Latest / Salish Wolf / #69 Matthew Morris on Project Quiver

Transcript

#69 Matthew Morris on Project Quiver · Salish Wolf

0:06
Welcome to Project Quiver, a father daughter journey across
0:09
the globe to capture the artistry and spirit of the
0:12
world's finest traditional bow carvers.
0:14
I'm Todd, the father. Ella is my daughter.
0:17
Together we're on a mission to create a stunning coffee table
0:20
book that profiles more than a dozen master bow years and their
0:23
unparalleled skill. For each chapter, we travel to
0:26
the Bow Years workshop. Carve a bow under his guidance,
0:29
photograph his woodcraft in detail, and share his story here
0:32
on the Salish Wolf Podcast. The book is called Quiver the
0:36
Art of Life. Through bow craft and this
0:38
journey, our living story is Project Quiver.
0:48
How are you doing, ma'am? I'm good, dude.
0:50
Yeah, I just finished up the last work trip of the year, got
0:55
home on Friday and I was up in DC and then I got home Friday
0:59
and this weekend's been great. It's been really chill.
1:03
Spent a lot of time outside. You know, we had to about two
1:07
weeks of a cold front out here in North Carolina, and now I'll
1:10
send it warmed up again. So it was, it was nice to get
1:12
outside for a little bit. How about you?
1:14
Nice, good. I just arrived in Canada about
1:17
two days ago so it's definitely cold here for me, but I'm
1:22
adjusting. Yeah, you're, you're probably
1:24
the Tannis dude up there right now.
1:26
Possibly, yeah. Not a lot of surfing.
1:30
No, there is good surfing here. I just don't know if I'm going
1:32
to get to that part of the coast or not.
1:35
It's I'm not here that long and it's it's a chore.
1:39
And then of course putting on the wet suits and stuff.
1:41
It's not not quite the same as what I'm used.
1:45
To what do you put on like a 7 mil 10 mil?
1:48
No a 54. Oh, OK.
1:50
Yeah, yeah, I. Figured in the winter time you
1:53
might need something a little thicker but.
1:56
No, 5/4 in the winter. Summer a little bit lighter is
1:59
nice. Yeah, I've I've been spoiled by
2:01
the non wet suit surfing with water that's the same
2:06
temperature as the air practically.
2:08
So yeah, everything's good. Thanks for doing this.
2:12
Last time we chatted you got to ask me a bunch of questions, so
2:15
I'm looking forward to. I know, dude.
2:17
I'm rarely asking you. Yeah, I'm rarely on this end of
2:20
the microphone. It was kind of funny.
2:21
I think I had and like Matt Zernsak on a few weeks back from
2:25
the push and it'd been a few months ago that I, I was on, on
2:29
his and he, he, he, he noted he was like, I'm really
2:33
uncomfortable being the one being interviewed by being the
2:36
one interviewing. So yeah, I get it a little bit.
2:39
But on the bright side, you know, we're just here hanging
2:42
out in the evening and got a little bit of an amber colored
2:46
beverage and kids are going to be going to bed soon.
2:48
So should be a good conversation.
2:52
Good man. Well, I appreciate it.
2:53
What were you in DC for? Yeah, I work in aerospace.
2:57
So I was up there for just like some strategic planning where we
3:04
near the end of the calendar year, right, where Uncle Sam
3:07
pretty much doesn't work for, I don't know, the next many weeks
3:10
because that's the government and I want to get some strategic
3:13
planning done for calendar year 2026.
3:15
So it's just a big, you know, kind of executive strategic
3:19
planning session, a lot of nerd work, but it wasn't so bad.
3:24
You know, you get to get decent cup of coffee and some good food
3:27
and get back home. So I made a quick trip of it.
3:30
Yeah. What is your role in all of
3:32
that? Yeah.
3:33
So in mine, I'm mostly working like business development.
3:36
So when I first transitioned to space work about five years ago,
3:40
the big focus was actually to try to find or, you know, help
3:45
identify space, space resources that could support special
3:49
operations. And when I transition out of
3:53
government from there to the private sector, it's been widely
3:55
around the domain of like business development and being a
3:59
good liaison officer between industry and government.
4:02
So when the government says hey this thing really sucks for us,
4:06
I tried to go find a solution and and see if we can bring it
4:09
to fruition. Wow, how long you been doing
4:11
that? Space stuff for about 5 years.
4:15
Before that, I spent most of my adult life working in the
4:18
intelligence sector. So that was that was military
4:22
and government kind of combined there for a while.
4:26
And I guess that in part or in total, explains why you've lived
4:29
in so many places. Yeah, to my to my children's
4:33
chagrin, now that we're out here in eastern North Carolina, you
4:37
know, this is the longest we've lived any place.
4:40
We've been here for 3 1/2 years and they're just like we're
4:44
going to graduate from here. We're not moving.
4:47
I've already I like six or eight months ago, I almost got the
4:50
itch a little bit. I was like, oh, we're used to
4:51
moving every two or three years. And they're just like my, even
4:56
my wife who's much smarter than I am, she's like, what?
4:58
Why are you thinking about like us relocating?
5:00
Like what do we need? You know, you work remotely.
5:02
Why would we need it? I was like, ah, for like the
5:04
last 20 years we've just done that.
5:06
So wow, where's he lived of a wake up?
5:10
Yeah, where have you lived? So I grew up in the Midwest in
5:15
Missouri, and so that was out in California.
5:20
And then I lived in Germany for a couple of years, lived in
5:27
Florida, then Virginia, then Italy, then back to the States.
5:35
We went to Florida, we went back up to Virginia.
5:38
They went to Belgium, they went to North Carolina and then went
5:41
to Colorado, and now we're back to North Carolina.
5:46
Wow, that's crazy. So that was the intelligence
5:49
work that took you to Europe as well?
5:51
Right. Yeah, I was.
5:52
So when I was still in uniform in the Marine Corps, I was in
5:55
Germany for the last two years or so, just shy a few years,
5:58
about 20 months or so of my tour out there.
6:01
So it's mostly covering Africa issues as an Intel type, you
6:08
know, mostly focused on sub-Saharan Africa.
6:10
And then I actually met my wife in an airport when I was living
6:14
in Germany, in Stuttgart, Germany.
6:16
So she had just finished her undergrad and she was just a
6:19
pretty girl online behind me and I haven't introduced myself.
6:22
And then lo and behold, we're on the same flight and everything.
6:24
So yeah, now we're married with two kids and yeah, so and then
6:31
then later was Italy where there we're in Italy for three years
6:34
and really enjoyed our tour there.
6:36
Also focused mostly using that be kind of a base of operations
6:39
to work on African topics. And then later in Belgium, I
6:46
worked for the NATO Special Operations School and was a
6:51
faculty and the associate Dean out there at the Special
6:54
Operations schoolhouse. Wow, that's crazy.
6:58
And your wife, is she from Germany?
7:00
She's not she, I mean, she's third generation Italian.
7:03
So she really loved her time in Italy, but she's American.
7:06
Her folks were Navy medical officers.
7:09
So she grew up kind of a military rat.
7:11
And then they, they went into private practice as well.
7:13
So she'd, she was just kind of being a hippie dippie, you know,
7:16
she finished her bachelor's degree and spent like 2 weeks
7:19
travelling Europe and was getting on a plane to go back
7:22
home and I guess find a grown up job and.
7:27
Intervened. Yeah, I interrupted up.
7:30
I interrupted her whole plan for that, I think.
7:32
Yeah. How?
7:33
Did you get into the intelligence sector?
7:37
It was mostly just to the military.
7:38
So I went to university for like a semester, and then I came back
7:44
home, kind of needed a kick in the butt and randomly joined the
7:48
Marine Corps. So everybody wants this big, you
7:51
know, patriotic story or hey, I need money for college.
7:54
And my decision was widely based on on a whim of just knowing
7:58
that I had always been very structured and disciplined and,
8:01
you know, academically focused. And my first semester at, at at
8:06
college was not that. And yeah, I just kind of knew
8:10
that I wanted some discipline. So I joined the Marine Corps
8:12
from that point. And, you know, basically
8:16
initially enlisted in the reserves into the Marine Corps
8:19
Reserves was supposed to be an 8 year contract.
8:22
I think it's been 7 years and change on active duty for the
8:26
Marine Corps and then it was a pretty simple transition when I,
8:31
you know, I was worked in the intelligence field in the Marine
8:34
Corps and then transitioned to government as an intelligence
8:37
professional as well. Wow, good for you man, that
8:42
sounds like a exciting life. Did you pick up some arts?
8:46
It's still hard to convince my kids that I was really cool
8:48
once, so I don't know if they buy it.
8:52
My even my wife tries to join my side sometimes.
8:55
She's like that used to be cool. I'm like, wait, wait, like I'm
8:57
still cool, but like in your eyes, woman.
9:00
Like I should be cool, but trying to convince my kids that,
9:03
you know, I was travelling around doing all sorts of more
9:06
action type things than I do now.
9:09
Were you able to pick up quite a bit on the languages when you
9:11
lived in Europe? I can speak Italian pretty well.
9:15
My wife is very fluent. She even speaks with a Venetian
9:18
dialect as our Venetian accent as well.
9:22
So we lived in the, the northeast and eastern region in
9:26
an area called Vicenza, which is part of the Veneto, which is
9:28
right between Venezia and Verota.
9:31
So definitely studio. I mean, she actually, my wife
9:34
still does virtual tutoring. We, we moved back from Italy in
9:37
2015, so 10 years ago and she still every week has like a
9:41
virtual tutor that she meets with some native speaker
9:46
virtually and you know, parlays for an hour or so.
9:50
Wow. Yeah, we had a great time in
9:53
Italy when we were there a couple months ago and we were
9:55
not too far from where you just said we were in on Lake Garda or
10:00
a good chunk of it. Garda's man.
10:02
How'd you think of it? The landscape there's really
10:04
pretty. Oh, it's.
10:05
Beautiful. Yeah.
10:06
We stayed in the city or a town of Salo.
10:08
I don't know if you're familiar with it.
10:10
Yeah. And that was only about like a
10:12
10 minute ride from Enrico Maraji's place, where we carved
10:16
Boas for Yeah, few. Days, all the photos.
10:19
Yeah, it was really cool and then we got to spend some time
10:21
on the Amalfi coast too. We were down there for like 4
10:24
days and hit Venice want for a little bit too the.
10:29
Amalfi coastline is really special.
10:32
We went down there. I remember our last trip down
10:34
the Amalfi Coast, my wife was like 8 months pregnant with our
10:37
first board and she was also finishing up her graduate
10:41
degree. So she was, you know, super
10:44
preggers and also typing up her thesis.
10:48
And but, you know, we wanted to just really embrace the
10:51
coastline and everything else. But there were still, there are
10:53
plenty of distractions of being generally uncomfortable and also
10:57
being studies. And I don't know if the
11:00
internet's gotten that much better in Italy, but in 2013 or
11:05
so still was was light years behind what we had in the
11:09
States. And it was just like
11:10
frustrating. She's trying to get on the
11:11
Internet and we're going to thesis and enjoy, you know, the
11:14
break that we had. We were in like Fiore, we were,
11:17
we went to Pozitano. And these areas are just really,
11:22
I mean, everywhere you look is like a postcard right now.
11:24
It's. Amazing.
11:25
Yeah, yeah, I remember that. It's also, you know, it's like
11:29
you're you're riding in like a little Fiat Pandora or
11:33
Chincochetto or or something like that.
11:35
And the buses are, are taking the same turns you are, but
11:39
they're they're taking a good lane and a half.
11:40
And you're you're just generally wondering if one of those buses
11:43
is going to slightly nudge you off the side of this Cliff
11:46
that's going a couple 100 feet to see right.
11:48
But yeah, it's, it's a special place.
11:50
We like Italy, I think, I think maybe after the kids graduate
11:56
from school, we might get back there and do another stint for a
11:58
handful of years for work or or what have you.
12:01
We're actually planning on possibly if we can swing it this
12:04
summer to go spend about a month to just kind of work abroad.
12:07
You know, Carmi, my wife and the boys widely be on vacation, but
12:12
I'll, I'll, you know, use it excuse to work abroad and and
12:15
get some stuff down out there. But as long as I I see the three
12:19
littles, you know that my wife, who's I, I called the little
12:21
too, 'cause she's the whopping 5 foot tall.
12:24
But the the three hobbits in the household, if they're happy and
12:27
flourishing, I'm, I'm good. I'm really happy.
12:30
How old are your kids? 10:00 and 12:00.
12:33
Boys. Girls.
12:35
Both boys. Yep, Yeah, both boys.
12:37
So they're a few years younger than yours, right?
12:39
Like you're. My son's 12.
12:41
OK, OK. And my my daughter's 15.
12:44
Got it. Yeah.
12:46
Yeah, it's, it's a great age. I I mean, everybody's like, oh,
12:49
it's a great age regardless of what age you say, really.
12:51
But I, they're all great year, every year and I'm just stoked.
12:55
I mean, three weeks ago, my youngest who's not really the
12:59
one that's drawn to hunting, I picked him up from school and we
13:04
had to get haircuts. And by the time we got done with
13:07
that, there was only about 50 minutes of legal shooting light
13:10
left. And I said, hey, buddy, you want
13:12
to run by and our, my buddy Matthew that lives down the
13:15
road, he's got a little tiny 7 acre plot.
13:17
I said, you want to go sit in a tree stand for a little bit.
13:19
It's a really pretty evening. I said the worst case, you know,
13:22
we just sit there and hang out. He's like, really.
13:24
And I was wearing, I was wearing like Crocs, right?
13:27
Like I was not prepared to like go to the woods and I but I did
13:30
have a, a rifle in the back of my rig and sitting in a, in a,
13:35
in a one person stand and trying to use a Longbow with your 10
13:39
year old is not not really a recipe for success.
13:44
And sure enough, man, he spotted the deer as they came out first
13:47
and we ended up getting 2 doughs back-to-back that evening.
13:50
And he helped me, you know, we got them all loaded up and it
13:54
was just totally unexpected. It was a whim, you know, we
13:56
again, by the time we got out there, we probably had about 40
13:59
minutes of legal shooting life like left, but we just went out
14:02
and decided to hang out and, and it was awesome.
14:05
I just love that because again, while he's not as into hunting
14:09
as the eldest, he just like he, he's content with being outside
14:14
and having celebration. He's, he's very like, he wears
14:17
his emotions on his sleeve. And if I'm excited, he's
14:20
excited. And as as he noted this spring
14:23
after we went pig hunting in Florida and he shot his first
14:26
animal and he was like, Dad, I, I really like hunting with you,
14:31
but I don't think I want to shoot anything anymore.
14:32
He goes, is that OK? I was like, buddy, like, I don't
14:35
care if we're playing chess, basket weaving, playing in the
14:38
sprinkler, if we're outside and we're doing something together,
14:40
man, like I am. So I can never be disappointed.
14:43
And I think he reciprocated that this fall when he still went out
14:46
there with me and we got a couple of year and he was just
14:49
like, dad, I'm just happy that you're so stoked right now, you
14:52
know, And it was really cool. That's.
14:53
Incredible. Is that how you get all your
14:56
meat? Probably 90% of our meats wild
14:59
game and we live, we live on the Noose River out here in eastern
15:02
North Carolina. So we do get a lot of fish as
15:04
well. Man, I grew up in the in inland,
15:08
so saltwater fishing's widely been foreign to me unless it's
15:11
on, you know, some, you know, bottom fishing, you know, group
15:14
float or something like that. But I've been fortunate to have
15:17
some great neighbors out here that are studious fishermen and
15:21
been lived out here for, you know, 40-50 years and are great
15:23
at fishing the brackish water out here.
15:26
And so that's, that's helped I guess shorten the learning curve
15:30
a little bit. But deer, bear, Turkey,
15:32
sometimes some waterfowl, definitely some small game we
15:36
consume here and then something with fish as well.
15:39
But man, I also like bacon. So, you know, we've, we've got a
15:44
good butcher that's about 40 minutes from here that you can
15:47
get some good, you know, pasture raised bacon as well, if we need
15:50
something like that. And then through the farmers
15:54
market and stuff like that too. We can also get whole chickens
15:57
for typically cheaper than when you can get a whole organic
16:00
chicken from the grocery store. So if we can get a hankering for
16:03
that, that's usually my wife and kids are like, can we have some
16:06
chicken, you know? But I happily throw it on the
16:09
grill and that's the way we do it.
16:12
Where in North Carolina are you? It's a little town called New
16:15
Bern. So it's it's about 30 miles up
16:18
river from the Noose River. So the noose, so this whole like
16:21
Tri River area just north of here, the Pamlico River goes to
16:25
the Pamlico S Pamlico S to the Atlantic.
16:28
We're on the Noose, and so the Noose River goes out through
16:32
Morehead City, enters the Atlantic, and then two hours
16:35
South of here in Wilmington is where the Cape Fear River exit
16:38
and get into and going to the Atlantic.
16:40
So we're kind of in that middle of the three big rivers that go
16:44
through the state and into the Atlantic.
16:47
Does that put you pretty close to the coast?
16:49
Yeah, 3030 miles upriver, Yeah. So it's about, it's probably a
16:55
50 minute drive to the beach, but yeah, as a crow flies about
17:00
30 miles. Yeah.
17:01
And how did you end up there? You know, I think we had this
17:07
conversation a little bit during COVID because you also did a bit
17:10
of a transition during COVID. But I was working for the
17:15
government and now that, you know, isn't kind of a senior
17:17
director role working for the special operations community.
17:21
And when Uncle Sam said you have to get vaccinated, I didn't kind
17:26
of just got tired of the government tell me what I had to
17:29
do. So that's when I made the, the
17:32
shift to the private sector and allowed me to have geographic
17:35
freedom to work from home. And we were living in Colorado
17:38
Springs at the time, which I, I love the West so much.
17:41
I love the mountains. I love topography.
17:44
But Colorado is also getting Californicated pretty quickly
17:48
with, you know, the drug use and homeless population and, and
17:51
things of that nature. Not to sound insensitive, but it
17:55
wasn't necessarily spot where I wanted to raise the littles.
17:58
And so we knew that we lied to North Carolina because we lived
18:01
here previously, lived in the central part of the state.
18:04
I particularly really enjoy Appalachia, but my wife likes
18:08
the coast. She grew up on the beach in
18:10
Northeast Florida. So if she's with sand and
18:13
sunshine, she's happier, and if she's happier, I get more
18:17
attention. So we settled on the the coastal
18:19
side of the state. Wise move.
18:22
Yeah, man, when I came out here to look at houses, I actually
18:24
stopped at like bait shops and I was like, hey, how's the hunting
18:27
and fishing up here? And they all assured me that it
18:29
was a good spot and it has not disappointed so far.
18:33
So do you bow hunt a lot? Yeah, man, I've bow haunted
18:38
since I was, I think I was 14 when I picked up a compound bow.
18:43
And I think this is my fourth or fifth season with the trad bow
18:48
so far. So yeah, I mean, this year we
18:51
got actually I just got my first whitetail buck early this year.
18:55
It was a little spike, but I was pretty happy about it.
18:57
Got a mess of pigs this spring. I got an alligator actually down
19:02
in Florida and I've. Got a bow?
19:04
Couple of bears with with the stick bow.
19:06
So wow. But why hell down here in the
19:10
southeast, rather like the the whitetails are tough.
19:13
I think they're hyper, they're hypervigilant.
19:15
The, the forests are so thick with, you know, these old Pines
19:19
and briars and everything else in the swamps you're, you're
19:24
typically not seeing more than 30 or 40 yards at a time.
19:28
And it just, it makes it tough and people do it.
19:30
People do it much better than me.
19:33
But it was, you know, I, I can fully admit that it was it was
19:36
definitely tough to try to get finally get a whitetail buck on
19:39
the ground with the with the stick bow.
19:42
Yeah. And when you say stick bow, are
19:43
you talking primitive or? No, So, well, I've gotten, I've
19:47
gotten several animals with the self bow.
19:49
Yeah. And I, you know, I know there's
19:51
some folks in there that are really purists when they say
19:53
traditional or, or primitive. So primitive, you know, the bow
19:58
itself is myself. Bows are all like one single
20:00
piece of wood, whether it's Hickory, pecan, Osage, something
20:03
like that. Took the spent the last couple
20:06
years mostly hunting with a, a Hickory bow and an Osage bow
20:10
that I've made, but with a, a modern string.
20:13
So like fast flight? Or yeah, of course.
20:16
Something like that. And then I use on the self bows.
20:20
A lot of times I'm using wood arrows.
20:22
But on my recurve or my I've got a Orion or excuse me, a Rhino
20:31
Orion Longbow on the wall back here.
20:34
I'll shoot carbons, I'll shoot safari tough carbons out of
20:37
those. So shoot traditional, but not
20:40
not necessarily primitive. I'm I'm not Flint napping my own
20:43
heads and. Yeah, of course.
20:45
And doing all that. And I, I know I want to say that
20:47
I'm using primitive tools, but I know there's a few folks on the
20:50
interwebs with really serious keyboards that like to, you
20:55
know, police words and all that. Primitive to keyboards, I'm
20:59
sure. Yeah.
21:00
What did you do with the alligator?
21:02
Yeah, man, so kept all the meat and we've fried up alligator
21:07
tail and all that stuff that fish fries and things of that
21:09
nature. And then I also believe in like,
21:13
I think, you know, like blessings begat blessings, you
21:15
know, if you share your bounty, that's that's a good thing and
21:18
it's your good steward of the sport.
21:19
So I've got some friends that have like that let me hunt
21:22
another place and things of that nature.
21:23
So I I certainly have shared some whether it's alligator or
21:26
other meat, you know, with them. And then the the hide is
21:29
actually at the taxidermist. I've got the hide just getting
21:32
tanned and I've got an artist friend from basically like a
21:39
Teton leather company. I'm not, I'm not sure if you've
21:41
heard of them, but they do exceptional leather work and
21:44
Francesca Ritchie runs that joint and she's like a master
21:49
leather Smith. I'll check them out.
21:51
But what I really want to do is collaborate with her.
21:54
When I say collaborate is just basically tell her kind of
21:56
generally what I want and let her have her own artistic vision
21:59
and get it framed and kind of hung back as a backdrop on the
22:02
wall just to hide itself. So instead of getting some big
22:05
full body, you know, gnarly thing is actually have kind of
22:08
the hide and and and make, you know, allow franchise got us do
22:12
some sort of artistic touch to it, but it takes longer than
22:16
getting a, you know, a mammal back.
22:18
I mean I think the guy needed like 18 plus months to get it
22:21
done. Wow, how big was the alligator?
22:23
8 feet, OK. So not a giant, but it was
22:27
pretty cool and my 10 year old was with me for that too.
22:29
So that was, that was really pretty cool.
22:31
And where's the kill spot for you?
22:33
Your bow hunting I presume? Yeah, yeah, I was using, I think
22:36
for that hunt, I was using a Black Widow recurve, Black Widow
22:39
PSA. And it was funny when we, we
22:44
were actually out there pig hunting and I told the the guy
22:47
that I've haunted with, there's an outfitter called Triple M
22:50
Outfitters. They're out of Melbourne,
22:52
Florida and I've pig haunted down there.
22:54
Both my boys got their first pigs down there hunting with
22:57
them and, and everything else. And it's, you know, free range,
23:00
you know, pigs hunting pigs in AG country.
23:02
But in Florida to hunt public waterways, you got to do a draw
23:07
for your alligator tag each year on public land.
23:11
There's landowner tags and you, you don't have to draw.
23:14
So we went, we were hunting public land, excuse me, private
23:18
land where you know, there's cattle and irrigation canals and
23:20
things of that nature. And we had, we were actually
23:25
looking for another pig and one of these ponds that was for
23:29
water and cattle and things that nature.
23:31
We glassed it up and saw there was a good sized alligator on
23:33
the shoreline. And when I was going to get
23:37
ready to go try to stalk in on it.
23:39
The guy I was hunting with is his name is Matt Cates.
23:42
And he was like, try to shoot it in the eye if you can.
23:46
And I kind of looked around and I was like, do you see what I'm
23:49
shooting, man? Like, or, or maybe he just
23:52
really had a lot of faith and confidence in my marketing ship
23:55
Reaper. But I was like, yeah, I'm going
23:58
to shoot a marble at, you know, 20 yards or something, you know,
24:00
which, you know, that's floating in the water or, you know,
24:03
crawling on the shore or something like that.
24:04
But he was like, well, if you can shoot it behind the head,
24:07
like in the soft spot of the neck and angled up towards the
24:10
brain cavity was like, that'd be great.
24:11
Or, you know, if you can see a little bit underneath the armpit
24:14
where the lung is below the armored part, that's also
24:18
lethal. So I end up shooting it.
24:22
It was actually a great shot, man.
24:23
I got, I, I crawled into this pond and it was in the top weeds
24:27
and cattails and such. And I was like, man, I'm, I'm
24:31
right here where this Gator was like, it's either in the water
24:34
or it's kind of in this tall brush with me, which was not,
24:37
you know, my favorite feeling of the world or my best
24:40
observation. And actually, he just kind of
24:42
came up about 1518 yards away in this pond, kind of floated up.
24:46
And I was able to be pretty stealthy, stealthy in my draw
24:52
and release that arrow and got him kind of right in the soft
24:54
spot of that neck with a wood arrow with a, you know, a 2A, a
24:58
just a double or A2 bladed ace broad head.
25:02
And he kind of like stopped floating.
25:05
And honestly, like one leg started coming up and just kind
25:07
of starts stilting and sinking. And I released like one more
25:10
arrow and it literally just like hit off the top of its head and
25:12
ricocheted another 20 or 30 feet.
25:14
Like there's no penetrating mat. And man, I thought I was.
25:18
I just could not believe it was so easy.
25:20
Wow, there's no way. Well, when we went to retrieve
25:23
the the carcass with this heavy fishing tackle, basically intent
25:27
was to have my youngest Finley reel and the carcass and just
25:30
have, you know, whatever this moment.
25:31
Well, at about 10 feet from shore, that dinosaur came back
25:35
to life and. Oh, shit.
25:36
Yeah, yeah, it, it took a so it took a few more arrows and, and,
25:41
and honestly, there's still a a broadhead, you know, as it went
25:45
to the tax and just stuck on the top of its skull.
25:48
It just wouldn't, I had to unscrew the carbon arrow to get
25:51
that, get the my arrow back. But what really did it is just
25:54
another arrow behind that front leg into the lungs.
25:57
And that settled them down and it didn't allow them to expire.
26:01
But man, I think, I think. It's scary.
26:04
Yeah, a little bit. It was at least an intense
26:06
moment, but what it was, I think that when the arrow went through
26:12
it hit it clipped that vertebrae in the neck.
26:14
And I don't think it, it did obviously didn't paralyze it,
26:17
but I think it just shell shocked him a little bit and he
26:20
might have actually expired. Have we not hooked him, you
26:23
know, within the 1st 30 minutes or whatever of being under the
26:25
water? But it definitely wasn't,
26:28
wasn't, was not expired when when we got him close to shore.
26:32
So yeah, it got a little Western for a minute.
26:34
How aggressive are the Gators? I think generally honestly down
26:39
there, anytime I've been down, even when I used to go down to
26:42
Florida and kayak fish and things of that nature, for the
26:45
most part alligators are just more more afraid of you than
26:50
than anything else. I remember I was fishing in like
26:53
the Gowana Lake and Gowana River down near St.
26:57
Augustine, FL in, in like a 1012 foot kayak and there are a lot
27:02
of like 4 to 5 foot Gators down there that typically they don't,
27:06
they're not doing anything and they might pop up and they get
27:08
curious, but I think they're honestly just curious because
27:11
they're trying to snag when your big speckled trout off your line
27:14
instead of actually like trying to mess with you at all.
27:19
I did have a humbling moment when I was down there.
27:20
I think it was called, I think it's called like Rainbow River
27:23
Run or something like that. A real pretty spring fed river
27:26
that goes through Ocala National Forest.
27:29
And I was in an 11 foot wilderness systems kayak at the
27:33
time and I was floating and I floated within probably about 8
27:37
feet of a of a big Gator that was bigger than me in that
27:40
kayak. And that was that was a little
27:43
more humbling. And it's still not aggressive.
27:45
Nothing. I mean, this thing was just like
27:48
statue still, but you also kind of realize that if that thing
27:51
really wanted to, there's just like, I don't know how anybody
27:54
ever survives like a Gator attack or a grizzly attack.
27:57
Having having seen both now I'm like, how how is that even
28:00
possible? But now they're they're cool
28:04
though. I mean, I think like any sort of
28:05
like megafauna, they're really to observe.
28:08
They're really cool to watch. And then getting to put your
28:11
hands on one and especially with one of your kiddos is is a
28:14
special moment. Yeah, yeah, I surf in crocodile
28:17
country. So they allegedly are a lot more
28:21
aggressive. And just two weeks ago I was
28:24
paddling across a river to surf with two of my my surf buddies
28:28
and it was 5:15 in the morning. We were just at first light.
28:31
It was too early, we realized. And we paddled right into two
28:36
Crocs like 10 feet, 10 feet away from them.
28:39
And fortunately they turned, it went the other way.
28:42
And I think probably because they were a bit smaller, they
28:44
were probably only 7, maybe 8 feet.
28:47
But some of the Crocs get to be like 1416 feet we've seen and
28:51
huge. Like easily big enough to take
28:54
down a human so. That's nuts.
28:55
Bad. It was a, it was a pretty hairy
28:57
moment and we were fortunately only like 3 paddle strokes from
29:00
the beach. So we, we flew on those last
29:03
three paddle strokes and got up on the beach.
29:05
But yeah, I guess that they, they swam the other way so it
29:09
wasn't a big deal. But I'm always worried because
29:12
my dogs like to come across with me and.
29:15
They that would be my concern way more.
29:17
Dogs get eaten a lot there. Unfortunately so, but that's
29:24
part of being in the jungle. Yeah, man.
29:28
How did you get into archery and and bow carving?
29:34
Yeah, I mean, I think I'd mentioned.
29:37
Yeah. So I started bow hunting, you
29:39
know, using a boat, a compound when I think it was 14.
29:42
I'm 40 now, so quite a while ago and that was just an excuse to
29:47
hunt longer. Where I grew up in the Midwest,
29:50
both, both season archery season was much longer than rifle
29:53
season. So it's an excuse to hunt, you
29:54
know, get two more months of hunting out of here.
29:58
And it wasn't until about I don't know if it's four years
30:00
ago or five years ago. It was four years ago, you know,
30:05
just in an attempt to simplify things, you know, with and this
30:09
isn't to beat up compounds or anything like that, but it, it,
30:12
you know, there's a point where marketing is so good, you get
30:15
convinced that you're supposed to upgrade your bow every year
30:17
or two, right, for that extra 10 feet per second.
30:20
And I think life is fast-paced enough.
30:25
I wanted to find an outlet to simplify a little bit.
30:29
And with that, I also was always drawn to the aspect of being
30:34
able to build something myself. And I think there is a
30:39
combination between that drive or that I like at least
30:43
curiosity and then, you know, having a distinct mission.
30:47
You know, when I was in the military and things of that
30:48
nature, there's always something to be done with my hands,
30:52
something very technical, something very rugged and, and,
30:57
and, you know, often primitive. And I think I just needed
31:01
something. And that's when I reached out to
31:06
Corey Hawk actually of organic archery and attended his one O 1
31:10
course and made my first bow with Corey under his tutelage
31:13
and his introduction to bow making course with a piece of
31:17
Hackberry. And you know, on the end of that
31:21
third day, I was just like, look, man, this was like the
31:23
best investment I've made in myself in a decade.
31:27
And I want to like, do I want to do this more than once, right?
31:32
I want this to be more than a one off.
31:33
So he gave me a list of, you know, very basic tools.
31:36
And the barrier to entry is not the cost or the tools, right?
31:41
It's just fine tuning your skill set with with, you know, with
31:46
bow making. So I picked up a draw knife,
31:49
harassed and card scrapers and an advice.
31:52
And from then, you know, just kept going and, and I'm probably
31:55
about 3030 some odd bows. And now in fact, actually I
31:59
just, I just wrapped one up today and I widely been not
32:03
creative for the last four or five months just for I don't
32:06
know what reason, just life was busy.
32:09
So I felt good. It's beautiful weather today and
32:12
yesterday to get out and frame out a few bows and then finish
32:16
one this afternoon. What did you finish?
32:20
It's a little Seneca inspired short bow.
32:23
So it's £52. Excuse me, it's 52 inches tip to
32:28
tip. And it's, it's actually going to
32:31
be for, for my wife for Christmas because she needed a
32:35
bow upgrade and it's probably only 25 to 30 lbs.
32:41
And so yeah, it's just got, it's got uneven knocks.
32:44
So you've got a knocking point on just one side and and
32:48
basically the opposite caught caddy cornered away from that
32:50
knock. So that's indigenous Seneca
32:53
inspired. I'm going to do a stacked
32:56
leather handle on there and that'll be under the tree come
32:59
Christmas morning. Awesome, What kind of wood?
33:02
Osage, Yeah, did Osage early this year.
33:06
I got some some Osage staves maybe from the Tennessee
33:09
Classic, and then I've got a handful of of staves from pecan
33:14
that I harvested 2 years ago. So I probably got, I don't know,
33:18
a dozen or so staves of Osage and pecan under the house right
33:22
now that I'll be working with. What's your favorite one?
33:27
Man, definitely those two. I mean, any type of Hickory I
33:34
really like a lot. It cuts well with a draw knife.
33:40
It's pretty. It takes a stain.
33:42
Well, it's native to to the southeast, which I really
33:48
appreciate. Yeah.
33:50
Osage. I mean, I, I grew up in Missouri
33:53
where Osage is everywhere. And in fact, I used to as a
33:57
teenager cut firewood and cut Osage and sell that as firewood.
34:00
You know, it's really hot. And now I look at that as
34:03
blasphemy. So, so I like that because it's,
34:08
it's, it's from where I grew up. But I also acknowledge that
34:11
there's certain difficulty and, and time constraints of chasing
34:14
a ring and everything else with those sage.
34:16
And sometimes having a white wood is it can be a little bit
34:22
more for more forgiving. But like a lot of white woods, I
34:27
live in the South where it's very humid and you know, I put
34:31
probably like 8 or 9 coats of Teague oil on Hickory in with
34:35
Osage. I pretty much just use a, a
34:40
natural mixture of whether it's B for bear tallow, beeswax and
34:45
pine pitch because, you know, Osage is so hydrophobic.
34:50
But with, you know, Hickory, I've got to add a little bit
34:52
more of that labor as far as making sure that it, it doesn't
34:55
sponge up the humidity out here. Definitely one of those two.
34:59
I'd really like to do some more work with, with native woods,
35:02
whether it's American holly or, or something else that's that's
35:08
native out here in the Southeast.
35:10
But I've got some that I've cut and dried, but it's just man,
35:13
it's a huge paint. Holly is a pain in the butt to
35:15
split. And I think I'll actually just
35:17
have to take take the bandsaw to get it cut into staves.
35:20
To be honest. It's so twisted at this point.
35:24
I've got a couple pieces of you, but I just haven't spent any
35:27
work with you at this point. You haven't carved a you bow
35:32
yet. Nope Nope. 2 staves downstairs
35:35
but not carved a you bow yet. Yeah, that's I think.
35:39
I'll probably holler at Pete for some some tutelage.
35:41
It's a very different experience.
35:42
You can use a butter knife almost to do it.
35:44
So no, it's that's really, it's really beautiful to carve.
35:48
But with Hickory, do you ever chase a ring or you you don't?
35:51
Bother, I do, yeah. I mean, but you don't have to.
35:53
But IA lot of times I will just because it probably is just
35:59
going to help make that back a little bit more durable.
36:02
That's all one solid ring and that might just be intuition
36:05
speak. You cannot science, but a lot of
36:08
times I will. But I also appreciate the fact I
36:12
don't really have to. I really want to make a nice
36:17
eastern red cedar bow with juniper at some point and I've
36:21
cut some, but knowing that I I need to send you back it and
36:28
things that nature is just putting that time aside to work
36:31
with it. But I made a couple of small
36:33
kids bows and just kind of for fun, like a Bush bow and it, it
36:38
carves beautifully. It's it's gorgeous and it's
36:40
super zippy. But if I put, you know anything
36:44
with any weight on it, I want to send you back it.
36:46
Yeah, do you know Chuck Loffler? Well, I know he's the man when
36:50
it comes to Eastern red seed, but I don't know in person, you
36:53
know? The bow I carved with him, They
36:55
didn't send him back Juniper. It is an incredible bow.
36:59
It shoots so well. I love it.
37:01
And I was, I was surprised by it was my first back bow, my first
37:04
Juniper bow. And it was surprisingly pretty
37:08
painless to make. Of course I was doing it with
37:11
Chuck there under his tutelage, but we actually because the
37:16
sender needs time to dry and I was only there for four days, we
37:18
had to ship it back to my workshop in Canada before it had
37:22
been tillered. And so I tillered one of his
37:24
bows to get the experience and when the when the sooner was dry
37:28
here in Canada, I tiller did and it was it was beautiful,
37:32
beautiful to tiller. It was didn't take much work at
37:35
all. And I love that bow shoots
37:36
really well. I was to say I've heard they're
37:38
really snappy too. Yeah, yeah.
37:40
Well, that's something he uses. Those they set flight records,
37:43
which is wild. Yeah, 'cause I think he's been,
37:46
he's been getting like 200 plus feet per second on some of his
37:49
juniper bows. Yeah, probably.
37:51
Yeah. And I was just at Pete's a
37:53
couple hours ago checking out some of his new creations and oh
37:57
man, that guy is such an artist. And I don't, I've not spent much
38:02
time really at all in that, you know, that Pacific Northwest, so
38:06
part of United States or Canada. And I, I, you know, I think that
38:14
I'd be really amazed at all those you creations that Pete
38:18
does because there are very few people that I can see, at least
38:21
through the interwebs that have the wizardry that he has with a
38:27
piece of you and makes such a beautiful bow.
38:31
Well, you should come do one of the I mean, he's doing bow
38:33
carving workshops now. Yeah, that's right.
38:35
Herman setting. Yeah.
38:35
He's got a beautiful his his old carving shack because he's kind
38:39
of converted it, but it was a cabin.
38:41
Then he converted into his carving studio and now it's a
38:43
cabin. A landscape or an or
38:46
environmental engineer or something like that, right?
38:49
He does landscaping, he does all his own woodworking, like really
38:54
rugged, rustic, large kind of stuff.
38:58
So if he's building someone's deck, he's milling all the own
39:01
wood, all his own wood for it. His his, his place is gorgeous.
39:05
He loves bonsai's and so he has like 100 bonsai trees and it's
39:10
so beautiful. You walk on this winding path up
39:12
a kind of a grassy hillside under the Douglas fir, it was
39:16
carving studio. And you just pass them dozens of
39:18
bonsai trees that are on these slabs of rock that some of them
39:24
are many, many, many centuries old.
39:27
They're just these like 2 to 4 foot high tall trees.
39:31
It's really crazy. Yeah.
39:32
He's such an artisan. So yeah, he just finished and
39:37
he's speaking what he does with you.
39:38
So when I was there, we carved AU recurved.
39:44
Well, reflex flat bow. No, actually, we didn't reflex
39:47
it, but it has a belly Ridge tip to tip this beautiful belly
39:51
Ridge. And then this one that he just
39:52
did, now he had a belly Ridge and then he, it's kind of hard
39:57
to explain, but then he carved the belly Ridge down.
40:01
So instead of coming up into one peak, it comes up to two
40:05
separate peaks and then goes down into into like this belly
40:09
valley. And so, and it's in that little
40:12
belly valley is only like the width of maybe a pencil eraser.
40:16
And that runs tip to tip on the bow.
40:19
And it's just like the artistry is incredible.
40:21
So like, yeah, I mean, he's a fine artist.
40:25
He. He.
40:27
And then even the tip overlays he did, he's stacked, I believe
40:31
it was water Buffalo horn with ram horn.
40:34
And so he's got the white on black and the same tip overlay
40:38
just like just all the stuff that he does.
40:40
It's so gorgeous and it shoots well.
40:43
Yeah, I'm just happy that I I if when I can make a bow that looks
40:47
looks kind of pretty and shoots well folks.
40:52
Well, folks that you've had, you know, as part of Project Quiver
40:57
are profession, you know, their professions in this craft and
41:03
they that's what sets them apart, right?
41:05
Whether it's the unique design or the woods that they use or
41:10
finish work or the artistry that they incorporate into their
41:13
craft. And it's there's some really
41:15
special people out there. Yeah, I've, I've been so lucky
41:18
to be able to study under so many of them and spend time with
41:21
them and tell you when I came back to my workshop and saw my
41:25
collection of like 15 bows that I had made in the previous year,
41:29
I was pretty gutted. I was like, Oh my God, these
41:32
things, I need to need to put them back in the workshop and do
41:35
some changes to them. But I mean, of course, I was
41:39
carved 14 bows with the best in the world.
41:41
So he can't, I can't expect my experiments before that to be
41:46
anywhere near that. But.
41:48
That's special though man, I'm stoked for you.
41:51
Yeah, me too. Yeah, it was awesome.
41:55
What how did you like start the podcast?
41:58
What was your inspiration for that?
42:00
Man, I had, I had no play. It was kind of like join the
42:03
military. I had no plan to do it.
42:06
I'm just full of bad decisions, I guess.
42:09
No, it's I've been super blessed, man.
42:12
I've got a buddy, his name's Zach Hanson.
42:14
He hosts the Oakiest Trapper podcast.
42:19
And a buddy of mine, also Marine, was going out to Hopkins
42:26
for grad school and he knew Zach 'cause they were in the same
42:29
grad program, I believe. And Zach had just finished a
42:32
book called Turning Ferrell. And it was wildly based on kind
42:38
of adult onset hunting or adult onset outdoors.
42:43
I mean, he, he's like a machine machine learning technician,
42:46
like A8, you know, an IT super nerd, never really did anything
42:52
outdoors. He was, you know, pretty fit.
42:55
Dude did some, I think he does, he does jiu jitsu as well.
43:00
But he went through like a gnarly divorce and just put him
43:03
on this path and he buys this like off grid cabin in Idaho and
43:08
dives into it hard. And anyway, Zach and I become
43:12
friends. And if we he joked at one point
43:15
and was like, Hey, you ought to do a traditional archery
43:18
podcast. And I was like, Oh, it's one.
43:20
I think that we've got plenty. There's some really great ones
43:23
out there that I, you know, I subscribe and listen to as like,
43:27
but look, man, I'm I'm the kind of a greenhorn when it comes
43:29
down to it. We've got true subject matter
43:31
experts out there that need their time on the radio waves.
43:34
And that's what I would love, you know, like to see.
43:37
And he ends up introducing me to Eric Clark, the guy that founded
43:41
and runs this the OK S Podcast network.
43:45
And the kind of the cornerstone of that is the OK S Hunter and a
43:50
lot of their stuff was founded on, you know, just celebrating
43:54
everybody's hunt. It doesn't have to be 170 inch
43:57
whitetail. It can be a 12 year old's first
44:00
deer or a grown man's spike that he felt great about because he
44:05
was able to knock the rest off a little bit.
44:07
Whatever it is, right. And I really appreciate that.
44:10
But after kind of a three-way call with those guys, they're
44:13
like, all right, well, so you're going to do this podcast.
44:16
And it was like, no, I mean, you know me, Todd, like I, I travel
44:20
about 50% of the time and life is busy enough, right, with,
44:24
with dads and everything else. And I also just never really
44:28
considered having a creative outlet or consider myself a
44:31
creative, but somehow they guilted me into it.
44:34
And they, you know, the Eric was, you know, you basically
44:37
said, well, if you did a podcast, what would you do?
44:42
You know, like just, if you did it just for you, I said, well, I
44:45
would. I really want to hear the
44:47
stories of the makers and the artisans, and that's that's what
44:52
I want to hear. I don't want to hear a bunch of
44:53
talk about gear and tech and and things of that nature and that I
44:57
mean, that's fine because people want to know it, But there there
44:59
are podcasts widely centered around those topics, right, like
45:03
let's let's find the stories of the makers, and that's not just
45:05
bow yours. That's blacksmiths and leather
45:08
Smiths and fine artists and musicians and these that nature,
45:13
but crafts, art and craftsmanship that bring us
45:20
either one into a deeply rooted tradition or into the out of
45:25
doors. And a lot of times those things
45:26
are not mutually exclusive. Right?
45:29
And he was like, all right, man, I'll send you like a microphone
45:33
and I'll, I'll do all the editing for you.
45:35
Do you just have conversations with people you want to have
45:37
conversations with? And at that point, it sounded
45:40
like fun. I was like, yeah, it's an excuse
45:42
to talk to people who are way cooler than me.
45:45
And now we're, I don't know, I think I'm maybe a year and a
45:48
half into it and darn near 80 episodes, I think.
45:52
And it's evolved a lot. Met some really tremendous
45:56
people on the way. We've been able to do a lot of
45:58
fellowship and stewardship in the outdoors and support
46:01
veterans groups and kids groups and all that stuff.
46:03
And I'm still talking to people who are way cooler than me.
46:09
That's awesome. I'm glad you get to do it and
46:12
it's a great resource for everyone who's interested in
46:16
primitive archery, traditional archery.
46:18
So thank you. I know it's, I think it's a way
46:20
we we came across wow, at least one of our bow years.
46:26
You're probably right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
46:32
That was that was a great experience visiting him.
46:34
He's such a humble guy, so modest and.
46:38
It's so funny because people don't like realize that he was
46:42
pretty like bad dude. I don't mean like bad.
46:46
Well, he was not. Good.
46:48
He was kind of a bad ass back in the day, right?
46:50
And he's so. He was an MMA national champion,
46:53
amateur national champion in Sweden.
46:56
He's just. He is cool as a cucumber.
46:59
And. He's got a big heart.
47:02
He's very skilled. Bowyer.
47:04
I love, I love stuff. Oh, he's.
47:07
Our photos of my daughter's photos of him are incredible.
47:12
Like he, they went out into the woods and he always has his, his
47:16
rucksack on with all his, all the tools that he needs.
47:20
And so he was starting a fire with just, you know, Flint fire,
47:24
Flint starting. And my daughter is getting all
47:26
these amazing photos with him and this forest, everything's
47:29
green and the light coming through the leaves.
47:31
It was just, it's so beautiful. So all the photos we got of him,
47:34
I'm just looking back at him. Wow, that's incredible.
47:37
And I love his, his style. His he he works with the legom
47:41
style. And when I first chatted with
47:43
him, he's like, we'll make a legom sapling bow.
47:45
I honestly thought legom was some type of Swedish would and I
47:48
was like, all right, whatever that is, I'll make one of those.
47:51
And then I got there and I found out what legom was, which just
47:55
means not too much, not too little.
47:57
And and that really kind of just exemplifies what his his bow
48:02
craft is. He doesn't do the Wayland olive
48:06
type of absolutely stunning bow with every detail and not a
48:11
single tool mark. He he just builds bows for
48:14
himself and some of them look pretty rustic.
48:17
Some of them are more refined, but ultimately he's just making
48:21
bows for himself and they're gorgeous.
48:23
Like it's, it's a really different style than what a lot
48:25
of people are doing. And we made a beautiful sapling
48:28
bow and it's it shoots well, looks good.
48:32
It's really happy with it. I love it.
48:34
I love the purity of it. I think Corey says something
48:37
similar but doesn't sound as pretty.
48:39
But you know, like everything in bow needs and nothing that it
48:42
does not right exactly. It's very it does sound sound
48:46
better when it's in Swedish. Legume.
48:49
One word says it all, yeah. Yeah, yeah, man, you've you've,
48:54
you've got a great collection of folks you've you've been able to
48:57
encounter and, and have some experiential immersion with,
49:01
with fantastic bow years. And I, I have an appreciation
49:05
for it. You know, I share that with you.
49:06
I have an appreciation for the different styles, whether it's
49:10
tremendously artistic or exquisite, you know, like a Pete
49:13
or a Whalen or something that is historically accurate replicas
49:20
and things of nature, like what Corey does or something that to
49:23
me sounds very near and dear to my heart is I, I want something
49:26
that, you know, looks pretty good but can help me put down a
49:31
big critter when I need to. And I think all of them, we need
49:36
all of them in this space. Yeah.
49:37
All of those different types of artisans and perspectives and
49:41
styles in this place, in this. Yeah, yeah, they're so unique.
49:45
And I, I just got back to kind of a couple days ago, I had not
49:48
even seen most of my bow since I carved them because they all got
49:51
shipped here. And so just just yesterday
49:54
cleared off the dining room table and I put all 14 bows out
49:57
just so I can look at them all and just kind of become
50:00
reacquainted. And they're so unique, every
50:02
single one of them, so different, so beautiful.
50:05
But I was just like, wow, this is incredible.
50:07
Like to see the signature basically of, of each artisan
50:10
and the the type of style that they use and the material.
50:13
And that's so cool. Just gorgeous.
50:17
And I know I'm not supposed to be asking the questions because.
50:20
Oh, you can ask whatever you want now.
50:21
But are you staying up there for the holidays up in Canada or
50:25
what's? Yeah, well, we came back, my
50:27
daughter and I came back to photograph all the bows because
50:31
we, we need to get them in a studio and take high quality
50:34
photos of them all in the same setting.
50:37
So we're, they're going to be included in the book.
50:40
Basically, after the Bowyer's chapters, they'll be a, a
50:43
chapter that has each of the 14 bows with photos and, and I'm
50:48
not quite sure how much text. There'll be a little bit of
50:50
text, at least technical stuff, but I'm not sure if they'll be
50:53
anything beyond that yet. But so we had to come back here
50:56
and, and do that. And I'm really glad I came back
50:58
when I did because I got here and I put them all out and that
51:01
counted on and I got the 13 and I was like, shit, where's the
51:05
14th bow? And then I realized that I
51:07
forgot to tell Nacho Marco my address.
51:09
And so he hadn't shipped it. And I was like, holy shit, like
51:13
I need that bow by January 3rd Nacho, please, like ship it.
51:18
But it's good I came back because I came back a week
51:20
earlier and I was expecting to just the way flights lined up.
51:23
But I guess that was the reason I came back, so I could get that
51:26
14 bow here because now we're in a publishing deadline.
51:30
So our publisher needs everything pretty, pretty snappy
51:33
here. So we've got all these timelines
51:35
that we have to meet. So I've got to get that bow.
51:38
But I'm really ready to get a photograph.
51:40
Yeah, dude, me too. And I'm going to be hitting you
51:42
up when we do volume to for some suggestions or who to include in
51:47
that one. There's, there's a lot of
51:48
special people out there, brother, Yeah.
51:51
Yeah, and it's what an incredible journey it's been for
51:54
us. And just looking back through
51:56
these photos and and I get to sit down and write the chapters
51:59
and that's been incredible. Just right now, I just finished
52:02
today Ryan Gautier's chapter and just it's like it's, it's such a
52:07
special thing for me to be able to sit down and review all my
52:10
notes on my podcast notes and be able to write the the life story
52:14
of each of these bowyers. Yeah.
52:17
Well, and I think a lot of these guys aren't going to put pen to
52:23
paper or they don't feel that their story is aspiring enough
52:32
to or inspiring enough to put to paper for any reason or they're
52:35
or that there's a certain amount of hubris or eager that's
52:38
evolved, right. And I think it's folks that, you
52:40
know, like yourself and I like the stories of the maker is
52:44
something special, right? And a lot of crafts, things that
52:49
you do with your hands, with natural materials are almost an
52:52
endangered species, you know, when we think about it.
52:55
And we need to find a way to bring their stories into a bit
53:03
of modern modernity. Modernity, I don't know, present
53:07
day. Where's this?
53:10
So bringing that to fruition, whether it's your podcast or
53:14
through a beautiful work and a piece of art or what have you,
53:18
is I think it's, it's, it's somebody else doing their due
53:23
diligence to, to tell the stories of the makers.
53:26
And, you know, I can't imagine, you know, like if these guys had
53:30
their kids or grandkids or whatever, look back, you know,
53:32
10 or 15 years from now and they're like, oh, this is my
53:35
see, these are my bows. And I was in this book and all
53:38
that stuff. That's, that's huge, man.
53:42
You know, the, the rest, the interwebs are full of bikini
53:46
babes and CrossFit dudes carrying around bows and getting
53:49
them all the accolades. I think these guys need, need to
53:51
get, get the attention that's in the respect and that is that is
53:56
warranted. And it's also just a great
54:00
platform for people like, oh man, these guys are doing this.
54:03
These are masters of the craft. I can, maybe I can reach out to
54:06
them and get some Tootle mentorship or, or what have you,
54:09
Because let's face it, like there, there's not a local
54:13
bullet bow your anymore, right? Or a Fletcher or a blacksmith in
54:16
our villages anymore nowadays, right?
54:18
So for the most part, so understanding of these stories
54:22
are out there gives people an opportunities to, to be
54:27
inspired. And I think that's that's
54:29
something special. Absolutely.
54:31
And that was certainly that's one of the biggest motivations I
54:35
had for creating this project and being able to visit with
54:39
each of them and, and just see how humble they all are and also
54:43
how eager they are to share their knowledge and experience.
54:46
And without exception, everyone was so generous spending 345
54:51
days with me and my daughter, teaching us to carve and, and
54:54
their style and their ways and opening up their quiver bows for
54:58
us to take photos. And you know, my daughter taking
55:01
them off for their, their, their personal photo shots.
55:04
And a lot of these guys don't sit in front of cameras.
55:06
And so it's even just to be able to do that.
55:09
Well, you want to take a photo of me, you know, but yeah, I
55:12
was. And so that, I mean, that was a
55:14
lot of it for me. And then I wanted, I really
55:16
wanted the book to be a celebration of them and their,
55:20
their art of life, not just their art of a bow craft, but I
55:25
really wanted to capture their, their art of living through the
55:29
medium of, of traditional archery.
55:31
And so there's some pretty cool stories.
55:35
Yeah, I think it's important to highlight it, you know, or at
55:38
least to acknowledge that's a little old meet meets new with
55:42
this too, right. So in the grand scheme of
55:45
things, as far as years with Bow making yourself, you know, being
55:52
the new and also in the arts and your daughter who is certainly
56:01
younger, right. And she's already, as you know,
56:05
skilled beyond her years in photography.
56:07
And you guys are bringing the new with the old, right and to
56:11
to help carry the torch of some of these stories too.
56:16
So I think that the the merging of the the medium, so our
56:20
mediums is important to acknowledge, but also kind of
56:23
that generational gap that are around some of these with some
56:26
of these bow years. Right from there, you know
56:29
they're wiser, you know they're in the wiser years of age or of
56:35
life and all the way, you know, to your teenage daughter being
56:38
part of this, it's pretty magical.
56:40
Yeah, it has been every step of the way.
56:43
That's why we're thinking about a volume to already, but have to
56:47
get the first one out there first.
56:49
But we're we're excited for it, that's for sure.
56:54
So what's next on the horizon for you?
56:57
Man, I'm just, I'm stoked about the holidays.
56:59
I've got a couple days of work left and then we've got about 10
57:02
days or so off with the fam. Nice.
57:05
Always welcomed. Got a few days of hunting season
57:08
left. I'll see if I can get out there.
57:10
At the very least the kiddos and I'll probably all get out with
57:14
our self bows. They've all got self bows too,
57:16
So we'll go out and give us a small game hunting and I'd like
57:20
to get another bow or two built over Christmas break just for
57:25
therapeutic purposes probably, you know, the feel goods.
57:28
And in January, my eldest and my father-in-law and I are going to
57:32
go on a a late season rifle elk hunt.
57:37
And that's really just my father-in-law was only
57:40
introduced to hunting and, and really generally the out of
57:42
doors about 5 or 6 years ago through me and every other year.
57:49
So he wants to go do a bit of an adventure and we try to lower
57:52
that barrier to entry. And this year he wanted to bring
57:55
my eldest Waylon with us. So it's I don't even have A tag
58:00
actually. So it's just, it's just for
58:01
those two guys. I'm just going to help him
58:02
babysit a little bit. And that should be really good
58:08
if I can swing it in the spring. My buddy Sam Curtis of Polite
58:13
but Dangerous Tools knife, you know, knife maker blade Smith.
58:18
We're trying to go to Alaska for a spring bear hunt.
58:21
Wow. You'll probably carry his 300
58:24
win mag and I'll, I'll carry a recurve or a Longbow, but I'm
58:30
hoping to do that. We, we also want to do some
58:33
filming of it. I, I've done a couple of, you
58:37
know, the kind of like the good old boy filming of, of deer
58:39
hunts and picuns or whatever in the past.
58:41
But I, I, in October, I went and I did this bear hunt in southern
58:46
Arizona with, with the aid of hounds.
58:48
And I wanted to tell the story of another old tradition, which
58:51
is houndsman, right? And, and hunting with hounds and
58:56
which is probably just as old of a tradition as you know,
59:00
shooting sticks with another stick.
59:02
And I want to highlight some of that and, and using hounds as an
59:07
aid to hunt close. So I got a, a nice bear with
59:11
recurve bow with the aid of hounds out there.
59:14
So I think we got a lot of good video and, and audio from that
59:17
project. And if I can get my act
59:20
together, get it all finished and edited and hopefully
59:22
released in late January or so for maybe like a 20 or 30 minute
59:27
film to hopefully tell a compelling story and get folks
59:30
in the outdoors, but also help support predator hunting,
59:33
predator management, houndsman, traditional archery and all
59:37
those good things. And we'll see if I can if I get
59:40
the gumption to carry a video camera around more often, but
59:44
for me it's usually just a microphone and two dudes having
59:46
a conversation. Oh, ready to go.
59:50
Thanks for doing that and keep the stories coming.
59:52
It really does mean a lot. Yeah, I appreciate you.
59:56
Yeah, thank you. It was good to chat with you
59:59
again, Matthew. Thanks for Round 2.
1:00:02
Likewise, man, I'm sure we'll have A and a few more months
1:00:04
when the book gets released and everything will have you back on
1:00:08
and we can tell folks where to find it and celebrate it.
1:00:14
Thank you. I appreciate it and let me know
1:00:15
when you're if if you get this film out, let me know.
1:00:18
We'll do enjoy the Alaska hunt. When do you go I?
1:00:22
Think we're looking probably the second week of May, as long as
1:00:26
everything, as long as everything's together.
1:00:28
And where will you go? Man, I don't even know.
1:00:31
I, I got, no, I mean, I, I think I'm flying into Anchorage and
1:00:34
from that point I'm, I'm letting the locals, my buddy Sam lives
1:00:38
in Alaska. I'm just kind of at that point
1:00:40
I'm like, just tell me where to go, man.
1:00:41
I'm ready. I was like I, I said give me a
1:00:45
packing list and and I'm and I'll try to make sure I'm there.
1:00:49
It's such beautiful, beautiful country.
1:00:52
Enjoy. Thank you.
1:00:54
Thanks brother, enjoy your show. Happy holidays, Happy New Year,
1:00:58
and man, I'm really excited for you guys and finally closing
1:01:04
this big chapter with the book. Thank you, I appreciate it.
1:01:16
Thanks for listening to Project Quiver on Salish Wolf.
1:01:19
Follow our journey on Instagram at Project Quiver as we seek out
1:01:23
the world's most extraordinary traditional boat years and join
1:01:26
our newsletter at projectquiver.com.
1:01:29
Our coffee table book, Quiver, The Art of Life through Bow
1:01:32
Craft, arrives in 2026. We are honored to share with you
1:01:36
the beauty, history, and magic of traditional archery.