Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 778: Foundations - Touch Grass, Bro
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
- 0:05Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
- 0:09Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
- 0:14Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
- 0:19Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
- 0:20Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
- 0:22Speaker 2: which is brought to you by First Light. I'm your
- 0:24Speaker 2: houset Tony Peterson, and today's episode is about how to
- 0:27Speaker 2: be happy and well, I guess just kind of not
- 0:30Speaker 2: sad when it comes to deer hunting. Man, We're in
- 0:45Speaker 2: a weird time right now. It seems like everyone is
- 0:48Speaker 2: on edge and everyone's depressed and stressed though, and then
- 0:51Speaker 2: happiness is like just merely a concept we came up with,
- 0:55Speaker 2: but it's not something we can actually achieve. I have
- 0:58Speaker 2: some theories on this, and while I don't have the
- 1:01Speaker 2: answers to all the world's problems, I do think if
- 1:03Speaker 2: you're a hunter, you at least have some options for
- 1:06Speaker 2: how to be a little happier and learn to just
- 1:09Speaker 2: let some shit go and live your life. That's what
- 1:11Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about right now. The phrase touch
- 1:29Speaker 2: grass is an insult that you can lob at someone
- 1:33Speaker 2: for spending too much time online. It implies that too
- 1:37Speaker 2: much doom scrolling and random hours spent looking at tiktoks
- 1:41Speaker 2: is bad for us, and that if you do that
- 1:43Speaker 2: too much, you're missing out on the real world. It's
- 1:46Speaker 2: hard to argue with that. Honestly, I feel that more
- 1:49Speaker 2: and more every day, and I feel like all of
- 1:51Speaker 2: us pretty much need to touch a little more grass.
- 1:54Speaker 2: These days. People are edgy and in some ways, you
- 1:57Speaker 2: know rightfully so the world just feel like a powder
- 2:00Speaker 2: keg right now. There are some serious wars going on
- 2:04Speaker 2: in case you haven't been paying attention, and global tensions
- 2:07Speaker 2: feel like they are real high. It's not a totally
- 2:11Speaker 2: irrational thought to believe that Russia's invasion of Ukraine could
- 2:15Speaker 2: be viewed way in the future as the event that
- 2:19Speaker 2: started World War Three. If that seems a little nuts,
- 2:22Speaker 2: do a little research on how the Second Great War
- 2:24Speaker 2: came to be and the events that led up to it.
- 2:27Speaker 2: This stuff doesn't happen overnight. Generally, it's a slow boil
- 2:30Speaker 2: and then suddenly it's not. I sure, hope I'm way wrong,
- 2:34Speaker 2: But to definitively say that's not a potential route we
- 2:37Speaker 2: as a species are headed down would probably be a mistake.
- 2:41Speaker 2: We are four years out from the start of the pandemic, too,
- 2:44Speaker 2: and it sure seems like that changed us in a
- 2:46Speaker 2: lot of ways. There are probably a lot of reasons
- 2:49Speaker 2: for this, but I'm starting to wonder if it's not
- 2:51Speaker 2: at least partially because for a lot of us, that
- 2:54Speaker 2: was the event that showed us we aren't as free
- 2:56Speaker 2: as we thought. The idea that the government could shut
- 2:59Speaker 2: down your business or take away your job had never
- 3:01Speaker 2: occurred to a lot of us, Or that our kids
- 3:03Speaker 2: would suddenly not be able to get on a school
- 3:06Speaker 2: bus and go away for eight hours to fill their
- 3:08Speaker 2: brains with reading and writing and arithmetic, but instead would
- 3:11Speaker 2: have to stare at screens all day to get some
- 3:13Speaker 2: level of their education. Hell, until about twenty twenty, I
- 3:17Speaker 2: think it's safe to say that a lot of us
- 3:20Speaker 2: always thought we'd have enough charman to wipe our butts with,
- 3:23Speaker 2: and we found out that some people really value that,
- 3:25Speaker 2: and we're willing to buy up copious amounts of toilet
- 3:28Speaker 2: paper on the off chance that supply chains got so
- 3:31Speaker 2: disrupted that they would have to resort to using I
- 3:34Speaker 2: don't know, dish towels or something. I think we thought
- 3:37Speaker 2: of ourselves as more free than we really are, and
- 3:40Speaker 2: we're facing that reality. You know, it changed, and it
- 3:43Speaker 2: didn't make us any happier. We've always known, you know,
- 3:46Speaker 2: that we better pay our taxes or we'd go to jail.
- 3:49Speaker 2: It just didn't feel all that real. It's just something
- 3:52Speaker 2: we did. I think it kind of does feel more
- 3:55Speaker 2: real now, and that's weird. It's unsettling. It's weird to
- 3:58Speaker 2: feel that the agency we have over our lives isn't
- 4:01Speaker 2: quite what we thought. Those feelings only get worse with
- 4:05Speaker 2: the widespread phone addictions that pretty much all of us have.
- 4:08Speaker 2: We're just feeding ourselves rage inducing nonsense because we can't
- 4:12Speaker 2: help it. And that's just so bad. Like recently, my
- 4:16Speaker 2: wife called me to ask me if I had heard
- 4:18Speaker 2: what happened in a park maybe three miles from our house.
- 4:21Speaker 2: I told her I hadn't, and she filled me in
- 4:23Speaker 2: on a mom who shot her two young children and
- 4:25Speaker 2: herself in the park. I don't need to know that,
- 4:28Speaker 2: and none of us need to know that that kind
- 4:30Speaker 2: of thing is happening all over the world every day,
- 4:34Speaker 2: and you know, far worse things are happening. It is
- 4:38Speaker 2: said that all knowledge is power, but I don't know.
- 4:41Speaker 2: Knowing the bad news of eight billion people seems to
- 4:44Speaker 2: make us feel powerless. It's a weird time to be alive.
- 4:47Speaker 2: But maybe humans have been saying that since humans have
- 4:50Speaker 2: been able to say that, who knows? I don't. I
- 4:53Speaker 2: do know that life is hard for everyone, and that
- 4:56Speaker 2: there is a silver lining to all of this. Instead
- 4:59Speaker 2: of being hold to touch grass in a derogatory way,
- 5:03Speaker 2: you and I probably don't really need a reminder. We
- 5:07Speaker 2: don't need an insult to get us outside and to
- 5:09Speaker 2: feel the sun on our skin and maybe tuck our
- 5:11Speaker 2: doom machine into our pocket or our pack, and experience
- 5:15Speaker 2: the real world as it exists, as it exists naturally.
- 5:19Speaker 2: I guess I should say there's also no small amount
- 5:22Speaker 2: of good stuff that comes from being productive. As I
- 5:25Speaker 2: get older, I'm starting to realize how important productivity and
- 5:28Speaker 2: momentum really is now. I've talked about this a few times,
- 5:32Speaker 2: but this mild winter allowed me to be real productive
- 5:35Speaker 2: and keep my dear work momentum going in a way
- 5:38Speaker 2: that I don't think I've ever experienced before. I'm not
- 5:41Speaker 2: feeling a whole lot of anxiety about this fall which
- 5:43Speaker 2: is unusual, especially when I start to figure out my
- 5:46Speaker 2: travel schedule. Now, I know the anxiety will come as
- 5:49Speaker 2: the summer progresses, but it will likely be subdued and
- 5:52Speaker 2: not as nerve racking as it could be. You know,
- 5:54Speaker 2: sometimes that's the best we can hope for now. Look,
- 5:58Speaker 2: I'm pretty far from a mental health specialists, although I
- 6:01Speaker 2: have spent some serious time and money with people who are.
- 6:04Speaker 2: The thing you often find if you go see one
- 6:07Speaker 2: of these folks is that you're looking for someone else
- 6:09Speaker 2: to fix your problems. But really they are more in
- 6:12Speaker 2: line with a coach who will help you fix your
- 6:15Speaker 2: own problems, if that makes sense. And you know what's
- 6:18Speaker 2: wild about me and you and anyone who has the
- 6:22Speaker 2: luxury of listening to a deer hunting podcast in their
- 6:24Speaker 2: free time, we already have one hell of a prescription
- 6:28Speaker 2: for boosting our mood and making ourselves feel better. It's
- 6:32Speaker 2: not the answer for everyone, but it sure can be
- 6:35Speaker 2: for a lot of us. And it's just waiting out
- 6:37Speaker 2: there in the deer woods, and it's waiting out there
- 6:39Speaker 2: in the Turkey woods, and it's waiting out there in
- 6:42Speaker 2: the trout stream and the bay and your favorite lake
- 6:44Speaker 2: where the crappies spawn. This is where I'm going to
- 6:47Speaker 2: take a slightly weird turn. As someone tasked with coming
- 6:52Speaker 2: up with some way to teach people how to hunt
- 6:54Speaker 2: deer or turkeys over and over, I've had to focus
- 6:57Speaker 2: a lot on mission specific con you know, the stuff
- 7:02Speaker 2: like three ways to make sure you kill your biggest
- 7:04Speaker 2: buck this season, or how to hunt a buck in
- 7:08Speaker 2: the cattails, or why your trail camera strategy is hurting you.
- 7:12Speaker 2: That kind of stuff. Those are linear pieces of content
- 7:15Speaker 2: that pose a problem and then a solution to that
- 7:18Speaker 2: problem that the audience might not have thought of. That
- 7:22Speaker 2: stuff performs well because we like solutions to difficult things.
- 7:27Speaker 2: We like shortcuts to our own thinking. This is why
- 7:30Speaker 2: we like religion and auto investing and the idea that
- 7:33Speaker 2: Andy may can say the right words and suddenly your
- 7:35Speaker 2: tags will damn near fill themselves. But there's another way
- 7:39Speaker 2: to look at this stuff that isn't so linear, but
- 7:42Speaker 2: is probably far more important than finally wrapping your tag
- 7:45Speaker 2: around the antlers of a mature buck. It's also just
- 7:49Speaker 2: good for you to meet a challenge head on and
- 7:51Speaker 2: try to figure it out. It's why you feel differently
- 7:53Speaker 2: when you go mobile for a night in a question
- 7:56Speaker 2: mark spot than when you go to the Old Faithful
- 7:59Speaker 2: Stand to look at the same food plot for the
- 8:00Speaker 2: seventeenth time of the season. It's why some of the
- 8:04Speaker 2: best deer hunters on the planet share a simple trait
- 8:07Speaker 2: that they like being in nature, and they facilitate that
- 8:10Speaker 2: desire as much as possible. Sure, on paper, the idea
- 8:15Speaker 2: might be to go scout a creek bottom on some
- 8:17Speaker 2: public land, or maybe hike a few ridges that look
- 8:20Speaker 2: cool on on X, But that's sort of a trick
- 8:23Speaker 2: we play on ourselves. It's like when I bank a
- 8:25Speaker 2: podcast I'm really interested in so that I can listen
- 8:29Speaker 2: to it when I go for a run instead of
- 8:31Speaker 2: burning through it while I'm distracted and cleaning the garage.
- 8:35Speaker 2: We use little tricks to keep ourselves in the game,
- 8:37Speaker 2: so to speak. But in the case of going into
- 8:40Speaker 2: the woods or getting out on the water, the benefits
- 8:43Speaker 2: extend far beyond us increasing our chances to kill a
- 8:47Speaker 2: deer or catch a fish. The act of being there,
- 8:51Speaker 2: touching grass, if you will, is really good for us.
- 8:55Speaker 2: I know I can just say that, and you will
- 8:57Speaker 2: probably agree with me because you know it is well
- 9:00Speaker 2: as I do. But listen to this. According to the
- 9:03Speaker 2: Mayo Clinic, which is sort of the gold standard for
- 9:05Speaker 2: medical care not only in our country but the world,
- 9:08Speaker 2: that stress stimulates our sympathetic nervous system. With that comes
- 9:13Speaker 2: elevated blood pressure and an increase in heart rate and
- 9:16Speaker 2: blood sugar. That's one of the ways your body reacts
- 9:19Speaker 2: to stress, and in small doses it's fine. The system
- 9:23Speaker 2: evolved for a reason. Too much stress, though, and you're
- 9:27Speaker 2: gonna have issues. I think it's safe to say most
- 9:29Speaker 2: of us are stressed out on a daily basis to
- 9:31Speaker 2: some extent, which means we are probably all at risk
- 9:35Speaker 2: of the negative repercussions from stress. Studies have shown that
- 9:39Speaker 2: an antidote to that sympathetic nervous system stimulation is you
- 9:44Speaker 2: guessed it gulf. Actually, that one might be true unless
- 9:49Speaker 2: you have a bad day on the links and you go,
- 9:51Speaker 2: I don't know, full happy Gilmore and break clubs over
- 9:53Speaker 2: your knees and toss them into a water hazard. The
- 10:05Speaker 2: real answer is time and nature as little as five
- 10:09Speaker 2: minutes of it can calm us down. The benefits of
- 10:13Speaker 2: going into the woods or wet waiting a small MoU stream.
- 10:17Speaker 2: They're nearly instant and nearly all positive. Think about that
- 10:22Speaker 2: this literally lowers your risk of having a major chest
- 10:26Speaker 2: grabber or developing certain chronic diseases. In this case, that
- 10:31Speaker 2: environment deer live in is actually medicine for us. Let
- 10:36Speaker 2: me frame this up another way. Do you know why
- 10:39Speaker 2: it's more expensive to book a hotel room with a
- 10:41Speaker 2: sweet view versus one overlooking a dingy alley where you
- 10:45Speaker 2: might get to watch people shoot heroin into their veins.
- 10:49Speaker 2: The better view is in higher demand. It's worth more
- 10:52Speaker 2: money because we are genetically drawn to nature. This is
- 10:55Speaker 2: an evolutionary thing. Studies have shown that hospital patients with
- 10:59Speaker 2: another nice view of trees and green space tend to
- 11:02Speaker 2: heal faster than those with no view or those with
- 11:06Speaker 2: a shitty view. Believe what you want about why nature
- 11:10Speaker 2: is good for us, but at least believe that it is.
- 11:14Speaker 2: Studies have shown that nature is beneficial to our eyesight
- 11:16Speaker 2: as well. People who spend more time in nature can
- 11:20Speaker 2: literally see better on average than people who spend more
- 11:24Speaker 2: time indoors. Time in nature is correlated to lower body
- 11:29Speaker 2: mass index, which is a measure of physical healthiness. It's
- 11:34Speaker 2: good for depression, and that one I believe with all
- 11:37Speaker 2: my soul. It helps us focus and concentrate. It improves
- 11:41Speaker 2: problem solving skills. Humans who participate in nature tend to
- 11:45Speaker 2: be more spiritual, and that tends to have a more
- 11:48Speaker 2: positive impact on their mental health. If you want to
- 11:52Speaker 2: treat yourself better and treat your loved ones better, and
- 11:56Speaker 2: you know, avoid wanting to strangle your coworkers because even
- 12:00Speaker 2: though they've never seen a wild whitetail, they think they
- 12:03Speaker 2: should be able to tell you, one of the most
- 12:05Speaker 2: successful whitetail hunters in the country, what kind of content
- 12:08Speaker 2: you should make because it'll get more clicks, you know,
- 12:11Speaker 2: if you just talk about the rut one more time,
- 12:13Speaker 2: But then you're like, I swear to all things holy
- 12:16Speaker 2: if you do this one more time, I'm going to
- 12:18Speaker 2: put my hands around your throat and cackle like a
- 12:20Speaker 2: horny rooster fresent in the spring while I watch the
- 12:23Speaker 2: light in your eyes get dimmer and dimmer until you
- 12:25Speaker 2: finally swump to the floor and I walk away to
- 12:27Speaker 2: eat a bollo of lucky charms without care in the
- 12:29Speaker 2: world or whatever. It'll make you nicer if you spend
- 12:33Speaker 2: more time in nature, is what I'm saying. This is
- 12:36Speaker 2: one of the things that we have control over and
- 12:39Speaker 2: it's important. It's important to take care of yourself and
- 12:42Speaker 2: acknowledge the behaviors we get into that make our quality
- 12:45Speaker 2: of life worse, just as it's important to recognize the
- 12:49Speaker 2: things that will be good for us, like going to
- 12:52Speaker 2: take a walk through your deer property without any real
- 12:56Speaker 2: objective or any worry that we might spook some bucks
- 12:59Speaker 2: out or whatever. I think it's good to take a
- 13:02Speaker 2: holistic view of this stuff, to not distill it down
- 13:05Speaker 2: just to time scouting, and you know, hunting as a
- 13:08Speaker 2: soul mission to kill a big deer, that's a good
- 13:11Speaker 2: way to drain the fun from it, and to be
- 13:13Speaker 2: honest to not be a very good deer hunter. The
- 13:17Speaker 2: wild card trips into the woods or on the water
- 13:20Speaker 2: are the ones that we often enjoy the most. And
- 13:24Speaker 2: do you know why that is because the bar is low.
- 13:27Speaker 2: My friends, if you go take a walk in the
- 13:29Speaker 2: woods in May, you're not going to be stressed out
- 13:32Speaker 2: about your presence in the woods. You're not going to
- 13:34Speaker 2: be wondering if you should have stayed out because you
- 13:37Speaker 2: haven't got a picture of one of your hitlisters in
- 13:39Speaker 2: three days. Hell, you might not have a real purpose
- 13:43Speaker 2: to your time in the woods at all, which is
- 13:45Speaker 2: honestly the best way to go about it, at least
- 13:47Speaker 2: some of the time. I don't know how many times
- 13:50Speaker 2: I have found a cool place to fish or hunt
- 13:52Speaker 2: simply because I felt the gravity of life getting a
- 13:54Speaker 2: little heavier, and I took the natural escape, which is
- 13:57Speaker 2: to sprint to the woods, which, if I'm being that's
- 14:00Speaker 2: holy honest, is a hell of a lot better remedy
- 14:02Speaker 2: for being anxious and depressed and stressed then I don't know,
- 14:05Speaker 2: sprinting right to the liquor cabinet to chug what can
- 14:08Speaker 2: only be described is definitely not a good fix for
- 14:11Speaker 2: most of my problems, other than I guess the temporary
- 14:14Speaker 2: leaf that comes before things get worse because well, I
- 14:18Speaker 2: made them worse. Find an excuse to go into the woods,
- 14:21Speaker 2: whether that's a scouting mission you've been thinking about, or
- 14:24Speaker 2: better yet, some other simple reason like maybe you just
- 14:27Speaker 2: want to look at a property, or maybe you want
- 14:29Speaker 2: to find some fossils, maybe you're gonna hopefully stumble across
- 14:33Speaker 2: somewhere else. Figure out what kind of trick you need
- 14:36Speaker 2: to play on yourself to get out there. When you
- 14:38Speaker 2: have the chance, maybe you'll get lucky and find something
- 14:41Speaker 2: deer wise, that will really help you out this fall.
- 14:44Speaker 2: If not, who cares? You're going to be better off
- 14:47Speaker 2: just for going. Maybe that trout stream you don't fish
- 14:50Speaker 2: anymore because it's full of dinks is actually the best
- 14:52Speaker 2: spot for you to be, because, after all, who really
- 14:55Speaker 2: is going to be disappointed with a couple hours on
- 14:57Speaker 2: the water catching ten inches just for the hell of it.
- 15:01Speaker 2: That environment's going to treat you pretty well, even if
- 15:03Speaker 2: you don't come away with a single grip and grin
- 15:05Speaker 2: of a twenty seven inch brownie with a great big
- 15:07Speaker 2: hook jaw. Maybe most importantly understand this, everyone you know
- 15:13Speaker 2: is struggling. I mean that the folks who have tons
- 15:16Speaker 2: of money and the folks who have nothing. Sure, their
- 15:19Speaker 2: struggles are different, but everybody is carrying more weight on
- 15:22Speaker 2: their shoulders than it appears from the outside looking in.
- 15:26Speaker 2: The world is like this right now, and I don't
- 15:28Speaker 2: think it's going to get better. But the good news
- 15:31Speaker 2: is in all of that doom and gloom, you and
- 15:33Speaker 2: I already have the answer to some of these problems. Now, Sure,
- 15:38Speaker 2: a walk in the deerwoods in May won't cure your
- 15:40Speaker 2: bipolar disorder, just as it won't suddenly make your next
- 15:43Speaker 2: rent payment, but it'll take you from the edge of
- 15:46Speaker 2: despair to a place that's more tolerable and might help
- 15:49Speaker 2: you settle down enough to sleep better or make more
- 15:52Speaker 2: informed decisions about changing the things in your life that
- 15:54Speaker 2: you need to change. That's powerful shit, even if it's
- 15:58Speaker 2: really easy to ignore while we stay home and doom
- 16:01Speaker 2: scroll while our spouse is negus about something we're definitely
- 16:04Speaker 2: going to do on our own time when we're damn
- 16:06Speaker 2: well ready, get out there amongst the trees and the
- 16:10Speaker 2: grasses and the bugs and Mark's butterflies and take your medicine.
- 16:13Speaker 2: My friends, It'll help nullify the sharp edges of everyday life,
- 16:16Speaker 2: and if you make a habit of this, it'll help
- 16:18Speaker 2: you understand that natural world in a better way. I
- 16:22Speaker 2: know that's not as cool as some dude telling you
- 16:24Speaker 2: exactly how to snoret wheeze, you know, to blind call
- 16:27Speaker 2: in every buck in the woods, but it's honestly a
- 16:30Speaker 2: better way to get better at this stuff, and it
- 16:33Speaker 2: comes with a hell of a lot of welcome side benefits.
- 16:37Speaker 2: Do that and come back next week, because I'm going
- 16:39Speaker 2: to talk about you know, kind of a similar topic,
- 16:42Speaker 2: but not really. I'm gonna talk about hunting buddies or
- 16:44Speaker 2: how to find great ones and recognize the ones that
- 16:47Speaker 2: you just might not be compatible with. That's it for
- 16:50Speaker 2: this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wired
- 16:53Speaker 2: to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by
- 16:55Speaker 2: First Light. I know you know this. I'm gonna tell
- 16:58Speaker 2: you anyway if you need more hunting content, whether you
- 17:02Speaker 2: want to learn something from an article, or maybe you
- 17:04Speaker 2: just want to watch a I don't know, random turkey
- 17:08Speaker 2: hunting show where yours truly and Sam Soholt get totally
- 17:12Speaker 2: crushed by public land gobblers in Nebraska. You can find
- 17:15Speaker 2: that in a hell of a lot more over at
- 17:17Speaker 2: themeadeater dot com. While you're there, if you need to
- 17:20Speaker 2: pick up some new gear, you can find a hell
- 17:22Speaker 2: of a lot of good stuff that way too. Thank
- 17:24Speaker 2: you so much for listening. I can't tell you how
- 17:26Speaker 2: much I appreciate it. I hope you come back next week.
- 17:29Speaker 2: Thank you