Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 408: The Future of the Back 40 with the National Deer Association

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Ep. 408: The Future of the Back 40 with the National Deer Association · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number four
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: oh eight. Today the show, I am joined by Nick
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Penzelto and Hank Forrester of the National Dear Association to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: discuss the future of the Back forty property. All right,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast, brought to you
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: by on x tay the show. Like I mentioned, we
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: are talking back forty. We're talking the future of the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Back forty and I'm excited to dive into this in
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: a real substantial way because, oh, this past fall we
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: gave you some light details. I told you a little
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: bit about what's going on, But today we get to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: really flesh sh out and tell that story. And I
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: want to start from the very beginning quickly here and
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: and then bring you all the way to present day.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: But before we get into that, I have got to
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I've got to lead with the punch line, I guess,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: which is that because we're so excited about this story
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of of what's been going on with the Back forty project,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that's the property that we bought a Mediator that we've
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: been managing and documenting and sharing that story of the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: last two years, and and now we're passing it on.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: That story we're so excited about, especially this next chapter,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: that we wanted to kind of throw a celebration. And
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: this celebration we're calling the back forty two Fork Giveaway,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: And what we mean by that is that we are
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: doing a whole, big old giveaway over on the Mediator
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: website in which we are going to be making all
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of you folks that want to sign up for that
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: that can sign up for this available to get your
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: hands on a first like kit, a weather be rifle,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: UH Federal Premium ammal, I think up to five worth
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: of Federal Premium ammal, a bench made meet crafter knife,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: a lifetime membership to on x F h F by
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: No Harness, Vortex Optics, and a whole bunch of other
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: cool stuff. Plus the three winners of this little sweepstakes deal,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: each of them will get to nominate a new hunter
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: to get a special new hunter gear package too. So
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: if nothing else today, go on over to the meat
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: eater dot com slash fork to sign up for that
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: giveaway and to learn more about all the stuff we're
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: gonna be talking about today. You'll be able to watch
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: a video about this stuff that documents the story you're
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: gonna get to hear. You'll be able to get more details.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Sign up see all the rules and the specifics all
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: that stuff at the meat eater dot com, slash fork
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: and f y I on this contest. Uh I believe
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: the dates are. It opens February two and it ends
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: March fourth, two thousand one. So just f y on
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: that one. Now, let's get back to that story. Let's
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: get back to why I'm why we really why we
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: are also excited about this. The story begins with us,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: you know, deciding to do this back forty project. We
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: decided to buy a farm and we're going to try
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to steward this place. We're going to try to improve it,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: manage it, nurture it, learn about it, fix this property
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: up to be a great representation of what you can
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: have when you manage for deer and other wildlife and hunting.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Can you get all those things together in the same place,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and then can you share that with people? Can you
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: bring other folks out to learn from this place? That's
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the experiment we are trying to run with the Back forty,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and and really this the whole experience for me, really
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: bloomed into this, this idea of sharing, because as as
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the years progressed from the first year to the second,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: we progressively invited more and more people out there. First
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: it was consultants, and then it was friends and family members,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: and then it was new hunt turs and getting their
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: feet on the ground and getting them to to see
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the place and learn from the place and teach us
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  Speaker 1: things on this landscape and showcasing what can be done
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: out here, and inviting new hunters. We got two new
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: hunters out there who who never killed the deer before,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and we had a couple other people that are relatively
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: new out there, and it was just it was just
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  Speaker 1: a really really cool experience. So coming out of all that,
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  Speaker 1: um we wanted to find more ways to continue this
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  Speaker 1: journey and to continue being able to share the Back
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: forty with other people. And back when gosh, I can't
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: remember the exact date, but when we were originally trying
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: to figure out like how do we decide the future
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: for the Back forty, how do we figure out how
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  Speaker 1: to pass this thing along because from the get go,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: we weren't going to keep this property to ourselves forever.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: It was always going to be a temporary thing. And
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: then we're gonna give it away. We're gonna pass it
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  Speaker 1: on to someone or something in a way that could
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  Speaker 1: continue our mission, hopefully in a way they would protect
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: this landscape, been the animals, and and keep good things
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: happening on this ground. And after a lot of brainstorming
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: and spit balling, we ended up realizing that there was
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: an organization out there who was doing many of the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: exact same things we are trying to do on the
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: back forty, but they were doing it in a much
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: wider scale, and they had found ways to build systems
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: around how you teach people about this stuff and how
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: you can bring new hunters into the fold. And that
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  Speaker 1: organization was the National Deer Association formerly known as the
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Quality Deer Management Association. And you know, in addition to
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: all the great hunting and management and deer related advocacy
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: work that they do, they also spawned this new hunter
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: recruitment program called Field to Fork, which has gotten a
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: lot of great um momentum around what it's doing. This
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: this program they have which is helping bring adult onset
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: hunters out into these wild landscapes, impairing them with mentors
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: and developing educational experience, says, where these relationships build and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: you actually get people to stick with this hunting thing.
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  Speaker 1: That's what they've done really, really well. And we got
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: to think in what could the back forty do if
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  Speaker 1: we brought it along for the National Deer Association to
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: use as a resource, And there was a lot of
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: cool things that came out of that idea. So long
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: story short, as most of you know, we've already announced
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: it in the past, but most of you know that
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: we have decided to donate the back forty property to
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the NDA, and we've done that so they can use
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: it as a resource as a hub for new hunter
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: education and new hunter mentorship programs. That's what's happening. We're
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: very excited about it. Good things are gonna be happening
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: on the sixty four acres for years to come and
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and I'm personally thrilled about that. And it's a story
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  Speaker 1: that we're excited to continue telling. We're going to continue
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: documenting what's going on out there in partnership with the NDA,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: and that's what today's conversation is all about we're gonna
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: get into you the nitty gritty of what the n
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: d A sees on this properties, as far as what
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the future could look like, how they plan to use it,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: how they plan to share it with other people, what
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: kind of programs they were going to put on there, um,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: how they are going to document it, how we are
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: going to do things with them, um. All of that
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: is discussed in detail. We actually had an opportunity to
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: get Nick and Hank out on the property at the
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: very end of last year to see it. I gave
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: him a tour, we hunted one evening, and we're gonna
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: share the story of that too. So it's a great chat.
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  Speaker 1: These are great guys. The National Deer Association is doing
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: some really good things, and we're just very excited that
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: we can be a part of that now and that
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the back forward he can continue in a really positive way.
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  Speaker 1: So that's what we've got in store. I will stop rambling.
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  Speaker 1: I will just kick it over now to our conversation
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  Speaker 1: with Nick Penzotto, who's the CEO and president of the
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: n d A, and Hank Forrester, the director of Hunting Heritage.
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  Speaker 1: All right with me, now on the line, I've got
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  Speaker 1: Nick Penzelto and Hank Forrester from the National Deer Association. Gentlemen,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for taking the time to be here. Thanks
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  Speaker 1: for having us. Yeah, I'm glad that we can reunite
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: here after what was a really fun get together I
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: don't know, a month and a half ago now on
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the Back forty. Um, that's definitely something I want to
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: talk about here today. Is is that time we shared
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: together on the farm. But as I mentioned in the
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: introduction that you guys didn't get to hear yet, but
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: everybody else did. Um, you know, I personally and the
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Mediator team as a whole, it's just really really excited
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: about this next chapter for the Back forty because we
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: we had so many ideas and dreams and hopes for
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: what this property could be, what this project could be,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: and we had two years to to leave as much
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: of a mark as we personally could in our time.
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  Speaker 1: But there's so much more that I've always imagined that
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: could be done with this place and that this place
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  Speaker 1: could be used for. And so when it came down
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  Speaker 1: to thinking about, Okay, what's the right future, what's the
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: right what's the right opportunity to to guide and steward
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: this place in the coming years. You guys from the
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: get go. I can even remember where I was. I
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: was sitting on the second story floor of the Mediator
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: headquarters in Bosman, Montana, and we're talking about this, and
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  Speaker 1: I remember when the idea popped my in my head
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  Speaker 1: and I said, Oh, this, this is it. We have
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: to give it to the Quality Deer Management Association, which
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: is now the National Deer Association. I remember having this
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: little epiphany and that just it just seemed like this pine,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: this guy, amazing thing that if it could happen, it
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: would be great. But right away people are saying, well
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: what about this? What about this? And and the fact
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: that it actually has happened and that we're here talking
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: about this now is personally satisfying for me. But I'm
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: curious to hear what it's like on your end, Nick,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: where's your head on this? How what do you guys
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: think about what this project looks like, what this opportunity
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: looks like, And what do you think when you first
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: heard about it? Was this something? Uh? I guess I
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: won't put words in your mouth. What do you think
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: about all this? Yeah? Well, first I'm glad you had
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: that epiphany, so thank you for that. Um, you know,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: it's it's really interesting because my first conversation about the
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: potential for this was about the time that we were
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: talking about merger q D M A and n D A,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: and I was having some pretty deep discussions with the
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: team about where we're headed in our in our future
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and a huge, huge part of those discussions is the
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: importance of keeping up our momentum that we have going
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: on on our three initiatives. We talked a ton about
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Field the Fork, and we talked even more specifically about
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the back forty and in a partnership with Meat Eater,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: And you know, at that time, it was still I
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: think it was it was still pretty much just a vision.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: It was an idea and it hadn't happened yet. It
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: wasn't real. But even at that point, it's just it's
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: something that just made an awful lot of sense. And
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: so but you know, we've all seen many things that
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: make a lot of sense that for whatever reason never
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: never make it the fruition. But then in our conversations,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: as things kind of rolled along, um, it just looked
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: more and more positive in terms of where I'm at um.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: You know, the back for e is a it is
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: a real place. We've set foot on it, and you know,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: for many of us, it is a it is a
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: physical place that we touched. But I think bigger than
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: that is I think the back forty is it's an idea.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I think it's a way forward, and I think that's
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: our challenge now, is to let's take this place that
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: only a small percentage of us will whoever touch, and
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: make that the place that it people can, you know,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: make it their place. And maybe this you know, this
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: is a property somewhere on the other side of the country.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: So I think I think it's that the backboard is
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: an idea and we're looking forward to really making people
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: feel like it's in their own backyard. Yeah, I want
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: to unpackage a bunch of stuff you said there, but
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: but I want to take a winding path to get
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: to that point. Uh, real quick, Hank, would you add
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: anything as far as your perspective on how you're how
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: you're feeling about this. We'll get into all the details
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: of what it's gonna look like, but I'm just kind
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: of curious where your heads at. Hey, after one, it's
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: unfair that I have to follow that. You know, Nick,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Nick summed it up right there very beautifully. And and now,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, from our earliest conversations about this,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: it was a dream, um, and as now as as
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: a reality, UM, it's it's an absolute honor and and
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: we are super appreciative of the gift and the opportunity
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: that comes along with it. Um. You know, when we
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: started down the path of filled the fok and athens
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: in and started to get a little traction you know, uh,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: meat eater, you know, food focused kind of recruitment. I
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: mean it was it was our pie in the sky,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: um partner. And so so really from both sides, it's uh,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: it's it's something that seemed like a dream and now
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: it's a reality, and and we're really appreciative of the opportunity.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Well right back at you guys, I know. Um, it's
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: it's a two way thing. So while we're gifting you
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: guys the property, uh, you guys are gifting us a
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: sense of, um comfort in knowing that this it's kind
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of like I'm giving you my baby in a certain sense.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: And just the sense of trust and comfort I have
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: knowing that my baby is in the right hands and
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: that the future is is bright. Um that's a huge
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: gift to me and to meet either. So for that,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I thank you guys as well. Um so, so what
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I want to get into here soon is is talking
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: about some of your specific you know, plans for the property,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: plans for events, plans for how you know, we together
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: and you guys can can use this back forward it
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: to be more than just a physical place, but also
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: this idea of a place and this inspiration to others.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: But but first things first, we actually got to see
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the farm. You got to see the farm in December.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I invited to both of you to come join me
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: at the very end of the year to to see
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the farm, to tour the farm, to hunt a couple
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: of days if if we needed them, try to fill
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: a couple of dough tags. Uh So, first impressions of
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the property first and foremost you you you've seen the videos.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: But then you actually got to get your feet on
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the ground. Uh, Nick, first take on the property. What
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: do you think after having set foot there? Yeah? I
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: mean that was introducing us to the baby. Um so,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: uh and just be sure you have you have full
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: visitation rates whenever you want to it's. Uh. It was
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: interesting because, as you said, we've seen the videos. We
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: obviously had seen every episode of the Back forty and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: so there was a sense that when we first pulled
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: up and stepped out there, it felt like you've been
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: there before. And that just speaks to how well you
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: all did with with producing the show. But you know,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I'd say the one thing that kind of struck me
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: um for the size of the property, uh, sixty three
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: sixty four acres. Uh, it felt bigger than that. And
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: so when we went on the initial tour. That's sometimes
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: you have properties that are really big, but maybe they
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: don't feel like there is bigger. They sort of hunt small,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: so to speak. I thought that it was I thought
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: that it hunted big, that there was plenty of area
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: we could have We could have fit two or three
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: more people out there hunting that evening, and so I
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: think that was my first impression. And I think another
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: another thing that stood out quickly is that it's it's
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: It reminded me that this is a piece of property
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: that sits in the landscape with other pieces of property,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and what people doing around you matters, and what influence
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the backboard he has had on some of the neighbors there,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: So I thought that was another thing that, uh that
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: I came home with. Yeah, yeah, that's that's a that's
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: a good point. It's an interesting point, and I and
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: a hundred percent agree with you and that it does
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: feel bigger than what you might imagine. And and that
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: was even without you know, we didn't even touch half
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: the farm with the swamp and all the cover there,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: we didn't we didn't see half the farm at all,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: and so you know, imagine what's going on in all that.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: So that that's what I've always loved about it is
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: it is it. It's kind of compartmentalized in different regions.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: And I feel like with with further management those old fields,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: as they continue to be improved and changed, I just
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: feel it expanding. It's gonna feel even bigger and bigger
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: as those open spaces become more diverse and filled out
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: in different ways. Um, I'm really intrigued to see what
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: this place is going to look like, you know, a
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: handful of years down the road. So I'm right there
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: with you, Hank. What what did you think any any
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: hot takes? Yeah, I mean, my my initial reaction showing
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: up on the property um, you know was the terrain.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: And I don't think the you know, the drop down
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: to the swamp or the rise backup really came across
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: in in the back forty web series. UM, So that
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: was most shocking to me. Um. It's a beautiful piece
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: of property. And it honestly, just driving up there, um
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and staying locally and and and seeing the property, it
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: was kind of confirmation and of that hunting culture that
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: I've heard so much about and witnessed, um, you know
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: through your content over the years. But um, you know,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: it kind of reaffirmed those beliefs. And then honestly, by
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: the time we uh we stepped off the property, I
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: think my biggest takeaway was that you were a proud
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: papa and and rightfully so. And the property that I
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: experienced was not the property that I've seen documented over
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: the last couple of years. And I think that's a
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: testament to the improvements and and and you know, um
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: sweat equity and everything that you've put in to the property,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: along with all your guests and and everything like that.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: But um, I saw a real transformation, um, from what
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I've seen from day one two when we left the property. Yeah,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: I I felt I felt the same way after after
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the end of our trip, and and I guess let
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: me give the cliff notes version of our hunt and
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: then you guys can add some color. But you know,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: our our hope was we would spend two days, you know,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: touring the farm together and then hunting it, and that
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: would give you guys an opportunity to get to know
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the place, understand you know what this landscape was that
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: now you guys will be working with. And then also,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: you know, there's no better way to get to know
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: something like this than actually sitting out there and observing
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: it and hunting it. So we thought, hey, we know
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: that there could be some more dough management out here,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: so let's utilize this time we're gonna spend as a
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: way to also achieve a management task. So my dream was, man,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: if we could fill three dough tags, that would be
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: a great way to end the season. And so that's
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: what that's what we did. We went out there that
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: first night, and uh, at first, I gotta, I gotta
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: before I give any more detail, I gotta ask. We
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: we determined who was going to hunt where that night
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: by a very competitive game of rock paper scissors between
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Hank and Nick and Hank ultimately you. One My question
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: for you, Nick is have you spent any time kind
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: of armchair quarterback in your decisions? How you determined what
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: to throw? And do you do you think you could
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: have rethought your strategy as far as rock paper sayss
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: to have won that or or did you just slide
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: that anything carpet and forget about it? Um? You know,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: maybe I should have put more strategy into it. Um
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: you know I didn't. Um the psychologist and me, I
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: guess should have got into Hank's mind a little bit
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: and thought about what you might want to throw, And
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: so I will and nearly threw one out there, and uh,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and I lost. I think I think it took us
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: a couple of rounds, but um, it was a thorough
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: beating and I took it, took it like a man.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I knew. I knew that just
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: about anywhere on that property was going to be good.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: And I especially new Mark, when you said I'm gonna
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: sit with you on the first hunt, Nick, I thought, well,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: wherever they're sending me doesn't suck, Because Mark, I'm ye
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: know it all worked out. Um, you and I Nick,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: we went and sat in the I guess would be
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the northeast corner of the property, which was the same
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: tower blind where my dad killed his buck earlier in
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the year, and a place that you know, I had
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: always thought, you know, had potential. It's it's our corner
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: tucks into a lot of really good habitat on the neighbors,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: and so I always envisioned if we could just improve
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: on our side a little bit more, we would get
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: some spillover effects from the already good stuff on all
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the neighbors there. And so that's what we've tried to
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: start doing, um and only only just scratched the surface there,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: but by adding some of these Egyptian wheat screens, that
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: started to break it up a little bit more. And
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: by the switch grass plantings and pollinator plantings and some
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: treatments we we did to get rid of some of
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the other weeds. We thickened up that whole corner of
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: that field in a decent way and then added that
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: expanded food plus, so we had more cover out there
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: and a pretty are in good food plot, and uh,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: you know, that was certainly the ticket for us this season.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: In that corner we killed my Dad's buck, of course,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and then you and I, uh, gosh, I mean when
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: we're climbing into the blind, there were deer already moving
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: in the timber adjacent to us as we were getting
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: set up, right, I mean, it was instantly, Oh there's deer.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: And uh there was a brief break I guess for
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe an hour or so after those
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: deer disappeared, and then all of a sudden, here comes more. Um,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: how many dear do you think we saw, Nick, I mean,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: it was quite a few over over the course of
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the evening. Yeah, I gotta say it was one of
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: those hunts where I never had time to think about that.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: It was. I think it was in the twenties. That night.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: It was cold, as you said. As we were into
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: the into the stand, Um, we saw a deer moving.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: And really what it came down to, I was really
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: confident we would see a lot of activity with that
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: cold friend. It just came down to whether or not
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: they would come into the field with food plot was
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: or whether they go stay on the neighbors and go
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: to a cut cornfield. And so um, I think the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: fact that they made the choice become our direction just
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: speaks to what you just described in terms of the layout. Um,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: you don't. You have to be thoughtful about these things,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: and you clearly were. You don't. You can't just go
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: out and throw us a food plot in the middle
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: of somewhere and expected to play out. You have to
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: think about how a scenario might play out like that.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: So I thought it was really cool to actually see
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: it in action. Yeah, it was nice to see between
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: that hunt and my dad's hunt, that this one specific
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: location that I gave a little bit more thought than
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: other places, you know, specifically thinking about where I've seen
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: these deer coming in and out of the timber, and
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: how I would hope they use the terrain, and then
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: placing the tower blind on the most likely downwind side
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: of this long, skinny food plot that I hoped would
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: bring deer in but then move them along it. Um,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: it actually worked out that way both times that we,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: you know, spend time hunting it. And in our case,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: you know, Nick, what was it, I don't know, an
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: hour and a half maybe after sitting down, this second
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: group of deer came working our way. It came all
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the way out of the timber, and maybe there was
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: five six seven does maybe that worked their way out
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: into our brushy field and then straight to the food plot. Um,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and you were able to line up on one. I
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: don't know if she maybe do you remember how far
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: she was? Sixty yards, seventy yards something like that. Yeah,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I think it was something in that neighborhood. We had
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: had the discussion in the blind just prior to that.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: We we wanted the deer to get out into the
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: plot if we could presented a good shot opportunity. And
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: you know, one one thing that I remember, and you'd
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: asked me how many deer we thought we saw, I'm
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: gonna say we thought we saw like at least ten deer.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: My memory a little fuzzy now because it's been a
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: little while, but it was. It was no shortage of deer,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and they were they were very edgy, obviously, these being
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: in Michigan where we were with hunting pressure and whatnot. Uh.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: The lead though, actually the one I ended up taking,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: she was very aware of of that blind and um,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: you know, just she was not gonna just really nearly
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: got walking out there and start feeding and the same
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: thing with your deer, so um, you know, it's just
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: it was it was. It was a lot of deer,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and I thought too, uh, you know, we'll then we'll
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: get into Hank's story too. But walking out, I remember
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the number of tracks that we saw a deer that
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: none of us would have seen from where we were.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: That we're fresh tracks from that evening. So there were
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: there were deer all over that place that night. Yeah, yeah,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: that's that's true. We even even I remember going to
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: recover your deer, we saw more deer off in the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: distance in the other field running off. So yeah, they were.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: They were out and about that night, that's for sure.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: And you got a great shot on your dough that
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: came out with that first group of five or six
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: or whatever they went running back in. And then maybe
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: over the course of the next half hour or so,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: we spotted these deer come back out of the timber.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Either the same ones are different, I'm not sure which,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: but two deer eventually filtered out and came our direction,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: one of them being I think it was too one
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: of them being a nice, big, mature dough And she
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: finally stepped out and we were waiting for her to
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: turn broadside. And as we're waiting for her to turn broadside,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: we hear a big gaboom from the next field over
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: and Hay shot one, and then moments later our doll
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: finally turned it. I got a crack and she went
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: running off and toppled over. So that was two for
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: two for us in our blind. Uh, Hank, what was
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: what was the quick rundown of your night? Well, I
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: guess we were in the honey hole. Um and uh,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: I think we ended up seeing five deer that evening.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: It was it's kind of slow for the you know,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: maybe first hour. And uh, actually we kind of missed
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: took an earlier shot I guess from a neighboring property,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: thinking it might have been y'all, but um, you know,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: not being used to the straight wall cartridges and facing
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: away from us and everything. When Nick later shot, we
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: realized that that was not in fact y'all originally. And
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: um and then a little bit later a dough and
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: two fonds came from your direction, kind of surprised us,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: and um eventually presented a nice broadside shot just down
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: in the food plot. Um, kind of where the honey
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: hoole and uh and your woodline right there kind of
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: bottleneck um and uh, and we ended up seeing two
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: other deer other than those three. But um, you know,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: just a beautiful evening um in Michigan, and I'm lucky
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: to harvest and nice stove. It was a great it
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: was a great night. And uh, I'm gonna have to
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: apologize in advance for this, but I'd be remiss if
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't throw you under the bus real quick, Hank,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: and talk about the most the most explosive gutting incident
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: I personally have ever witnessed. We're watching you gut your
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: dear or watching you gut your deer, and you're doing
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: a really great job, and you're being careful. And I
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: think in the midst of you discussing this, we are
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: talking about how you've had to teach so many new hunters,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: or you know, showcase to many new hunters, you know,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: through field of fork, how to do this process. And
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: something along that line of conversation was going on. And
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: as we're talking about like teaching people to gut, you
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: slip the knife a little bit. It popped the stomach
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and it just exploded all up your arms mark in
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: your jacket. I mean, I've never seen anything that bad.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, would you describe it differently? Hank, I think
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: that's pretty close to reality. But I have replayed that
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: moment in my mind, you know, the nine hour drive
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: home or whatever. Um, try and you know, washing the
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: jacket to try to figure out what happened. Um, that
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: jacket will never go hunting ever again. It got de
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: scented laundry detergent, and I don't think it will ever
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: come out. But but no, you're absolutely right. You made
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: some comment of all, you know, great clean gutting job,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: and next thing I know, there's just a I mean
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: a quarter of an inch slit in that stomach. And
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: I guess because of that small hole. I don't know
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: if the top of the gut hook kind of punctured
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: the stomach or what. Um, but yes, the small hole
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: uh created a pressure behind it. And I have not
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: experienced anything like that myself either. But if there's any
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: ever a teaching moment, I want all these potential new
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: hunters and aspiring hunters out there to know that you
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: know you can even you know all of us will
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: make mistakes, but you know you can get through it
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: and the meat is still fine and you and still
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: take it home and serve it. Yeah, maybe it's a
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: teaching moment. But yes, it wasn't an adventure. And we
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: we joked during we joked after that that I had
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: plans of making the video that was going to come
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: from this hunt. It was gonna be seven minutes of
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: the hunt and then seven minutes of you dealing with
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: that mess. I can I can now tell you, Hank,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: that we didn't do that to you. The video, the
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: video is done and you're gutting incident is nowhere to
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: be seen. So yeah, it's podcast exclusive exactly. So it was,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: it was right now, I want to rescue I want
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: to rescue Hanker tad here because in full disclosure, we
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: mark you and I. We got to arguere while there
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: was still daylight, so we got to uh to do
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: our work while we could still see. And in the meantime,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Hanks was sitting there and gaining a little bit of
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I guess some some stomach ex ans and while we
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: were waiting, and then we asked him to do it dark, so, um,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: you know, well, we'll give him to throw him a
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: little bit of a life line there and say that
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: his his conditions for having to deal with it were
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: a little bit tougher there. You go. That's a man, Hank.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: That's that's true leadership right there. From Nick, You've got
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: a good one. You've got a good one. Uh Man.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: It was it was a great It was a great
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: hunt and a great visit. Um. I was really glad
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: that you guys were able to make it down and
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: have that kind of introduction to the place. Okay, you've
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: you've seen the farm, and we are now passing this
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: place onto you guys. And there's there's two different sides
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: of what I'm envisioning happening there in the property. The
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: first thing I'd like to hear about is how you
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: guys are thinking about I don't know if you I
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: don't think you guys know the specifics yet, but I'd
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: love to learn more about how you plan to think
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: about the management on the farm, Like how are what
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: are you guys thinking about doing? How are you thinking
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: about continuing any of the work that we started when
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: it came to habitat management or deer management or anything
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: like that. You know, are you guys going to practice
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: quality deer management practices on the place or is it
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: different because this is going to be um used for
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: new hunter engagements. I've got a lot of questions just
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: around all of that. UM, what either one of you
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: guys want to share perspective on on what the farm
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: looks like from that perspective, Sure, I'll take that. UM.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: You know your listeners aren't aware, but I know we've
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: engaged you in some of this. But UM, you know,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: we want to obviously continue a lot of what you've
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: done on the property. UM. You know, as a as
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: a national you know, deer focused conservation organization, we teach
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: people you know, how to hunt all the way to
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: habitat management and herd management and all that kind of
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: good stuff. So of course we want to continue, um,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the improvement of the property, the management of the property
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: that you have done, and and to do that, we're
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: going to rely on a group of both kind of
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: local and statewide volunteers um you know, national Deer Association members, um,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: who who have experience or interest um in kind of
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: managing the property. UM. So we've kind of convened a
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: small habitat committee as we're calling them, and plan to
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: expand that, and of course they're looking for for new
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: volunteers and anybody who has interest in helping both from
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: the habitat and management side to uh, you know, mentoring
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: new hunters and community engagement and all that. But UM,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: you know, we want a seamless transition of the management
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: and just oversight of the property UM, and want to
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: continue your legacy. And so we plan to be UM
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: on the ground soon with an in person tour UM
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: for those kind of hands on individuals UM and kind
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: of bring them up to speed on where we stand. UM.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: You know, dreams that weren't realized. I mean, just as
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: we've dealt with and you know it's the things that happened. UM.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: I know that some of your plans had to change
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: because of certain situations, and and we want to get
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: to projects that you might have not had time to do.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: But to maintain a property that's its beneficial for engaging
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: the community and mentory new hunters, but also providing quality
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: wildlife habitat UM even you know, a showcase for locals
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: on what they can do with their properties. But all
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: in all, we just want to carry on the ideals
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: and and and things that you incorporated in the back
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: forty in that project and make sure that we utilize
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: the property the best we can UM for the future
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: of wildlife and management and area but also for for
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: new hunters and and deer hunting. Would you would you
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: add anything to that, Nick, Yeah, I think Hank Hank
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: did a great job there. I'll just say that it's
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: interesting too because as an organization we are we've always
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: been about conservation, no question. But I think what people
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: have seen about us is that we are UM. They
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: saw us as being a quality deer organization, meeting big deer,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: that type of thing, and so UM, I think that
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: this property is a conservation property. It's one of the
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: things that impressed me when I was first watching the show.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: You have bee hives there, you know, you're you're thinking
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: about those types of things, pollinators, pre planning, and so
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: we want to take this is this is also an
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: opportunity for us to have people be acquainted with who
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: we are as an organization. And because of the the
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: type of following that you all get, UM and you know,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: not that we don't have a following either, but we
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: think ears is different. We think it gets to the
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: people that really need to see what we're all about.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: So we're also excited about it from that aspect um
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: as well. On that front, you know what would um
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: when you say that Nick, what what specifically is that
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: you want these people to see about the National Deer Association,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Is it? I mean, I can make some assumptions, some inferences,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: but if if I were to say, okay, Nick, well
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: what is that exactly? Tell us right now? You know
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: what is the message this? What is this message? Yeah?
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: And I'm glad you asked that I have this kind
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: of crazy vision and I may have told you about
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: it in the past, but um, I have a vision
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: that someday people will join our organization while having no
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: intention to even shoot a deer. And so they'll join
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: because they recognize the conservation value the deer bring, not
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: not just as a hundred species, but that's a big
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: part of it. So for example, when seven out of
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: ten people that hunt hunt deep and and the next
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: animals not not even close, not even half that. Um,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: that's a huge, huge piece of the pie. When it
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: comes to conservation of all wildlife species. The amount of
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: money that goes to state wildlife agencies from sale of
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: hunting licenses, from purchasing equipment to go hunt deer, um,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: that's a that's a huge piece and deer critical to
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: that and so we need healthy deer. We need a
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: healthy deer hunting heritage, and we need conservation, and that's
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: what we're about. We want to achieve broad conservation conservation
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: of all species through the management of deer. And it's
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: not this is this is not like maybe it was
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: when I was a kid, where you could just kind
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: of take deer for granted. They were everywhere. Not to
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: say that deer still aren't everywhere, but that's threatened by
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: other things. Now. They're threatened by loss of habitats. They're
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: threatened by things like chronic wasting disease, they're threatened by
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: threatened by changing weather patterns. Frankly um, So there's just
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: a lot out there, and deer need a steward, they
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: need a spokesperson. So this is an opportunity to tell people,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: to tell everybody hun or not, de are pretty guarding
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: important and they're not just something that you maybe you know,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: hit with your buick, uh you know that are seed
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: eating your flower gardens. They're important and I think we
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: have a responsibility to tell people that and get them
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: behind Dear. Yeah, yeah, I love it. I couldn't agree
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: more so. So I'm excited to hear Hank and and
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: we've already talked about some of these things, and I've
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: had some conversations with the committee, But I'm excited about
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: the ideas you guys have around trying to kind of
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: take our initial set of plans and kind of give
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: them jet fuel and get out there and do the
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: things that I wish we could have but never could have.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Um And and I'm sure you guys are gonna have
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: some other ideas to bringing on the experts that you
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: have within your teams and within your volunteer base. So well,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: that gets me really excited. I mean, I know that
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: what you're telling us, Nick is something that ever one
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: at media was really excited about, which is the fact
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: that you guys would be looking at this, you know,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: as a larger conservation initiative. This This isn't gonna be
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: like an exclusive property for a couple of people, shoot
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: big Bucks. That's not what's happening in the back Ford.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: It this is going to be a place that is
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: representative and it is illustrative of what you can do
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: on a property to conserve wildlife and plant life, and
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: and then also using as an educational resource to teach
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: other people how to think about those things in their
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: own place, or how to hunt or how to improve
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: a piece of property. Are all those different things the
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: things that we wanted to do um and and started
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: to do. It's it's exciting to hear that you're going
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: to continue with those same um ideas and missions going
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: forward and then putting your own spin and expertise behind it. Um. Hey,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: is there anything you can share as far as I
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: don't know any of the conversations you've had with volunteers
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: or the committees around some of the specific projects that
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: folks are excited about taking on or thinking about taking on.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: I just I gotta believe that people are curious, like, hey,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: are they gonna plant more trees? Are they gonna do
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: more food? Plus has there been any I know decisions
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: haven't been made, probably, but I'm just curious if there's
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: any kind of teaser you can provide us all as
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: far as what might year three in the back forward
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: it look like when it comes to sending Josh further
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Hilliard out there to get to work. Oh man, uh,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: as you know, our guys are hungry and and they're
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: chomping at the bit. Um. I think expanding the trees
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: plantings on the property as a given. UM. Of course
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: we're we're working on the other things like a conservation
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: ease meant on the property, UM, expanding food plots, UM,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: doing a little bit more UM to turn the fields
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: over to a more native plant life. UM. You know,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: this guy's the limit and and they're really excited. UM.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Our next step is really getting them on the property
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: and giving them the real view. We've done a zoom
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: tour UM, but nothing will you know, take the place
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: of them seeing the property as we got to. UM.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: But you know, we we hope to continue and and
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: do more. And I think it will turn into three
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: and then four and year five and UM, gosh only knows.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: But we've got some real talent on the committee and
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: some and some people with a lot of energy and
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: an expertise. So UM, I have no doubt in my
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: mind that the management of both habitat and wildlife on
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: the property is is looking good. UM. And of course,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: as Nick said earlier, we we look forward to you
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: continuing to check up on us. You've got that that
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: free pass anytime you won't and we look forward to
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: keeping you posted on you know, the continued work on
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: the property. Yeah, I'm excited about that too. And here's
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: a question, you know, old school qut um kind of
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: ideas around making harvest decisions on deer. There was always
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: some people that would say, well, you've got to stick
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: to your management goals. If we're if we're targeting you know,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: three or four year old bucks, that's what everyone has
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: to do. Um. And so there's some people that talk
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: like that, and then there's other people that say, you know,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: everyone has, you know, have your own goal, but when
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: it comes to new hunters or kids, you should really
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: think about, you know, giving them a different entry point,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: you know, to have more opportunity. UM. I'm sure there's
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: people who heard about us giving the property to the
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: formerly known as the Quality Deer Management Association and thought, ma'am,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: what does that mean for all these new hunters that
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: suppose we're going out there to have to wait you
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: have to wait for a big buck to come out
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: to shoot? Or alternatively, are they going to shoot every
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: year they see and fifty are gonna get killed out
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: there next year? I've already heard that people asking like,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: what does this mean for the deer herd? Um? Could
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: other one of you guys, you know, clear the air
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: on that or maybe provide some color as to any
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: thoughts you've had around that. I'll take a quick stab
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: and then Hank may want to fill in. So Um,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: just kind of smiling as I hear you talk, because
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: I can I can see these are here are these
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: questions coming in and so um, you know, every every
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: property has its own unique opportunity and also should have
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: its own very unique management goals. I think our goal
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: there is again it's it's it is. This is a
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: it's a vision. Okay, it's a it's a it's a vision,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: and we want to educate in terms of hunters on
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: the property. I think that we want to educate people
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: about things like age structure and the importance of having
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: a balanced age and sex structure in your herd. But
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: we also have to recognize that we're working on a
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: pretty small property in the grand scheme of things, and
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: so that means we have limitations. You shot two bucks there,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: mark that I think are pretty indicative of what is
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: possible there um, just with patients. And so I think
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: that if if we can give our participants that hunt
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: their opportunities at they can they can shoot a yearling
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: buck if that satisfies them. But also to potentially have
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: an opportunity at something a little older. It would be
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: nice to tell them, hey, just so you know, here's
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: what we know about the property based on observance and
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: trail camera pictures and whatnot. But it's your decision. And
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: so to me, the real goal there is the conservation
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: message and to improve a property and have happy, healthy deer.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: And if we can do that and also do things
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: like keep a good age structure and be able to
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: have two or three deer running around like the ones
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: you've taught the last couple of years, I look at
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: that as winning. I think that's a great experience for people,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: and I think that should be our goal. That's awesome, Hank,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Would you add anything? Sure? Um? Yes, I mean a
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: lot of people have opinions of what we've we've you know,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: what we've taught or what we've championed over the years,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: and I think a lot of it is is a
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: misrepresentation or just um a little off you know. Uh,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: you know, cut you may always said that if you
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: protect most of your yearly and bucks, you know you're
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: doing a good thing. And and for first time hunters,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: we have never set any guidelines ourselves we have obviously,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: you know, hosted events on properties where we went with
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: guidelines of that property. But as as for us, I mean,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: um any legal dear. You know, I've set with plenty
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: of these filled to four hunters over the years. And
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: and it's if if you'd like to put that deer
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: in your freezer, it's that's you. That's your decision, you know, um,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: and all power to them. You know. Um, I'm a
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: meat hunter. UM, I love to shoot those and you know, um,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: you know that's that's kind of my motivation as a
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: hunter per se. But um, you know, this kind of
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: brings me back to you know, our point where you know,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: how many people can you hunt on the Back forty
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: And and correct me if I'm wrong, but a lot
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: of your intentions with the Back forty project were to
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: show what someone could do with a you know, a
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: fairly average or or a property that is excess sable,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: too many and available in many parts of this country.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: And so for for our success using the property for
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Filled the Fork per se, it will be all utilizing
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: the property to the best of its potential, but inspiring
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: the network of back forties both locally around the Back
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: forty and and a patchwork throughout the country because we need,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: you know, hunters and and managers of the back forties
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: across the country to understand that they can have an
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: impact on the future of honey. Not only can they
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: manage their property and the animals that you know you
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: were there, but they can they can be very influential
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: locally to create community around people who are interested in
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: learning to hunt or you know, to mentor new hunters.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: And so it's really from our point of view, we
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: want to take this property and take kind of your
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: same intention, but o others that you can do this too,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: and and so even at a local level, the success
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: around the Back forty in Michigan will be the community
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: and the patchwork even locally that we can create around it,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: inspire others to join us, to create more hunters and
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: create a community of of food focused adult hunters, you know,
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: a diverse group of people who who share a passion
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: for for hunting and wild foods and and that kind
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: of stuff, and and also are known kind of as
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: if you want to learn to hunt, you need to
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: get in touch with these people. And really that's that's
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: our intention, and that's the dream now is to create
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: that around this opportunity. Yeah, I think that's I think
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: that's spot on, and it makes it makes a lot
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: of sense now for people who maybe aren't as familiar
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: with Field to Fork. Um. It's something that we've talked
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: about previously on this podcast. We've talked about it in
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: detail on the Mediator podcast. But I want to just
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: be sure, just in case people are new they're not
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: aware of what this program is. Can you give me
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: the cliff notes on what the Field to Fork program
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: is that you guys run. Um, just a quick overview
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: of of what this thing is we're talking about, and
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: then we can kind of we can then dive into
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: how that is going to play out on the back
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: for you. Awesome, Yeah, Phil, The fork is is a
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: modern food focused adult learn to hunt program that um
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: we kind of created. The name started as a workshop
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: in Kentucky in the you know, mid two thousands, and
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: with permission and everything, we took their name and went
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: to the Farmers Market in Athens, Georgia, just to kind
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: of take the data and and kind of the cultural
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: changes we're seeing in the United States with the advent
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: of farmers markets and organic grocery stores and all that
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: you know, the metrics and and the changing you know
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: values in this country bode very well for the future
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: of hunting. People care about where their food comes from. Um,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: you know, local sustainable people seem to be um, you know,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: yearning for a deeper connection with nature and especially after
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: the last year self reliance. But we wanted to create
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: a program that took adults, you know, your most efficient audience,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: and tried to create a sustainable program that created lasting hunters.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: And you know, we we made our own mistakes over
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: the early years, but after and seventeen, we kind of
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: created a program that we thought worked, pairing uh, local
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: first time hunters with local hunters who were sharing their
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: stands and access UM and really creating community around it,
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: you know, having organized education and shared meals and and
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: and range time and and really it was it was
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: simply about building a local community of hunters and and
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: and new hunters who who kind of shared all this
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: infectious passion and and you know, memory of what it
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: was like for them to get their first year. But um,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: you know, we started with replications. We had eight programs.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: By we had twenty six programs in seventeen states. We've
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: you know, I truly believe that the most sustainable and
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: the most lasting programs will be these community based programs
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: that I mentioned, where it's an extended period of you know,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: learning to hunt with local new hunters and local mentors
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: and and Sherry Mills and camaraderie. It's about creating social
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: support and and building that confidence of these new hunters
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: and giving them the avenues and resources that they need
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: to to you know, find their own path to becoming
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: and self identifying as a hunter. And so you know,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: we've we've focused on these community kind of programs in
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: many states, but we've also tried destination programs where we
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: had an opportunity at a private property or or something
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: else a public land where we could rent cabins, where
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: we just brought people in for four day events and
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: kind of condensed everything into one. We've gotten into industry
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: filled to forks where we've hosted programs for Ruger and
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: six Hour, most recently Daniel Defense and and hoping to
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: host one for Vortex this year. UM. But we realized
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: quickly when you know, even my staff was seeing what
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: we were doing in Athens, they were interested in signing up.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: And so we've we hosted one for our staff and
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: and so that's kind of what we're inspiring industry to do. UM.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: We've partnered with the FEDS and unfilled the forks on
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: national Wildlife refugees, most recently in Virginia at the Aqua
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: Columbay National Wildlife Refuge But UM, you know, we're just
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: trying to prove that that this can happen anywhere, that
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: you can get a group of people together that are
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: fairly knowledgeable about hunting and willing to share their knowledge,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: UM hopefully share some of their resources and their access.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: But UM, you know, we need a lot more people
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: mentoring new hunters UM, and we need to diversify hunting
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: and it's a fun way to do it. UM. You
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: know you mentioned they can go to Deer Association dot
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: com slash FtF filled the Fork UM, and you can
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: see a video we did in or even a PBS
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: episode of Reconnecting Roots from last year with Steve and
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: right Callahan and us UM, as well as the previous
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: podcast that myself and Charles were with you. But UM,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: of course kind of changed things a little bit. We
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: had to cancel programs that we couldn't you know, safely
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: socially distanced or adapt but it created its own opportunities
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: and were really fleshed out kind of the remote learning
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: and realizing that we can we can teach people about
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting UM Hunter Education. We have an online deer
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: hunting one on one course that UM with Today's Hunter
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: or Calcumy that's online UM. And we were able to
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: utilize these online resources to kind of train our hunters
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: at home and impair them with hunters and get them
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: out UM. So it kind of proved even more avenues
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: and opportunities to where we we of course want to
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: focus on organized events, but we can also you know,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: really fulfill a need for individuals, you know, anywhere where
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: we might not have organized programs to to help them
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: build the confidence and find the avenues too, to find
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: their way of field and hopefully become lasting hunters. I
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: love the program and excited to see it continue to grow.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: And I've always thought that the trick has been doing
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: what you guys are talking about doing, which is figuring
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: out how to scale this thing and how to how
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: to get it so that there's more and more and
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: more people inspired to to help volunteer and launch their
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: own field of fork events all across the country. That
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: seems to be the that's the there's the rub is
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: how do you get enough people and then get them
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: the right tools to do these things themselves in partnership
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: with you guys or whatever. Um. So I'm just kind
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: of curious. And I don't know if this is a
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: question for you, Hank, or if it's Nick or both
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: of you. I'm just curious, Um, what's the future look like?
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Where do you see this in the next year or two?
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: What's what's the next step for the field of fork program?
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Because I know what you've established, We've we've covered this
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: in detail and why it seems to be such a
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: h an idea with so much potential that you guys
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: have already seen such potential. But what's what is next? Where?
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: How do you take that next step? Like I'll take
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: less wing and intern go ahead about I was gonna
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: turn it over to you real quick here. I just
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say that, um, scale is important, and
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: that's why I said that the back forty is is
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: an idea and it's an idea we need to share.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: And part of taking it to scale is being able
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: to show a lot of people what it is, but
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: then being able to help them do it on their own.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: There's no there's no future of the National Beer Association.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: We're gonna hold five hundred field before events across the country.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: It's just not realistic. And we've talked about that internally.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: But I'll go ahead and let Hank take it from here. Now.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: Nick's absolutely right. I mean, um, I hope gets back
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: to you know, replication mode, and and you know, any
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: of our branches, other groups, Um, you know, we were
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: happy to help people learn from what we've done, share
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: our successes, share our failures, and hope that they can
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: build similar programs and opportunities. Um, you know, and every
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: every opportunity is unique. So that's that's the you know,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: the biggest thing I can kind of convey to people.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: But UM, you know, we all have to understand as organizations,
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: as groups of people are even as individuals. You know,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: if if we take the time to do this, which
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: you know, I feel like it's our duty, we can
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: we can make strides and we have you know, you know,
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: as bad as the pandemic is, we saw an increase
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: in hunting participation last year. People had more time to
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: get outside and UM. You know, we want to make
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: sure that you know they can continue that retention is
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: a big thing. But UM poll and all we want
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: to we we've built resources. There's also resources that we
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: created with a t A that are like checklists, full
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: full curriculum and guides to replicating field to fork. We
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: hope to create new content and and update and continue
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: to build new resources. You know, if people are interested
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: and signing up for a field to fork. We have
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: been overwhelmed by people wanting to to sign up for
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: a field to fork. Many things to meet either and
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: you but also some some press and and we're building
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: ways to connect them with local mentors. But you know,
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: for a new hunter who's interested, UM, we're building out
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Dear Association dot com slash new Hunter in a way
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: that they can they can let us know where they
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: are and what they're interested in. But at the same
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: time we will provide you know, our free resources as
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: well as paid resources and and other avenues that we
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: think they can UM hopefully find opportunity of field whether
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: with us or without UM. But we want to just
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: continue to grow filled the fork, grow the content UM
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: and and and make it more applicable and approachable to
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: war people. And and the biggest thing is bringing on
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: a massive partners. We're working with a diver you know,
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: canvas of partners in different states. We've never shied away
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: from helping even states where we traditionally didn't operate in.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: We've we've held filled the forks in Alaska. We've we've
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: helped you know, California are three create programs, many estate agencies.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: But we're not trying to um, you know, keep this internal.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: We just hope that we can share what we've learned
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: um you know, inspire others, empower others. And obviously, I
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: think if anything, we we've showed that there's an there's
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: an opportunity here that there are millions of new hunters
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: and diverse new hunters that might not be focused on
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: the same things that that we grew up learning to
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: be focused on or whatever. But through that diversification of
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: hunters and and UM and just that changing culture, there's
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: an opportunity here to have one heck of an awesome community.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: And we're seeing it and and honestly, it's it's much
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: too um to what you guys are doing a meat
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: eat and at Wired to Hunt, I mean you've helped
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: to create this entire new contingent of hunters and and
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: spark interests in these new groups. And and I guess
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: that's the biggest takeaway and why we want to help
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: all these other groups do this is you know, there's
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: there's such a diverse opportunity here and and like we
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: mentioned with you know, I've spoken with Ford at First
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: Light for years about the opportunities of Filled to Fork
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: and even the opportunity within First Light to mentor their
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: own hunters, and they're doing that, and Steve and the
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: honest and you guys, I mean even you this year
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: on the back four to you have champion mentoring new hunters,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: and you have found that that those new hunters exist
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: in your own you know, businesses or or companies. And
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: and so that's the thing is why would we hold
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: hold keys to this when we really need we need
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: First Light and we need meet either and we need
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: every one of these groups to continue to to both
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: look internally and look externally on ways that they can
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: get new hunters a field and create new hunters um
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: And that's really the opportunity. I love it if if
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: someone's here in this right now, and I don't ask
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: you to repeat this at the end of our conversation too,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: But while we're on the specific topic, if someone's here
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: in this right now and thinks to themselves, yeah, I
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: need to try to make something like this happened in
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: my community or at my company or in my branch
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: or whatever it is. UM, can you repeat that resource
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: or that landing page where people can go to get
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: your toolkit and and whatever it is they need to
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: connect with you to either set up one of these
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: events through through you guys, or to set up their own. Sure, UM.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: You know, for any new hunters, it's Dear Association dot
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: com slash New Hunter, and that's the quickest way to
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: give us your information, UM, where you can be connected
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: with local resources, local events, that kind of stuff. For
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: for groups or mentors, we were building out a mentor
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: landing page much in the same way as the new
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: Hunter page, but as of right now, UM is not up.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: If they want to email me at Hank at Deer
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: Association dot com or go to the Field to Fork
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: website again, that's Deer Association dot Com slash FtF UM.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: My email is all over that website. You can find
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: all the information all the summaries of almost everything we've
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: done in Field to Fork, from our own writings to
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: you know, um covering the podcast we've done with you
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: and that kind of stuff in videos so we've produced
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: or been on. So um, there's kind of your three
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: resources right there. Perfect. Okay, So let's let's talk about
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: the next step, which is we kind of alluded to
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: some things here, but let's talk specifics or at least
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: as as much specificity as you guys have been able
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: to nail down yourselves, but specifically, what do you think
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: Field the Fork looks on looks like on the back
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: forty this year? Have you guys talked about this, like
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: how many hunters you think you'll be able to have
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: out there this year or how many different events you
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: might be able to have out there this year? Has
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: that been something you guys have been able to broach
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: yet or still in the planning phases? Sure, Um, it
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: is definitely in the planning phases. But but we're actively
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: working on it. You know, it's our intention to host
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: kind of that community approach. And I don't want to
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: I don't want to rehash it too many times if
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: people got it the first time, but you know, it's
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: the success will come down to us utilizing the four
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: or five hunters we can hunt there, but you know,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: getting a group of local people with access to property
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: or knowledge of public lands to take it. So really,
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: this guy's the limit. Um. You know, many times when
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: we've started, you know, a first year of filled the fork,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: you know, tend to twelve people is a nice place
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: to start. I think our opportunity here is larger, um.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: And we have obviously done it in the past where
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: we have started larger. But my intention and really it
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: will come down to the amount of mentors and properties
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: that we can recruit locally. Um. But I hope to
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: have at least three dozen new hunters that are a
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: part of a local community pasted program around the back
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: forty and and and possibly trainings and classroom opportunities will
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: happen right there on the back forty But um, you
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: know that number could be a lot higher. It just
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: really depends on how many current hunters and you know,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: a half hour or an hour drive will be willing
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: to dedicate um a couple of CITs of their dear
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: season this year, um, you know, and offer a little
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: bit of their knowledge and and and confidence built into
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: a new hunter. So if you are sing and you
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: live somewhere in southern Michigan or central Michigan, and you
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: would like to volunteer either as a mentor for one
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: of these programs or or you know, offer up your
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: property for someone to hunt as part of one of
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: these groups for a couple of days. Uh. If if
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: that's you listening, listen up to this next thing, because Hank,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: I'd like you to tell those people if specifically somebody
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: wants to help with this specific back forty events that
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: you're going to be planning out for this year, who
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: should they? Should they reach out to you directly? When
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: should they do that? How should they do that? Absolutely?
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: Please email me. Um, you know we have Josh Hilliard
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: in the state of Michigan. I mean, obviously if they
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: know Josh, contact him. But um, I'm happy to get
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: those emails. We would be so appreciative to anybody, whether
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: you're familiar with the National Deer Association or not, whether
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: you're a you're a member of another group, or or
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: just an individual out there. Um. You know, we're a
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: firm believer in cooperative approach. We can do more with
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: more people and bringing groups together, um, and so absolutely
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: please reach out to us and feel free to email
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: me at Hank and Deer Association dot com. Great now, guys,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: everyone listening, this this is the part where you really
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: I step up because you know, like like Hank mentioned,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: the back forty, it's it's it's someone's excited. Uh if
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: we got to sign up already, all right, he's in. Um.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: What I was gonna say is that the back forty
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: is it's only sixty acres. So, like you said, there's
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: there's only so many people that can be on there
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: at any given moment in time. But if you have
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: a handful of other properties in the general area, you
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: can have a bunch of hunters coming for a weekend
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: event and have five of them or four of them
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: on the back forty and four of them on another
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: property and four of them on another property. And then
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: maybe the next day you cycle out and other people
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: get to see the back forty, or maybe you do
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: a classroom approach like you talked about. But you need
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: this volunteer base. You need the other nearby properties to
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: build something like this out. And so I think that
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: the wire dunt listeners, this is a great opportunity to
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: step up and be a part of this. You you've
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: seen us doing the back forty thing, um, you've heard
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: me talk about it. Now I personally am asking you
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: to be a part of it. This is your opportunity
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: to be a part of this thing, uh, to to
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: do something that's really good and useful and meaningful for
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: the future of deer and deer hunting, helping new people
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: get to know this thing that we all know is
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: so special dear deer hunting wild places. Let's share that.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: And this is a neat way to do it. And
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: it's something that I'm excited to help continue telling the
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: story around. We are going to be continuing to partner
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: with you guys at the National Deer Association around the
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: Back forty project. We're launching something we're calling the Back
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: forty two FOK Project, which is basically combining Back forty
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: with Field of fork um and a really maybe not
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: terribly creative way. We just smashed the two awards together.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: But you know what what we want to do is
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: continue to support these educational efforts that you guys are
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: gonna be leading, support these mentorship programs. I personally am
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: going to be out there and participating in some of
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: this mentorship stuff. Um, We're still hashing out some of
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: the details, but I know that Hank, you guys and
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: the team are are working to select a new hunter
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: who I will mentor throughout different parts of the season.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get out there for some mentorship educational events
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: in the summer with this person or person's I'm gonna
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: do another mentored hunt with someone on the property this fall,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: um in collaboration with you guys. So we immediated and
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: I personally am really excited to keep this momentum going.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: And uh I'll drop it in here again. I already
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: mentioned it at the top of the episode, but I'll
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: stay at warmer time. Uh out. We're so excited about
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: this that we've round up all sorts of our partners
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: to put together a very uh compelling giveaway to just
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: kind of celebrate, like, Hey, this is a this is
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: a great thing that we're starting here with the National
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: Deer Association. So if you go to the meat eater
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: dot com slash fork, you can enter this giveaway. I
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: gotta thank our friends over can and they did make
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: this possible by giving us the resources to put all
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: those things together, we're gonna be giving away a whole
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: first leg gear kit, a weather be rifle, UH worth
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: of Federal Premium ammal. You can't get AMMO anywhere these days.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: That's a big thing. UH, a bench made meatcraft or
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: knife and on X Elite lifetime membership f h F
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: by No Harness Vortex buyos UH. And then that's just
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: for the grand prize winner. Then there's two more runner
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: up winners, and each one of those three winners gets
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: to nominate a new hunter that they know of in
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: their life or someone who's in trusted in getting involved
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: in hunting. You nominate someone and we are going to
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: gift to that person a new hunter gift package that
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: includes UH an Onyx membership, a new bench made knife,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: knife sharpener, some some other educational resources, some cool stuff
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: like that. So so we're doing that because we're we're
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: excited about this. This makes a lot of sense. It's
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: a great way to keep this thing moving forward in
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: a positive direction, and you guys are the right partners
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: to help us do that. So I'm just excited to
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: see where this goes. I'm excited this year to keep
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: working on the farm and keep bringing new people out
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: in showcasing what's possible and introducing people into this community,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: in this family we have around hunting, because it's it's
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: the best thing that's happened in my life is getting
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: to know other hunters and becoming a hunter myself and
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: being immersed in the wild and wild places and learn
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: about deer and chasing deer and being outside like that
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: stuff made me who I am. And I'm so so
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: fortunate that I had a family that introduced me to that.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of people out there that didn't have
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: that luxury. So I just personally feel so strongly that
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: I was gifted that I gotta I've got a gifted
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: onto somebody else. And so this is, uh, this is
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: a way that we can all kind of do that
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: in our own way. And uh, Hank and Nick, I'm
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: just I'm excited that that you're helping us do that.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you. It's exciting, man, you know, I guess I
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: guess the other bottom line is it's a heck of
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. So you know, join us. It's fun.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: It may be the most rewarding thing you do as
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: a deer hunter, but I guarantee you it's a lot
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: of fun. Yeah, very true, Very true. So we've covered
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: our hunt on the Back forty. We've covered ah the
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: property management kind of vision moving forward. We've talked about
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: some of the specific ideas you guys are going to
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: be working towards on improving the play. We've talked about
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: you know, what field the fork is gonna look like
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: on the farm in these coming years. Is there any
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: anything else Nike or Hank that you guys want to
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: touch on to leave folks with to reiterate, Um, what
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: do we miss when it comes to the Back forty
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: in its future? Yeah? I don't. I don't know that
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: we've missed anything. We've covered a lot here. Um. I
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: just want to say from our perspective, we certainly appreciated
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: the partnership, and that's really what this is. I mean,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: there's the initial partnership that that we have with the
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: Deer Association and Meat Eater and Back forty, but the
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: partnership certainly extends beyond that. You mentioned the number of
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: sponsors that are going to help put off what is
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: sounds like an outstanding giveaway. I wish I was eligible,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: you know, And and it takes those people too. Let's
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: not forget those sponsors that are behind us, and in
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: the volunteers that Hank mentioned earlier UM that are going
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: to help bring the back forty continue to bring the
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: back toward you along. Uh. And then there are these
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: people in these companies locally all across the country that
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: do that. So I think it's it's incumbent upon all
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: of us to keep the fire burning. I think I
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: heard in one of your recent shows, Mark where you
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: talked about that the responsibility of of doing more. We
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: have that responsibility now, and I think that's what this
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: is all about. So it's just sort of a rallying
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: call to say, let's all do more, even if it's
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: just one more thing, and we'll all be better off
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: for it. Yeah, absolutely true. All right, guys, Well, I
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: guess I want to give you one more chance. I
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: know you just did it, but I just want to
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: make sure everyone hears any final action item or final
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: u r L as. We want to make sure everyone
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: has got written down top of mind, Hanked, you want
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: to recite those just one last time before we sign off.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: Absolutely again, anybody willing to take a new hunter of
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: field UM, whether they have property or need access or
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: any new hunter who's interested in signing up UM for
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: the new Hunters, It's Dear Association dot com slash New Hunter.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: For information on field before um, it's Dear Association dot
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: com slash f t F. And to contact me for
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: any of it, it's Hank at Dear Association dot com.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: Perfect all right, Well, thank you for that, Hank, Thank
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: you Nick for everything for your leadership on this, and
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: and thank you both for for taking on this project
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: and and taking it to it's it's next chapter. We're we,
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: like I mentioned the top, all of us here made it.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: Are are thrilled uh to have such a great set
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: of new parents for our baby. And uh I'm looking
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: forward to watching from both afar and from right up
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: close on the ground again over the coming year and
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: years as we uh we see where we can take
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: this thing. So thanks a lot, thank you to you.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: All right, and that's a wrap. I don't want to
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: talk too much right now, because I want you to
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: remember those links that Hank just told you, So go
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: on over get the information you need, please volunteer if
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: you can. And finally, one more link, if you want
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: to sign up for that giveaway I mentioned at the top,
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: go to the meat Eater dot com, slash Fork, and
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: with that thanks all for listening. I appreciate you, and
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: until next time, stay wired to hunt.