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FFOD345 : Mountains of Faith with Billy Molls · Fist Full of Dirt

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Fistful of Dirt, the official podcast of Mafio Properties.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Whether you own a small farm, leaked land, or just love hanging in your backyard.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: We're all about the outdoor lifestyle and how to get the most from your time in God's great outdoors.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Now here's your host, Ronnie Cut Strickland.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Am I live from the Camo Case?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_06: Am I live?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_06: I almost did your part.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_04: We don't operate off of script, but if we did, you would be writing the script.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_04: I guess we should probably change that up, but I'm telling you, it's doing so good.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_04: I I hate to change it off.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_06: It ain't broke.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_06: Let's leave it alone.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I'm assuming we're this one goes up 29th.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_04: 29th, so it's not October yet.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_04: Although you sent me a video and your house looks like a museum for Halloween.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_06: I went vintage Halloween, so it's like the black scaredy cats and lots of orange pumpkins, and it's just whimsical this year.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_04: Well, after you sent me the video, yeah, I didn't tell you this.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_04: Cranky, your son, sent me a uh a steel photo from his phone, and he said, Pop, it's awesome.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_06: That makes me feel good.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's a big deal because he don't talk.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_06: No, he it takes a lot to impress Cranky, whether it's a meal or some sort of decor or whatever.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I played a little practice round of golf before the Fox Hose shootout, which we'll talk about later.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_04: But uh with their headmaster, Coach Phil Ferguson, who's been on this podcast and got many downloads.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_04: We were talking about how different it is, right?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_04: But he was he went on and on about the difference in Matt and Crank and Ben, aka Cranky.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_04: And uh he knows them very well.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_06: He knows them real well.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, man, cranky don't ever change.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, it don't matter if they win 46 to 5 or get beat 46 to 5 on the football.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_04: Same same cranky.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_06: Pretty stoic.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_04: And uh That's cool.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_06: I wish I had more of that in me.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_06: I wear my emotions on my sleeve and he doesn't.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I don't.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I you know, here's the deal.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_04: The person that uh keeps the coolest head under fire is who you want in charge.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_06: Well, and they say for men and young men especially, you can have emotions, just don't get emotional.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_04: That's what the coach for uh uh the Mississippi State coach.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_04: I heard him say that in the press conference.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I'll go ahead and talk about it.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_04: Last last weekend, big weekend for Mississippi.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_04: Mississippi State won their third in a row in Old Mississippi D LSU, and I I don't know how many fans we got each.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I'm I am a casual football fan at at at best.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_04: But I do root for Mississippi State, but I also root for Ole Miss if they're playing somebody that ain't from Mississippi.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_06: Gotta root for the home team.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, I said it out loud, throw me under the bus.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_04: I don't care, but it's like that was a fun football weekend.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that was we had good food too.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_06: Yaya put out a spread.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I made something I ain't never made before and didn't didn't care for them that much, but I made stuffed bacon wrapped onion rings.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_06: I loved them.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't my cup of tea, but it is so good.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_04: But anyway, still you know, that's the kind of stuff you talk, man football games and all that, and then uh going bow hunting and all that, and it's it's still you know, that week it was a hundred degrees, a hundred and one, ninety-nine.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_04: And uh hopefully this too shall pass.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_04: And maybe this podcast here will get you in the mood.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_06: I think it will.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, this is uh I'm I'm kinda like cranky.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_04: I'm kinda kinda especially at my age, I'm kinda hard impressed, but I followed this guy for a long time.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: He's been on the podcast before.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_04: Billy Moles, who and that's M-O-L-L-S.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_04: He has a YouTube channel called Modern Day Mountain Man.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_04: And I don't know why I got stuck on it so hard, but and I I think I kind of figured out is during all the filming and stuff and all the TV production and all the places we went and all the adventures.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_04: I never filmed uh like a stone sheep or doll sheep or any of that stuff.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_07: Uh-huh.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_04: And it is so hard to get that done.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I got to thinking about it when uh I interviewed Dr.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_04: Warren Strickland.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, he had some good stories.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and he did all that with a bow.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I I'm I'm thinking about all the and Billy Mole's channel's phenomenal because he just films it himself and he's kind of like Dave Owens.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_04: He's talking to you.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_06: And that's why you like it.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, just gorilla video is turbo, Mike McCloskey would say, and I love that stuff.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_04: But I was like, then I saw something I don't know if it's on social media, where he was he was kind of retired.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, he'd been guiding in Alaska, Brooks Range, all over in there for a long time.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, I I just need to check in with him.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_04: So I I sent him a text and uh and it was not that long ago, and I was like, Surely he ain't in Alaska.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_04: I you know, he was retired, and boy, it took him three or four days.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm in Alaska, I'll be home such and such.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: So I wanted to talk to him because you know, in my brain, it's like how tough have you got to be to go on one of those hunts.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_04: And he did dozens and dozens and dozens for 20 years or more.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_04: He guided people to do that.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_06: You have to love it to take other people.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I I'll give you a trigger warning.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_04: He's very spiritual, and I let him talk all he wanted to.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_04: And he uh he is a great person to follow.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_04: If you got a little kid that likes hunting, that's that's a channel you ought to go to because he puts things in perspective about as well as anybody I've ever seen, because he uh he spent more hours than most in God's creation and uh everything up there looks like a postcard.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_04: So I don't I wanted to check in with Billy Moles.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: Still throwing videos out there.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_04: And one of the questions I ask him, I'm gonna ask him is about bow hunting because I didn't see a bunch of stuff.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I'm really to get I'm uh I I want to get down and dirty with that and find out where his thoughts are and all it because I know he bow hunts.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_04: He lives up like in Wisconsin.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I've seen video he does some videos at home.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_04: But anyway, I think you'll enjoy it.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_04: If you like stories, good, bad, or indifferent, and danger and all that kind of stuff.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_04: This is the man.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_04: So we're gonna go visit with one of my favorite people, especially on YouTube, the modern day mountain man, Billy Mole.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Everything does exactly what it's supposed to do.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when you get to be here and you're you're a part of that, you're watching that bull boost and you see the new life, the antlers are growing.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can see those bull caribou.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: They've got they've got long points that are new and growing.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: The cows caribou are just getting ready to calf.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: They have last year's old antlers that are hard so they can fight to fend off the predators.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you just see how everything's connected.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: You can see the green coming up through the course of this 10 days, particularly.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then you start to fall in on what's happening this year.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've never seen so much activity in that lake area where this year that was kind of hot, that normally is this way, but the wind is different, the weather is slightly different, and so you never figure it out, but you're learning you know, from all those years past, you're learning from all that experience, all your hunting experience, all my guiding experience, particularly in this in this area, but then each year is something slightly different.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: All right, how's that?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, that's how that sounds great.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_04: How you doing, Billy Moles?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_04: I appreciate your time, my brother.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Not a problem.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Honored to do it.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, how you been, cuz?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_04: I've been good.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_04: I you know, the only issue I have down here is I've run out of modern day mountain man YouTube channel.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_04: I have gone over and over, I have binge watched everything you've done, and I can't tell you exactly why, other than you're a wonderful storyteller and a great writer, but in all the TV production and stuff we did, we didn't really do much, you know, in in in Alaska and doll sheep and all that, so it's kind of become a fascination with me.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_04: Does that make sense?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I appreciate that.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: We got a new one coming out Friday, Friday afternoon.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_04: That's awesome.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_04: I I keep up with it pretty close.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_04: Now, look, and this ain't this ain't anything I talked to you about, but I was looking a while ago and I found a sound bite and a little clip.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_04: I think it was a YouTube short, and it was you talking about the worst hunter you ever had.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_04: Is that a whole video or is that just a video short?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh nope, there's a whole film about it.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's called Exalted.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_04: Exalted.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just I'm just making on these are all personal notes for me now.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_04: So anyway, I've watched and watched and knew you were retiring and all that stuff.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I go to contact you and I get a text, you're in Alaska, and I'm like, Well, that dude ain't retired.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_04: What's going on?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_04: What's going on?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_04: What were you doing in Alaska?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I was hunting for myself.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: I was doing I was hosting a group of guys going caribou hunting, and then I did uh so I caribou hunted myself, and then I did a brown bear hunt as well.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, I was up there for four weeks and just got home last week, and now next week I'm headed to northern Alberta to do a moose hunt and then Montana for an archery elk hunt.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_04: Billy, you are not gonna pack out another moose, are you?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh no, sir.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: We uh well we may have to pack it a little bit, but they're they're able to use helicopters, so they're able to get pretty close, uh much closer than an airplane can.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I was looking at I think the title of the uh on your channel was the river or something like that, and you were packing that gigantic bear hide out, 100 pounds, whatever it was, and you were narrating about you could just tell you, you were about done, and I was like, that dude's a beast.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_04: How many years did you actually guide out there in uh in up there in Alaska in the Brooks Range and all that stuff?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's crazy.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh 25 years.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_04: 25 years.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: That's uh that's unbelievable.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_04: All right, before I get into the guide stuff, and I did watch this one front to back.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_04: Tell me about the hunt with your daughter, how special that was, how long it took to make that happen.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_04: How how how awesome was that?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was kind of a pipe dream for a couple of years, and then so I took uh a year off from guiding, and then I just decided, you know what, this will be a good lipness test to see where I'm at.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: And Charlie had been hunting with me, you know, just around home and shooting, and and she loved the idea of it, so we went up there in August.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: And early season caribou is always a little bit hit and miss.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: If you get warm weather, the hunting can be tough, but if you get cool weather, generally it's pretty good.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so we went up there and just everything was so new to her, and obviously everything was so new to me, too.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: I had a tag in my pocket as well, but more than anything, I just wanted uh try to get her a caribou.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess just seeing that you know virgin um outlook on everything, the you know, she's watched my videos and know what I do I do, and but yeah, it was pretty pretty special to get her an environment where obviously no cell phone, uh, totally removed from modern society, and it was just her and I relying on each other, and you know, the wilderness is a raw place, especially out there, and it produces raw emotions and raw conversations, and to do that with your daughter and to see her, you know, wrestle with at least to some degree.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think she felt pretty safe, you know.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: She knows that I'm I I kind of know what I should know what I'm doing.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't think she was necessarily scared ever, but she was very much out of her comfort zone with a lot of things.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh maybe some youth, there's definitely a fair bit of youthful uh uh enthusiasm and maybe maybe a little bit of I don't know if ignorance is the right word, but maybe she was numb to maybe some of the realities.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: But we had one conversation about hey, if if we bump a bear, we were seeing a lot of grizzly signs.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like if in the event, like we get hit by a bear, you know, you you step away, but if if a bear gets on me, but like you gotta kill that thing.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you just make sure you're not gonna shoot me, but you you just keep a clear head and you shoot that thing.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: And she's like, okay.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we just kind of had about a three-step plan, and that was it, because I knew I've learned from experience you don't want to get things too confusing.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, and we saw a bear, we saw sheep, saw one caribou.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think, well, maybe two, but we saw the same bull a couple of times.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: He wasn't very big, and then when we went to move to where some caribou were, the weather wouldn't allow us to get there.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we saw some flying in, and we we hunted in a spot, but we couldn't get exactly where we wanted to be.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: We hunted a couple of days and the hunt was drawn to an end, and we didn't get a caribou, and I was like, you know what?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's part of it.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And she handled it pretty good.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, You do this long enough, and this is gonna happen.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the wheel of misfortune has an equal number of stops for every man, and this is one of the ones where it just wasn't meant to be, and we packed up, went home, but we talk about it all the time.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I asked her, you know, if you ever want to do it again, and she's like, Yeah, I I would, but you know, the reality is, is like I I didn't shoot a caribou, but I I feel like I know what caribou hunting is about.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: So if it happens, great.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: If not, she goes, I'll I'll be okay.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was just a good maturing process, I feel, for a father and daughter.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that film, uh, you know, there was no kill on it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we never did consider not putting it out there.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: We put films out whether we kill an animal or not, but I probably received more positive feedback from other guides and outfitters on that film more than any other.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, one in particular, he said, you know, I goes, I've I don't even watch hunting films, but a buddy of mine said I needed to watch that one, and he said, you know, it inspired me to be spend be more intentional of spending time with my daughters.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, I he goes, that was the best hunting film I've ever watched.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that was that was that was pretty uh that was the best feedback I think I could have received.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_04: I wish everybody would watch.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_04: And especially that one.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_04: How how old is Charlie?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_04: How old are your daughters?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, so Charlie's 16 now, and my youngest Frankie is 15.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was thinking, you know, when they start dating, you pull up to the house and there's Billy Moles, and you I was like, that's gotta be intimidating.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_04: But you know what?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_04: You uh no CC's allowed.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_04: They're gonna have to have their all their stuff in one good bucket when they come calling on those girls.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_04: That's awesome, right there, man.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: I told them, I said, they they've they've got they've they've got friends, you know, like boys.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: They they're in the hunting and outdoor stuff.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: They've got girlfriends and they've got boys that they're friends with.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know, you can invite your girlfriends over if you want to invite some boys over too.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: I said, they're free to come over and hang out, but just let them know if they ever think that they're gonna date you, they will hang from my tree.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's a that's a tough time.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_04: But I tell you this, and I'm way much older than you.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_04: I got grandkids way older than your daughters.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_04: And the the older they get, the wiser you are.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_04: They go through that spell where you don't know anything, but I'm telling you, they are blessed.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_04: And I feel like they already know it, but golly, what a what a great life to grow up in.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_04: How how's your body held up?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: Did you uh I know you've gotten some rest and some recuperation, but there were some issues, and after 25 or 30 years out there, how's your body holding up, Billy?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, I'm uh I still think like I'm 25, but uh I think my body is pretty well convinced.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I I'm not.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've been healing.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's taught me, this has taught me uh consistency, perseverance.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, before I never really had to work out or whatever, I was just active enough and in the mountains enough where I just stayed in good shape naturally.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, a couple of injuries, fell out of a tree stand, got hit by a boat, um the bow of a boat hit me in the face, fractured my jaw.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: The the falling out of a tree stand, I broke my spine, and that was a pretty obvious thing that you know set me back and was putting my body, you know, through some difficulties and packing heavy loads, some spinal compression.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: But during my healing, what was interesting about a year into it, and I'm about three years into it now, is probably about a about two years ago, maybe a year and a half ago, I started getting like really bad migraine headaches and shooting pains in my jaw where I got hit by that boat.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And um kind of come to realize, because two weeks after that accident, I was sheep hunting in the Brooks range, and the doctor told me it's like, you gotta let that heal.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: You can't do anything strenuous strenuous for six weeks, and you know, just young, dumb kid.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: I just kept plowing forward.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't gonna miss sheep season.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I I tend to believe that I I have to like truly heal that and allow my body to heal.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm still pretty pretty active.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't do any heavy lifting and real heavy packing, and it is it is healing, but I'm 40 almost 49 now, and uh Lord willing, I'm I'm planning, I've got one hunt scheduled to guide here next fall, just a grizzly bear hunt.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm doing more hunting for myself and video production work where I don't have the responsibility of you know whatever comes forward, and as you well know, um you know, anything can happen in the wilderness, and that's the guide's responsibility, and I just gotta be real careful and selective about um what I take on.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um, but yeah, it's it's been a journey, it's been a big part of my faith journey too, is like when I knew that I had to hang it up at least for a period of time, that was really, really hard on Billy Moles' ego.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um that that that was there were some dark days, you know.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and I pushed it really, really hard to where I had nothing left in the tank, you know.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: The old adage, you you just keep grinding, right?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you just keep keep going.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, you grind an axe long enough and eventually you hit wood, and basically I hit wood.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like I I needed some rest, and you know, probably as an average of six, seven hours of sleep and um every day of my life, and I'd I'd do guiding and then I'd come home and I'd maybe I'd probably take a day off at most, and then I'd shingle roofs and build houses on six days a week until the day before I left, and then I'd be guiding for a hundred to one hundred and twenty days out of the year, and that's how I support my family, but the reality is is kind of burning the physical candle at both ends and it you know, caught up to me.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well you gotta be tough, man.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_04: I I did a uh podcast a few weeks ago with Dr.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_04: Warren Strickland, who's got the archery super slim, and which is amazing to f to to think that he got you know all four of those sheep with with a with a bow and air, but I was like, and uh we talked about you during that podcast, and I said, I can't imagine because I love watching Billy Mole stuff and he does such a good job.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, the the one where you're walking out and you're coming to terms with it, the writing, I don't think you get enough credit for being a great writer.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_04: The writing and the narration was great, and if I felt a little bad, but I was like, What a what a life that that you have led and has led you to where you are now.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_04: What what was the longest stretch that you ever stayed out there in the bush?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just like in the mountains, uh straight, probably like 30, yeah, 30 plus days.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um usually like in the fall, I would go anywhere from 80 to 90 days or in between we'd move.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: So we'd move locations, particularly in Alaska.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's not many places where you can hunt for more than about a month because then the seasons will kind of close out.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd be in one area up in the Brooks range for sheep, grizzly, caribou for August.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then in September, I'd be moose and grizzly bear hunting in one area, and then I'd do brown bear in the peninsula, Kodiak for roughly a month.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, never um yeah, that that would probably about it.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be out in Idaho when I was guiding out there, might be out in the f out in the the wilderness for probably forty five, maybe fifty days some falls, but uh yeah, a lot of stretches thirty days straight.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_04: I this is one I really want to ask.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_04: Because you're a deep thinker and I love how all that comes across in on the camera now.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I know toward the end you got a lot of repeat clients.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_04: Which says all you need to know about a guy or an outfitter.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_04: But with new people showing up Will you you think you could size one up really quick to see who's gonna be successful, who's gonna be fun, who's gonna be good to have in camp?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_04: Could you could you do that?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I think so.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think anybody kind of can.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like when I when a hunter calls me on the phone, I can I I believe I can pretty well peg them with a high degree of accuracy in probably two minutes.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um the old adage, yeah, old adages are there for a reason because they're true.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the ones that I always come back to, it's simple, but it found it to be very true.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: Birds of a feather flock together.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: So if a guy calls me and just says, Hey, I'm looking for a ten-foot brown bear, and that's quite a few guys, and I'll usually tell them, Yeah, um, yeah, I'd probably I'd look at you know, so and so and so-and-so.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what about you?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, uh, I don't know.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm that's probably just not me.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't think I'm probably your right guide.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm my yeah, we'll shoot some ten-foot bears, everybody wants to, we get a few of them.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: But if that's really, really what you're looking for, I think there's better outfitters and guides for you out there.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: And and I try, I I used to not do that because I didn't want to come across as being egotistical, but the reality is, is like if that's really, really what you're looking for, I wouldn't say that I'm the right fit for you.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: I would say if you want a brown bear hunting adventure where you're gonna be in a good area and you're gonna have a a knowledgeable guide and you're gonna have good equipment and airplanes and all that stuff, then then let's talk.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, if uh and and some guys I've I've done it.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: I've taken guys where they're like, hey, I want a 10-foot bear or or nothing, like that that's okay.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: But you you just gotta be you can't have your cake and eat it too.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: You can't gotta have one and gotta have a 10-footer.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: It just doesn't work that way.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've just kind of found the guys that are 10 footer, uh if they're really, really looking for that trophy.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Usually those are the guys that I just tend to not click with.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: If that makes sense.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_04: Oh and so, yeah.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_04: How many uh what percentage do you think as far as clients are both are are looking for that trophy?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_04: You know, they they don't really care about that.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_04: I want this kind of you know, full curl seven-year-old, eight-year-old ramite or uh a ten foot bat.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_04: What percentage?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_04: You think it's half the people that come out there are looking for that, or are most of them just looking to take it all in?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, everybody wants one.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, you're a good guide is probably I always figured I wanted my hunters to get a big animal more than they did.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think there was very few guys that really wanted it any more than I did.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: But um I would say probably most of the clients that I would seem to click with, they their probably conversation would go something like this is like, man, I I'd love to get uh you know a 10-foot bear, but really I just want to experience it.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I find that those are those are the guys that I would click with, that they would appreciate when we were out there hunting and sitting on the hill, is we could have a conversation about what the bear is eating and um the flora, the fauna, the history, tell stories, talk about life, and really embrace what I call the wilderness immersion.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's probably what I'm more interested in and experiencing as well.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, I would say, you know, everybody, 100% of the guys would love to shoot a 10-foot bear, and there's there's no doubt about it.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I would say probably 10% of the guys, that's really what they're there for.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say probably a lot of those guys probably don't enjoy my content.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably too long, it's just not their thing, and that's fine.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I get that a fair bit.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, if that that answers your question, most of the people that I would say that um that I resonate with and seem to click with and are happy uh uh with the hunts and and that are repeat is like, man, I I just gotta get back there.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta see that country again.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it's almost like the trophy is probably number three on the list, kind of a thing, uh the priority list.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_04: Kind of like I I used to give away the clothes and set up people and do all that stuff for Monty Oak, and I'd ask I asked this guy one time, I said, what size waist do you need your pants?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_04: He said, um 34.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_04: But a 41 feels better.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Yeah, just tell just tell me the tell me the truth up front.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_04: You know, uh yeah, yeah.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_04: Here's the deal about your content.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_04: I got some more questions, but and I'm kind of an expert on it.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_04: You gotta watch it all the way through.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_04: Which is why it's long.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_04: But if you skip, skip, skip, skip, you miss what the whole thing's about.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_04: Man, there's some good life lessons in there, some great clients, and all that kind of stuff.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_04: And if that ain't that kind of content, fine.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_04: But when I see something like that's an hour and a half, or whatever it is, like, yeah, that's my movie for Tuesday night, and I love that stuff.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_04: How how many of those uh I'm holding out?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I'm kidding, a 10 foot bear, I'm getting this and that.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_04: How many of those guys rolled over halfway through the hunt when they're up the mountain, they're tired and cold?
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_04: Did many of them say, you know what, nine foot bear's plenty?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh most of them.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very, very few hold tight.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it it all kind of comes back to you know, you don't know what you don't know.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: And also when you're there, it's it's really, really different.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the I and I've experienced it myself, um, for sure, a lot and for decades, is there's there's a humid you find a humility out there.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: It it's so easy to say when you're back in the comfort of your home and you're watching on TV, it's like, man, I'm I'm holding out for a 10-foot bear, and you know, and that's that's a good idea, and that's fine.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: But then when you're out there and you just realize like even if you're in the best bear country in the world, you can go.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'll have a 22-day season and might not ever see a true 10-foot bear.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so, okay.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: And the other thing is, is bears are like people, no different than a white-tailed deer.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Some are never gonna get above 150 and some will be 200.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing with a bear.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: You see a nine and a half foot bear that's fully mature.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, it it's really, really hard to judge a bear to be super, super accurate.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you can usually get within a few inches, but you know, if a nine ten versus a ten-one is, you know, the deciding factor, there's some bears that are, you know, you you get this the right bear that's nine foot nine and he might be twenty-five years old, he might have a record book skull, but he just ain't gonna hit that ten-foot mark.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I generally find when I kind of help people boil down what they're looking for, if they're just looking for a mature bear, um, that's usually the what I go looking for, is when you see it, you can just tell by the the shape, the body language, the movements, and um the proportion of the bear.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, that animal's 15 years old.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's a shooter.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: How big he is, this is what I think he is, but that's a shooter.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's up to you, but that's what I think.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, that's that's about the best you can do.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: And if I have any weakness of mine, I I always I probably tried too hard to um really guess what an animal was, or or put too much pressure on myself to know or to accurately judge an animal.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: An old guy buddy of mine, he said, Well, I'm not a tailor.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I'll tell you how big he is when he's dead.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_05: There you go.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_05: There you go.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then and there's a lot of truth to it.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you usually you gotta go with your first instinct is gonna be right 90% of the time, it's like this is what I think he is, and then just pass the ball to the client and just say, I think he's about this old, and I think he's about this big.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: And uh right now he's in a spot we could get him.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think can we do better?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'll give my opinion, and at that point, just gotta leave it up to them.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I've uh slowly figured out over time is after that, just keep your mouth shut and let them make the decision.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_04: Words to live by right there.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_04: I hate to keep bringing it up, but I did Dr.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_04: Warren Strickland, who's a big game guy, and he he went a hundred and one days trying to kill a big bear.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: A hundred and one days.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_04: I think it was three or four years of different trips.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_04: But he he got to talking about bears, they're fascinating creatures.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_04: I you know, I've never been up there, but he said those big bears, he said, if they even cut your trail where you walk through there, he said, they're gone.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_04: And I've always watched you from way off going, man, that wind could he couldn't pick them up.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_04: Are they that sensitive to human beings up there?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: 100%, yep, and he's totally right, and that that's impressive, 101 days.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, and the thing of it is it's a bizarre thing, is if if they cut your track, absolutely, big bear, usually he's gonna be gone, you're never gonna see him again.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: But then the other thing is, is like if it's in if you're in hunting season and the bears, let's say it's spring, and the bears are roaming around, they're breeding, the big boars are cruising, you'll use they'll work a circuit, usually about a three to five day circuit.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: So if you see one cruising by himself through the hills or whatever, uh chances are good you'll see him three to five days later unless he finds a sow.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if they smell you three, four, five miles away, which they will, no doubt about it.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: In in that circumstance, there's probably enough people hunting around where they're they're smelling um other people, other places.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they they I believe they really quickly know or they they know where you're at.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: They can tell that you're miles away, and so they'll just tend to stay away from your camp.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: And they they feel a a degree of of security.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, probably like a big white tail, but those bears, those big old animals, they'll generally position themselves where two or three drainages come together, a confluence of some sort or on a certain perch where they know they're gonna get a swirly wind that'll that'll inhibit somebody from surprising them.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's why I love hunting bears, is they're so smart, a brown bear, grizzly bear, way smarter than a black bear, way, way smarter.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so to consistently get a trophy bear is the greatest challenge in hunting, I feel, because you go to Kodiak or Alaska Peninsula, you might see 20, 30 bears in a day.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now you've got to accurately judge every single bear every single day.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you're on a 10 or 15 day hunt because you shoot a nine-foot bear, you're not gonna get a ten-foot bear.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's the hardest part of shooting a 10-foot bear is not shooting the nine or the nine and a half.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's the that's the art of it.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that only comes through experience and um yeah, trial and error, I guess.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was sitting in his trophy room and I asked him toward the end of it, I said, Well, all these animals in here is very impressive.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: I said, What was the toughest one?
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_04: The one you had to work and the one you're most proud of.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_04: And he just pointed over his head behind his back where that big bear was a full body man.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_04: I had a whole new respect for those.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_04: Did did you ever guide any bow hunters on those kind of hunts, or was it all rifle guys or gals?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, most most was rifle.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, the film that's coming out on Friday is uh archery hunter, a guy that I've guided a bunch of times.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he shot a grizzly bear, and then we went moose hunting as well.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I won't spoil it for you, but that one's darn near three hours long, cuz.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, you need a little extra popcorn for that one.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_04: I'll uh I'll be ready for it and don't spoil it for anybody.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_04: I'm on y'all gotta go to the modern day mountain man YouTube channel and subscribe.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_04: Don't just watch it.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_04: Hit the subscribe button.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_04: I'll be looking forward to that one.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_04: You know, old timer builds knives with durability in mind.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_04: They also want it to be a tool that is comfortable enough to work with day after day.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_04: Since the beginning, old timers made knives for those who don't rely on others to get the job done.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_04: Old timer built for generations.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: The world definitely doesn't tell you that it's not.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you won't know what blitz is until you have a little bit of hardship and endure and overcome, you know.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: I love watching the reaction of the hunters because you can tell a lot of them, especially in the recent, more recent stuff, they know who you are when they get there.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_04: Did you have how many of them you think just really took in that scenery and and realize where they are and God's creation and love that adventure as much as you?
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_04: Do you think most of them get that?
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that maybe comes through, you know, for lack of better term, somewhat of a vetting process.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I wouldn't vet the guys just for me, but I would kind of vet them for them for their sake too.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I know lots of guys, I don't know if I've ever had a hunter like this, ever, but I've known tons of guys that have had hunters like this.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: They'll just sit on the hill and read a book or be busy on Starlink with their phone or their computer, and they just tell the guy, you know, you you tell me when we got a shooter.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me when we need to go.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's all the involvement they want in the hunt.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's not your normal hunter, don't get me wrong, but those guys are out there, right?
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would say most of my clients that especially in later in the last 10 years that would see my videos, they they saw something as they were watching the films, they would say, that's the kind of guy I would like to hunt with.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: And some guys, I'm sure, man, I would that guy's an idiot.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: I would never want to hunt with him.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the reality is like we're we're both kind of money ahead on that deal.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say most of the guys would, and many of the guys that I've guided over the years will frequently tell me that that was the greatest adventure of their life.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's largely because they they they they were still, like Psalms 46, 10, be still and know that I am God, is just to to be still in our modern world is such a rare thing and block out the confusion.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, one of the you know, I I I would have like a texting device or a satellite phone, but I'd hardly ever ever use it.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh because I've noticed that I've been on hunts where you have somebody that's you know on their in-reach or whatever all the time and texting home or texting work, is you don't come to that level of I guess intimacy for lack of better terms, and maybe connection for you know, me and the hunter, whoever it is.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a that's a big part of it, and you really get to know that person very well, and then that you can see the layers uh just fall off of people while they're there.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the longer that they're there, and the more adversity that we're going through, and the harder that we're working, it it it really just exposes a person who they are, not only to me, but also to themselves.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say that is like the greatest I guess it's not really a tangible thing, but that's the most transformative thing, and I think that's the greatest takeaway that most of these guys are getting from a hunt like that.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, good for them.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh you know, I've never been uh holdout for anything guy.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_04: I hadn't been on many guided hunts.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_04: I was always the videographer, the cameraman, the grunt, and all that, and that's okay.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_04: But when I'd get out west and get to a peak, and I would just go, holy cow, look at this.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_04: I'm the luckiest person in the world.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's just unbelievable.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um I got a couple of hunting questions and then we're gonna we're gonna get serious.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_04: What if somebody was you know thinking, man, I'm gonna go out there, I'm not too old, I I can do it now and all that.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_04: What what's your favorite caliber?
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_04: If they're gonna go out there and they got all the tags, what what's your favorite caliber, or one that you would recommend for a rifle?
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I've got a 300 PRC that I like.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's basically a 375 necked down to a 30 caliber.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty good.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you're going after moose or bear, probably one of th a 375 is good, but I think a 300 PRC is pretty good all around.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Sheep, caribou, moose, grizzly bear.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I don't think I'd use it for a big brown bear.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um Yeah, I think that's a that's a pretty good one.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: And there's lots of them.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think more than anything, get a rifle that you're comfortable with and uh do your guide a favor and don't carry a muzzle brake.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: I was I I I should have been charging a a$2,000 surcharge every time I had a client show up with a muzzle brake and uh I still have some hearing left.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_04: Is there anything for a bear?
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_04: For a bear or carabin.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_04: Is there anything out there that they might get older guys that's not in really good shape?
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_04: Or watch it on your YouTube channel.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I do.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yep.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, bear probably is the best one.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um either a baited brown bear hunt.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: They have some areas where they can bait.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they're in timbered areas, so maybe not quite the excitement as a spot and stock or you know, sitting out in the tent with the bears.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other option would be a boat-based hunt.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of guys that are up there in years, they'll do that to where they have more of the creature comforts, and then they're cruising around in skiffs or boats and glassing the shoreline from a boat, and each night they're back and eat a good meal, take a shower if they want, kind of a thing.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, sheep, pretty tough.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: Moose, sometimes you can get a cabin-based hunt and cruise a river with a boat, kind of a thing.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I would probably say moose and and brown bear are probably and or black bear, probably for for a guy that's less limited physically, probably your best options.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_04: I'm liking that boat thing, but uh, I I found the moose hunt one time and it wasn't in the mountains, it was in the moose.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_04: I know most things are, but if there's something that comes to mind whether this person wasn't gonna get one, they couldn't go any further.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_04: Have you seen some real divine intervention up there in the wilderness?
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one million percent.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I was yeah, well, selfishly I won't I won't get into the story because that'd be a whole nother podcast probably, but uh I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ in 2011, August 17th, the day my youngest daughter was born.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um that was it was just yeah, that and and the reason being is like I saw the gospel through the lens of nature, which is what I've been trying to figure out since I was a little kid, since I was trapping with my grandpa, because I realized my grandpa he'd set a trap and and I knew he was basing it off of information that he was seeing, and I didn't even I couldn't see it.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like to me, where he was putting his trap, I d I didn't it all look like everything else.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: And and that just I wanted to know what my grandpa would see.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so the reason why I gave my life to Jesus Christ was uh I recognized that every animal in nature would fight to the death to protect its offspring.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whomsoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's a long story, but ultimately the gist was as I just realized there is no greater way for God to prove his love for mankind than to send his son into the world to live the perfect life that neither you nor I can, and then give his life voluntarily as a ransom, as the payment for my sin.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so that like that's what kind of put everything together for me, and then from that point on, like I I knew that I was born again, I knew my sins were forgiven, I knew the gospel of Jesus Christ was real, and and I just said, now what?
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew you know, John 3 3 says, unless a man is born again, he he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: And in order to be born again, you have to die.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and my prayer was as my baby, I'm kind of getting into it anyways, but I'll it was just two more minutes here, I promise.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: But um, and as my young daughter was being born, I was up there, and I'm just like, I felt like such a failure as a husband, as a father.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, what am I doing here?
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what if something happens?
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I was calling my sister-in-law with my satellite telephone, and I was checking in with her every 20 minutes, and then like an hour, hour and a half goes by where she doesn't answer, and just that angst and that anxiety and that worry and that fear that set in during that time that something was wrong, and then it just made me replay my whole life, and I just realizes like I don't have any right to ask God for anything as I'm praying for my wife and my unborn child, and just the conviction just hit me, and I just like like I knew God was listening, but I also knew that my prayers were powerless.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know, I can't explain intelligently or rationally how I knew that.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was just an inner knowing, and I'd gone to church, I went to Sunday school, got confirmed, took communion, all that stuff.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_01: I went to a Lutheran church, and so they have maybe different views.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't go to a Lutheran church anymore.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_01: That their views are a little bit different than what I believe now.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'd my prayer was God, if anything has to happen today because of my sin, I beg you, please, strike me dead right here and right now, rather than anything happened to my wife or my unborn child.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: And like I fully anticipated a lightning bolt would come and like kill me.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of that's pretty much exactly what happened.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then that's what I mean.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was crying, and I all of a sudden I look at these dull sheep and on the mountain, they were there the whole time.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_01: But that's when three John 3.16 just floods to mind, and I just realized, yeah, that's why God had to send his son because I could never atone for what I've done, and only the perfect life of Jesus and his blood and death on the cross could pay for that.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's when I knew like my life belongs to God now.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and then I when I asked him now what, he said, share this.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I knew that it took me a while.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: I was thinking, oh, I need to go be a pastor, and I was like, man, well, I gotta go to college, go to seminary, and I did I went to college once before, it was the worst three weeks of my life, and I didn't want to go back.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_01: And and then it took me like four or five years of wrestling with God, and I knew what he was calling me to do.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_01: He was calling me to share my faith on my films, but then I was just like, Well, I'll put a bullseye on my back, people won't want to go hunting with me.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's people that'll watch these films that that know the real Billy Moles, and so like all these fears came about me.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: But how when it all happened, and and to this will answer your question, is like when I saw Divine Intervention, is about five years after I was after that event, I was sheep hunting in the Brooks range again.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, my first hunter didn't kill a ram.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_01: We hunted 10 days and we hiked like I don't it was close to 100 miles.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was a lot.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_01: The guy was in good shape.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: We never found a legal ram.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_01: Come to find out the winter before we had a major winter die-off and killed like 60 to 80 percent of our sheep herd.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_01: But, anyways, never saw a legal ram.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: My next hunter comes in.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're at day um day seven, and so 17 days of sheep hunting, haven't seen a legal ram, and this guy was just a great dude, wanted him to get a ram, and I I just my body was hurt and my feet were hurt, and I was like, man, I don't know how much longer I can do this, and wonder this is gonna be my last year guiding.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I just I just said a prayer, I just said, Lord, if it's your will that we get a ram.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was reading the the book of John uh in the tent as we're weathering out a storm, and this this theme comes up in in the book of John over and over again is that ask whatever you want in Jesus' name, and if it's his will, it will be given to you.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt this peace to pray for my hunter to get a ram.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: And in so I said the prayer and I asked it in Jesus' name, and I just said, Lord, if it's your will, we get a ram.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_01: I promise I will give you all the glory whenever we put this film together.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because I knew in my heart that God was calling me to be totally transparent with my faith and my films, and all I was doing was maybe just sprinkling a Bible verse at the end of it, and that was it, because that's what everybody else that I saw did, and but I knew God was expecting more of me.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so the next morning we wake up and my plan was to go up two miles, and there's a fork in the the drainage, one headed left and the other headed to the right.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to go left because it was about a a ten mile loop and maybe maybe twelve.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then we had a lot of snow, and the other loop, if we'd go right, that was about a twenty to twenty-five mile loop to get around this mountain and back to camp.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: And and as we got there, I wanted to go left, I didn't recognize it then, but it was the Holy Spirit was telling me to go to the right.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_01: All it all I was told was go to the saddle, and it wasn't an audible voice, but it was just so crystal clear, and this saddle was right up just about a mile from this fork in the in the drainage.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_01: And but the thing of it is I knew that if we went to that saddle and then we go down into that drainage, like I'm not gonna come back the same way we came out because there's no sense in hunting the same country twice.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so I knew that loop was gonna force us into a twenty to more like a twenty-five mile march.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know if I could make it, and I d definitely didn't think my hunter could make it with the deep snow, so I wanted to save that for our last day.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: Anyways, I just surrendered to that that to the Holy Spirit, but to that inkling, and literally when we tapped out on the saddle, and this is no joke, right at the top of that saddle, there's a 10-year-old ram, all by himself, scratching the snow, eating grass through the snow, and my hunter, my hunter took that ram.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so Billy Moles was doing it his way for a hundred and probably 160, 150 to 170 miles over the course of 17 days.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_01: Never even saw a legal ram.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_01: We went to that saddle, and there was a 10-year-old Ram.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_04: Bam.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_04: Just like that.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I told my hunter that story, and uh, and I mean, he was just bawling.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then we put that film together, and that's when I just realized like, okay, like the floodgates are open, like I'm all I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna be, I'm I'm done holding anything back.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so do I believe that that was divine intervention?
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_01: One million percent.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, there's no doubt.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_04: Have you ever had one?
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_04: Have you ever had one to say really talk to me?
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, and uh you know, probably not as much maybe as one might think.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know why that is, but I I definitely have more uh inquisitive, uh, more than anything, had a lot of conversations, but and more recently, most of the guys that I would get coming to me were were already believers, so we had a lot of theological and uh discussion and just faith-based, you know, iron sharpens iron kind of conversation with people.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_01: But more than anything, I would say um yeah, not not maybe as stark as you might think.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_01: I always imagine, you know, I'd probably be baptizing somebody in a river, but I don't know is that I've I know a lot of friends that are much better at that than I am, would be evangelizing one-on-one.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_01: I tend to believe maybe, as the Bible says, we're all part of a body, we all have strengths, weaknesses, and callings.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say mine is maybe a little bit um to evangelize people in mass, and then probably more to um to disciple people in person.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of conversations for sure.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the people that I've hunted with, I would say uh are very they're looking, they're seeking.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so had a lot of conversations, but I can't the one guy that I would say more than anybody, as soon as he got off the plane, like literally we could still see the airplane.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_01: He said, uh he goes, I'm I I gotta tell you because I'm gonna tell you sooner or later I'm having an affair on my wife.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_01: Just have a play.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, just like and I was like, Whoa, okay.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, and we went on through the course of the hunt, and and the the next words out of his mouth was, but there's no pressure on you.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care if I get a sheep.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I just want to figure out how I'm gonna break off my marriage uh when I get home so I can be with my girlfriend.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Okay, you know, and I got to know the guy pretty well, never really, and this was actually I think this was the year before I was born again, or a couple of years, if I'm not mistaken.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and at the end of it, you know, he we parted ways.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_01: He got a sheep, got a caribou, and uh, you know, just wished him well.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then he called me like that winter, and he just said, Hey, I gotta thank you for that hunt and for all of our conversations.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, you know, you you told me that if I thought he goes, I he thought his wife knew he was having an affair, and I'm like, dude, if you think she knows, I guarantee you she knows.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_01: And and she confronted him when he got home, and she was able to put everything together and confirm it while he was gone.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, But what I didn't tell you was before we I ever left Alaska, I knew I had to break it off with my girlfriend and do whatever I could to resurrect my marriage.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because I told him I had a satellite telephone, I just said, like, the only piece of advice I'm gonna give you is do not use this phone for 10 days.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_01: You just need to figure out, you need to just be here, be still, and think, and don't use this phone unless I get eaten by a bear.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: And he goes, okay.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, yeah, that I goes, that makes sense.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so he never gave me any inkling before he left.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but he just said, Hey, I just I just he goes, I had to tell you that.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, So thank you.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_01: He said that 10 days changed my life.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_04: So that's good stuff.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_04: He did the right thing, got back with us.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_04: I've been married 53 years.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_04: I can't imagine having that conversation, but it is what it is.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_04: Billy, I I want to talk about speaking.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I know you do a lot of that.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_04: But I don't what what's life gonna look like for Billy Moses moving forward?
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_04: I know you got some hunts lined up, you hunt whitails, and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_04: But uh as far as uh your channel and all that stuff, what what we got going on moving forward?
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I love public speaking, so yeah, continuing to do that, I do a fair bit of probably 50% of what I do, or maybe 40%, is corporate speaking.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I do a lot of agriculture, construction, oil and gas, natural resource, anything kind of blue-collar, um kind of men, primarily men, anything outdoor related.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I'll do some speaking across the country with that.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_01: I do a lot of Christian outreach, wild game dinners, that sort of stuff.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then I do a fair bit of conservation speaking at like regional SCI chapters or wild sheep, that sort of stuff.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I I plan to continue to do that, continuing to do video production.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_01: We've still got some films and footage from you know 10 to 20 years ago that we're still working on it.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're kind of getting that knocked out, but continuing to hunt a little bit, Lord willing.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love to continue guiding a hunt or two a year in Alaska, but not the seven or eight hunts a year.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, just be faithful to what the Lord's calling me to do.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_01: The one thing that I feel like I've got on my heart is to start a uh a second YouTube channel, which we have it going.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's called Billy Moles, just simply my name, Billy Moles, and that'll be a men's discipleship slash mentorship channel where I just share like devotionals, life experiences, life lessons that people have taught me and and stories of um yeah, just just life.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one thing the Lord's really impressed upon me is that especially you know, I'm 49, now we're going on 49, is I should be mentored, I'm mentored by I would say several people, and I mentor maybe a few in a um very non-formal kind of way.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I got people in my life that'll talk to me once in a while, but I definitely seek out the counsel of guys that are older than me.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I believe that's a pretty natural thing, and we always should be seeking wisdom from people that are you know a generation above us or in seasons of life that that are to come.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's the ideal with the idea with that channel is just to really try to speak into the lives of young men.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_01: And when I look at the state of the world, and you know, you hear about the Epstein files, and you hear about Israel, and you hear about this, and the fashion nations, and LGBTQ plus R N XYZ, and like all these things, it's like, as men, we want to fix things.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_01: And if the Bible's right, which I believe it is, I've been trying to prove it wrong and have yet to do it, Satan's the author of confusion.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the Bible also says that Satan is the prince of this world, and I'd say he's he's doing his thing, right?
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_01: Is we're all looking around, wondering which fight do I get into?
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I believe the only way that any of this is not gonna be a politician, he ain't gonna fix anything.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you put your hope in in man, you're screwed, buddy, before you even put your boots on.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_01: So it the only the only man is the God man, and that is Jesus Christ.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I believe the only way this is gonna change is gonna be one man, one marriage, one household at a time, and he's he's gonna be the one to influence other men, other families, other children, the communities.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's gonna it's gotta be grassroots.
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's the only way that this changes.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so I believe like we all gotta figure out all right, Lord, what is the fight you've called me into, and then we just gotta fight in that fight until we're dead.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that that's the reality of it, and that's what my message is to men is that being a Christian isn't some soft hand, limp-wristdand handshake kind of a thing.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like full on, it's just like an Alaska hunting adventure.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like the Lord is going to lead you into wildernesses you've never been, and he's gonna lead you to the absolute end of yourself, and that's where you'll find him and his strength.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, uh for me as a husband, as a father, is like I gotta get out of my way and surrender to the Lord and do what he's calling me to do, and that is that's a hard thing.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we're we're not to surrender to our wives, we're not to surrender to anybody other than the Lord, and through that humility, that's the only thing that gives us any type of basis to be a good husband, a good father, and uh a person that's going to be able to sow any eternal fruit in our lives.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_01: So that's probably my ultimate, whatever, wherever that leads me.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_01: I've got ideas of like making devotional books, you know, hunting devotionals for hunters, and I don't know.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_01: I've got kind of lots of visions, what I feel like the Lord's wants me to do.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_01: But right now, video production stuff, public speaking, and to get this this second channel going.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_01: So modern-day mountain man is my hunting YouTube channel, and then Billy Moles will be my discipleship mentorship channel.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you uh keep me posted on that second channel, and I can tell you all this is it's gonna ramp up when you become a grandpa.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_04: So that's the life as a grandfather is phenomenal.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_04: Do you have a website?
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_04: What's the best way to keep up with you?
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_04: If people don't have social media, you you have a website where they can go look at stuff.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um Billymoldventures.com.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_01: My last name is M-O-L-L-F.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_01: If you Google search modern day mountain man, you'll find my website.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_01: Social media is The Modern Day Mountain Man on Instagram, The Modern Day Mountain Man.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then Facebook is just Modern Day Mountain Man.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_01: And again, same thing for YouTube, Modern Day Mountain Man.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_01: You'll find our YouTube channel.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_04: Well, Billy, you have taken me on a lot of hunts, buddy, through that screen, and it's way more comfortable when I can watch it and then get up and walk out and go get in the shower.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, Holly, it's just phenomenal watching.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_04: And look, I had a taste.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_04: We filmed uh Desert Bighorn one time.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_04: Nothing like what you do, but it's like I feel it.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_04: I I know what it is to go through that.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_04: And a whole nother podcast about how hard it is to film all that stuff.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_04: But I appreciate you taking some time and visiting with us, and I want to keep up.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_04: We get the second channel running.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_04: I want you to come back and answer a few more questions while you do that.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, brother.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it's kind of full circle, cuz, because I uh I grew up watching your hunts.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you you inspired me to to do what I'm doing, so it's pretty pretty neat.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure that's a little bit of what grandparenting is like.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, you'll you'll be a great one.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I do now.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I did nothing to compare to what what you do.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_04: But anyway, it's all good.
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_04: People are hungry for your message, so stay focused, brother.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_04: God bless you and all yours up there.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_04: You're in Michigan, right?
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_04: I'm so Wisconsin.
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_04: Wisconsin, that's right.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_04: I got a good buddy in Wisconsin.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_04: Well, God bless all the moles up there.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_04: Best of luck this hunting season and keep us posted, Billy.
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you, brother.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_04: Pleasure, cuz.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_04: God bless you.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_04: You too.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_03: I'm in my tree stand every afternoon.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_03: I escape the stupid world with my Mossy Oak camo, which by the way, I'm getting on the Mossy Oak podcast.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's called Fistful of Dirt, which pretty much summarizes my life.
• 1:08:15
  SPEAKER_03: You know, in Braveheart and the Gladiator, when the Gladiator went to fight the evil forces, he'd kneel down and get a fistful of dirt and fondle the essence, the physics of spirituality of the earth, and that we all must remain grounded down to earth.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I fondled earth every day.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, that's right.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_06: I forgot.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_04: And I wanted to.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_04: I had he he was coming to speak at a church in Meridian.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_06: Mm-hmm.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I saw that somewhere, and I put the the date on the counter and something came up and I couldn't go down there, but I seen it because I had done told him, man, I'm coming down there, I want to shake your hand.
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I didn't get to.
• 1:09:06
  SPEAKER_04: But one of these days I'm gonna meet him.
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_04: And uh man, what a what a good person to follow.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_04: And uh he uh and he knows his scripture and he know he he's just very confident and uh he didn't get in your face.
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_04: But I love how he takes people that he's guided and and and use them as an example about you know, this is this was good, this was bad, this person was going through that.
• 1:09:33
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm telling you, those kind of hunts right there, and I've been on a couple of physically demanding hunts, and it'll test a person's mustard, I'm telling you.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_04: Something's coming out.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 1:09:45
  SPEAKER_04: Whether you're you know and it's it's usually I think one of the first questions I asked him, could he tell as soon as that plane landed out in the tundra, was this gonna be a good hunt or a bad hunt?
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Yeah.
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_04: He said it takes me about five minutes.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_04: And that kind of stuff right there, it's coming out.
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_06: Read the room.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_04: My dad used to say, if you really want to know what somebody's like, you know, go fishing with them.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_04: Play eighteen holes of golf with them.
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:10:11
  SPEAKER_04: You'll see the real you.
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_06: Your character comes out.
• 1:10:15
  SPEAKER_04: That's it.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_04: But what a cool guy to follow.
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_04: He's got a lot going on, and I'm anxious to see where he takes his uh YouTube channel.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_04: He said he's gonna have a new one and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_04: But man, you can't go wrong following people like uh Billy Mole.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_04: So anyway, that's a good deal.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_04: I think next week we'll I'm um I got to spend some time.
• 1:10:38
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if it'll be a whole podcast.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_04: I gotta spend some time talking about the foxhole shootout.
• 1:10:44
  SPEAKER_04: My take on that, because I I really don't have much to do with it until it's time.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_04: This young crew that's running Malsey Oak now, they they work basically year-round off and on to put that thing on, and it was the biggest one ever.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_07: Nice.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so I may do a little recap of that.
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_04: So with that said, from me and Laurene up in the Camel Cave, this kind of cooling down a little bit from me and Malsey Oak and Mossy Oak Properties.
• 1:11:12
  SPEAKER_04: God bless you.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_06: We'll see you in seven days.