00:00:04 Speaker 1: Smell us. 00:00:05 Speaker 2: Now, lady, welcome to meet Eater Trivia, the Metater podcast. 00:00:29 Speaker 3: You're live, Giannis. 00:00:31 Speaker 1: Welcome to me Eater Radio. 00:00:33 Speaker 2: I'm your host, Y hospital Us, and today I'm joined by Big Bad Brody Henderson and the capable Corey Caulkins. It's eleven am Mountain Standard time. That's exactly seven days, nineteen hours before I start my journey running one hundred miles in the crazy mountains of Montana. On today's show, we'll talk with Habitat manager manager Jared Van Heyes while he's hard at work on his Michigan property. Brody and Corey will share their pre hunting season fitness routine. Actually, 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. But first, since Spencer's not here, fellas, let's start off with just some general chit chat and catch up a little bit. 00:01:18 Speaker 1: Will the real Yannis Ptelis please stand up? 00:01:21 Speaker 2: Please stand up? 00:01:24 Speaker 1: Are you just saying that because I told you my wife's been calling the M and M see the live chat. 00:01:29 Speaker 3: Is exploding with eminem references. 00:01:31 Speaker 4: You look like slim shady. 00:01:32 Speaker 2: Okay, well, then there you go. 00:01:35 Speaker 1: I was not my goal. 00:01:36 Speaker 2: 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. You got like to have some fun with it, you know, dress up sure, and so I didn't really have any like costumes that I was gonna wear and didn't feel like that's gonna be comfortable running in that kind of stuff. So I thought, what could I do to be fun? 00:02:01 Speaker 1: Bleach my hair? 00:02:01 Speaker 4: It's great. 00:02:02 Speaker 2: The last time I bleach it, I went back in some photos. I was twenty one years old, so that's twenty six years ago. 00:02:09 Speaker 1: Last time I had hair. I was twenty one years old. 00:02:13 Speaker 2: Wow, did you ever bleach your hair? 00:02:15 Speaker 5: No? 00:02:15 Speaker 1: My like I had, like it wasn't that faky blonde, but it was very light like yeah blonde. 00:02:22 Speaker 2: Yeah, I had pretty blonde hair too. 00:02:23 Speaker 1: As a kid. 00:02:24 Speaker 2: I did diet a lot, though this was very nostalgic. To have my wife do this to my eggs 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. 00:02:37 Speaker 1: So you said it's all about having fun. You don't got like any nerves or anything like that. 00:02:42 Speaker 2: Oh, No, I definitely have some nerves for sure. 00:02:45 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:02:45 Speaker 2: 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, and I'm gonna be the dark course. 00:02:54 Speaker 1: I'm rolling in the eleventh place, and then like an hour later you're. 00:02:59 Speaker 2: Like, I don't know if I'm gonna finish. 00:03:01 Speaker 1: That's a long while. 00:03:03 Speaker 2: I know. We got clear trail last weekend. As we have to do volunteer work. You got to do an hour of volunteering for anybody that's going to participate in the race, and the race director would like you to do it around trail maintenance or 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 thirteen 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 get to like just quiz this guy and basically the main takeaway he was like, yeah, the first fifty miles is fun, then you find out what you're made of. 00:03:41 Speaker 1: I was like, oh right, yeah. 00:03:43 Speaker 2: Because you know that's the longest South done is basically fifty a little bit over and then so from there on now it's all virgin territory. And yeah, so there's definitely some nerves in there. But the taper has been easier this time than it has been for year races prior. 00:04:01 Speaker 1: You might want to explain taper to people who don't have any idea what you're talking about. 00:04:04 Speaker 4: Yees. 00:04:05 Speaker 2: So when you're training for a big race, I don't know, prior for any race for that matter, like depending on the race, I'm sure, depending on the athlete, anywhere from probably a week to three weeks prior, you sort of start tapering off the high volume and you know, extreme effort that you've been putting into the training and you taper down. You don't want to quit running all together because you're let your body will kind of forget about it, but you just like, so I've been I went from probably running fifteen mile fifteen hours a week for you know, two or three weeks prior to now down to like five or I had a week that was maybe eight, and like this week it's going to be like four. 00:04:43 Speaker 1: You're kind of resting up a little bit. 00:04:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, totally resting, but still maintaining. But 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. And I've had troubles almost like sleeping years years before, but this year has been easier. I've been keeping myself occupied doing other stuff. 00:05:06 Speaker 4: And yeah, that's what blows my mind about this one hundred mile race is the amount of time that you're just up and moving in a wake. Is there any like training to keep you rolling for what is it like thirty hours? 00:05:16 Speaker 2: Well, my goal is thirty I haven't really done any sleep deprivation training. I talked to my coach about it, and she's like, you know, she's like she felt like the damage that could possibly do 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'd like get up at three and be running at like four am and then go for like a four hour run. 00:05:43 Speaker 4: Man, that's great for getting ready to hunt. 00:05:45 Speaker 2: Huh yeah, exactly exactly. So, yeah, my wife is probably that's what she's going to be my crew chief, which means that she's going to run all my crew and my aid where they can meet me along the course, keep me fed, keep me loose 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 oul whatsoever. Like usually I can barely get I Love you out of my mouth and I'm out. 00:06:15 Speaker 1: You know what I mean. So she's like, and she's at one am, She's like, are you gonna run while you're sleeping? 00:06:22 Speaker 2: Like, how's that gonna work? 00:06:23 Speaker 1: I think you're like, you'll just kind of like, I don't know, I've never done it, but I think you kind of go on auto pilot for sure, you know what I mean. 00:06:30 Speaker 2: 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 and so they'll be there to keep me, keep me fired up. So what else and else did I want to bring up? 00:06:46 Speaker 1: Oh? 00:06:47 Speaker 2: Newest episode of Roast is out. It is a really good one, as they all have been so far. This one Sarah Delaney and Matt Miller faced off in a small game shootout and Brent Reeves and Clayon Nucombe judge them. Clay steals the show in my opinion. Everybody else is just kind of supporting actors. But it's a great episode. They do squirrels and then they have a little bonus rabbit that was killed that morning right here in Bosman, 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, and we look over and there's a lady from the office next door with the meanest scowl on her face. She's closing the blinds because we were just skinning and gutting this rabbit. 00:07:37 Speaker 4: She's in her office and can see all this. 00:07:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, she was not happy with us, but Anyways, if you want to see who won, go watch it. Like I said, it's a good episode and looks. 00:07:48 Speaker 1: Like there's some good kitchen mishaps in there. Yeah. 00:07:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, they both. They both almost almost burn us down, burned down the office, but they pull it out. 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, well, I'm not gonna. 00:08:09 Speaker 1: Give it away. 00:08:09 Speaker 2: You guys got to go check it out. Yeah, anything else, you guys are ready to move on all you? I mean, can you guys can keep chit chatting? Oh yeah, I mean Spencer would like you guys to add in onto into the chit chat segment. 00:08:24 Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean we always do. You were I thought you were moving on you just like anything else, move on. 00:08:29 Speaker 4: Well, we do have guests lined up for particular times of the show, you know, but we're not too over the top here. 00:08:35 Speaker 1: Now what have you been? Like Phil said, we don't ever, we don't ever stick to those times. No, No, what have I. 00:08:41 Speaker 4: Been up to? Man, Doing a lot of camping, a lot of fishing. My seven year old boys really into fly fishing right now, so like my dreams have come true, really, you know, but it's hunting seasons fishing. He's into catching fish, doesn't matter. 00:08:57 Speaker 2: How we were together because we were taking some pictures Meaty to Merge the other day and I brought a spin spinning rod and it it was really sad to me because it seemed almost as though Marshall had never even seen a spinning. 00:09:10 Speaker 1: This point in his life. 00:09:12 Speaker 2: And uh, I kind of 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 ring 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. 00:09:29 Speaker 1: My kid hopped on his bike last night and rode over to the local bass pond and did some fishing. 00:09:34 Speaker 4: Ie, yeah, I love it. 00:09:36 Speaker 1: Catch Anny. He caught a couple. It's like a like subdivision pond. Yeah 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 has been very good. 00:09:50 Speaker 4: Oh good to hear. 00:09:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're stacking some of those up in the freezer. Some of these uh suburban Bosman ponds though, man, like I know a couple of. 00:10:00 Speaker 2: Kids that hit it pretty hard. There's uh, if you kind of know the inside track, there's some there's some honkers out there. 00:10:07 Speaker 1: Yeah true, Yeah, for. 00:10:09 Speaker 4: Sure, I wouldn't want to eat them, but they're fun to catch. 00:10:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. 00:10:12 Speaker 1: Now, these these this is all just for the adventure of it, catch and release, is that it? 00:10:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, we can Spencer in the chat room today. 00:10:23 Speaker 3: Spencer's not in the chat We've got Randall Williams though, Randall saying he's just I think he's just trying to procrastinate writing. I'm sure doing an incredible job writing the next media. 00:10:34 Speaker 1: 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. Oh really because he gets so worked up. Yeah yeah, oh man, Well he's. 00:10:46 Speaker 2: Got to he's got to come back big. 00:10:49 Speaker 1: Well, he had like a what did he get like a five or a six? 00:10:52 Speaker 3: It was it was a tough game for Randall, uh this week, but he'll talk about it more on Trivia today. But Randall and I went to the bar trivia last night. It went well, I'll just. 00:11:02 Speaker 2: Say that much. 00:11:04 Speaker 3: Oh, I can't wait, so I think his spirits are high. 00:11:07 Speaker 2: Tune into future trivia episodes. All right, my buddy Jared van Hees is waiting. Let's get him on, Phil. 00:11:15 Speaker 3: Here we are. 00:11:16 Speaker 1: Our first guest today is Jared van Hyes. Jared is the host of the Habitat podcast, co owner of Vitalized seed company I 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. 00:11:38 Speaker 6: Hey guys, how are you doing today? 00:11:41 Speaker 2: We're doing great. 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. 00:11:54 Speaker 3: Something. Oh sorry, honest, that's all right. 00:11:59 Speaker 2: Oh, I like it. I like that T shirt Jared. I got one of those. I wear it all the time. 00:12:05 Speaker 6: Appreciate that. Thanks for having me on, guys, this is great. 00:12:08 Speaker 2: All right, So tell us you're in Michigan. What part of Michigan. You don't have to be too specific, but what part of Michigan. 00:12:14 Speaker 6: Well, you know what we like to do. We like to do this. That's right right down here, Southeast Michigan. 00:12:21 Speaker 2: But how come you don't bust out the pinky just a little bit for the Leland half peninsula. Huh, like a real Michigan or would have done. 00:12:28 Speaker 4: I like that. 00:12:29 Speaker 6: I'm a West Sider originally, I like that move. I've lost my touch. 00:12:33 Speaker 2: Apparently it's all right. It's all right, all right, tell us like what you're doing and why you're doing it. In mid July. 00:12:42 Speaker 6: Yeah, so today I am on my forty acre parcel. I'm opening up the canopy. 00:12:47 Speaker 5: So it's very heavily timbered parcel, not a lot of undergrowth or early successional habitat. And if you're a deer or a critter, usually five point numbers where you want all the foods. 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. 00:13:08 Speaker 6: So food past season is around the corner and I'm getting some more work done today. 00:13:14 Speaker 2: Okay, So what so you're you're getting more sunlight to the ground and you said the critters like it five feet under, Like, what do you do you think this is gonna affect your hunting for this upcoming season, Like, we'll just this amount of work in three months already have deer in there feeding on new growth. 00:13:33 Speaker 5: 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 this is just helping all the oak regeneration and ash regeneration. 00:13:44 Speaker 6: Flourish before you know, between now and frost. 00:13:46 Speaker 5: So it'll definitely help by the time this hunting season comes around. 00:13:51 Speaker 2: So, like you think you'll have a tree stand in that spot this fall. 00:13:56 Speaker 5: I think when I'm done, I'm gonna have a tree standard of saddle and that big gnarly. 00:14:01 Speaker 6: Oak tree back there, and you can see that behind me or not, but that's my plan. 00:14:06 Speaker 2: Okay. Just for references for I guess for people working listening that are not watching on YouTube, what's the diameter of this opening that you're making. 00:14:19 Speaker 6: Oh, that's a good question, I'd say it's probably forty yards by eighty yards. 00:14:25 Speaker 5: It's kind of runs lengthwise from another spot I have back here, which is a betting area that I cut in the winter time and springtime, and then there's agriculture that way, So it's kind of a little staging area 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. You don't want to be able to see more than like twenty thirty yards at a time. That's where the deer feels secure. So just a narrow kind of runway through the timber with good succession coming up already cover on the sides. 00:15:01 Speaker 2: Talk a little bit of a little bit more about the thickness and why those critters feel 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, white tail habitat journey is that you know, growing up the folks that I hunt 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 there, the most country you're going, the better chance of you know, seeing a critter and getting a shot. But now it's almost like the exact opposite. For me, I want to like set up in a spot where my max shot is going to be fifty yards. 00:15:38 Speaker 6: I learned the same way. 00:15:39 Speaker 5: I started hunting public land in Michigan on top of the hillside with a seven millimeter magus 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. You know, deer bet in those types of areas they feel secure if they're going to bed there and they don't lay down all day long. 00:15:59 Speaker 6: They get up and they feed around five times a day. 00:16:02 Speaker 5: 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, they'll come through maybe right at dark and throughout the night. They just like to have cover nearby their you know, the creatures of edge and they feel secure. 00:16:25 Speaker 2: Got it fellas any questions for Jared, Uh, you're just gonna leave those trees laying out there? 00:16:32 Speaker 1: Are you're gonna get rid of them? 00:16:33 Speaker 3: Or what? 00:16:35 Speaker 6: Good question? 00:16:35 Speaker 5: So right now I'm in the the fun part where you just drop and make a big mess, right, kind of kind of amazing 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, feed the worms as they rot, and push them off to the sides, maybe use as firewood, but no, they'll be this will be all cleared up. 00:16:55 Speaker 6: The edges where you see along the back that will remain. 00:16:58 Speaker 5: So I'll push yourself off to the edges and create some some habitat there and some structure for site blockage. I don't want them to be able to see too far. So now I'll be cleaning this up just to that part of the stage. 00:17:10 Speaker 4: Yet, Jared, I grew up in northwest Montana where logging was king forever. It's kind of 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 down trees. 00:17:35 Speaker 6: Yeah, you nailed it. Northwest Montana's gorgeous. 00:17:38 Speaker 5: My beautiful wife went to school in Missoula, so I've been out there and I love it. Actually, if you hold on just one second, I'll show you what what a clear cut looks like. 00:17:47 Speaker 6: Here is a like an oak stump right here. Can you guys see that? 00:17:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, we got it. 00:17:53 Speaker 7: And that's heavily browsed on. That's the stump that'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. 00:18:08 Speaker 6: So, yeah, you nail it. 00:18:11 Speaker 4: It's always a good spot to sit in November is a fresh clearcut. 00:18:15 Speaker 2: Oh man. But yeah, I know a lot of people are especially with this like they're possible rescinding of the ruleless rule. They're real worried about, like all this mega logging is going to happen. I don't think there's gonna be as much that is gonna really happen. 00:18:28 Speaker 1: But like a little bit of logging in your area, man, I'm telling you it's gonna be good for your hunting. Man. 00:18:33 Speaker 4: There's places in northwest Montana they're disgustingly overgrown and need to be logged for the health of the animals. 00:18:40 Speaker 1: Totally. 00:18:42 Speaker 2: All right, Jared, thanks for the update from I guess i'd call that south central Michigan. Tell everybody watching and listen where they can find more information and watch and listen to your stuff. 00:18:58 Speaker 6: Thanks to honest. I appreciate it. Guys. 00:19:00 Speaker 5: If you want more of the habitat content where you try to make your property better for hunting and wildlife, 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. 00:19:15 Speaker 6: That's a vitalized seeds. So I appreciate the time for the shadow guys. 00:19:18 Speaker 2: All right, Thanks Jared. Good luck out there, be safe. 00:19:21 Speaker 5: You might if you guys want, I can drop a maple as we roll out. 00:19:27 Speaker 2: Let's go. No one's gonna say no to that. 00:19:31 Speaker 6: I mean, isn't it In the entrance of the meat Eater podcast. 00:19:34 Speaker 8: Right, that's right, always got it pre cut that nice little wed. 00:19:46 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he had already done his face cut. 00:19:52 Speaker 3: This is what the show is all about, right. 00:19:56 Speaker 1: Timber Oh look at it, Bravo. 00:20:06 Speaker 2: That right there makes me extreme. I have extreme fomo right now because I would love to be in Wisconsin with my chaps on, 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, going and cutting down maples. And I would actually be probably spraying that stump too, so that sucker doesn't sprout back on me. We'll talk about that next time. Hey, thanks again for joining us. All right you guys, thanks thanks Jared. Oh, I love it. 00:20:44 Speaker 1: I love it. 00:20:45 Speaker 2: 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, it just owns a small chunk in in some mountains not far from here. I haven't heard him talking about doing habitat improvements. 00:21:08 Speaker 1: You know, yeah, I mean I think it's all dependent on what kind of forest you got, terrain you got, what's going to come out of it, you know? 00:21:16 Speaker 4: Sure, yeah, my quarter acre and Bozeman doesn't need a whole lot of habitat enhancement. 00:21:21 Speaker 1: But they like you could, like in a lot of places, you can do that. If you have like valuable timber, you. 00:21:29 Speaker 2: Can do that and make oh some serious money for sure. 00:21:34 Speaker 1: My dad's he's only got like thirty acres, but he's done a couple cuts in the last twenty years and made some coin and made it better for the deer. 00:21:44 Speaker 2: Right, what was he mostly? You know what kind of timber he was selling? Mostly hard, like a very oak chi wallnut maybe. 00:21:51 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:21:54 Speaker 2: All right, Our next segment it's called We're gonna come up with a better title, but it's going to be called training for Hunting and uh oh no, I had two versions of it. Our next segment is called Hunting Fitness. This segment is brought to you by Mountainknops. 00:22:11 Speaker 1: How about hunting for fitness? 00:22:14 Speaker 2: Hunting for Oh yeah, like oh Phil likes yeah, yeah. 00:22:22 Speaker 6: All right. 00:22:23 Speaker 2: 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? 00:22:32 Speaker 1: No? No, I don't think it's cut and dry. I know where you're going. Yeah, I don't think it's cutting. Oh I don't have I don't have an end goal here. This is just a question. 00:22:41 Speaker 4: You got some coinage, you don't have to get off your ass. 00:22:44 Speaker 1: Oh right, And I mean, look, there's dudes that road hunt. There's dudes that drive their four wheeler to their tree stand and walk ten feet, get their tree stand, and get back. 00:22:54 Speaker 4: In their four wheeler and kill big stuff. 00:22:59 Speaker 1: So I think it's like situationally dependent. I'm not trying to say don't bother at all. Don't get me wrong. 00:23:08 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, to each their own. You can hire mandatory. No, you can hire somebody to do it for you. Or but if you want to like really earn an animal, say Western Rocky Mountain elk, you better get fit. 00:23:20 Speaker 1: I think yeah, it could be mandatory. And I don't like the like extreme elk hunter athlete thing. It's like so annoying that narrative to me. But like take running around in eastern Montana hunting like sharp tails in peasants, 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'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. 00:23:53 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's not. It's not like you're gonna wait to get in shape for when you finally decide to go sheep hunt. You draw a sheep, right, Yeah. 00:24:00 Speaker 4: It's a lot more fun if you're in shape. 00:24:02 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of my I think takeaway. And my thought is just like it's easier. 00:24:07 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's easier, and you can like enjoy yourself. 00:24:10 Speaker 2: Yeah, Like you don't look. 00:24:12 Speaker 1: At a thousand foot climb and like you're like, oh god, you know, then you get up there and you're sucking wind. Yeah, and you're only gonna do it once. 00:24:22 Speaker 2: And really with el 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. 00:24:30 Speaker 1: 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. 00:24:41 Speaker 2: Yeah, you would do more smiling. All right, So what are you guys doing to get ready? It's middle of July. Are you guys thinking about already sort of doing a little little price thinking about it? 00:24:50 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's never not on my mind, Brody, You're going and go ahead. 00:24:54 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like I keep it simple, man, Like I like, I don't, I don't, you don't. I 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 push ups and sit ups, you know, Like I probably put in I don't know, on average, thirty five maybe forty miles a week I do. 00:25:18 Speaker 2: That's pretty heavy, loved Brody. Yeah, I mean, I mean that's nothing to shake a stick at. 00:25:24 Speaker 4: Yeah, right, I'm doing. 00:25:26 Speaker 1: But uh, And I also, like, I think it's good to have a goal that keeps you motivated, Like you got your one 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 push ups and sit ups, 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 fifties, 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's like, Yeah, you get to a point where it's not even a do you or do you not want to? 00:26:11 Speaker 2: Like you pretty much have to if you want to continue doing what we do. Yeah, which again is not like the extreme hunting that you know some portrayal 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 oud East whatever like yep, yeah, if you want to keep doing it, you got to stay in shape, for sure. 00:26:35 Speaker 1: 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're 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, but like you're just like grinding through it, you know, tough young guy, but yeah, you could eat. 00:26:56 Speaker 4: Whatever you want to drink whatever you want to. Can't do that anymore. 00:26:59 Speaker 1: But I also look back now and I'm like, what if I had been training then? Like holy shit? Yeah yeah. 00:27:07 Speaker 2: What I noticed too is that I used to just like just start running, saying I don't know the summertime, and then I'd be ready to go for the fall yep. 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 let it drop off, just like the rebound takes so long to just get back to the baseline again. 00:27:35 Speaker 1: You know, what about you, Corey? 00:27:37 Speaker 4: I do a little running. I had a lot more motivation last year. Of course, we did that Mountain Marathon last year. 00:27:42 Speaker 2: Oh you're not going for the Bridge Ridge Run again? 00:27:45 Speaker 1: Nope, I'm not. 00:27:46 Speaker 4: No, probably one and done. I don't know. It was fun, but I mean my motivations, 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 this seven mile loop that I do around town that's got a couple ups and downs to it. If I can do that under an hour, I'm feeling pretty good. 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. 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. 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. 00:28:33 Speaker 1: Dude, I got I cut the alcohol about whatever seven months ago, and it's I think it ties into fitness for me. Like I got a sleep better, yep, got more energy, My guts work better. Yeah, I win more trivia games if I haven't been drinking. Yeah. 00:28:53 Speaker 4: 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 coups like so sure ice cool box, you know. And then stretching is a massive one. I've skied my whole life and my knees in my back already paying for it. And if I don't stretch like for solid fifteen to twenty minutes every morning, I pay for it. 00:29:18 Speaker 2: Pretty basic stretching. Is it more like a mobility a routine or what are we talking? 00:29:21 Speaker 1: Mobility? 00:29:22 Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot of basic stretches, hips, sneeze 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. Yeah, I've never had knee problems since I've started religiously stretching in them. 00:29:36 Speaker 1: When it comes time to throw a big load of meat on your back, Yeah, makes a big difference then. 00:29:42 Speaker 2: Man, I've said it dozens of times before, But when I was on a strict yogurt routine for those two or three years, you know, you get stoved up when you're bent over an elk, gutting and skin in, you know, Yeah, and then like every time you stand. 00:29:56 Speaker 1: Up, you're like, oh, I don't know if I'm gonna make it back up to vertical. Like if I was doing the yoga thing, like I could do three elk in a row and never even have stoved up come through my head. 00:30:06 Speaker 4: Not once yoga pilates, because the. 00:30:08 Speaker 2: Core I think was just strong. 00:30:10 Speaker 1: You know. 00:30:13 Speaker 2: Tyler Jones from 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? 00:30:23 Speaker 1: Uh? Any other? 00:30:24 Speaker 2: He kind of said, this is what I'm doing, Should I add anything in? And where I commented and I think it's uh, it's good to think about and remember, and because I've been caught on it too, and it really helps. Is that when you're on your. 00:30:38 Speaker 1: Western el khunt, 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 hunt five days in a row, seven days in a row. And I think your training kind of has to mimic that too, right, because 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. Because an elk hunt is like, oh no. 00:31:04 Speaker 2: You pounded it hard day one, and then you really want to do that day two, three, and four, as well. 00:31:10 Speaker 1: So a lot of 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 go hard that first day and then the second day it's just like you got to maintain man unless you get lucky opening morning. 00:31:34 Speaker 2: No, yeah, who does that. I haven't killed anything on opening morning. I don't know maybe ever. All right, thanks Mountain Ops for sponsoring that segment. We appreciate it. Phil A Thanks time for some listener feedback. 00:31:47 Speaker 3: To do some listener feedback, get those questions in for the crew if you have any. We have a question for Brody from the Brothers Harrison. They ask, Hey, Brody Harris, I'm not so experienced whileye angler, what is your recommendation for baits and structure to start at on a smaller lake? 00:32:07 Speaker 1: I am not an expert WALLEYE. Angler. You should be asking this to seth or to Chester. But we fish like I wouldn't call it a small lake. Most like our main lake that we fish is probably like I think it's twenty five hundred or three thousand acres, so it's not giant and weed lines in the summer are like our go to spot this time in the summer. It's anywhere from twelve to twenty 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 soft plastics or throw a have a crawler on a jig head. You control 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 contour, So like maybe you've got like a bay that's ten feet deep and then it drops off to twenty pretty quick. Those kind of contours. I know, whileye guys look for a lot I talk about and 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. That thing, he's a pretty thorough answer. 00:33:34 Speaker 3: That was Chris asks. As you know, it's the preference point application period for wyoming in Montana. 00:33:41 Speaker 1: Is there a. 00:33:41 Speaker 3: Particular state or species where you guys are banking points or acquiring points? I suppose you guys what a strategy or preferences. 00:33:52 Speaker 1: 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. 00:34:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, 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. What else do I apply? I get points in Arizona, and then I think just Idaho. In New Mexico I apply, but that's not a point system, that's just a straight lottery. 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. 00:35:05 Speaker 1: The one thing about points, man, like you gotta have some kind of plan because like, like you can't just expect like, oh, I'm gonna get points for five years and I'm gonna get some crazy awesome tech. Like you need to do research and see what your points are gonna get, you know, in whatever state or unit you might species you might be interested in. Just having points isn't enough, you. 00:35:30 Speaker 2: Know, no, But man, it's like it's kind of like, uh, when it was a good day to you know, any day is a good day. Never mind, let's skip that one. 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 writing about at the age of thirty and now I'm coming on fifty and like it's finally it's taking twenty years to kind of be in that position and be like, oh, yeah, look at this, I have a pretty good chance to draw on that one or that one or that one, and it's gonna be a once in a lifetime kind of a drill because I'm probably not gonna apply for those same tags when I'm seventy, you know. 00:36:10 Speaker 1: No, No, I'm just saying it like like it's it's an investment over time. You put in for fifteen years at whatever, fifty bucks a point, you know you're. 00:36:21 Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, it adds up, It adds up. 00:36:23 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:36:24 Speaker 2: I would definitely like, uh, stick to one state or like like, don't spend your money thin to where you just have a little bit here and there, or like by one point one year here and another point another year here, like pick one stick to it and make sure you're accumulating those and yeah, and set your expectations. I think, like you're saying, a lot of people think that, Oh, I'll just you know, apply for ten years next thing. You know, I'm gonna have some you know, I'll have the best tag in Wyoming. 00:36:50 Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta study maybe not maybe, I gotta study draw odds and and things like that and figure out what your points are going to get you. What else we got? 00:36:58 Speaker 3: Freddy Rick asks what the crew is cooking with with their wild game this week, Freddie, hang out for another twenty minutes and you'll find out. Wow, River Rock dental, says Phil. What determines the cast of the media to 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. It's not an easy process. So yeah, it's a little tough with with a crew like ours who's constantly in and out of the office, sometimes without letting people know. 00:37:29 Speaker 4: Yeah, whoever's in the house on a Thursday from a ten thirty to twelve thirty 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 because Steve's in Africa. 00:37:45 Speaker 2: Otherwise Steve would have done this episode. 00:37:47 Speaker 4: No, probably not. 00:37:49 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well we kind of plan it out. 00:37:53 Speaker 4: It's very planned out. 00:37:54 Speaker 2: I knew that I was hosting this episode for at least a month. 00:37:57 Speaker 4: I think, Yeah, we try and have it planned out at least three weeks ahead of time. But yeah, it's it's kind of a crapshoot. Everybody's so busy. Yeah, all these guys there, whether they're kissing babies, at an event somewhere out hunting, it's tough to track them down, even on just a random Thursday. 00:38:15 Speaker 3: So I thought this was a fun question from Tea Patsfield. He or they ask what other animal is the biggest nuisance to hunters, for example, gray squirrels hunting, white tail or coyotes disrupting hunts, et cetera, like other wildlife or nature getting in the way of your hunt. 00:38:32 Speaker 2: I actually don't think the gray squirrels actually are such a nuisance. With white tail kyotes disrupting hunt, I've had. 00:38:39 Speaker 1: On two occasions I've had coyotes screw up a mule deer hunt. 00:38:44 Speaker 2: Oh really, like they spooked your game? 00:38:46 Speaker 1: Actually are I don't know if it made it into the episode or not. But the episode that I did with Steve and like Steven seven, we had coyotes come in on a very nice mule deer buck that I was getting ready to shoot. Yeah, yeah, and there they went. 00:39:06 Speaker 2: But I thought all the does ran the buck just stayed there. 00:39:09 Speaker 1: No, No, he went over the hill with them. We watched him. Just isn't it? Is that the first location in a second location? Second? 00:39:17 Speaker 2: Okay, that's right, because I came in but the buck just stood up and then slaid back down. He was slick, right, he was slick. I once was I think calling in a coups 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 predetermined. And then on the same track, I could see a kayak going the other direction, and when they met, that kind. 00:39:40 Speaker 1: Of blew that whole deal. 00:39:42 Speaker 2: But I would say for me, cows cattle, like you know, as an elk hunting guy, 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 is in Colorado in September, and like never fail, like like, oh there's a bugle, let's go, And all of a sudden're like, oh my god, we got to go through fifty 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 Herford's right. 00:40:21 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:40:21 Speaker 3: We had Derek pop in and say that cattle has ruined multiple turkey hunts. 00:40:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, and like deer will ruin a deer hunt a lot. 00:40:32 Speaker 4: Yeah, too many elk run and elk on. I've had wolves howl in September, bugle and elk and then pack of wolves start howling and then it's over. Try a different spot after that. 00:40:44 Speaker 1: I've had I had a late season cow tag one time back in Colorado and like had this herd like freaking dialed man or snow on the ground. Everything was lined up just right. Went back the next day and the lion had killed one. Heard's gone. Yeah. 00:41:06 Speaker 3: Yeah. We have Ryan saying fall season seasonal allergies screw up the most funds for him. 00:41:12 Speaker 1: I don't get fall, I get spring. 00:41:14 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a big one for me, Kay says kids on four wheelers. Our our producer Jake in the chat said that that his kids too. Yeah, the biggest, biggest nuisance. 00:41:28 Speaker 2: Cool. 00:41:29 Speaker 3: I think 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. 00:41:33 Speaker 2: Thanks for the questions, everybody, All right, Next we are interviewing Ashley Morgan Olvera 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 pill Yeah, excuse me, and aquatic plants. Ashley, welcome to the show. 00:41:58 Speaker 9: Thank you. 00:41:59 Speaker 6: Hey. 00:41:59 Speaker 2: I don't feel like I do a real proper description of your job. Can you give me like a nice detailed layman's overview of what you do? 00:42:07 Speaker 10: I mean, I kind of liked it. Yeah, So I do research and education. I basically I talk about invasive species. 00:42:14 Speaker 9: I live and breathe invasive species. 00:42:16 Speaker 10: So we do a lot of grant work for usdaa FHIST to look for newly emerging ones. We do a lot of community outreach, and then things like this, you know, like I was 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. 00:42:38 Speaker 2: All right, since you just mentioned that 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're telling me yesterday that the federal government didn't even really recognize that term up until how many years ago as. 00:42:57 Speaker 10: Nineteen ninety nine, you know, President Clinton had to issue an executive order that finally defined. 00:43:03 Speaker 9: What an invasive species is. 00:43:05 Speaker 10: So people often make exotic ornamental weed, they'll use those words instead of invasive. But invasive is like a very special subset, So it's often an invasive. 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 going to just be an exotic animal. But like down in Texas, you know, people were importing things like access 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 the species invasive. 00:43:59 Speaker 2: 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. 00:44:17 Speaker 10: 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 predator of earthworms, so that's why we call it invasive. So this is one of those species. It's actually been in the United States for over one 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 twenty years that we started realizing, wait a minute, it's eating our earthworms. 00:44:56 Speaker 9: This is a problem. It's causing harm. 00:44:58 Speaker 10: So really in just like the last twenty years have we started calling it invasive and realizing like what it is. 00:45:05 Speaker 9: And that's some of. 00:45:05 Speaker 10: 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. 00:45:18 Speaker 2: Okay, do you know does it use that little hammer head? Like what does the hammerhead part of that worm do? Do you know specifically if that the shape of the body sort of like helps it in its day to day so it. 00:45:32 Speaker 10: 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. 00:45:42 Speaker 1: I see, I see. 00:45:44 Speaker 2: But like 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. 00:45:59 Speaker 9: I'd see more annoying. 00:46:01 Speaker 10: So that's always part of my PSA with this thing too, because humans here 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 ten that have had any sort of slight itch on their hands. 00:46:34 Speaker 9: So overall we recommend don't touch them with. 00:46:37 Speaker 10: Your hands, but we do want you to remove them and kill them if you see them. 00:46:41 Speaker 2: Okay, how should someone kill one? Because I heard you don't want to just cut them in half? 00:46:45 Speaker 9: Correct? 00:46:46 Speaker 10: 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, poor salt on them, or you can move them with a gloved hand, stick them in a sealed container and throw them away. 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 fire does work as well. 00:47:17 Speaker 2: Yeah, but a twelve gage shotgun would work too, All right, it. 00:47:20 Speaker 9: Would, but that's the way sammo. Yeah, a few inches? 00:47:24 Speaker 1: Good point. All right. 00:47:26 Speaker 2: I feel like this is a great segue to take us to the to the earthworm 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. So tell us how earthworms impact our landscape. 00:47:47 Speaker 10: 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 colony, like, let's bring our life with us. And so earthworms are very good at nutrient cycling and that's why we keep them in our gardens, and they're really good in our agricultural fields. 00:48:23 Speaker 9: But the thing is. 00:48:24 Speaker 10: North American forests, prairies, all of our natural landscapes, they have adapted to not have any kind of earthworm. 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, are our nice little air raiding one. If that gets thrown into a forested area, it can start removing all that leaf litter and it starts exposing tree roots and all of this. So it's really important that earthworms, who kind of view is more naturalized like a honeybee, that they. 00:49:00 Speaker 9: Actually do cause problems. 00:49:01 Speaker 10: So it's really important that, 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, and then they're inhabiting a natural area that genuinely does not need them. 00:49:23 Speaker 4: Did you know that, Corey, No, no clue. That's why I fly fish. 00:49:33 Speaker 10: 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 that's 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, talk to I've talked to bait shops around here. You know, they say they've called and 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. They say, well, what about you know, red wigglers. Yeah, of course, African nightcrawlers. I say, 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 you know, it's not floppy. It flails around. 00:50:43 Speaker 9: Like a snake. 00:50:44 Speaker 10: And then it also just completely degrades the soil. It causes erosion, Plants won't seed, all that kind of stuff. 00:50:51 Speaker 2: So there's more aggressive than these other earthworms that you've been talking about. 00:50:57 Speaker 10: 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 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 the state this size. If you get hits that quickly, it means that the worm's probably been in our soheale for a long time. We just didn't know any better. 00:51:35 Speaker 2: M okay, I feel like we'd be remiss not to bring up hogs well talking to you, since you know that is like the poster child for invasive species, right, especially in Texas. So what stance does the Texas Invasive Species Institute take on them? 00:51:53 Speaker 9: Please remove them? 00:51:55 Speaker 10: Please remove them, So in at least in Texas, there isn't it. You don't need a permit to hunt. The state wants you to remove them. 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. But especially for us, I get that question asked a lot like, well, what are you going to do about hogs? And I have to say, well, the conquistadors brought them over in the fifteen hundreds, so we're not going to win that war, but we can at least slow the spread, win on a local level, or at least stop it from invading every state in the United States. 00:52:35 Speaker 1: What about Ashley? What about our dad? Like I saw that recently Texas legalized shooting those suckers from helicopters like air gun and them. Do you guys do it? Like, are they considered an invasive species in Texas? 00:52:54 Speaker 10: 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. 00:53:03 Speaker 9: To yeah, where you know it was imported. 00:53:05 Speaker 10: It's getting a little out of control, and so I think they're trying to cull it before it becomes just outright invasives. So that might be why they're like lifting or allowing more. 00:53:16 Speaker 9: Types of hunting to happen. 00:53:20 Speaker 10: One of those like borderline ones where it's like the state's saying, h we'll allow it for right now. 00:53:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, fellas any other questions for Ashley. 00:53:32 Speaker 1: No, no, good. 00:53:33 Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for taking the time, Ashley. We really really appreciate it. And yeah, hopefully this helps man. Everybody dispose of your worms properly, watch out for them jumping ones. 00:53:44 Speaker 10: Yes, please, and clean, drain and dry your boats. I just want to say, you know, naturalists and outdoorsman, 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. 00:54:00 Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, have a good day. Now on to me eater menu. 00:54:09 Speaker 11: He said, what's. 00:54:24 Speaker 1: Nice? Phil? 00:54:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, every time a week this is this a new segment or have we've done this one before? 00:54:34 Speaker 3: The drop is new? 00:54:35 Speaker 2: The drop is I would 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 Phil drops as possible, because that's definitely my favorite part. 00:54:51 Speaker 3: Uh. 00:54:52 Speaker 2: This is the segment where we all talk about what we've been cooking with our wild game lately, and. 00:54:57 Speaker 1: Today it is taco themed. 00:55:00 Speaker 2: First, we're gonna start off with a PSA I recorded yesterday just before I bleach my hair. Hey, it's the hospitalists for 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 seeing you 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. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. It's just got sing you all laced through it. There's some neck in here, just you know what I'm talking about, a lot of the lower legs in 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 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 analysts for what to do with that meat. And now you're thinking, well, what happens with all that silver skin everything in there? Okay, this stuff, if you go slow and low five to six hours, is 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. 00:56:50 Speaker 9: This is actually a way. 00:56:51 Speaker 2: 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, great palate, great flavor, it's gonna make it seem more moist. If you do the same recipe that I'm about to give you, with just whole muscle cuts out of the back leg, 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 a lot of sinu now real quick. If you want to just do the simplest version of this, chunk it up, I've been doing like two to three inch chunks. 00:57:27 Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna. 00:57:28 Speaker 2: Brine it in a water, vinegar, and a little bit of salt mixture. Okay, but a half cup of vinegar I've probably got I don't know, two three cups of water in here, about five cups or five pounds of meat. I don't know exactly what this does, but this is basically how you start Beria or how you start barbericoa in those Mexican taco dishes. It's been working excellent for this stuff, so I'm just gonna brind it in here, but today instead of doing those fancy Mexican dishes, it's gonna make it so it's ready for pretty much anything. My plan is to do pulled meat barbecue sandwiches. If I'm a brine it for thirty minutes, then without searing it, I'm just gonna put it into my uh gut judging 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. 00:58:25 Speaker 12: 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. 00:58:35 Speaker 9: So you can pull it apart with pull it apart with a fork. 00:58:38 Speaker 2: And then take it off. At that point when it cools, I'll put it out on a sheep pan. I'll pick it. If there are any of the bigger chunks of sing you silver skin whatever, left, pull those out. There won't be many. I'm gonna put it back in there with the juices, and then the world is your oyster brcue, 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 loan slow. You'll find that you'll be reaching for that more than you're reaching for a lot of the whole muscle cuts at your wild game. Thanks for listening. 00:59:21 Speaker 1: Nice tip. 00:59:22 Speaker 2: Be honest, what do you boys think about that? 00:59:24 Speaker 1: I think it's a good segue into what I'm going to talk about. Okay, you don't You don't have anything to add there? 00:59:29 Speaker 2: He covered it all, sure, hope, So I felt pretty thorough. 00:59:34 Speaker 4: I was distracted because the chat was so worried about your missing drawer. It looked like right below your sink short cut. 00:59:43 Speaker 2: I can give you a quick explanation of that. That's funny. 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 you know, a kitchen remodel is probably gonna take fifteen to twenty years. But we put a new sink in, and the meta measurements were off to the point where that drawer could not be in there anymore 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. Perfect, 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 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 clean, nex just right through the hole, 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 the little swinging door, you know, not just a whole I have a little swinging door. But yeah, it's awesome. I hate dealing with trash cans. I love having them hidden away, tucked away. 01:00:49 Speaker 1: I don't like one in the middle of the kitchen and where it's just always I don't know. 01:00:52 Speaker 3: Shout out to Leland for solving the mystery before you announced that was that was his theory. 01:00:58 Speaker 2: Good work, Leland. 01:01:00 Speaker 4: AnyWho. 01:01:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, So, going back to Giannis's video, all that everything he said applies to wild turkey legs and wings, which is, uh, Phil, you got teed up there. Uh so we're talking tacos. 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 cooked those things the exact same way you, honest does just described with that shank and shoulder and other tough leg deer cuts. And then what you do is you, uh, you shred it up and then you gotta gotta crisp it up. And like I've crisped this stuff up a couple of different ways. You can do it in a cast iron pan. You can put it under a broiler, which is I think Steve likes to do it. But this time I got a I got one of those big blackstone suckers for Christmas, and I did like a big flat top grill. Yeah yeah, and uh I did it on there and the and it worked. It was so much, it just was it worked great. 01:02:23 Speaker 9: Man. 01:02:24 Speaker 2: What kind of grease did jeez? 01:02:26 Speaker 1: Uh, there's a little olive oil, and I did a mix of olive oil and I think canola. But I'm not like attacking. It was 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 and those things like we eat them more like a like a Mexican street taco, real simple cilantro, a little chopped onion, queso fresco. Like, don't be putting American taco cheese on there, don't be dumping half a bottle of paste salcea on there. Like keep it simple and they're very very very very good, just awesome stuff. 01:03:18 Speaker 2: 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. Yeah, more of that bite and cilantro. It's really all you need. Even that the kotilla or the caeso fresco is like, you know, it's nice, but you don't definitely don't have. 01:03:37 Speaker 1: To have a living and you can put a little like spicy hot sauce on there maybe if you want a little heat, but yeah, I'm not a fan of drowning it and red red salsa. 01:03:50 Speaker 2: Corey, what about. 01:03:50 Speaker 4: You, man, I've been eating a lot of black Bear recently. Last night actually made some black Bear smash burger talk, So talk about tell me more bringing the world together with tacos and burgers. 01:04:05 Speaker 2: Yeah, man, very international meal. 01:04:07 Speaker 3: Interesting. 01:04:08 Speaker 4: 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. These are not homemade shells. But I did fry on myself to get them nice and perfectly crispy and folded them. 01:04:24 Speaker 2: So We started with a corn corn a corn just tortilla. 01:04:28 Speaker 4: Yep, corn tortilla, and then I did cook half of it in oil, frieday in oil, whatever, and then I smashed the burger, flipped it over being BlackBerry. I really wanted to make sure it was cooked, which doesn't take long with a smash burger style. And then I took that half cooked tortilla, put the uncooked side on the outside, gave it a flip, put some cheese on it, so you're. 01:04:52 Speaker 1: You're like burger smashing the tortilla on there. 01:04:57 Speaker 4: 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, is smash it with the tortilla. But then you're only cooking one half of the burger. So I did the burger and then flipped it and then tortilla on top, just to make sure it was fully cooked. And then I put a little bit of a 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 in mayonnaise with a little dill sauce in there. But so it's you get that burger bite, but it's in a taco shell. Johanni, I think I made some for you when we were out pronghorn hunting a couple of years ago. You did you me and Max Barta. They must not have been that memorable. 01:05:45 Speaker 2: You made burger tacos. 01:05:48 Speaker 4: Smash burger tacos. I think that was with some elk, but you must have been tired. 01:05:53 Speaker 2: I got a question for you. When you do ground bear meat, do you add any fat? 01:05:59 Speaker 1: I do you do? 01:06:01 Speaker 4: Not not as much as uh deer elk, but definitely threw in some pork fat, just. 01:06:06 Speaker 1: A little bit. 01:06:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, because I haven't ground mine yet, and I'm wondering what about you. 01:06:10 Speaker 1: You've had some bears? You ever ground your bear meat? Yeah? If I'm making sausage or whatever, I'm gonna add a little bit. What about this regular old ground? I don't think I made any other last bear I shot. I think I did all sausage because like when you handle the meat, like my hands get greasy's fat in there. Yeah, So I'm wondering, like if I need to do it, but I still think you're missing like like if you were to slice a bear's th like thigh muscle, you know, down the middle like crosswise is there? Like are you seeing like internal fat in there? You know what I mean? 01:06:43 Speaker 4: A little bit not not. 01:06:46 Speaker 1: Like I said, I feel like you can feel it more than you can see it. Do the outside do a few pounds one way and yeah. 01:06:54 Speaker 4: Yeah, I did it, and it just cooked so much better. You know, there's a there's just a little bit more fat to cook it. 01:06:58 Speaker 2: I will say I recently did the ground just because 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. I've been just salt and pepper and making patties and the burger's been coming out just fine. 01:07:24 Speaker 4: Yeah, you can add an egg to it if you're really worried about it. 01:07:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, I guess a little more feedback Phil. 01:07:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, last call for questions. 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 going to 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. He says, we're wanting to experience hunting out West next year. We're focused on elk but opened to other big game. What would you recommend for prep and would you go DIY or hire an outfitter first trip? I'm assuming sounds like it. 01:08:09 Speaker 1: Yep. If you can afford an outfitter, it's not a bad way to go. 01:08:13 Speaker 4: Yeah, take a lot of guesswork out of it, that's my answer to I'd hire a. 01:08:17 Speaker 2: Guide, especially if it's going to be like a one and done thing. But if you're like, oh, we're gonna start doing this and make an annual tradition and I've got like the next ten years, like I'm going to become an elk hunter, Yeah, you know, go di IY. 01:08:30 Speaker 1: And you can kind of do a combo. You could do an outfit or drop hunt where they're going to pack you into a decent area, help you pack all your stuff in, pack all your stuff out. But you're out there hunting on your own. Do your homework, man, call a lot of referrals, you know, if you're looking at the outfitter thing, other preparation. 01:08:52 Speaker 2: I don't know. Go back to listen to earlier in the show. 01:08:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, get in shape and shape and shoot your gun or your bow. 01:09:00 Speaker 3: That's right, 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. I'll try to get some info for you and update, but I'm sorry, I'm not the guy to come to this. I don't know if anyone anyone at the tailor. Yeah, I didn't think so, how about you. 01:09:23 Speaker 4: 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, yeah, I have this, 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, yeah, and leave it at that. 01:09:38 Speaker 1: That's a great global economy kind of thing. 01:09:41 Speaker 4: Yeah, but very very soon they're like in stock ready to roll. 01:09:44 Speaker 3: So yes, would you believe that this tariff stuff has affected us in some way? 01:09:48 Speaker 1: Yeah? 01:09:49 Speaker 4: No, get excited though. 01:09:50 Speaker 3: They're badass cool. Well great, I'm glad I brought it up because I normally just skip right right past those ones. Let's see Tea pats Field once again asks a snack in the stand. 01:10:01 Speaker 4: Mmmmm hmmm, jerky. 01:10:06 Speaker 2: I like, I mean, if I really just had to pick one go to from the last five years of deer hunting in Wisconsin, it would be my liver worst and butter sandwiches on Latvian rye bread. Now, all of you can probably get your hands off some good liver worst, but that Latvian rye bread is a little harder. 01:10:26 Speaker 1: It's not a snack, though, man it. 01:10:29 Speaker 4: Might be, but that's a meal. 01:10:31 Speaker 1: Come on, a snack. 01:10:32 Speaker 2: I think when they're asking about snack in the stand, it's like anything that's gonna sustain you as you're going throughout the day. And but I do eat a multiple of those. I'll usually and I pack up breakfast sandwich in there too. 01:10:44 Speaker 1: There you go. 01:10:45 Speaker 2: 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 in the morning putting down food. 01:11:02 Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, I agree, there, I eat all kinds. I don't. I mean, I eat all kinds of yeah. 01:11:08 Speaker 4: Man. 01:11:08 Speaker 2: The thing with us, Patsfield is that we get to hunt so much that all snacks still, All snacks get old after a while. You got to keep it fresh man. Variety is the spice of life. Yeah man. So I'll switch up the candies. I'll switch up the bars, chocolates sometimes I don't know. 01:11:30 Speaker 4: 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. There you go, meat? 01:11:38 Speaker 1: What else? 01:11:38 Speaker 3: Phil Janni, you're your new hairstyle inspired Chase to do some freestyle rap in the live chat, and he's he's asking me to recite it a Chase, I'm not going to do it. Dry right now, Because you know rap cadences, they require a little bit of practice. You gotta, you gotta really dig in. If I have time, I'll go back and read them and see if I can prepare something. But no promises whatsoever. Well I'm excited, Phil, Oh, great, now I have to do it. Russell says, day Alaska moose hunt. This is September. Have two rifles in the safe, three hundred weather be mag and a three thirty eight Win mag. Your choice of these two? 01:12:12 Speaker 1: Yes? Yeah, yeah, yeah, which one you shoot better? 01:12:16 Speaker 4: They're both gonna whack them. 01:12:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, Both those calibers are. 01:12:19 Speaker 2: Gonna do just fine if you can shoot them. 01:12:23 Speaker 1: If you can shoot them, if you can shoot a two seventy Winchester, better shoot take that. 01:12:28 Speaker 2: Yeah, 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 both those calibers with a cheap bullet might not do the job. 01:12:42 Speaker 1: So make sure you got a. 01:12:43 Speaker 2: Good bullet that's gonna stick to stay together and really hammer them. 01:12:48 Speaker 4: Amen. 01:12:50 Speaker 3: Uh, James, I don't know this for sure, but just as someone who has done TV stuff, he asked, why does Meat Eaters still make episodes twenty two minutes long when they are probably primarily a streaming show. Well, the keyword there is primarily, because sometimes we make deals with TV networks in twenty two 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 that don't have to play within time constraints. So check those out. But but yeah, that's that's the answer. Yeah, Phil, let's see. I think I think that's good. I think we're good. 01:13:23 Speaker 4: Well, I don't think we can go through the entire show without bringing up Tony Hawk pro Skater three plus four. 01:13:29 Speaker 2: Phil, Oh, yeah, what did you decide? Are you gonna play it? 01:13:32 Speaker 3: We can't play it for licensing reasons, but my wife and kids are out of town, and I made an Instagram reel that I had some fun with, So if you want to. 01:13:40 Speaker 1: It's really good. 01:13:41 Speaker 3: I watch it if you want to check that out, Phil Taylor twenty five on the old Instagram. It was fun. 01:13:49 Speaker 2: Let me ask a good question. What the thing that caught my eye the little Easter ray was that when you grab the skateboard, the truck was loose. 01:13:57 Speaker 3: I have not nobody has touched that skateboard. 01:14:00 Speaker 1: Okay. 01:14:00 Speaker 3: We inherited it from my brother in law and it's been a collecting dust in the garage. 01:14:04 Speaker 1: Okay. 01:14:04 Speaker 2: But so you didn't set that up like it was. The truck was also was. 01:14:09 Speaker 3: Already yeah, the truck, but the truck was already basically falling off. 01:14:12 Speaker 1: Wow. 01:14:13 Speaker 2: So it was like it was just waiting for you to make this. 01:14:15 Speaker 1: It was waiting for me. 01:14:16 Speaker 3: Yeah. And there's another Easter egg that the skateboard is themed as well, So go back and past it and see. 01:14:21 Speaker 4: Better go again, just coming from the skater boy haircut over here. 01:14:25 Speaker 2: Oh man, yeah, no, that got me a little nostalgic too. I was like, man, I wish I had a skateboard kicking around, although my place there was no place to ride it. 01:14:33 Speaker 1: No, it's all. 01:14:34 Speaker 2: Gravel, which is a bit of a bummer. But all right, thank you all for watching today. If you're looking for some new swag, Meeter's got some new hats out, especially like this new one from Wired to Hunt. 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. 01:14:59 Speaker 1: There's day eleven am Mountain Standard Time audios