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 eighties six, and today in the show, Dan and I are checking in on our two thousand nineteen hunting habit changes. We're discussing trial cam analysis and summer habitat projects, and I'm regaling you with the story of my recent somewhat cursed cross country adventure with my wife and toddler. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by on X, and today we are back with me and Dan just for one of those fun episodes. You might not learn anything today, but but I think you'll you'll get a laugh or two. Um. But you know, the last like five weeks or so, four four or five weeks since you were up back with me, Dan, Um, it's been like a bunch of deep learning, deep knowledge type podcast. I think we need a breather from that. We need something that Dan is obviously not qualified for. That's not true, but but you might be more qualified for for this kind of talk. So I wanna I'm gonna check in on you on something. That's one of the things I want to do. I want to talk summer dear projects, if there's any on near side. I've got some stuff on my son. Um. And then I got another kind of out of left field. I know we never do this, but I want to talk parenting, UH and toddler travel ideas and lessons learned because I've been in the middle of probably the most probably the worst trip of my entire life and possibly best. But um but oh man, if I got some stories. We've had all sorts of stuff go wrong. Because because I'm recording this one as I do most summers, you know this, Dan, Usually at some point during each summer, I'm recording podcasts from the front of my truck out in Montana, and this is the first truck podcast of the year. Um. So I'm out west, um barely. We're surviving, just barely, but we are out here. And uh, and that's the podcast plan I got. What do you What do you think about those ideas? Yeah, I'm down for just about anything as long as I'm not in a room with any of my children. It's like I'm down for talking about whatever. So last time we were recording, I edited this out. But last time when we were recording, uh, halfway through your one of your kids start screaming and you had to go outside and trying to get to be quiet. And I just heard your wife. She didn't seem too happy about the situation either, and it just made me feel like, you know what, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's dealing with these challenges. Sounds like a nice feeling for me. So I gotta tell I gotta tell a really quick story. Okay. So I am in the process of building a Sportsman's Nation headquarters above my garage. Okay, so it's like an office that's just me right, And my wife's like, well, why can't you take that money and do something else with it? And I go, Sarah, because I am putting out almost every episode of the nine Finger chronicles that I put out is you in the background yelling at the kids, or the kids yelling at you, And at some point a sponsor is gonna be like, come on, man, we we can't have this. Maybe adds a little charm, but yet at some point that might run off. Right, how is the progress of the renovation project? I've been following on Instagram. I'm seeing that things are coming along. What's what's the story there? So it's good. So I'm to a point now where the only thing that is holding me up is me. Right. So I got an electrician who knew what he was doing to come in so the only thing that I have to do is um finish, insulating, drywall, paint, flooring, and we're good to go. So hopefully my goal is sometime in July I can be up there full time. Sweet and you know how to do that stuff? Yeah, I know how to Uh, I know how to do the insulation, the dry wall obviously, paint, Yeah, yep, I can't say I can do that. Yeah, it's easy once you do it a couple of times. So, so what's what's all gonna be up there? You have like a recording studio, do you have like anything in particular? It's a nice office space. Yeah, it's it's gonna be well, I'm not gonna call it anything, an official anything. It's gonna be an office. It's gonna be have, you know, like some awesome deer stuff on the walls, all that good stuff. But it's also gonna be a recording studio as well. So, um, it's just going to be a place that's away from the chaos of the house. And that's what I need right now. Like, especially if I want to go and do any work on my computer, it has to be done after my kid falls asleep because my computer is in the room, so I have to be extra quiet this way. You know, if I want to go on a grind session until midnight some night, I don't have to worry about waking my kid up. Oh yeah, that's huge, really huge. That's good man. I Um, I guess I've been spoiled. I've had in my own little room for an office for a while now, and you take it for granted. What the difference that makes? Just have a space to get your stuff done? Um? Speaking of getting stuff done, though, last time we talked, we were talking about habits and stuff and this whole topic of like just having so much going on and kids run around everywhere and trying to like develop good habits to get some of the stuff done that you want to get done. Um. Specifically, we're talking like hunting stuff. Um. And I broached the idea to you of us each picking some kind of good habit that we're gonna try to strengthen and then we could be accountability partners for each other and make sure we're sticking to that. And you had said that you needed to go back to the drawing board and and look at what your schedule is going to allow on what you could do. And so my question for you is, have you decide is there something you want to join me on this habit mission and uh and put out there for the world. Yeah. So, I think when I get that office space done, I'm going to be able to get into not a crazy routine, but a better routine than what I have now. And I'm a kind of a routine person. So if I can get up in the morning, go ABC, check it off the list, ABC. In the afternoon, check it off the list, I'm I'm good, right. I think once I get once I get separated from where I'm currently at, like it's going to be able to be I'll be able to take on a lot more of those of these accountability type tasks. So does that mean we're wait until the office is done before you put one out there? I say we start. I say we start right now? Though, what was yours? I forget. So, so I've got kind of a double one what I've been trying to do. And so since we talked, that was like five weeks ago, I think I've actually been able to do this. Um some I'm feeling good. I want to at least three times a week go for a minimum of a two mile run and shoot my bow each morning. So I'm getting up early in the morning and then three times a week I'm doing that. UM. So I've been able to do that every week since we talked. UM. So I feeling good about that. And you'll tell you what, just like getting back into that um because I'll do really good at those things and I'll fall off and I do good and I fall off, but it feels good to be back on it. So, so I want you to try to hold me account well. Every time we talk, you gotta let me know or ask me did I do my runs, in my in my shooting this past week? Um? And those are my minimums. I want to be doing more. But if I can at least do three a week, UM, I feel that just just getting a little morning exercise for whatever reason for me may me just I don't know my day sins to go up better. I mean it, we'll focus more. I've got more energy. Um But I'm a slow waker, so it's like unnaturally. So if if it were just up to me and I had nothing going on and I wasn't busy and I wasn't trying to get stuff done, I would like wake up at seven just naturally. I look at my phone and read some stuff for half hour and I slowly get going. But like that's my natural predisposition. But then I feel crappy afterwards, Like I hate that I do that, So it's harder for me to get up and go and do this stuff. It's like to make that decision. But once I do it that I'm so glad I did it. Um. So, so that's where I'm at. That's what I'm trying to do. Yeah, I can join you on that one. Because I've recently started my workout ramping up. I should say my workout regimen for I'm not a runner at all periods. So I started running and the first you know, I'm gonna say, the first twenty miles that I ran. We're just embarrassing, right, But recently I've been able to can like, so I I set off with a goal of I'm running three miles when I go for a run, I'm gonna run three miles because like a mile just isn't cutting it in the high country. Oh great, you can run a mile. Awesome. So I decided I'm gonna start off at three miles. And the first, you know, the first five times that I went out, I had to stop, and I was like, oh my god, this sucks. But the like the next couple that I went on, I was able to run all the way through, uh this the run without having to stop. And that that that kind of pomp motivated me because I actually really really hate cardio. There's something about that though, like when you set a goal like that, that's hard, and then once you push through and do that, that's a that's like a very empowering feeling. Yeah, And I gave myself one of those really do she fist pumps when I got to the end of my drive way because I have to run past my mailbox, and when I run past my mailbox, that means I'm done with a run. And I ran past my mailbox and I gave myself, yeah, like a fist pump. Good yeah, good job. Dan. A little self motivation there, So how many weeks or how many times a week are you trying to do that? Uh? So this week will be the first week of trying to do three three mile runs. So last week I did too three mile runs and a hike. This week will be three three mile runs and a hike. All right, so let's let's keep on each other three three mile hikes. I'll do the same runs. I'll do the same thing because I've been going for three to so well, check in weekly, make sure we're doing our three times a week three mile runs. And uh and I'm I'm getting some hikes in out here in the mountains too, so that'll be that'll be some bonus. What about shooting your boat? Any updates with that? Yeah? So, um, I'm in the process of getting I'm I got some new arrows. The only thing I really have to do. Yeah, I got my new arrows. I have to glue in the inserts and I have to build my broadhead arrows, and then I have to build my field tip arrows. Um And basically the difference is just lining up the broadheads because I have a four fletched arrow. So I'm I just want to for all in or attentive purposes. Make sure all of the broadheads sit the same on the arrow, and so I have to do that. That will happen this week, and then I can start like going on a mission shooting my bow to My goal is I want to say five arrows a day. That's that's minimum. But I'll be able to do more once I can get the kids to you know, the kids are at quiet time or at supper or something where I can step out and right before bed, you know, and uh, shoot my bow. The goals every day, find those little pockets of time. That's like for me. The way I've and they'll figure out to do that is doing this getting up before everybody else things. I get it before everybody else, sneak out of the house that don't wake up Everett or Kylie, get the run in, grab the bull right there because I'm already out, might as well get the bullshooting. And that's that's what I've managed will to pull it off. But I I don't know. I don't know how. The more the more stuff I do with our son or what am I trying to stay here? The longer I'm a dad, the longer I don't understand how you function it all with three kids and how anybody functions with three or four. Dude, it is insane. Um, It's it's to the point where, so you know, I got laid off. So now what I'm doing the network and the podcast is full time, right, So I'm also a stay at home dad, So I am trying to fit five pounds of ship into a three pounds bag. Everything gold day and a lot of stinky overflow. Yeah, exactly. So I'm not going on my runs some night until nine o'clock at night, and it's just by the time you get there, it's all about It's all mental at that point, because once you get into the run, it's not too bad. But then I'm staying up till about eleven working because it's quiet, and then I'm getting up at five thirty when my toddler gets up. So it's just it's just one of these things where just tread and water. At this point, just surviving, I can relate to that. Um before we pivot is surviving. I gotta give you one update on the shooting thing. Yeah, So since we talked last time, I know, like I don't know this winter. I told you that I was gonna be doing this, but now I'm finally doing it. I so I switched to that back tension release. Yep, I got the silver back and um, so, so finally got it all set up. I didn't have I wasn't using it for early early spring and winter because I didn't have a digital scale. You need a scale to properly set the poundage on the release, so that only releases at the right weight. Um. But I finally was like, I just gotta get this thing set up. So I found a scale or online, got it, got the release set up, started shooting with it. I don't know about a month, a month and a half ago or something like that now, and um, it's really cool. It's very cool. Now. I know you. Did you try a back tension or did you try a thumb button release last year? I've tried so I've tried both. Right, But before we talk about me, I want to finish. I want you to talk about what your experience was within and what the learning curve is, because I need to set my ball up completely different. Yeah. So, so once I set the proper poundage on the release, which just means that you gree it's just a certain amount of pounds of tension on that little clip and then it releases it that weight. Once I had that set properly. Um, the first couple of times that out with it was like it was weird, um and almost it kind of stressed me out because what like I felt target panic type um type reactions set in again, because what I would do is you draw back we're holding basically you clip on and then you push in a little button essentially as the safety, so it keeps it from releasing as you pull back, So you hold the safety, drawback anchor get all settled, and then once you're aimed and ready to go, you let go of your thumb off of that safety and then you just start slowly kind of squeezing back your shoulder until there's enough tension that it releases. But what I had happened the first couple of times is that I apparently had still had the tension up too high, so I was like pulling, pulling, and nothing was happening, Nothing was happening, nothing was happening. And then like I'd like finally like my body almost like compulsively, I don't know how to describe it, like jerk to try to get it to go off, and that was not how you should be doing at all. So I kept having to turn it down to loosen the tension and loosen the tension. Um and the second time adjusting it, I got to the right like just the right balance point where now I can release that safety and just as I start squeezing, like it just becomes a natural squeeze fire and I'm not having to pull so much then pulling my pain off the target or anything. Um, and it feels really good, Like it feels really good now. It's it's fun. It's it's more fun to shoot now because um you're getting you're essentially getting a surprise release every single time, which is which is easier said than done when you're using a finger a trigger finger release. UM. So I've just theyll been like keeping it real simple right now, Like I'm purposefully staying close range. I'm only shooting out to thirty yards and I'm just shooting repetition to just get the to get just get the shot process right. So just want to make sure I get a perfect release every time with that. UM so I just you know, drawback settling. I'm still using this mantra that I was using last year. So I get drawn on, I say splash it on there, which basically is just like get my pin on the target and then I just watch it keep it. So I'm just just watching the pin floating there on the bowl, Watch it float, watch it float. And as soon as I'm just kind of settled and happy there and then I then I say, all right, here we go. And that's when I released the safety and then pull pole pole fire. Um. And so that's I'm just doing that over and over and over and trying to trying to get arrows, depending on how much time I've got in the morning. UM, trying to do that UM. And it's it's feeling good. I haven't stretched out longer distances yet. I'm just still trying to stay close. And this past week I haven't been able to shoot because it's been we've been on the road. UM. But I did bring my bow and a target with me. So as soon as hopefully by tomorrow we get settled in the campsite, that will be at UM, I'm gonna be able to pick it back up and start shooting again here. UM. So that's where I'm at with it so far. I feel good. UM, we'll see what things look like once we stretch it out to six UM. But so far, so good, and hopeful this will will translate to this fall, So that's where I'm atting. Yeah, that's good man, that's good. I You know, when you commit to a different kind of release, you also have to commit to a certain kind of draw length as well. So for me, I got my draw length on my bow this year for my trigger release, so now I would need a I would need a longer draw weight if I was going to go to a back tension release or a thumb release, just because they're so they're much shorter. So it's almost like at this point in the game, I need to I have to stick with my with my trigger release at least for this year. Well keep me or don't keep me posted, but keep this idea in the back of your mind for because I know you've had some of the same things that I've been dealing with and knock on Wood so far, this seems like it might be a solution, So I'll keep you said how that goes, and yeah, we'll see. John Dudley is the guy who is is kind of behind this release from knock On and UM I have the same one. Yeah, okay, so he got the silver back. So he's got a lot of good resources over on his YouTube channel. I've been watching and learned some stuff and actually trying to talk to him on the podcast here soon about that too, So more to come on that. Um. But shoot, dude, I what is this. It's late June. We're down to just like two months until September. Dude, I don't even know what has happened this year. Like if you said, hey, what's so, what's going on? What's happened in the last six months, I couldn't tell yet. So what no idea? So what is what is going on? What? What summer stuff? What summer projects? Have you been able to get out and do anything? Any kind of prep work happening yet in the woods? For you, I've had a couple of things since we talked last Okay, so for me, the prep, the prep work has all been done digitalie at this point, right, Uh, I haven't. The last time I was had a scheduled day to go out and put trail cameras out, it rained all day long. So I decided not to go out, do some stuff up for the office and knock you know, knock a small project out and then hopefully I can get out and go set up trail cameras for Velvet. So that is the only like I just had to reschedule that. But between my two out of state trips this year and now one is an asterisk like a maybe and basically refining my my attack on the two thousand uh in nineteen Iowa deer season archery season. So that's just what I've been doing in my spare time, is planning for those trips and like basically putting pins on a map and just like hyper focusing in on I think one killer dear if he shows back up. So we're talking Iowa and we're talking about what's his name again, I'm blanketing for some reason, Nar Narlie and Arlie Charlie, Narlie Charlie. So last time, it was maybe last time or two times before, you had talked about this idea of um you had a really good name for it was like Dan Johnson's various pins on a map, between pins and in the middle process something like. So, so you talked about the fact that you were looking at all the cameras where you've gotten pictures of him I think in daylight maybe, and then you're kind of just trend to zero in and see if there's any in between spot. Have you done anything more since that point? Like, where what's the progress? Dude? I'm I I've taken the last two years of data that I have on him. I've found and by the way, I got some additional uh. I got some additional trail pictures from trail camera that I had left in the woods all year, and then the last month I went in and he came by it a couple of times throughout the season. So that's just I love that bonus trail camera that you forget about. That is a great feeling when you discover that, especially when there's good deer on it right and you're like, okay, dear, are using this? So I what I've done is I've got all the lines out, you know, I've created this area of the farm that I am going to focus on this entire year. Right now, Oh man, I'm gonna I'm gonna say about two acres right now. That's but within that two hundred acres there's several terrain features that I I find very attractive and hopefully he does too. Right now, there's a whole bunch of different things, and that's probably a different, you know, a different episode about diving into the details. But as far as where he's living, I think I got it. Uh crop rotation. If if let's say everything from two years ago was like it's good and okay, So everything from two years ago is going to be same as this upcoming year for I know, for crops. Yeah, I know where I need to be. I know where you know where I think he's gonna be throughout specific times a year. Uh, just you know, just continuing to refine that. And then when I go to set my tree stands up in July, I'll be uh, I'm gonna have a couple pre hung, and then the rest is gonna be like I always do. Running gun man. So have you been able to see how how the rain or flooding has impacted any of these crop fields, because I don't know if you've had that issue by you, but by us, there's been so wet that a lot of farmers either haven't got stuff planned at all or we're planting really really late. What's what's going on by you? I'm gonna guess based off of what I've seen down river bottom ground. I don't think they're going to get it in this year, depending on I don't like where the flooding has happened within the county high ground on all the farms. Doesn't look like it's gonna be too bad or especially if it's it's got tile in it. But I'm pretty sure that all the top fields are going to be planted, not a problem. It's the bottom fields, which the only thing that's gonna do is bring deer up into the high part of the property from for most of the year. However, you know, do you remember that buck? Uh several years ago, no show Jones. Okay, the year that it flooded, the river bottom flooded. They fertilize first, then they go in and plant, and well in between after fertilizing, the flood came killed all the seeds. The grass grew like twelve fift high. Yeah, and now that that was just this giant habitat. And so we flanked that field one day during the rout and what do you know, big mature buck right in the middle of that grass, right over top of a hot dough. So weren't you hunting with ibern? Yeah? That yeah, that was the previous year, the following years when Ryan shot him in the ailer. But yeah, I mean, so what what I think that's gonna do is it's gonna it's actually gonna hold more dear just for some great cover unless it's extra wet and extra floody. And you know, I haven't been back on the farm in a couple of months. So it's such a great point though, is like the importance of of remembering past years types of situations, so now you know what happens when it floods. You've got some experience to show you how to adjust. Or thinking back now to crop rotation, that's a huge thing, like we really should be thinking in many cases, like if you hunt where there's agg you want to think of every other year kind of patterns because of those crop changes change dear behavior so much. I mean it's it's almost you'll still get the same deer in this general area many times. But I think there's some pretty drastic changes I've seen. I've had bucks that just totally disappear on the off years sometimes too. Yep. I can tell you a story. I can tell you a story hundred stories about that. You know, It's like deer only shows up in corn on this one trail camera. Next year he's a mile north, uh, and that's his core range. But you flip it now he's a mile south. You know. It's just it's it's crazy. And I think especially if you're hunting the Midwest and depending on where your farm is, if you're hunting big woods, I don't think that's as much as of an issue as um egg ground like Illinois and Iowa and maybe some of Missouri and whatnot. But it's definitely something that I've been focused on a lot more and just going back and checking my trail cameras because I have a camera that per deuces a lot of good deer on years that the main part of this agg field is beans, and when it's corn, they show up late like in the during the hunting season, but not during the summer right, and then they shift back into the big chunk of timber. But this year, if if I'm if I was a betting man, I would bet that that trail camera is going to blow up with big bucks, big mature deer all summer long until until they get harvested. Yeah. So, speaking of this whole trail camera, Dad and looking back in past years, it's probably worth just recapping, um for people that might be tuning in, you know new as new hunters. One of the big things that both you and I have have started paying a lot of attention to the last couple of years based off of things we've seen and have a lot of people have talked to, is the idea of of looking at trail camera pictures not just from like this week, but also looking at what deer we're doing last year at the same time or two years ago at the same time, because a lot of times we're seeing these bucks either the very same deer doing the same thing at the same time every year. So like you just said, like yeah, if there's corn on mid October, the big this, you know, big Joe shows up mid October every year on the types of cameras, Like, I've seen patterns like that, and then I've also seen things where maybe it's not the same exact deer, but it will be for some reason every year such and such time of year the bucks start moving through certain areas and you start seeing annual patterns in that kind of way. Um, I mean I feel like that, like you, like you've been doing that's some of the very most most important offseason work now is just studying all these previous years worth of pictures. Yeah, I agree. The next step in all of this is, I got my dots on the map, I got the area where they're where that information is. Now my goal is to try to forecast this all, right, forecast this deer movement. So every dot on a map is going to get a number, right, So, and I'm gonna do it over a couple of different ways. I'm just gonna go back to two thousand eighteen Narlie Charlie. Where was the first time he showed up on camera that gets a number one? Where was the second time he gets a number two? Where was the third time that gets the number three? And the goal is to find how he's circling through this through this property? Right? Is he is he coming? What? What's his circuit? How are you are you? Are you doing this in like an Excel spreadsheet or something that you're marking all this stuff, or how are you actually documenting this? Right? So, I'm using um uh software called deer Lab. Deer Lab, I use a little bit of that, but there there's some things that deer Lab really can't do. And that's where I'm gonna have to basically just create a print out or I gotta hunt t a map with the magnets on it. Yeah, so I'm gonna put put all my trail cameras or where all the data points are, and then basically just it a little number next to it, one, two, three, and hopefully what I can see is maybe there's four days in a row on different cameras where he showed up, and then I can say, oh, well, look at this, he's taking this half moon through here, or he's working this on this wind. And the goal is to really just study it and put myself in a position where, you know, if I'm really going to focus on one deer, I have to be willing to not hunt the first week of November. No one. Now you're saying that based off if you think that there's certain data that tells you do that. You're saying exactly, well, last year he didn't show up on any trail cameras until like November nine. Now could you still hunt? Just hunt elsewhere? Oh yeah, yeah, I could definitely hunt elsewhere, and you know, try to go but you know, you want you're you're you're still sticking to maybe could it possibly be in the only buck year for you? Like he is the one? There's you know, I'm coming off of a year where I just shot my biggest scoring buck ever, So it's not like for me. First and foremost, I got a brand new freezer, so I'm gonna I'm gonna stack some meat in there, like I'm gonna I'm gonna go shoot a ton of dose. That's my goal. I'm gonna fill the freezer with you know, try to get three doughs in there. And then this, like you said, this might be a year where I dedicate a season to an animal, depending on if he shows up this summer. Right, if I don't have any intel on him going into the summer, I'm gonna do what I always do and put together a hit list. And I'm still gonna put together a hit list and just like you know, all that could change. Yeah, very true. That's exciting though, Like it'd be it would be fun for me to follow your hunt for that one buck. Like I know, um, it's not for everyone, but man, there's something extra interesting. I feel like when you've got one deer, you're trying to figure out I don't, at least for me, I really cheek out about it. So I'm intrigued. I can't wait to see what it looks like this summer. You'll, uh. The only other thing on that, on that particular farm and for the white tail side of things, is catch those damn thieves like trail cameras. I got more cell cams coming in, and it's gonna be like some spy type ship. Like my goal is to just document. I don't even care, like I'm I have a feeling that if I get the intel that I want off of that particular off the farm, like Okay, he's alive, I feel like I'm gonna take all my cameras out again and switch them to places where these you know, where people are going to steal my ship. So go from Okay, I've identified that this buck is still alive. That's all I needed to know. Now it's time to go catch some people, right. Yeah, you gotta get that figured out. Yeah, that's a perfect tool for it, that's for sure. Absolutely So on the camera thing. One more thing I want to add. I don't know if I talked about this whether it or not, So tell me if I did already. But um, you mentioned trying to you know, how you're trying to track all that data and how dear lab is really helpful for a lot of stuff. But for me, the big issue is a deer lab. You can't um it doesn't work quite as well for sightings. So I'd like to be able to track both trout camera pictures and actual in person sightings. So what I did is I run stuff with the deer lab, but then I also put together my own little spreadsheet. And I don't know if this is something that you might find helpful or not, but what I did is I created a spreadsheet that tracks the date. It tracks whether it's a photo or sighting. So each one of these is a column. It tracks the location of that sighting or picture. It tracks was a M or p M. So I just wanted to simply say is it morning or evening? And then I've got it tracks is it daylight? Yes or no? And then I have the as what the actual temperature was, and then I've got a column for was it a cold front or not? So what I did is if if that sighting or that picture came after a temperature drop of ten degrees or more, it would get a yes. If it was not, that it would get to know. And then I tracked the wind direction south southwest, northwest, whatever, and then I tracked the wind speed, and then I put in the barometric pressure, and then I put in whether or not it was a red moon. So you've you know, we've talked to people about this red moon and theory. So if it's a moon that's directly overhead or underfoot, um during key times of day, that would be categorized or red moon. That's something that some people think my trigger movement. And then the other one is if you have a moon that is rising or setting at dawn or dusk. That's another thing that some people have theorized might get bucks moving. So I tracked that. So those are the I don't know how many of those, Like those are the eleven columns that I have. And then each one of these is you can filter by each one, so it's like a pivot table. So I could say, so I've got and this is for one buck. I created this for just Holy Field back in the day. Um, so I have I have sixties six sightings or daylight pictures that I have tracked on here, and then I could go in here and I could say, okay, well let's just look at the daylight sightings or pictures and then it will filter for that, and then I can see all the spots where that happened, and I could see all the wind directions or things, and so it was. It was a helpful tool. Unfortunately that dear's gone. But um, you could go in there and filter by wind direction or filtered by cold fronts, or filtered by was it a red moon or not, and you can start to see I don't remember what the specifics were, but it was like sixty seven percent of the sightings or daylight pictures were on cold friend days. You I saw that the majority of them were with south or southwest winds. So stuff like that. I was able to figure out, Um, to get those kind of patterns standing out a little bit more that you can start taking action when you can actually quantify like this. It was helpful for me at least. So if you're interested, I can send you that file if you want to copy it and experiment. Oh yeah, dude, I'll take it. Yeah, I'll send it your way. Let me know what to think. Um, it's kind of it's kind of neat neat way to do it. Uh so, yeah, that's exactly what's gonna say. The thing I like about and a Graham is you can tell when someone's just like really being fake and at the same time being real. And I love I loved watching and I gotta I gotta kick out of it because I loved watching you try to spray and plant your food plots. Yeah. I was sitting there laughing, going, God, thank God, I do not have to do any of that. Ship. Holy sh it, man, I had just a debacle of all debacles this spring. How many miles did you put on your truck just driving into town and back? Way too many. I don't know what the mileage is, but way too many. I went back and forth to the store so many times. Um and and really the amount of work I got done is so minimal it's embarrassing. But it was days in days of tacking around. So so here's just for people that didn't follow the Instagram store, here's what happened. So I had to laugh it up, laughing up. All I needed to do was get my food plats greens planted. So this is just like planting some strips in tall vegetation to to kind of break up some big open fields, you know. UM. So basically, and I talked about this in the past, but the cliff nose version of it is, I've got a couple of properties now that I can do some small bits of habitat work and UM. A lot of its wide open field or adjacent to open crop fields. And so if I plant a food plot, the only places I could plant it would be like right next to the big field. That is why it open all the way to the road. So to make it so that deer, especially mature bucks, would feel comfortable going out into that area during daylight, I started planting UM basically a ten yard wide strip of different things. In the past has been Egyptian wheat and sorghum. Um. This year I'm testing out some different blends. Some have got a little bit of sunflowers in them, some stuff called sun hemp isn't some of the blend, and then of course a lot of Egyptian wheat and sorghum still too. UM. But basically it kind of just looks like a wall of corn. And you know that that bucket killed in Michigan last year, Dan Frank, he would have never came out into the spot where I killed him if it wasn't for that screen. So it's very important for these couple of spots where I do this, those screens are are really important. Like it's a great spot to hunt if the screens there. If the screen is not there, it's a horrible spot to hunt. Um. So I had to get these things in and the long short of it is the first thing I had to do is spray them. So I get out and drive my forew with the spray bowl. First off, I go to get ready to go do the spring and then I remember that last summer my dad had broken the wire harness that connects the sprayer to the four wheelm So I got crap. I gotta go drive a town. So I drive to town, go buy a new wire harness, drive back, get the four wheel I'll set up. You gotta put you know, water in the tank, and you put the herb side in the tank. Take that out to this property, drive out to the where this food plat is. I get to the spot where I want to start spraying, hit the power button and I hear him do do do doo doo doo, But nothing's coming out. So the pump on the sprayer is like doing something, but it's not pumping out water. And I know I'm not handy at all. Like you've heard me plenty plenty of stories in the past, I don't know how to fix anything. I struggle so bad with the stuff. I'm like son of a gone, I gotta figure this out. So I'm only watching YouTube videos about broken sprayers, trying to figure out different things I should look for. I try to figure it out in the field. Couldn't figure out field. So take it back to my house, take it in the barn, get all set up, start. I just completely took apart. The whole sprayer took apart. The pump system took apart. I thought first like maybe it was maybe it was plugged, like the the thing the jigger that goes down to the tank. Maybe that was plugged. It was keeping water from getting up in there. So I took that all part, try to clean it out. Nothing, check the filter and nothing. Took all the all the different um tubes that run into the pump, make sure those were all clammed on properly. Wanted to make sure that the pressure was getting there, so I took a part pump and there's these different valves and crap in there. I don't remember what stuff is called. But the long story short of it is that I took it all a part check the things that's suppose were supposed to check. Nothing worked. So then I go to town and I was going to either try to just buy a brand new tank and sprayer. They didn't have anything I needed there, but I did find a pump, just the pump that the guy there told me that it could probably would be universal and I could put that on the new one. So I come back, reinstall a new pump and got it to work. But I started that day at like two o'clock in the afternoon, and this is nine thirty at night. I finally got that sprayer pumped in and ready to work. So next day I go, everything's working, find the pump. I get out to this property and um, i'd start spraying. I think I sprayed for like fifteen minutes, and then my wife called me and answer the phone to the turn of a TV. Answer the phone, talk to my wife, and then I go to start back up again when we're done, and the four ula won't start now, So now I gotta walk all the way back to my truck where I have a little jump kit like a jump box type feeling a portable one. Take that back, jump it starts to work again. Drive like another hundred yards, the a TV dies again. Jump it again, go like thirty yards it dies again. Basically, I have something wrong with my a TV now, so I can't spray where my a TV keeps dying. So this would be like a half hour long explanation of everything that went wrong that nobody probably wants to hear. But I'll just tell you that I ended up having to go back and forth to town to first try to get a battery charged, and then I had to go pick out the battery, and then I brought it back and tried and it worked for a little bit, and then I stopped working again. Then I had drive back to town, bought a new battery, and then I had to drive back to the property again reinstall that. Got that to work for a bit um and then I think it finally worked, and then I had to go back home because I didn't have enough water, had to go get more water. Then I had to go back the property and basically, like you said, drove back and forth, back and forth like seventeen different times. What should have been one afternoon of a couple hours of spraying took me three days of headaches. Um, and that was just to get the thing sprayed. Now fast forward, I got sprayed. Now I need to plan it now. I don't think you were with me when I told I talked about how I'm changing up my food planning process this year. Um. But basically I've been learning a bunch about how um, trying to go no till will be better for the environment, better for the planet life, better for everything. Um. In the long run, it could help reduce how much I need to spray overside, reduce how much like synthetic fertilizer I have to put out there. UM. So I'm trying to implement this no till idea, but I don't have a no tail drill. So there's this kind of method that some people are doing. Just they're calling like throwing mo. So basically the gist of the idea is like you you broadcast a seed, um, hopefully right around the time of a rain. So you well, sorry, I'm gonna take you back. You spray an area so that vegetation is going to die eventually, and then you broadcast seed over that area and then you're gonna mow it. So what happens is the vegetation's existing, there is dying, but your seeds, hopefully this is with a small type of seed that will work with a broadcasting method like this, the seeds on the ground, the dead vegetation is falling down over and then you mow everything on top of it, so you create like a maltia vegetation over top of your seed. And you coincide all of this with a rain so that you get a bunch of rain coming down soaking all this grass and malts on top of your seed. And that's what gets it to german it. It It gets you your seed to sell contact. That's the basic gist of this. So you can plant stuff without needing to disk and til everything up. So that's what I was gonna try. I don't have a tractor, I don't have a brush hog, I don't have any of these things. So I thought, well, maybe I could get my Maybe maybe I could get my lawnmower, like my my lawnmower from my house. Maybe I could do that. So I go and to try to mow a clover plot first, with this, and I sink my mower in about a foot and a half a muddon, So the lawnmower stuck in foot and a half of mud. I have to go drive back, get my wife and son and my A t V. Bring my a t V out to this property, have my wife and sons sit in the lawnmower because you have to be sitting on it for it to be turned on. And so I had to go get a winch in my a t V and had to winch out my lawnmower with my wife and son on the lawnmar in reverse trying to get it out. So that was a thing got that realized, Okay, there's no way this is gonna work on this other property where I'm trying to do more of this stuff. So I had to get my father in law to bring his tractor and a brush hawk he had over to this property and he was able to brush hawk and mow everything but my broadcaster. So the thing that spreads all your seed that broke. And the three different stores in the nearest town didn't have a big like I don't know if you've seen people using these big cloth bag cedars. Do you know what I'm talking about. It's a big canvis bag um that holds I don't know, fifteen pounds of seeds or something like that. Well, I couldn't find one of those anywhere, and I'm running out times, so I had to use like one of those little tiny fertilizer spreaders that people use on their like quarter acre yard for something like throwing moll It's like it holds like two handfuls of fertilizer and seed. So that's what I used for a large portion of the seating. Um. I mean, I don't even know if it's worth going any more detail. And the fact that this should have been an afternoon too, it took I don't know, five days, so many debacles, um, but I do have them planted. Yeah, you call me farmer Mark, Um I made people proud of I'm sure. Well, Mark, it sounds to me like you need to become friends with a local farmer. Yeah that is Uh, that's exactly what I need to do. And you either need to become friends with the farmer or just need a man up and uh cash my savings in on some kind of equipment because this is not I could just see your wife. You're coming home with a brand new tractor and like all these food plot implements and whatnot, and uh, I can see her getting pretty upset at something like that. Well, it's funny is that she would like, she'd hate it if I spend all that money. But at the same time, she's so sick of me coming home every day and like, you're not done yet. Why didn't you get anything done? What happened? So now if she's like, you should just buy something, just sell something and buy it, buy something you need, um, because she's getting equally frustrated with right. But but yeah, it's in, so we'll see if it we'll see what happens. And uh, that's that's the extent of my habitat stuff. The only other good thing I got done is um started. I tried to get a little bit of a head start on some of my tree stand stuff. So like, there's one spot I've want a tree stand forever on one of these main Michigan properties. So I just got that set up for a saddle hunt, put some pegs in the tree and put a platform there and trimmed everything out. So I've a little like it's a weird little transition point where there's a swamp and then a little finger of a field, and then on the other side of that a betting area, and then there's like this low spot in that little finger field where they'll cross from the swamp to get to the other timber stuff on the other side. And this is that one Michigan property that I've talked about tons that I have mostly just like field that stuff that I'm allowed to hunt. Um but this is the spot where if a buck's going to cross the field seven times out of ten, that's usually where it is. And I've got a stand on either side of it, but not quite in like the spot within the spot, you know, like we talked about. And h finally, I just like I gotta I gotta get something moved in there. So did that that's set to go? Um So all I need to do, at least on that farm in late summer is just go and just double check on my locations, just make sure they're trimmed out and make sure the straps are good. But yeah, I'm in good shape otherwise. Um So, the only other thing for me, I don't know what else is in your mind, but the only thing for me is that when I got done with all that habitat stuff I was talking about, all the spraying and plant to those food plat screens. The reason I was on such a time crunch is because my wife and I were leaving for our annual Western trip and that's where I'm right right now, and so I had to vent to someone about how that's been going. Now, I just vented for fifteen minutes about my food plots, So maybe this is too much venting, um, But do you want to hear about what's happening on this trip? Yes? I do, because I'm somewhat jealous, UM. But at the same time, I'm glad it's you and not me. Yeah. So I'm hoping for some advice to somewhere along the way. So let me know if you've got any ideas for how I could have or how we could either better handle us next time UM or solve this UM if I ever try to do it again. Because what we try to do this year was go out and spend our summers like we usually do out in Montana. And you know, last year I did this with ever for the first time, and we did them camped in our camper um and it went pretty dwn good. You know, it was not bad at all. He wasn't mobile at that point, and that is the crux of it right there. He was not mobile. He was five months old. He didn't do anything at all. Um, he slept all the time. He was the picture of angelic joy. Now he's a year and a half old and he is a tyrant. Like he is just like a whirlwind going through our lives, just trying to rip everything down, terror thing, try to find different ways to get himself killed. Um, I mean it's nuts. Like I look at like so many times in a day, I'll look at Kylie and be like, who is this thing? Like how did we bring this into the world? But it's going I love him to death, but he's crazy. Um. So I'll try to make this. I'll try to trim it as much as I possibly can. But basically we are plan was We're gonna take seven days of like vacation. So like we haven't really took a vacation in in a long time. We travel, but I'm always working while we travel. Um, So this year I was like, you know what, we deserve a break from work for a little bit. So he was gonna take five vacation days. I wasn't gonna check my phone, wasn't gonna do stuff. Was just gonna take that time and we're gonna go to Grand Teatown National Park and Yellowstone two our favorite spots, and just have a fun time hiking with withevert and show him the animals and camping and do all stuff. Well, the basic gist of it is that we got out and the first night tried to tent camp. He wouldn't sleep at all in a nap, wouldn't sleep in the tent for nap time. That was debacle. Then at night, try to put him down, he wouldn't sleep, wouldn't sleep, with screaming, with screaming, with screaming. Finally, it's like nine thirty and the neighbors hate us, and I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna take him the truck. So I took him, drove him the truck for an hour. He finally fell asleep that I transferred him to the tent to like tent thirty night after dark, and he was able to sleep through the night. So like, okay, maybe that's what we gotta do. Next day we try that. He sleeps, but then like two in the morning, he wakes up in the middle and I just screaming bloody murder, like just inconsolable. And we got tents all around us, you know, other people camping all around us. So this is not gonna work. Like we're waking everybody out, the kids going nuts. So we all get out of the tent, get in the truck, drive to the nearest town, get a hotel room like four in the morning. Um had to go to four different hotels try to find one that was open. So after two nights of disastrous tent sleeping, UM, we're like, screw up, We're just gonna get a place to stay. Because no one slept. Kylie was miserable and couldn't sleep, and so we had to rent a cabin for three nights, and after that a hotel for three nights. And so I have spent more traveling what would have been like an almost free camping trip for a week. I've now spent more on this trip than any other vacation I've ever spent my entire life. Like you know, I've gone to Mexico's and all inclusive in the past, We've done that kind of thing, but never ever spent so much money on all these crappy hotel rooms just so there's somewhere forever to sleep. Otherwise it's like zero naps, zero nighttime sleep. He's not doing the tent thing, um. So I mean it's just been like super duper stressful from a sleep standpoint, um. And if that all wasn't bad enough, though, we're we got hit with what bad weather. It's been snowing and raining and really cold here the last three days, so that made it tough. And then we're like, okay, but we're gonna go pick up our camper because what we did is we left our camper in Montana over the winter because we only use it out here, so we put it in a storage facility lockdate storage facility, kept it here, and then when we're gonna you know, come out and do our little vacation I just talked about, and then at the end of that time, we pick up the camper and then go set it up in our usual place and then we're gonna stay here another month and work. Well. We've been looking forward to getting the camper because that would be like, you know, a closed space. It would be dark, ever it would be asleep hopefully, and even if you did wake up. You know, we're not gonna wake up other people because we'll be inside the camper. So we get to the storage facility and as we're pulling in, I know us that the cover we have a cover of the whole thing, the cover's gone. So I'm like, oh, no, what what happened? And this was this is yesterday afternoon. This all happened. Damn. So the cover is not on our camper anymore. So now I'm thinking, oh, man, did the cover get ripped off in the wind? Is it gonna be rain damage or something. Then I go walking up to the to the door and I noticed that the door handles pride open. Oh you gotta be kidding me. Someone broke into our camper while we're going, ripped the door open, got in there. They stole two full propane tanks, oliver fuel. They stole our whole solar power system. So the way we get power to the camper is through solar panels on top and then too deep cell batteries and then like an inverter or converter or something like that that runs it all through. They stole all that. They stole all my tools that I had out here, my drills and all the different things I need to fix stuff. Um stole Like Kylie done a really great job like renovating this, you know a few years ago, and had really cool artwork on the walls and decorations. They stole all that stuff, stole our silverware. Um, we're did you keep this just like in a parking lot? No, Well, it's a it's like a you know, like a storage facilities, you know, where there's all those like little buildings that look like, I don't know how to describe it, just like one of the storage facility. And then there was a a fenced and gated and locked area where you could put a trailer and put your campers and stuff. So that's where we had it. So it's under lock and key, but someone had hopped the fence or dive orneath the fence or something and uh or or maybe someone who had access to it was the one who did it. I don't know. Yeah, man, So that was what we came to yesterday, after driving six hours across the park to get to hear and all that, and Everts screaming and throwing a fit and I'm trying to figure out what to do with this and had to call the police file report and then oh and then on top of that, I get the thing hooked up and I'm ready to pull out, and none of the lights in the camper work anymore, so the running lights that break, lights that turn signals, nothing on the campers working. Um so, so I luckily found a guy who works for the facility that was willing to drive behind me to get us to a campground. So now I'm at a campground, and as soon as we get done recording this, I'm going to be going to town and trying to find somewhere I can buy new propane tanks and buy new batteries and buy new inverter. And then I've got a local ur r V repair guy that's gonna helpfully come out here in the next hour or two and look at and see if he can reset up the wiring to make all the power and stuff work. Man, Like, I wish you wouldn't have told me, because now I want to like beat somebody up. Yeah, that is crap. It was just like the cherry on top after like the week has been, you know, it's been really cool, Like there's moments of greatness like whenever it's having a good time. It's so awesome to see him out there, like pointing out a buffalo or running up and down the trails, like he's having a lot of fun, just playing in the dirt, exploring. He's having a blast, but he's he's sick of being in the car seat, so he's just throwing a fit every time we're driving anywhere. He's not sleeping well, so he's always overtired. And then, like we talked about earlier, he's just in everything. So it's there's there's no way to like set up the camp or to do all these different things the way we used to, because usually it's like a two person job. We're doing all this stuff, and now it's like one person has to be watching him an all time, and then one person is trying to do a bunch of stuff, and uh, it's just made stuff more stressful than it's ever been. So I'm constantly trying to remind myself, like focus on the good stuff. It's super cool to be out here with whatever. He's having a blast a lot of the time, but man, many times a day we look at each other, my wife and I were like, can we do this any longer? Like how long are we gonna last? We're playing being out here for six weeks doing this, and we've seriously been thinking like maybe we maybe we go home now. I don't know what we're doing. Man, Yeah, that's nuts, man, I don't have any more kids if that's the case. Yeah, any any other parental advice or how to handle traveling and venturing with the tydler because I I don't have any really good answers yet. Well, we got a portable DVD player recently that shuts them up for quite a quite a bit, um because we went on a four hour drive to oh Mahal a couple of months ago that that worked. And then like feed them heavy before they get then they kind of get sleepy eyed or drive when they're driving, So feed them portable DVD player and then a lot of well everage probably too young for threats, but that's but that's how I work with the older two. That makes sense. I'm sure we'll get to that point sometime soon. Yeah right, Yeah, dude, I don't know, like we have these grand ambitions of I still think we can do it to a degree, but it's just I think our expectations are just changing drastically as far as like the kind of stuff we can do for now. Um, you know, still we love doing all these outdoor adventures and camping and stuff, but I don't know if these like two months grand trips are going to be super realistic for the short term. Um, well, you took the kid out of a routine and that's where that's where it hurts, right, So if you can find him, get him in a routine to where you know, every night, maybe you just don't try to put him straight to bed. Maybe you let him watch your phone for a little bit, or you let him do some of that stuff until it gets a little tired, give him his bottle or whatever drink before bedtime and then hopefully falls asleep. Or you can just go back to the old school method and put a little whiskey in his uh sippy cup and you know, help him fall asleep that way. That might be. That might be after last night. I forgot last night, our first night sleeping, and we had mice again last night. This kept waking him up in the middle of night because we the lights to beyond we tried to sleep in them, being mice scaring around right next to him and so I killed two of those suckers. I helpe. I hope that's it, um, But if that doesn't work, it might be whiskey and whiskey and milk for the little man. Been in thrill. By the way, this is not good parenting. I would not we will not actually do that anyone. Don't. Don't worry, um. But but yeah, it's trial buff trial by fire, learning some strike. But you know, at the same time, it's like I find myself going back and forth because yeah, it's been stressful. Yeah, it's been way more difficult than any of our previous trips. But at the same time, probably you know, a month from now, when I look back on it, I'm gonna be glad we did it. You know. It's like it's I think it's it's type too. Fun is what it is. In the moment, it can be miserable, but like when you look back out at the pictures and the stories, and probably what we'll remember is we'll remember the good times and the bad times will just be funny. They'll just be funny stories. Yeah, so I'm hoping that we can push through and it'll be good. And you know, it's I do love like it is awesome to be able to share like these outdoor things with him and seeing him geek out about seeing a bear, Like he'll he'll go running up to the trailhead like at the beginning of her trail, there's these, um you know, these boards where they've got different announcements and like warnings and you know, how to be bear safe and all this kind of stuff. And he's really in the bear, so he'll go running up to it. And if there's a picture of the grizzly, he'll just point and he'll roar at it. Um. And like if you will go hiking and we get, you know, a couple of miles in and we're gonna take a break or something to set them down, and he's just a man on a mission. He'll start taking down the trail himself. And then he stops and he picks flowers and he's plays with the rocks and he's chasing ground squirrels and um like seeing that just you know, that's so cool as a dad to see and uh, to be able to share that stuff with with your child, this is pretty cool. So I mean, that kind of stuff is what I try to focus on. But that's the most important stuff. Yeah, yeah, it is so man. That's where we're at. We got four more weeks that we're supposed to be out here. Um, and I don't know. We'll see if we can get everything fixed here today or tomorrow. And um, once we get I think it'll be good as we get settled. We haven't been able to settle anywhere, have been like two days here, three days there, one day there. Um. But once we are able to get settled into one of these spots that we usually stay at for a week at a time, um, like you said, maybe get a little bit of routine again. And um, then we'll see in a week or two we'll have updates and uh, we'll see if the Kenyon two thousand nine adventure has come to an unceremonious end or if it's it's still going. Dead life man, Yeah, Dad life, dead life. I don't and that's that's all I got. I don't know anything else in your world. As far as me, it's just like trying to survive this trip, try to get some work done, and then August will be just run around like crazy with all the last minute stuff. Yeah. Same here man, just getting ready for my elk hunt. Getting ready for the mule deer hunt that may or may not happen, and and then obviously white tails. So hey, do you remember like four years ago when we used to do um like Dan's crazy Question of the day. Yeah, we we should bring that back. I feel like we should bring that back. Um And either when you're on episodes of a guest, we should throw them a crazy question or we should just give each other a crazy question of the day. It's like, for example, if you had to pick a beverage that would describe you at this moment, like how you're feeling or where you are at in life right now, what beverage would you be? Well, it would be a mixed drink, okay, and it would be coffee and bourbon. Explain just because that's basically how crazy. Well, I'll tell you what. It would be coffee, bourbon and CPD oil and because that's literally what my life is right now. It's like wake up tired, slam coffee. Um. You know, work throughout the day, and then relax by having a cold drink at night. So what what drink do you think signifies like defeated as what's the drink that makes you think of some being very defeated. What would that drink be like when you're the lowest point and this is gonna stop. I don't want like to offend anybody, but just like ship, I am down on my I got nothing left in my life. Like the only thing left for me to do is just like fade into existence. And that would be like drinking a natural ice. Yeah, Natty ice twenty in a paper bag. That that is what drink I am at this moment as I sit here waiting for a repairman to come and try to figure out how to fix this CHILLPI ship mark, I didn't know was that bad? Oh? But type too fun? It is type two. The stories. There's a song um that I heard on the radio the other day. It's called a hundred Bad Days and the chorus is a hundred bad days makes a hundred good stories, and a hundred goods stories makes me interesting at parties. And so that's been like my mantra. I'm like, all right, man, hundred bad days equals a hundred good stories. That's how I'm gonna get through this one. So yeah, I gotta have content for your job, buddy, gotta content. Definitely getting that getting that in spades on this trip. So alright, dude, well, I think, uh, I think our little update podcast here is is is full of stories, so we can wrap it up. But thanks for letting me vent, thanks for the advice on on drinks of choice, and um, let's talk soon and see what else crazy is going on. Yeah, I think you could probably hear what's going on right now in my hallway. Yeah. I think you gotta get that office done pretty soon. Yeah. Absolutely, all right, buddy, talk to you soon later, and that's gonna do it for us today. I hope you enjoyed this lighthearted episode, you know, it's it's always just good to catch up with Dan and laugh a little bit and tell some of these stories. And uh, I sure hope that your summer projects and vacations are going a little smoothly, more smoothly at least than mine have. It's uh, it's been interesting, but like we're saying, you know, if you're having some tough times like that, remember all those bad days do make for great stories, so keep that in mind. And with all that said, thank you so much for tuning in. Until next time, Stay wired to Hunt

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