00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan in this episode number two and sixty two, and today we're beginning a two week series of reflection on the two eighteen hunting season, and today it starts with Dan and I over analyzing our past year, the mistakes made and the lessons learned. All right, welcome to the first episode of the Wired Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx in the year two thousand nineteen. And as we do typically at the end of each season, me and and are back together for our postseason review, kind of auditing the past hunting season, talking through what happened, what we learned, what we screwed up with, what we want to do different, uh, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. That's kind of what I want to do here today, Dan, So I guess number one. Are you up for that? I'm down, dude, I'm ready. Number two. Then, before we get to get to how we're the holidays, do you have at least one Dan Johnson family disaster story that you can share I feel like it wouldn't be a podcast without one of those. These these days, disasters are every day. I mean, just like the kids and their attitudes. And my youngest he's like he's been walking for a while now, but now he can, like he can chew gum and walk to you know what I mean. So not only can he walk, but he can climb and he can start pulling the the safety guards out of the electrical outlets, and he can like get up on end tables and try to pull the TV cord out and all this stuff. And it's just it's almost like you need to have a little room, a padded area just to put him in because he's, I don't know, he's like a mouse. He can get into anything. Oh man, I'm I'm learning about that now too. It's a whole new world. So can knocks walk yet? Oh yeah, yeah, So that's that's what word. We're right on the precipice of that. Everett is standing now and he can take a couple of steps. He just took his actually he took his very first steps this morning. So that was pretty exciting. Yeah. So he took like two steps and then fell, But it was very cool. Um, but he's definitely climbing up on everything, like you said, trying to pull out plugs, trying to yank down things. I mean, it's just got us thinking like, how in the world can we handle two kids, let alone three? Right, I'll tell you what. It's crazy because from the moment they're born, there's all these these goals in life or the these steps in childhood development, and it's like, oh, man, I can't wait till they start walking. They're gonna be so much fun. And then when they start walking, all you want to do is just have them not walk anymore and just like sit down. And then you're like, okay, cool, Now they can start talking. But when they start talking, they don't stop talking. This is no This is no joke. This is not a joke. We were in a car over the holidays for a period of time that was two straight hours. My daughter talked from the time we pulled out of my driveway to the time we pulled into the driveway of where we were going. She was talking the entire time. I thought she was gonna black out from oxygen deprivation. And was anyone talking back to her? It was it just her stream of conscious to herself. This is how it goes. You have to talk back to it because if you don't, you or you have to talk back to her. Dad. Dad, Dad, Dad? Dad? What a dad? Uh? I saw a coward there? What What do you think that cow's name is? Uh? But I don't know? Okay, okay Dad, okay, hey Dad? Did you know that on the bus yesterday? Um? This boy he said a bad word? Oh that's not very good? Dad? What dad? Dad's like? Now? Times that by two whole two whole hours? Oh? Man, Yeah, I love him. I love him. I and I bitch about the kids a lot right on this podcast, but I tell you I love them to death. They're very there there. I love him so much. But man, being a parent is is a pretty hard thing. I'm not gonna lie. It's work. Yeah, that has been. If we're reviewing two thousand eighteen, that was definitely my biggest lesson learned was family changes things, that's for sure, But like you said, it's it's the best thing ever. Right. Um, So it's kind of fun to complain about it once in a while, but I certainly wouldn't change it, that's for sure. Absolutely. Yeah, Man, it's funny. Every year speaking of season and review kind of things. Um. Usually the last day of the hunting season each year here in Michigan, that's January one, yesterday. UM, So every New Year's Day, I typically go out and hunt, and I just find it to be like a nice way to end the year. I always sit somewhere where I can just be by myself, and I usually just kind of I don't know, I'm not as focused on hunting. I'm usually just kind of sitting there sometimes just close my eyes and try to like soak in the surroundings and the sounds and the smells and the moment and just for that last time of the year, just soak it. Just soak it all in, appreciate it, and then think back on the season, kind of think through sometimes in my head, just go back to the first day and try to remember each hunt, each cool experience. Just kind of go through that story in my mind and remembering all the highs and the lows and think through what I did right. Kind of kind of try to do that like self review each year. Uh So, I was gonna do that last night yesterday evening, um, but ended up getting close to the time I was going to go out, and I thought, you know what, Um, my wife had been busy with them taking care of Everett, and I've been working throughout the day. I thought maybe maybe it'd be a good idea to take Everett with me. So I grabbed him, put him in the front pack, put on some blaze orange, went out to the property, one of these properties that could hunt, and we just took a walk together, and um, you know, we we He doesn't know what I'm saying, but the whole time we're walking, I'm like talking to him about the stuff I usually talked about in my head. But I kind of told him the story of my season. I told him about you know, well you were doing this and you know that day that you had chicken pox. Well that's when Daddy was in Nebraska, and uh, kind of going through that whole thing. Then I we went and checked the trail camera. I went and showed him all these big rubs and told him the story of Frank and showed him, well, this is a spot I saw Frank, and this is this rub he was making when I saw him that one time. We walked through and kind of scouted through a little um patrol ground where he had been breeding a dough, and um, it was just it was just kind of a fun thing to do. Um to kind of cap off the year. I thought it was a very fitting way. As I was doing, I thought, you know, this is this is the way to end the season, because this season was so defined for me by this new stage in life, you know, and getting to share that with you know, getting to spend that last day with the reason why I'm in a new stage of life, and and and leading to this new year, sharing this part of my life with him. I mean, obviously he had no idea what was going on. It was just a fun thing to be outside for him, probably, but but for me it was it was a cool thing to to be able to share with him. And it just gets me a lot, um just even more excited, I guess about two thousand nineteen, because I think, you know, this year, it's still he's still really young, but he's gonna be a walk and run around and follow me in the woods is coming season and all those things I'm excited about. So that was a good way in the year. But I still haven't got to do my serious audit of the season. So that's that's what we need to do here. I really need to do the serious breakdown of of things. And have you picked my brain and tell me what I did wrong? Um? So it's it's a good and looks of it, you didn't do too much wrong. Man, Well, it was a good It was a good year. I can't I can't complain about that. UM. Question for us before we talk about my season though, Um, last time we talked, well, I guess past that we exchanged a few text messages a little while back about something that had you excited about the end of year season. And we really haven't got to talk about how much of your December hunting season activities at all. Um. So my season is done. Everybody kind of knows how it ended. I killed Frank in December early December, and then after that I took a bunch of time away from hunting, and then you know, I will tell you later. We can get to this later. But I did have a really cool end of the season. The last like five six days of the season. Um, we tried to hunt one of these properties for doughes a bunch and got to share some fun time with friends and family. UM. I had a really cool dough hunt myself. So, uh don't don't don't let me forget to mention that. But but what I'm trying to say in a really long roundabout rambling that away, is to tell me how your season has ended. Is it quite done yet? Well, I'll tell you what. Technically no, because it's still season here in Iowa, right, it's late season muzzle loader or late season archery here in Iowa. And so if I wanted to, or if I had the time, I could most definitely go out. But it's not gonna happen. I'm just too busy, you know. I'm to a point now where I feel I've already had a really successful season. And although I didn't get the opportunit ney to fill fill the freezer like I usually do, I'll be able to rely on family to get some meat because my stepdad had a really good season and he he was able to go out and fill the freezer, uh like more than enough for you know, to share with everybody. And uh so I could I could have gone out and you know, went to try to harvest a dough or something like that, or even a second buck if I wanted to, but I felt it was honestly in my best interest to focus all that time on my business and really end two thousand and eighteen strong so that I could continue that momentum going into two thousand and nineteen. And that's just what I've really been focusing on lately, is just the growth of growth of the business side of things and um. But other than that, man, I'll tell you this. My wife went out for her very first ever shotgun. I took her out shotgun season and we went out and she had it in her brain that, you know, she did not want to to shoot a dough. Um. She has some kind of connection with them, I guess, And and she she passed up a couple opportunities. Was it you? Was it you who once knocked on someone's door for permission and they said that deer were the spirit animal. Wasn't that? Yeah? The lady said. The lady said, well, a white tailed dough is my spirit animal. And I said, back to our I go, you gotta be kidney, because the white tailed buck is my spirit animal. Did you really think of that on your toes? Yeah? I did. And uh, she let me shed hunt it, which got me access to the farm, but I couldn't hunt it, so so a white tailed dough, Is is your wife's spirit animals? Well, I don't know if it's, uh, it's I don't know if it's a white tailed dough, but it might be like a white what's the most ferocious animal in the world. It's got to be like a mother grizzly bear. Right, I would say that's definitely a strong candidate. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna say she's more of like a mother grizzly bear. So so Mama Grizzly didn't want to shoot a doll, right, that's right. So she didn't want to shoot a doll. And the two days that we had, like the three days we had set aside it the weather was bad one of them, and we came, uh, we came out hunting on the main farm. Once she passed the dough. Went out two days later back at my local farm that I have near the house. Passed on a couple of doughs. But it's funny, right as we're walking in, it butts right up next to public ground, boom boom. So it was like we walked into the timber and I just basically had to keep her positive, you know. Instantly we heard those gunshots, and her her attitude went downhill from that, like, oh, now we're not going to see anything. I'm like, hey, you never know, with all this chaos, deer could be running around trying to have different hunting parties and what not. So we just sat on the top of the hill and overlooked this little valley. Uh, really good pinch point, and uh we saw one dough work through there at a long distance. And then on we left a little bit before daylight, before nightfall, last shooting light, walked back to the truck in a cornfield and there was three or four does there, and uh, she didn't want to shoot at the does. So uh, that's that was a rap on on her shotgun season. And then, like I said, then the holidays hit and and then just been full bore work for me. So, man, so have you actually hunted yourself since you killed your buck? I have not November? I think, well I shot him on the shot him on the fourth, recovered him on the sixth. Wow, So you haven't hunted since November four. So I expect then, with all that time away from hunting, that any day you're announcing that you're quitting your dat JA. I have working full time at Sports Nation, all that business time, right, Oh man, I hope that would be nice. W wasn't it? I know, simply because I want to hunt with you in Michigan. Dude, I you have no idea. You have no idea how bad I want to hunt Michigan. Yes, I do know what that tells me. So I got my fingers and toes crossbrey man um. Okay, so that well, before we shift, then why didn't you, I know, well, why didn't you go after the one buck that you got pictures of? Did you just just end up having time? Or well, did you not think it's killable? I just I don't, I you know how? Yeah, I don't. I don't even really know how to explain it. Like I get into a groove right in between, like before the season starts, before the rut starts, you're gathering data from trail cameras, you're you're you're looking at mine. You get into this groove right where it's just like you're all the data that you've collected now becomes like fluid and then you just go with the flow. Right, Okay, I got this wind, I gotta sit here, or I got this data from this show camera and there's a good trailer rub right here. I got historical data from last year. From here, you could you get into this this flow where things become automatic almost And I was not feeling that at the end of the season, you know, I I was more concerned with some other things like family and uh uh, trying to get my wife prepared for shotgun season, and you know I did have I went to check my trail cameras and then Gnarlie Charlie showed up, and uh, I don't it sounded like you got excited and like, man, I gotta put together strategy. I'm gonna go after him again, right, Yeah, So what happened was I I got a picture of him, right, and then I ended up putting a um a dirt like right at shotgun season. So honestly, I went in taking my wife into the best possible spot where I thought he might come through, because he showed up the day before, the night before. So we went in there, set up a ground blind in some real thick trees, and uh went in there after him, and you know, just that one dough showed up. But it's one of those things where then I didn't really know what to do because I had already taken my trail cameras down from previous years. Uh, you know, there was hunting already still going on in that farm. And then we had to come back home. I had to go back to work, and well, I guess while I was there, I set up a cell phone camera, a cell camera, and I started getting relay, you know, pictures back from this camera. And then all of a sudden, like oh man, it might have been part of right after your second season Shotgun ended. He shows up, but it's completely nocturnal on this camera because there was a standing bean field. Well, that bean field got harvested, and it must have stirred up something, because he showed back up the the night that they that they ended up during the day they combined it. That night he showed back up and came back into the timber. And then he showed up two more times on that same exact trail leading into this bean field. And then something happened. There was like a day or two with no pictures. I think it got real warm, and then I think, to be honest with you, I think he's already shed his antlers. You've gotten pictures that you think are him. I got pictures of really big bodied deer. Um, multiple deer actually, so I think there's multiple shed bucks on on this area, and I think one of them is him. Just it's a gut feeling that I have, like, okay, that he was coming through here three or four, like three out of four days, all nocturnal, right ten eleven o'clock at night. But the next day the same geer came through just had no antlers on it, So I think he he already shed his antlers. Interesting, well, yes, it certainly happens when we UM. Oh, I don't think you weren't on the podcast when I mentioned this, But that one buck survivor that I've been watching in the past couple of years, he got killed by neighbor, and UM, the neighbor while tracking that buck across the property that I hunt, UM actually found a shed from an early shed buck. So that I've got my first shed of the year because he gave that to me. UM. And I've been hearing some other people across a number of states saying the same thing. So I know what happens every year. Um, it's always surprising that what it does. Yeah, I mean every once in a while I mean, just like Spencer, right, he shot that buck and antlers popped off, right, I've heard numerous stories of that already, and it's just one of those things where I think, now that I know he shed his antlers, I just have this really good feeling that he's gonna make it through winter and I'll be chasing him next year. That would be knock on wood. Yeah, I know that. I know that feeling the excitement of hoping that one of those bucks will be back the next year and what that can mean. Uh, Galie, are you going to share pictures if he comes back next year? We'll see you, dude. I mean, this is just I mean, we've we've talked about this, right, I mean, the same reason that you just decided not to share pictures is the same part of the same reason that I decided not to share pictures. And although you know, there's probably people lots of people who listen to this podcast in my podcast who live in the area, I don't know, and they would have a hard time being able to hunt the property that I hunt. It's just that I don't know. I just I'll share it when I'm ready, know, I think that's a good that's a good thing. Yeah, it was kind of nice to keep a little bit private, you know, like we talked about with Frank, it's kind of nice to ever once in a while have some stuff that's just kinda for you and some things that we share. And um, I think there's a there's a there's a balance needed there sometimes maybe. So that's good man. I I then want to know before we're talking about two nineteen and Narie Charlie. Um, right, you hunted elk and then you hunted October into early November, if you had to, like now that you look back on your season satisfaction level with the season on like a one to ten scale, or however you want to quantify how you feel about your two thous eighteen season, how would you how do you describe that? How would you rate? Dude? I don't know if it could get much better. I mean I come from Iowa, right, so I just see corn fields and then when the corn comes out of the fields, it's flat ground. And I mean there's some great views and great terrain in Iowa. However, I went to Colorado, dude, and I got up to like eleven thousand three feet one day, and I saw these spectacular views and I was able to hunt in some very remote places you know for the lower as far as the lower forty eight is concerned, that would be very hard to get to for anybody. And we went in and worked our balls off and had a crack at an elk and I saw some you know, we saw elk. I saw my first bowl elk up close that wasn't in like Rocky Mountain National Park and you know, public land d I y just another unique experience as far as a Western hunt concerns. So it just it's hard to put a number on it. But that's a win for me. If if I never killed an elk but had that same experience every year, it's a success in my book. Yeah, when you get those hunts for elk where they're screaming up close all that stuff like you had, that is that is hard to beat. I don't blame you for being excited about that, and it was. It's crazy, and I'm sure you are aware of this feeling, but you get to a point where you're just completely exhausted and it sucks climbing up the mountain and these verticals and over the dead fall and you're just like, oh God, this sucks. But the second I got in my car and drove off that mountain, I wanted to be back doing it again. And it was it was like, and that's all I think about now, elk elk. Yeah, really yeah. I mean, it's it's crazy, it's it's it's interesting because I and I either said this on this podcast or someone's podcast. I don't remember where I said this, but um, I have this like ebb and flow of non white tail interest. And usually usually it's like right about now, I usually get kind of burnt out on white tails. I need like a month and a half or so, or at least a month maybe where I kind of step away from white tails and I get really excited about elk again. This is when I always end up like planning in my elk hunts or whatever western the I'm gonna do, and I'm reading my backpacker magazines and my vehicle magazines and my fly fishing magazines and all that kind of stuff, like, oh, I do this adventure and this trip and that thing and this thing and that thing, and that you know happens in the winter. But then, without fail, every year gets to like late summer and it's leading into all those trips, and I should be getting excited about those things. And I am excited about those things, but I always find myself like I should be scouting for white tails or I should be checking that camera. I should be, and I always end up just I'm just too I'm too addicted to white tail like and and and in this year for the first time, it's January two, and I'm not burned out on white tails at all, Like I'm thinking, I'm already like in full blown, like July excited for the next season mode right now. Um. So, for whatever reason, I'm more energized and refreshed than I usually am. Um. So it's funny to hear that that you're in the opposite side of it. You're more focused on the on the different species now, where I'm more focused back on the usual. Well, I tell you what, I'm not gonna say I'm more focused. I would say I'm equally as intrigued because like right now, I'll be honest, my focus is on work and family right now, Like like I haven't put too much thought into going out West again. I mean, I'm gonna do it, but I just haven't put too much thought into it as of right now, just looking back and reflecting on the season, Like, the experience I had with the elk hunt was almost greater than and I don't want to say greater, because I shot my biggest buck I've ever shot this year, right, and it was a five year old, big mature white tail. From a from a score standpoint, I guess you could say it would have scored bigger than any other buck that I've shot. But the impact it had on me was almost greater going out west than it was shooting my biggest white tail. I get that. It's that. I mean, it's just such a different I mean, that was your first really cool elk experience, Like our elk hunt experience was just like a physical backpacking trip. We didn't get the elk side of things that. I mean after my first like elk hunt, where is awesome? Like that, I felt the exact same way you didn't. So I totally get that. I mean, that is amazing. It's amazing. So so it has me. It has me thinking about priorities from a hunting thing. From a hunting standpoint, it's like, Okay, I have this full time job. I'm only a lot of X amount of days I can. I'm gonna be able to deer hunt until I'm sixty in Iowa or you know, in my sixties, if not older, depending on how healthy I am. Right, I may not be able to do the run and gun crazy things like I do now. But uh, there is a limited window for Western type hunts, especially the extreme type hunts, right And I think in the next ten years, I really I think I'm going to focus heavily on putting a lot more time into these Western hunts and maybe even cutting back a little bit on the white tail side of things, and maybe only taking up a week vacation as opposed to a two week vacation, right and and maybe dedicating some more time out west. Just you know, That's what I'm thinking about right now, Like where should my time go? Yeah? Yeah, that's choices. Yeah, It's all about choices. So are you saying that you're that you're gonna go back someday or you're definitely gonna do a Western hunt again until the nineteen Oh yeah, it's I'm going I'm going on a Western hunt. It's probably gonna be the same elk hunt again with the same group of guys, but I'm thinking about adding that Nebraska mule deer, white tail deer, antelope hunt as well. So yeah, man, that's that that's some fun stuff out there. Yeah, now that I've got some taste of that country. Yeah, that sandhills you mean? Yeah, yeah, dude, I tell you, I'm not sure what it is, you know, like you're you. I think we've had this conversation before that you're really drawn to the mountains. Like there's something about the wide open prairie, the rolling hills of the prairie, the sand hills in Nebraska more specific that I am just drawn to. I don't know. I absolutely love the feeling of being completely alone and knowing, and that feeling makes me It's like there's a second dairy feeling of insignificance and how small you really are in the grand scheme of things, that it just wakes you up and it realizes that maybe you're not as important as you think you are, you know what I mean about. That's something I always enjoy about any time I get out in these big wild places. That's exactly exactly one of the things I'm thinking about, which which that hunt that I had in western Nebraska was was definitely that kind of thing that was just like you said something about the wide open prairie in those rolling hills and the just horizons that are never ending, that that really becomes apparent in a very visual way that you're very small, and uh, that's invigorating in some fashion. So yeah, man, if if I had to look at my season, um from like a satisfaction standpoint, um, a lot of things you just mentioned, they're factored into it for me too, UM, because I had a couple of these hunts that were very much, um adventures in different kind of ways. The public land hunt in Montana was just a ton of fun. I love those solo kind of sleep in the back of my truck hunts, and like that was an adventure white to hunt for sure, are slogging up and down rivers back into canyons. It was just a cool hunt and to be able to pull it off on my own that was very rewarding. Um. And then fastwards to the Nebraska hunt. You know that we just talked about that same kind of thing, just totally different than any other white tail hunt I've ever done, big wild place. I mean, even though that wasn't public land, it was it was. It was more like a public land hunt and more wild and vast and unpeopled than any public land hunt I have done. So that was that was really cool. Um. So did you miss you know, staying on the topic of Western hunts, did you miss not elk hunting this year? Well? I did do the elk hunt two Remember I took Oh that's right, you went solo for what like a four days five days. I was solo for two days and then I met up with Ryan Callahan for four or something like that. I forgot about that. That was kind of like a I kind of forgot about it too. It kind of just slipped away into the memories of my hunting season that was during that member, Like my September was just nuts um and the elk hunton was just it was. It was. It was fun trip from like a social aspect. Was great to hang out with the guys and hiking the mountains and stuff, but it was just not productive at all from an animal standpoint. Um. And it was just a physical a physical grind, unlike any of my other el concert caribra hunt or anything. I mean, that was just it was a lot of up and down. Um. So that one was a little bit brutal, but but still cool to get out there, cool to spend a lot of time in these places. Um. And then of course the at home season was, as we discussed, was a pretty special one this year, going from you know, disappointment of holy Field being gone and that whole kind of for your build ending with nothing no ending to the story, to then, uh, the surprise of of everything that came about with with Frank showing up and everything, so very very special season to have all that happened, Like when it looked act all that I had my best shed hunting year ever, found more sheds by far than I ever had. I had like some of the coolest fishing and backpacking adventures and stuff like that during the summer, and then had this incredible hunting season, and all of this happened, um, you know, on a year where I thought that all these things would probably suffer um because you know, I've got a family now, a son, and to have all those things kind of happened at the same time as having my son and getting to spend so much awesome time with him and getting to take him out to Montana and all these different places with us. UM. It just made for this being without a doubt, the coolest year of my hunting life as well, um you know, looking outside of just tags field, it was. It was just a super cool set of experiences. So I don't know, Man, we gotta pinch ourselves or knock on wood or do something so that we don't lose this mojo, because it's gonna be hard for two thousand nineteen to top this one. 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Yeah, you know, And I think I think a lot of what made this for me such a successful year was I don't know if it was being so busy even going into it, or maybe not like caring so much about what the outcome was and just to join the overall experience because I felt like going into this season, I wasn't near a stressed out um. And I'm speaking for the white Tail because I had absolutely no expectations on my on my elk hunt, right, I said to myself, dude, like I think the area, the area for that was or the success rate for that unit was like five percent with a bow, So you know, statistics alone, I'm not gonna shoot an elk right and plus public ground really high up, you know, the the quantity, the numbers aren't there like other areas, you know, just really like we saw some good quality bowls. I see, I saw a couple of cows and that's really it, right, not not a ton, but with low expectations, I was able to enjoy myself, not putting any pressure on I have to kill an animal. And then the same kind of the same kind of feeling transferred over into my white tail hunt, where I really didn't go into the season with any really high expectations or I didn't put any pressure on myself. I just kind of released all that and went in for the pure enjoyment of it. And I don't know if it was like the mojo the way I was feeling. I was feeling calm and loose and just going with the flow, like you said, that put me in the right spot at the right time. I got lucky. And I don't know, man, I just I felt I just ended up feeling good before I even shot that buck and that not and then after I shot him and found him, I feel good too. Do you think that you're gonna do you think that's gonna carry over in the future years? I mean, do you think that you're gonna go into chals with you know, not not very goal or in kind of just like go into it to see whatever happens. Is that something you think that's a trend? Yeah? I really like that because I used to I used to take these trail cameras really like almost use them too much and rely on you know, like, hey, I have all these big bucks on trail camera. They were here in September. That shift happens that we always talk about. And and so I'm sitting there with these expectations of hey, this deer, this deer. You know, these deer are supposed to be coming through here. It's the best spot. Why aren't they here? What's going on? Blah blah blah, And you you get in your own head in a way, and this year, with the trail camera stolen in that area, I didn't put any back out and I went in there hunting not a buck, but hunting the best possible spot right and not not not over micromanaging my tree stand locations, which I believe led me to putting myself in the right position at the right time, with what in the right conditions to where this buck used those terrain features and those wind conditions and the weather conditions like a big buck would. And I was just in the right spot at the right time. So so you did a bunch of things right there, um that led to that success, whether that be the fact that you just let go of some things and focused on the right things versus maybe over analyzing pictures or specific deer whatever might be. Um, but do you think you made any mistakes, Like do you look back and say, like, Okay, this is something that I definitely screwed up, or this is something I learned from or anything like that. Yeah. Man, I make mistakes every year, and I'll be the first to admit that, right. I mean, no one hunts perfectly, And for me, I made some mistakes, probably getting too aggressive before, like during the pre d times, like I bounced into some real, some really good spots. Probably in that October time frame. I remember having like a three day window where I was able to go in and hunt that when you thought you could hunt Naralie Charlie's bedroom right right, Yep. I went in there, and I think I just went in a little too early. I think they were still on that. You know that bed to feed patterns still nocturnal. Um. There wasn't a ton of sign compared to other years, and I didn't really read that as the deer are here. You know, we had we had really high water almost all of September, and I think that pushed the deer out. I think he was in there at that time. But I think I bumped him out at some point, either adding additional trail cameras or going in on some of these aggressive hunts too early, and I bumped him out and he didn't And I think I remember telling you that I didn't. I didn't get any truil camera pictures of him until oh man, I want to say November eight, And I think that's how long it took him to feel comfortable coming back into that farm. Yeah, so a two week maybe two and a half week window where he disappeared and he went he went north to farm, and then I think he came back after that, after like to like a day or two after I shot my buck. So I don't know. I uh. I think I think I got him figured out, though, and I just have to get in there and use my head, knowing what I know about this one specific pinch point that leads up to a field, and if I can figure out how the wind acts in there, I think I'm gonna have a really good shot at if let's say, you know, like if all things were equal to this year, and he uses the same pinch points and same travel corridors, I think I'll put I could put myself into a position to where somewhere around the tenth, eleventh, twelfth of October, I could put myself into a position of maybe seeing him, or getting a crack at him, or maybe adding a different trail camera in there and checking it when I'm doing my rut thing and you know, finding out more information that would put me in a position to intercept him hopefully. So now that you've been after him for a year, kind of a little bit off and on here, how like, how invested do you think you'll be in the next year. Is it gonna be a situation where you know, you'll do a few things this pinch point and if it happens, it happens, but you're gonna keep hunting all over the place. Or is it going to be the point where you're gonna Now, I guess you already answered this because you said you're probably gonna go into this with not a whole lot of goals. But do you think at any point you're gonna be like, holy smokes, this is a special deer. I wanna focus more on this or you're done with that, we'll see. Um. I I think the lack what what this past year really taught me is things change and in the woods and with nature, you know. And this deer could get hit by a car, he could be eaten by coyotes, he could die from an infection. It could snow a foot uh and freeze and get real cold, and he could starve, you know whatever. And I think, if you start, what I don't want to do is I don't want to get into a ship rook a ship recor rut again. And what I mean by that is I don't want to be so invested in a specific deer that I passed the opportunity at something that I've never shot before, right right, Yeah, it's interesting you say that. I kind of had a similar conversation with Spencer last week because he was talking about how he doesn't like to target specific box or get too focused on that, and he kind of said by default he has to because he doesn't see the same deer often, um, but that he didn't really like to do that because some of the things you mentioned there, um. And then you just mentioned that, and right, we've over the years, we've talked about each of our our own special situations that we've had kind of like this, you with shipwreck, me with holy Field and some other deer of the years. Um, it's interesting that YouTube had that same thought over the course of this time period. Now and I feel like I'm going the opposite direction, Like I get I'm getting more and more and more just fascination with like getting into a specific deer like that has just become so much fun for me. And I don't feel like, you know, during the moment, like during the hunts for holy Field, Like if anyone's heard these podcasts, they've heard me talk about how stressed I was, how I was getting you know, down on myself about things blah blah blah blah blah. And yes there were times when I felt that way, But like if I look at things over the long run and if I zoom like if I zoom out and look at the thirty thousand ft overview of like my experiences hunting, that's always like those kinds of experiences where I had the multiple years of encounters with holy Field or multiple years with with these different deer that of that have happened to hunt. Now this this couple of years of experiences with Frank and the way this all went like that is just I don't know, I'm finding myself more and more interested in these really detail oriented pursuits versus the filling of tags. Like I. You know, after holy Field disappeared at the end of well, you know, he never he never appeared again. But after I came to terms of the fact that he had disappeared, you know, it's late October. I think I was like, I don't know, just before Halloween the twenty nine or something. I remember thinking, okay, this is it, Like he should have shown up by now. And I kind of had like this sit and think time period of myself where I was like, man, you had a chance to shoot him, um, and you chose not to In two thousand and sixteen. A lot of people give you crap about that. Was that a mistake? Um? You know you made mistakes in two thousand and seventeen that kept you from shooting him. Are you upset it yourself about that? Um? And when I look back, I was like, you don't know, Like I don't care. That didn't fill my tag if you told me right now, that could have if I could, like if I rubbed the bottle or what do you call it, genie and bottle, So you rub a bottle or whatever. Is it a bottle? No, it's a what a what are genies in? Yeah? Genie and a bottle Christina Aguilera song, I think it's I think it's a lamp, Yeah, lamp, bottle, vase can. It's all the same. So if I could rub a bushlight can and get a wish, I could get a wish and in the wish, like my options were that either I could choose to have taken the shot at holy Field in December of two sixteen and got to put my tag on him, or had the experience I had and seen him more in sixteen and seen him a bunch in seventeen but never got to kill him find a shed in eighteen, I would without a doubt take what happened, Like I just loved that that experience. Just I don't know I what I what I am how I what I would say has changed for me is that I am not or at least I'm trying. I'm trying not to get as caught up with the end results, so like I really want the end result. I'm like during the moment like it's never gonna change. But I don't think I'm just so goal oriented. I just get obsessed and I really dig in on these things. But I do that because I love it, like I just love I love becoming infatuated with with a goal and a task or a mission and trying to learn as much and dive into the details as much like that just like turns all my gears on, um so so that I don't see changing. I'm getting more I can. I can remember now looking back at like when I was doing Shipwreck, you know, I was really doing the same thing that what you're talking about right there, and getting really focused on one specific buck only hunting uh, one specific buck going in only when I thought this dear would would go and I and I passed a ton of great deer to one fifty class four year olds at times, right, And that's crazy to me now, right, I look back and I became obsessed with something. And you know, I'm also kind of like a status statistics person, you know, what are the best odds? And I'm also the kind of person who I don't give a shit about antler size. Antlers are rare, right, A big antler two inches whatever, that's rare, and it would be awesome to shoot. But if a five year old hundred fifty four inch nine pointer like what I had this year shows up again next year. Man, I'm gonna take him. I mean, because a five year old hundred fifty four inch five year of five year old hundred fifty four inch buck is still a really good representation even in Iowa. Hell, it's an awesome buck. Um. Yeah, dude, I I think that. I think there's definitely I think both of you have have like had this evolution over the years as we've been growing as hunters, figuring out what it is that we love about this, figuring out what kind of goals or desires we have out of a season, And and I think we're both kind of like figuring that out and kind of coming to nice little equilibriums a little bit. Um. We certainly had our bumps on the road, but but yeah, man, I'm right there with you. It's it's so much more the experience. For me. It's it's what you know, I said in the Frank thing. You know, Frank was huge, and that's awesome. It was really cool, and I knew I was like watching a deer that's so so unique to my area that that was like such a thrill. But I would have been just I mean, just as excited if it was a hundred and thirty five hunter and forty five year old running around there that I was having all these cool and cooluns like guaranteed, I would have been just fired up. I would have been staying up late thinking about it and waking up early thinking about it. I mean I would have been just as cranked up. And that for me, is what I want to keep doing. It is like having these cool experiences that challenged me, that pushed me to try to figure these things out and get better and learn more about these animals, whether that's a buck or a hundred seventy in buck, whether it that's close to home or out in Nebraska or wherever. I love. I think it's the challenge. I think that's what it comes down to. I love being challenged within like the within the context of hunting white tail deer. And so sometimes that's China, hunt this one deer. Sometimes that's like going to a brand new place in Montana and Nebraska or wherever and figuring it out and and shoot whatever. But the challenge is there because of the new situation. Um, I don't know. I just feel like more and more That is where my satisfaction rating comes from. It's from was there this challenge? Did I have fun tack attacking that challenge? And? Um, you know, did I feel like I at least did I feel like I put everything I had into it? That I think is where I'm deriving satisfaction now. Less so on did I fail at tag this year? I filled a bunch of tags. Next year I might not. Um, But if all those other things I just listed end up being true for next year, I think I'm gonna be pretty damn satisfied still. Yeah, And I mean, we just keep coming back to it, dude, It's not It's not the destination, it's the journey of it all. Yeah. So, okay, so you maybe got too aggressive on Narlie. Charlie and October were pushed in there too much. Um, any other mistake you want to mention before I jump into a couple of months, you know, not really? I mean I hunted so little this year with a bow that I just kind of went about. I got into the flow, got into the routine, and it happened earlier rather than later. Uh. And I didn't really have enough time to make a ton of mistakes. I mean I made them little things, you know, like maybe being too aggressive on wind direction, playing the wind just a little too hard. And you know, I'm not a guy who likes to get into a stand or you know, get into you know, have an access route that's really killer, and if the wind is shifting a little bit, I like to sit there and write it out. And I did bad a couple of times this year when I maybe I should have got out of the stand and went to a different place just to not ruin that specific betting area. Yeah, I've I've had those same dilemmas. That's a tough one. I know a lot of guys who say that they get up a move right away, and I have done that. Sometimes I have bailed on a spot right away. But then there also been times where I did the same thing you did, where I'm thinking, well, I'm already here. I already made whatever kind of impact I was gonna make getting in here. Um, you know, how good is my prediction of where I think these deer are, where the're gonna go? You know what percent of the time do they do something completely opposite of what you actually think? Um, so I hear you on that, that's a tough call. Yeah yeah, all right, so your mistakes? Yeah, so I think my my biggest mistake centered around being in a blind. That was that was the biggest thing. I did it right. I can't tell you how many comments I got um from people after seeing the film. Oh speaking which, I released the video of my hunt for Frank this week. So if you haven't seen that yet, going over to the wire YouTube channel UM or the Mediator dot com you'll see that there. Um. But so many people saw, you know, there are all these things, all these people are saying like, oh, on inside of view of the poop blind, this is awesome. You didn't record that part, did you? No? I did not record that part. By the way, before we get back into being serious again, you get you have a lot of listeners on this podcast. So of all those listeners, I need one of you to create a meme Mark Kenyon rubbing a bushe light can and having a Genie pop out of it. Okay, that's all I want. That's that's your guys task for this week. That would be an awesome T shirt. I would wear that T shirt. Um. So, So what was I talking about? Your biggest mistakes? Oh? Biggest mistakes. So, but how did that relate to the poop plan? Right? Oh, most people don't poop in their blinds and that's kind of a mistake, right, Yeah, yeah, that that's what I was gonna say. Okay, So dear uh dear biggest mistakes. Yes, so biggest mistake I think related to this new area that I got permission hunt this past year, because coming into two eighteen, one of my big goals supposed to have more places to hunt, right because I've found myself sometimes like my local Michigan spots. Um, I get to two stuck on this one spot that's been historically pretty good, and I always have like handful of other places I can hunt, but some years it's been um a small property that I lost, so that a couple of years ago I had a really nice little secondary spot when I lost permission there. Um a couple of years I've had permission on properties with friends, but I could only hunt them when I'm with those friends or situations like that. Um. So this year I was like, you know what, I need to put myself in a position to have a much better set of plans B C and d UM. And I thought I had that situation where I got permission on this large property on the west side of the state through a friend and UM, and it was a really good property, like it we talked about in the spring in the summer, like it's a great spot. There's a lot of deer, and because it's a larger property, and because the landowner is managing it for deer, there's a lot of older bucks, much more than any other place I got to hunt. So going into this year, I was thinking, man, of anywhere I'm gonna hunt, I bet you that's my best lock to like fill attack to have success. Like I know there's gonna be mature bucks there. Um, I thought that was gonna as much as a mature buck in Michigan might be. I thought that would be my I don't want to say guarantee you, but like my best chance. Right now, I feel like I just made a bunch of mistakes around that number one. Um, I didn't get to put as much time into prepping that property as I wanted. Just you know the same thing you talked about. Just time. Time got away from me. I was traveling a lot, a bunch of new career things going on, had a baby, trying to manage the small property that's local, trying to do some work up on our North Michigan property, all these things. All these things are excuses, I know, Um, but just simply did not get to put as much prep time as I wanted into this new area. So that was one thing that led to a couple of missed opportunities me simply not prepping things quite right. Um. Number two, I think that I went into those hunts assuming it was better than it was. So by that, I mean all of a sudden, I've got permission on a property that's like I don't know, I don't know what it technically is, but I think I just just something like six d acres or something like that. I mean, that's way, way, way bigger. Most of the properties that can hunt our forty or nineties stuff like that, nothing like this. So I'm thinking, Wow, that's huge property. Um, the people that own it are managing it for deer. It's gonna be great. This is gonna be like hunting, you know, one of these Midwestern states where the pressure is much lower and where I've gone in the Passing, Ohio, Iowa. Whatever that It's just you can just get away with different things you can hunt things differently than I can in Michigan, and you can still see mature bucks and get shots. Right. So that's kind of the way I thought I was gonna go, and I hunted it that way. I was hunting very low impact stand sites. I wasn't being aggressive at all. I had this week long period scheduled to go hunt there, uh with the mediator crew, and I've been able to prep some stuff for that. And then also that the guy that owns the property, he and his his friend were able to prep a bunch of stuff there for that property. He's got a guy that helps out in this proper do with him, so they had a bunch of things prepped. But all of these stands that the collectively we had prepared, they kind of were all low impact, safe stand sites that you would hunt on a big, banaged property yum. And the issue I found from the time I spent there was that even though this is a pretty big property, even though there's a lot of good things going for it had great habits to all those things being the case, it was still Michigan and it's still what ended up happening was that the deer, even with all those things still behaved the way that they do on the forty acre property hunt locally or the ninety acre property hunt around here. They still did not want to move past those things in daylight. They still were not daylight active nine in the time. They still couldn't be killed in these ways. And I just did not get aggressive enough. I stuck. I got I just stuck with it. I don't want to say it was account. It wasn't necessarily that I didn't know that. I think it was a situation where or I was afraid to step on toes I think a little bit, or to like to divert too much from like the party line. I don't if that makes sense. So basically, it sounds to me like a decision that you would make if you were hunting by yourself was a different decision because you were hunting with additional people exactly. And you know, I don't want to piss anyone off, I don't want to overstep my boundaries. I you know, I think because of that, and because I was still navigating, you know, the relationship of hunting this property with these guys, it was just there was a lot of new things, and I didn't because of that, I didn't hunt the way that now I know I should have hunted, and in the moment I knew I should have hunted, And I think that led to the fact that that it was a great opportunity. There's a lot of good bucks on camera. Um, I should have failed a tag there. I had a week there in the rut. I should have killed a buck, no doubt about it, and I didn't. UM. So from like a tactical standpoint, that was a tactical mistake. Um, And then to a very specific tactical mistake. I told you the story of right were you in the episode where I told the podcast the story about where I had this buck at twenty yards and couldn't get a shot at him because of a trim shooting a lane that wasn't cut. I know that. So so that was like a very specific example of because this is a shared property with these other guys, this is a spot that I had tried to go in to hunt a stand that I had. I've been scouting the property in the spring. I noticed an old ladder stand when I was out scouted in the spring, and in my head, I thought, Okay, that's a good spot to hunt, you know, but I never end up getting back to it, never ended up messing with it, never ended up doing anything there. So then on this morning, I see the wind, I look at all the things I knew. I was like, okay, I want to try to go. I think, I think I want to go to that area. And I remember there's like an old ladder standing there. I'm gonna sneak in there and try to hunt him. So I go trying to sneak into that spot with a cameraman running lay. You know, everything's a mess already. And we get in there and it's dark and I cannot find the stand. I can't find the stand and walking around and I'm getting frustrated and piste off it's not there. And then we find like an old like tripod that someone had put out there, who knows how long ago. And then I'm thinking to myself, is that what I saw? And my memory was that it was a ladder stand, but actually it's like a tripod that, you know. I don't know what to do with this. So in a moment of panic, um, I don't know if it was panic, but I texted the other guy. I was like, hey, you know, is that ladder there? Um, and he's like, oh, no, I don't think so, but you know there's this other one down the way. You could try that. So this is a long way of getting to the fact that I end up going to a stand that I had not prepped myself, that I didn't know about. I knew that there was a stand sim around there, but that I didn't personally do anything with. I went to that spot. It ended up being in a great spot, um, and I liked it so much, like hunted there several days afterwards. But because I didn't put enough time in the summer to prep all these spots myself, I was dependent on other people, which I hate being. And because of that, a spot that should have been a cutting lane cut there wasn't, and that buck was standing there twenty yards. This would have been before Frank. It would have been my biggest buck ever in Michigan, very close to one of my bigger deer ever, a great Michigan deer. Um. And he was there at twenty yards easy peasy shot can't get it because of all these limbs, And that's no one's fault but mine. So um. That was a very specific example of not putting in the time and taking care of all the details. And dude, I think you're beating yourself up on that, because how how many times have you done a running gun set and not necessarily saying a big deer came through. Let's just say any deer came through and you didn't have a crack at it because it came from some crazy awkward angle. Right, Yeah, I mean that's just that just happens. Yes, I mean, yes it does. And I guess I just feel and maybe you're right, maybe you're right. I'm just and this is kind of just what I do. I mean, right, I over analyzed things and I nitpick, but that I guess this is a situation where the nitpicky, the nitpicky part of me can point to a very specific little thing that kept me from a very specific outcome, and that like, that's you know, it's like a thorn of my crawl um that I keep looking back, Like I know, I'm gonna have to watch that clip on some future episode of a show and I'm gonna sit there kicking myself piste off because this really cool buck is right there and I couldn't get a shot, And that's gonna be a that's gonna be a bummer. Um. But but yeah, I mean it could have happened in any kind of scenario, could have happened on a run agun hunt. I've had similar things happen. Um. I just wish that in that scenario, like it was a prepped tree, you know, it should have been you should have had a lane cut to each one of these directions where they could come from. And it wasn't. So that was disappointing. But but you're right, Um, that was one thing that just stood out. Though. The second mistake or challenge that stood out to me was related to travel. We talked about this earlier in the year, but I had, like, all, I'm traveling more in general because of stuff with with the new company and everything. Um. And then that is layered on the fact that I've got more responsive abilities at home with a son and trying to figure out a way to balance that, and that just kind of made this year tougher in in ways obviously you know about as you're talking about this thing yourself. Um. And so my big mistake happened that I kind of I don't know, I didn't recognize how tough that would be right out the gate. So in September, I had like an eleven day period where I was gonna hunt in Montana, and then it just kind of get kept getting stretched. I was like, Okay, I'm gonna go from Montana hunt, and then Josh was going to go to North Dakota, so I was like, well, I can stretch out and hunt in North Dakota to when I'm out there, and then there's business meeting in in some folks that that I worked with, like, hey, why don't you stick around for another day or two since you're alreadynna be out there. So all of a sudden, like what I thought was gonna be a seven day hunt became like an eleven day hunt. Um. And then I got the invite to do this out hunt and that kind of stretched out to more. So all of a sudden, I thought I was gonna hunt seven days in Montana in September, and by the time September was done, I ended up being gone for twenty days or twenty one days or something of the month. And that was a mistake. I mean, that was just way too much put on put on my wife and way too much time away from Everett. And I was you know, right after that, I was like, go, wow, I don't want to do that anymore. I did not like being gone that much. Um. And so you know, we talked about I canceled one of my trips in October UM and didn't travel a whole lot after that. The rest of the season. I had the six or seven days or whatever I was out on this other property that I just talked about, and then I took a couple of short trips, like two days up to our northern Michigan cabin a couple of times um. And then I guess it's in Nebraska, but that was that was tight trip that was forward and a half days or something. UM. So I think that I don't know if it was a mistake, but it was like it was a mistake's last challenge that I identified. And now I know I'm kind of skipping ahead to things I want to do differently, but based off that. Now I kind of know that as much as I possibly can, like as much as I have control over it, I'm now you know, getting invited on things and being a part of trips that I can't control as much. UM, Like I'm taking off from for Mexico here in a couple of days, and I'm gonna be gone for eleven days or twelve days, and that's gonna be really tough. I'm not I'm looking forward to the trip itself and appreciative of that opportunity, but I'm really not looking forward to being gone that away that long from the family. Um. So, as much as I can control these things, I want to try to find a way to to still travel a lot. Like that's that's an important part of what I do, and I really enjoy that, but I want to I think the way to do that, to be more family friendly is is spread out and short. So instead of like doing two weeks a two week straight trip or something two weeks straight for vacation or whatever it might be, I think what I'm gonna try to do now is a four day trip here and then I'm home for three weeks, and then a four or five day trip here, and then I'm home for several weeks, and then a three day trip here. Like doing maybe more trips, but shorter. Um at least, that's what I'm thinking, is Like, it's the it's the long time spans where it gets really tough. Um, do you kind of have the same thing with your with your wife, Like like for three or four days, maybe it's okay, but when you get to day five, six, seven, eight, nine, like that gets really challenging when there's no break from the kids. Yeah, man, I'll tell you what. I just wish I had more advice on that on that note, because for me, I'm not in the position yet where like for you you have a little more flexibility on you can go out for a four day hunt, come back and go out for another four day hunt out west or or to a different date or whatever. For me, that has to be big chunks of time, right because I can't do the multiple trips, you know, because because travel time counts, and I want to be able to hunt as much time as possible. So you know, and and there's more. There's more hunting in my future. I know it because I'm gonna make it happen. So and this this is going on for me in two thousand and nineteen as well, is to be able to a include my wife and children into more of these quote unquote adventures or be take care of the planning. So my wife has some assistance in some of this, you know, and help maybe she has a mother or father in law or my dad or mom come and help out for a day or two just to relieve some of that stress and or put myself in a position to where she has less responsibilities. So maybe I can pay off some debt. Like for me, a real big thing in two thousand nineteen is finances, right, I gotta, I gotta get some debt down. I gotta, um, you know, find ways to be more lucrative and all avenues pay off some debt, which means that she also has to work less in one of her jobs, and then she's not as stressed. You know, She'll still have to watch the kids when I go on these trips, but at the same time, she won't have to be multitasking as much. Yeah, so so let's keep going down that road then, Um, things we want to do differently in two thousand nineteen. So it sounds like both of us have some thoughts around how do we how do we better balance travel and family obligations. So I'm right there with you two. In addition to trying to do for me, I can do the short trips, so I'm trying to do shorter trips. But I am I have been thinking about the same things as far as trying to put my family in a better position while I'm gone, So lining up more help, um trying to make it so that you know, the responsible is at home or not as great anything like that, because and this is nothing new, and we know this, but like we put when we leave, when when when we're not around to help out with the family, right, we're putting a big burden on everybody else, on our wives, a burden on our kids even and and just you know, not being around him sucks too. Um So, so yeah, I think obviously for me, that's something I'm just gonna be facing more and more, especially if we have another child, you know what, that's gonna change and short changes things. So all these things are definitely definitely top of mind. But but this year was definitely a good learning experience around that in that regard. Yeah, I just want to be able to like hunting is such at times can be selfish, right because I'm gonna go on this Elk trip and I'm gonna go on it's gonna be intensive. So unless my wife trains and decides she wants to come with me on something like that, it's just I mean, she she is not as dedicated to hunting as I am. Right, she likes to be Chaufford to the turkey blind and Schouford to the blind, and she needs she likes to be told what to do and when to do it. She she does like to learn along the way. But it's not it's not her it's not her identity like it is it's my identity, you know. So so, but fishing, like if I can include the family and all these other activities that I plan on doing that are hunting, Let's say, like I think this year my daughter is gonna be able to come turkey hunting with us. Uh, We're gonna do a lot more fishing this year with the whole family and involve everybody so that when the time comes for me to go on one of these trips, it's you know, I've put in the family time, you know what I mean. It is time. It's time for the It's time for the cowboy, cowboy to go Rome, if that makes sense, you know what I mean. And it's just as much hope that that's what you tell your wife when you walk up the door. Well, see, honey, it's time for the cowboy to room. You know and uh, but at the same time, right right, well, it's just it's one of those things that I feel with my wife and me and the kids, there's three or four, maybe five more years of this really frustrating type where as my children get older, it's going to become easier for her to handle all of them. But right now they're all in just the age group where it's very difficult, and you know, she takes care of them most of the time anyway, because I have to go to an office and I have to sit in the back room and do do this job. But with but I think as time goes on, it will become easier. But until then, I mean, there's no way to there's no way to cut it and make it sound like, hey, I guess what, You're gonna have the kids allto yourself for eight days, you know, like she doesn't like that straight up. So I don't know, well to that point, you know another thing, and I don't know if this is something that you've thought of. I mean, you you kind of have done this, and I've done this to varying degrees. But this year one of the one of the other things I want to do a better job of a nineteen and I alluded to this earlier, is getting a getting more high quality options really close to home, so so that I'm not having to travel to still have quality hunts. You know, right now, I've got like a spot or two close to home that are pretty good. If I want to do anything better than that that I'm traveling a minimum of like two hours minimum. UM, I need a bunch of good spots really close to home so that, UM, I can still have quality hunting experiences. I can still you know, you know, it's part of my job, right so I need content. I need to be out doing these things. UM I need to be able to those things without needing to travel to Iowa or without need to travel to Kansas or Ohio or whatever. I'm still going to travel some, but as I mentioned, shorter trips and maybe not as much. So that's one of my big goals for this year is locked down some more spots close here so that UM quality can still be good, but quality time at home can still be good. Being able to you know, when I can do that when I'm home and still hunting, it's it's it's it's you know, much less of a burden on my family, So that's one of my things. Yeah, that's difficult, man. I I did the same thing this summer, knocked on a couple of extra doors, you know, got nos all the way around, and um, I don't know. It's just at the same time, I'm not worried about it right now because I do have plenty of options and I know that I have to put in my brownie point, especially if I want to do additional you know, if I want to take an additional trip to Nebraska next this next year, this next season, there's a good chance I'm not even gonna try to October for white tails, you know what I mean. So it's just making sure that like the scale gets tipped, and it's gonna get tipped, but never to the point where the load falls off. So what are you envisioning them for these trips? You're envisioning a September Ltcome, you're envisioning a when are you gonna do this Nebraska hun? Um? Yeah, I'm not sure if it's gonna be like the last week of September or the first week of October. Um, that will be a shorter trip, maybe like a I don't know, a four day trip. You know, a day to travel for three or four days to hunt, uh, and then a day to travel back. So it's like an eight hour trip from where I live too out there and I don't know, just try to and it's gonna be play it by here, right. I mean, if I the good thing about Nebraska and some of these other states like Colorado, it's over the counter tag. So if I you know, like I have a lot of preference points for Wyoming, I'm gonna turn those in someday. And when I turned those in, they take years to calculate, you know, to to build up. And when that hunt comes and I draw a good unit, I'm going and I'm going to spend a good amount of time there, right, because I've invested heavily in in this hunt. Yeah, yeah, I hear you're there. Um. Interesting, So that Elk hunt is that early September. Yeah, that's the first week of September. So you're kind of doing like what I was talking about a little bit, and that you've got early September early October, then I'm sure you're gonna take a week for early November or whatever, however much time you can write, so at least kind of spreading them out to give the family time between that. That's sounds like that works for you to huh yeah, yep, that's the goal anyway. I mean, it would be awesome if I could take a week long trip every month, right, maybe even late August, take an antelope hunt. September take an elk mule your hunt. October take a different hunt. November, take a different hunt. And that way I can come back hyper focused family, get everybody in good graces again, and then burn all the bridges off on another western hunt and then come back and start the healing process all over again. And it sounds like a stressful way to live. Well, I mean, the A T A show is coming up next week and I got well ship. I'll be traveling one day, and I got meetings when I get in, I got three days of meetings, and then I got another day to travel back. So again, I can already feel the stress in the family knowing that she's gonna be solo for that many days. And I don't know, it's not only is it like, not only is it stress that she has to do it with, but it's stress that I have to deal with two you know what I mean? Like that stress carries, and so I have to find ways to make that stress either go away or find ways to reduce the stress. And you know, I don't know, man, Yeah, well this is a big theme of our whole episode. It sounds like his uh, his family and balance, um, anything else you do differently, I've got two more on my side. Let me see, I think from a you know, from an actual I don't know. I just I feel like two thousand nineteen is gonna almost be Yes, I'm gonna take these trips and I'm gonna still deer hunt, but it's gonna be a secondary focus for me. Hunting is I'm gonna do it. It's my passion, but I'm not going to be concerned with the outcomes as I am as in the investment of the Sportsman's Nation, you know what I mean. So like it's gonna be very work oriented. Two thousand nineteen is so basically you're telling me that our podcasts are gonna be really boring next year because every update's gonna be well, I spent seven hours on my computer, more like fourteen, but he's counting, all right, Well, all right, I'll try to I'll try to make up the difference trying to I'm gonna I'm still gonna hunt, right, but it's gonna be like I don't know, you know, like if the weather conditions aren't good to hunt, I'm not going to force it anymore, you know what I mean. Just save it, save it for the right the right time, the right conditions, and if it's not good, just don't go out. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, hey, I understand that for sure. I've been in the same same shoes and that's that's typically how I operate to UM. Interestingly, though, one of the things I want to do differently, and this is something that I talked about doing last year didn't do a good enough job because I kind of I thought this other property was gonna solve this problem, but it didn't. So I talked about the fact one of my big goals this year is to get more local spots UM. The second part of that change is that I want to take my scouting to the next level. UM, like really put in a whole bunch more time this year. Like I just talked to more and more of these of these people that are super consistent, you know, like my buddy Andy just I mean, he just is a scouting machine, and I think I need to crank that up for myself a little bit more so, just just doing a better job. Like every year, I go into each season like saying I want to do this and do that, and and every year I do a little better but never hit quite the goal I set for myself. Well, this year, I want to crank it up again as far as finding more properties, fixing more of these off season tweaks, just getting more and more detail oriented. I'm definitely fine tuning things i've I've I've definitely reached a level of comfort with a lot of my setups, so a lot of the places I do know that I hunt. I've got a much better idea of how I like to approach new properties. I'm definitely getting better at picking out spots in a new area. Like I've I've pretty much demonstrated to myself now that I can come into a new spot and have a decent chance of figuring it out and feeling and feeling comfortable with that. But I just want to keep tweaking it, minimizing the mistakes, getting better at scouting in the off season, and then also really getting comfortable with like in season scouting So, for example, I want to start paying attention to tracks more. I haven't done a good enough job of that, but that's something I think I can focus it on. I can key in on that a little bit better. UM. And then the big thing, well, I don't know if it's the big thing, but another big thing is going back to archery and UM taking what I tried to do this past year, which was trying to start UM developing a back tension style shot sequence. But I tried to do that with a finger in the next Finger release, and that I thought was working better, but I got into the season and I found myself still making a couple of mistakes with it. So this year I'm breaking down everything and started from the ground up again. So I bought an actual tension style release. So there's no trigger punch, there's no thumb button to push, there's no way, there's no way to release my bow except to pull through and UM. So that's what I've got the release. Now I'm gonna start working with it and that will hopefully make a big difference for me this year, and I'm sure i'll I'll share everything that happens with that, But but really just want to keep on trying to find ways to minimize any chances of air when it comes to my bow hunts, and just constantly trying to get better. So that's that's gonna be a big way to do it. Hopefully we need to pause again here one last time to think our partners at Onyx and Onyx is the producer of the Onyx Hunt app. That is the mobile application that I'm using to get my maps when I'm out there hunting, whether it be in public land or private land. It shows me the property borders, it shows me public land, it shows me I don't know. I can measure distances in areas, I can mark way points, um, I can share way points with friends. And you know, one of the things I've been talking about here a lot recently is the fact that I want to get access to more properties this year, and I'm gonna be using Onyx exclusively probably to do that, because I need to figure out who owns certain properties, which properties are broken into which parcels, and then who owns those so that then when I go to do my door knocking this spring, I'm gonna know, Okay, this property is owned by Mr Johnson, and this property is owned by Mr Smith and this property is owned by Mr Whatever. And I can put together this whole list of properties, go find their addresses, and a lot of times you can get the address right there on Onyx when you click on the property owner information, I know exactly where to go, knock on their door, know their name, no, their property borders. Everything I need is right there. So it's a tremendous tool if you were out there trying to get some new private land access. Then of course, if you just want to hunt public, it's gonna show you all that too. So check out on x if you're interested, over at the mobile app store of your choice or onyx maps dot com. That's awesome. That's awesome. I I need to do the same thing, man, just I mean, I love bow hunting and I'm still not where I need to be as a so I mean there's always room for improvement there. Do you. I know you tried it last year, right, um, two years ago. I tried it two this year. I had no like, just no time. It was a miracle that I even got my both sided in before this, before I started hunting on that Elk trip. So, so what do you anticipate for this year. I just, dude, we time management is a huge thing. And I like working every single day at my job and then working at home for multiple hours and then you know what, when like, right now it's too light, it's dark to shoot, right. I got like ten minutes after I get out of here to maybe go shoot some marrows, but I can't because I haven't been home all day and I have instantly come home. I come here and I spend an hour and a half, two hours in here. Then I get out and now my kids are like, Daddy, what are you gonna do? So I have to play with them, right, and then it's dark, So I don't know time manage, I will say. And this is just as much me saying this to me as it is to you, um, but just paying like Devil's advocate as a friend giving you a helpful nudge. Here. Just don't forget how shitty it was in November when you had that situation and you didn't think you're going to find that buck, and and remember that because it might be worth trying to wake up fifteen minutes early in the morning. And then again I'm saying this, I'm preaching to myself too. I needed I needed. I need to always remember that too and try to find that extra ten minutes. And I don't always do a good enough job, but I'm I'm trying to find some way to squeeze in that extra time because because of all the things we do, if we can't if we can't make that final moment as as as ethical and quick and clean and as as removed from error as possibly we can, what are we What do we spend all this time doing? Anyways? So that's something I need to keep reminding myself of. And and uh, I'll be I'll be a friendly, annoying person who will budge you about that intense to fair. Um. So with that said, I don't know, man, that is what I've got on the books for nineteen as far as changes. Is there anything anything else in your mind? No, man, I don't know if you can hear it or not. But the uh, the time limit for this podcast is over. Yeah, man, I had to. I had to shut the microphone off to yell at my kids to not stop pounding on the door. So I wish you kept it on. Do you remember that one time that Ava tried to come in and you had to like walk out of the room and give her spiel and I kept it in the podcast. That's that was one of my favorites. Or the time where the dog started barking and I didn't you threaten to kill it or something on the air, buried alive or something, I don't know. Those are always great moments. So uh yeah, let's wrap this one up so you can get out there and focus on what was both of our number one goals for nineteen, which is balancing family in jobs and hunting and all that stuff. So I think I think the only thing else worth saying is, Man, I just want to give you a big fist bump, congrats on a great season, and h here's the two thousand nine and that's a rap. Thank you guys for listening. A couple of little plugs. I haven't mentioned this in a while, but if you have not yet, if you're a relatively new listener and you have not yet gone over to iTunes and left a review of the wire Hunt podcast, man, that is a huge, huge help we had. I don't know what it is. I haven't checked in a while, but more than two thousand reviews. Almost all of those are five stars. It's it's such a It's such an honor that so many people are enjoying this. I appreciate that so much. But if you haven't shared your feedback yet, we would love to see it. Also. Final plug, if you haven't checked out my video of of that Frank hunt that I was talking about, I definitely would recommend doing that. You head over to the wired dot YouTube channel to watch. What was it? I think a pretty darn cool story. I was really happy with it. Um just just a special year and I think that um My buddy Wade did a really nice job of editing it together, and um it tells a compelling story. So check it out. Check out the wire dont YouTube channel. Subscribe there, subscribe to this podcast, and I will stop asking you to do things now and I will simply focus on thanking you for spending this time with us today. If you're still hunting, keep at I keep seeing people laying down box on Instagram and Facebook. There's still success to be had. And for the rest of us, it's scouting season. It's time to get excited for shed hunting and uh all sorts of good stuff like that. So thank you again and stay Wired to Hunt.