01:12:32,960
Speaker 1: but they're seeing it on their TVs that, you know.

1245
01:12:33,360 --> 01:12:35,640
Speaker 1: And so it really is this Netflix effect that I

1246
01:12:35,640 --> 01:12:37,680
Speaker 1: think as we're seeing a little bit of growth and

1247
01:12:37,800 --> 01:12:40,760
Speaker 1: hunting right now, not enough to celebrate. We've seen a

1248
01:12:40,760 --> 01:12:43,320
Speaker 1: lot of societal trends that are helping, but um, we've

1249
01:12:43,360 --> 01:12:46,720
Speaker 1: been able to find these new potential hunters through um,

1250
01:12:46,840 --> 01:12:50,639
Speaker 1: non traditional avenues and really break out of our traditional

1251
01:12:50,720 --> 01:12:53,719
Speaker 1: hunting spheres and circles and culture and that kind of stuff.

1252
01:12:53,760 --> 01:12:56,680
Speaker 1: So that's a lot of what has happened here. I

1253
01:12:56,720 --> 01:12:59,800
Speaker 1: also want to say that you know, we've learned a

1254
01:12:59,800 --> 01:13:01,840
Speaker 1: lot from these new hunters, and that's something we didn't

1255
01:13:01,880 --> 01:13:04,840
Speaker 1: talk about I mean the first uh, the first evening

1256
01:13:04,880 --> 01:13:07,400
Speaker 1: on the back forty Um, I was sitting in my

1257
01:13:07,439 --> 01:13:09,200
Speaker 1: truck when you all shot you. That was the first

1258
01:13:09,280 --> 01:13:12,120
Speaker 1: year of this field the Ford program, but also the

1259
01:13:12,120 --> 01:13:13,920
Speaker 1: first year on the back for you and very fitting

1260
01:13:14,360 --> 01:13:16,080
Speaker 1: the year were the mentor. So it was exciting for

1261
01:13:16,160 --> 01:13:19,799
Speaker 1: me just sitting in my truck in the parking lot. Um.

1262
01:13:19,840 --> 01:13:23,280
Speaker 1: But but you showed him how to clean the deer

1263
01:13:23,360 --> 01:13:26,080
Speaker 1: that night. We've got great photography we had. It was

1264
01:13:26,120 --> 01:13:28,720
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. Uh. You know, we had that

1265
01:13:29,000 --> 01:13:32,160
Speaker 1: camaraderie of deer camp, even just as a group out

1266
01:13:32,160 --> 01:13:36,600
Speaker 1: there in the field and meeting up after the hunt. Um.

1267
01:13:36,640 --> 01:13:40,599
Speaker 1: And you know, we can learn stuff from these new hunters. Evans.

1268
01:13:40,960 --> 01:13:44,720
Speaker 1: Evan led the butchering demonstration the Sunday morning after he

1269
01:13:44,760 --> 01:13:47,000
Speaker 1: shot his second hear And believe me, I tried to

1270
01:13:47,000 --> 01:13:48,920
Speaker 1: put him somewhere that I didn't think even harvest the

1271
01:13:48,920 --> 01:13:52,240
Speaker 1: deer on Sunday. But he must just have good luck.

1272
01:13:52,880 --> 01:13:56,360
Speaker 1: But um, you know I helped him. But he's he's

1273
01:13:56,400 --> 01:13:58,360
Speaker 1: a chef. He knows how to break down the animals,

1274
01:13:58,360 --> 01:14:01,040
Speaker 1: and he he has skills that I don't have. So

1275
01:14:01,280 --> 01:14:03,840
Speaker 1: we can learn a lot and we can gain from

1276
01:14:03,920 --> 01:14:07,040
Speaker 1: him taking these new hunters afield. And then lastly, I'll

1277
01:14:07,040 --> 01:14:11,200
Speaker 1: say that we had a culinary social after the December

1278
01:14:11,280 --> 01:14:14,680
Speaker 1: hunt and Evan cooked for the group. Um, so he's

1279
01:14:14,720 --> 01:14:17,479
Speaker 1: a better chef than I am. I appreciate the nice comments,

1280
01:14:17,520 --> 01:14:20,160
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, we didn't bring

1281
01:14:20,200 --> 01:14:23,120
Speaker 1: somebody who didn't have something to offer back to us.

1282
01:14:23,200 --> 01:14:26,640
Speaker 1: And so, UM, we selected these candidates based off a

1283
01:14:26,640 --> 01:14:29,599
Speaker 1: lot of different reasons. And we we have a selection panel,

1284
01:14:29,680 --> 01:14:33,320
Speaker 1: a group. I don't select them personally, UM, but we

1285
01:14:33,320 --> 01:14:37,200
Speaker 1: we we read through their profiles, their survey, UM answers,

1286
01:14:37,240 --> 01:14:39,680
Speaker 1: and we selected these candidates based on you know, a

1287
01:14:39,680 --> 01:14:43,000
Speaker 1: panel and voting. But UM, you know, we we debated

1288
01:14:43,040 --> 01:14:47,839
Speaker 1: this um Forest was like the prototypical candidate he founded

1289
01:14:47,920 --> 01:14:51,479
Speaker 1: on first flight social media. I mean, um showed up

1290
01:14:51,479 --> 01:14:53,360
Speaker 1: in a first light hat for our training day. I

1291
01:14:53,400 --> 01:14:57,559
Speaker 1: mean just you know, it's just an amazing candidate. And

1292
01:14:57,560 --> 01:15:00,240
Speaker 1: and then Edvan and his sister both appla it as

1293
01:15:00,280 --> 01:15:02,840
Speaker 1: he alluded to. And you know, we're sitting there thinking,

1294
01:15:03,000 --> 01:15:05,160
Speaker 1: you know, one of them could mentor the other if

1295
01:15:05,200 --> 01:15:06,760
Speaker 1: we took one of them. And you know, we take

1296
01:15:06,800 --> 01:15:09,719
Speaker 1: adults because they can mentor for us. The next weekend.

1297
01:15:10,479 --> 01:15:13,400
Speaker 1: They can you can advocate and become better advocates for

1298
01:15:13,479 --> 01:15:15,639
Speaker 1: hunting than we ever can in their in their own

1299
01:15:15,680 --> 01:15:19,800
Speaker 1: circles and peer groups. So it just really there's a

1300
01:15:19,880 --> 01:15:23,080
Speaker 1: reason we do this, and it's the efficiency of the model.

1301
01:15:23,160 --> 01:15:26,679
Speaker 1: But we decided to take both Evan and his sister

1302
01:15:27,439 --> 01:15:29,400
Speaker 1: because we decided, you know, Evan might not be able

1303
01:15:29,400 --> 01:15:32,320
Speaker 1: to teach us sister it's wrong too, or vice versa.

1304
01:15:32,360 --> 01:15:35,040
Speaker 1: If we if we took Emily, she might not be

1305
01:15:35,080 --> 01:15:37,479
Speaker 1: a good teacher. You know, like we've run into this

1306
01:15:37,520 --> 01:15:39,600
Speaker 1: with husband and wife pairs where like, god, can you

1307
01:15:39,640 --> 01:15:41,960
Speaker 1: imagine if you had to learn from your significant other,

1308
01:15:42,000 --> 01:15:44,000
Speaker 1: they might not be the best one. But we ended

1309
01:15:44,080 --> 01:15:46,840
Speaker 1: up you know, selecting these people for very different reasons.

1310
01:15:46,880 --> 01:15:49,000
Speaker 1: But we get all that information on the front end,

1311
01:15:49,600 --> 01:15:52,720
Speaker 1: and uh, and we we try to make our best

1312
01:15:52,840 --> 01:15:56,880
Speaker 1: educated decision. But you know, um, Evan's gonna mentor for

1313
01:15:56,960 --> 01:15:59,800
Speaker 1: us next year. I hope for us will will still

1314
01:15:59,800 --> 01:16:02,040
Speaker 1: be a part of the program. But I mean, we

1315
01:16:02,040 --> 01:16:04,760
Speaker 1: we can take new hunters, take them a field. They

1316
01:16:04,800 --> 01:16:07,280
Speaker 1: can they can cook medicine better than we can. They

1317
01:16:07,280 --> 01:16:10,599
Speaker 1: can advocate for hunting better we can, and honestly, they

1318
01:16:10,600 --> 01:16:13,040
Speaker 1: can mentor the next weekend, or take their friends or

1319
01:16:13,040 --> 01:16:16,559
Speaker 1: their uh you know, family kids whatever. I mean, Forest

1320
01:16:16,640 --> 01:16:19,880
Speaker 1: has four kids. I expect he'll take them a field

1321
01:16:19,920 --> 01:16:23,519
Speaker 1: in the future. And then, um, you know. Lastly, I'll

1322
01:16:23,560 --> 01:16:26,440
Speaker 1: just say that there was also follow up hunting opportunities

1323
01:16:26,680 --> 01:16:29,320
Speaker 1: and that's why we trained everyone on guns and crossbos

1324
01:16:29,400 --> 01:16:32,040
Speaker 1: as We've really encourage people to get back out on

1325
01:16:32,080 --> 01:16:36,200
Speaker 1: the property during the duration of the season outside of

1326
01:16:36,240 --> 01:16:38,800
Speaker 1: our kind of organized events, and I note a number

1327
01:16:38,800 --> 01:16:43,880
Speaker 1: of hunters took advantage of that. Yeah, it was really

1328
01:16:43,920 --> 01:16:47,160
Speaker 1: cool to see all those different opportunities arise and see

1329
01:16:47,200 --> 01:16:50,960
Speaker 1: the group of people out there have this experience. And

1330
01:16:51,040 --> 01:16:54,639
Speaker 1: tell me this, Hank, I think of our hunters, all

1331
01:16:54,680 --> 01:16:58,760
Speaker 1: but one ended up killing, you know, having success killing

1332
01:16:58,760 --> 01:17:00,559
Speaker 1: their first year over the course of these two hunts.

1333
01:17:00,560 --> 01:17:04,040
Speaker 1: Am I right on that, that's correct. We finished the

1334
01:17:04,120 --> 01:17:08,200
Speaker 1: season nine for ten. Um, just we didn't get a

1335
01:17:09,040 --> 01:17:12,759
Speaker 1: success well, but I don't think that's how we judge success.

1336
01:17:12,840 --> 01:17:15,360
Speaker 1: But but we did have nine out of ten hunters

1337
01:17:15,400 --> 01:17:18,799
Speaker 1: harvest their first year this fall. Yeah, that's that's pretty incredible.

1338
01:17:18,800 --> 01:17:23,960
Speaker 1: And the back forty, I think we we took four

1339
01:17:24,680 --> 01:17:29,280
Speaker 1: off the back forty. Does that sound right. I sat

1340
01:17:29,360 --> 01:17:35,000
Speaker 1: just three three to the first organized hunt won the second. Evan,

1341
01:17:35,120 --> 01:17:37,439
Speaker 1: you were out there as much as I was coming

1342
01:17:37,520 --> 01:17:40,800
Speaker 1: up from North Carolina. But I think just three off

1343
01:17:40,840 --> 01:17:43,000
Speaker 1: the Back forty this fall, and then I think there

1344
01:17:43,040 --> 01:17:45,360
Speaker 1: was a couple of opportunities misses. There's things like that,

1345
01:17:45,439 --> 01:17:48,360
Speaker 1: So there was there was opportunities. I guess, Um, so

1346
01:17:49,240 --> 01:17:53,960
Speaker 1: point being, I might be biased, but you tell me

1347
01:17:54,000 --> 01:17:56,559
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong here. I feel like the Back forty provided.

1348
01:17:56,880 --> 01:17:59,879
Speaker 1: I feel like the Back forty was a great hosting

1349
01:18:00,040 --> 01:18:06,880
Speaker 1: around and training ground for these new hunters. Absolutely, I

1350
01:18:06,920 --> 01:18:24,920
Speaker 1: think that's been our tagline. Yeah. Sure, So so let's

1351
01:18:24,920 --> 01:18:28,000
Speaker 1: get back to YouTube that Evan and Forced. I'm curious

1352
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:33,800
Speaker 1: to hear about your thoughts moving forward. Evan, where's your

1353
01:18:33,800 --> 01:18:37,320
Speaker 1: head been at since that experience? Um? Are you gonna

1354
01:18:37,400 --> 01:18:40,080
Speaker 1: keep hunting? Have you kept hunting? What do you think

1355
01:18:40,160 --> 01:18:42,040
Speaker 1: the future holds for you when it comes to this

1356
01:18:42,439 --> 01:18:50,959
Speaker 1: this pursuit? Yeah, I will keep hunting. I have kept hunting. Um.

1357
01:18:51,000 --> 01:18:53,439
Speaker 1: And and on top of that, I'm I'm going to

1358
01:18:54,000 --> 01:18:59,080
Speaker 1: you know, develop more. Anybody who is interested in in

1359
01:18:59,160 --> 01:19:03,400
Speaker 1: my circles wants to hunt. Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna

1360
01:19:03,439 --> 01:19:09,280
Speaker 1: carry the carry the torch. So after after the September hunt, Um,

1361
01:19:09,360 --> 01:19:12,799
Speaker 1: Corey was kind enough to get my sister and I

1362
01:19:12,840 --> 01:19:16,599
Speaker 1: back out on the backboard. E uh several times. Um,

1363
01:19:17,040 --> 01:19:19,439
Speaker 1: there was There's not been a point where I've been

1364
01:19:19,479 --> 01:19:22,479
Speaker 1: on the backboard counting that I haven't seen. Dear, I'm

1365
01:19:22,520 --> 01:19:25,760
Speaker 1: not getting like, you know, maybe not an opportunity for

1366
01:19:25,800 --> 01:19:28,439
Speaker 1: a shot every time, but we I've never not. You

1367
01:19:28,479 --> 01:19:31,240
Speaker 1: know what, It's unbelievable. You're you see deer every time

1368
01:19:31,280 --> 01:19:36,400
Speaker 1: and so um so they you know, he gave up

1369
01:19:36,520 --> 01:19:40,120
Speaker 1: some prime hunting time, I mean real prime hunting time

1370
01:19:40,160 --> 01:19:43,840
Speaker 1: to take us back out. Um, tain't kept following up

1371
01:19:43,920 --> 01:19:46,720
Speaker 1: like got again Emily on a deer. Uh you know

1372
01:19:46,840 --> 01:19:49,080
Speaker 1: you've got too many, you know, we gotta get I'm

1373
01:19:49,120 --> 01:19:51,400
Speaker 1: your sister one, you know, just choking around and having

1374
01:19:51,400 --> 01:19:54,960
Speaker 1: a good time with it. And um so there you know,

1375
01:19:56,120 --> 01:19:58,000
Speaker 1: that was a lot of fun and I got a

1376
01:19:58,040 --> 01:19:59,760
Speaker 1: little bit of a taste of of what it was

1377
01:19:59,800 --> 01:20:01,639
Speaker 1: like that sort of be a mentor. It was much

1378
01:20:01,680 --> 01:20:04,840
Speaker 1: more about her hunts than my hunt, you know in

1379
01:20:04,880 --> 01:20:09,840
Speaker 1: those times. Um. And then another trip out there. Uh,

1380
01:20:09,880 --> 01:20:12,000
Speaker 1: you know, Corey and I we went on a hunt,

1381
01:20:12,040 --> 01:20:14,120
Speaker 1: but but it ended up just being a training session

1382
01:20:14,160 --> 01:20:19,120
Speaker 1: on saddle, and I am I'm so comfortable and confident

1383
01:20:19,840 --> 01:20:23,280
Speaker 1: in a saddle that during the rut, I uh, I

1384
01:20:23,320 --> 01:20:24,760
Speaker 1: got up in a tree and I went out on

1385
01:20:24,800 --> 01:20:27,679
Speaker 1: my own a public land and private land. UM had

1386
01:20:27,720 --> 01:20:31,760
Speaker 1: some I got on deer the first time, like first time, huh,

1387
01:20:32,760 --> 01:20:37,040
Speaker 1: on my own, completely on my own, and without even

1388
01:20:37,360 --> 01:20:41,760
Speaker 1: scouting other than just the scouting UM and using on X.

1389
01:20:41,800 --> 01:20:43,800
Speaker 1: I mean, I got out there. And the first very

1390
01:20:43,800 --> 01:20:47,000
Speaker 1: first hunt I saw, I saw deer, and I mean

1391
01:20:47,120 --> 01:20:50,360
Speaker 1: as all of these things, Oh my gosh, it was unbelievable.

1392
01:20:50,400 --> 01:20:53,360
Speaker 1: And and the and then the crescendo of of that

1393
01:20:53,439 --> 01:20:56,679
Speaker 1: trip was the final day I was deer hunting. Uh.

1394
01:20:56,760 --> 01:21:01,479
Speaker 1: I actually had uh an eight point buck come within

1395
01:21:01,560 --> 01:21:04,360
Speaker 1: fifteen yards of me. I never got a shot at him.

1396
01:21:04,400 --> 01:21:08,320
Speaker 1: He never showed me anything about his eyes and his antlers.

1397
01:21:08,360 --> 01:21:11,360
Speaker 1: But we had this really unbelievable, like hour and a

1398
01:21:11,400 --> 01:21:14,320
Speaker 1: half exchange where there was a field full of dos

1399
01:21:14,360 --> 01:21:17,080
Speaker 1: in front of me. I was grunting, he was paring

1400
01:21:17,200 --> 01:21:20,400
Speaker 1: the woods to the ground. He was so angry that

1401
01:21:20,600 --> 01:21:23,040
Speaker 1: some other buck was out there with his dose. But

1402
01:21:23,320 --> 01:21:26,400
Speaker 1: he would not step out. He would not step out

1403
01:21:26,439 --> 01:21:28,960
Speaker 1: he just wouldn't do it. But it was. But I mean,

1404
01:21:29,960 --> 01:21:32,519
Speaker 1: you know, all of those things that we were taught

1405
01:21:32,560 --> 01:21:35,160
Speaker 1: and and we were told, I mean, you know, to

1406
01:21:35,280 --> 01:21:39,120
Speaker 1: be applied and and put into practice, and went from

1407
01:21:39,400 --> 01:21:42,000
Speaker 1: years of not seeing deer and putting in the same

1408
01:21:42,000 --> 01:21:45,360
Speaker 1: amount of time in the same amount efforts. Um. So

1409
01:21:45,360 --> 01:21:47,880
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, using sticks and being

1410
01:21:47,920 --> 01:21:50,440
Speaker 1: in the saddle, and being in a tree, and and

1411
01:21:50,439 --> 01:21:53,599
Speaker 1: and seeing deer on on most fits, and or even

1412
01:21:53,680 --> 01:21:57,320
Speaker 1: having an encounter with it with a true um, you know,

1413
01:21:57,400 --> 01:22:00,880
Speaker 1: with a true buck. And and so uh um, I'm hooked.

1414
01:22:02,000 --> 01:22:07,519
Speaker 1: I'm totally hucked. They're definitely turning back for me. Um

1415
01:22:08,080 --> 01:22:12,519
Speaker 1: and uh and and so I'm taking my sister and

1416
01:22:12,560 --> 01:22:15,800
Speaker 1: a buddy out turkey hunting. It'll be their first time

1417
01:22:15,880 --> 01:22:18,680
Speaker 1: really going out on a turkey hunt. We're gonna do that.

1418
01:22:18,840 --> 01:22:22,479
Speaker 1: And and uh I've started dabbling in duck hunting last

1419
01:22:22,520 --> 01:22:25,719
Speaker 1: season and uh so you know we're figuring that out

1420
01:22:25,800 --> 01:22:28,000
Speaker 1: and and we're just gonna We're gonna continue to do

1421
01:22:28,040 --> 01:22:29,320
Speaker 1: I want to I want to look at get my

1422
01:22:29,400 --> 01:22:32,439
Speaker 1: niece and nephew out there. Um. And then just I've

1423
01:22:32,439 --> 01:22:35,200
Speaker 1: got a bunch of buddies that come from the hospitality

1424
01:22:35,240 --> 01:22:39,519
Speaker 1: and culinary side of things, all of us fish. But

1425
01:22:39,760 --> 01:22:44,200
Speaker 1: they've they've expressed you know, uh, they've expressed interest. Um.

1426
01:22:44,240 --> 01:22:48,360
Speaker 1: But again, you know, like myself grouping the suburbs and

1427
01:22:48,360 --> 01:22:52,120
Speaker 1: and maybe didn't have the you know, the experience growing up.

1428
01:22:52,160 --> 01:22:55,679
Speaker 1: And and so now I feel confident enough that that

1429
01:22:55,800 --> 01:22:57,280
Speaker 1: you know, we can get out and we can we

1430
01:22:57,320 --> 01:22:59,759
Speaker 1: can do some stuff and and be talking to friends

1431
01:22:59,760 --> 01:23:02,840
Speaker 1: and at works and colleagues and and people have been

1432
01:23:02,880 --> 01:23:06,000
Speaker 1: just so gracious about opening up their their land to

1433
01:23:06,240 --> 01:23:08,240
Speaker 1: to let me hunt and to let others and it's

1434
01:23:08,280 --> 01:23:11,400
Speaker 1: just it's, I don't know, it's like it really. I

1435
01:23:11,439 --> 01:23:13,120
Speaker 1: think it goes back to what Hank said about the

1436
01:23:13,160 --> 01:23:16,760
Speaker 1: confidence and once you have the competence, um, doors really

1437
01:23:16,800 --> 01:23:19,519
Speaker 1: start to open. So the biggest hurdle is certainly just

1438
01:23:19,560 --> 01:23:23,840
Speaker 1: getting started. But once once you're through that, it gets

1439
01:23:23,880 --> 01:23:26,720
Speaker 1: a lot easier. It does, and in some ways it

1440
01:23:26,720 --> 01:23:31,360
Speaker 1: gets harder. But I think that the the initial I

1441
01:23:31,400 --> 01:23:33,960
Speaker 1: think the initial step is the hardest, you know, And

1442
01:23:34,080 --> 01:23:37,280
Speaker 1: and once you get through that, um, the confidence starts

1443
01:23:37,320 --> 01:23:39,600
Speaker 1: to set in and people people see that, and so

1444
01:23:40,439 --> 01:23:42,880
Speaker 1: uh um for to night, we're actually talking about this

1445
01:23:43,000 --> 01:23:47,679
Speaker 1: last night and we've coined ourselves the mentees of Mark.

1446
01:23:48,439 --> 01:23:52,160
Speaker 1: We're we're still we're still working out what the matching

1447
01:23:52,240 --> 01:23:56,680
Speaker 1: tattoos are gonna look like, but we're heading down the road.

1448
01:23:56,720 --> 01:23:58,560
Speaker 1: It's like something like, you know, your face like a

1449
01:23:58,680 --> 01:24:00,880
Speaker 1: Joe Rogan type thing. We'll figure it out. We're looking

1450
01:24:00,960 --> 01:24:07,840
Speaker 1: up probably, but but yeah, we were we're playing in

1451
01:24:07,880 --> 01:24:10,719
Speaker 1: a hunt, you know, we're we're we're already uh playing

1452
01:24:10,760 --> 01:24:13,559
Speaker 1: on putting, putting our skills together and seeing what we

1453
01:24:13,560 --> 01:24:18,479
Speaker 1: can do. That is, uh, that is so cool, so

1454
01:24:18,520 --> 01:24:20,680
Speaker 1: cool to hear. Except for the tatoo part, I think

1455
01:24:20,760 --> 01:24:24,760
Speaker 1: that would be that sounds terrifying. Get my face on

1456
01:24:24,800 --> 01:24:28,559
Speaker 1: your shoulder. But outside of that, I'm excited to hear

1457
01:24:28,600 --> 01:24:31,360
Speaker 1: all that. Uh so for sort of about what about

1458
01:24:31,400 --> 01:24:33,519
Speaker 1: from your perspective, what have your thoughts been in the

1459
01:24:33,600 --> 01:24:36,679
Speaker 1: days and weeks after that? In where do you think

1460
01:24:36,680 --> 01:24:40,720
Speaker 1: things are going to go from here? Yeah? So you know,

1461
01:24:41,000 --> 01:24:45,320
Speaker 1: immediately the next day after the hunt, it was, um,

1462
01:24:46,200 --> 01:24:48,120
Speaker 1: it was about two and a half hour drive from

1463
01:24:48,120 --> 01:24:50,720
Speaker 1: where I live from where Backboard he is and in

1464
01:24:50,720 --> 01:24:54,479
Speaker 1: West Michigan, and from there it was how do how

1465
01:24:54,520 --> 01:24:57,720
Speaker 1: do I get this thing processed? There's a processor in

1466
01:24:57,960 --> 01:25:00,639
Speaker 1: the nearby town. But I don't want to some half

1467
01:25:00,640 --> 01:25:03,320
Speaker 1: hours back, you know too, But in have to to

1468
01:25:03,479 --> 01:25:07,880
Speaker 1: pick up a my process, dear, and UM, you know,

1469
01:25:07,920 --> 01:25:10,200
Speaker 1: that was another thing that I wasn't really expecting to

1470
01:25:10,240 --> 01:25:14,479
Speaker 1: have to kind of work through. UM was okay, I'm

1471
01:25:14,520 --> 01:25:17,320
Speaker 1: at I just I just harvested the deer. It's in

1472
01:25:17,400 --> 01:25:20,080
Speaker 1: the back of my car. I'm in a hotel room

1473
01:25:20,160 --> 01:25:23,839
Speaker 1: by myself. UM, it's late. What do I do tomorrow

1474
01:25:23,880 --> 01:25:29,519
Speaker 1: morning with this deer? You know? Um? Luckily Xavier Austin

1475
01:25:29,560 --> 01:25:34,320
Speaker 1: gave me a recommendation to a processor. Back I'm in

1476
01:25:34,360 --> 01:25:38,559
Speaker 1: West Michigan, closer to where I live, and UM, bringing

1477
01:25:38,600 --> 01:25:43,400
Speaker 1: that deer to the processor, meeting the processor, UM, telling

1478
01:25:43,680 --> 01:25:48,120
Speaker 1: him about the experience, and it was just it was

1479
01:25:48,240 --> 01:25:52,439
Speaker 1: a feeling of elation still and almost like I don't

1480
01:25:52,479 --> 01:25:54,000
Speaker 1: I don't know how to describe it. It was just

1481
01:25:54,080 --> 01:25:58,839
Speaker 1: it was lingering, UM joy and um. You know. Immediately

1482
01:25:58,880 --> 01:26:01,559
Speaker 1: after that, it was it was how do I what's

1483
01:26:01,600 --> 01:26:04,000
Speaker 1: the best way to cook this? UM? Wonder how much

1484
01:26:04,280 --> 01:26:06,160
Speaker 1: what my yield is gonna be? How much meat I'm

1485
01:26:06,160 --> 01:26:09,439
Speaker 1: gonna get? Um, is my wife's gonna like to eat venison?

1486
01:26:09,560 --> 01:26:11,800
Speaker 1: Or my kid's gonna like the venison, and so my

1487
01:26:11,880 --> 01:26:16,160
Speaker 1: mind shifted to kind of like the consuming part of it.

1488
01:26:16,400 --> 01:26:21,960
Speaker 1: And um, after getting the deer back um and bringing

1489
01:26:21,960 --> 01:26:26,519
Speaker 1: it home and um, I have the I had the

1490
01:26:26,560 --> 01:26:29,439
Speaker 1: processor keep the hide for me because I said, I

1491
01:26:29,760 --> 01:26:31,439
Speaker 1: you know, I know it's type flies, like the typ

1492
01:26:31,520 --> 01:26:34,599
Speaker 1: of splies. Is this to commemorate you know the events?

1493
01:26:34,640 --> 01:26:37,040
Speaker 1: And like oh yeah. And I walked in with the

1494
01:26:37,680 --> 01:26:40,880
Speaker 1: with the boxes meat and my wife was there in

1495
01:26:40,880 --> 01:26:44,320
Speaker 1: the kitchen and I had the hide wrapped up in

1496
01:26:44,360 --> 01:26:47,240
Speaker 1: the back and she she had this big smile on

1497
01:26:47,280 --> 01:26:50,599
Speaker 1: her face and she went up and touched the high

1498
01:26:50,720 --> 01:26:55,439
Speaker 1: um on um on my shoulder and she's like, oh,

1499
01:26:55,479 --> 01:26:58,200
Speaker 1: that's such a great blanket. Did you get that for me?

1500
01:26:58,680 --> 01:27:06,519
Speaker 1: You know? This is the deer's Like okay, I'm good

1501
01:27:06,520 --> 01:27:08,760
Speaker 1: with this. And I told her all about it, but

1502
01:27:09,320 --> 01:27:11,160
Speaker 1: it was it was a really neat feeling to have

1503
01:27:11,240 --> 01:27:13,160
Speaker 1: the kids come around and you're like, oh my god,

1504
01:27:13,240 --> 01:27:15,479
Speaker 1: dad shot it here there it is and have them

1505
01:27:15,520 --> 01:27:19,519
Speaker 1: see that and have have that um that additional like

1506
01:27:19,680 --> 01:27:22,080
Speaker 1: joy kind of come into life that this is a

1507
01:27:22,120 --> 01:27:24,519
Speaker 1: really cool thing, not just for me that you know,

1508
01:27:24,560 --> 01:27:28,400
Speaker 1: other people are are into it too, and so you

1509
01:27:28,439 --> 01:27:31,200
Speaker 1: know moving forward has ha cooked some things. Evan has

1510
01:27:31,240 --> 01:27:35,040
Speaker 1: helped me great that he knows so much about culinary thing.

1511
01:27:35,160 --> 01:27:37,880
Speaker 1: So when I'm like, hey, they quick question on what's

1512
01:27:37,920 --> 01:27:40,000
Speaker 1: the port, what's the fat to meat ratio? If I

1513
01:27:40,040 --> 01:27:42,240
Speaker 1: want to do that, that kind of thing. And so

1514
01:27:42,280 --> 01:27:44,800
Speaker 1: we've been keeping in touch Evan and I through a

1515
01:27:44,800 --> 01:27:48,040
Speaker 1: bunch of text messages and then this last night, I

1516
01:27:48,040 --> 01:27:52,639
Speaker 1: think I had another cooking question for him as I'm

1517
01:27:52,680 --> 01:27:57,960
Speaker 1: getting ready to do the attended line meal, and um,

1518
01:27:58,120 --> 01:28:00,640
Speaker 1: I said, hey, can we just talk. Last night we

1519
01:28:00,720 --> 01:28:02,960
Speaker 1: thought for over an hour about what we're gonna do next.

1520
01:28:03,760 --> 01:28:09,559
Speaker 1: So really really excited already again you know, for for um,

1521
01:28:10,280 --> 01:28:13,200
Speaker 1: for the next the next thing, and looking forward to

1522
01:28:14,240 --> 01:28:17,960
Speaker 1: giving back as working with the with the program again

1523
01:28:18,120 --> 01:28:21,000
Speaker 1: next fall and helping out we're needed and that kind

1524
01:28:21,040 --> 01:28:24,920
Speaker 1: of thing. So um, pretty much immediate next actions are

1525
01:28:25,000 --> 01:28:27,400
Speaker 1: kind of like buy the book, like, hey, let's start scouting,

1526
01:28:27,520 --> 01:28:30,840
Speaker 1: let's figure out what tools we need, let's start putting

1527
01:28:30,840 --> 01:28:33,880
Speaker 1: some dates out there, let's you know, and that kind

1528
01:28:33,880 --> 01:28:35,800
Speaker 1: of thing. So I think I think you guys kicked

1529
01:28:35,840 --> 01:28:40,840
Speaker 1: this off. We're we're off and running. Yeah, I'm like

1530
01:28:40,920 --> 01:28:44,080
Speaker 1: a proud dad sitting over here just smiling from ear

1531
01:28:44,120 --> 01:28:50,160
Speaker 1: to ear. I gotta tell you, I mean it's you

1532
01:28:50,200 --> 01:28:52,519
Speaker 1: talked about that joy that's lingering. You know that you

1533
01:28:52,560 --> 01:28:55,639
Speaker 1: mentioned force, and I'm feeling the same thing over here.

1534
01:28:55,640 --> 01:28:59,360
Speaker 1: And I can't emphasize enough for anybody listening that is

1535
01:28:59,400 --> 01:29:03,200
Speaker 1: a current hunt. Two just how much fun it is

1536
01:29:03,479 --> 01:29:06,000
Speaker 1: to help other people in this kind of way. I mean,

1537
01:29:06,040 --> 01:29:10,640
Speaker 1: it's it's just as satisfying and exciting and um fulfilling

1538
01:29:11,160 --> 01:29:13,760
Speaker 1: as being on the other side. So I thank you

1539
01:29:13,840 --> 01:29:18,360
Speaker 1: both for for taking a shot and taking a chance

1540
01:29:19,040 --> 01:29:22,599
Speaker 1: to pursue this thing. Thanks for the courage to explore

1541
01:29:22,640 --> 01:29:25,600
Speaker 1: this new pursuit, and and then for following through with

1542
01:29:25,640 --> 01:29:29,360
Speaker 1: it and sharing your experience now and for committing to

1543
01:29:29,360 --> 01:29:31,280
Speaker 1: to helping other people in the future. I just think

1544
01:29:31,280 --> 01:29:35,560
Speaker 1: it's it's incredible, and you have both helped re energize

1545
01:29:35,600 --> 01:29:38,120
Speaker 1: me and help remind me of why I do what

1546
01:29:38,200 --> 01:29:41,960
Speaker 1: I do. So thank you, Thank you, Thank you and

1547
01:29:42,120 --> 01:29:45,160
Speaker 1: uh as as mentees of Mark as I as I

1548
01:29:45,200 --> 01:29:47,559
Speaker 1: mentioned back in December, and that it didn't pan out

1549
01:29:47,640 --> 01:29:50,800
Speaker 1: this year, but I do this and I will do this.

1550
01:29:50,880 --> 01:29:54,120
Speaker 1: As mentees of Mark, you are an exclusive club that

1551
01:29:54,280 --> 01:29:57,519
Speaker 1: does have invitations to future hunts on my properties I

1552
01:29:57,560 --> 01:29:59,960
Speaker 1: hunt here in Michigan. I'm gonna get a mentee group

1553
01:30:00,080 --> 01:30:02,200
Speaker 1: hunt together. I think we should try to make it

1554
01:30:02,240 --> 01:30:04,439
Speaker 1: happen this year where we can all get out and

1555
01:30:04,520 --> 01:30:07,160
Speaker 1: hunt one of my spots that I still hunt, and

1556
01:30:07,400 --> 01:30:11,120
Speaker 1: uh see if we can all get back, get nostalgic

1557
01:30:11,120 --> 01:30:13,960
Speaker 1: about all of our early hunts together and uh and

1558
01:30:14,040 --> 01:30:16,599
Speaker 1: do it all over again. So let's make that happen.

1559
01:30:16,640 --> 01:30:20,920
Speaker 1: All right. That's awesome, awesome, thank you, thank you. Unbelievable.

1560
01:30:20,920 --> 01:30:28,080
Speaker 1: I'll do the food it it sounds good. Hank, do

1561
01:30:28,080 --> 01:30:30,000
Speaker 1: you have any final words you want to leave us with.

1562
01:30:32,280 --> 01:30:35,000
Speaker 1: I really don't. I think I think they've said it.

1563
01:30:35,080 --> 01:30:38,639
Speaker 1: I mean, um, their testimonials are a lot more than

1564
01:30:39,439 --> 01:30:42,640
Speaker 1: um I could ever convey to anybody. But I appreciate

1565
01:30:42,680 --> 01:30:45,719
Speaker 1: you guys. I appreciate you being a part of the program.

1566
01:30:45,760 --> 01:30:49,160
Speaker 1: I'm glad we found you and and I appreciate you

1567
01:30:49,240 --> 01:30:55,599
Speaker 1: taking your time to tell your stories here. Absolutely. Thank you, Hank,

1568
01:30:56,560 --> 01:30:58,760
Speaker 1: all right, and of course Mark and the rest of

1569
01:30:58,760 --> 01:31:01,720
Speaker 1: the crew. We can't thank you enough. This wouldn't have

1570
01:31:01,800 --> 01:31:06,200
Speaker 1: happened without your generosity, So thank you. Well. You are

1571
01:31:06,240 --> 01:31:09,200
Speaker 1: all very very welcome. It's been it's been my pleasure.

1572
01:31:09,200 --> 01:31:12,719
Speaker 1: It has been our pleasure. It's been a cliche to say,

1573
01:31:12,720 --> 01:31:15,439
Speaker 1: but it's been uh, it's been our privilege. It's been

1574
01:31:15,840 --> 01:31:20,200
Speaker 1: very very, very very cool. So with that, one thing

1575
01:31:20,400 --> 01:31:23,200
Speaker 1: I should say is we did film these hunts, as

1576
01:31:23,240 --> 01:31:27,559
Speaker 1: we alluded to, and we will be releasing this content

1577
01:31:27,640 --> 01:31:30,840
Speaker 1: in the coming months. I kind of forgot about that

1578
01:31:31,640 --> 01:31:33,679
Speaker 1: what's the game what's the game plan? Is this gonna

1579
01:31:33,680 --> 01:31:35,880
Speaker 1: be like what do you what are you putting together?

1580
01:31:36,560 --> 01:31:41,160
Speaker 1: Can give you guys to be uh just you know,

1581
01:31:41,280 --> 01:31:44,439
Speaker 1: hit and mark the other mark you know, um no, no,

1582
01:31:44,680 --> 01:31:48,200
Speaker 1: But we wanted to uh, you know, kind of show

1583
01:31:48,240 --> 01:31:51,320
Speaker 1: the process. You know, we've we've done it before, but

1584
01:31:51,400 --> 01:31:55,800
Speaker 1: it was a unique opportunity and opportunity to kind of

1585
01:31:55,920 --> 01:31:59,840
Speaker 1: highlight a community based filled the fork and and so

1586
01:32:00,000 --> 01:32:03,320
Speaker 1: we wanted to document the program and tell and show

1587
01:32:03,720 --> 01:32:06,360
Speaker 1: what we've done and hopefully inspire others just like this,

1588
01:32:06,520 --> 01:32:09,519
Speaker 1: uh this podcast, we hope though. So we're just gonna

1589
01:32:09,520 --> 01:32:12,760
Speaker 1: put out some summary content and uh and use some

1590
01:32:12,800 --> 01:32:16,640
Speaker 1: of the educational bits that we recorded in the in

1591
01:32:16,680 --> 01:32:20,360
Speaker 1: the you know, in betweens of the hunts. But we're

1592
01:32:20,439 --> 01:32:22,120
Speaker 1: looking forward to getting that content out and let in

1593
01:32:22,120 --> 01:32:24,720
Speaker 1: the world. See it very cool. I look forward to

1594
01:32:24,720 --> 01:32:28,760
Speaker 1: that as well. Forest and Hank appreciate you taking the

1595
01:32:28,800 --> 01:32:31,080
Speaker 1: time of your today. Let's all get together and chat

1596
01:32:31,120 --> 01:32:39,240
Speaker 1: again sometime soon, right, okay, yeah, thanks guys. All right,

1597
01:32:39,439 --> 01:32:42,559
Speaker 1: and that is a rap. Thank you for tuning in.

1598
01:32:42,840 --> 01:32:46,519
Speaker 1: I'll just reiterate what Hank said. Please go to the

1599
01:32:46,640 --> 01:32:50,280
Speaker 1: National Deer Association website and find out more. If you

1600
01:32:50,320 --> 01:32:53,840
Speaker 1: want to become a participant in the field of fork program,

1601
01:32:53,960 --> 01:32:56,400
Speaker 1: you can be mentored by folks like we talked about

1602
01:32:56,479 --> 01:32:58,760
Speaker 1: today or on the flip side. If you want to

1603
01:32:58,800 --> 01:33:00,840
Speaker 1: be a mentor and there is the need for more

1604
01:33:00,880 --> 01:33:03,479
Speaker 1: people like you and I to help out, please do.

1605
01:33:04,120 --> 01:33:07,000
Speaker 1: I tell you from my perspective as a mentor, it's

1606
01:33:07,000 --> 01:33:09,160
Speaker 1: one of the absolute best things I did last year

1607
01:33:09,200 --> 01:33:11,160
Speaker 1: and the year prior and the year prior to that.

1608
01:33:11,320 --> 01:33:14,479
Speaker 1: It's it's just as rewarding, if not more rewarding for

1609
01:33:14,600 --> 01:33:16,960
Speaker 1: us as the mentor. I'm telling you, I'm not both

1610
01:33:16,960 --> 01:33:21,080
Speaker 1: shitting you. You're gonna enjoy it, So go ahead and

1611
01:33:21,120 --> 01:33:23,479
Speaker 1: give a little time, give a day or two. I

1612
01:33:23,520 --> 01:33:26,120
Speaker 1: think you will absolutely not regret it. So check it out.

1613
01:33:26,200 --> 01:33:28,599
Speaker 1: Go to the National Deer Association website to learn more.

1614
01:33:29,160 --> 01:33:32,719
Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening. I appreciate you, enjoy yourself,

1615
01:33:32,840 --> 01:33:36,799
Speaker 1: Stay safe out there, and until next time, stay wired

1616
01:33:37,360 --> 01:33:37,400
Speaker 1: to