Ep. 731: Work, Workouts, and Worms | MeatEater Radio Live!

Hosts Janis Putelis, Brody Henderson, and Cory Calkins have one last dispatch before Janis' big race in the Crazy Mountain 100, chat with habitat manager Jared Van Hees about his work in Michigan, discuss the fitness it takes to be a hunter, talk with Ashley Morgan-Olvera of the Texas Invasive Species Institute about all things worms, and peruse the MeatEater Menu. Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork MeatEater on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/meateater, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StevenRinellaMeatEater/, Twitter https://twitter.com/MeatEaterTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor, and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Steven Rinella?

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• 0:46Steven Rinella?

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• 1:08Steven Rinella?

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• 1:50Steven Rinella?

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• 2:33Steven Rinella?

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• 3:21Speaker 03

  Smell us now, lady. Welcome to Meat Eater Trivia. Meat Eater Podcast.

• 3:46Speaker 03

  You're live, Yanis.

• 3:48Steven Rinella?

  Welcome to Meat Eater Radio. I'm your host, Yanis Patellas, and today I'm joined by Big Bad Brody Henderson and the capable Cory Calkins. It's 11 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. It's exactly 7 days, 19 hours before I start my journey running 100 miles in the crazy mountains of Montana.

• 4:06Speaker 03

  Woo!

• 4:07Steven Rinella?

  On today's show, we'll talk with Habitat Manager Jared Van Hees while he's hard at work on his Michigan property. Brody and Corey will share their pre-hunting season fitness routine. Ashley Morgan Olvera from the Texas Invasive Species Institute is here to talk worms. And finally, we'll see what the crew has been cooking lately.

• 4:28Speaker 03

  But first, since Spencer's not here, fellas, let's start off with just some general chit chat and catch up a little bit.

• 4:35Speaker 04

  Will the real Yanis Patellis please stand up?

• 4:38Speaker 03

  Please stand up. Um, are you just saying that because I told you my wife's been calling the Eminem?

• 4:44Speaker 05

  The, the live chat is exploding with Eminem references. Dude, you look like Slim Shady.

• 4:49Speaker 03

  Okay, well, then there you go. Um, that was not my goal. I'm just, uh, I'm gonna run this race in a week and a lot of times for these big races, people like to, people that are sort of middle of the pack and lower, which is where I'm gonna come in at, um, you like to have some fun with it, you know, dress up.

• 5:08Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  And, and so I, I didn't really have any like costumes that I was gonna wear and didn't feel like that's gonna be comfortable running and that kinda stuff. So I thought, well, what could I do to be fun? Bleach my hair.

• 5:18Speaker 04

  That's great.

• 5:19Speaker 03

  The last time I bleached it, I went back in some photos. Um, I was 21 years old. So that's 26 years ago.

• 5:26Speaker 04

  Last time I had hair, I was 21 years old.

• 5:29Speaker 03

  Wow. Did you ever bleach your hair?

• 5:32Speaker 04

  No, my, like, I had, like, it wasn't that fakey blonde, but it was very light, light blonde.

• 5:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, I had pretty blonde hair too as a kid. I, I did dye it a lot though. This is, it was very nostalgic to have my wife, uh, do this to my head. It brought back the skater days. I pretty much did every color under the rainbow over the course of maybe, I don't know, three or four years.

• 5:53Speaker 04

  So you said it's all about having fun. You don't got like any nerves or anything like that?

• 5:59Speaker 03

  Oh, no, I definitely have some nerves, for sure. It's getting to be that moment where it's like, yeah, you just wake up thinking about it and you're like, one moment you're like, oh, this is gonna be great fun and easy. I'm gonna be the dark horse. I'm gonna roll in in the 11th place. And then like an hour later, you're like, ah, I don't know if I'm gonna finish.

• 6:17Speaker 04

  Dude, that's a long way.

• 6:20Speaker 03

  I know. Uh, we, uh, cleared trail last weekend as we had to do, uh, volunteer work. You gotta do an hour of volunteering. Uh, for anybody that's gonna participate in the race and they, they, the race director would like you to do it around, um, trail maintenance or, uh, a race. I'm sure, you know, she'd probably take any kind of volunteer work. But anyways, we went to clear trail and we had a pretty long section, uh, 13 miles of trail to clear. And another fella helped us and he's already run it twice. I was like, oh, that's great. I'm gonna get to like just quiz this guy. And basically the main takeaway, he was like, yeah, the first 50 miles is fun. Then you find out what you're made of. I was like, oh, right. Yeah. Cause you know, that's the longest I've done is basically 50, a little bit over.

• 7:05Speaker 03

  And then so from there on out, it's all virgin territory. And, uh, yeah, so there's definitely some nerves in there. But the taper has been easier this time than it has been for, for ye- races prior.

• 7:17Speaker 04

  You might want to explain taper to people who don't have any idea what you're talking about.

• 7:21Speaker 03

  Yeah. So when you're training for a big race, I don't know, probably for any race for that matter. Like depending on the race, I'm sure and depending on the athlete, anywhere from probably a week to three weeks prior. You sort of start tapering off the high volume and, and, you know, extreme effort that you've been putting into the training and you taper down. You don't want to quit running altogether. Cause you're letting your body will kind of forget about it, but you just like, so I've been, I went from probably running 15 mile, 15 hours a week for, you know, two or three weeks prior. To now down to like five or six, or I had a week that was maybe eight and like this week it's gonna be like four.

• 7:59Speaker 04

  You're kind of resting up a little bit.

• 8:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, totally. Resting, but still maintaining. But, uh, definitely the name of the game is just to chill out right now, eat a lot of calories. But it can be hard to chill because your body's ready to run, your brain's kind of jacked up, ready to run. Um, and I've had troubles almost like sleeping years, years before, but this year it's been easier. I've been keeping myself occupied, doing other stuff and yeah.

• 8:24Speaker 06

  That's what blows my mind about this 100 mile race is the amount of time that you're just up and moving and awake. Is there any like training to keep you rolling for, what is it? Like 30 hours?

• 8:33Speaker 03

  Well, my goal is 30. Um, I haven't really done any sleep deprivation training. I talked to my coach about it and she was like, you know, She's like, she felt like the damage that could possibly do.

• 8:45Speaker 04

  Right.

• 8:45Speaker 03

  Or the recovery would be so long from just trying to stay up for a night and running through the night. So what I did instead was like, I did a couple like real Alpine starts where we like get up at three and be running at like 4am and then go for like a four hour run.

• 9:00Speaker 04

  Man, that's great for getting ready to hunt, huh?

• 9:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, um, yeah, my wife is probably, that's what she, she's gonna be my crew chief, which means that she's gonna run all my crew and my aide where, where they can meet me along the course. Um, keep me fed, keep me lubed up, keep me, uh, in fresh clothes, whatever I need, you know? But her main worry is that I don't do well staying up. Like, I'm not, I'm not like a night owl whatsoever. Like, usually I can barely get "I love you" out of my mouth and I'm out, you know what I mean? So she's like, and she's, at 1am, she's like, are you gonna run while you're sleeping? Like, how's that gonna work?

• 9:39Speaker 04

  I think you're bu- like, you know, just ki- like, I don't know, I've never done it, but I think you kinda go on autopilot, man. You know what I mean?

• 9:47Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, and I think just the energy of the race, right? I should be pretty, hopefully, pretty jacked up. And the nice thing is that the second half, I get to run with my friends with Pacers.

• 9:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:56Speaker 03

  And so they'll be there to keep me.

• 9:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:58Speaker 03

  Keep me fired up, so. Um, what else did I want to bring up? Oh, newest episode of Roast is out. It is a really good one, as they all have been so far. Uh, this one, uh, Sarah Delaney and Matt Miller face off in a small game shootout. And Brent Reeves and Clay Newcomb judge them. Uh, Clay steals the show, in my opinion. Everybody else is just kinda supporting, uh, actors, but, uh, it's a great episode. They, uh, do squirrels, uh, and then they have a little bonus rabbit that, uh, was killed that morning right here in Bozeman, Montana. We actually had to, we skinned it right outside the door of the office and it was kind of a funny moment because Brent and I are out there skinning it. Clay might have been there too.

• 10:43Speaker 03

  And we look over and there's a lady from the office next door with the meanest scowl on her face. Right? She's closing the blinds because we were just skinning and gotten this rabbit.

• 10:54Speaker 04

  She's in her office and can see all this.

• 10:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was not happy with us. But anyways, if you wanna see who won, uh, go watch it. Like I said, it's a good episode and uh.

• 11:04Speaker 04

  Looks like there's some good kitchen mishaps in there.

• 11:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, they both, they both almost, almost burn us down. Uh, burn down the office, but uh, they pull it out and, and, and again, I've been so impressed because every time someone cooks something on this show, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go cook that at home. Like, that wasn't that hard. Like, oh, well, I'm not gonna give it away. You guys gotta go check it out.

• 11:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 11:29Speaker 03

  Anything else? You guys are ready to move on?

• 11:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, we can.

• 11:34Speaker 03

  You guys can keep chit chatting?

• 11:36Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:36Speaker 03

  I mean, Spencer would like you guys to add in onto, into the chit chat segment.

• 11:41Speaker 04

  Well, yeah, I mean, we always do. You were, I thought you were moving on. You're just like, anything else? Move on.

• 11:46Speaker 06

  Well, we do have guests lined up for particular times of the show, you know, but we're not too over the top here.

• 11:52Speaker 03

  Nah.

• 11:52Speaker 04

  What have you been up to lately?

• 11:53Speaker 03

  Like Phil said, we don't ever, we don't ever stick to those times.

• 11:56Speaker 04

  No, no.

• 11:58Speaker 06

  What have I been up to, man?

• 11:58Speaker 06

  Man, doing a lot of camping, a lot of fishing. Uh, my, my seven-year-old boy's really into fly fishing right now, so like my dreams have come true, really, you know? But it's hunting season just around the corner. He's into catching fish. Doesn't matter how.

• 12:14Speaker 03

  We were together, cause we were taking some pictures of some Meat Eater merch the other day, and I brought a spinner, spinning rod, and it, it was really sad to me, cause it seemed almost as though Marshall had never even seen a spinning rod up to this point in his life. And uh, I kinda showed it all to him, and he was like, you know, bud, I'm interested in this, but that other thing that my dad's been working me with, like, I already know how to whip that thing around. And so I just don't quite have like the patience to learn how to cast this thing, but I'm gonna keep working on the kid.

• 12:44Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah, no, we had a spin rod last weekend.

• 12:46Speaker 04

  My kid hopped on his bike la- last night and rode over to the local bass pond and did some fishing.

• 12:51Speaker 06

  Nice.

• 12:52Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 12:52Speaker 06

  Love it.

• 12:53Speaker 03

  Catch any?

• 12:54Speaker 04

  He caught a couple. Um, it's like a, like. Subdivision pond.

• 12:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:59Speaker 04

  You know what I mean? More for swimming than fishing, but yeah, he caught a couple. We've been catching some good, the walleye fishing's been very good lately.

• 13:07Speaker 03

  Oh, good to hear.

• 13:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, so we're stacking some of those up in the freezer.

• 13:12Speaker 03

  Some of these suburban Bozeman ponds though, man, like I know a couple of kids that hit it pretty hard.

• 13:19Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:19Speaker 03

  There's a, if you kind of know the inside track, there's some, there's some honkers out there.

• 13:24Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, for sure.

• 13:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:26Speaker 04

  For sure.

• 13:26Speaker 03

  Wouldn't want to eat them, but they're fun to catch.

• 13:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, exactly. No, these, these, this is all just for the adventure of it. Yep, catch and release.

• 13:34Speaker 03

  Um, is that it?

• 13:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, we can, we can move on.

• 13:38Speaker 03

  Is Spencer in the chat room today?

• 13:40Speaker 05

  Spencer's not in the chat. We've got Randall Williams though.

• 13:43Speaker 03

  Oh, what's Randall saying?

• 13:45Speaker 05

  Uh, he's just, I think he's just trying to procrastinate writing, uh, I'm sure doing an incredible job writing the next meteor.

• 13:51Speaker 04

  Well, he told me on days that there's a trivia recording, which there is today. He can't even work. Like he can't get anything done.

• 13:59Speaker 03

  Oh, really? Cause he gets so worked up?

• 14:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 14:01Speaker 03

  Oh, man.

• 14:02Speaker 04

  Well, I mean.

• 14:03Speaker 03

  He's got a, he's got to come back big because he had like a, what did he get? Like a five or a six?

• 14:09Speaker 05

  It was, it was a tough game for Randall, uh, this week, but, uh, I mean, he'll talk about it more on trivia today, but Randall and I went to bar trivia last night.

• 14:17Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 14:18Speaker 05

  It, it went well. I'll just say that much.

• 14:21Speaker 03

  Oh, I can't wait.

• 14:22Speaker 05

  So I think, I think his spirits are high.

• 14:23Speaker 03

  Tune into future trivia episodes. All right. My buddy Jared Van Hees is waiting. Let's get him on, Phil. Here we are. Our first guest today is Jared Van Hees. Jared is the host of the Habitat Podcast, co-owner of Vitalized Seed Company. Hope I got that right. A land consultant and holds a regular job in packaging sales. Jared is joining us from his Michigan property to show us the Habitat work he's doing in mid-July. Jared, welcome to the show.

• 14:55Speaker 07

  Hey guys, how you doing today?

• 14:58Speaker 03

  We're doing great. We look, it's a lot cooler, which is surprising because this podcast studio can be a hot sucker, but it looks like it's cooler here than it is where you're at. Phil, we don't have Jared up on the screen yet.

• 15:10Speaker 05

  Something, oh, sorry, Yanis?

• 15:13Speaker 03

  That's alright. Oh, there he is. Oh. I like, I like that T-shirt Jared. I got one of those. I wear it all the time.

• 15:22Speaker 07

  Appreciate that. Thanks for having me on guys. This is great.

• 15:25Speaker 03

  Alright, so tell us, you're in Michigan. What part of Michigan? You don't have to be too specific, but what part of Michigan?

• 15:31Speaker 07

  Well, you know, we like to do, we like to do this.

• 15:33Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 15:34Speaker 07

  Right down here, southeast Michigan.

• 15:37Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. But how come you don't bust out the pinky just a little bit for the Leelanaw Peninsula, huh? Like a real Michigander would have done.

• 15:45Speaker 07

  I like that. I'm a west sider originally. I like that move. I've lost my touch apparently.

• 15:51Speaker 03

  It's alright, it's alright. Alright, tell us, uh, like what you're doing and why you're doing it in mid-July?

• 15:58Speaker 07

  Yeah, so today I am on my 40 acre parcel. I'm opening up the canopy. Um, so it's very heavily timbered parcel, not a lot of undergrowth or early succession habitat. And if you're a deer or a critter, usually five foot under is where you want all the food. So today I am opening up the sun to hit the ground in July because there's any time to cut a tree is the best time to cut a tree. So food pot season is around the corner and, uh, I'm getting some more work done today.

• 16:30Speaker 03

  Okay, so what, so you're, you're getting more sunlight to the ground? And, uh, you said the critters like it fi- five feet and under, like what do you, do you think this is gonna affect your hunting for this upcoming season? Like will just this amount of work in three months already have deer in there feeding on new growth?

• 16:49Speaker 07

  Yeah, there will be deer in here tonight feeding on the maple leaves that have hit the ground from the canopy that I've already cut this morning. And um, this is just helping all the oak regeneration and ash regeneration flourish before, you know, between now and frost. So uh, it'll definitely help by the time this hunting season comes around.

• 17:08Speaker 03

  So you, you think you'll have a tree stand in that spot this fall?

• 17:13Speaker 07

  I think when I'm done, I'm gonna have a tree stand or a saddle in that big gnarly oak tree back there. You can see that behind me or not, but um, that's my plan.

• 17:23Speaker 03

  Okay, just for uh, for references for, I guess for people working, uh, listening that, that are not watching on YouTube, uh, what's the diameter of this uh, opening that you're making?

• 17:36Speaker 07

  Oh, that's a good question. I'd say it's probably forty yards by eighty yards. It's kind of runs uh, lengthwise from another spot I have back here, which is a, a bedding area that I cut in the wintertime and springtime. And then there's agriculture that way. So it's kind of a little staging area, um, runway design in between the timber. I'm gonna have edge feathering on both sides. So they're still secure. You can't see very far in here, especially when I'm done with it. Um, you don't wanna be able to see more than like twenty, thirty yards at a time. That's where the deer feel secure. So just a narrow kind of runway through the timber with good uh, succession coming up and security cover on the sides.

• 18:18Speaker 03

  Talk a little bit, a little bit more about the thickness and, and why those critters feel uh, comfortable in there because I think that's been one of the things that I've learned the most like going down this, you know, whitetail habitat journey is that I, you know, growing up, the folks that I hunted with a lot, like when we would set up mostly for rifle, like you're always trying to spot, trying to be in a spot where you could see the most country because you figured you're covering the more, the most country. You're gonna have a better chance of, you know, seeing a critter and getting a shot. But now, it's almost like the exact opposite for me. I wanna like set up in a spot where my max shot's gonna be fifty yards.

• 18:55Speaker 07

  I learned the same way. I started hunting public land in Michigan on top of the hillside with a seven millimeter mag and see as far as you can. But I learned that over time, my best spots were the archery spots, even, you know, go and see thirty yards max. Um, you know, deer bed in those types of areas. They feel secure if they're gonna bed there. And they don't lay down all day long. They get up and they feed around five times a day. And if you can mimic that area where they feel comfy, you can get there and have them, you know, hopefully present a shot within daylight hours. Otherwise, the big park-like setting that this timber was before I started, um, they'll come through maybe right at dark and throughout the night. They just like to have cover nearby. They're, you know, they're creatures of edge and they feel secure.

• 19:42Speaker 04

  Got it. Um, fellas, any questions for Jared? Uh, you're just gonna leave those trees laying out there? Are you gonna get rid of them or what?

• 19:51Speaker 07

  Good question. So right now I'm in the, the fun part where you just drop and make a big mess, right? Kinda, kinda maze and pocket effect all over the place. But no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna come in here and clear a lot of the big trunks out. Um, feed the worms as they rot and push them off to the sides. Maybe use some as firewood. But no, they'll be, this will be all cleared up. Um, the edges where you see along the back, that will remain. So I'll push yourself off to the edges and create some, some habitat there and some structure, uh, for, for sight blockage. I don't want them to be able to see too far. So now I'll be cleaning this up, just out to that part of the stage yet.

• 20:29Speaker 06

  Jared, I grew up in northwest Montana where logging was king forever. It's kinda slowed down a little bit, but I had this theory growing up that deer and elk loved fresh cut, clear cuts. Like, I don't know if it was the sap off the trees that they would lick up, but have you ever noticed that critters like a fresh clear cut to get something extra out of those downed trees?

• 20:52Speaker 07

  Yeah, you nailed it. Northwest Montana is gorgeous. Uh, my beautiful wife went to school in Missoula, so I've, I've been out there and I love it. Um, actually, if you hold on just one sec, I'll show you what, what a clear cut looks like. Here is a like an oak stump right here. Can you guys see that?

• 21:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, we got it.

• 21:09Speaker 07

  And it's heavily browsed on. That's the stump. It's heavily browsed on. So that's what you're seeing. And what the clear cuts are doing, they're feeding all those animals with the fresh shoots with all the nutrients that are still on the ground from that root system. That's previously there from the big tree. So yeah, you nail it.

• 21:28Speaker 06

  It's always a good spot to sit in November is a fresh clear cut.

• 21:31Speaker 03

  Oh, man. But yeah, I know a lot of people are, are especially with this, like their possible rescinding of the roadless rule. They're real worried about like all this mega logging is gonna happen. I don't think there's gonna be as much that is gonna really happen. But like a little bit of logging in your area, man, I'm telling you, it's gonna be good for your hunting.

• 21:50Speaker 06

  Man, there's places in Northwest Montana, they're disgustingly overgrown and need to be logged for the health of the animals.

• 21:57Speaker 03

  Totally. All right, Jared, uh, thanks for the, uh, update from, uh, I guess I'd call that s- south central Michigan. Um, tell everybody, uh, watching and listening where they can find, uh, more information and, and, and watch and listen to your stuff.

• 22:15Speaker 07

  Thanks, Yanis. I appreciate it, guys. Um, if you want more of the habitat content where you try to make your property better for hunting and wildlife, uh, it's a habitat podcast. And if you want some food plot seed that's super attractive and also helps build the soil and maintain organic use and save you money on fertilizer, that's a fertilizer seed. So I appreciate the time for the shout out, guys.

• 22:35Speaker 03

  All right. Thanks, Jared. Good luck out there. Be safe.

• 22:38Speaker 07

  You bet. If you guys want, I can drop a maple as we roll out.

• 22:41Speaker 03

  Oh, there we go. Let's go. No one's, no one's gonna say no to that.

• 22:48Speaker 07

  I mean, isn't it in the entrance of the Meat Eater Podcast, right?

• 22:51Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 22:59Speaker 04

  Oh, he's out it pre-cut. Got a nice little wedge.

• 23:03Speaker 03

  Oh yeah, he had already done his face cut.

• 23:08Speaker 04

  Oh, that's a beauty.

• 23:09Speaker 03

  This is what this show's all about.

• 23:10Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 23:13Speaker 03

  Timber.

• 23:15Speaker 04

  Oh, look at it.

• 23:18Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:19Speaker 03

  Excellent.

• 23:21Speaker 03

  Bravo. Um, that right there makes me extreme, I have extreme, uh, FOMO right now. Because I would love to be, uh, in Wisconsin with my chaps on. Uh, Jared, I was just saying I have extreme FOMO right now because I'd love to be in Wisconsin with my helmet and chaps on and my saw in the hand, uh, going and cutting down maples. And I would actually be probably spraying that stump too, so that sucker doesn't spr- uh, sprout back on me. We'll talk about that next time. Hey, thanks again for joining us.

• 23:54Speaker 07

  Alright, see you guys. Thanks.

• 23:55Speaker 03

  See ya.

• 23:56Speaker 06

  Thanks Jared.

• 23:59Speaker 03

  Oh, I love it. I love it. I know, it's probably a real foreign concept to you just being a straight up western, western boy. Because like people don't do a lot of like habitat management. I think it's coming to the west. I think like the real high-end ranches it's happening on. Oh, for sure. But, like Paul Lewis, that just owns a small chunk in the, in, uh, some mountains not far from here. Like I haven't heard him talking about doing habitat improvements, you know?

• 24:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, I think it's all dependent on what kind of forest you got, terrain you got. What's gonna come out of it, you know?

• 24:33Speaker 06

  Sure. Yeah, my quarter acre in Bozeman doesn't need a whole lot of habitat enhancement.

• 24:38Speaker 04

  But the thing is like, you could like, in a lot of places, you can do that. If you have like valuable timber, you can do that and make some serious money.

• 24:49Speaker 03

  For sure.

• 24:50Speaker 04

  And my dad's, he's only got like 30 acres, but he's done a couple cuts in the last 20 years and made some coin and made it better for the deer, you know?

• 25:01Speaker 03

  Right. What was he mostly, you know, what kind of timber he was selling mostly? Did he have like a?

• 25:04Speaker 04

  Hard wood, like a very oak.

• 25:06Speaker 03

  Oaks and walnut maybe, yeah.

• 25:10Steven Rinella?

  If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your rig clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that have in my household, if you go look, open the door on any one of them, they all got WeatherTech. We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech. That way, when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault, doesn't matter. You take them suckers out and hose them off and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you've got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there, you're gonna be happy you did it. And check this out, American-made floor liners and cargo liners, okay? They laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weathertech.com. Listen, we're all trying to save up for something. I got buddies saving up to buy their new

• 25:54Steven Rinella?

  house. I got people eyeing a new boat. I know buddies that are trying to switch out trucks and get an upgrade in their truck, whatever. People are always saving up for stuff. In reality, though, we see that it can be hard to actually save money. But that's what's great about the One Pay app. It makes saving money easy. First, you earn 3% cash back on up to $150 in monthly spending. You choose categories, okay, like Walmart, gas, or dining, and then get rewarded when you spend in those categories. So you're rewarded for what you're already buying. And with high-yield savings, your money keeps growing. Download the One Pay app or visit onepay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters.

• 26:39Speaker 02

  One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Cash back is earned as points. Go to onepay.com/rewards/terms for redemption options and additional details.

• 26:54Steven Rinella?

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• 27:34Steven Rinella?

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• 28:17Steven Rinella?

  handcrafted hiking, hunting, and work boots, visit zamberlandusa.com.

• 28:24Speaker 03

  All right, our next segment is called, we're gonna come up with a better title, but today it's gonna be called Training for Hunting. And, oh no, I had two versions of it. Our next segment is called Hunting Fitness. This segment is brought to you by Mountain Ops.

• 28:42Speaker 04

  How about Hunting for Fitness?

• 28:44Speaker 03

  Hunting for, oh.

• 28:46Speaker 04

  It's not bad.

• 28:47Speaker 03

  Play on words there. Oh, I like it. Oh, Phil likes it. It's a punch up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. First off, fellas, I want to know, like, do you think this is a real thing? Do I really need to be fit to be a successful hunter? No.

• 29:03Speaker 04

  No. I don't think it's cut and dry. I know where you're going, but I don't think it's cut and dry.

• 29:08Speaker 03

  Oh, I don't have, I don't have an end goal here. It's just a question.

• 29:12Speaker 06

  If you've got some coinage, you don't have to get off your ass.

• 29:15Speaker 03

  Oh, right, right.

• 29:16Speaker 04

  And, I mean, look, there's dudes that road hunt, there's dudes that drive their four-wheeler to their tree stand and walk 10 feet, get in their tree stand, get back in their four-wheeler.

• 29:25Speaker 06

  And kill big stuff.

• 29:29Speaker 04

  So I think it's like situationally dependent.

• 29:34Speaker 04

  I'm not trying to say, don't bother at all. Don't get me wrong.

• 29:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:39Speaker 06

  Yeah, to each their own. You can hire.

• 29:41Speaker 03

  It's not mandatory.

• 29:42Speaker 06

  No, you can hire somebody to do it for you, but if you want to like really earn an animal, say a western Rocky Mountain elk, you better get fit.

• 29:50Speaker 04

  I think, yeah, it, it, it could be mandatory and I don't like the, the like extreme elk hunter athlete thing, I like so annoying that narrative to me, but like take running around in eastern Montana hunting like sharp tails and pheasants. Like you can cover a lot of ground and you look at that stuff and you're like, that's easy walking. You go do it for six or eight hours and it, it'll take it out of you, you know? So I don't think it's just this like killing a bull on top of the mountain thing.

• 30:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, it's not, it's not like you're gonna just wait, wait to get in shape for when you finally decide to go sheep hunting or you draw a sheep tag, right?

• 30:30Speaker 06

  Yeah. It's a lot more fun if you're in shape.

• 30:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, that, that's kind of my, I think takeaway and my thought is it's just like, it's easier.

• 30:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's easier and you can like enjoy yourself.

• 30:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:41Speaker 04

  Like you don't look at a thousand foot climb a, and like, you're like, oh God, you know? Then you get up there and you're sucking wind.

• 30:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, and you're only gonna do it once and really with elk hunting, and again, we kind of always fall back to that, but you're gonna have to do that multiple times, multiple days in a row.

• 31:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, rather than successful, I would say it makes you more efficient. Makes you more capable and you're gonna be more comfortable and you're gonna have more fun.

• 31:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, you would do more smiling. Alright, so what are you guys doing to get, uh, ready? It's middle of July. Are you guys thinking about already sort of doing a little, little fitness prep?

• 31:20Speaker 04

  Thinking about.

• 31:21Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's never not on my mind. Brody, you gonna go ahead?

• 31:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, like I keep it simple, man. Like I, I like, I don't, I don't, you don't need a gym membership. You don't need to pay for a personal trainer or a coach or whatever. Like I run and I do pushups and situps, you know, like I probably put in, I don't know, on average thirty-five maybe forty miles a week. I do, uh,

• 31:48Speaker 03

  That's a pretty heavy load, Brody.

• 31:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean.

• 31:52Speaker 03

  I mean, that's nothing to shake a stick at.

• 31:54Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 31:54Speaker 04

  Right.

• 31:54Speaker 06

  Trying to think of more than I'm doing.

• 31:56Speaker 04

  But, uh, And I also like, I think it's good to have a goal that keeps you motivated. Like you got your hundred mile race. I do a half marathon in early September, which keeps me going through the summer, you know? And I just think it's like, simple. You do cardio for legs and lungs, a little resistance with pushups and situps and like, I'm no superhuman athlete, that's for sure. And I still get tired out there. But I'm also like, I'm in my 50s, buddy. And stuff starts getting harder, like whether you want to admit it or not. So if I want to keep doing this, like that's that like.

• 32:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, you get to a point where it's not even a, do you or do you not want to? Like, you pretty much have to if you want to continue doing what we do. Which again, is not like the extreme hunting that, that, you know, some portray out there. It's pretty general, basic, you know, Western United States hunting, and whether it's upland birds or, you know, elk in the mountains, or deer out east, whatever, like.

• 33:02Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 33:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, if you want to keep doing it, you got to stay in shape.

• 33:04Speaker 04

  For sure. And I want to keep doing it as long as I can, you know? Like, the thing is, is like, I don't know how you were when you in your twenties, but like, I wasn't, even in my thirties, like, you can kind of get away with it, right? For a while, in some respects, like, you're just like grinding through it, you know, tough young guy, but.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, you could eat whatever you wanted, drink whatever you wanted. Can't do that anymore.

• 33:29Speaker 04

  But I also look back now and I'm like, what if I had been training then? Like, holy shit.

• 33:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. What I noticed too is that I used to just like, just start running, say in, I don't know, the summertime, and then I'd be ready to go for the fall.

• 33:46Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 33:47Speaker 03

  But like now, like, I can't even afford to do that. Like, I pretty much have to run, or just stay active somewhat through the winter. And then, you know, maybe up my volume of running, but like, you can't, you can't, you let it drop off, just like, the rebound takes so long to just get back to the baseline again, you know? What about you, Corey?

• 34:07Speaker 06

  I do a little running. I had a lot more motivation last year. Of course, we did that mountain marathon last year.

• 34:13Speaker 04

  Oh, you're not going for the Bridger Ridge Run again?

• 34:15Speaker 06

  Nope, I'm not. Probably one and done. I don't know, it was fun, but uh, I mean, my motivation's, yeah, just well, spring and fall and throughout the winter, trying to keep up with the animals I'm chasing. But I run a little bit. I have the seven mile loop that I do around town. It's got a couple of ups and downs to it. If I can do that under an hour, I'm feeling pretty good. Um, but come August, I'll really start thinking about it a lot harder. I'll probably stop running and do more mountain climbing with a weighted pack. I think kids call it rucking these days.

• 34:46Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 34:46Speaker 06

  Um, yeah, do a lot more of that, whether it's in my hunting spot or just here locally, just trying to find a steep hill. Um, I'll definitely start eating better too. Like a lot of people do dry January. I do dry August. Try not to drink as much, many beers.

• 35:03Speaker 04

  Oh dude, like I got, I cut the alcohol about whatever seven months ago.

• 35:08Speaker 06

  Hmm.

• 35:09Speaker 04

  Um, and I, it's, I think it ties into fitness for me. Like I got, I sleep better.

• 35:15Speaker 06

  Yep.

• 35:16Speaker 04

  Got more energy. My guts work better.

• 35:19Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 35:19Speaker 03

  I win more trivia games if I haven't been drinking.

• 35:23Speaker 06

  Yeah. See, if I'm sneaking a beer, I feel like I do better at trivia, but come August, I'll stop drinking. But then come September, while I'm hunting, I'm gonna crack a few Coors Lights out of the ice cold box, you know? Um, and then stretching is a massive one. I've skied my whole life and my knees and my back are already paying for it. And if I don't stretch like for a solid fifteen, twenty minutes every morning, I pay for it later.

• 35:48Speaker 04

  Pretty basic stretching? Or is it more like a mobility routine? Or what are we talking about?

• 35:52Speaker 06

  Mobility, yeah. A lot of basic stretches, hips, knees, back. And it just, it's amazing how much more you can get away with and how the aches and pains just aren't there if you just stretch.

• 36:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 36:02Speaker 06

  I've never had knee problems since I've started religiously stretching in the.

• 36:06Speaker 04

  When it comes time to throw a big load of meat on your back.

• 36:10Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 36:11Speaker 04

  Makes a big difference then.

• 36:12Speaker 03

  Oh man, I've said it dozens of times before, but when I was on my strict yoga routine for those two or three years. You know how you get stove up when you're bent over and elk gut and skin in, you know?

• 36:24Speaker 04

  It's painful.

• 36:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, and then like every time you stand up, you're like, oh, I don't know if I'm gonna make it back up to vertical. Like, when I was doing the yoga thing, like, I could do three elk in a row and never even have stove up come through my head, not once.

• 36:37Speaker 05

  Yoga or Pilates, so good for you.

• 36:38Speaker 03

  The core, I think, was just strong, you know?

• 36:41Speaker 05

  Yep, your back.

• 36:42Speaker 03

  Um, Tyler, uh, Jones from, uh, The Element, he recently posted that he was working out, getting ready for an elk hunt, and he was asking people on the internet, you know, what should I do, uh, any other, he kinda said, this is what I'm doing, should I add anything in? And, um, what I commented, and I think it's, uh, it's good to think about and remember, and, um, cause I've been caught on it too, and it really helps, is that when you're on your western elk hunt, like, he's gonna come up from Texas, right, he's probably gonna have a week or so, right? Or whatever hunt you go to do, if you're that kind of a hunter, and you're not just doing the weekend, right? You're gonna have to hunt five days in a row, seven days in a row. And I think your training kinda has to mimic that too, right?

• 37:25Speaker 03

  Cause if you're like, oh, I trained, and then you take a day or two off, and then I trained again, right? That's not what an elk hunt is like, cause an elk hunt is like, oh no, you pounded it hard day one, and then you really wanna do that day two, three, and four as well, so you really-

• 37:41Speaker 04

  A lot of people, yeah, that first day, especially if they're not like acclimating for a couple of days, hiking around for a couple of days before the hunt, like, and they just go like,

• 37:52Speaker 04

  go hard that first day, and then the second day, it's just like, whoa.

• 37:58Speaker 04

  You gotta maintain, man. Unless you get lucky, opening morning.

• 38:04Speaker 03

  No, yeah, who, who, who does that? I haven't killed anything on opening morning, I don't know, maybe ever. Um, alright, thanks Mountain Ops for sponsoring that segment, we appreciate it. Um, Phil, I think it's time for some listener feedback.

• 38:17Speaker 05

  Let's do some listener feedback, get those questions in for the crew if you have any. Um, we have a question for Brody from the Brothers Harrison, they ask, hey Brody-

• 38:27Speaker 04

  The Brothers Harrison.

• 38:28Speaker 05

  I'm a not-so-experienced walleye angler, what is your recommendation for baits and structure to start at on a smaller lake?

• 38:35Speaker 03

  Um, I am not an expert walleye angler, you should be asking this to Seth or, or, uh-

• 38:44Speaker 04

  Chester, but we fish like, I wouldn't call it a small lake, like our main lake that we fish is probably like, I think it's 2,500 or 3,000 acres. So it's not giant.

• 38:58Speaker 04

  And weed lines in the summer are like our go to spot. This, this time of the summer, it's anywhere from 12 to 20 feet deep off weed lines. It just concentrates the fish because that's where the little perch are. So like, that's one thing. And you can do like, you can jig those weed lines with a like soft plastics or throw a, have a crawler on a jig head. You can troll crank baits along those weed lines. You can run bottom bouncers. The other thing that I know Seth and Chester look for a lot are contours. So like, maybe you've got like,

• 39:41Speaker 04

  a bay that's 10 feet deep and then it drops off to 20 pretty quick. Those kinds of contours I know walleye guys look for a lot. I talk about, and we, we catch our share of walleyes, but like, I'm still learning. And luckily we got some good lakes around here to learn on. So that's, that's all I got for you, man.

• 40:02Speaker 03

  That is a pretty thorough answer.

• 40:04Speaker 05

  That was. Uh, Chris asks, as you know, it's the preference point application period for Wyoming and Montana. Is there a particular state or species where you guys are banking points or acquiring points, I suppose? Guys have a strategy or preferences?

• 40:22Speaker 04

  I mean, it's different for residents and non-residents, right? Like for us here in Montana. Like we already applied for our bonus points. We don't have preference points here as non-residents. But yeah, I'm building up points in Wyoming for. Mule deer and antelope. I got so many deer points in Wyoming, but like not enough to get the top tier tag. So I'm like, every year I'm wondering whether I should burn them or not.

• 40:51Speaker 03

  Yeah. Um, yeah, I don't know if there's anything still left open besides Wyoming, Montana. But yeah, I've already got my Wyoming points. I still do pronghorn, mule deer, elk down there. Um, what else do I apply? I get, uh, I get points in Arizona. And then I think just Idaho and New Mexico, I apply, but that's not a point system. That's just a straight lottery. Um, oh, and then Colorado. And you know, it would be a lot less. But the reason I still do Colorado is because we lived there for a long time. So I started banking points when, when I was a resident and it was cheap. And now I feel like I can't stop. And I guided in Arizona. And so I already had to buy the hunting license and then the points were cheap. And so they kind of got me.

• 41:36Speaker 04

  The one thing about points, man, like you gotta have some kind of plan because like,

• 41:43Speaker 04

  like you can't just expect like, oh, I'm going to get points for five years and I'm going to get some crazy awesome tag. Like you need to do research and see what your points are going to get you in whatever state or unit you might, species you might be interested in. Um, just having points isn't enough, you know?

• 42:00Speaker 03

  No, but man, it's like, it's kind of like, uh, when was a good day to, you know, any day is a good day. Nevermind. I'm gonna skip that one. Um,

• 42:09Speaker 04

  Relive.

• 42:09Speaker 03

  Get, get the points because you just have to start and maybe do your research once you already have five points, but like you'll be so happy that, because I started right about at the age of 30 and now I'm coming on 50 and like it's finally, it gets taking 20 years to kind of be in that position and be like, oh, yeah, look at this. Like I'm, I have a pretty good chance to draw on that one or that one or that one. And it's going to be a once in a lifetime kind of a deal because I'm probably not going to apply for those same tags when I'm 70, you know?

• 42:40Speaker 04

  No, no. I'm just saying it's like, like it's, it's an investment over time. You put in.

• 42:47Speaker 04

  For 15 years at whatever 50 bucks a point, you know, you're.

• 42:51Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, it adds up. It adds up. Yeah, I would definitely like, uh, stick to one state or like, like, don't spread your money thin to where you just have a little bit here and there or like by 1.1 you're here and then another point another year here. Like, pick one, stick to it and make sure you're accumulating those and, um, yeah, and set your expectations. So I think like you're saying, a lot of people think that, oh, I'll just, you know, apply for 10 years. Next thing you know,

• 43:16Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 43:17Speaker 03

  I'm gonna have some, you know, I'll have the best tag in Wyoming.

• 43:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, you gotta study.

• 43:21Speaker 03

  Maybe not.

• 43:22Speaker 04

  You gotta study draw odds and, and things like that and figure out what your points are gonna get you.

• 43:28Speaker 03

  What else we got?

• 43:29Speaker 05

  Freddie Rick asks what the crew is cooking with, with their wild game this week. Freddie, hang out for another 20 minutes and you'll find out.

• 43:36Speaker 06

  Wow.

• 43:37Speaker 05

  Uh, River Rock Dental says, Phil, what determines the cast of the Meat Eater Radio Life crew? Seems like whoever isn't in a special meeting. This is a great question for one of the guys sitting at the desk right now because he did this for a long time. Corey, uh, it's not an easy process.

• 43:51Speaker 06

  No, yeah.

• 43:52Speaker 05

  It's a little tough with a, with a crew like ours who's constantly in and out of the office, sometimes without letting people know.

• 43:59Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's whoever's in the house on a Thursday from a 10:30 to 12:30 Mountain Standard Time. That's really it. I mean, and it gets tougher, obviously, as hunting season gets closer, but I mean, there's a reason why I'm here. Cause Steve's in Africa.

• 44:16Speaker 04

  Otherwise Steve would have done this episode.

• 44:17Speaker 06

  No, probably not.

• 44:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. Uh, well, we kind of planned it out.

• 44:23Speaker 06

  It's very planned out.

• 44:24Speaker 04

  I, I knew that I was hosting this episode for at least a month, I think.

• 44:28Speaker 06

  Yeah, we try and have it planned out at least three weeks ahead of time, but yeah, it's, uh, it's kind of a crap shoot. Everybody's so busy.

• 44:34Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 44:35Speaker 06

  All these guys, they're all, whether they're kissing babies at an event somewhere or out hunting, uh.

• 44:42Speaker 06

  It's tough to track them down, even on just a random Thursday, so.

• 44:46Speaker 05

  I thought this was a fun question from T. Patfield. He or they ask what other animal is the biggest nuisance to hunters? For example, gray squirrels hunting whitetail, or coyotes disrupting hunts, etc. Like, other wildlife or nature getting in the way of your hunt.

• 45:01Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 45:02Speaker 06

  Hmm.

• 45:02Speaker 03

  I actually don't think the gray squirrels actually are such a nuisance with whitetail. Coyotes disrupting hunts.

• 45:09Speaker 04

  I've had, on two occasions, I've had coyotes screw up a mule deer hunt.

• 45:14Speaker 03

  Oh, really? Like, they spooked your game?

• 45:16Speaker 04

  Actually, our, uh, I don't know if it made it into the episode or not, but the, the episode that I did with Steve and, like, Stephen Seven, we had coyotes come in on a very nice mule deer buck that I was getting ready to shoot.

• 45:30Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 45:32Speaker 04

  And

• 45:35Speaker 04

  there they went.

• 45:36Speaker 03

  But I thought all the does ran, the buck just stayed there, didn't it?

• 45:39Speaker 04

  No, no, he went over the hill with them. We watched him just

• 45:44Speaker 03

  Isn't that, is that in the first location or the second location?

• 45:46Speaker 04

  Second.

• 45:47Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 45:48Speaker 04

  Oh, that's right, because coyotes came in on the first location.

• 45:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, but the buck just stood up and then slayed back down. He was slick. He was slick. I once was, I think, calling in a coos deer by doing some rattling, and I had a buck coming around this basin, and I'm pretty sure he was coming to me, he's looking pretty determined, and then on the same trail, I could see a coyote going the other direction. And when they met, that kind of blew that whole deal. But, I would say, um, for me, cows, cattle.

• 46:18Speaker 06

  Hmm.

• 46:19Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 46:19Speaker 03

  Like, you know, as an elk hunting guide, you're, you're up on the forest a lot, and there's, you know, you're sort of at the tail end of the grazing season up there, in the first couple of weeks of archery season, this was in Colorado in September, and like, never fail, like, like, oh, there's a bugle, let's go! And all of a sudden, you're like, oh my God, we gotta go through 50 cows to get there, and like, there's no way you're gonna do that, being sneaky. Like, you're gonna bump one, if it's in the dark, then they all run off, and then guess what? There's no more bugling after the whole herd of herefords runs off.

• 46:52Speaker 05

  Yeah, we had Derek pop in and say that cattle, uh, has ruined multiple turkey hunts.

• 46:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, and like,

• 46:58Speaker 06

  Tricky.

• 46:59Speaker 03

  Deer will ruin a deer hunt a lot.

• 47:03Speaker 06

  Yeah, too many deer.

• 47:04Speaker 04

  Elk are ruining elk hunt.

• 47:05Speaker 06

  I've had wolves howl in September with bugling elk and then a pack of wolves start howling and then it's over. Try a different spot after that.

• 47:14Speaker 04

  I, I, I've had, um, I had a late season cow tag one time back in Colorado and it like had this herd like fricking dialed man. There's snow on the ground. Everything was lined up just right. Um, went back the next day and a lion had killed one. And herd's gone.

• 47:35Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 47:37Speaker 05

  Yeah, we have, uh, Ryan saying fall seasonal allergies screw up the most funds for him.

• 47:42Speaker 04

  I don't get fall. I get spring.

• 47:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's a big one for me. Um, Kai says kids on four wheelers. And then our, our producer Jake in the chat said that, that his kids too.

• 47:54Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 47:54Speaker 05

  The biggest, biggest nuisance.

• 47:58Speaker 05

  Cool. I think we're, uh, we're good for now, but if you have any more questions, we'll do this one more time at the end of the show.

• 48:03Speaker 03

  Thanks for the questions, everybody. All right. Next, we are interviewing Ashley Morgan Alvera, who is the research and education director at the Texas Invasive Species Institute. Ashley works on invasive species concerns associated with hogs, carp, doves, and aquatic pel- uh, excuse me, and aquatic plants. Ashley, welcome to the show.

• 48:28Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 48:29Speaker 03

  Hey, I don't feel like I did a real proper, uh, description of your job. Can you give me like a nice detailed layman's overview of what you do?

• 48:37Speaker 00

  I mean, I, I kinda liked it. Yeah. So I do research and education. I basically, I talk about invasive species. I live and breathe invasive species. So we do a lot of grant work for USDA AFIS to look for newly emerging ones. We do a lot of community outreach and then things like this. You know, like I was, uh, mentioning to you yesterday, it's like, I will talk about invasives at any point in time, just to kind of get everybody more comfortable with that term and aware with what invasive species are.

• 49:08Speaker 03

  All right, since you just mentioned that it's sort of like a term you're still trying to get people comfortable with, it's probably not really comfortable so much as it is just aware of, because you were telling me yesterday that the federal government didn't even really recognize that term up until, how many years ago?

• 49:26Speaker 00

  It was 1999, yep. President Clinton had to issue an executive order that finally defined what an invasive species is. So, people often mix exotic, ornamental weed, they'll use those words instead of invasive, but invasive is like a very special subset. So it's often a species that's not native to the environment that it's in, and it causes harm. So that's where something can become invasive, because you might have exotic animals that have been imported for hunting purposes and such, and so maybe their populations are maintained, and so that's gonna just be an exotic animal. But like down in Texas, you

• 50:10Speaker 00

  know, people were importing things like Axis deer, the deer got out, and now we have an invasive problem with them because they are outside of their normal area, and they're causing harm by competing with the native species. So it's that harm factor that really is what makes a species invasive.

• 50:28Speaker 03

  Okay. Now, Ashley, you came across our radar because producer Jake Birch found an article about the invasive hammerhead worm, which is a nasty-looking creature. Tell me what's up with the hammerhead worms and what we need to do about them?

• 50:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, so as I was mentioning yesterday, yeah, that's kind of like our little poster child right now. It's just a really unique-looking organism that catches a lot of people's attention, and it's what helps me start that conversation on invasive species. So this one, it's a...

• 51:04Speaker 00

  Predator of earthworms, so that's why we call it invasive. So this is one of those species that's actually been in the United States for over a hundred years. It was brought in when people were moving plants. And it got out of greenhouses because it can crawl and stick to just about anything. And then it's really in the past 20 years that we started realizing, wait a minute, it's eating our earthworms, this is a problem, it's causing harm. So really in just like the last 20 years have we started calling it invasive? And realizing like what it is, and that's some of the stuff too is realizing just because something's been here for a long time doesn't mean that it's it's a good thing. So that one definitely catches a lot of attention, but it's mainly a threat to earthworms.

• 51:49Speaker 03

  Okay, do you know, does it use that little hammerhead? Like what does the hammerhead part of that worm do? Do you know specifically if that the the shape of the body sort of like helps it in its day to day?

• 52:02Speaker 00

  So it doesn't have eyes and that head is basically full of receptors. So yeah, they will use that head to kind of survey for their their sniffing for their worms.

• 52:12Speaker 03

  I see, I see. But like it so, but it's been also in the news, not just because it's a nasty looking critter, but because it's got neurotoxins on it, right? That can actually be, I don't know, would you call it harmful to humans or?

• 52:29Speaker 00

  I'd say more annoying. So that's that's always part of my PSA with this thing too is because humans hear neurotoxin and they're instantly thinking, oh, it affects us, right? Because humans are very human centered. And the thing is that neurotoxin is to digest earthworms. So for us, it could cause a very mild allergic reaction. You know, like maybe if you encounter poison ivy. Or it can lead to kind of a more severe, but I've talked to thousands of people. I've only maybe known about 10 that have had any sort of. slight itch on their hands. So overall, we recommend don't touch them with your hands, but we do want you to remove them and kill them if you see them.

• 53:11Speaker 03

  Okay, how how should someone kill one? Because I heard you don't want to just cut them in half?

• 53:15Speaker 00

  Correct. Yes, they're flatworms, so they'll regenerate. You cut them in half, they suddenly become two worms. You got twice as many problems. So they're soft body organisms. They're susceptible to a ton of household products. So you can spray vinegar on them, pour salt on them, or you can remove them with a gloved hand, stick them in a sealed container and throw them away. Um, you know, I've had people say, oh, they're susceptible to blow torches. I say, well, I'm susceptible to a blow torch. Like, but yes, fire does work as well.

• 53:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, but a 12 gauge shotgun would work too. All right.

• 53:50Speaker 00

  It would, but that's a waste of ammo. Only a few inches.

• 53:55Speaker 03

  Good point. Um, all right. I feel like this is a great segue to take us to the um, to the earthworm uh, conversation because I recently found out through the habitat work that I'm doing in Wisconsin, that not only are earthworms not native, but that they can be invasive. Um, so tell us how earthworms impact our landscape.

• 54:18Speaker 00

  Yes. So that's something that I also was learning a few years as well, too. So it's just really important for everybody to remember that earthworms in general, your European earthworms, those red wigglers that you use in your gardens, your compost piles, even as bait, they are not native to the United States. They were brought over by the colonists because the colonists said, hey, this is great in our garden. We're starting a new column, like, let's bring our life with us. And so earthworms are very good at um, nutrient cycling, and that's why we keep them in our gardens. And they're really good in our agricultural fields. But the thing is, North American forests, prairies, all of our natural landscapes, they have adapted to not have any kind of earthworm.

• 55:03Speaker 00

  They don't need things milling about, breaking down the leaf litter. They need the leaf litter to stay there on the ground. So even if a European earthworm, right, our, our nice little aerating one, if that gets thrown into a forested area, it can start removing all that leaf litter and it starts exposing tree roots and, and all of this. So it's really important that earthworms, who kind of view as more naturalized, like a honeybee, but they actually do cause problems. So it's really important that, um, especially when you're done fishing, please don't dump any worms in the lake. Yes, in theory, most of them drown, but it just takes a couple of them to make it to the shore and start over.

• 55:46Speaker 00

  And then they're inhabiting a natural area that genuinely does not need them.

• 55:53Speaker 06

  Did you know that, Corey? No, no clue. That's why I fly fish.

• 56:01Speaker 00

  No worms at all.

• 56:02Speaker 06

  Touche.

• 56:02Speaker 00

  So what, and so what's been really not fun in all this is we've realized there's an invasive earthworm out there. It's called the Asian jumping worm. It's often sold as an Alabama jumper, snake worms, things like that. It is not from Alabama. It is not native. And this one is not even a nutrient cycler. So it doesn't even do the good stuff that the other earthworms do. So this other Asian jumping worm is just flat out invasive. And so that's one that we really need people to just be aware of, you know, um, talk to, I've talked to bait shops around here. You know, they say, they've called and I've, I've appreciated it. They say, well, I've heard about these jumping worms. Should I be breeding them? I said, please don't, please don't.

• 56:46Speaker 00

  They say, well, what about, you know, red wigglers? Yeah, of course, African night crawlers. I said, not a problem. Those are exotic species. They are not invasive. They still provide a good benefit. But again, it's just important to be careful with any worm. But yeah, those Asian jumping worms, they flail around. They look like little baby snakes. It's kind of like you'll look at a worm and you'll say, this is not like any worm I've ever seen. It's not, um, You know, it's not floppy, it flails around like a snake, and then it also just completely degrades the soil. It causes erosion, plants won't seed, all that kind of stuff.

• 57:22Speaker 03

  So they're just more aggressive than these other earthworms that you've been talking about?

• 57:27Speaker 00

  Yes, yes, these Asian jumping worms, they're, we won't even like say that they're good in one environment. They're just flat out bad and we want them out. But the problem is, they look a lot like the other earthworms. And that's why it's one of those sneaky invases where um I became more aware about it. Five years ago, I put up something on our website two years ago, and within three months, I got reports from Houston, Dallas, Austin, and I think along the coast. And it's one of those with a state this size, if you get hits that quickly, it means that the worm's probably been in our soil for a long time. We just didn't know any better.

• 58:05Speaker 03

  Hmm, hmm, okay. Um, I feel like we'd be remiss not to bring up hogs while talking to you since um, you know, that is like the uh, the the poster child for invasive species, right? Especially in Texas. So what stance does the Texas Invasive Species Institute take on them?

• 58:24Speaker 00

  Please remove them. Please remove them. So in, at least in Texas, there isn't it. You don't need a permit to hunt. The, the state wants you to remove them. Um, so that's kind of how we feel as well. Please remove them when you're out, when you're out hunting. If your state doesn't require any sort of permit, please, please kill them. Um, but especially for us, I get that question asked a lot, like, well, what are you gonna do about hogs? And I have to say, well, the conquistadors brought them over in the 1500s. So we're not going to win that war, but we can at least slow the spread, win on a, a local level, or at least stop it from invading every state in the United States.

• 59:06Speaker 03

  What about, Ashley, what about AODAD? Like I, I saw that recently Texas like legalized shooting those suckers from uh, from helicopters, like air gunning them? Are, do, do you guys do it? Like, did, are they considered an invasive species in Texas?

• 59:24Speaker 00

  They must be if they're, well, no, if they're allowing permits. It might be one of those where they're trying to prevent it to become more problematic like an access.

• 59:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 59:34Speaker 00

  Where you know it was imported, it's getting a little out of control. And so I think they're trying to cull it before it becomes just outright invasive. So that might be why they're like lifting or allowing more types of hunting to happen.

• 59:50Speaker 00

  It's one of those like borderline ones where it's like the state's like, hmm, we'll allow it for right now.

• 59:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 59:59Speaker 03

  Uh, fellas, any other questions for Ashley? No, I'm good. Hey, thanks for taking the time, Ashley. We really, really appreciate it. And, um, yeah, hopefully this helps, man. Everybody, uh, dispose of your worms properly. Watch out for them jumping ones.

• 1:00:14Speaker 00

  Yes, please, and clean drain and dry your boats. I just want to say, you know, naturalists and outdoorsmen, you're kind of like our first line of defense. So it's really up to y'all to help. Just clean your equipment before you leave your site. So, but thank y'all so much for having me.

• 1:00:31Speaker 03

  Okay, thank you. Have a good day.

• 1:00:33Speaker 00

  Bye y'all.

• 1:00:35Steven Rinella?

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• 1:01:56Steven Rinella?

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• 1:02:50Speaker 03

  Now on to Meat Eater Menu.

• 1:03:08Speaker 03

  Nice, Phil.

• 1:03:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, every time when we, is this a new segment? Or have we done this one before?

• 1:03:17Speaker 05

  We've done it before, but the drop is new.

• 1:03:19Speaker 03

  The drop is new.

• 1:03:20Speaker 05

  The drop is relative.

• 1:03:21Speaker 03

  I would just, I need to do more, I guess, pre-production on the next time I host just to make sure I can get as many new fill drops as possible. Cause that's definitely my favorite part. This is the segment where we all talk about what we've been cooking with our wild game lately. And today it is taco themed. First, we're gonna start off with a PSA I recorded yesterday just before I bleached my hair.

• 1:03:52Speaker 03

  Hey, it's Yannis Patelis from Meat Eater and I'm here with a hot tip slash public service announcement. This is regarding the, what's considered the unusable or tough cuts or sinew laced chunks of your wild game, okay? Like this like shank, I call them shank pieces, they're actually not the shank. It's a little muscle next to the shank. Um, everybody knows what I'm talking about. It's just got sinew all laced through it.

• 1:04:24Speaker 03

  There's some neck in here. Just, you know what I'm talking about. A lot of the lower legs and the neck is what, is what gets lumped into this category. Okay? So think about lots of silver skin and stuff that you like, you don't want to put it into the grinder. Yes, you could grinder, but do you really want to be chewing on all that silver skin while you're eating your burger? No. So instead, low and slow, cook it low and slow. Then you'll end up with a meat that can be shredded and turn into tacos, burritos, pulled meat, barbecue type sandwiches. It's easy and the, the, uh, the opportunities are endless for what to do with that meat.

• 1:05:10Speaker 03

  And now you're thinking, well, what happens with all that silver skin and everything in there? Okay, this stuff, if you go slow and low, five to six hours, it's just gonna slowly dissolve and it's gonna become part of the sauce and part of the juices. And it's gonna give you that wonderful silky texture that you're really looking for. Okay, so it's not, this is not just like a way to use this chunk of meat. This is actually a way to have some of the best wild game meals available. Because this silver skin, the connective tissue is gonna, it's gonna give you a great palate, great flavor. It's gonna make it seem more moist. Um, if you do the same recipe that I'm about to give you with just whole muscle cuts out of the back leg,

• 1:05:54Speaker 03

  you're gonna get a much drier product that you're not gonna be anywhere near as happy with, okay? So trust me, lower legs, live seeing you. Now, real quick, if you wanna just do the simplest version of this, chunk it up, I've been doing like two, two to three inch chunks, okay? I'm gonna brine it in a water, vinegar, and a little bit of salt mixture, okay? About a half cup of vinegar, I've probably got, I don't know, two, three cups of water in here, but about five cups or five pounds of meat. I don't know exactly what this does, but this is basically how you start birria or how you start barbacoa in those Mexican taco dishes. Um, it's been working excellent for this stuff.

• 1:06:38Speaker 03

  So I'm just gonna brine it in here, but today, instead of doing those fancy Mexican dishes, I'm just gonna make it so it's ready for pretty much anything. My plan is to do pulled meat barbecue sandwiches. But I'm gonna brine it for thirty minutes, then, without searing it, I'm just gonna put it into my, uh, gut oven. This joker right here, all of this meat. I'm gonna rinse it first, I'm gonna rinse my brine off, I'm gonna put it all in there, and then I'm gonna cover it with some kind of stock, chicken stock, beef stock, whatever. Just barely cover it, put a lid on it, and in my oven at two sixty for probably five to six hours, until it's fork tender, so you can pull it apart with a, pull it apart with a fork, and then take it off.

• 1:07:23Speaker 03

  At that point, when it cools, I'll put it out on a sheet pan. I'll pick it, if there are any of the bigger chunks of... Uh, sing you silver skin, whatever left, pull those out. There won't be many. We'll put it back in there with the juices and then the world is your oyster. Barbecue sauce, salsas, whatever. You do as you please. You're going to be extremely happy with the results. Okay? So use your lower leg meat, cook it low and slow. Um, you'll find that you'll be reaching for that more than you're reaching for a lot of the whole muscle cuts. Um, add your wild game. Thanks for listening.

• 1:08:05Speaker 04

  Nice tip, Yannis.

• 1:08:06Speaker 03

  What do you boys think about that?

• 1:08:08Speaker 04

  I think it's a good segue into what I'm going to talk about.

• 1:08:11Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:08:12Speaker 04

  You don't, you don't have anything to add there? You covered it all?

• 1:08:14Speaker 03

  I sure hope so. I felt pretty thorough.

• 1:08:18Speaker 06

  I was distracted because the chat was so worried about your missing drawer.

• 1:08:23Speaker 06

  It looked like right below your sink, maybe a little shortcut to your trash can.

• 1:08:27Speaker 03

  I can give you a quick explanation of that. That's funny. Uh, I'll actually love it. It's the best thing that's ever happened in the kind of a weird way. We're in a, uh, you know, a kitchen remodel is probably going to take 15 to 20 years. But, uh, we put a new sink in and the measurements were off to the point where that drawer could not be in, in there anymore. What, when the sink was in there, right? But the sink was more important than the drawer. Well, what's underneath that missing drawer is the trash can.

• 1:08:57Speaker 06

  Perfect.

• 1:08:58Speaker 03

  And so it's pretty much like being at a McDonald's where you don't have to open the trash can slider every time. You just want to drop something in there. Now, if you've got something big and messy, yeah, you got to open the trash can. But if it's just like a, you know, you blow your nose, Kleenex, just right through the hole, psh, plops right in. So when I complete this whole remodel and there's maybe some new cabinets, I'm going to incorporate that. I'll probably have a little swinging door, you know, not just a hole. I have a little swinging door, but, uh, yeah, it's awesome. I hate dealing with trash cans. I love having them hidden away, tucked away. I don't like one in the middle of the kitchen and, and where it's just always, I don't know.

• 1:09:36Speaker 05

  Shout out to Leland for solving the mystery before you, uh, you announced it. That was, that was his theory. So.

• 1:09:42Speaker 03

  Good work, Leland.

• 1:09:44Speaker 06

  Anywho.

• 1:09:45Speaker 04

  Um, yeah. So going back to Yannis's video, all that, everything he said applies to wild turkey legs and wings.

• 1:09:55Speaker 04

  Which is Philly, you got teed up there. Um, uh, so we're talking tacos.

• 1:10:02Speaker 03

  Fresh.

• 1:10:02Speaker 04

  So the other day I made tacos out of turkey thighs, drums, wings. Like save your turkey wings. I know it's a pain. Get those wings off of a gobbler, but it's worth it. There's enough meat there to make it worth it. So I, I cooked those things the exact same way you honest just described with that shank and shoulder and other tough like deer cuts. Um, and then what you do is you, uh, you shred it up. And then you gotta, gotta crisp it up. And I like, I've crisped this stuff up.

• 1:10:40Speaker 04

  A couple of different ways. You can do it in a cast iron pan. Um, you can put it under a broiler, which is I think Steve likes to do it, but this time. I got a, uh, I got one of those big Blackstone suckers for Christmas.

• 1:10:54Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 1:10:55Speaker 04

  And I did.

• 1:10:56Speaker 03

  Like a big flat top grill.

• 1:10:57Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I did it on there. Um, and the, and it worked. It was so much, it just was, it worked great, man.

• 1:11:07Speaker 03

  What kind of grease did you use?

• 1:11:09Speaker 04

  Uh, there's a little olive oil and I did, did a mix of olive oil and I think canola, but I'm not like attacking it with super high heat. So I try to do olive oil. It's got a low smoke point, you know, so you can't get after it too hard. But either way, the great thing about that big outdoor griddle is I was able to cook the tortillas while I was cooking the meat. And so that made, that made it nice. I'm not dirtying up a bunch of pots and pans. Um, and those things like we eat them more like a, like a Mexican street taco, like real simple cilantro.

• 1:11:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:11:46Speaker 04

  Little chopped onion, queso fresco. Like, don't be putting American taco cheese on there. Don't be dumping half a bottle of paste salsa on there. Like, keep it simple. And, and they're very, very, very, very good. Just awesome stuff.

• 1:12:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's amazing. If you do the meat right, how well a taco can taste when it's just tortilla, meat, fresh onions, and usually white.

• 1:12:10Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:12:10Speaker 03

  More of that, more of that bite.

• 1:12:12Speaker 04

  Cilantro.

• 1:12:13Speaker 03

  And cilantro, it's really all you need. Even, even that, um, the cotilla or the queso fresco is like. You know, it's nice, but you don't, definitely don't have to have it.

• 1:12:22Speaker 04

  And you can put a little like spicy hot sauce on there, maybe if you, you want a little heat. But yeah, I, I, I'm not a fan of drowning it in red, red salsa.

• 1:12:32Speaker 03

  Yep, ditto. Corey, what about you?

• 1:12:35Speaker 06

  Man, I've been eating a lot of black bear recently. Last night, actually, made some black bear smash burger tacos. So talk about.

• 1:12:45Speaker 03

  Tell me more.

• 1:12:46Speaker 06

  Bringing the world together with tacos and burgers.

• 1:12:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, man, very international meal.

• 1:12:51Speaker 04

  Interesting.

• 1:12:52Speaker 06

  Yeah, the photo didn't turn out great. But yeah, it's a taco shell and a smash burger. Everybody knows how to make smash burgers these days. This, these are not homemade shells, but I did fry them myself to get them nice and perfectly crispy and folded them.

• 1:13:08Speaker 03

  So you started with a corn?

• 1:13:09Speaker 06

  Corn.

• 1:13:10Speaker 03

  A corn, uh, just tortilla?

• 1:13:12Speaker 06

  Yep, corn tortilla. And then, uh, I did cook half of it in oil. Fried it in oil, whatever. And then, uh, smashed the burger, flipped it over, being black bear, I really wanted to make sure it was cooked, which doesn't take long with a smash burger style. And then, uh, I took that half cooked tortilla, put the uncooked side on the outside, gave it a flip, put some cheese on it.

• 1:13:36Speaker 04

  So you're, you're like burger smashing the tortilla on there?

• 1:13:40Speaker 06

  That's typically, that's how I would do it. I did it separate this time, but yeah, I think that's the kind of classic way to do it. Smash it with the tortilla. But then you're only cooking one half of the burger. So I did the burger.

• 1:13:52Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 1:13:53Speaker 06

  And then flipped it and then tortilla on top, just to make sure it was fully cooked.

• 1:13:58Speaker 06

  And then I put a little bit of, uh, garden fresh romaine lettuce on there, garden tomatoes. And then that was my kid's meal there. He wanted some taco sauce on it. Normally I'd make like a fancy sauce. As Will Ferrell put it, uh, ketchup and mayonnaise with a little dill sauce in there. But, uh, so it's, you get that burger bite, but it's in a taco shell. Yanni, I think I made some for you when we were out pronghorn hunting a couple of years ago.

• 1:14:26Speaker 03

  You did?

• 1:14:26Speaker 06

  You, me and Max Barta, they must not have been that memorable.

• 1:14:29Speaker 03

  You made ta- uh, burger tacos?

• 1:14:32Speaker 06

  Smash burger tacos. I think that was with some elk, but you must've been tired.

• 1:14:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was tired. I got a question for you. When you do, uh, ground bear meat, uh, do you add any fat?

• 1:14:43Speaker 06

  I do.

• 1:14:44Speaker 03

  You do?

• 1:14:45Speaker 06

  Not, not as much as a deer or elk.

• 1:14:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:14:48Speaker 06

  But definitely threw in some pork fat.

• 1:14:49Speaker 03

  Just a little bit.

• 1:14:50Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:14:51Speaker 03

  Okay, cuz I haven't ground mine yet and I'm wondering, what about you? You've had some bears? You ever ground your bear meat?

• 1:14:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, if I'm making sausage or whatever, I'm gonna add a little bit.

• 1:15:00Speaker 03

  What about just regular old ground?

• 1:15:03Speaker 04

  I don't think I made any of the last bear I shot. I think I did all sausage.

• 1:15:07Speaker 03

  Cuz like when you handle the meat, like my hands get greasy.

• 1:15:10Speaker 06

  There's fat in there.

• 1:15:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:15:11Speaker 03

  And so I'm wondering like if I need to do it.

• 1:15:13Speaker 04

  But I still think you're missing like, like if you were to slice a bear's thigh, like thigh muscle.

• 1:15:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:15:20Speaker 04

  Down the mid, like crosswise, is there like, are you seeing like internal fat in there? You know what I mean?

• 1:15:27Speaker 06

  Little bit. Not, not a, not a.

• 1:15:30Speaker 03

  Like I said, I feel like you can feel it more than you can see it.

• 1:15:33Speaker 06

  Yeah, on the outside.

• 1:15:34Speaker 04

  Do a few pounds one way and.

• 1:15:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:15:36Speaker 04

  Without, you see.

• 1:15:38Speaker 06

  Yeah, I did it and it just cooked so much better, you know, there's, there's just a little bit more fat to cook.

• 1:15:42Speaker 03

  I will say I recently did some, uh, ground, just cuz of the way that the portions ended up, that I had maybe five pounds left of deer meat and I didn't have any fat to mix into it. I was making meatballs. And then the leftovers, I was like, well, I'm just gonna freeze this ground, but I didn't have any fat for it. So I just did it, just plain deer meat. And it's been fine.

• 1:16:01Speaker 06

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:16:01Speaker 03

  It's, I've been just salt and pepper and making patties and the burgers have been coming out just fine.

• 1:16:08Speaker 06

  Yeah, and you can add an egg to it if you're really worried about it.

• 1:16:10Speaker 03

  Yeah. Okay, um, I guess a little more feedback, Phil.

• 1:16:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, last call for questions. Uh, we're a little light right now and I get, we get questions like this a lot, almost every week and I normally don't pick them because it's kind of a big topic. But everyone has their own opinion on it, so I'm gonna bring it up now. It's kind of a big general question, but Ethan Blair, Realtor and auctioneer, he's just a Swiss Army knife, this guy. Uh, he says, we're wanting to experience hunting out west next year. We're focused on elk, but open to other big game. What would you recommend for prep? And would you go DIY or hire an outfitter?

• 1:16:47Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 1:16:50Speaker 04

  First trip, I'm assuming.

• 1:16:52Speaker 05

  Sounds like it.

• 1:16:53Speaker 06

  Yup.

• 1:16:54Speaker 04

  If you can afford an outfitter, it's not a bad way to go.

• 1:16:57Speaker 06

  Yeah. Take a lot of guesswork out of it. That's my answer too. I'd hire a guide.

• 1:17:02Speaker 03

  Especially if it's gonna be like a one and done thing.

• 1:17:04Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:17:05Speaker 03

  But if you're like, oh, we're gonna start doing this and making an annual tradition.

• 1:17:08Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:17:08Speaker 03

  And, and I've got like the next 10 years, like I'm gonna become an elk hunter.

• 1:17:12Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:17:13Speaker 03

  You know, go DIY.

• 1:17:14Speaker 04

  And you can kinda do a combo. You could do an outfitter drop hunt where they're gonna

• 1:17:19Speaker 03

  Right.

• 1:17:20Speaker 04

  pack you into a decent area.

• 1:17:22Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:17:23Speaker 04

  Help you pack all your stuff in, pack all your stuff out, but you're out there hunting on your own.

• 1:17:27Speaker 06

  Yup.

• 1:17:27Speaker 03

  Do your homework, man. Call, call a lot of, uh, referrals, you know, if you're looking at the outfitter thing. Um, other preparation? I don't know. Go back to listen to earlier in the show.

• 1:17:40Speaker 06

  Yeah, get in shape.

• 1:17:41Speaker 04

  Get in shape and shoot your gun or your bow.

• 1:17:43Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 1:17:44Speaker 06

  Yup.

• 1:17:46Speaker 05

  Uh, Nathan, I've been seeing this question for weeks. I don't pick it because I have no effing idea. I'm not a part of these conversations. This is about the first light waiters. When will they be available?

• 1:17:56Speaker 06

  Hmm.

• 1:17:57Speaker 05

  I'll try to get some info for you, an update. Um, but, uh, I'm sorry, I'm not the guy to come to this. I don't know if anyone, anyone at the table can speak to this. Yeah, I didn't think so.

• 1:18:06Speaker 04

  How about you, Corey?

• 1:18:07Speaker 06

  I have the power of knowing this right in front of me, actually. I saw these come up earlier. There was a whole chat about waiters that look like.

• 1:18:13Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:18:14Speaker 06

  Uh, I have the,

• 1:18:15Speaker 05

  It's this summer.

• 1:18:15Speaker 06

  I have the date right in front of me, but just the way things have been going with the waiters, I will say very soon.

• 1:18:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:18:21Speaker 06

  And leave it at that.

• 1:18:22Speaker 05

  That's a great answer.

• 1:18:23Speaker 04

  Global economy kinda thing.

• 1:18:25Speaker 06

  Yeah, but very, very soon. They're like in stock, ready to roll, so.

• 1:18:28Speaker 05

  Yes. Would you believe that this tariff stuff has affected us in some way?

• 1:18:32Speaker 06

  Yeah. No, get excited though. They're badass.

• 1:18:36Speaker 05

  Cool. Well, great. I'm glad I brought it up because I normally just skip right, right past those ones. Uh, let's see. T. Patfield, once again, asks, best snack in the stand?

• 1:18:45Speaker 06

  Hmm.

• 1:18:46Speaker 05

  Hmm.

• 1:18:47Speaker 06

  Jerky.

• 1:18:49Speaker 03

  I like, I mean, if I really just had to pick one go to in the last five years of deer hunting in Wisconsin, it would be my, uh, liverwurst and butter, uh, sandwiches on Latvian rye bread. Now, all of you can probably get your hands on some good liverwurst, but, uh, that Latvian rye bread's a little harder to get a hold of.

• 1:19:10Speaker 04

  That's not a snack, though, man.

• 1:19:12Speaker 03

  That's a meal.

• 1:19:12Speaker 04

  It's not.

• 1:19:13Speaker 03

  It might be, but.

• 1:19:14Speaker 06

  That's a meal.

• 1:19:15Speaker 04

  Come on, a snack.

• 1:19:16Speaker 03

  I think when they're asking about snacking the stand, it's like anything that's gonna sustain you as you're going throughout the day.

• 1:19:22Speaker 06

  PB and J.

• 1:19:22Speaker 03

  But I do eat a couple, multiple of those. I'll usually, and I pack a breakfast sandwich in there, too.

• 1:19:28Speaker 06

  Ooh, there you go.

• 1:19:29Speaker 03

  I've gone to not eating really breakfast before hunts and really just packing in food that I will, as soon as I'm set, whether I'm glassing or I finally get in the stand, I'm gonna start eating at that point. There's no reason to waste the time at whatever, four o'clock in the morning, putting down food, you know?

• 1:19:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, I agree there. Um, I eat all ki- I don't, I mean, I eat all kinds of different stuff.

• 1:19:52Speaker 03

  The thing with us, uh, Pat's Field, is that we get to hunt so much that all snacks, all snacks, all snacks get old after a while. You gotta keep it fresh, man. Variety's the spice of life. Um, yeah, man. So I'll switch up the candies, I'll switch up the bars, some chocolates sometimes, I don't know.

• 1:20:14Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's why I say jerky. There's a million flavors you can toss in your jerky, and every bite reminds you why you're out there.

• 1:20:20Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 1:20:21Speaker 06

  Meat, yeah.

• 1:20:22Speaker 03

  What else, Phil?

• 1:20:23Speaker 05

  Yanni, your, uh, your new hairstyle inspired Chase to do some freestyle rap in the live chat. He's asking, he's asking me to recite it. Uh, Chase, I'm not gonna do it dry right now, cause, you know, rap cadences, they require a little bit of practice. You gotta, you gotta really dig in. Uh, if I have time, I'll go back and read them and see if I can prepare something, but no promises, uh, whatsoever.

• 1:20:44Speaker 04

  Well, I'm excited, Phil.

• 1:20:45Speaker 05

  Oh, great, now I have to do it. Um, Russell says, DIY Alaska Moose Hunt this September. Have two rifles in the safe, 300 Weatherby mag and a 338 Win Mag, your choice of these two.

• 1:20:56Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 1:20:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, which one you shoot better?

• 1:21:00Speaker 06

  They're both gonna whack 'em.

• 1:21:02Speaker 03

  Yep, both those calibers are gonna do just fine.

• 1:21:05Speaker 04

  If you can shoot 'em.

• 1:21:07Speaker 03

  If you can shoot 'em.

• 1:21:08Speaker 04

  If you can shoot a 270 Winchester better.

• 1:21:11Speaker 03

  Shoot, take that.

• 1:21:12Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:21:13Speaker 03

  And yeah, make sure you got a good bullet. I'm not gonna like throw any bullet companies or bullet models under the bus here, but uh, both those calibers with a cheap bullet might not do the job. So make sure you got a good bullet that's gonna stick, stay together and, and really hammer them.

• 1:21:32Speaker 06

  Amen.

• 1:21:34Speaker 05

  Uh, James, I don't know this for sure, but just as someone who has done TV stuff, he uh, he asked, why does Meat Eater still make episodes 22 minutes long when they are primarily a streaming show? Well, the key word there is primarily because sometimes we make deals with TV networks and 22 minutes is still the standard length for a half hour episode of TV, but that's why we make so much other programming on our YouTube channels uh, that, that don't have to play within time constraints. So check those out, but um, but yeah, that's, that's the answer.

• 1:22:02Speaker 06

  Yeah, Phil.

• 1:22:04Speaker 05

  Uh, let's see, I think, I think that's good. I think we're good.

• 1:22:07Speaker 06

  Well, I don't think we can go through the entire show without bringing up uh, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4, Phil?

• 1:22:13Speaker 03

  Oh yeah. What did you decide? Are you gonna play it or not?

• 1:22:16Speaker 05

  We, we can't play it for, for licensing reasons, but my wife and kids are out of town and I, I made an Instagram reel um, that I had some fun with, so if you wanna.

• 1:22:24Speaker 03

  It's really good.

• 1:22:25Speaker 06

  I had some fun watching.

• 1:22:27Speaker 05

  If you wanna check that out, uh, PhilTaylor25 on the old Instagram. Um, it was fun.

• 1:22:32Speaker 03

  Let me ask you a question. What, the thing that caught my eye, the little Easter egg, was that when you grabbed the skateboard, the truck was loose.

• 1:22:40Speaker 05

  Uh, I have not, nobody has touched that skateboard in years. We inherited it from my brother-in-law and it's been collecting dust in the garage.

• 1:22:48Speaker 03

  Okay, but so you didn't set that up? Like it was, the truck was also, was already loose on the board?

• 1:22:54Speaker 05

  The truck was already basically falling off.

• 1:22:56Speaker 03

  Wow. So it was like, it was just waiting for you to make this real?

• 1:22:59Speaker 05

  It was waiting for me, yeah. And, and there's another Easter egg that the skateboard is themed as well, so go back and pause it and see.

• 1:23:05Speaker 06

  Ooh, better go again. This coming from the skater boy haircut over here.

• 1:23:09Speaker 03

  Oh man, yeah. No, that got me a little nostalgic too. I was like, man, I wish I had a skateboard kicking around. Although at my place, there's no place to ride it. No, it's all gravel, which is a bit of a bummer, but. All right, uh, thank you all for watching today. Um, if you're looking for some new uh, swag, Meat Eater's got some new hats out. I especially like this new one uh, from Wired2Hunt. It's pretty hip, in my opinion. Go check them out at the Meat Eater Store. You know where to find that. And again, thank you for watching and listening this week, and we'll be back next week, Thursday, 11 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. Adios.

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