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, and this episode number three fifty two, and today in the show, the Nine Fingered Wonder and I are doing some social distance socializing, simply kicking back and catching up, telling hunting, fishing, and foraging stories, and maybe even chatting with a surprise special guest. All right, welcome to another episode of the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by on x UM. I feel well. Before I talk about how I feel, I got Dan Dan Johnson on the other side. I'm glad you can be here. Dan. I need I need some Dan Johnson in my life today. Well that's good. Why why do you need me in your life? Because I feel like I'm in a rut? Oh or just this just this endless cycle of the same monotonous thing. And this is this is probably not unique to me right now, I gotta believe that a lot of people are kind of feeling the same way. Are you feeling this at all? A little bit but not too terribly bad. I mean, I still get to go outside a lot. I've been mushroom hunting, I've been doing a little turkey hunting, and uh so that kind of throws a break up into everything. And um, I can't say that that's been the same feeling for me. So that's kind of good. That is good. And I've been doing the same things you've been doing. I have been much from hunting and turkey hunting and getting outside still some. But I don't know. It's it's like a very it's a very domesticated set of of things. Maybe or maybe it's just because uh kid life mixed with quarantine life has produced like a dampening effect on the excitement how to get out of some of these things, I'm not sure. Um, but it's definitely like I just had this feeling. Ah, I describe it just kind of this latent like wanderlust, like I just need to get out needed, just like I need that other And right now, it's just get up, do the routine, feed the kids, get your work done. Uh you get done with work, you clean the house, put the kids to bed. Then you're so tired. You finished off the last bit of work and then you pass out. Um and because of all this weird stuff going on. There's not like that thing necessarily the big thing to look forward to as much or I don't know, that's just that's just the weird place that that I find myself. I can't complain too much, but I will tell you this, I can agree with you when it's time to like, for me, it's time to start moving around. And I don't just mean driving a mile into the country to go look from mushrooms. I mean I need to do something big. I need to make a move. So, uh today, actually me and my wife rented a cabin up in Northeast Iowa, and so next weekend we're going on a little two day adventure with the kids up in Northeast Iowa to do some fishing, some hiking, um and just chill up in a different place. Very cool. Yeah, that's the kind of that's the kind of thing that we haven't been able to do for like two months here now, and uh, I think that is that is what I need. We are Michigan. I don't know how I owe you guys have not been under the same things, but we've been under stay at home since like March, and it's extended through the end of May. Yeah, I was talking to Indy May and he was telling me that even if you own a cabin up north in along the lakes, like a lot of people do, they're telling you you can't do that, even to go onto your own property. Well, they were saying that, and then about about a week ago, about a week ago, that was lifted. So now technically, if you have a place, you can technically go there. People are just being discouraged to do that. They don't want people traveling all over the state and possibly spreading things around here and there. Um, but it's it's not like a codified stance anymore. So I don't know, I don't know. Man, strange times. Um, of course you want to do the right things. But um, but it is I think trying. It's definitely drying. Heck, parts of Iowa are opened up again, right, Yeah, a lot a lot of restaurants and restaurants and bars. I think some of them are operating under a smaller I guess if you you know, a smaller fire code, so to speak. They're they're they're cutting there admission or however many people can be in a building down. But my dad went out for breakfast the other day so, but he lives in like I live in one of Iowa's higher populated counties. So we're still under lockdown, like no restaurants. But I think May seventeen that's going to be lifted, so we're gonna be back at it again here soon. It's gonna be. It's just so weird how normal things now feel so strange, like just going to the grocery store. Every time I go to the grocery store, I feel like I'm in a like a movie. It's just so weird seeing just I don't know, life is weird right now. It's weird because here's one thing that I've noticed. I used to go to the grocery store or go out in public, I would smile and say hi to people. I find myself even walking around with my head down and just like don't avoid, like avoid avoid, avoid, don't talk, don't you know, don't I'm not afraid of going out into public. I'm just afraid of interacting with people, and whether that's through conversation or touch. I'm just like, I don't I don't say hi to people anymore. I don't smile at people anymore, which sounds rude, but everybody else is doing the same thing. Very true, It's just a very strange social dynamic and kind of this like underlying sense of an ease. I don't know, I'm just very I just I find myself over and over, like so many times I'll just look at my look at Kylie and be like I hate this, Like I just hate this thing, like worrying about I don't know, our groceries or something, or do we do we need to worry about this? Do we not need to worry abouts? Or worry about like when can we see the grandparents again? When should we? When should we not? Or you know, is it okay to still go turkey honey and be six ft away from someone? Is that okay? Um? Like all these things now that we have to think about um, And I realized it's it's a luxury to complain about it because I'm healthy and we're not dealing with the serious, serious ramifications. So I don't want to come off as if I'm you know, complaining too much. But yeah, there's still there's a silver lining mark, which is which is that in the grand scheme of things? Now here is what I've read. Okay, according to some source, I don't. I don't. I don't even know what where I read it at. But hunting and fishing license are up nearly three million people so far in two thousand and nineteen, or excuse me, two thousand and twenty. So that's very interesting. I have seen different state I've seen different state updates mentioning that their sales are way up, and so I think that's awesome. But I wonder, yeah, I wonder, is this just because of the same thing that I did, which was early this in the spring, when the lockdown stuff first started. Some states started saying, hey, you know what, we're shutting down our nonresident hunting seasons were shutting down this hunting season. Um, if you already bought a license, you can still go, but no new licenses are being sold. So that happened in a bunch of states, and so as soon as I found that out, I was like, well, I better snatch up a license. So I bought a deer tag in one of the out of state places I want to go right away, even though I wouldn't have bought it probably until August. Instead, I bought it in April just to make sure I could still get one. Um, do you think maybe that's part of it. Yeah, I think there's gonna be some There's gonna be some new people, right like, oh, man, I can't do anything, might as well do what I used to do and go fishing, right or things like that. But I have a feeling that people are probably just doing what you did and buying earlier. So we'll have to check back up on this at the end of the year to see if there was actually a three million person increase in hunting fishing licenses as opposed to people just deciding, Hey, well, I can't I can't go hunting now, but I can't go fishing, so I'm gonna buy my you know, I'm gonna buy my combo tag or I'm gonna buy my hunting license like four months earlier than I normally do. Yeah, but hey, if even you know, a hundred thousand of those are new people, that's that's great. Take them. That is that is a great silver lining. It is a one of those times I find myself often being like, man, it's a good time to be a hunter. Glad that I've got a full freezer, Glad that as things get increasingly different, we're at least set on that front. So yeah, man, um, strange strange times. But what I what I thought we could do today is is is socialized. Simply socialized, Simply socialized, Dan, because that's something I don't get to do anymore. We don't get to do it anymore. So sitting down for coffee and talking to your buddy isn't a thing anybody's doing right now, or at least most people aren't doing right now. Or sitting down and drinking a beer on a Friday afternoon together and talking and catching up about what we've been doing, that's like really unique right now. Um, So let's socialize and do that and catch up on what is going on with Dan Johnson and Mark Kenyon and our our outdoor world. Um, because there's turkey hunting to discuss, there's mushroom hunting to discuss, there's back forty stuff, there's fishing to discuss. I've got some outdoor kid questions to discuss, um, and then a few listener questions too that I've got here that we could touch on if we have time to UM. But yeah, I think we just need like a laid back catch up socialize with all our friends out there, you, me and the rest of the listeners. Yeah, well I'm down. I'm down for that. You know, we're we're pretty good at bullshit and I, um, but if you're looking for me to kick this off, I'm gonna tell you something that I'm pretty excited about that I also did today and it's I started. This is crazy, but I actually started preparing for my season. Yeah. That's quite quit the proactive approach. Yep. So do you want me to fill you in on kind of what what I've been doing for that. No, I'd rather just let's table that one until No. Yes, tell me, tell me, don't ask a question. I'm just gonna start, tell me more, tell me more. So as you know. UM, I think we've talked about this before, but I have a pretty decent collection of preference points for Wyoming, for antelope, for elk, and then I have um some some deer points as well. But I'm thinking that my plan is I turned forty in November, which means that next September I will be forty and going on an elk hunt in Wyoming. My plan is to cash in my uh some of my preference points. So I'm gonna be sitting with about seven preference points. And that should get me a really good unit in UH in Wyoming. And so today I bought a have you ever heard of go hunt? Yeah? Yeah, So I bought a membership to go hunt and I started the research process. Uh, what units I can get with seven points? What the draw odds are, what you know, all that stuff. Started looking at not necessarily maps yet, just the data behind specific units. UM. And I did that for a little bit for antelope and a little bit for deer, but mostly for for elk units, and uh, I think based you know, in a very a short period of time, I was able to whittle down to a you know, to maybe four units or five units that I can start doing more research into, like access and and taking a look on maps and stuff. So, um, I've started that process and it's kind of exciting. Did the dreaming, the dreaming and the anticipation that is such such a good part of it. Um, what part I know, you don't want to give away too much details, but what part of the state are you are most of these and anyone given part of the state that you're looking at or is it kind of spread all over? So we're gonna be in north central or northwestern like southeast of Yellowstone. Nice. Yeah, dude, that that area is incredible. It's a little sketchy though, oh yeah, because you get the grids, a couple of them, uh, and in there they say this is a Grizzly Bearer unit, so playing accordingly. So I don't know if I am ready to do a grizzly bear hunt by myself, I would definitely go with someone who has more experience and more seasons with Grizzly Bears under their belt. But if it's just me and another rookie you know what I mean by that is a hunting with Grizzly bears rookie, then I probably won't select that that unit just for that period. Yeah, just throws a whole different element into everything. Oh, it definitely does. Definitely does my um. I just bought an ELK tag for this fall um in Idaho again, and I'm in a grizzly unit for the first time, and so I'll be I'll definitely be thinking about that a little bit more. But but yeah, it's the one. The downside is, of course, you have to be very very careful in a lot of ways. The upside is that a lot of people think what you just thought there and so don't choose that unity so you get slightly less pressured animals, more opportunity that kind of thing. Um. But that that southeast area of Yellowstone is stunning country. Yeah, I mean, just as far as the landscape I've I've done some backpacking and hiking in there. It is some of the coolest country in the world. It is so cool. Um. Yeah. And while I'm out there, you know, like, so this this whole this whole plan, right is for my fortieth year to be this epic year full of hunting where I'm gonna probably try to fit in another Western hunt out there as well. I'm probably gonna do my South Dakota hunt that'll happen in October. I might try to do you know, I'll do an elk hunt in September, and then I'm gonna probably I might try to do it antelope archery hunt early September or late August. Even so if I can spread it out evenly, I can make my my footprint away from homes seem less. I don't know what the word I'm looking for is, but like it just won't seem like I'm gone. Yeah, not as impactful, not as impactful. Right, so I'm gonna do that whole thing. That's amazing. I I'm curious about one thing. Did you do you know this? I can't remember off the top of my head. What's Wyoming's party application deal? Do they allow party applications? Do you know? I think they might? You know, I think they might. I didn't look into any of that yet. Um, but yeah, I'm I don't think they did. I don't know, I don't I can't say for certain. So I asked because I'm not gonna I'm not gonna invite myself on your trip. I don't want to do that to you. But if you need another guy, and I know we've exchanged a few texts, like very high level on this, but but the Wyoming elk thing is is high on my list of of hunts I want to do. So if you see, that's the thing is I think I only know three, you only have three? Yeah, So the question started applying before me. Did you like forget a couple of days? I forget I forgot some years. And so that's the problem. So if the party application, if if if you end up needing me, um wanting me to come along, if it worked out. The party thing would be. The question would be, is if we apply as a party with that default to the highest point owner or the lowest point owner, because I wouldn't want to hurt your chances, but if it would help my chances not hurt yours, that'd be a good thing. So I don't I don't know how it works. I can't remember. Yeah, definitely something to look into. I look at look at us, Look at us smart We're making were socializing and making making plans. That's you know, that's the thing that you miss out on when you can't sit and have a beer coffee with your buddies. And because these things just don't come up when you're off running around doing your life, it's hard to like just talk through stuff. You finally get on the phone, you finally sit down and you're talking and thinking, oh we should do that. Um yeah, God, I feel like such a little child that's been locked in my room all day. I feel have been grounded for months and I just want to go and play. Yeah right, right, Um, so then let's say this all works out right. I got a buddy who lives in Colorado who told me he will literally come up and call for us. And that's all he'll do is he'll be a he'll pack it, help Pep pack out, and he'll call for us. Got the pros? Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, the Wyoming, the Wyoming elk is is a trip of a lifetime for a lot of people. That'd be pretty awesome. Um what so? So that's one is the elk, the antelope, and the mule deer. And then this year you're still doing Michigan whitetail and all your plans still sounding like they're gonna be staying the same or has this uh that will change? Is okay? So I was gonna do um, I think I told you this. My buddy um uh New York. He came last year with me on the South Dakota mule their hunt. He wasn't gonna come this year. They had to change some Montana elk hunt plans to next year. So he's gonna he's probably not going on as as Montana hunt, so he's gonna come with me. He's already purchased his license and got the tag and everything for the South Dakota hunt again. So I don't know what we're gonna be shifting if we're gonna push if we're gonna push it back another week, our our South Dakota Elk or Mulier hunt back a week, or if I'm gonna just flip and go muleer hunting opening, you know, right away October one, and then just come up mid till late October for my Michigan hunt. So I'm still planning on do it. I just have. It's just it's just a matter of scheduling it right now, all right, as long as as long as it's scheduling and not shifting entirely to New Year's Yeah, I'll probably get a death threat if I back out in Michigan this year. That's the best thing about getting someone to commit to something on air on the podcast. You really liked it. Um, that's uh, that's exciting stuff. So what about the term what're you gonna say? Yeah, I was gonna say, so you bought your Idaho. Um, you're a tag for Idaho already for elk. Yes, So I bought an Idaho white tail and Idaho elk tag for this year. So that's that's new for me. I've never white tail hunt in Idaho, so I'm gonna do that for the first time. Um, because I couldn't I drew. I applied for a Montana white Tail tag and I didn't draw for the second year in a row. So that was surprising and disappointing. So I thought, I'll try somewhere different, Idaho. We're gonna give that a shot. So yeah, I'm excited about that in a new elk. You and I'm gonna try somewhere different than when where you and I went. Um, so excited to check out a new area. I was. I was talking to a buddy who um he hunts eastern uh you know, in that quote unquote Grizzly zone of Idaho, and he said that the unit that we hunted is now considered Grizzly Bear territory. They've expanded into that unit. Yeah, I've I've I've thought and wondered that they either were there and really light numbers. It would be at any any time now because it's right there. You know, it's close. There's there's a small highway kind of that separate separates that mountain range from another mountain range that's obviously Grizzly territories. So yeah, gorgeous country, but they're in there. But yeah, so Western I'll get my Western hunting in September, and then October a bunch of Michigan stuff. November a bunch of Michigan stuff. December, maybe do New York. Um, but who knows, I don't know. I sure hope that all this stuff doesn't impact things in the fall. Again, Yeah, I can't see it. I can't see it. I mean, number one, hunting. The only way I can see this affecting fall is big, giant groups of people doing something right. Whether you're an outfitter and you have a lodge where you know everybody gathers around, right, that may be an issue. But I don't see hunting like me wanting to go out of state and camp out of the back of my truck as a problem. Yeah, I agree. I mean that's about as socially distanced and safe as you can get it. Yeah. Uh yeah, yeah. I hate keeping on bringing that up, but it's one of those things that keeps on like it's not this weird filter they have to look at everything through. Yeah, yeah, whatever, that's what I say. I'll just cross that bridge when I get to it, and um, if not, I guess I'll just, I don't know, do more efficient hey, speaking officient, speaking of fishing. I took Everett out, bought him his first fishing pole this past weekend and took him out and he caught his first fish. Wow, it's very cool, very cool. You gotta kick out of it, he was. He wasn't really he really he got a kick out of it. But he'd be reel it in and then he'd stop and just be like pointing at it. I'm like, real it in, real it real, and then he kind of reel for a while and then he kind of looked at Daddy and he's like, Daddy, do you know you gotta do it? So there's there's some of that figuring out stuff. Mean, he's only too but but he reeled in. I think we got like, I don't know, six or seven probably he reeled in a few of them, and I was touching him. He wanted to kiss one, and uh, all that good stuff. So it was it was cool. It was a great milestone for us. I can remember my daughter's first fish. Now. Of course I had to cast it for her, but she was able to reel it in when the bomber went under, and oh man was the smile on her face and I have a picture of it is something and it's it's framed around here somewhere. I haven't hung it up yet, but it is. It is. It's one of those moments where you know that as a father, you've done something right and and you've made her happy through something that you love to do too. And I got I was so jacked. I was like, it was almost like if she would have shot her first deer, right, So if I'm acting like that with a blue gill, and what is going to happen which she actually shoots her first deer, I'll probably pass out. Well, you know what's funny is the one not the one cool thing, but one of the cool things about doing this stuff with little kids is it re excites you about simple things that didn't used to be exciting. So a little like catching bluegills two years ago would not have been high on my list, But right now that sounds like a hell of a good time for this weekend. It's so much fun because because Everett is getting such a blast out of it, or just walking around and picking up turkey feathers doesn't sound a whole lot of fun, but right now, ever would geek out or he literally, he's his new thing. Last week. He's so into turkeys right now. I took out my turkey decoys and put him out in the yard and then had him come walk out, and he just freaked out when I saw the turkeys all over, and then when he realized he could carry them around, then it was just all done. So he wanted to carry his turkey everywhere he went all day. He brought the turkey to dinner, and I don't know, I probably made a mistake and letting him bring the turkey to dinner, but he brought the turkey decoy and put in the chair next to him and fed the turkey decoy while we're eating. But then when I finally had to take it away, I was like, I'm not gonna let him sleep with it. I didn't clean it off all that well, so I started thinking, gosh, maybe I think maybe I should have checked in the k nooks and cranes and make sure there wasn't something in there because I was sitting outside. Um, so I was like, I would better take this away. And then when I did that, of course, epic meltdown because I took away his turkey. Um, I'm constantly making the mistake of giving him things that wouldn't have and then I happen to take him away. Uh, that's that's being a dad. But yeah, man, it's just like going for walks in the woods are such a huge deal right now. He gets all he wants to do is go for a walk, Go for a walk, go for a walking and get out there. He's got to have his turkey calls. He's just he's like, turkey call, Turkey call Dad, Turkey call and get him his turkey calls. And then he just wants to walk through the fields, clucking away on his slate call. And that's that's a great day for him, and that's that's a great day for me right now. So I definitely know what I'm getting my youngest son for Christmas this year, and that is I'm gonna go out to a gravel road. I'm gonna get a five gallon bucket and I'm just gonna fill it with gravel and then I'm gonna take him to anybody of water, a creek or a river or a lake and let him throw rocks and watch the splash. The kid just takes a rock, he'll throw it. He'll watch the splash and then he'll go that's what he loves to do. And I'm just like, you know what, I wish life was literally that simple, right, just getting a kick out of throwing rocks. Man, it's good. I guess those those kids are good for us in that kind of way, right, simple things. Yeah, that was funny. At the end of our fishing trip last week, the same thing. I was trying to catch more fish, and ever started going to rocks and just started throwing rocks every time I was there's some little girl, right, there's some fish, and then he's chuck a rocket. Yeah, so turkeys fish. Have you been turkey hunting? I've been what four four times? How's it? Good times? How was it? First day I brought my daughter. We were out by seven thirty in the morning, and then we drove around and did some cool things. Uh. The next morning I went out by myself. Uh. They were gobbling in the trees and then the second they hit the ground they were done. And then my wife called and says Mac wants to come out. So I went came back into town, picked him up. Uh, and then we just walked around public land and I hated him. The slate call and just said, okay, buddy, here you go try to make some noise. And uh, you know, I didn't even bring my boat with me. I just we just kind of walked around. That lasted for a little bit until the snacks were done. And then then that following weekend I went out, Uh, same scenario, dude. They were gobbling in the trees and then they hit the ground, go quiet. And then the next time I didn't even hear gobble. And the entire morning I walked around, you know, I went on some public ground. I stopped at a couple uh parking lots because there was guys coming out of the timber and I was talking to them a little bit just to see, you know, are you hearing anything. They're like, no, man, it's been a kind of a weird year. And whether it's low numbers or maybe the weather, I don't know, but it's just they're going bananas like they usually do. Has it been just cold and wet and credited by you guys too, you know, lower temperatures than normal, but not so low. I mean we had one day where it snowed, right, but other than that, and and tonight is supposed to be low in the twenties. But other than that, I don't feel like it's been a crazy cool. It hasn't been hot by any means, but it hasn't been crazy cool. I feel like this has been one of the just lousiest spring weather periods we've had here in Michigan in a lot of years. Just we've had one nice day that I was out in shirt sleeves or short short sleeves all spring. I can thing maybe two. Um, and it's freaking halfway through May almost Yeah, it's killing me. I feel like I live in Canada or Alaska or something, right, So I'm I don't I'm gonna go out and get another shot this this weekend? Um, I think tomorrow or yet today's Saturday or Friday. So tomorrow morning I'm gonna try to go out and get her done. But man, I'm not. You know, I bought my bow tag because the shot there's four shotgun seasons in Iowa. And I brought my bow tag because I didn't know when I was going to be able to get out, so I might as well use a weapon that I can hunt more days. Right, So I brought my bought my bow tag, and you know, obviously I would have changed, you know, it would it kind of limits me from going crazy running gun style like I would if I had a shotgun. But um, they just they didn't come to the decoys. They're they're quiet, and then I don't know, I made the decision instead of going after them, to just kind of go back home and do other things. Have you done? Have you bow hunted for turkeys other years? There's a usually shotgun mo us to the time, a shotgun only because we have our turkey camp every year and we do it the second season in Iowa and it's a four or five day it's a five day window, so we do it because you know, it allows us to be more mobile. Yeah, definitely helps, that's for sure. Yeah. So I don't know how about you? What have you even been out? So I went from my first hunt today actually, so today was the first real hunt I have gotten out, but just without a weapon. Um, because what we're trying to do is we're trying to film a turkey hunt in the back forty um for the show, but we haven't been able to do that because of all the regulations. So we just were able to get clearance to do it as long as it's socially distanced properly and just do everything by the book. Um, we got the green light. So we went out finally today with a gun for the first time, and uh, you know, had one got one strutting around gobbling a little bit. It was really windy, so he couldn't hear much. Um. But he was on one side of a hill and just would not come the rest of the way, so he probably got him within fifty sixty yards but could never could never see him. Yeah, I could see him, um, But basically the only thing I could do was work out into a wide open field. I had a property line on one side of me. The woods was the property line. Field was out to They saw myself as open field and I was just kind of stuck. Um, so we gave a shot. I kept on trying to belly for all closer and closer and shut up for a long time, and then gave it to him real hard and different types of things like that. And at one point he came like at one point I thought it was gonna happen, like he shut up, there's nothing, and then I kept peeking over and then he was couldn't see anything, and there was his back and he was slowly his head was down. He was pecking and walking towards us, and uh, all right, this is happening. I got set up and then he was gone. He disappeared. So either he saw me when I was peeking at him and I didn't realize it, or he had just finally got bored and hopped into the timber next to us and disappeared. I don't know, but but you know, it's funny. I've had a bunch of action when I wasn't trying to shoot him. I had I've gotten a number of turkeys within range when I wasn't actually hunting. So that's how it goes. Um, you're right there, chief. Oh yeah, I'm sorry. I thought I shut my volume off. No, you're good. It's funny. It's funny Spencer. I did a podcast with Spencer a few weeks ago, and he had a frog in his throat the whole time, and so he coughed a lot during the episode. But he tried to do what you just tried to do, So he tried to shut off his mic every time he had a cough, but it was happening in the middle of him talking, so he would be in the middle of a sentence and then he would just stop talking, and then I would think he is freight he thought he ended his phrase. So I would start talking as if, like, you know, to jump in on the conversation, like ask him another question, and then he would un mute and big oh no, no no, sorry. I just had to cough, and then he tried to get back into him. And so throughout the whole rest of the conversation that was going on, and I never knew, like, am I supposed to talk now or is he just coughing? And it was the most awkward thing because of that. Throughout the whole thing, we were either talking over each other or both of us not talking because we were waiting for the other person. It was fun. I think I was talking about the turkeys. I called in eight jakes that came walking. I was like on the ground at eight Jakes walked within like four ft in me. That was really cool. Um called in one goaler I could have shot that same day, I had another one come in that was probably right in the edge of my range if I wanted to shoot. So there's been a lot of gobbling. I've been getting out a lot of mornings and other days I've gone out with Everett late morning, just take him out there and we would just try to call one in just to have him hear some gobbling and he loves that. Had birds coming in and every time they see him moving around and spook. So that's been something we have to address once he actually starts hunting. Um, but I've been hearing a lot of goblin. I go on these, you know, my morning runs, and here in tons of them gobblin on the roosts, of course, so no storage of hearing them. But like you said, hearing I'm shooting was a two different things. Yeah, are you do you get frustrated when it comes to turkey? I mean the same amount of frustration as white tails. Oh no, wait different, It's so much lower stakes. I feel. I'm like, hey, you know, it's fun. We gave a shot, didn't come together. Oh well we'll try again another time. Um, it's the same way with me. I'm just like I'm gonna go home. Yeah. Yeah. Today it was like we hunted until I don't know, ten thirty or eleven, and I thought we could keep hunting, but let's let's just go back. I'll see the kids, help them with lunch, get back to work, do some things, and there's something nice about that. Just that's different sense of And I know we've talked about this in the past. It's nice to have that different feel because white Tail, at least for me and I think for you most of the time too, it's it's so intense. We're really trying to be so buttoned up in our approach and what we're doing. That then when it comes to turkeys, you can relax a little bout the bummer. And I hate to go back to this, but the bummers that usually turkey hunting so much fun because the social aspect too, all right, going on with buddies, turkey camp. We we have a turkey camp here usually in the spring and my local buddies and stuff will get together, and all that had to be canceled and just not the same, not the same. So is there a law because you mentioned something about filming, like it is like social distancing, right, is you're a guy walking around with a ruler saying, oh, you're not six ft apart now I gotta right you fine, Like you mentioned something about having to film and making sure that you could do it. And get approval for it or whatever you said. And now because you can, now you can film, right, So I don't know. We just had to make sure we're all buttoned up as far as the guidelines. And you know, in Michigan's all, you know, non essential workers are supposed to be going and doing things. Non essential travel is it's supposed to happen. Hunting is okay. Um, certain applications are okay. But the question was can we film doing some of these things? So we had to go through a bunch of legal not legal but you know, just make sure we're doing it by the book, checking off with the authorities, just to make sure that we're doing the way we're since we're doing it. Yeah, so there you go. Yeah, New World, New World were living. But you went out mushroom hunting too, right, Yeah, trying to do some mushroom hunting. Um, I don't know what I'm doing. I've never really taken mushroom hunting seriously, but this year I'm trying to. So last weekend I didn't. I went and walked around a bunch and hit some spots that thought looked good under dead trees and everything, and found nothing. So went out again. It looked just a little bit last night and found one, and then did some more looking today and found none. So I don't know if it's still too early here because the cold weather or what, but I'm I'm striking out pretty bad so far. Yeah. You you seem to do well. Yeah, I mean I went out and I found enough for the whole family to eat off a batch. I think I found fifteen of them, twenty of them, which you know, cut them in half and now you double that for a little appetizer or part of your meal. So we had steaks and we had no we had we had grilled chicken and fried mushrooms. And then I went out yesterday and found three. So I don't know. I'm I don't do it. Like there are people out on this public land where I've watched a guy have a YETI cooler full of mushrooms, like this is this must be what this guy does, and he has he has all the places picked out, he's been doing it for years. I remember walking up to him one time and I just like, hey, man, um uh, mushrooms out yet And he's like like he looked at me kind of funny, like what are you trying to get out of me. I'm not gonna take ship, like stay away from me. And he's like, and I didn't notice that when I was talking to him, and uh I, I said, uh yeah, I got a spot over here. I found a couple. But you know, I'm just basically trying to talk to him. He goes, yeah, okay, all right, yeah, yeah, like not giving me any information, really not not really talking to me, like he's just suspicious. So why is this guy talking to me like? I think he felt like I was trying to get something Anyway, I turned around to walk back to my truck, and I look in the back of his truck and he's got three coolers, one so full of mushrooms that he can't even shut the lid on it. And yeah, and then there's two other ones in there. So I didn't know if he had him full or not. But this dude was slaying the mushrooms and uh he I don't know. I mean, that's a lot of mushrooms. I'm sure he was selling them, you know, selling some of them, because I got a dude couldn't eat that many mushrooms. You probably packed in a pretty nice hall of cash. After that. Yeah, but I think a morele mushroom you can get twenty two dollars a pound. Yeah, as I understand it. You know, there is based off demand at the time and supply or whatever. But yeah, it sounds like you can do pretty good if it's the right time of year or whatever. What if what were the spots even finding them so far this year? So coming off egg fields? Um, you know, like if if a low spot continues into an egg field and then it hits the timber line, and then that low spot continues into the timber line, the soil is always more moist in there, and it always seems to be thicker because uh, fertilize, you're drained off. And you know, obviously the first ten yards of any field edge is gonna be thicker regardless, you know, just because of you know, the sun hitting that field edge. So you know it's gonna be thick in there. So and and what makes this specific spot so good is not only doesn't have that that moisture content in the soil, but it also has like five gigantic trees that are in the process of dying, and and they're big, old, and a lot of the branches have fallen off of them, So it's just like it's a wreck on the floor, and that's where they're you know, the pheasant backs are growing in there, the morales are growing in there, and that's where I find them. Yeah, I saw you cooking up some pheasant backs the other day, and yeah, I had just seen a couple of those in the woods when I was looking for morrel's And I thought to myself, is that one of these peasant backs? And I wasn't sure, um, and then I saw your Instagram story. Those tastes pretty good. Yeah, So the bigger they are, the tougher they get. So what I do is, if if you make a if you make a circle with yours, let's just say your middle finger and your thumb, that size of the mushroom maybe the size of a baseball. Let's just say the size of the baseball. Are the best you cut the stems off and then you gotta it gets from the it's a shelf mushroom, right, so from the tip all the way to the back, and then maybe like one third of the way back, you cut that off to where it connects to the stem. So then you basically have this c shape or a half circle shape, and that is what I cube up and eat because if you the further back from the edge you get, the tougher it gets. But if you if you ride that first third. If I'm making sense here, I think that the first two thirds from the tip in, then that's when they're chewy and you cook them and they're good. Man. I I I chopped mine up with some onions and and uh, you know, sautata saltata with onions and pheasant backs and UM made an omelet out of it. That's that's my go too. With those things. They have to tell you what if you do it right, would even be good with like butter and garlic pasta, It would be good with um if you had enough of them, maybe put them on a hamburger with you know, some kind of cheese or something I don't know, maybe not cheese, but like some type of chutney. If that makes sense, you could make us. I think it would be really good. Yeah. I need to, um, I need to go and try to see if those are still out and if they're decent size or not the ones that I saw the other day. Because yeah, because now that I know what they are, I'm intrigued. Yeah, I tell you one one thing that I've really been interested in lately, not necessarily just mushrooms, but other plants and animals that you can eat in the forest. Such, it's like what, oh like different different plants, dandelions or the first thing that come to mind. Right, you can eat dandelion leaves like let us I mean the ship they sell them in the store, right, but you can go out and get them online. There's certain types of parsnip that you can eat. So it's just it's something to do, you know, Like I love shed hunting, I love mushroom hunting, and what are those two things have in common? You're looking for something, right, So I want to look for other food sources and you know in the woods. Yeah, I feel like right now there's a lot of people thinking the same thing. I mean, that's why I thought to take up mushroom hunting the spring, because I need something to do and finding food out there. I mean, like you just said, it's a natural next step. It's funny you bring that up though, because I saw someone I can't remember who it was, someone I know on Facebook had gone and found a bunch of dandylions and deep fried them. Have you ever seen that? H so literally, it was like taking a mushroom, putting it in batter and dropping the fryer, except for he did that with dandylions, like the yellow part of the flower, the flower dandylion flower dipped in breading, dropped into a fryer, and then plucked out. I had no idea what that tastes like, uh, but it was. It seemed kind of bizarre to me. Did that person say it was good? You know? I don't. I don't. I don't remember tell you the truth. I'm trying to think about, like what the caption was. I don't even know if I read the caption. I think I was just so taken back by the picture and like, really they did that that? Uh, I don't even know. I guess I should go back and try to find that and see. Yeah, I don't know. I uh, it would be funny if the caption was, just like I wonder if any suckers try this, well, you know, in states like ours, Michigan and Iowa, you up anything in the deep fryar. It's good to go brown like brown food, right right. I've heard that's the Midwest. You know, you asked me the other day. I think it was what Michigan's food like special food tradition is, and I think it's probably probably that brown food just just just fried it up anything. You know. Someone reached out to me and said that smoked fish was another one that is a Michigan food that is a good tradition, which I that's I can agree with that. That's let smoked fish out here is uh, let's see is Iowa see Iowa? I mean there's there's a whole bunch of different, uh, I guess cultures that have come to the United States and settled. You know, like certain parts of Wisconsin have like a huge Polish you know community, and therefore that's why they have a lot of smoked meats, right, like sau sausages and stuff like that. Now, Iowa is Norwegian. There's a lot of Norwegian and a lot of German in Iowa. I'm sure that's all over the place, you know, in the United States. But you know, in the church I grew up in, it was a huge Norwegian and Swedish church. So the culture was so they had a at every potluckt they would have ludifisc and that's like pickled herring or something like that, pickled herring. No, it's pickle herring and ludafisk are these two meals that they always had at this And I was never brave enough to try the the ludifisk. But I think I don't think they're the same thing. But the pickled herring I tried, and I did not, Like, Yeah, what does that taste like? Like I don't know, just like sour fish. It's been a while, it's been a while. It's just I described it as not being good to eat. That's all I need to know. I'm not gonna try. Some people love it. I know people love it like potato chips. I've never I've not been big into the pickled meats, pickled stuff like pickled sausages and stuff you see people like sometimes get a gas stations. Just not so I gotta share him. I gotta share a college story with you. So it's like there was we'd go to this bar called SuDS in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Is on the on the college hill. Right, every every bigger college has an area where there's it's just like a higher concentration of bars, right, and one of my buddies, like he would always get he would always drink a little bit more than he needed to every night, and at the end of the night, we're just like we would just convince him to eat uh hard boiled pickled egg with hot sauce on it, and every time he did that, he would give in, and then every time he would put every time. Uh that sounds disgusting. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I like, I like my self some pickled eggs when the time is right. But I'm I don't think I'm gonna do it after I chug you know, sixteen beers, okay, but what when is the time right for a pickled egg? M I'm gonna say maybe beer number three? Okay, So it's not the first beer, right you you wanna you want to enjoy your first beer, not the second beer, because I don't, you know, I don't know, maybe I'm not quite ready yet, and I think that the third beer is like the perfect time. It's just like, you know what, I'm feeling, feeling good now, feeling a little relaxed. My muscles aren't tied anymore, my my knees are bending properly. I think I'm gonna have a pickled egg with a little hot sauce on it, and that's maybe some salt, salt and pepper on it, and then there you go. I I've never been there. I've never I've never been to that moment on my third beer. But I'm gonna take your word for it. Which what is your beer drinking snack? You're not eating a meal right, Maybe maybe you've had lunch and you're hanging with the boys and it's time. You know, you're cracking your beers. You start you know, you're sitting around a fire, or you get back from a hunt and you're not time to eat yet, but you're just starting to starting to get into the beers. What's your snack? What? What is your beer drinking snack? It's been too long since I've had like sitting with the boys drinking beers. Kind of time to tell you, But I'm I think back here, I'd probably say, like I could throw it on some like chips, Give me some chips and dip. Uh. If there's anything that you could dip a chip into, I will hammer that. Give me like a buffalo chicken dip or a chili cheese dip. Uh. You know. I'm a sucker for spinach artichoke dip too. I'm not too that's not too fancy for me. Um yeah, or salsa, I mean any anything. I love a dip. I love a dip in a chip. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a nachos guy. I like I like me some nachos. And it depends if you consider nachos a main course. I personally don't consider nachos a main course, but I have friends who would debate me otherwise. This has gotta be our most pointless rambling episode I ever done, Dan, I don't know what. What do you like nachos? Better? Do you like? Just? Hey, I thought you said we were socialized. We are socializing. This is this is great for you and me. I just don't know if anyone else is listening, doesn't matter, you know what, Hey, I'll tell you what you gotta. You gotta just relax and go with the flow, okay, and just shake it off. I mean, what what what's gonna happen? Media or ink is gonna call you in for a meeting and say, all right, we've been reviewing your content, Mr Kenyan, and it looks like you need to do less talking about nachos, and we're talking about deer hunting strategy during the rut because that's where the ratings are at. Dude, when you see a phone call from me coming tomorrow or next week, you'll know what happened. Right, Hey, Dany got time to do a rut honey strategy and me, oh man, that's funny. Yeah, dude, it's right, you're right, you're right. I need to relax. It's okay, there's uh, there's probably plenty of other people that just needed socialized too. So how long have you how long have we been recording right now? Fifty one minutes? One minutes. Do you think if we call further he'll answer? Uh, he would, But I don't think I know how to patch him in here. I mean I could put him on speaker phone. Oh you're saying like over Skype. Yeah, call him up and asked, just ask him what he's doing, because that's one guy that, you know, if I had more time in my day and I could just chat with one person. Obviously there's a long list of people before him, but it would it would probably I would want to just check in with further and see what he's doing. You know. I don't disagree with you. He's a good guy to check in with. I don't think he's gonna answer, but I'm I'm trying to calm right now. We'll see if Josh is available. He's he's uh, he's staying busy, cutie may stuff. As far as I know, um, you know need they need their support right now, as you can imagine. Um, a lot of conservation organizations are you know, without a funding source, so kind of tough times for a lot of folks like that. So Josh is definitely working hard to try to help there. Um. Hello, it's answer. Answer. It's unbelievable, oh man. But from the shittiest podcast ever to the greatest podcast ever, Welcome to the wire Dum Podcast. Josh oh Man. Maybe I shouldn't have answered, Hey, you're live, buddy, You're live. You are live. How are you doing? Yeah, I just got back from a little walk with the family, So it's good. Good gut got way out in the in the carrier and got like a couple of miles in it's like a modified heavy pack hike. Oh, you're doing some training, aren't you. I'm just just trying to get myself in some quarantine shape. That's good. Did you have you put on a quarantine fifteen or anything that you're working off or is this have you've been good and on your best behavior this whole time? I'm actually like, um on the quarantine like down fifteen. I'm finally losing all this baby weight. Whoa. So I don't know what we're doing. Maybe I think it's just because I'm not eating out as much on the road and all that kind of stuff. So it's called stressed buddy. Yeah, well, yeah, that's probably a big part of it. I gained twelve pounds in the first five or six weeks of the lockdown, and it's because I was in charge of grocery shopping now, so literally I would go to the grocery store and because it's like a depressing time and there's nothing else to do, I'm like, I need something good in my life now. So I bought chocolate cake about or I bought it was like it was like going to deer camp. Everything I saw that I want, I'm like, all right, I'm buying it. I don't care I'm buying it. I'm buying it dessert every night. Oh so hey for Dan Johnson here whired to Hunt podcast. I want to ask you a question when you're when you're sitting around having some beers with the boys. What and not your children, but like Mark and Corey and all those other guys, Um, what is your what's your go to snack? Too much? Not a main meal, not a main meal, but a snack to eat while you're drinking beers. Oh well, I'm drinking beers. I feel like I'm being set up for something here. You're not, by the way. I don't know, dude. Um, I feel like I've got a couple of different things. Like if we're like this wouldn't be drinking beers. But if we're like road tripping, Um, I know this butterfilled pretzels, that's the road trip snack. You know. It's like his wife won't let him eat those at home, Dawn, Why not? She says, I always eat like half of the thing and then just they're just sitting our pantry forever because I get like worn out on them, and they're just like they're they're good like at home, not quite the same like when you're on the road. Um uh man, just like sitting around, like hanging out like at deer camp or something. Like, I don't know. I mean what I'm trying to think of. We always just having junk up there, man, like orioles or jerky or anything like chips. Yeah, like salty like chips and salsa, that kind of stuff. The standard. Nothing nothing crazy. What do you think, Dan? Do you prove? Yeah, that's all right. I wasn't gonna judge him. I'm not you know, I'm not going to venison shame in Mark like you did me the other time. I feel like you've done that a few times to you. Yeah, you don't eat venison with every meal? Are you kidding me? Um? Did you ever try whatever that idea was that I was? It was convincing your wife to eat more venison by offering up the money savings for vacations. Did you try that? No, it won't work. It won't work. It's worth the shot. Hey, you know what, Dan, Josh, Josh has a turkey story for us. He has actually killed the turkey. I don't hear it better than two of we just me and me and Dan just talked about how we can't kill a turkey. Tell us how to do it, Josh, Well, it's a really short story. Um, it didn't take a whole long time, Dan, I've been wearing out Mark that he hasn't had me on his uh his bonus turkey podcast. Yet I go out there and kill him an opening morning and I don't even get any love. She's got to bring it in all these experts or whatever. Yea true now, So I opening morning of Michigan season. I went out. It was actually like the first time I've ever turkey hunted alone. We're usually we're doing like a like a turkey camp or you know, we're getting together some guys and and turkey hunting together. So this is the first time I've ever gone out alone. And I get there, I get to the property, Um, you know, I feel like I'm doing pretty good on time. And get out of my truck and start, um getting everything around, get my gun out of the case. And my door doesn't close like like I thought I closed my door. So I close a little harder. I've got I've got an F one fifty. It's like the aluminum frame and for whatever reason, the doors like they're hard to close, they don't close quietly. Um, So I closed a little hard and boom shot gobbles like close to the house, close to where I'm parked. So I had an idea of where they were, and so I kind of did this big loop around see something. And for some reason, I just feel like that part is exaggerated. I just I just had this vision in my head that instead Josh opened the truck door, got out and just slams the door shut and it sucks like holing. And and then my uncle used to do that. My uncle used to be My uncle used to pull into a parking spot at public ground. We'd get out real quiet, and he would slam the door as hard as you could, and that is what would trigger shot gobble. So I believe you it's it's almost not a bad idea, you know. And and honestly, like I was a part like a park at the house, um of his property. Um, And so I think they're these birds, they just haven't been hunted. I don't know when the last time this place has been turkey hunted, to be honest. So you know, I had seen some birds like fly up into trees and roost near the house, and I was deer hunting, so I kind of had an idea of where I wanted to go. Um. I was just really surprised they're right there. So they're they're like right there. So I do this little loop around. I sit down by tree, and I've got birds and like all directions just going off on the roost. I mean, they were just gobbling their heads off. Um. And it was cold, man, It's like there's still snow on the ground um up here. So um, I just did like a couple like real light little calling sequences, just let them know, hey, there's maybe a hen in the area. And there's two times in this tree. And man, they flew down a little bit after daylight, and one of them kind of stayed up on this little ridge and he was he was strutting around, putting on a show. And this other one just came running right in and I just shot him at like thirty yards and dropped him. And that was the end of my turkey season lasted all about thirty minutes. Um, and I had pulled the trigger. So I'm going down. It's like pumped, and I was like, man, now I've got a month and a half of quarantine, but no more turkey tags. It's kind of like, oh man, what did I do? But now I was really pumped to get one, and uh, definitely like a little bit of a confidence booster. Even even if I didn't do, uh have to do a ton for it, I felt like at least did something right to put myself in the in the right spot. So, hey, yeah, you eadiot. Uh not yet, Nope, we just had that. We just had a new recipe put up over on the Mediator website, Danielle. I think it was put together a Chick fil A kind of replica recipe for turkey nuggets that looks very good. I saw that. I think that one's on our list to try. Yeah. Uh, it's hard to beat turkey nuggets, one in one former fashion or another. I that's just good old fashioned eating. Yepnood yep. Yeah, right back to that, daniel Right. Um. So, I have a couple listener questions that I did want to try to get to, and now you're here, Josh, it's particularly relevant. I think you're willing to stick on answer a couple of these. Sure, i'll do. My best term is were you in your office working or was in the middle hanging out with your wife? No, I was in my office. I was in my office trying to get some work done, and I was like, man, I don't know if he's meaning to call me, but I'll see what he's doing. It's amazing. It's the best luck I've had all year. But this might be a segment. I know, we really should call it calling further for the last quarter. Okay. So, so Brock sent me a couple of questions here. He says he's twenty eight and looking for a mentor for big game hunting and conservation. He's really into this stuff, but getting into it newly into it. Um, it's curious. First first of three questions one, any suggestions for finding some kind of mentorship. Number two, he's really interested and excited about public lands, wants to support them. He's been trying to get involved with TRCP and b h A, but he'd like to know how he can get more involved. And then question number three, he's curious about how we molded our careers as outdoorsmen and conservationists. How have we gotten a job within this sector? Um? So all three of us work within the outdoor world. We all, in one former fashion, do some stuff with conservation and mentorship. But Josh, what would use what about question number one when it comes to mentorship? Yeah? Sure, I mean really, my suggestion would be just to you know, connect with any of the local conservation groups in your area, whether it be Q D m A or b h A or Pheasants Forever, Rocky Mountain ol Foundation. I mean, whoever it is. You know, they may not have a specific program going on in your area, but I'm sure they've got people who are seasoned hunters and willing to take somebody new out. And you know you could. You're probably within a stone's throw of our ranch or a chapter wherever you are in the country of one of those groups. And um, I would say you have a pretty good luck of finding someone that be willing to take you out or show you, um some things or whatever, um from from one of those groups. Yeah. I feel like that's like the single best way these days, even just if you want to meet some like minded like hunting fishing buddies, if you move to a new place or something like That's gonna be my new go to move is just tap into whatever the local conservation ore is, chapter, branch, whatever, and and yeah, especially like b h A QT may where they have all these local events going on. Um, it's such an easy way to get connected. And then you've got new friends, you've got new mentors, you've got new ideas and opportunities and all those All those organizations have like a website where typically can just go to their main like national website and do like find a branch or a chapter and you can pretty much, you know, filter down to your s an area and where things are at, find them on Facebook, on the local groups on Facebook. I mean, there's all all kinds of different ways and connect locally with people. Okay, So speaking on these same things, and let's go to the next one, which is how can I he specifically talked about public lands, but let's uh, let's expand it from public lands just to overall conservation stuff in general. Uh. Given all of your experience managing things for q D, may any other advice other than just connecting with these groups to get involved to do more. Um. I don't know what do you see as some of those areas of weakness that you guys need more help with it that b h A needs more help with Because I don't know if you knew this, Dan, But not only is Josh the qum A regional director, he's also on the board for Michigan's b h A organization as well, right, Josh H multifaceted help out some of the hunt of recruitment stuff on the board and whatnot. So UM, yeah, I mean I think the big thing is just a lot of people don't know, um what's going on or how to get involved. So one of the things I would how would suggest that if you're not a member of those groups that you um are interested in definitely becoming a member, get on their email lists. UM. You know, all these groups send out uh like the blasts or email notifications of different events or volunteer opportunities that are happening um in the in your area. UM. They can all filter down and and target specific areas where you know things are happening. So make sure you join join their email list. That's the best way to stay up to date m on what they've got going on, follow the local Facebook pages or whatnot, and UM that would be my suggestion on how to make sure you're keeping track of what's going on, Dan, Do you have any thoughts on those? Yeah? Other than I think my only insight would be to contact your local UH County Conservation Board. And these guys are working on projects all the time, and they're looking for volunteers all the time, and depending on if you what you're looking to provide, If you're looking to volunteer, you're looking to provide um, you know, money, They're like, hey, I got some money. I want to help, you know with a project or whatever. Hey, I'm recording your podcast. Guys, get out of here. Get out of here. Shut the door all the way. Sorry, best podcast ever, continuing past down the toilet. You're not even recording, are you? No? This is never this is never going to air man. You stopped recording as soon as I answered the phone. Yeah, uh so, yeah, yeah, it just it depends on what you what you're wanting to do, if you want to give money or if you want to volunteer time. Um, you know, I would start at you know, at a at a hyper local level with your county conservation board because they're always looking for people to help do what, you know, do the projects. Um. Specifically in the county that I live in. Recently, they drained the lake and they had to do some work on it, right, so as they're filling it up, they were looking for volunteers to help plant underwater vegetation, so getting the mud and you know, and plant these plants, and then as the water fills back up into this lake, then the plants start to grow. So there projects are looking for volunteers all the time. That's a great it's a great point. And those are probably the types of organizations, local, very local county kind of things that had a little bit harder time probably railing people to come help on some of that stuff. Absolutely. Um. You know. The only thing I would add on top of that, just unique to right now is I've seen a lot of organizations like Kutie May and others who usually have these in person in banquets or pint nights or whatever that they depend on for funding. They can't do those right now, so they're trying to do virtual things, virtual giveaways, virtual you know, fundraisers more than usual, and um, and they're pretty dependent on trying to raise some money right now to try to keep people employed, try to keep the thing going. So I would just echo same thing that I know all of us have been talking about. UM, if you have a little extra money, usually it's always like, hey, money is great, but don'tate time, um, because that's usually in less supply. But I think right now a lot of organizations. Organizations really do need money. So if you happen to have an extra dollar two. I know it's tight for for everyone right now in different ways, but if you can swing a little extra, I know, I'm sure folks like you guys at QT may would leve a little participation in those online giveaways, raffles or whatever. Right Yeah, Oh for sure, Yeah, I mean, I mean, um, you know, nonprofit groups they're always running at you know, lean lean levels, and and you know, what's going on right now has definitely had a had a big impact on how we're able to you know, operate even just on a daily basis with different in person events and and like you said, there's not a whole lot of opportunities to be out there doing things right now, are you know, gathering? Um so yeah, definitely right now. I mean, if you've got a couple of bucks to spare or even just join as a member, it's um it means a lot right now. Yeah, all right. What about the last part of that question, getting a career within the outdoor world. Um, I know we've had conversations like this in the past, we've covered it, but is there anything new, Dan or josh I don't think I've ever gotten your perspective, Josh, Um I get this. I'm sure you guys all get it to everyone, tons and tons of questions about how do you get a job in the outdoor industry, how do you get involved in his career? Any new thoughts or different thoughts on that, um Dan, maybe that you know, Uh, I get asked all the time, and I'm sure you do too, Mark. You know, dude, I would love to do what you do. I would love to work in the hunting industry or whatever. This is if if you want consistent paychecks and if you want to have a secure income, this is not what you want to do. It's because, I mean, straight up, it's uh there there's times where it's struck. You know, you struggle, right, I mean I this is a perfect example. You know, a lot right now, A lot of these hunting industry companies are having to hold their money in for you know, hold it in and uh, luckily, I you know, I'm I'm doing okay right now. But you know, if you're just new getting into it, make sure you have another job first, right, and then work your way up and and all that stuff. And this is nothing new, but start somewhere else, don't. You don't have to go to content creation right away. I mean, you can do what Josh is doing. You can do um. You know, whatever your background is, you can start a side gig doing that, or you know, if you have an idea for a product or whatever. There's a thousand different things that you can do. Two, get your foot in the door. Yeah, that's a great point. Yep, Yeah, I would echo that. I mean, anything you can do to network and and just meet as many different people as you can, um within that space that you're looking to get into. I mean, I think that's key. And and do what you can on the side and and kind of build that resume. And maybe you know, if you're looking to do what I like in the conservation world or whatever, I mean, maybe you look at volunteering with some groups and that's a great way to meet people. It's a great thing to have on your resume. UM. And then you have to be willing just to take a leap and and you know, go outside of your comfort zone if you're in the you know, I was in the corporate banking world, and you know, I was doing all right, and I just knew it wasn't what I wanted to do forever, and I just had to be willing to kind of go outside of my comfort zone and take that leap of faith. And man, I can't imagine doing anything different at this point, you know. Yeah, it's it's a lifestyle choice for sure in a lot of ways. And I'm glad it worked out for you. I think the only thing I would add, I would just echo something you just said, Josh, and just expand on it a little bit. I think that, um, volunteering your time is a great way to get a foot in because this is like where there's a lot of people that want to work in this world and if you can somehow offer your services, and you know, it's a donation of your time, your energy, your ideas, your artwork, your photography, whatever. Um, if you can find a way to get your foot in the door in that kind of way, you know. Uh, that's that foot in the door is so important. The networking and the foot in the door is is so key. And then I think the networking is a little different right now because in the past, you know, networking could be going to these different conventions, it could be going to various events, Uh, whatever. Now it's more virtual networking at least in the short term here. Um, So this is when you're and I I don't know if I'm hesitant to do this to say this or not, but like your digital your digital presence is maybe more important than ever. Your who you are online is kind of your resume in a lot of ways, and so thinking about that not as just like where you rant on Facebook to your friends, but also realizing that might be the one way that you're able to connect with someone in the outdoor industry right now, or the one way you can build a connection with someone is through what you post and share on Instagram. So I would just if you want to get into this world and you want to start connecting with other people, which I highly recommend you do, that's happening digitally right now. So be cognizant of the digital impact you have, what you're saying, what you're putting out there, how you present yourself, um, and think about it more than just like your local bar. I guess might be what I would say, so different, different kind of angler. And at the same time, if you do what you just said, I feel like whenever someone new comes into the digital space, they instantly try to compete on a nation level, on on a national level. When I feel that there is a market that's untapped at a local level, on a super niche, on a super niche level, to where let's say your county specific or area specific, right, you know, maybe it's not nationwide, but hey, maybe it's Southeast Illinois. You know, hey it's the Southeast Illinois something or other or whatever whatever it is at a very hyper focused level. I think there's there's value in that as well. And I'll tell you up right now, I would listen to the Southeast Illinois something or other podcast. Tell anyone that's a podcast, I would click on. All right, last question and then uh, and then I'm gonna have to balance because I just got a picture of a two year old that's not wearing pants, that was pulling up my wife's jacket while she's on a phone call. So, uh, if you yeah, right, just another day in our life. Just wait, I don't know it's so hard about all this mind of sleeps. Just just shut up, hang up on him, hang up done. If if you had twenty bucks, in just twenty bucks to buy a gift right now for our listeners. So you got twenty bucks per listener, you can buy one thing and we're gonna give it to everybody. Right now, what would you buy him, Dan, I'm gonna put you on the spot. I'm gonna buy every one of the listeners, and I have twenty bucks to spend. I'm gonna buy him a thirty pack of bush Light. They have to prove their twenty one first, but as long as that's the case, dirty thirty Yeah, alright, So we're helping out with that digital happy hour that is that is the post hunt celebration. Okay, is there a pickled egg in there somewhere for him too? I think if you can find, uh, if you can find a thirty pack for like fifteen bucks. And I'm or maybe I don't even know what a thirty pack cost, I'll be honest with you, probably close to twenty bucks, maybe bucks, I don't know. Maybe it's on discount. Maybe maybe I'm only getting him a case of beer. But with the leftover money, I'm sure there's a packet of pickled eggs you can buy as well. All right, that's a great gift for right now. Further, what are you buying with your twenty bucks. That that's a tough one. That's a tough question. Um, if you can get an acorn crunch for twenty bucks, No, there's because they're not I don't think they're in production anymore. They're collector's items. I bet you like a hundred bucks of pop. Yeah, man, man oh man, um uh, this is you probably have a little left over. But if I could buy one thing for everybody right now, I'd buy them that Wild Country. I'm good, some good reading material? Are you kidding me? For? Are you how? How deep is your nose? I'm just looking at that bookshelf here and pop right up? But you gotta get it for the back cover model. That's that's really where the that's where it's at. Did you know that Dan josh is that he is on the back cover? Congrat buddy. Yeah, that's amazing. Man. That's a that's a that's a really hard question. Twenty dollars. I feel like you can get a lot with twenty dollars, but you can't get a lot with twenty dollars. Yeah, you know, I don't know what I would say. I was going to say a book too, but now I feel like a book suggestion would be a cheap uh answer, given the fact that you plugged mind so nicely. Um, but you can find that wild country at your local bookstore online Barnes and Noble, Amazon if you want to make in the outdoor industry always grinding. Uh No, you know, I would buy a Sand County Almanac for everybody. I can't think of anything but a book, but that would be the book I think i'd buy. So on that note, boys, I need to end our little social distancing so socialization happy hour. So Josh, thanks for hopping on here in PROMPTU. Thanks for the call. Good good to catch up, Daniel. Thank you as always, be safe out there, have a good time, Good luck turkey hunting. Dan, let's do this again soon. Sounds good. I would talk to you guys later. All right, that's gonna do it for us today. I know this one was kind of all over the place, but I hope you've got a couple of laughs. Hope you enjoyed this kind of bra from normal. I know that I needed this. Hopefully you did too. Hopefully you can do something similar with friends of your own. And until next time, I hope you'll stay wired to hunt

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