00:00:04 Speaker 1: Clean your gun, Jen your bow. Where the uncollective show calling Hunters new and all uncollective show with thanks or fanks and opinions are subjective. You're listening to The Collecting. Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of The Hunting collect You if I am Ben O'Brien, and I think Phil hates it when I yell into the microphone, it always startles me. I never get used to it. Times. Well, probably not that because you weren't here the whole time. But it's uh, tens of episodes that you've been on at least ten I've yelled at you at the beginning of each one. Now that may be a Phil precursor to when we're shooting shotguns? Are you gonna be You're gonna yeah, yell in my ear every every time. Hey, Hey, everybody, that's I'm gonna tell you to shoot the turkey when it's in range. Usually I listen, I've never done this before, but that doesn't sound effective. Hey, then you boom shoot him right there because he'll put his head up if I do that. Okay, okay, well, welcome to Uh it's not the pen ultimate that's the next episode. What's before Penn Ultimate. Is there something? Look that up? Uh, somebody google Anti pen and ultimate whatever the thing before the pen ultimate, the prepen ultimate episode of The Hunting Collective. We have this week, next week, and then the week after and then we're done forever and ever. We're very emotional about um, but we're gonna put on a good show. We're not even to think about it, hobab we feel think about what now. I don't know what you're talking about exactly. We're not gonna because then we get we might cry. Phil definitely will cry. Yeah. Well, yeah, I've I've brought in at least six boxes of clean X into the podcast studio. I think that'll be enough. Yeah, the whole next episode is going to be Phil just sitting here while I play in the arms of an Angel and see how long it takes play because I think, honestly, that would probably make me cry. So basically, the next three episodes we're gonna try to make Phil cry. And that's that's really all this is all about. But today, Bean's that we have our own, um uh accidental conservation organization that we started here at t S. We're gonna have land Tawny On. He is the man the myth, the legend, the public land defender. Uh the I think he's the CEO and president and just he just runs the show over there at b h A Back Huntry Hunters and English. He's been on the show many times. We'll call him a regular guest. Good to have him back on to talk all things Rendezvous, which you can come see me at the old b h A Rendezvous first week of June. First weekend in June. You can come check me out there. Um, hang out. We're all gonna camp. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be a socially distant camping good time. One of the coolest conservation parties that I've ever heard of. Um. And speaking of that, Phil, we're back from the truck for turkeys. Do I look what do I look like? Haggard? Haggard? I feel you don't look You don't look look too bad? Okay, thanks, Like I was telling you it was. I think we're out there for eleven days. I mean probably twelve days total if you count the travel time on the truck for turkeys. With the first light you heard from Ford Vane Fawson last week. We got a couple of updates for you, uh, namely that we have raised twenty eight thousand, seven hundred and seventy dollars in the truck for turkeys. So thank you, big ground of plause. Phil clapped for everybody. Turkeys are rich. Now, I think that turkeys actually just get that money and you know, in a savings account, they can use it however they want. Um, we should expand on this. Let's let's role play. How would a turkey spend money? Yeah, I don't know, it's like more bugs please, Yeah, I know that's gonna be real. Let's cut that out. And that was real lame, um, but that's what right now, there's eight hundred I think members we've signed up through our Truck for Turkeys. Telephone content will be going on the first Light YouTube and First Light Instagram channels all the way through the end of the week, all the way through Saturday. You'll see me shoot at turkey in Nebraska. You'll see me call ins of turkeys for Kevin Harlander in Nebraska. You'll see Kevin Harnlander shooting turkey in Wyoming and me shooting turkey in Wyoming. So there is approximately five turkeys they get killed in those episodes. If that's if you're counting, that's the thing that you're there for. We're also going to highlight some conservation projects throughout that content, and we're looking to get to a thousand members signed up by the time we're all done with this, which means by the end of this current week. So I plan on signing up for some sort of I think that the gold membership is what I'll be signed up for. I can't remember how they exactly do it, but I'm gonna live on Instagram or somewhere where you can see it. I'm gonna sign up for my big donation. So my plan is to um put as much of my own money as I can into this to make sure that we really drive home what we're doing with the n w TF, because it's important. They're an important organization. And again we saw some on the ground work um through our travels with guys like Jared vic Junkin and Jason Tarwater regional folks biologists regional directors for the nw TF, So we got to see what those guys really do. Uh, and I'm a little bit jealous of their jobs. I think I would love to do their jobs, and now that I don't have a podcast, Phil, I got a little extra time. Yeah, so much free time. Yeah some so much free time. Um, and so that's that's what you need to do. It there Again, if you want to go to your y oh you are dot MWTF dot org, slash first Light and know that's a lot, or you can just go over to first Lights Instagram stories and swipe up whenever you see the content. You can be a part of this pretty kick ass campaign, this truck for Turkeys again. Eight hundred and twenty one members have been signed up to this moment right now. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll have a thousand and we can celebrate a big chunk money going over there to our good friends at n w TP. Shout out to everybody that volunteers for that organization that is a part of it and that helps support turkeys and turkey hunting. Because Filled the Engineer is about to embark on his journey. People have hundreds of people have asked me every time I do anything, every like I'm at the grocery store. I'm like, I have a coupon. They're like, I'll do you now. Well, wind Field is gonna hit Winds Fils first hunt like this is this is my life right now. Film Listen, I'm gonna be honest with you. It feels weird to have like a dozens nay, hundreds dozens conservatively people care be more invested in something than than you are. By you I mean me, yeah, and I think that's partly what's striving their investment. And they want to see a triumphant moment where you finally um that there's a clarity in you're It's a lot of pressure because I'm like, well, what if I don't feel that moment? Well, first of all, what if I'll kill a turkey? Which is like, honestly, I'm fine, fine with that, But if I do and it doesn't, like, I feel like you and half of your audience wants me to have some sort of like I see the light moment. Yes, and uh, that's that's too much. As you're out in the woods, I'm basically going to be in your ear. Remember how much this means to me. Remember this means everything to me. I want you to read the Death Leeching with your left and aim downside right. Yes, I've brought Colonel Tom Kelly along to say to read passages from the death leeching while you're shut up, Tom, Tom, we're trying to kill on turkey. Uh, that's that's that's really kind of the narrative here, Phil as as as a man that likes to stoke. A good narrative is that you are going forth as a babe in the woods that doesn't really want to be in the woods particularly, and uh, we're gonna we're gonna force you into an epiphany. Can you be forced into epiphany? Well, we'll find out. Yes, we'll find out next week here on the show. So the plan is, we can make the plan right now. But the plan is I want to try to hunt locally here a little bit locally, I mean an undisclosed. Yeah you like this, but you still have to get up early. You prepared? Four am? Good? Yeah, sure, yeah, four am. We probably meet. We've both had multiple children. Four am, No problem. Are you gonna vomit on me? When we get to the game. We'll meet at a gas station or something and we'll probably get like a weird egg sandwich with too much grease that doesn't help us, and then we will go forth into the field here locally for for a number of mornings, probably three or four mornings. Then we'll come back to our jobs. You'll come back like ten o'clock to our jobs. But we do have to have kind of like break glass in case of emergency plan go, we gotta trap. Are you okay with with like travel we go two or three hours to a place? Yeah? Okay, here, I'm afraid two or three hours that you're saying now, I'm afraid that means like four to five. How did you know I'm trying to under undersell. Yeah. Um, so anybody right in drop us your way points where all the turkeys are, so me and Phil can have a really easy, uh easy hunt as we'd like to do. Um. But that's what we're gonna be doing over the next week and you will hear that in the coming weeks of the podcast. Um, we'll see how it goes. And um, I will be filming it all and then we will release it on my Instagram. Then he will be three oh one. I believe that's it's been a long and asked me, it's been a long trek for turkeys. Uh, synapses are quite fine. But that's what I'm gonna do. I'll film it all. I'm gonna be right behind we have. We we're gonna have some people accompanying us. Hopefully we can have Miles Nulty come along, Love Miles, and he's gonna maybe film it and then do some like Jim Nance type Hello, Friends, Welcome, and he's gonna do some play by play possibly as well. So just just get ready. It's gonna be a party. We're gonna have fun. It's a celebration of all the things we hold dear here at the Hunting Collective, including new hunters, fill the Engineer, turkeys, and hopefully white Clow because that's going down if we get one. Daddy's getting hammered. Yes, and I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna. We haven't talked about it on the podcast. Ben white Claw has announced a new line of drinks called White Class Surge. They have not that have that are eight percent miss this. I've been on the truck for this. Come out. Yeah, holy eight percent percent and I'm I'm I'm afraid for you. I have to. I have not. I don't know if they hit shelves yet. Search if you search White Class Surge. I think there are new flavors as well. This one says it was cut off, but the title on my Google was white claw surge blood They've gone, They've gone four logo on a blood orange is the actual percent eight percent alcohol. White claw surge is what happens when Hard Seltzer reaches new heights with a hint of sweetness from the unmistakable taste of blood orange, this bathwater and take on your favorite heart, Seltzer provides a bold surge of refreshment. Now is surge just means like the's got some caffeine in there too. They just put more alcohol and I think it's just more alcohol. Holy Molly, All right, cool, I'm in, let's go, We'll bring I will share a white claw surge with you. Post turkey killing, turkey death, got it sounds good. It sounds good. Now, everybody out there, you can't endorse that kind of activity because he but we could say we're doing it. Oh sure, and you can do whatever you want. You can do what we're doing. I don't know what I'm saying. You're an adult, make your own, just as I don't know what I'm saying. Is all right, listen, we got one thing that we do have. Turkeys um are going down everywhere a lot of people having success, but a lot of people in our chapters are having success. So if you didn't mind, Phil, I would like to highlight some of of our chapter successes. Is that okay, a great idea? Thank you, um. Particularly, I'm just gonna go down the list here, um, And we have to. If your turkey season hasn't opened yet and you're listening to this, I'm sorry, I don't know what to do. I mean, it's almost the end of April, and if you live ab rich Road and it said turkey season doesn't start in New England until the end of April at the earliest, and I would move away from there immediately. I don't know what, like what I'm guessing that means it goes longer to or is this a shorter seat because you gotta sit around a watching all if everyone else killed turkeys, I don't want to be tortured for the month of April. The month of April supposed to be a joyous occasion wherein we hunt turkeys altogether as one. And so maybe we take on this idea. Now, if I was a biologist, I might say, oh, well, if we hunt, the earlier one hunt turkeys, the more it affects their breeding. Patterns, YadA, YadA, YadA. But if I'm being completely selfish social media, I gotta look at all these people killing turkeys, And as we've discussed on the podcast, that's what it's about. That's what it's about me. As I said in the very beginning, it's about me. But ab Rich obviously didn't get one. But there's a lot of people that did. Um, there's a uh. We don't know if there's a young lady or a young man. But Montana Precker from Minnesota. Uh. He shared his story through Derek over there on our Minnesota page. They camped out in the state forest with his recurve last weekend. He said he was not expecting a ton of success, but glad to spent a couple of days in the woods, maybe see a bird. First morning, went on a pre dawn hike trying to locate a roost with no luck. I went to camp, heard a gobble a couple of hundred yards out. See we could do that. Go back to the truck, eat a sandwich, drink a surge. No, Ben, we saved the surge. You're right, Thank you for being a voice of reason. That's why I'm here. You can't midday surge. You can't have a midday s okay, I've been talking about ethics. I'm coming off the rails. Whatever. I went back to camp and heard a gobble a couple hundred yards out. Quickly set up my blind maybe fifty yards from my tent, and started calling. You just got in the tent. You'd have to set up a blind. You can just crawled in your tent. Big Time came over the ridge and full strut, drumming, spitting, uh came in within forty yards. I didn't get a shot, but calling in a public land bird on my first morning made for a pretty cool experience. I ordered a decoy to entice them those last few yards, and I'll be back as soon as possible, I said, I don't know if that's riveting, but I think it is. So. So can gratulations on calling one close Montana and keep getting after it. Luke Reeves tripled in Nebraska. Well done looks like with his brother, so well done there. Dave Campbell got his first bird the other day. It looks like I'm trying to make sure I read all these comments right. There's a lot of stories that are chapter leaders have shared with us. So congrats, Dave Campbell. That looks like a nice eastern turkey. Well done, man, looks like you shot its shot it right in the neck, which is what you're kind of aiming for. Keith Sprague said, I was able to hunt with my turkey mentors have been teaching me the past three seasons. First day of this season, we had some birds that would not budge for a for a call, and one time who came in close, but I didn't quite seal the deal. Second day, I heard more birds calling at one spot than I've ever heard before. At one point at least eight to ten times were calling a group of guinea hens, a rooster, an actual peacock, and my expert turkey men are calling sweet nothings to them all at the same time. He didn't give any details to how that went down. Where the peacock came in. I struggled not to laugh out loud too. Chicks led the charge trying to find that sexy hand behind me. But when I attempted to swing the barrel up and around the tree trunk at my ten o'clock to get a beat at those youngsters coming in, they got spooked. We headed off to try a different spot and spotted a tom in full strut in front of a hen in someone's yard. I slowed down and wishfully brought up Onyx, hoping for a sliver of public land within calling distance. Low and behold, the next property over was public land. We pulled over, jumped out, found three cozy tree trunks, and started calling. It took a few minutes for the time to finish with the hen he had been with, but sure enough he came gobbling when he was ready. A small burn blocked him for from view for about fifty sixty yards. Listening to him were closer had my heart absolutely pounding. He started to swing around to the side, worry of the hen he couldn't see, But at about thirty yards I dropped him in his tracks. Nice mature tom at least three years old, who had probably just finished siring this year's poults. He is only my second turkey, and I couldn't believe how shaky I was, but I am so thankful to have him to share with my family. He's delicious, by the way. Keith, Now, before we get to any more of these, feel how you feel about this. You're part of a community, assuming that you signed up for the Montana page. I'm in two pages? Oh what are the pages? Montana and New England? Because I was personally invited by A b Rich who is my only friend on Facebook, and I will not accept anymore. I promised that riches that exalted resulted position. Yes, but yeah, no, I've been seeing I saw Luke's pictures the other day. Um, yeah, I just because didn't you Listen, I don't want to bring back any dark memories. You didn't have a very successful turkey season last year. I did not. I did not kill a bird for the maybe the first time since I was twelve, or I don't know, for a long time for quite a while, because I only and I don't think it was just you either. I think I don't know if it does Does this? Does this seem typical? Is it typical for like to have like so many people like me having success or is it? Or is it more? Well? Listen, yeah, I mean I don't know. If you know, you never know. Like we were talking about correlations the other day, like I was feeling like in Texas and in South Dakota and other places, like you see to a lot of turkeys on the roads, But are these just places with a lot of turkeys and a lot of roads invariably you're going to see them there and that's the only place you have visibility anyway, Or is that turkey likes to Turkeys like to be in roads. I don't know the same thing applies here. Am I just looking at more m area for more interaction. No, I think this is you know, it's pretty normal. Turkeys can be as as everyone listened to this well know, turkeys can be easy like they can be. You can go set up by a roost tree and and make two completely incompetent calls and they come running into your decoys. Um, you can hunt them for weeks on end and not hear a gobble. In fact, the truck for turkeys was kind of like two halves. The weather sucked throughout, but it was kind of two halves. First half not a lot of goblin turkeys really doing things that I wasn't used to them doing. And the second half was pretty normal. Right, we find a fired up bird, we call him and we kill him. You know, we double a couple of different times, and so but I think that's that's indicative of turkey hunting and That's why it's so incredibly interesting, because there isn't a playbook for the person that says, I went out in camp and we hunted three days and got eight birds. And there's another guy was like, I wasn't like we got one, and that was we feel like we've shot at I was, we're walking back to the truck. Yeah. So, but even the stories we're hearing from Keith and all these other guys, like this is pretty normal if you're a public land hunter, Like you see a turkey in somebody's yard and you're like hoping so bad that there's just some public LANs somewhere near that yard, and often that's what you're doing. Um quite honestly. So we called a couple of birds in Nebraska under a fence off of private into into public and and that's a big part of the game. Um dare I say a strategy field that we might even get into here in the the next couple of weeks. Okay, we don't know. I guess who got one? Air call patron st thhc uh he got he said, I got on this bird about nine thirty hurt him gobble. He ended up down the mountain with another gobbler. He gobbled at the call, but he wasn't moving like a tired of messing with him, and I said, I'm doing something. If it's wrong, you can only huntil one o'clock in West Virginia, which is a good thing for napping, which which is true. I pulled out two pot calls and went to work with a fighting pur and simulated wing beats, and Jake Cox he went deep. They started gobbling and moving closer. So I've done some more and waited a few minutes, put my calls beside me and gave them a little give them a little every few minutes. They came over the hill and I shot one in the face at eleven ten amen. That was their call, Chris Docker, said one of the Washington admins, Mike Cardon, and myself took out two brand new turkey hunters to Nebraska for four days. We got a few birds, but the first was one of the mentees, first birds of any kind ever. We hiked up a long road late afternoon. It was hot, things had been quiet for a couple of hours, and the road had about eight hundred feet of elevation. Game we were taking a shot at trying to pull Tom up from agg fields below. I've been there. There's a field that Mike knew to be productive about four feet below a knob at the end of a logging road. As we got close to the end of the road, we were sweaty, hot and out of breath. Mike hit a peacock call. We got a gobble. Now, why are peacocks so? Do you think so um prevalent in this? I have no idea. Is the first time hearing anything about peacocks? Somebody can involve me in this? Guy, I have never never heard. I don't even know what a peacock call would sound like. I don't even so please right into t a c at the mediator dot com, Uh, tell us what the hell a peacock call is used for and what it even sounds like. Anyway, he hits. This peacock call apparently works because a gobble that was closer than we expected happened. They quickly set up one hand and got into position against some trees. He says, Mike is by far the most experienced turkey hunter and our best callers, So we settled in with a couple pretty quiet yelps, bam gobble back almost on top of him. He waited a minute and or two and hit it again, gobble even closer. He's coming in. Within four or five minutes, he's there. We can't see him, but we can hear him and feel him drumming. He comes over the ledge, gobbling and getting his strut on. Adrenaline is pumping, and later the mentee told me he couldn't believe how bad he was shaking. As the tom came into view from my vantage point and the mentees, we could see the time and had four buddies, and they had four buddies with him. I'm thinking, let them get closer to the decoy, be patient, But Mike couldn't see the other toms. As the main time turned back to look at his buddies, Mike thought he was spooking and said shoot him. Bam. Shots fired. The other times take to the air and are gone into the blink of an eye. But our mentee laid down the big boy. It was awesome. He was beyond excited, hiked down. We just recanted the story and laughed and he is hooked. Damn right, Phil, It feels real good. The THHD could bring people together and they go turkey on a bunch of other stories. Um T J. Norman and Western Oklahoma. Congratulations. I could go on and on. John Stealth, you rode in with a with a cool story. Everybody everybody, So it feels if you want to feel a part of a community. You see dozens hundreds of people sharing the same stories of shaking when the turkey gets in there, or having to play the same game to try to get and time to come within range. Those be the ties that bind Philip, and you soon will be telling your own story, will you not? I shall, he shall? All right, everybody keep hunting turkeys your y Oh you are dot nbt F dot org slash first Light. If you want to get a membership, there's awesome contest going on over there where you can win a weather be a teen I on X premium membership. You can win a first Light kits styled by one Stephen Ronnella and maybe even Phil the engineer will come and hang out to you guys while you do it. You never know. I like to promise thanks for Phil that that he's not aware of. Uh so go do that. It really means a lot to us. We're trying to get to a thousand as I said that is very important. The Truck for Turks, thank you, the First Light, thanks to n w TF weather be everybody that's been involved. Um, the Truck for Turks will be over this Saturday, but you can watch all that content, as I said, over on First Lights, Instagram and YouTube channel. And now Phil, we're moving on to our buddy land Tawny Yeah, Lantani, Hello sir, Good afternoon, Ben O'Brien. What's going on, my friend? I just enjoying another day in Paradise and Zula, Montana. It is really paradise. Said that. We were just talking about how there's nothing really for anybody in Montana. Uh, just wheat, wheat farmers, wheat and uh and some mining. I think we were saying, yeah, a lot of mining, a lot of wheat. Uh. Beyond that, I don't know what there is, Rachel, sid nothing to do. Didn't you kind of do that for a job. Prior to your new gig. You were kind of working on this whole outdoor recreation thing in Montana, weren't you. Yeah, outdoor recreation economy. That's the last time you and I had a chance to visit. Yeah, the last time you were here. I would say you. Both of you guys are recurring guests. It only takes two times to get you into the recurring guests a lot. I have reached new status. You really have? You really have, um Lantani. First of all, you were coming on last year around this time. Are all of our lives are thrown into turmoil, and we were feverishly trying to figure out what the hell to do for b h A rendezvous really the entire organization as a whole, but particularly the big event that is rendezvous. You want to take us back in time because I do want to kind of talk about how COVID impacted the conservation world and impact of what we do and how we're coming out of it. Um, But take us back to that moment in time man last year around the end of April. Remember what you were thinking doing, whether you were wearing pants. I'm not wearing pants now, so I don't know if much has changed since last year, but I think it was like an old ship moment, right, Like here's this gigantic party that we throw one once a year. It's like the rendezvous true sense of the word, like bringing people together, stoking the fire, swapping stories, making a little bit of money, Like all of a sudden, we realized, oh, we can't do that, and and so we pivoted two virtual and Ben, I gotta say thank you for the help that you provided and just those conversations that we had leading up to that, and then also just your engagement throughout our virtual rendezvous that we had. But we had a rad time. Man, it was fun and uh and while we couldn't be there in person, I think we pulled off a pretty good event, um, and we learned a ton And so you know that the rendezvous last year I think set us up for the rest of kind of the quote unquote year of COVID and that year in COVID UM was learning how to work virtually and and so Rondevoo was the first shot at that. And you know, um, we probably will not We probably we were down fift as far as revenue goes, but we also were able to engage way more people across the country. One of the great things that I heard after Rendezvous last year from multiple people was, Man, I've never been able to attend rendezvous, either like financially it didn't work out for me or the timing didn't work out. But since you guys did something virtually. I was able to participate and oh my goodness that I have so much fun. And so you know, when we should have been doing virtual before this to be totally honest, like so we can include more people. But what we learned last year is that, you know, virtual is a way to engage everybody. So um, yeah, last year it was common oce ship moment that I think everybody was experiencing. But we learned a lot from it and are better for it. So we came out of COVID and I did have fun land playing in that with you guys and being a part of that. I you know obviously been a part of them before, but never that intimately. And as as we were talking about when we were going through that, you know, you figured you're gonna really learn some things that you wouldn't have learned and less forced into that situation. You know, none of us thought we were going to be stuck where we were, and uh yet here there we were at that time. And can you give us a sense of kind of the ebbs and flows in the conservation space from your perspective, you know, as the pandemic hit and that as now we seem to kind of be coming out of it. We can gather again in your opinion, where are we and where did we start? And can't give everybody, you know, the lay of the land, if you will, the lay of the land from land that's right. Um. You know, I think that you know, we weren't the only people that were affected by the lack of opportunities to be able to be in person events and and so you know that that hurt the entire community. I would say that you know, two percent for conservation in particular, I think made people aware of that. And so you know, I think there was you know, we end of the year last year with one of our better years at the end of the year giving just because you know, people I knew that we weren't having these events and that we were we were down rendezvous, but like overall for the year, and so you know, that wasn't a hard story for people to learn because it was happening to everybody. Um. I think that you know another thing that we learned besides just do virtual was that elected officials love virtual events. They don't have to like travel somewhere, They can go spend half an hour and then you know, be with thirty people or fifty people or a thousand people that are their constituents. And so we learned that elected officials love virtual opportunities. Um, So I think that's something that not only we've learned, but hopefully some of our counterparts, you know, other organizations. Where we are now and we're sitting on a powder keg man, like, I mean, people are ready to get together, and you know, as you know, every single state is kind of different, every single community is different on how we're getting back together where we can get together. We're already having events and we're starting to stack up, like our our chapter coordinators right now are super nervous play to see the calendar starting to fill up with events that they need to be a part of. So I think we're sitting on a powder keg, and I think Rendezvous, like the Rendezvous, you know, it's tough to capture the energy from last year, you know, because we're all virtual. I think there was still some of that energy, but in person, it's like, I mean, it's hard to describe, but it is electric. And so I am looking forward to that. I think the people that are coming and they're looking forward to that. So it's actually gonna be exciting, and then people are gonna go home, and those little little tentacles of excitement are gonna go home. And I think we're gonna have even more events and really get back online, which is gonna be a lot of fun. Yeah. I feel like the Roaring twenty ones man like every time. Like I was at the grocery store the other day and I just people were just bopping around feeling like I felt like the nervousness was a little bit had had subsided at least for for a little bit. The weather starting to get nice, at least it's trying to here in Monentucky. But Rachel, you have you have one of the best titles ever you were, you're now employed to be a jay, which we are extremely and I can't tell you how excited we are. I don't think there's a word for it. Twitter painted is the only thing I can think of. Um, what's your title now? And you know what you can leave in a mystery of how it came to be or you could explain, but the title itself. Oh yeah, I I feel like I'm running a track record of epic U titles through my career. To be completely honest, UM, I live a good life and do a lot of amazing things. But yes, so I am the Director of Innovative Alliances here at b h A. UM. I am heading up a department I am affectionately calling the Energy Development Team and Department UM. And we are doing fundraising, we're doing business developments, and it's about growing support and resources for our members to get all the amazing work UM that they do done and amplify it and ramp it up. So yeah, it's I, you know, have worked with b h A for so many eight years. It's been awesome. You know. I started working with h A when I was at Kimber and then I was actually on the national board UM. Stepped away from that worked in the Governor's office. UM. And I just am fairly familiar with b h as an organization on the national level and the state level and all of the members and you know, intimately know the kind of work and the kind of it is done by our membership, the energy UM. I routinely tell everybody, if for one moment you think that you are cool or a badass in any sense, just go hang out with some very humble b h A members and you will feel like a pile because they are remarkable people and doing remarkable things every day and puts me to shame. It makes me want to work harder. But um just I don't know. We just do things differently this organization. We we work differently, we get done things done differently. So when you're looking at you know, a business development team, you know, do we want to say it in a traditional way? Well know, because we don't do things traditional. So that's where my title came from. Yeah, I think everybody on this chat here, we've all kind of spent a lot of time with b h A. It's been particularly big part of my professional and personal life for the last I don't know, five years, probably land. Where are you at year wise? How long have you been? In my head? Eight years? This made dude, which is I can't believe. It's one of those things. It's like it's like my kids getting older. Like everybody tells he was going to go faster than you think. It is, like eight years seems like just like a blink of the eye. To be totally honest, And I was actually preparing for this today, searched on your name and an email came up from Ben Long and it was like Ben O'Brien, question mark North American Board, and so it's like they're like, it's just it's it's fun to be part of a family. Man. Was that question like why did you do that? Or after? This was after you were on the board and he was like what are you doing? No? No, no, he was. He was one of our one of our stalwarts, I would say, and Ben Long recognized who you were and the opportunity to provide value to a growing organization, and he thought you're a good idea and we haven't looked back since. Well I did. Yeah, I did not know that until just now, Thank you, Ben Long. Ben Long has intermittently throughout my career sent good advice and plaudits and things as if you're going along. Uh an exceptional individual there, But yeah, I mean I, like I said, I've spent a lot of time in the organization, and as Rachel you mentioned, you start to pick up on, you know, exceptional individuals that have passion for the things that we have passion for um and then it's hard to describe. And I will say the reason why I wanted to have you on there's there's many, but one of the things that marks my yearly kind of transformation is I get about every January February gets super stressed out about life. I'm trying to reset life right, You're trying to re get your priorities. There's in very ably new challenges and I start to think, man, I haven't done enough for b h A. I haven't been involved enough, I haven't felt that energy in a while. I haven't been able to kind of siphon it into my life. And then here comes Rendezvous to save me every single year. That's why last year was a bit of a tough one. But I'm always I think I probably yearly just called Land and say, hey, man, I think I'm not doing enough. I don't I don't feel connected enough. And then the rendezvow comes. It saves me, and I'm like, oh, I am energized. I feel like I've been with my people enough to go forward into good work. So Land, you want to kind of give people your best description of, at least in our world, the importance of the Rendezvous itself. Ben, I'm glad to hear that it fills your bucket, because it fills mine too, And I think it fills everybody that comes to ronde bow his bucket. What I mean by that is that like, yeah, we all go through these cycles, right, like you get through the winner, and now we're in the spring, and this year in particular, you know them, I'm anticipating my my aspen leaves like sprouting, like I'm going out every single day. I'm looking at those buds right now because I'm just so excited about it. You know, I had northern flickers and uh some um uh growth speaks this morning on my feeder, and so like spring is like this rejuvenation, right, And that's that's really what I think Rendezvous would be, like a rejuvenation and fill in the bucket like top number one. But as I talked about earlier too, is it's just this opportunity to come together and really have a good time with all these people coming from across the country. So when Rachel describes, you know, all these folks that she gets to meet that a humbler. I mean I'm humbled every single day, like I don't know, like you know, like I'm very lucky one to know these people, but also to learn from them. And this is a great chance to like you know, get get around, you know, a group of folks that no one that you can learn from, but they're really fun to be around too, so it's it fills your bucket. It's absolutely like fun and you learn something. So there's not many things in my life that check all three of those things. Uh specifically, you know, I think that that we get together and the training part is really like learning some skills. Like I know hank Shaw this year is going to be teaching us how to cook fish in the back country with like corn huss And when he told me about this, I was like, corn hust, dude, lightweight and then you can throw it in the fire, like I always feel weird about that tim foil, right, and that tinmfoil you got scrunch up if you bring some with you and then stuff in your bag somewhere, it still smells like food. So if you're around grizzly bears, like what are you doing? But yeah, hank Shaw is gonna be teaching some stuff. We're gonna break down a whole bison this year. Now I could learn that time about I could learn feeling. We need to set the stage here though. Hold on, So, first of all, we're coming out of COVID's we're losing your ever loving minds because I'm so excit. I did to hopefully hug the people who will hug me back. But this year Rendezvous is going old school. So before we talk about breaking down a bison, because I'm sure everbody's like they're going to dry in the buffalo into a convention center, no we're not. We're not doing that. Um, we could, and that is something we would do, but um, this year, it's in Missoula, Antiana, and it is a traditional camp out. We literally have this giant place called Fort Missoula. It's this huge outer venue. We have two different campgrounds and all of the b h A events and festivities are going to be held outside. So we're creating as safe of a space as possible as we're slowly crawling our ways out of this pandemic, and we can touch on it more. We're doing it all live virtually as well, so people that are there obviously our hands on literally cutting up a whole buffalo, but everybody can join via virtual and observe everything, man on the street style, interactive questions, all that good stuff. So now we can go back to land talking about literally dismantling an entire buffalo for everyone, and it's going to be outside at Fort Missoula. Okay, now I'll go back to the buffalo. Rachel, thank you for setting the stage. Ben O'Brien, you already know this, but this is why I love having around the team. It's just like whoa, whoa, whoa. Then like, before you do that, let me talk about this, right, um, So the bison, Bison, We're gonna have a full bison, and we're gonna, like, I think I could learn something about butchering, right, Like, any time you're around somebody really knows what they're doing, you can learn something. But then there's this thing called a bison, which is just daunting in general, and so like the size of that, and so we're gonna we're gonna break that animal down. I think we're gonna have actually to bison, and then the next day we're actually gonna cook it. And so not only we're gonna teach you how to do this, but we're actually gonna feed you with the bison that you learned from as well. But you know, the idea is really you're gonna learn a ton, we're gonna have a good time. So will have you know, the storytelling Night, which is like I think like one of the best things that we do is that everybody loves stories, but these stories are well uh procured. I would say, the people we have stelling story telling stories. Janice, you know tell Us has said yes. Um, I've heard from you that Clay said yes. Is that correct, Clay. I don't know if Clay might be tv D, but we can like right now, if we just can say it right now, if we say it right now, he has to write Clay Niccole will be there no matter what happens. Amazing. We have these amazing storytellers. Um. And then I would say, like some other good time and things that we're gonna do is that we have a trivia night, which you know everybody can learn something from trivia. That will be fun. We will have a whiskey and wine events. We have our own whiskey now which is midnight for us, done through Spotted Bear Spirits. It's absolutely delicious. And then the back label is written by my favorite dude in the world, Jim pozwits Um. And then we have a wine from Passa Laqua Wine that has our paw on the front. Um. It says zim Findale. And I don't know about you, Rachel or Ben. I'm not a real big wine drinker, but when I hear it Zippindale, I think like pink fruity stuff. This is like a calve like well, that shows my ineptitude to be able to describe this, but it's like a red wine that is bomb And so that's another fun thing what we're doing. I am a drinker, I am, I'm a drinker of all of it, a lot of it. And this wine is it is, it's it is so amazing. It's a really it's an amazing thing to do. So that's gonna be rad And then we're also gonna have we have something we do in this summer called Hike the Hunt. And Hike the Hunt is a way for us to get ready, you know, for the the impending fall. Especially for fat guys like me, need a time where it actually people tell me what to do. And I have a program at Rendezvous. We're gonna have the opportunity to do a hike the Hunt. It's gonna go along the Bitterroot River, come up this hill, will be finishing as Rachel described, right in front of where everybody is camping, So we're all gonna be together, which I think is probably gonna be the most fun and the least structured. It's just everybody's gonna be together the entire time, um and camping like they used to do in the old Rennevos. You know, they didn't have hotels and bars to go to late at night. They hung out together and swap stories around the campfire let at night. And that's exactly what we're gonna do this year. Yeah, I told Land it's gonna feel like kind of you know, you see an old Civil war movies where there's different campfires and there's people gathered around, and there's kind of like different places you can visit. I have very much, uh picturing the way this is gonna be. I'm sure I've got a way off in my head, but listen, I always say, far off from what's in your head. Feeling a random just saw they sing along is gonna break out like I just I just really feel like it's gonna it's gonna be like a warm like the warm place we all needed, uh six or eight months ago when we were in the cold, dark apartments in the house is where we couldn't leave so I do. I I do just think as we as we gin to this. I always try to define this for people, but I say, like, these are my people. And I hate to say it like that almost these days, but it's the feeling that I get. It's the best that way I can describe it. And again, every time I return and gather with these people, um, you're only left with kind of an amazement of of of how this, how they've come together, and how they come with different perspectives that probably different ideologies, many different ideologies to enjoy things like, uh, great field of table dinners, whiskey. Maybe he's infidel. I don't, I've never I'm not a white. Is it a red sin? I don't know, like that it's the redsin? Okay? I may I suggest that everyone gets a bison next year. Two everybody, you pay a thousand dollars and you get your own bison, and you get to name it, and you get to watch it the uh you know, some sort of webcam and then eventually butcher it and eat it at the rondevow. Interesting idea we will talk, might be able to arrange for this, I don't know. Maybe that Tie Tie his new business model. I'm sure I would get in trouble for that. That's just an idea of just throwing it out there. I mean you talk about food though, like we've talked about bison, right, so like that's gonna be amazing. We're gonna get to watch this thing, you know, get butchered and all the you know, different ways you can use bison, ways you can use you know, tongue, the ways you can use the high like all the different ways the Native Americans you know who who no way better than anything. We would ever figure out how to break it bison down. We will learn that. But food is gonna be a theme throughout the whole thing too. And so you mentioned the field of table dinner, you know, on the field the table dinner will happen on Thursday night. Uh. Ryan Busty describes this as like the best dinner on the planet, which I love when he says that, because it absolutely is. And we'll have I think it's six chefs, you know, cook the most amazing wild game that you've ever had, and in little teeny portions, so you get to try basically all sorts of different things. Um, and I'm excited about that of our Wild Game Cookoff Arizona is a two time defending champion. Last year, I think they are two years ago when we actually had it together, they won with poach sheet balls and so these were desert bighorn sheet balls that they poached, and that's what was the winning combination. That that was the cooking technique they used. The yes, yes, but it was desert bighorn and the yes not the killing. The killing was legal, the poaching, legal killing of big big that could have been taken totally out of context, and that that we need. That that's going to be the title of my autobiography, Posch Poach Balls. UM. But I would say that at the same time, Barrisina season is going on in Montana and UH, and you'll be able to fish as well. And so in this area where people can camp, we'll also have some camp sticks or cookstations set up and so the already just to share food and hang out with folks the way we should be. UH is going to be happening all over the place. So food is going to be throughout the weekend in particular. Yeah, and a lot of our you know, most of our corporate partners will be there, like Trigger is their camp chef is they're they're the ones in the wild Game Village that are helping cook all of this stuff up. All of those amazing chefs that we're having at the field to table, they're the ones that are going to be out there like doing these kicking demonstrations and showing folks different techniques. Um. So there's a lot of really great stuff as it pertains to food. We have a hunting in a fishing village where there's a lot of skills we've got, you know, a couple of folks that are coming and they're going to do brain tanning brain tanning demonstrations just as an example. I think you Honese is going to do some bugling and alcoholing techniques, um, you know, all kinds of stuff like that. So um, but more than any and of course a beer tan will open at noon and then conservation Carnival where you get to humiliate your friends, um with different games, um to raise money for all the good work everyone does. So yeah, it'll be a good time there. I mean, it sounds like the best time. We're not gonna lie. I mean, this is the pitch. This is a pitch too for people to come join us, but man, this is this can't I understand not everybody can make it to Missoula for this, but the virtual part is really what sets this up for me to be something for everybody. You know, if you if you can't be there with us, but you want to catch some of these vibes you guys are talking about, or get some of this knowledge and and be a part of it. You really you still can. And Rachel, you want to give people kind of the rundown on if they want to come to Moszola, what they do if they want to jump in virtually? What is there one web page? Like how do you direct people to get to where they need to go? Yeah, super easy. Just go to backcoun of Hunds and Anglers or website. Along the top bar with all of your different options, you're going to see Rendezvous twenty one. You click on that, there's a brief description, there's a video there that you can want, and then um, there's different choices like you can look at the schedule and agenda. You can look at the different lodging options. If you don't want to camp, of course there's hotels um, so you can just look through there. But on that main page. You can actually purchase your tickets, so you can purchase in person tickets, you can purchase your camping, their tickets to our special events UM and then also UM tickets virtual UM as well. So that's just a really easy spot where you can go UM. There's a ton of information there UM if you just click around, but super easy. One thing I would say is, that's three days like hanging out with some of the greatest people you've ever hung out with. And I think that, you know, Ben, You've already talked about it. But I walk away and be like, I can't believe there's that many people think the way I do, and think the way I do about conservation, think the way I do about the way I like to hunt. The opportunity to hang out with folks and learn. And one of the greatest things that happens at these rendezvous is people meet people from all across the country. And so when they want to go gator hunt down Louisiana, or they want to go chase grouse in Maine, or they want to go up to Canada once the borders open again, they have a built in network of people that they hung out around a campfire that know them and that they will take the shirt off their back. They have them hunting their home state or fishing their home states. So that's one of the I think one of the coolest things is just the people that are gonna be there in their relationships that you build. Yeah, yeah, I think there's a lot of people that try to define b h A right from from within and without right. You get where there's a lot of exercises you do as an organization to define who you are and to find your future, and there's a lot of people on the outside that are trying to define you. But there's an organization that's defined by its people. You know, if you want to know what it's about, just just step through the door and meet a few people and you'll quickly know exactly what the organization is about and exactly its values and as what you're saying to people, you catch people from Arizona and New England coming together and immediately having a rapport. I've seen that a bunch of different times, in a bunch of different ways at at these events, and like I said, this is a no I could talk forever about it just because it means so much to me and so much to everybody else that takes part in it on a yearly basis. So I'm dude, I need a shot of b h A, I need some sunshine. Come on, Montana, please give us some sunshine. And uh, I spent all turkey tricky season in the snow thus far in the rain. Uh yeah, some camp, but I'm definitely in a camp. I'm gonna pop up a two person expedition tent and uh the camp chef stove and uh a comfortable chair and just hang out. What if we if we come by this little setup, you got what are you gonna be cooking? Well? Or definitely some wild turkey I'm gonna have. Probably I don't want to commit to endless wild turkey nuggets there for any anybody that comes to approach me, but at certain times of the day there will be nuggets to be had. When we put our noses up in the air and we smell that, there's no gets wafting through the air, nowhere to go. Yeah, that's that. You can just smell the sizzling panko bread crumbs from any direction if you get down wind, especially. Um, I definitely have probays for some like prong horn fajitas and stuff. I'm that that's a a staple with the old camp chef, single burner. What else, I don't know. That's a good question. Buy some poach balls now that you know you mentioned it. Cooking technique by the way, Yeah, that's the cooking technique, not the way that the animal is acquired. Um so yeah, that's that's that's what I'm looking for. To Lantani, what's your setup gonna be, man, I'm gonna have my seek outside and so just in case if it is raining, by the way, like bring your gear right, like, bring your gear because it could be raining. We'll hope for some rain, but we're all, you know, outdoors folks, will bring your gear above my seak outside tent. And then uh, man I we're gonna go paddlefish in the weekend before. So if we are so lucky, there may be some fresh paddlefish that I'll be cooking, uh like right there at the old rendezvous a camp. Oh. I don't know what anything about paddlefish or how to get them, but I'm gonna get them, sons of bitches. I'll tell you that right now. I'm so excited. This just came in the mail. This is like my paddlefish, my first ever paddlefish tag, and uh, I'm very excited about this. So that's I got my first last year, and I'll never go back. And I will say the meat is a lot like alligator, a lot like alligator. I had a neighbor here. He gave me some paddlefish caviar uh last year and yeah, salty, but he also gave me a few steaks man a few filets, and my gosh, is a good So when I learned I draw drew that this year, and I didn't know the tag came as it did until just now. So beating in Montana, New be I feel like this is a bit of a write of passage to go out and snag a pattlefish this year. Absolutely good luck. I'm ready to go. Hopefully by then i'll have a I'll be just coming. I'll be on the back end of a Wyoming bear hunt with our friends at Hushing and Weatherby, So hopefully i'll have some you know, some bear in the crock pot, probably over at our place, some maybe some some bear schnitzel. I don't know what I'm gonna do now, Rachel, you have a reputation for doing things, let's just say the right way and living life the way that all of us were would hope to live it. Or do you you are succeeding? Do you have an elaborate set up for your camp like? What what describe people what you're planning to do? Now? I don't. I wouldn't say it's elaborate. I have many different camping setups depending on what exactly I'm doing. Um, this particular setup I will be pulling. I have a really fun little ur pod camper, and I made sure it's it had to be used because there was only four years that they made a model that has an exterior rear kitchen, so i can pop open the back hatch and then I've got an exterior kitchen that then becomes really more like the bar for the neighborhood. And I'm mostly known for really kind of being where the bar is um and so yeah, that is there's if you see a hatch open with blue lights and then a metal table sitting out that looks like a bar, that's meat, So just stop and have a drink. Yeah, strobo lights any black lights, Strobo lights? Just no, I have not gotten that far yet but it does have a stereo system, so I'm you know, maybe some tyler shoulders something like that coming out of the speakers. I would say, I dig that. I dig that. Yeah. Like I said, I think after a couple of days, we're all going to kind of like gather. We're going to have kind of mega camps. I feel like that's my prediction. Mega camps will form, tribes will be made, and we will battle it out for supremacy in the culinary and probably hangover game which I often do my best to win. That's said. That said, like, this is super a kid friendly event too. We have tons of events for kids, um and things that they can do, hands on things that they can do um and uh, you know, tons of things for them to learn. Um. So just because tons of families there, my children will be there as well. My kids are my kids. Actually it's like state soccer tournaments. They are probably not going to be there, which is super unfortunate and I'm super sad. But yes, there's gonna be tons of kids there. Yepw Like you said, I mean to me, it's gonna be you know, there'll be a lot of areas to hang out, free flowing like it. I mean, it feels good to be talking this way, to be to be planning to gather in this way after all this time. So you guys will excuse me if I'm not just beaming about the opportunity to get out there with you guys and U rip it up in whatever way we can. So I now you say that I might have to bring uh my older son James, I think he will do well, you should and it's you know, I think we'll have We have two kind of camping areas too. We have a quiet camping area and a loud camping area, and so you know, depending on where you want to be ben Now, it doesn't mean that you can't hang out late night at the loud camping area, but there is the opportunity to get some rest in the quiet camping area. Awesome, awesome, Well, hopefully everyone joins us that can make it, and if you can't make it, we definitely understand. Um, we want you to join us virtually. You want you to get in all the good vibesus and I just want to back that up to just one more time, and it's like, yes, we we all know what the energy is like. We've been there we love getting together every year. Literally, wouldn't miss it for the world, except for when COVID happens and what we did virtual. Um. But this is a really amazing opportunity for any of your listeners who have been hearing about us talk about VJ for so long and maybe they've never been able to participate in the event they have have been involved with their chapters, like this is a great opportunity of a window into like the things we're interested in, what we like to do, what we like to talk about. Um, we've got some great panel discussions. We never avoid tough conversations. We want to educate each other, we want to you know, talk about important things. So um, you know it just it's a great opportunity to virtually, you know, tap in, you you'll get the agenda. You can just pop in and out. Um. Sessions will be recorded if you can't miss, if you can't make something live, you can go back and watch it after the fact. So all the storytelling everything that we normally experience, everyone were able to experience virtually as well. That's awesome, as we as we were saying earlier, you know, that's something that we talked about last year. We're gonna learn something during COVID and we're going to be able to capitalize it on that later in whether it was in a year or two years, we didn't know at the time. But here we are able to have folks join us that that wouldn't have had the opportunity in years past. So I'm happy for that. And again everyone's heard me talk about beach a us about it and defend it. And this is, as Rachel just said, there's an example of one way. There's many ways, but this is one way you can come and understand what the ethos of this group is, how we'd like to have fun, but we're also take our conservation our public lands seriously. And uh, it all comes together in this one awesome I guess we call it a weekend, but it really at this point, it's what four days, three days? Yeah, I think chapter leaders start showing up on Wednesday, which is absolutely awesome. We have our chapter leaders come in from all across North America, though I don't know if they'll open the border yet up in Canadia, so we'll see if our northern friends canna hang out. Um, but yeah, people from all across the country, and you know, again, man, I the people you meet, Like you said it earlier, then it's the people, the people, the people that define b h A. And so if you've ever had a question about who b h A is or if you wanted to connect with the people that b h A, this is the amazing, the most amazing opportunity to actually be able to do that. Absolutely well. Um, I want to pivot. There's no good way to pivot from this party to the next topic I want to talk about. We're gonna do it anyway. You gotta be in this line of work. You gotta be a master of the transitions. I wanted to talk about one thing that I just wrote down I was thinking about talking to you guys. One, I wanted to just get stoked for the rendezvous. You could fully feel the pregame action. I think we've done that. But the other thing I was thinking about I just wrote in in my notebook bipartisan and I underlined it about forty f and times because I've had you know, lands you come on before, and we've talked about by the partisan efforts and bills, the public Lands package being probably the most recent one. But I wanted to just explore the concept and intangible terms for people because everybody understands what bipartisan means, what it what it might mean in the political sense. But I think we're often, I know we're often uh this day and age, getting beat over the head with partisanship, and a lot of people tell us that we're partisan before we've even seen an issue or thought about something. They're they're telling us, aren't you frustrated with how partisan things are? Like we haven't even started talking? Is that the first? How are we going to preface every conversation with partisanship? So I wanted to just get you guys to define, like in your daily working lives, what bipartisanship means, and that could be you know as you take it, and then start to line out some real tangible things in your careers that you've both seen that have that happened that you know, brought different sides of a uh political ideology or social or cultural and something that's become bipartisan because I know that we've all celebrated those things when we get the chance. So land your up first bipartisan man, So big topic, H And I guess that would start that public lands and public waters belonged to all of us, and those public lands and public the waters. They don't care if you're a pe akin, they don't care if you're a Democrat, they don't care if you're an independent. Like all we have to do is just you know, get out there and experience them, just like anybody else. And so what a great you know, nonpartisan place. I would say, I am partisan, and I'm partisan too, like hunt and fishing and conservation, you know, like that's that's what I'm partisan towards. And I think that's what p h A is partisan towards. And so when we make decisions every single day, it is based on does this improve access to public lands and waters? And does this provide quality habitat once you get there? Those are pretty easy things to make decisions on. Does that make us partisan? Sometimes? Yeah? For and fishing for conservation, that's like that's really what we're doing. Um. I would say, you know that, Ronnie Lewis, since we've been talking about it. I'll go to the last time that we were in UH in Boise. So in Boise you have a democratic mayor who showed up to our showed up to our UH brew fest, and like welcomed everybody you know that was there. So a Democratic mayor later during the brew Fest, a governor little who was a Republican came out and declared it public lands dick. And so you have this Democrat and you have this Republican that probably on you know, the face of things, don't agree on anything. But where did they come together. They came together at b h A and they came together around public lands and public waters and so very tangible thing I would say that happened just around the rendezvous. That's something we try to do all the time, is just invite folks, you know, to to come, um that support our public lands. Um. You know you mentioned the Great American Outdoors. That kind of the gut passed this last summer. You know, it had full llion dollars a year for Land and Water Controvation Fund and then nine point five billion dollars to address the backlog. That was passed in huge bipartisan fashion. And when we say bar partisan, what does that mean. It was like seventy two to eighteen. There's a few people that didn't vote in the Senate, Like that's Democrats and Republicans voting for something that normally hate each other and want to talk about the biggest differences. But there they came together, I would say. Most recently, this happened on Thursday of last week, which would happened to be Earth Day. That legislation was introduced called the Recovering America's Wildlife Act RAWA, which is in short, basically tries to keep common species common and then uh those other species out of the emergency room so that we don't have to put them on the endangered species list. So this funding that this bill has passed will go towards state agencies and tribal agencies to make sure that we know about the species that we care about and then do appropriate conservation again to keep them common if they're common, and to keep them out of the emergency room if not. That was that was introduced with two Republicans and two Democrats. That is by partisan and the again, what is it around. It's not about public lands and public and public waters. It's around public wildlife, right, So it's the third kind of these three things. And not that they can't come, you know, together and agree on other things like when they should take vacation and how much money they should be paid. Or that kind of thing. And I'm being a little glib there but or flipped, but what do they come together? Again all the time around it's public lands, public waters, and in this case public wildlife. And so that to me is what bipartisan is. Um and and again like from b h as perspective, yeah, we're partisan as hell, and it's for hunting and fishing and conservation. That's how we make our decisions every single day. Yeah, Rachel, well how do you follow that? That was gonna be my question, but go ahead. Well, as you know, I spent the last three years literally working in government and politics, um and so I had the extreme luxury of coming into that world from private industry. So talk about a one eight on a level that I don't my mind could barely comprehend. Um. But I was able to come in in this amazing space that is outdoor recreation. And when when I could, when I was coming into it, it was it was outdoor recreation and government, outer recreation and industry. Hardly ever ever did political party really come up, because yes, I was working in government, Yes we're working you know, politics has everything to do with it. But it's this amazing thing where all of a sudden, like if you're talking about outer recreation and you're talking about doing things that we love and are passionate about, like like those like those labels and those easy buckets that you can put people in just kind of melt away because you know, like you meet somebody at a conference and you've got different office about direct from different you know, states and different agency leaders. No one is literally like what party you're they in? What party you're they in? What? Like that is just never a conversation because of the space and like what we were what we worked on. It was literally like hey are you a climber? Hey are you a hunter? And you know I was labeled. I was like kind of like our groups like Hunter gal right, Like it's like those are the labels that we were talking about, and it was just this like amazing, remarkable space and energy that was created. And but that's what is so applicable to h A and I think by and large even above a lot of others out there. It's like we're not going in asking for how do you classify yourself this way? Or how do you classify with yourself that way? You're literally you're coming in and being like what tags did you draw this year? And like, no one's just no one's, no one cares because ultimately we all know what we care about, and we care about hunting, we care about fishing, we care about habitat, we care about all the things that support what we love and what we're passionate about. And so recreation and hunting and angling like this is literally the space that people from very very very polar opposite spaces can come together and have the most remarkable conversations and find out they have everything in common. And you see it over and over and over again. And so that's why I'm so excited to like even see in the last like four or five years, this growth of conversation, out of shared passion um. And I think that it's like this one small glimmering like shining beacon in all of this partisan craziness out there, um, that you know, we are able to come together and make headway, like Land said like the Great American Outdoors Act, like that was like again this like shining Beacon, It's like, oh my gosh, like what is it that we all have in common? And you look at that, but then it's like, well, geez, if we have that in common, and you know, we all care about that. Just think about maybe what else we have in common words and I listened to we're not willing to listen to each other. So I don't know. Just I've loved being you know, I loved working in the office about direct because of that. And then obviously, you know, working with b J and knowing the membership and knowing how we work together. Um, yeah, like we just don't paint each other into boxes. We just care about what we care about. Yeah, it's kind of an interesting to me. It was always as I try to think about how this works in my own life, I think about what I'm passionate about, right, and I think about how that helps me, you know, level set my value system. What do I care about? You know, what can I really impact in the world. And then you then you say, okay, well, hunting, fishing, wild places, you know, healthy ecosystems, populations of wild game that we can all value, you know that we have in public trust. And then you think, okay, well, how how does that help us bridge the divides that we know are there socially, culturally, you know, and oftentimes physically. And that's where this becomes a bridge. What we're talking about, the subject matter we're talking about, becomes a bridge because we share so much in this realm. We we often say that, at least on this show, that it's pretty easy in this continent, at least because most people share value for wildlife. We kind of have different ways of approaching how to manage that wildlife, how to interact and cohabitate, and and some of those really complex issues. But by then we all share this idea that we want them around, and we all have that look up at that mountain. We all say, it looks pretty cool. I'd like that to stay there, you know, I'd like that to remain the way it is now. So it is Lantauni. It feels like we're we're at least standing on a bridge, if I haven't already walked across it. Huh yeah. Well, just like Land was talking about how he likes to is talking about the birds and ratting off the birds in his backyard, and he watches birds. I would rather gouge my eyeballs out with the two things. But honestly, I appreciate that Land likes the birds, and I am happy he cares about them because I care about those things too, but I like the ones I can kill and the pay attention to the other ones just being honest, But I support Land in his bird watching. Thank you, Rachel Um. I guess one other way one of the anglides say been too is that that I would describe by partisan is is that you know, we've been talking about how we all come together, you know, for a shared cause, and that's all been positive. But there's also those things that are proposed that are either by a Democrat or a Republican that we do not agree with. And what is awesome is to see the pushback that comes back in a bipartisan fashion. Right, It's like Democrats will push back against a Democrat. The Republican pushback. That's easy to anticipate, right, like, oh, Democrat did something, Republician just gonna say no. Same thing with Democrats, you know, like a Republican does something, and that Democrats are easy to see there. But when you have Democrats and Republicans and independence pushing back on an ill faded idea, that is where like the power comes in. So we can talk about the positive pieces which we have been but I also think when there's something that needs to be pushed back on that. Somebody proposed that just wasn't well educated, or has a pet project that isn't good for public lands, isn't good for public waters, it is not good for a public wild back. The amount of pushback that comes back that is bipartisan against that, I think that is a true sense of really what that word is, because it'd be easy to be quiet about it. Yeah, we had that recently. I would say even within the organization there were some I made. I had a position on crossbows, the one that really wasn't agreed upon by our Montana chapter, and we were able to I think because of this, this we understand each other. We have a shared value system. Pretty work through that pretty damn quickly, say like, here's where I am, here's where you are. I had a lot of emailers want to discuss it. We discussed it on air and off and um, we're able to work through some of those things and get to a place where there was I think both sides were probably unlikely to agree, but came to an agreement pretty damn quickly to say, like, I think if we had a position, this is what it ought to beat Boom done, living living the good life. Um, and I think that's because we go ahead, well, sorry to cut you off. I guess I would say that's part of about like again that bipartisanship is the ability to have conversations. And then this dirty word called compromise, right, like when did that become a compromise? You know, whended up coming? Like when sorry, when it compromise become a dirty word like compromise. It's like how the world works, Like I don't know Ben how you're doing with your wife and these two young kids. But if he were like, this is gonna be my way or the highway, that wouldn't work out very well, you know. And I would say the same thing if I was like, Rachel, well maybe this is a bad example, but Rachel, you gotta drink like Boone's farm for the rest of your life only like and she's like, no, well, how about how about you know BHS infidel? And I was like, okay, we can compromise right like so like and that's not the best example. I apologized for that, but I think this idea of conversations actually listening to somebody and then coming up with something that works for both people like that is like one of the best things about bipartisanship that I can like even like I mean and this idea that, oh you flip flopped or you changed, you know, the way you thought about something. Man, if we're not if we're not able to listen to people that we disagree with and find a path forward with them, like what world are we living in? You know? Like this idea that we're just gonna beat everybody on the head and you've got to think exactly the way I do. That is not the way of the world works. And I think that's one of the important things about bipartisanship is finding compromise in the middle. I don't I don't trust and don't feel comfortable in a situation where you have a group of people that one agree with one another, because that is complete and ut our horseship. We don't all agree on everything, um, and so I'm happy to work with people in the areas that we do agree on on things together. But like, if you talk about compromise, I feel like compromise comes from a more defensive position, Like something has happened to me, and so I'm in a defensive position, and so therefore we now are compromising and so like if you look at it on the flip side, like the buzzword is collaboration, and I feel like collaboration is doing the same thing, but it's doing it in a proactive instead of a reactive manner. I guess offensive defensive maybe is wrong. But again, compromises like from this reactive versus collaboration comes from this, like proactive space, You're still doing the same thing. Um, it's just that oftentimes when you get to the point where it's compromised, people feel attacked. People feel um, you know, like things are happening to them that are out of their control. Um. And that's why we've made so much headway like in proactive collaboration, I think over the years to get these things done, um, and I think there's a huge shift that way. So I don't know, I just again it compromised. This isn't a bad word. It's just often done in a space and a place where people feel a little more frantic about it. Yeah. No, I totally agree. And I think that being you know, reminding each other all the time that we we were kind of starting from a similar place. There's a lot of people that want to argue that we're not you know that a rancher for why Wyoming can't get along with a suburban kid from New York. Uh. I think you would both agree that we've seen that in B h A and Spades and Land. You're you're probably the the number one evidence that you can go from pyt Night to you know, chapter meeting two. Back when we could travel like you're, You're, we were getting on you a lot for traveling too much and being out there too much and being uh too involved if that's a postible thing, because we wanted your we wanted you to keep your sanity and be able to to lead our organization. But the truth is you, probably as much as anybody, have seen kind of people gathering around these ideas and and and shared values systems instead of coming to it like, well, there's no way we can get along. And I'm pretty happy that the thing I love the most is kind of the campfire that people are gathering around. It's pretty amazing. It's unbelievable. I feel so lucky to be in that situation. Yeah, the campfire is pretty amazing. And I think you know, and I'm gonna butcher this a little bit, but I think, you know, Jim Paz, what we talk about like the hunter with the right heart, you know, and that's that's again like what I find all across the country. And you mentioned you know, some suburban or some you know, city person from New York and a rancher like that shared love for like the landscapes that you know, we all get to participate in. You know that we're very lucky that sixty billion acres that belongs to us all like that shared love for those opportunities and just the ability even think a dream about it like that. That's a place where I think we all start and is something that binds us. And then after that, you know, it's it's really individual individuals that have different perspectives on different angles of that. But at the end of the day, I can agree that that is like one of the main things that binds us. And and to me, that's one of the most exciting things. Is like when I go to like North Carolina in place I really hadn't been until this job, and I'm ready to be underwhelmed, underwhelmed by their public lands, underwhelmed by their commitment of conservation. You know, I'm growing up in Montana and this is something that what we do and who we are. And I got over there and they had the same passion for the public lands. They have amazing public lands from the coast to the mountains, and you know, to learn from them, and like the birthplace of like modern I think different in show. You know, there's like they're like there's like a there's like even a cabin where like the birthplace of like kind of forestry was in this country. Like they're so prideful about that piece, you know. And I really didn't know that story until I came there. And when I go to all these different places across North America, that same story as told. The characters may be different, but that pride and like and and and what they have and where they're going and how they're participating in this unique experiment, like they're just excited to be part of that. Man, And that that that to me fills the bucket, as I've said before. And while it might have been driving me nuts a little bit. And uh, and you know it wasn't great for myself physically or mentally, man, it was awesome too. And I can't wait to do it again. Yeah, to your point, man, I'm I'm just this conversation to be able to talk about these concepts and and think about the success that b h A has had has been an easy road, but there are so many points along the way that we can celebrate into two tap to kind of take a year off from gathering and then know that we're we're buriling towards another celebration of of what this is and what we do. Man, I couldn't be um more related, more excited, more hopeful to see that coming together. So I would I guess I want to say to both of you guys, thanks for the work that you do and have done and will do. It means a lot to me. And I know the listeners of this show if you're so many of you are bh members, but if you're not, I know you all still admire the work that's being done. And again, as you always say, Land, I mean it's if you know it's not b h A, there's a bunch of great organizations out there to spend your conservation, time, energy and dollars um. Bolasher do like b h A, but that doesn't mean I don't also love n WTF and r m EF and and you don't have to be a member to do the work. That's the thing is like, join us in the conversation, listen to the conversations. If something hits you and you're passionate about that, you don't have to be invited to participate. And that is part I think that's part of the problem, is that it's daunting and like how do I How am I involved? How can I get involved? And obviously that's what BH is about, is teaching people and helping people be involved, elevate their voice, use their actions. Um, you don't have to remember like you can reach out, you can take action. Um, everyone is invited to the table. That's what we're supposed to do. We elect people and then we tell them what to do where we go, and we work with policymakers, We do all of those things. It's the hard work, and it's you don't see it right away and you don't see the tangible benefit right away, but it's a hard work that everyone is willing to tackle when we sign on for this. So yeah, yeah, I've seen in these recent state legislative sessions after an election, the flurry of a legislation that gets pushed on a state level. It's happened here in Montana, It's happened in the Utah. It's I mean, name is state basically, and um are our state leaders, chapter leaders have jumped into this with both feed and every example that I've ever seen. And um, like I said, whether or not I understand the issue or even agree with the stance, I know that those people are coming from a place that I appreciate, coming from a place that I value, and they're fighting for the things I'm gonna fight for. So I mean, that's a good It's damn good to have that knowledge. All those people are out there, and I ben, I would say that you know, none of what we have today happened by accident, right like, you know, we stand on the shoulders of giants, and whether that's the the big people that we know about, like the Theodore Roosevelts and the elder Leopolds of the world. By the way, that's best shirt of all time, like Eldo F and Leopold, Like I love that shirt. Um that all these things that we experienced today are because other people stepped up at the state legislatures at the federal level, right like. And it's not like that ever goes away it's just our time to do our part. And how exciting that we can get to have this conversation about being engaged, where in other parts of the world we would be fighting for scraps and like here we're trying to preserve something is available to everybody, and how lucky are we? Like that is like to me, And again I know that we don't get to get to this finish line right and be like Okay, we're done, like we've done it all, like we don't have to do any other work, Like it's always gonna be there. And I hope that you know, my young kids care about it or somebody else's young kids care about it and help move it forward. But again, I'm just excited to have such an amazing team to hang out with, um to do this every single day. And Ben, I would count you with that every step of the way. And I was joking you know a little bit about that, Ben long Um you know kind of email that I looked up, But it's the truth. Man, Like you stick out and I just appreciate you on the team. It's good to be a part of it. As I probably told you from the very beginning, I've said a bunch of different times. You know, I have a son now. I just spent eleven days on our public lands straight hunting turkeys, and every single tag I bought anyone can buy, and all very affordable, all extremely accessible. You can camp, you can fish, you can hike, you can turkey hunt. I just did that. It's not that it's it's not a concept that you can't feel like. I just I didn't spend a single I didn't put a single bootprint on private ground. That wasn't you, It wasn't me getting out of the truck on the highway to take a piss. So I I know that I celebrate that in my daily life, and it's not it's not a lost on me. When I watched my little kid, you know, smile and and understand that same thing. So I told you probably first time we talked on the phone after that been along email, I said, I'll do it, man, because I'm about to have a kid, and um, I want that young young man to know what I know. He'll do with it whatever he pleases, and he'll be free to to use it as much as he liked. But I just want him to know that resources there for him and those people that defended her are standing there right beside you. So it's uh, it all sounds very uh high salutin right now and very inspirational, but hey, it is. I'm sorry it is. Deal with it. We're inspired. If you don't like it, leave just kidding. It's all very inspiring. And so thank you to to Rachel and thanks to you Land, and we'll hope to see in Missoula. Everybody, come on by. I'll have some some turkey nuggets at the very least ready for everybody. You've heard it here. They'll be turkey nuggets, and then Rachel will have a big blue bar. So like you can't go wrong with either one of those things. We aren't. We should, but make it. Like I said, a mega camp is in the offing where we eat everybody. Everybody has their job to do, you know, everybody specifically. You gotta provide this correct. We've gotta come together times like this, especially uh whiskey, simfandel whatever else. So all right, guys, thank you so much. I appreciate you. Back Hush your hunters dot org go check it out, check out the Rendezvous sign up now, join us virtually or in person. It will be an epic part. See you guys, Thank you, thanks and good talking as always. That's it. That's all another episode in the books. Thank you to Land, Tawny, Rachel Schmidt and everybody at b h A. So please come join us at the Rendezvous, one of the coolest gatherings and one of the coolest organizations in all of hunting and conservation. And please come join us for Phil's first Turkey out which coming right up here in the weeks to come, the final two weeks of the program. UM, I would I guess, like the end of our shows for the for the rest of this we want to try to address you know, the end of this this year program and and um, as you would expect, Phil, hundreds of emails coming in d m s, Instagram, d m s. A lot of people, some people confuse, some people angry so much. Hey, the podcast was free, so you know it was always free. UM. Some people wanted to reflect a lot of people, UM just just generally interested in the reasoning behind the show gown away. I don't want to get into any of that. But what I will do is is read some emails from some some folks who are reflective and and even emotional so you're gonna see uh that evolution with our our buddy, Josh Englehart. He wrote in Dear Sweet Benjamin and Philip, I am a smidgen behind on my podcast, but I was just told by my chapter leader that the podcast is over. W TF. I just heard a few seconds ago, and I feel like I'm going to throw up. Th HC is a sunny spot in my life and I'm sad to hear the news. Is there anything we can do to keep it around? I still have to listen to the most recent podcast. Fuck. This sucks so much. Thanks for doing what you do. I'll miss you, guys, Josh. Like many people, Josh took a little bit of time to reflect and then wrote back in a little bit later. He said, first, I'd like to apologize for my last email. I admit I was a bit emotional hearing the news of the end. It might be weird, but having you in my ear or on my radio is like sitting down with an old friend. Not the kind you haven't seen since childhood or dread conversation with, but the sort would no matter how long you've been apart, you can pick it up just as though you spoke yesterday. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to your conservation conversations. You've challenged my way of thinking and opened my mind. It It sounds dramatic, but I feel I live differently after all the time spent listening to the show. I'm slower to judge and much more empathetic than I've ever been. I guess I just want to say thanks for not just for the show, for how you've made my life better. I feel like I'm losing a friend. Is this email going to be dissolved after the show is over? Is there any way to still contact you after the end? Thanks? Pellas Josh First of all, th HC at the Mediator dot com. I imagine we'll live on forever. Phil. Do you think so? You think they there's no reason to shut it down? Yeah? Reading the emails, Yeah, I'll definitely read the email. Listen. You can get ahold of me any which way Instagram, th HC at the Mediator dot com, Join one of our chapters, get get in touch with the leaders of those chapters. I'll still be very active in that kind of stuff, and we'll still have many ways to communicate. Um. So as much as I do also feel like I'm losing thousands and thousands of friends, UM, because people say, do you have friends? Of the thousands of them, you won't even know how many friends I have. UM. But but in all serious Josh and everyone else listening that that that shares his emotions, we take this very seriously here. The connection we've had with you has been been awesome. UM. The fact that you, so many of you, have been willing to spend time not only listening to us, but interacting with us, whether you drew Phil's voice face, or you wrote a poem poetic review for this program, or you made a video about a conservation bill. UM. I can't think of all the other things left one star review on iTunes calling Ben a green decoy, Yeah, any of those things a dirty lip, any of those things that you did spend time with us. Thank you, Thank you. We appreciate it, UM, all of it, and all of it is UH has been fun, and it's been a one hell of a long run for us, UM, and so well, we will continue to be reflective and celebrate this with all of you. And but but but the main thing is that we're not going to change what we've been here to do for the next couple episodes, which is laugh, make fun of ourselves, but also have some conversations that challenge us and that push us forward, because that job is never gonna be over. It could it could go on for as long as I'm around, and as long as fills around, and long as all of you are out there. So um, first things first, thank you. Second thing, go find your THHC chapter on Facebook and joint and and and those connections that you may make their will keep this podcast and and everything it means to me and to to you going uh into the future even when it's not here anymore. Anything, feel that you'd like to add to that? Uh? Not really? I mean we we could have the show go on for like eight seasons. Yeah, and then in the last season they crowned brand the King of West Roast and people are disappointed because he has a good story or something. Right, Oh man, Yeah, I think we might end this like the Sopranos, just be having breakfast after the Turkey Hunt and then cut to black. Yeah, fade to black instead of instead of do you know what makes a good king? Story? Who has a good story? Like that kid a tree for four years he hasn't even he wasn't even in one season. We could have, we could The last episode could just be us recapping that for Steven Ronnella was one of my favorite string Steve back in here. We'll force him to watch Game of Thrones. It just it just probably fired me right at that moment, I'll be out. Um alright, anyway, Sorry, I think you wanted something heartfelt from me. I would admit to it, being like, it feels like a little bit self serving to be heartfelt because then you have to just build up something that, um is just a podcast. But again, I'm listening, man, I hear you guys. Have read all your emails. If I haven't replied to you, I apologize your d M s or your emails, but um, I've read them all. And um uh catching all the fields there, Philly, catching all the fields. It's important to us. I know it's important to you. So thank you for listening. We've got two more episodes, one seventy six and one seventy seven. Uh, you know what's coming, and that's filled the engineer killing a turkey. No pressure fail, but it means a lot to me. Say bye bye, clean, you're gun and turn your bowl where the huntclipped, showing calling hunters new and all the hun collected, show working pig and shovel or working ben in Hame. We comregate nice Overton, I'm a lay. We're focused. We're just leaving for searching, dreaming of fir and assaultic Gilbern. But we ain't coming back until it's Colden Lake taking its slow so we can shoot straight. Clean your gun, Tune your bowl where the hunt glegged, show calling hunters new and all. Ain't no cold, I'm told