Ep. 106: THC Daily Quarantine-Cast 2: Vasectomies, Uno the One-Legged Beaver, Win a Podcast, and Why Soil Matters with Mark Kenyon

Daily Quarantine Cast. We got Mark Kenyon to talk about soil health on the back forty, our plans for the back forty, for what we're gonna do with the show now that we can actually go to the property and and the core coronavirus has kind of screwed us on that. We talked about that with Mark. We talked about vasectomys. We talk about whether Phil wants to get one or not my my opinion. Stay tuned. That's a big, big deal and we're also going to get to most importantly

the pot win a podcast contest from episode one. That's gonna be a big deal. You're gonna hear that today as well. The th h C Daily Quarantine Cash rolls on right now. Enjoy. H Hey everybody, Ben O'Brien, I'm talking uh, Episode two of the Daily THHD podcast. That's what you're listening to. And it's gonna be awkward for me for a while because I am in uh my child's nursery and I have on on the computer with me, Mark Kenyan, say hi, Mark Kenyon, Hi, Mark Kenyon, and

fill the engineer. I am also here where we could see each other via camera devices attached to our computers, and we're speaking into separate microphones. But we're in three different rooms. Is that correct, boys? True? Uh huh. So this is gonna be super awkward, probably not a great podcast, but we have to do it because I already told you guys were gonna do a daily podcast, and so here we are. So Mark Kenyan has actually been I found out earlier today, living under quarantine for the last

six years. Yeah, this is no this is no big deal for me, man. I'm used to it as a as a freelance outdoor podcasts or media guy. Right, or you basically just live in your house and leave it only to get food and probably water. Yeah, yeah, hunt shop and that's about it. But the living the safe lifestyle. For a long time, since the fall of two thousand thirteen, I've been working at home and my wife started working at home in two thousand fourteen, so we're experts at

this whole lifestyle. You could say, oh, that's good, I'm glad, I'm happy. Could you just give a few people because so it's just so you know, yesterday we recorded uh episode one of the THHC Daily podcast Quarantine Cast. I've been calling it. Do you like that name? Phil? Yeah, it's super creative quarantine Cast. It's it's a combination of the word podcast and quarantine. Yeah. I was trying to think a better option, like like casting team. But that's

not good. No, that's terrible. Um. Okay, so we're gonna go with that good self awareness Phil. He's got to have it around me. He can't not have it. Um. So we're gonna do a bunch of things. But yesterday I was in the actual mediator studio and the Mediator offices and um, they kicked us out. So now we can't go in. We're we're quarantined from going into the office. So now we're or on some fancy pants uh computers

thing called squad cast. H they're not a sponsor, but we shut him out anyway, because it's amazing that we have this technology, right Mark Kenyon. It's tremendous. It really is tremendous, tremendous. But like I tell you, I've been you know, so back what we were just talking about a second ago. I've been doing these virtual podcasts for three thirty nine episodes so far, and they're not that awkward.

So you'll you'll be fine, You'll get through it. I don't I don't know what to do with social cues. I don't know what to do with my hands. Like, I don't have any pants pants. That's exactly what I was gonna ask. The question is do you have pants? Because I went through a huge paradigm shift when I went from pants lest podcasts to with pants podcasts. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know where to put the microphone. I don't know whether we're pants and then maybe eventually underwear.

It's gonna be it's gonna be a challenge. I'm I'm I'm concerned both for the quality of the show and then just my own mental state. Um, do you have any tips? Can you just go through the tips and tricks that somebody might use to get through this time since you've been basically living this exact experience for better

part of six years. Yeah, you know, in all seriousness, probably the biggest thing that I did that helped my just effectiveness from a work from home standpoint was when I shifted from approaching it is like a novelty thing too with an approaching like oh no, you're still working. So when I first started doing this, I was like, well, I'll just wake up whenever I wake up, and I'll work when I want. Hey, if I want to take a two hour lunch break and watch Game of Thrones,

all right, I'll do that. Um. So that was back in two thirteen when I first went full time on my own. That doesn't work real well. So what I started doing is pretending like I still have to go into an office and do all those things. So I have like a morning routine. I get up early at the time I want to wake up. I do a workout, I shower, I eat breakfast. I put on real person clothes. Just putting on real clothes makes a huge difference. Um, pajama working from home is at least ten less productive

than regular clothing work from home. So do that. That's uh, That's helped me a lot. And then you know, schedule as if you really you know, you can take some flexibility, but schedule your day still as if you were in an office. That helps me. I have a calendar, I have it locked down. My wife knows that when it's regular working hours, I'm going to be doing stuff. Um at least, putting those structures in place, I think helps

you avoid the many ah oh temptations. Right, there's temptations when you're working at home that you just wouldn't otherwise have. But I will also tell you that working from home, I feel like I have a lot less distractions compared to some offices too. Like when I come into the mediator office, I always wonder, like, how do you guys get anything done because you're constantly talking and stuff. I just sit in my office all by myself all day, and I'm pretty darn good, I guess when I don't

have anyone to chat with. So definitely, you've definitely been living the quarantine life, Like how do you get things done when you've been talking and interacting with other actual humans that have different life experiences than you. What a weird experience, very weird. That's not too bad. So you told me you're gonna on your social media. You're gonna share some tricks and tips for being alone. Um, because you're an expert, an expert on being alone. Yes, that is.

My wife and I are hermits by nature, so this fits right into our whole grand plan. Good all right, Well, before we get going, Phil, can you give us just your feelings about the quarantine and what are your emotions. People are going to be looking to you, filthy engineer, to to to really lead them emotionally, mentally, maybe even physically eventually to Uh that's just that's just poor decision making. Well that's it's not their fault. You have reached an

into their hearts and minds and captivated them. So could you please just kind of give everybody a pep talk? Yeah, well, I just want to say that, Um, you know I I love my children. Let me just start off by saying that beautiful novel. Um, you know, loving change my life in so many positive ways. I've just been kind of imagining this quarantine though. Um. Uh, if I if I didn't have children and all the man all the TV, I'd be watching all the all the movies and games

I'd be playing. Uh, quarantining with with with children is a completely different experience. My kid. Uh. The Governor Steve Bullock of Montana just just canceled school for two weeks. Um. Um. I think feel like it's only a matter of time before my my youngest daycare gets canceled as well. So uh, you know when when when when you're hunkered down with your family, um for multiple days, it's a it's a it's an experience. It definitely shows you what you're made

out of. Um. And you know, I'll check back within these daily podcasts to let you know how I'm doing, how I'm I'm holding up, and I'm sure you guys will too. Yeah. No, it's good. I mean, there's it's I like to joke. It's hard for me to be serious sometimes. But this is a weird, a weird time. We I just went out to we went into the office to gather our things, um for the last time for a while, and then I took my family out to eat to breakfast and it was awkward. People I

didn't want to be near each other. People didn't like it's people were looking or had It's almost like they had a measuring tape for six ft. You know, social distancing being what it is. And so it's just it's

just it. After all this is over, I imagine that we will look at our daily lives, the things in our lives that probably we took for granted, right sitting in traffic, or going to work and being annoyed by the guy that's sitting next to you, or or thanks Mark Kenyan has no idea about, uh go standing in line for coffee without having to worry about who's around you or how close to you they are. Um, all

those little things. I hope that we can go through this time, do what we gotta do to get around and above this pandemic, and then go back to to real, real normal life, but then be able to look back at this and say, man, I appreciate the little things going to the grocery store and feeling calm or you know anything. Folks in New York City can't even go out to a restaurant or a bar at this point. Um are closed today fifteen minutes ago for the rest

of however long. Yeah, here in Michigan. So it's it's uh, we're all gonna be okay. As as somebody told me earlier to day via text, Um, you know, we're being called on to sit on our couches and we can all do that, but there's also people that work hourly, there's people that have jobs that um have international distribution channels.

There's so many things that this affects. And UM, you know, my heart goes out of everybody that whose lives this is either made very very hard or completely um destroyed or thrown out there for however long this lasts. So hopefully you can come out to THHC on a daily basis and get some good hunting stories and some randomness and and um escape from it just for a little bit. And that's that's all we can really offer at this

this point. And if I got to do it from my kids nursery, which is where I'm at right now, that's what I'll do. And Yeah, I think I think that perspective is super important, that like we're all lucky enough to be able to be able to do this when they're Yeah, just like you said, there's so many service industry workers and that you know, are ey're gonna lose their jobs or just have an incredible amount of uncertainty over the next few months. Uh, And I can't

even imagine what's what that's like. So you know, um, yeah, so well, yeah, I just personally, I just appreciate it everyone who's still out there grinding and making a living and just trying their best. So we're gonna do some crazy things this week and next week for you. UM. One of them, I've decided, Mark, I want to get your opinion do this. I've decided to do a contest because folks that know lately I've really got addicted to contests. I might need help. Are you addicted to trying to

get people partaking your contests? I think that's what you're doing. But are you also participating in other people's contests? No? No, just my contests? But I would, I could, I could. I'm addicted to giving things away. I just want to give everything I see. I'm like, I'll give it away. I give you, give it away to everybody. I don't care. I'm addicted to. It feels so good. Um, but we have to do we have to go over one the

last give away from our episode one hundred. I wanted to do it in a different way than what we're doing now. But Um, from episode one hundred, we did four giveaways. This is our last one. We have to announce. But before that, I have an idea, mark and I want to see you have a child, you like to hunt turkeys. I want to see your thoughts whether this is a good idea. I thought that I we would do a hand draw if you look at the screen there or hand drawn turkey contest. You know how you

draw a turkey with your hand? Trace your hand? Yeah? I do that all time. Yeah. I thought we would have everybody do one. And then however you make it whatever the background is, you decorate the turkey, give it a personality, to give it a name. Uh, draw the background. So anybody can participate in this, children, adults, young adults, young children, it doesn't matter. Get a hand and a pencil. You're good to go. Um and that will get as many people to draw that and the most creative one

wins some awesome prize. You feel like that's a good idea. I like it. I got a friend who was missing one of his fingers, though, so will he be penalized in any kind of way if he draws like a gimpy fanless turkey or anything like that. No, let me tell you when. Well, here's a story that will help that out. When I was a kid, I was in like the third grade, we had a contest to draw

draw a constellation of our own. Right, they give you a piece of paper with a bunch of dots it that are supposed to be stars, And my dad got ahold of that, and we then you had to write a story about what that constellation meant. So I got this hold of this constellation. I started drawing a beaver on this constantly had a tail the whole beaver body. But I didn't have enough stars to draw through four legs on the beaver. I can only draw one leg

with the amount of stars that I had. So my dad and I wrote a story called you Know the One Legged Beaver to go along with this constellation. The story was that that the you know the beaver was swimming out in a lake and it got really cold. A blizzard came in and got really cold. Three of his legs were frozen in the ice and he had to chew off those three legs to survive and then swim back to shore with just the one leg. Um. So for yeah, unbelievable tale. So for your for your buddy,

that's her. He can have as many feathers as he has fingers. It's all about how you make what you make what you can from the circumstances you're given. So I'm putting out there we'll talk more about that contest coming up. What do you I'll I'm gonna figure out something out really cool, hopefully some first light gear. I was thinking, I haven't talked the first Light about this, so this was They're gonna be probably mad at me, but hey, it's quarantine time. We tell here what's new.

We take? Uh, we take a first light jacket, a first light puffy jacket or or whatever say it, say it Brooks down or um, any kind of any kind of jacket that you would normally wear, and and on the back, you know how, say like sliced alone in the in the first Rocky movie he had those like Italian leather jackets with a big tiger on the back. I'm thinking we would take the turkey drawling and have it have its screen printed on the back, a really

big like that tiger. No better way to increase value than a really nice Brooks jacket than screen printed turkey on the back. Huh. I mean, I don't. I don't know why you wouldn't do that. Who wouldn't want that? I don't know why. I don't know why you wouldn't want to do that. I that's how I feel. So I just want to I just want an audience of one here, uh where you tell me what you think about this idea. Yeah, I give you two thumbs up. I'm a big fan. My son will submit a turkey drone.

Oh alright, I like it, all right, and if I win, damn it. I want the screen printed turkey on my jacket. I Like I said, I have no way of knowing or the first Now you've committed, there's a verbal contract out there, so anyway, check back later to see if I still have a job, and maybe you'll get a turkey jacket. There's no way to know. And uh that would be rest in peace to you know the one that could be Everre. Uh he fought hard, but he

fought hard. So Phil, you's still there, Phil? Yeah, I'm here, Phil. We gotta go over we. Mark probably doesn't even know this because he's too busy to listen to THHD on a weekly basis. How by the way, it's amazing you get that. You get a fill and I don't have anyone been podcast. I kind of just took Phil like nobody gave him to me. I have just over time done things to kind of lay claim to him. Also been very nice to him to keep him around. Yeah,

it could have been. It could have been a lot worse. There. It sounds like my wife's it's our anniversary today, actually been congrats, it's it's our six wedding anniversary for my wife today. So uh, I love you girl. I know you don't listen to my podcasts either, but I love you anyway. It's okay, So we gotta before we get to our our hunting story, we got to talk about

uh the win a podcast giveaway from episode one. Now, Mark, we what we did was we had four different giveaways to celebrate our hundreds episode so we could have fun with our listeners. And this this idea was to give away my old podcast gear, my zoom record or all my audio checting, your headsets, all the things you need to have your own portable podcast kit, as well as have me as your first guest on your new podcast and have Phil and I give you a consultation on

how to get started programs. You need cool of things. So away for someone to have a leg up, as it were, to start their own podcasts still got to do the work, but we were willing to help him out. Um and and all we asked was that they write a hundred words to th HC at the Mediator dot com and they told us why what the podcast wasn't why they would want to do it uh And we got hundreds of submissions I think upwards of four hundred submissions of what UH podcast people wanted to do. So

I was happy with that. Joe Ferronado, who was also quarantined at his home right now, UM and I sat last Friday and and read almost every single one of them, and we came down to a top three. Um and so we're gonna have and and Mark, I'd like to get your vote on these one I read them, but I'm gonna read the top three right now. And that I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go on then at beny would be three or one on my Instagram account and I'm gonna put a poll up for people to

vote on the best podcast idea. So you guys gotta listen up. Does that all make sense? Mark? Makes sense? Sounds cool? So I'm gonna read the three um here to you, and I want to get your reaction and Phil's reaction to each one of them, all right, and then we're gonna go you guys, you guys good with that? Yes, yes, you're good with it. I knew you would be all right for the first one, the first finalist, Phil, will you be able to put drum rolls in here? Of course? Yeah?

Put a drum roll right now? All right here, here we go. One out of eight drum rolls. That's gonna be that they're gonna be in this episode. Mark doesn't know when I for a drum roll, and I keep talking and I need another drum roll. And then I keep talking and I need another drum roll. I'm not good with executing the drum roll. Uh. Finality is that anyway? Uh? Ian Russell, Kamara and Ryan Russell wrote in with this one,

we are the Russell Brothers and our proposed podcast. The Whole Animal focuses on new and interesting ways the harvest resources from game animals that most most people simply throw away with the help of guest chefs, hunters, and artists. Each season focuses on a single animal, and each episode explores novel ways to engage with a part of that animal that hunters typically discard from utilitarian to down ray silly. The Whole Animal Podcast is a show like no other.

Learn how to make dear spine, putter's turkey feet, poker chips, and duck blood soup, and a podcast coming to your feed soon. The Whole Animal Podcast by the Russell Bros. Phil, What do you think about that one? That one is a great idea of the just coming from a non hunter's perspective, though, I'm wondering what you guys think about the the longitivity of something like that, Like how how deep could they go? How many animals could they cover?

How many parts could they dive into? Yeah, I mean sudden, you could do every every game animal you can think of, you can do. I mean, I'd like to hear a dove, or I'd like to hear a I mean, obviously a wild turkey. But there's got there's a million things. I like the way they broke it down, like you have a season and then you have an animal. You take an animal and you break it into episodes, break it into parts. It's it kind of has a nice little ring to it that way. Mark, It's a very cool idea.

I do wonder if, like the novelty of it would wear off at some point. And this is me being overly critical, so overly critical saying that. But at first of great idea. Um, but yeah, I wonder if I don't know, it would be a little bit hard to execute on making every one of those fascinating. When could I listen to number eight of how to use a duck and we're getting down to like using a duck foot for a bookmark or something. I don't know if I'm might tire of that at some point, but maybe not. Yeah,

I don't know. I don't know. But that's that's why we're here. I think that's one of the best ideas we've got because I think if done correctly, If done correctly, it could be could have a lot of longevity. And if you did seasons, if you just kind of did one every once in a while, um, and it can be an encyclopedia of knowledge for for each annel to which I think makes it evergreen, which makes it great. I like it. I like it. Number two. We will all vote on this. It's not gonna meet anything, but

it at least give people what we think. Number two. This comes from Liz Krieger. She says, picture this, Remember the hunting community that has often misunderstood and misrepresented. Someone passionate about the hunting, conservation, hunting community, conservation and family, navigating how to juggle home life, competitive work environment, and for filling this insatiable need to pursue their own food and pull their own weight out of doors. My name

is Liz Krieger. I live in north central p A. I am a mother, wife, wildlife biologists, hunter and conservationist who's trying to keep a sense of humor while navigating a changing conservation climate. Interesting. I'm interested in discussing habitat management, honey strategies, and home life from the lens of a female millennial. That's Liz Kreeger. When you think about that, Mark Kennon, straight off the bat, we don't need another millennial out there ruining the world. So you and me

are not kidding. I know, Phil. I I found that the other day. Phil is only twenty nine years old? Is right in the right, Phil, Yeah, that's right. I I didn't know that. You did not know that, so I assumed you're in your forties. I've seen so many people illustrate your your face that I've just I there's no concept of how old you are anymore. Well, that's that's that's good to know that you've seen so many illustrations of me that you have complete face blindness about

over my my real face. Yeah, I pictured just that illustration of that dude Hice and the cope. Yeah, man, Yeah, that's what I see. He does seem more mature than us, Ben, that's true. Yeah. Yeah, his like his children seem well behaved. Uh, that's for sure. Mine is a wild man. Al Right, So that's number two. There's that's one and two. Other than other than the whole millennial thing. I think it's a great idea. Yeah, I think I think that could be a podcast that could be very very important to

a to a small group of hunters. All Right, it's a great perspective to share. Well done, Liz. Uh. This one is from Trey. I'm gonna say his last name is pronounced Paku because it's p i c o u phil p i c o u. H. Yeah, it sounds that's close enough. Paco. Probably we'll go with pa alright. Pequ He's a PhD. Trey Pecu is a PhD research scientist. He says this. He says a lot of things, but this is his his pitch. I would like to do a podcast about the science of hunting slash the science

of hunting related topics. I would interview physicists, biologists, chemists, and whatever other aspects are necessary for the listener to understand the hardcore science about the topic at hand. What do I mean by this? An example of a topic I'd like to explore is camouflage. This will probably be a multi episode series. It will start out with the science behind site, such as it works, the physics and biology,

and how it evolved pray and predator. Then it would progress to what wavelengths and patterns game species and predators, see how camouflage works in the natural world, and how it could be applied for the hunter. Lastly, I would talk to leaders in the hunting and military camouflage industry to see how they apply and if they apply real

science when designing their patterns. Basically, the science the scientists in me wants to dive deep into the science behind all sorts of hunting related concepts that people usually just gloss over hand, wave away, or try to explain using catching sounding buzzwords, which I do a lot. Uh me Ben o Bran anyway, that's my pitch. I hope you enjoy. Sure Ku, So Phil the Engineer, what do you think, Buddy? I like that one a lot, coming more from from

a non Hunters point of view. Um, I think that one has like like the first one, I'm not sure about. I think this one sounds like it could last for as long as they wanted it to and uh cover an infinite amount of topics. I think I think this is a great one. Mark Kenyon, I'm gonna have to second that this one is my favorite. I like, I'm personally fascinated with scientific looking at things from scientific lens. Three scientific lens in this would like, like Phil said,

there's longevity here. It's a unique angle, but not too much of a stick um or too gimmicky. I like it. I like it. I do like it too. I like all three of these. Um, I would say, after you know,

it's cool. Mark. I don't know if you've ever kind of delve in anything like this, but you know, for the amount of people that listen to some of our show, for to sit down and read hundreds of people kind of pitching why they want to be a podcaster or why they want to do something, you get to learn a little bit about everyone, what they want to hear, what they want to say, kind of what their dreams are, what you know, what they've been thinking about, stewing on

what they think they might be able to do. And and I felt like I learned a lot about um our our community, the people that listen to this show. And I'm sure that people are listen to your show and the Medior podcast and Remy Warren's show and Steve

Show like all that stuff. So I felt like I learned a lot about everyone um and to that to that end, I would say about a third of the people that wrote in wanted to do a podcast from the perspective of a non hunter UM or from a new hunter, let's say, like adult onset type of approach. And so I learned that, you know, old Fill the engineer here. However, we can get them out in the woods in the next little bit of time. It's gonna

be a good thing for everybody. Not only do well, I'll be able to mess with Phil out in the out of doors, but um people would get to hear what he goes through from trying to find a hunter safety course to to taking one to going out and hunting, to get your license, to learn about firearms and archery, a tackle, and then just all the all the other conundrums that come up. So um, that was one thing I learned. The other thing I learned is like, if you really want to have a podcast out there, go

and do it. Like the worst thing is is not is not trying. Um, if you fail, you fail. Oh yeah man. And I started my podcast with less than a hundred dollars of equipment, and I essentially I'm still using I've I've bought stuff and upgraded it and then went back to my original setup. I am using in eighty dollar microphone on my computer to do a podcast. That's I mean, as you know, it reaches a lot

of people for no money. I mean it it's you do not do not feel like money or something special about you is keeping you from being will do a podcast? Anyone can do it. Come to it with a good idea and some stick tutiveness, and uh do the kind of things like you're doing Ben, connecting and engaging with an audience, and you can you can really do some cool stuff with it. Yeah, and what a great time, As it turns out, what a great time to start

a podcast. I feel like the coronavirus, it's going to be a time where a lot of babies are conceived. Just saying, guys, yeah, just saying, watch out, Phil, just watch out. You guys have talked about vasecton used on this podcast, No, we probably should. That's something that is a very it's a very hot topic in my householder. I'm I'm I mean, I'm the one doing the pressuring around here. I'm like, let's cut that thing off. Like my wife's my wife's wanted. I'm squeamish. I don't I

don't want. I don't want more kids. But I also just do not like the idea of you know, sy so I I I love it. I'm gonna tell the doctor don't put me under. If there's anything that you can actually make you feel the feel the pain even more, I want that drug. That's that's Phil for you. Phil is the massacrest. I'm cutting my open doc speechless. Phil speak going to be a good backcountry hunter man like

proud can't wait. Uh No, I'm not. I don't want to do it, but my wife wants a third child, um kind of which I can't In the throes of a brand new child. I can't even fathom it. I can't. I refuse to even to entertain the idea. Yeah, the popular, the popular saying being like, oh, it goes from man to man defense to zone defense. That's absolutely true. Man to man defense is a big time advantage for the for the defense. And it's still hard though, Yeah, it's

very hard. And so anyway, I don't really I'm getting nervous and I got already got anxiety about the coronavirus. I don't want to talk about this anymore. Mark, get bastard for bringing Actually this, this, this is a great podcast idea. We all, all three of us get vasectomies. Now, that would be a show, that would be that would be a show like we called the ice the Ice

Pack Hour with Ben Mark. And you know what's funny is it the most popular time of year to get a vasectomy is right now because most people, yeah, the time for marsh Madness and this year. Can you imagine how shitty it must be to be the guys that scheduled their vasectomies right now? And then marsh Madness gets canceled, Like, oh my god, I gotta watch Netflix. Oh no, yeah, no,

I'm I'm I'm scared of that. Anyway, we gotta we gotta pick mark of those three podcast ideas, what is your favorite and what would you pick if you were voting. I think they're great all three, but I vote for the science podcast. Okay, that's Trey pu Pecao takes the lead. Philip uh second, I second that motion the Cow. You know,

it's hard for me to say. I want to say the Whole Animal because I have this idea that would be fantastic and I imagine like two brothers going at it if they have the expertise, would be a good be a good thing. So I'm gonna go with the Whole Animal podcast for my boat. Um, I just want to I want to think these brothers can really get

it done. Do you have any worries Ben that whoever gets your podcasting equipment with this idea launches a show and it's so wildly successful that supplants you in the Mediator podcast network and Phil goes and works for the Whole Animal instead of working for Yeah, I I uh, that's why I'm picking. I'm not picking my favorite because I'd like to keep job security. No, I am totally secure with my with th HD. Okay, okay, Mark, I'm the totally secure. So thank you everyone for writing in.

Good luck to Trey, Liz, and Ian and Ryan. I just want to say, like Mark kind of brought this up earlier. Uh, if you don't win this, and even to the hundreds of people who wrote in and didn't make it to the top three, it is that is. It has never been cheaper to do something like this, never been easier. There's never been more resources online to get you started. So if you have an idea and you think that you wanna, you know, get some free time,

and you're passionate about it, just do it. But yeah, that's true, that's true. Go out and do it, man. That's what why podcast is so beautiful that like people, it's it's really a democratic medium. Man. You can hop onto iTunes for free and listen for free. You can have a podcast that costs nothing but an account to a servicing account like lips in, and a microphone, a computer and some buddies that are have something interesting to say. So, um, go do it. Man. Use this as a as a

good time to plan it and go and do it. Man. You're probably sitting around your house. Um, this is a good time to get out there in a podcast. Maybe make a baby while you're at it. Whatever you want to do, it's up to you. But don't do them at the same time. That's what I would say. That would be a podcast if you do. Just make sure you put that that not safe for work sticker, that explicit sticker on your show. Yeah, make sure the microphone has a wind screen because you're gonna want to them

a lot of what man, Yeah, something like that. Um, so good luck to Trey, to Liz, to Ian and Ryan. You guys are welcome to go out and campaign for yourselves on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook whatever. Get people to vote for you. Just send them to at any of the three oh one all on Instagram. Go to my Instagram story and there will be the place to vote. Um, while you're there, you know, give me a follow and send me a real nice comment. Make me feel good

about myself because that's what this is all about anyway. Uh. And that's it. That's all of the giveaways that that lasted quite a long time. Phil. There's your podcast we've been doing. We did Mark. We did these four giveaways for episode one, and I didn't realize it would take months to like worked them out and get them all delivered. And I didn't realize, but I'm happy it did because it was really fun. Um, I had a good time, Phil,

Did you have a good time? Uh? Yeah, I mean I think I've said it a hundred times, but I'm still like, I'm still confused by the response, and uh, flattered, And I think, Ben, you should be flattered more than anyone. Obviously, it's you've got to You've got a very passionate audience. Yeah, we had poems, we had illustrations, we had what else do we have everything? We had turkey calls, just videos. People were framing pictures of my dead hamster squeakers. People

were having family game nights to draw Phil. Um. It was. It was unbelievable. So there's this, and this could totally hijack where you want to go with this, So feel free to postpone your answer for some other time. But oftentimes, in business or podcasting or whatever you often are, an idea is to try to imagine your typical audience member or customer and kind of put together their whole um suite of preferences and demographics. And various things to try

to understand who this person is. And so, based off of all these contest entries and various other feedback and messages you've gotten, can you describe, like who your audience member is an over generalized version of like what this person is? Is this like an urban uh non hunter who's twenty forty, or like do you have any kind of assumption of who your average listeners based off this? Now? I do? I do? They all look exactly like me? Uh?

And are my age? Phil got? I mean, if Joe Ferronado was under he would probably he would probably um back me up that we we did. People send a lot of videos in for our turkey calling contest of themselves and half of them were uh, probably thirty five and had a beard. Um. I don't know if the beards all they grew a beard after they saw my beard, which I doubt they did. That would be stupid, or if they just all bearded. People all kind of came to this show. I don't know the chicken or the egg,

you know how that is? Margins, you don't know, there's nowhere to know, uh, but you know the podcast contest funny enough, was the thing that really got me thinking about that. And I didn't expecting go into expecting to be inspired or feel anything. I just wanted to have fun and help someone out, um and and just share creativity.

Like you know, this show is a lot of just in your show too, Mark, I'm sure, just random things you think of that you find interesting and that you want to explore, and they take on lives of their own. And that's what I wanted to do here. I just thought it would be fun for everybody, and then it takes on a life of its own once it gets gone.

And in this case, as I was sitting there reading all these podcasts ideas, I realized that, I mean, we had teachers, we had middle school teachers, high school teachers, high school students. I had a couple in from like high school, outdoors clubs, um. We had research professionals as you heard, we had mothers, we had we had a

nuclear physicist was one of them. We had military, we had first responders, we had firefighters, we had I mean just just from all walks of life people that listen to this show and that um that appreciates something about it. I don't, I don't know what, or I just wanted to win a podcast kid. I don't know what the motivation is, right, but um, that was a part of it that struck me. And it wasn't I wasn't reading it to kind of, you know, have any feeling about

the audience. I just wanted to to to put as much time into the um reading each one of the submissions as people took to put them together and send them to me. So that's that's really. It was just like an exercise that turned into something that for me, it wasn't meant to be. UM And really, I just I came out of it appreciating how many different people can come and gather around hunting and the outdoors and caring about it, and it's just silliness at the same time,

complete ridiculous. We we I don't know if you listen to them, but we wrapped and sung some of the poems from one of our contests, and I listened back to him like, this is the most ridiculous thing that I've ever heard in my life. And I don't know what to do with it, but I'm glad we did it. It's like it's just not the norm within the hunting world. No, I would say that's a perfect way to describe you, Ben. I think it's great. I hate I hate to I

hate reflecting on anything. I'd like to just do things and then move on. But they're reflecting on just how many people out there are from different have different perspectives, are from different places. All of the contest winners, um three at the ones we've announced so far, we're from

the New England States. I think we had a New Hampshire, Massachusetts in Connecticut, which was kind of random and funny, but it just goes to show you people think of meat eater or they like typify your podcast market like, oh it's a it's must be all Midwesterners and in the Eastern folks. Um, we got emails from every place in this country and every in places internet. Actually, a bunch from Canada, a bunch from England, a bunch of New Zealand, a bunch of Australia. Um, a couple from

South America. Even so whatever, man, just be glad to be a part of something, whether it's a podcast or I don't even care what it is, where you can share share this conversations with so many people. So that was a long winded way of saying, like man, it was really inspiring and cool to read all these submissions and thank you everyone for sending them in. So, Mark, you're gonna what's your contest gonna be for a while? Yeah. The contest is to try to draw what you think

the average Hunting Collective audience member looks like. I like it. That's gonna be drawing a bunch of just a bunch of trolls with beards like what we do let the All right, well, good, you have any final thoughts there, Phil on our episode one hundred stuff and what it turned into your I guess you already kind of gave them. Yeah, I kind of. I kind of summed it up for Thanks for contributing. Yeah, thanks. I always always tune you out when you're talking, Phil, I try not to listen

to to what you're saying. That's okay, I do the exact same thing to myself. Oh I thought you would say to me, all right, well thanks for listening. Okay, cool, thanks for listening. Um, but that's it, So I will I'm gonna the next contest, as you guys heard, already, hand turkeys. He could he could get a thousand hand turkeys. That's the goal. Yeah, plaster them all over the office, not just behind my desk. One thousand hand turkey drawings.

That's what's want, that's what we want. That's what I'm even for. If I can get a thousand, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Probably I'll probably retire. Um, So get your hands ready because because after this whole coronavirus thing, hand drawn hand turkeys will be the only form of currency. We'll have to cut all our hands off to avoid shaking them. Uh. All right, that's that's coming up, So just just get ready for that. So, um, Phil,

your your release from duty. You can go back, uh to hang out with your kids and probably fake working from home. You're supposed to be working from home or you do you plan to do work? Yeah? Well, I already mixed one of your shows today, and now I'm recording a podcast with you. I'm recording another podcast with you later today, and then I'm mixing another one of your shows. So pretty all the work I'm doing today is just for you specifically, so I just thought i'd

let you know. Thanks. It's actually for the listener who we just described h all over the world, and that's who it's for. Philip hp to do it. I'll always defend the listener on TC. I won't let I won't let Phil. Phil is always trying to degrade you. I'm always trying to build you up and keep you, keep you with us. Um. All right, well we're gonna tell the story of the Wide eight Phil. So go take a breather and I'll see you briefly. Cool, have fun,

Mark Kenyon. Uh, when's the last time you're on the back forties? Uh? Uh? Two days ago Saturday, Saturday, Sunday. I was on the back for you. Today's Monday, Monday. Yeah, so it was Saturday a couple of days ago. Wow, Okay, what how's it looking over there? It's looking okay. Um, I was out there. Frost seating. Uh So. Frost seeding is a way of planting something without actually tilling or

disking or plowing anything into the ground. You actually broadcast seed just on top of what's there early enough in the year that they're still freezing and thawing cycles. So the ground's gonna freeze at some points and it's gonna thaw later in the day, and so the ground expands and then contracts, expands and then contracts and that sucks in the seed into the soil and allows stuff to grow.

So I'm frost seating switch grass, which is a type of grass that's going to provide a lot of cover and structure across these old fields that we talked about last time. Um, frost were critters, and so I was doing that. It's been a big pain in the butt. Um. Two different broadcast seaters I bought have already broken on me. So um as the as it was last year, gear

and equipment issues continue. Oh boy. Yeah, I mean we got a lot of big plans for the back for you this year, and I can only imagine that this is just the beginning. Yeah, man, and this whole uh coronavirus thing is throwing a loop already into it as we speak. Yeah, we're supposed to be filming next week and now obviously we're not doing that, and we're trying to do a lot of things out there. So we'll

leave that for other conversations. But I think I do think that um, in general, what we want to do on that that property this year, we're gonna still do it. Um. We're still going to do all the big projects we wanted to want to do whether we get to film them and show them to you on back for to you the actual show or not. UM, we're still gonna do them. We're still gonna make that property the best

that possibly can be. And if we can't get camera guys there, we can't everybody else there to film, and we'll still bring to you somehow. Marco'll take his phone out there and show you what he's doing, So just stick with us. We got big plans for the back forward for spring, summer, fall and then the next year,

but lots and lots to do. But the big I imagine that like, do you think the wide eight, the fact he killed the White eight last year, do you feel like that will be the high point of the property or do we got are we going to hit another high note? Are we gonna be chasing that all year? No, we'll have a high note. That won't be the beginning. That was simply a dot of optimism to begin the

growth curve. I would say, I think, Um, I think what we had last year was very very very much a raw, rough canvas that we are trying to draw hanting on and this year, barring any more disasters, Um, if we were able to do the things we want to do. The place should be a lot better this year. UM. So I think we'll see a lot more of all sorts of wildlife. I think we've got plans to bring in some guests. It will be a lot of fun

to share this place with. And I think we'll I think we'll see more dear and I think there'll be some success. So I think this year will be really cool. I think the coolest thing even if we don't have a successful hunt like we did last year where it killed the wide at a big mature buck. Even if we don't kill mature buck this year, I think it will be really a high point just to see it transformed, to see the new version of it this fault, and to see how animals and all sorts of new life

is kind of flush across this landscape. I think that will be a high point, just to see that experience that. Um, I'm looking for that a lot. Yeah. And then for you, I guess maybe for those of you that don't know, back Ford is a property that that Meat Eater bought and Mark Kenyan manages and we're making a show about it. Um. And it's six or four acres in Michigan. And as you said, it's kind of like it wasn't a blank canvas, but it was definitely a run of the mill farm.

You can just inherit and start shooting the big bucks walk around. I mean, um, a lot of work had to be done, has been done, will be done. Um, A lot of times going into thinking about what what's the best thing for this property and why, um, why we need to do what we're gonna do, and so it's it's an interesting I've never been a part of something like this. I've least ground for hunting. I've been

a part of those processes, but not never something so intimate. Um. And you and I were talking about, you know, just a property in general. How how the more you get to know something, you would think the closer you got to it. Right, the more you know about a property, you would think the closer you felt to it, that intimate knowledge of every corner of it, every field, every hedgerow,

every tree, you kind of know what's going on. But we were talking about recently, like the closer you get to a property, the more you realize what you don't know, the more you realize how much there isn't there. Yeah, It's like there's these different levels to getting to know a place, and so you you start to get to know a place a whole lot, and you feel like, oh, I know that there's an oak tree over there, and I know there's a such and such tree there, and

then there's this corner there. So you get to know something really well on that level. But if you keep going, then you go to this next level where you then have all these new questions because now you're starting to ask, why does this happen there, or why is this thing

happening there that's influencing this wildlife movement or whatever. And then is if you keep on digging in and your further passionate and excited about learning this place, and you have more experiences, then you start to see, oh, when I made this change, it influenced this. And there's this

cascade of effects that I think is really interesting. If you approach it with curiosity, Um, that's been something that at times this property has seen limiting because like we're just on sixty four acres, there's nothing but well, we know every square inch almost. But then if you approach it with curiosity and um, I don't know, ah, you just you just keep on diving down these new rabbit holes which are really interesting in challenging all sorts of challenges.

But I think embracing that makes it a lot of fun. Yeah, that that's that's well, But you always do a good job of kind of encapsulating all the things that go into this. And um, I think that part of what I hope to get out of of the back Ford. And we were talking about this about what what might we do after the back Ford or what what else

can we figure out in terms of hunting. I think that what meat Eater has done as a brand and and Steve Ronnell as a person and kind of what all the things that he means to hunting is is to be able to say, like, what's happening on the ground. What makes us relatable to everybody? Um, what makes a sixty four acre property in Michigan relatable to everybody listening to this? There's got to be something that you can

relate to. Even if you don't own a proper of your own, if you've never hunted on white tails on in Michigan you don't ever intend to. There's some appreciation for for the land and for the animals that you can learn from what from your experience, right from Mark's experience. But but then let's say you have a property like this, or you do intend to want to have a property like this, you can also learn some very intimate things on the ground that you can either do better or

or you can try to emulate. And so it's it's it's a great it's been a great process. I guess that it's it's more of an internal feeling for me having worked on the show with you. But I think, um, for those who haven't watched back forward you even those who have and are looking forward to the season two, that's how that's why I enjoy it. Because of that approach, we're able to be broad but also kind of of hit things on the ground floor where they're happening on

that property. Yeah. I mean it's been i opening for me in so many different ways. Have have thought that I had a lot of experience of these kinds of things leading up to it, and I thought, oh, this is great. You get to own a property and do whatever you want on it. This will be a piece of cake. This is the dream come true. Um, this will be a slam dunk. And you very quickly realize that there's a lot more to it. Um, challenges and opportunities. Um. And so it's been a hell of a journey, that's

for sure. By the time it's all said and done, we'll have had a lot of fun, will have worked our tails off and learned a lot. Yeah, that's for sure. And that's all you can really ask for. We had Charles Rodney on the show a couple of weeks ago, and that's what he always says. He's like, be safe, have fun, learn go like this. That's and I take that in from a guy like that. Um. You know what I want to talk about before you get any further,

UM soil and a guy named Gabe Brown. I think at this point you could probably give us a lot about game. Brown. We we went to um Rome Ranch back in November and we did a podcast for THD about soil and about rejective agriculture and about kind of the if if you were looking at the great mysteries and our society, like or or one of the more important things we could explore soil is never we think about the ocean, we think about our climate, we don't

ever really think about the soil. UM soil becomes this like connective tissue or connective organism for everything everything we eat, you know, every every place we walk, whatever. So could you give us just a quick rundown from from your perch on the back forward you why soil matters and that there's this guy named Gay Brown that that you've been been talking about to me. Yeah. Well, like you said, soil is it is the foundation that almost everything that

we depend on is built on. There is more life in soil beneath the surface of the ground than there is above it. It's smaller life, but the sheer volume of different little critters and things going on down there is incredible. And our health, our ability to grow things, to have food, to to do all the things that we need as as humans and then on a more granular level as hunters or wildlife managers. It all depends on that part of the of the building, which is

the foundation, which is soil. And soil has been becoming seriously degraded decade over decade over decade. I think the last number I saw is that we have lost fifty of our top soil across the world over the last century and a half, so since industrial agriculture, since the

plow um of sorts started being used prevalently. We've lost half of the available high quality soil to grow stuff, and we're losing more and more and more and more because of a number of different practices within you know, within the agricultural world and and even within wildlife agriculture

that management all those different types of things. Um, we're killing the biology of soil every time we plowed up, or we leave it bear um, or we plant the same thing over and over and over in a monoculture, or we apply a bunch of chemicals. All these things are killing the life within soil that gives life to everything that comes out of it. That's a very overly

simplified generalized explanation of why soil matters. But um, basically what what Gay Brown, who is a farmer from north North Dakota has been sharing, and a lot of folks from within the natural resource um oh, natural resource why am I Conservation Service? Thank you from the government, and a whole lot of people across the country now are speaking about our new ways to think about planting crops, new ways of farming that can preserve the quality and

life of our soil. And that's going to lead to more nutrient dense crops. It's going to lead to better yields, it's going to lead to less erosion, it's going to lead to less pollution with chemicals getting into our water sources.

All many, many, many different benefits. So this is a topic that has become an interest to me because when we started looking into this idea of the back forward, we want to try to manage this place, UM to be a wildlife paradise, but also as environmentally friendly and as as as as healthy of an ecosystem as we possibly could. And so I knew from the get go that UM, thinking about soil would have to be part of the equation. And so I started diving into it

last winter last spring. And Gay Brown was one of these people who wrote a book called Dirt to Soil that has been one of those highly one of the most highly recommended books on this topic. UM ever want to talk to would always point back to that book. Go read that book, Go read that book. Listen to his ted talk. UM, So I did, and UM, what you learned is that there's a handful of and you can cut me off at any point I from going

too deep and keep going. You might have covered this already in your Rome Ranch podcast, But there's these principles of healthy soil that should be thought about whenever you're going to be moving forward with some kind of work

with the ground. So what we're trying to do with the back ford and I'll give you this the really high level, and I might forget something here, but you want to reduce tillage as much as possible, because whenever you're tilling or plowing ground, you're you're breaking apart the soil biology. You're you're losing oisture too, to the atmosphere. So anytime you can no till, that's a better option.

Anytime you can keep the soil armored. You want to have something growing at all times because nature, in nature, they're supposed to be stuff growing. Nature of bores a vacuum is the phrase of her in the past. So you want roots, living roots in the soil at all times. That's different than what you're seeing in traditional agriculture, where a crop is planted in May or June and it's harvested in September or October or November, and then it's just dead. It's a desert for five months or six

months or whatever. Um, you also want diversity in nature. You never see a monoculture. You never see the same plant everywhere. There's always diversity in nature. But across massive swaths of America, in the entire world, we're planting monoculture, single species crops that are covering the landscape with just one single thing that's not natural. That's not healthy for soil, It's not healthy for the environment in a lot of ways.

So diverse planting. UM. Reducing chemical uh inputs like synthetic fertilizers, synth excuse excuse me, synthetic fertilizers, synthetic herbicides. UM, those things are not helping us. Um is that four? Yeah? Thanks, I'm forgetting I'm forgetting something here now. But um. But but basically, high level point of all this is that soil matters. I've been trying to learn a lot about it and trying to implement these practices on the back forty. We did that last year for the first time, both

on the back forty and on another farm. I'm able to do a little bit of work on I tried this stuff for the first time and UM learned a lot. I'm going to try it again this year. Yeah, I mean the thing that I've always seen and heard and when I was at Room Ranch that they said to me that got me going, there's more living organisms and a teaspoon of soil than the rest of the earth,

than all of the Earth compared to combined. And so it's like this, this is this, it's a bias fhere, it's assist a biological system what soil is, and we have to treat it like that. And what's funny is roset Room Branch there show they showed me the difference between the chocolate cake looking soil visually, it's it's arresting. Here's you know here they say, here, look under this cover crop. Here's uh soil that hasn't been tilled up, that hasn't been planted in about three or four years.

Look at what this looks like. And it looks like chocolate cake. And then you go one field over and you're like this soils, this soil has been tilled yearly for the past who knows how long, and it's like red sand um. There's no nutrients in it, there's nothing biological, there's nothing, no earthworms crawling in it. It's basically dead soil.

And then what they described to me is that once you get to this point, you still need this land to produce crops, so you can so that farmer can make a living, so that farmer can have, um a life on the farm. And what you then have to do is use those of gladiatives for to to make the soil fertile. And that's the only way from there all and you're kind of dependent on those chemicals to make things grow in the soil that you've destroyed. So

it's a weird circular pattern of destruction that. Um, it's alarming, and I think regetitive agriculture I've seen it a lot more. Maybe I've just been looking for it recently, since I've been learning about it as you have. Maybe I've been looking for it more. But I've seen it repeated a lot in these circles. People are talking about it more, and people are thinking about soil and looking to people like Gay Brown for leadership. Yeah, for leadership, um, And

so give us a rundown. You know, hopefully we can film a lot of this, but like on the back forty, how do you intend to approach it? Gabe hopefully is going to come and help us with this, but um, but you're supposed to be there next week, but now he can't can't come because of the quarantine. But you know what's the intention with Gabe, And in terms of soil, well, the hope is that game is gonna come out and take a look at the soil that we have on the farm right now and tell us a little bitut

what he's seeing there. Um. From everything I can gather, you can tell this has been intensively plowed in farm soil for decades and decades and decades, so it's seriously degraded. Um. So I think it's gonna come and take a look at that, and then we're going to talk to him about those different principles, principles of soil health and ways that we can plant crops on the back forty but do it in a way that is good for the

whole ecosystem, good for the soil. Um. And so, like I said, started these things last year and a couple of small food plots we planted this year. We're expanding the food plots in quite a uh quite a significant way, excuse me. So we're gonna continue to use a no till approach. We're gonna minimize the use of any herbicides as much as possible. UM, We're going to institute a rotation of crops that allows us to keep something growing

at all times. And then it also uses UM. By keeping something going all the time, you don't then have the weed issues that then require you use herbicides like people traditionally do. So we'll have a rotation, will utilize a really diverse blend of plants rather than the typical monoculture plantings. UM. Again, that's gonna be great for all sorts of different types of wildlife. It's also gonna be good for the soil. It's also going to make things

easier from us for us from an input standpoint. UM. And that's you know, at the high level, it's it's gonna be doing those things that all those things, they're a little bit more difficult or to get started with maybe than the traditional ways I've done it. But I think once you get it going, you start seeing some

real benefits. And we're just in that beginning stage. So I think Gave is gonna be able to provide some really helpful guidance just as far as the things I should be looking for, the things that should be focusing on Um, hopefully we can avoid some of this mistakes. I'm sure he did experience early on in his years. Um, maybe he can pass along a few points. Is to keep my mistakes as minimal as possible. Yeah, but there's

to it. Well, Like like we said before, I mean, is this is one of those things where people can learn from you because we're gonna document every single thing that you go through. Um, and I think it's beautiful about the way you approach it, in the way that's been done. Is this. You're not an expert, you're not gay Brown, but you're relying on other experts to come in and kind of give you the guidance and then

you gotta go do it yourself. And if you screw it up, oh you know, Oh well, Um, that's just how a. Yeah, you're the great guinea pig. And that's why you can't get sick mark. You can't get coronavirus because then the back forty will fall apart. I don't know what we'll do if that happens. I don't know, but I think it's good. I mean, I think it's

good to understand. Um. One, we had a guy named Luke McCauley out last year who kind of gave us who painted the picture had done done this prior for you and I, but but painted the picture of kind of why are small farms important? We talk about public lands all the time. I mean, you wrote a book about it. Um. These are large swaths of millions and millions of acres. But now we're talking about sixty four acres. And and it may seem like that's not a big deal.

A soil on a sixty four acre farm may not seem like that big a deal. But when you multiply that out over millions of millions of acres that are similarly managed, if everyone could adopt some some principle that one allows people to still make money and allows people still have profitable acreage in terms of farming and feed themselves and feed each other, um, and feed into our

industrial system. You know, that's that's one. But that allows for soil health and for ecosystem health and for you know, wildlife health. UM. I think that's the aim. And and so if you haven't watched back for you can go back and watch those things, um and and see it YouTube channel yeah medior YouTube, go there, um, and at some point we'll be able to come back out and

start filming season two. Okay. If not, I'm just gonna keep on shutting along out there doing stuff and one day you'll just show back up with the camera like, whoa, what if you it's on fire? Literally? Holy crap? Yeah? Well good, Um, anything else about the back for you. I know, we're going to do some prescribe burning. Um, we're hoping to get with a consultant and look at building a pond there. Man, We're gonna put wood duck boxes. We still gotta get honey from our bees from last year.

A million things to do, Yeah, lots lots going on. Bees and wetlands and ponds and grasses and prescribe burns and new plantings of various food sources and creating new cover and bedding areas with evergreen plantings and trees and orchards and mushrooms. I mean, just a plethora of food and plants and animals and a bounty, a bounty of nature. Tell people about here's a good hot tip. Tell people

about growing their own mushrooms. Oh gosh, I'm the wrong guy to to ask about that, Ben, because I I've heard is the little idea that Steve mentioned where Supposedly, I can tell you that tell me the supposedly what you can do, so they can look forward to seeing you try this out. Supposedly you can get spores from mushrooms, put them on a chainsaw and make cuts into old dead stumps with these mushroom spores and it will impregnate or or whatever the right war is. Um you you're

thinking about. Yeah, you can see where our heads are at. Um. Yeah, and you can essentially plant your own mushrooms where you want them. Um. I don't know how easy this to do. I don't know if it's real. Um, but we're gonna give a shot, see what we can do. And we're first going to try to find a bunch of mushrooms and then we'll see if we can inoculate some stumps. The more. Yeah, to look forward to what else we're gonna do there this spring. We're gonna get turkey hut uh,

get some morrel mushrooms. We're gonna plant a bunch of trees with our friend Doug during Um, we're gonna plant some orchards with some some fruit bearing trees in there. We're gonna start the our bee hives going so we can harvest honey later in the year. Um, we're gonna get everything figured out so we can dig our pond

and put some wood duck boxes on that pond. Um and really, just like as we were saying before, just like throw a grenade of change at this place and and do everything we possibly can in a short term two make it as good as it can be, and then see what happens in the fall, See how wildlife uses the things that we create, See what we're able to harvest from the things we're able to create and change. Um, that's It's a beautiful thing for me. I love this project.

I've been I've been in love with it from the beginning. It hasn't been easy. UM. I know you don't need me to tell you that. But but nothing but nothing,

you know, nothing that's worth it as easy. So UM, I hope that those out there that are landowners or just can step step onto a wild place, that you go a publicly to public land and you go think about the soil next time you're there, to think about the time you're hiking and how your boots affect the trail that you're on, and how that trail affects the soil. And how that trail causes erosion or or things like that.

I mean it, once you start to learn what the earth is and what it means, you start to think about every impact that you have on it in a way that you know. It's not it's not your typical frou through environmentalist way to think about it. Man. It's it's like a a very direct um relationship, like your feet matter where you're the blade of your shovel matters, the wheels of your car matter at that that at that point too, and so it's it's something I know

you've you've experienced for sure. So all right, that's all that's soil. Go to uh that benyo B three oh one and vote on our our podcasts. Um. It's it's strange to say, there, Mark, but I'm gonna see everybody to my row Daily podcast. Dude. Good for you. That's ambitious. It may all fall apart on me. I don't know. I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines. It's already

been interesting. Um. Anything you want to say to encourage everybody out there in this in this time, I'll let you kind of have the floor to end it out. I think I would just echo the sentiments we had earlier, which is we're gonna be okay. But I do think I do think we should also take it serious personally. I don't think we should look at this as some

crazy conspiracy. I think we're far past that. So follow the guidelines, be smart, take care of your family, and then keep living your life that as best as you can within those guidelines. Get outside, enjoy a walk in the woods with your family. Appreciate the simple things, the little things that we have that now we're starting to learn maybe aren't so guaranteed in certain situations. So kiss your wife, Hug your kids, enjoy life. Make sure it's

your wife, kiss only your wife. Kiss your wife, repecting me. Yeah, oh gosh, it's got awkward. All right, well, Marcus, thank you so much, buddy. Um we'll be checking in with him, maybe later in our daily podcast journey. We'll check back in with you, Um rendezvous in the back forty. Should things all fall apart in terms of society, I feel like we should we should. Uh, we should just create a camp there, a commune where everybody can come and share,

share the wild bounty. Yes, I'll be waiting for you, and I'll have the uh, I'll have it all set up beautiful. I'll expect you to have grown a beard by then, which which you clearly I'm not to this one. I've been trying for years. Man, it might be it's not in the cards. I don't think. Sorry, buddy, see you,

see you. That's it. That's all another episode of the books thanks to Marcus Kenyan, thanks to this little program we got called Squadcast, not a sponsor, but still making my life a lot easier thanks to the hundreds of you that wrote in and and tried to win a podcast. So before we go at any of the three oh one, go to my instant story. There'll be a frame there with a poll to vote for Trey and Liz and the brothers Russell. So go there and find them and vote, vote, vote.

We're gonna leave that open for twenty four hours and that will determine the winners. To go and vote over there. If any of a B three or one on Instagram. If you don't have Instagram, send an email tell me if you like the best. We'll figure it all out. Don't worry. We're gonna get the right person, the equipment, and we'll go on. So tomorrow on the Daily Podcast. We're gonna have Remmy Warren. We're gonna talk about hunting in New Zealand. We're gonna talk about where he's in

his life, what he's doing with the Quarantine. I bet he's doing something awesome that will make us all jealous. So tomorrow Daily Quarantine cast Remy Warren, Phil, you feel him? How you feeling about this daily podcast? Life? So far, so good? Um, I might have a different attitude about it in you know, four or five days, but we'll see. I'm gonna try to keep spirits up, yeah, because I think it's a fun idea. You're the man of the people who we're doing this for the people. This is

I represent people. We don't eat, we don't sleep until the people get what they want. That's right. That's a little daily dose of PTE filled the engineer. All right, everybody, We'll see tomorrow. Bye bye. The Hunting Collective with Ben O'Brien is a part of the Meat Eater podcast network. It is produced by Cringe Schneider and engineered by Phil Taylor.

You can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, the meat eater dot Com, or anywhere podcasts are downloadable wherever you listen, leave a five star review, and subscribe