Smell off now, lady. Welcome to Meet Eater Trivia.
The Metater podcast.
Hosts Yannis cal Brody length fifty to seventy minutes. Sorry, I'm actually I'm reading from a script here. If you can't sell, hold on, let me start it again. Welcome to me Eater Radio Live. It's eleven am Mountain Time on September twenty sixth, and we're live from Meat Eater Headquarters World Headquarters here in Bozeman, Montana. I'm your host today, Yannis Ptellus, and I'm joined by Brody Henderson and Ryan Callahan. On today's show, we'll recap a recent move elk and
deer hunt. Then we'll talk to BHA President Patrick Berry about a concerning public lands lawsuit. After that, we'll look at a hunting tattoo that was performed by a man who was high on meth, followed by one minute fishing with the one and only my dad, Papa Yannis. Then we've got a hot tip off where Stephen Ranella is guaranteed to lose. Think about that one. Followed by an interview with Wyatt Seep who's currently logging my Wisconsin deer property.
And finally Phil will school us in some pop culture trivia. But first let's hear from cal Cal. You're recently in Wyoming hunting deer and elk. Correct.
Yeah, Actually I went down the Thursday before Labor Day weekend. Buddy mine had a unit sixty one tag or still he just took off on the hunt yesterday, and so I went down there and helped him scout very wilderness based hunting them zorcas, and so wrote around with him, checked a bunch of stuff out, saw antelope at ten four hundred feet, which was a highlight, a bunch of
super cool country there. And then yeah, kind of fortunately, unfortunately I drew an elk and a deer tag in Wyoming, which is not the way I had wanted it to be.
Now, that's definitely too much of a good thing.
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, hiked her butts off, had pack lamas, which was super fun characters to have in camp, And.
Yeah, how'd that go? How would you rate your overall um experience?
You know, we had one character with us who's just not much of a pack animal enthusiast. And as long as I can human a human, and as long as I could keep that human away from the pack animals, things went great, Things went great. But you know, he's like the type of dude who like grabs the lead rope and pulls it around with him, and he's like the goddamn loma won't sit still, you know, and you're like, well you you literally just told it to follow year round.
Otherwise good though, otherwise great, No stubborn Lama's no spitting.
No, Honestly, we had They're supposed to like their cruising speeds like two miles an hour, right, and I mean we did three miles an hour for like eleven miles one day, and they crushed it. They were a little little pissy because the end of that trail ended in like a very steep headwall, and they weren't real jazzed about that at the end. But yeah, no, we'll tucker it out.
Yeah yeah, all right, you're telling me before the show started you had a little encounter with another hunter. What happened there?
Oh well, I mean, unfortunately, I had many, many, many encounters with many many hunters. The trail density this is region H, and the human hunter density was just insane. Like the the opposite. I would rather have very few animals, very low potential, and no people then yeah, so I just spent I felt like a ping pong ball being bounced around different groups of folks. And it was pretty funny, like bump into somebody and they'd be like cow and Garrett Smith was film on with me and he's like
they go to high school with you, you know stuff. It was just funny. Everybody was very casual. But yeah, we had this is like the question, right, like, what would you do. Let's say you get up a little late, or you're moving a little slow. You take a nasty hike basically straight up two thousand vertical feet. You get on top of the ridge, it's already daylight, and you see two hunters actively hunting that ridge. What do you do?
They're like out ahead on the ridge like sort of I'm guessing they're like still hunting out in front of me, or just moving on the ridge out ahead of me. Yep, I would, and well I could go talk to them and see what their plan is and then maybe figure out a plan B for me.
Yep.
You could just turn around, but that'd be tough because you just did two thousand feet of some nasty So the best thing to do is probably talk to them, But you know, obviously give them, you know, first choice of where they want to go, and then kind of play off with their move. Yeah.
Yeah, that's definitely one way to go. Brody, what do you think.
You know, I would probably like, I'm assuming this is a spot, like a high country deer hunt. You're gonna be looking at a lot of country and it's not like you're hunting one draw. It's like you're hunting a
big area. So you know, if you're there last, like, you're kind of screwed as far as far as I'm concerned, Like, I'm not gonna go, Like I might talk to them if it's convenient, but just walking up to them you might screw their hunt up, right, Like if they're set up classing and there's deer around that could screw their hunt up, I probably shrug my shoulders and turn around.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
The unfortunately, like the biggest stories that I have out of this deer hunt are all people stories. Well, Garrett set his camera down in a pile of human surface poop. That was horrible. There was Yeah, just just like glassing in the morning, you'd be like, oh, that person's taking a crap. Oh, that person's like you're just seeing people in camps and yeah, just just something, really something.
Did you too bad? I guess you're not sounded like you killed a elk or a deer.
No I didn't. I And you know, like despite all this, I did find one big giant buck, as Doug Durream would say, and uh and yeah, gotta gotta hunt that deer almost without running into people. But that was like the really good story of human encounter where I'm in this like pee soup thick fog bank and peek over this little ridge, big giant buck right there. It doesn't work out, but I'm like, okay, that's the only big deer I've seen, so I'm just gonna stay on this
thing's tracks. He's gonna timber up at some point and then I'm gonna kill this thing. So for over a mile, I stay on this Bucks track and you know, you can't really see like you're you're the visibility is nothing because of the you're in a cloud bank, right, And finally this Bucks tracks turn and bail into this timber
patch and I'm like, okay, awesome. I start going out and you know, I'm like glued to ONEX at this point because i don't really even know where the hell I am, but I start going down the ridge to get below and glass into this timber patch. And as soon as I started doing that, the visibility, just like the day totally flips like it's blue sky, it's hot.
And I kind of come out of this little scrap of timber down the ridge and there's three dudes just straight up walking towards the rim of this little cirque right and I'm like, oh my god, this buck is gonna blow out of here. And I'm like, oh, I don't don't know what to do, and so I throw my hands up like this and I whistle and I stop those three dudes, and I'm like, I feel like a total jackass, and I kind of scoot down there as quick as I can, and I just say, guys,
good morning. I just tracked this huge buck into this timber patch up here. I know you're here. I'm not laying any claim to this thing, but somebody should kill it. It doesn't have to be me, but you're nobody's gonna kill it if you go walking out up to the to the rim. And all three of those dudes like instantaneously are like, well you spotted him, go kill him.
Nice.
Yeah, I mean that like restored my faith in humanity after the weak plus of bumping into people that I had.
So it's nice to end on a high note.
Yep, for sure, Brody, you were in.
Alaska while Col's in Wyoming.
Yeah.
I got the invite from Steve to do my dream hunt, which is a bull moose in Alaska.
So was that You're like, seriously, you're dream like your top bucket list hunt.
The very top.
Oh cool, that's all.
Yeah. So yeah, we went and did the hunt that he's done with your dad with Clay a couple of times, went to the same area that he killed his big bull last year. There we do what's called a ridge top hunt, where there's different ways to hunt bulls in Alaska. You can float a river one hundred miles of river and move camps every day. You can use the jet boat and hit a bunch of different stuff. On bigger rivers.
We do what's called the ridgetop hunt, where you fly in to a high ridge on these little super cub planes, land on the ridge and that's where you're gonna live for ten days, like you're hunting there and that's where you're you're stuck basically, and you know, we've heard some some comments about this being like a mentally challenging hunt for some people, drives some people nuts. Being stuck there. You can't, like, you can't go after a moose that's
two miles away. It's like, you just can't do it. You gotta call them to you.
Well, and it's like bad hunting tactics because you're late, you start laying, you're setting.
Down, and you're just never going to find the thing, Like you get down in that thick shit and you're never gonna find them, right, So it's you just got to bring them to you. Uh So we flew in. Can't hunt the first day because you you fly that day. Three days I saw three cow moose, no bulls. The very actually the very first animal we saw was a grizz couple hundred yards away that rolled up the hill right to us and stopped at about twenty yards and
did what it was supposed to do. It spooked when it saw us.
Steve.
Steve was very bummed that his brother Danny wasn't there because he could have killed that bear. But about mid morning of day four, I kind of moved away from our main glass and calling spot and wrapped around the ridge a little bit to get a better look at some stuff we couldn't see, and threw my binos up and like, holy shit, there's a bull. And he was already coming, Like we had he was a little over
mile away, but he was already. You just tell he was walking, thrashing brush, walking, thrashing brush, ran over to where Steve and our buddy Matt Cook were sitting, like there's a bull, and then it was just kind of a way from there. We called. He kept coming. He disappeared on us for ten or fifteen minutes, but then reappeared maybe eight hundred yards away, and at that point
it was like he's definitely coming. So like I got set up for the shot and all that, and and the idea is you're gonna call him right into your lap, right, They're just gonna.
You guys draw straws as to who is, Like, how'd you pick who is gonna give the first opportunity?
Well, Matt Cook generously gave me.
Yes.
It was incredibly generous of him to do that. So the bulls coming, I kind of get set up in front of them. It's you know, it's we're up on a ridge. It's gonna be a downhill shot into this fairly open flat area. The bulls working through all this aspen and dwarf birch and all there. It's real thick, like there's no shot. And right before he gets to where he's gonna be like clear and in the open, he lays down in a pile of brush like he was.
Like just decides taking out.
He was a chicken shit like. I think I think we made a mistake because we were just cow calling, and I think we made a mistake by raking brush to figure out. And he laid down and you could just barely see his antlers in that brush, like bobbing back and forth. He was in there panting because he had come a long way. It's pretty quick. I think he's like, I'm just gonna wait and see what happens, so I don't.
I didn't time.
It was at least an hour. It could have been closer to two. We're just sitting there waiting, and we tried everything, dude. We kept calling. Steve actually snuck down the hill to get closer to him to call, and he just did not budge. At one point we considered going in there, and I'm like, that ain't gonna work. No, So after a while he stands up and it's a very clear he's not coming to us. He's like, I'm out, and I got a quick look at his white holes through the brush shot once. I think I hit him
like back in the liver. It was three point fifty, and then he turned away from us, and I threw a couple more at him, and then at five hundred he stopped dead still. I think he was like running out of gas. And shot him at five hundred and ass over tea kettle. That was kind of just that's,
as you guys know, just the start of things. You know, like he died in a very brushy hell hole with no visible you couldn't see ten feet in there, and so like I would have loved to have kicked back and enjoyed the moment, and like, yeah, your dream hunt, take just the animal in, but you can't, like the clock's ticking as soon as that thing hits the ground, right.
You mean, just because you got to take care of the meat.
Take care of the meat, and like a grit is gonna find oh oh oh.
Yeah, yeah, get the meat away from the guts.
Yeah, So I shot him about toosh two o'clock. We finished cutting him up right at dark. We were only able to move the meat forty or fifty yards away from the carcass and then.
We probably out of that brush pocket.
It was all brush.
It was.
The meat was still in the brush, but we had to move it away from because the bear is gonna go after the guts first, right.
We just took a.
Load, went back to camp, came back the next morning, very carefully went in there. There wasn't a bear like we would have known if there was a bear on the carcass because we were only fifty yards away from it, but we couldn't see it. Got the meat out of there, moved all that stuff, and you know, continued to hunt for a couple of days for a bull for mat. But it was, it was awesome.
It was.
It's in no way boring or was it psychologically challenging for me? I'm like, if you get bored doing a hunt in the Alaska wilderness, you should have your head examined.
Well, you're you're an old guy now, man, So sitting in one spot being patient and just looking at it.
It's hard for me man, it is. It's like, yeah, i'd get that's why I get up and wrap around the ridge every half hour or so. But yeah, I mean, like the whole idea is trust the process, right, Like you got ten days and you just got to like believe because we saw six moose and how are many days? Eight? Four cows and two bulls.
Yeah, I've said it before, I'll say it again.
Man.
Everybody thinks Alaska is like the land of plenty, and is there a lot of game up there? Yes, but like per square mile. No, No, it seems like that when it was a giant heard of cariboo walking in front of you. Yeah, but then there's the other twelve or eleven and a half months the year, there's nothing on that hillside.
It was cool leaving camp. You've been with those pile They like to get low and buzz cool things that they see. And so we're let's fly over the carcass and uh, there was a giant grizzly on the carcass. And the the when they claim a carcass, they just dig, they dig everything up and make a big mound and bury that carcass.
You'll see it is that it right in the beginning.
Yeah, he cleared that entire area like a bulldozer and covered that thing up. And he actually was lunging at the super cubs as we were buzzing him. What oh yeah, like he was pissed.
Swat that fly right out of the sky.
Yeah, and obviously like really big Barry's got a gut full of full of moose in him there, but way bigger than that bear that rolled up on us the first day.
Oh yeah, we got it all. Did you? Did Phil already have a picture of the bull up? I did? Nice? Yeah, uh well, congratulations, thank you. I have one hundred more questions for you. But because we got shows live and it has a very tight schedule, yeah, we have to move on. I'm sorry for everybody else, have more questions for Brody, but we got to get to Patrick Barry,
who's joining us on the line now. He's the president and CEO of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and he's here to talk about a high stakes lawsuit regarding public lands that's been filed with the US Supreme Court. Patrick, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Although I got to tell you that's a tough fact to follow. That was some pretty entertaining stuff right there. Well, listen, we're talking about villains and possibly fees now right, Yeah.
I mean, I guess the way I would frame it is that if you love the story you just heard, and you love and you love doing that on public land, I think anybody out there who cares about that would want to know and pay attention to this stuff.
So what's happening in Utah? Patrick?
So the there's a long history in the state of Utah fighting over public lands, which I think you guys are aware, I mean, back country Hunters and Anglers was founded on the premise that our public land resources are invaluable what they provide to hunters, anglers and a whole variety of recreational enthusiasts, and their long history of I guess disdain and trying to wrestle control of federal lands away from every American who owns them finally got to
the point where they filed a lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of whether the Bureau of Land Management canonna eighteen and a half million acres of land within the state of Utah. But the implications are go well beyond that. So if you have any federal land for service land or refuge land, or any other kind of federal land anywhere near you that you enjoy that you know, generations of hunters and anglers have enjoyed and passed on our heritage, you know,
from generation to generation. All of that is potentially under threat because of the way that this lawsuit has been filed, in the language that they're using, and how they're going about it. So even though it's a Utah ground zero issue, there's the threat goes to every corner of the country where there's federally on public land.
What do you think the intent is, Like, why is the state doing this? What's their their plan for that eighteen and a half million acres just within Utah.
Well, there's a there's a big distinction here, I think between what they claim their intent is.
And what actually is going to happen. I mean, if you'll listen to.
The way they talk about it, they say, you know, Utah's land be better managed by you know, Utah, federal land better management by Utah. It's not their land, it's it's land by owned by every American. That's part of our legacy that's unique to North America. And what they claim is that no, no, no, it's okay. We're just gonna take over ownership of this land and manage it in the best interest for Utah and we'll keep that
public land open. But honestly, guys, this is one of the most sinister and polished gas lighting jobs that I've ever seen, because they actually can't afford to own that land, and they would have no choice but to sell it off, as they've done with other land owned.
By the State of Utah.
They were they were granted at the time of statehood seven and a half million acres of federal or state trust land, sorry not federal land that was specifically allocated to fund their school, and they've already auctioned off more than half of that. In fact, you can go on their own website right now and you can see more
parcels that are up for sale for for the highest bidder. So, uh, they'll claim that it's uh, they're going to keep it in public ownership, but they can't afford it, and they've shown from their own history that is not their.
Intention, and is isn't the lawsuit doesn't lawsuit itself use the language of disposal.
They do, And that's a really good point, cal because they talk about land transfer, but the lawsuit talks about disposal, and some pretty sharp legal minds on the on the good side of this issue believe that the intention actually is to pretty much sell all of it. And you know, look, if you go back to you know, Jason Chafits, it's bill Representative, you know, in Congress from the state of Utah. You know, he introduced a bill it's pretty clear to
sell off three million acre of federal land. So there's a pattern here, and there is a belief that, based on the way the lawsuit was filed, that the goal
is just to sell it. But here's the thing that matters, right, they're questioning if you look at the lawsuit, they question the constitutionality of whether federal agencies can own land in perpetuity, which, of course is hey, that's the value of that federal land that you know, our kids and grandkids and generations you know, can enjoy some of the same things that
we did. But the clauses in the Constitution that give Congress authority over land transfers, it doesn't distinguish between this type of land management and this federal agency.
It's incredibly broad.
So it doesn't specifically say BLM or US for Service or Park Service.
They'll claim it's about a specific type of BLM land. But when you question in the constitutionality of whether the federal government can own land and perpetuity, you're questioning whether they can own any kind of land under that congressional clause. So all six hundred and forty million acres of federally
owned public land is potentially implicated in this. And that's why I you know, I said at the at the top of this conversation, you live anywhere near federally owned public land that you enjoy for hunting and backcountry adventures, you should pay attention to what's happening in Utah.
Hey, Patrick, what is it about Utah?
Man?
Like, why does this stuff continually pop up in Utah? You've got you know, other conservative states like Wyoming with tons of federal public land where this doesn't seem to be as much of an issue.
Well, it's an issue in Wyoming, for sure, but you know, uh, there's Look, there's a long some of this has to do with a long history of battles with the federal government in general, and the you know, the easiest leverage that I think they have in front of them is the is a federal landish in Utah. And it is also true that you know, seventy percent of the land
in Utah is is publicly owned land. But you know, on one hand, they'll talk about the incredible value of having all this land for recreational purposes and all the economic activity and everything it brings, and then in the very next sentence talk about how it's this huge disadvantage and you know, the federal government should known this land
and Utah should have it. So it's it's just kind of baked into the culture over time and these ongoing battles with the federal government over a whole bunch of issues. And you know, honestly, the craziest thing is how much money the State of Utah has just pissed away on a bunch of these legal actions trying to get control over over federal public land. I mean, this current lawsuit at a minimum, is going to cost, by their own acknowledgment,
fourteen million dollars of Utah taxpayer money. And man, they're also spending a lot of money on billboards and advertising campaigns, and not just in Utah, but but well.
Beyond the border.
So you know whatever that history is and why Utah, you know, has a has a great with the federal government, and why they've decided to take aim at the at federal public ownership. I suppose you'd have to ask the folks at Utah. But but the stakes are high and it's cost them a lot of money to go down this road, and if they don't prevail, man, that's another big waist of taxpayer money.
Where's the best place to stay on top of this issue? Just like so you can, you know, watch what's going on, and then what should people do if there's any action they can take right now?
That's a that's a great question.
I mean, listen, we're you know, we bha as you guys know is you know, we we lead with inficacy for protection of of public land and the opportunities that provides for hunters and anglers, and we're going to do everything we can to keep folks updated. I mean, you know, we're not afraid to jump into fights whether we have dedicated funding or not, because we know it's incredibly valuable.
So we're we'll do the best we.
Can on our own website to continue to provide updates. Really happy to see a lot of other organizations in our space or taken interest and and even frankly, organizations that aren't connected to hunting and fishing but just outdoor recreation in general, I think recognize the threat as well. So folks can certainly get involved. I mean, frankly, I would encourage folks to call Governor Spencer Cox's office directly and tell them to drop the lawsuit that folks don't
support it. There is a building coalition if this ends up at the Supreme Court decides that take this up to UH to fight this on legal grounds and and frankly, guys, that's going to require support from from folks who care about public land and UH and the opportunities they provide. So you know, stand formed through you know our website backhuntry hunters dot org. Call the Governor's office h and
tell them to drop this you know BS lawsuit. Make sure that you know you support all the organizations that are digging in on this effort to UH so that we can continue to fight this because out of you know, all the federal land issues that have come up and all these threats to public lands, this one has the potential to have the farthest reaching implications, and uh, you know, I think that'd be a concern to to everybody, uh who who enjoys the same stuff we do.
All right, well, keep us up speed if you don't mind, and appreciate your time today, Patrick.
Hey, thanks so much for you guys taking some few minutes to cover this issue. It's it's pretty important stuff. And you know, in the midst of all the great stories that you guys are sharing to you gotta have a little bit of uh, I guess, uh medicine with with all.
The sugar, uh, you know, make sure that we got places to go down the road.
That's right. We won't be able to tell any of these fun stories that we have without public plans. So thank you again. Now we're moving on to tattoos. I regret.
I've made a huge mistake.
That's it. That's the whole thing. All ly say that because some of the other little sound ups that you made are a little bit lost.
That was the very first one I did for EPISP for the pilot episode one, and since then I've kind of gone off the rails with my with my weird out, my my bea tier weird al covers, uh, which yeah, sorry, I really enjoyed. No, that's great, Yeah, I missed weird al Well, I've just been doing really bad parody songs then changing the lyrics to to sound up these segments.
You used to have many weird Al cassette tapes.
Oh oh yeah nice, Oh yeah, weird Al Yankovic. Today's regrettable tattoo comes from Evan Flowers. If you have a hunting or fishing related tattoo that you regret, please email us at radio at the meat Eater dot com. Says here, Phil then pulls up the picture of the tattoo. Here we go. Can we zoom in a little bit? Phil slightly? Yeah? All right. Kevin Evan writes in with these details, I
had envisioned a hunting sleeve when I was young. It was going to be a full sleeve of a big buck ducks, flying waterfall, bow hunter, all with the sun setting in the background. What I got instead is just a bunch of quickly lies looked likehing that looked nothing like what I pictured in my head. One of my friends even says he can see a corn dog in the mural, which I haven't found a corn dog yet, but I'll keep looking. The tattoo was done in my kitchen by a guy who kept nodding off during the
tattoo process. He did it in two eight hour appointments, and I paid him twelve hundred dollars. While in my house, he and his girlfriend ate all my food. Later I found out he was on meth, had lost his tattoo shop, and was only doing home appointments to make ends meet. Everything in my bones told me to kick him out, but I was young and dumb, and now I'm stuck with this on my right arm forever. Luckily, I've learned to laugh it off as I've gotten older. Boys. What do you think?
What are you guys seeing?
I mean, from this distance, it just looks like a tattoo.
Yeah, I get like the lack of details hard to like comment on.
But I did see his great big buck on there.
Maybe it's not as bad as he thinks.
Yeah, I would say, as far as bad tattoos go, this this one isn't terrible. But the story behind it is, I think, is the raw Yeah yeah, yeah.
Yeah, And he didn't come away with like hepsi or something like that, right.
So, yeah, he didn't get it on his like wrapped around his neck.
And even though you were young and dumb, you were also you know, loyal to your tattoo artist.
Right, And you know there's a lot of morals, as there always are in these stories. But uh, if you are young and dumb and thinking about getting your first tattoo, maybe don't start with the full sleeve and maybe just like give it a year.
You know.
That's what I always tell everybody, Like, you want a tattoo, think about it for an entire year. If you still want to get that too, that tattoo, then go ahead and get it.
You have a tatto.
You have a tattab one. Yeah, it's only maybe I don't know, it's three or four inch, uh, like a Latvian peg and son on my shoulder. I don't regret it has meaning to me, but I know a lot of people that do that have regrettable tattoos. Oh yeah, they're not hunting and fishing related. So I like this guy because his last sense is that he's like he's learned to laugh it off, you know, so he's not letting him get to him. Although his arm is covered with ink from his shoulder to his wrist.
Yeah.
Yeah, when my grandma passed away last year. A bunch of the girls in the family m hm. I think, fueled by grief and wine, went down got matching tattoos.
And like, what like a date her birthday or.
I don't and I think, oh, it's an orchid. Grandma used to grow orchids. You know, it can be kind of tricky to grow.
And yeah, I was just like, yeah, this guy should just be happy.
He didn't get some life threatening infection during this process for.
Sure, sepsis, and you know, if he's gonna go ahead and just keep it sounds like he is. He's not saying it. He hadn't said anything about removing it. He could just have it touched up, like I mean, there's all kinds of people that do work with existing tattoos, and he still might be able to have this beautiful scene that he once envisioned. He's probably gonna cost him twenty four hundred. Now, yeah, thanks for sharing though, Oh yeah, thanks Savin. All right, if you want to see, uh,
possibly see your tattoo. Oh no, you can see this tattoo on our YouTube channels. If you're just listening and our description of it wasn't enough for you, go to the YouTube channel and you can see the pictures of it there. And uh again, if you have a regrettable hunting and fishing tattoo, send it on over to radio atthemeadeater dot com. All right, now, we're gonna do a little listener feedback.
What you got, Phil, Yeah, we'll run a little long, so let's just keep it short for this. But there we're getting a lot of comments about those tomatoes on the table, bru if you Yeah, I kind of want to.
Just I grow some damn good tomatoes, man.
Yeah, people of them.
People want to want someone to take a bite out of it.
We've got so many I can't keep up with them.
I'll tell you right now. This is the the Allerton Valley is not like the gardener's friend.
It can be tough, man, But like every year, my tomatoes just crush it.
And now I've got way too many, and I want to share the wealth.
Well, man, he used to give me zucchinis when you first moved to town.
Yeah, that was the first year.
So everyone can grow zucchinis. Yeah, but those are good my fresh guards.
And my family doesn't either.
I switch to cucumbers. That's way better.
But what I still don't understand how come you can produce this. Yeah, you go to any grocery store in Montana or really in the West where I've lived in the last twenty some years, you can't get anything that kind of resembles the taste of this.
No, I mean, I think it's like that with most commercially produced.
Our fruit system is completely broken. We're shipping these things hundreds of miles, if not thousands.
Yeah, they're picked when they're green, they're ripened artificially, like it's just.
Yeah, exactly, it was so good. And currently in the Gallatin Valley we're just plowing under fantastic farm ground.
For some of the richest soil in Montana.
Some of the richest soil in Montana. Had it not been for that soil, there wouldn't be people here. But here we are a crashing it.
Moving on.
Thanks for the feedback. Those tomatoes are delicious. Brody grew them. You can't get anything like it in a storm. Maybe i'd have Farmers Market in North Carolina were tomatoes there, all.
Right, I'd get my left arm for blt out of these things.
Right now.
Oh, buddy, I've eaten a couple uh from earlier this summer that Broy's giving me belts. Yeah, I might go home and make one.
All right.
Our next segment is one Minute Fishing.
Do I feel lucky?
We'll do you punk, go ahead, make my cast.
Who saltry tones of tailor. One minute Fishing is where we go live to someone who's fishing and they have one minute to catch a fish and if they're successful, we'll make a five hundred dollars donation to a conservation group of their choice. I think usually right this week, our angler is, like I said earlier, the one and only my dad, Papaiannis, who's on Mud Lake in Michigan, which I'll add Brody told me mud Lake is the most common lake name in the United States at eight
hundred and ninety seven mud lakes. My dad is fishing for a donation to the National Wildlife Federation. Now, before I introduced who you see on camera there right now, I just want to tell you how this all started with my dad signing up for one minute Fishing. He calls me out of the blue. He's not an angler. Not an angler. Yeah, So last thing I expect is that he's gonna call me and say, hey, man, I can for sure catch a fish in one minute. I'm like,
what are you talking about? Oh yeah, right, the one minute fishing segment. To me, I'm like, oh, you want a little spotlight, you want to get in front of the camera. All right, we can do this. So we didn't have anybody for this week. I figured, oh, we'll give the old man a shot. As soon as I told him he's in, he's like, all right, going down to the store to buy a fishing rode. So that tells you how much of an angler he is. We've
got my younger brother on the line right now. It says poppy honest, but that's actually mating putellis and he luckily he's in town golfing. According to my dad, what else are you doing while you're there, I've been working, Oh, working a little bit, golfing a lot, working on that handicap. So Marting. Marting is a professional photographer and has worked
as a videographer as well. So this is going to work out really good for us that you're going to be running the camera for dad, because if it was just him out there, we wouldn't have a great visual experience today. But questionable, all right, what do you think the odds are of your dad catching a fish right now in one minute.
Uh, they're actually pretty good.
I saw some testing out here earlier and it actually worked, so okay, I think it might be good. I did want to. I want to note, though, if you had remembered Brody's story about the moose got me thinking. I just saw our first or our first trip together to the Brooks Range was ten years ago, just recently. If you remember that moose hunt, Yeah, anyway, that was a lake hunt. It's kind of the opposite of the ridge hunt.
You just go to a lake and then don't move, except for then we moved a lot and killed it way far away. Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that too, all right, flipper around, let's talk to the poppy honest there. All right, so no, no, listen, that wasn't too bad at all. I want to hear in your words, what prompted you to want to participate in one minute fishing?
Just to show that old old folks can do it too. You know.
Last week I think that there was a pretty good example of that with Pat Durkin.
And we're just going to continue on that line.
Okay, okay, Now, when when when is the last time prior to today that you've handled a fishing rod?
Well, as your your brother asked me, like, other than fishing with your grandkids, I think twenty years ago, maybe twenty five.
Well that's not true, because we went on a charter on Lake Michigan like five summers ago.
Oh you're right, Oh yeah, but that's not kind. That's that's that's like trolling and then then just pulling them in. That's right, you're right, that is correct, man. I'm proud of.
You for knowing the difference that when you're on that boat, that grant does all the work you all right, So when you when you decided to do this, did you have to go down to the local fishing store to get some advice on how to catch a fish?
Well, as everybody knows, you'd explained, No. I just remembered that all these things that I had to practice, and they were all coming back to me, like when my dad was teaching me how to fish, and basically it was yeah, don't do this, don't do that. Here's the right way to put a worm on. Make sure your bobber's shut right, make sure your weights are right.
What's the right way to put a worm on. Everyone needs to know how you put a worm on.
See that hide that hook, bury that hook in there?
There you go. Okay, so to make sure it's moving still.
Okay, so you're going with a pretty standard uh bobber with the worm and uh you're on your you're on your own little dock that you built for the grandkids, and uh you're you're you're targeting panfish. I'm guessing you got it.
Although there are largemouth fast in here in northern but uh on the testing they have not come through.
So it's gonna be panted.
Okay, are you ready? We've got a claw here, eagle claw with uh big reds.
You're ready?
Are you ready? We're ready with the clock is going to start on your first cast? All right, all right, he's made a cast. The bobbers in, he's closed the bail. It's in the zone. We're looking for any twitches now watching. If you can zoom in on that bobber, he'd be my favorite brother. Oh no, not a bite. He's going. He's going for another cat.
I think he's panicking, don't.
He a little bit of punk?
So then a little mother bast Oh oh he didn't hit a spot. Don't tangle cantion, the one that lives under the dock. Where's the timer?
He's got about fifteen seconds.
He got a little bit more.
Hissed him fifteen seconds. We just need to get him on the line in a minute, right he look, that's the minute has ended.
I think he did too much practicing and trained up all this little pet panfish.
Yeah yeah, yeah, right, well, good, good try. I'm glad. It's fun to start a disappoint No, that's all right. It's fun to see you with the rod in your hands. Maybe this will spur a little more fishing in uh in your days.
I know I'm a disappointment to the meat eater group.
We'll do better. No, not not, We're not disappointed. That was fun. That was fun. Thanks for participating.
You're welcome.
All right. A hot tip off, Oh man, it's moving so fat.
Here we go.
Hot tip Off is where we played two videos that contain advice for hunters and anglers. Then we declare which tip was hotter this week. It is Steve Ranella versus Steven Ranella.
Steven Ranella, welcome to another Hot tip Off. Now, in the past, people have sized my hot tip offs as being things that are too obscure for normal use, right like things that don't really pertain to a wide enough audience of hunters and angers. So for this hot tip off, I'm gonna do something. It's appropriate men, women, children, hippies, stoners, headbangers, partiers, jocks, Southerners, something for everybody. Everybody knows. When colin moose, you want to use a scapula because it.
Gives you a good sound. Okay, good breaking it right now.
Well, typically use a moose scapula, but on one moose hunt you might burn through two moose scapulas because they give out right here, here's the hot tip. Get yourself a buffalo scapula. I sourced mine from north Bridge or Bison. You see how I cut down that little bone to make it a nicer handle.
This has got.
One dead hold to it, the name days of Colin.
Indestructible.
I'm gonna hang this from a tree here in moose camp that'll be waiting for me next year.
Thanks for joining.
Good ship, Steve and Vanilla.
Welcome to another hot tip off. When you're leaving your moose camp and you want your scapulous to be available next year.
Time up in a treat. We did this.
Last year and something stolen, and so I'm doing it again.
What are you using scapula for?
Oh?
For rake and brush or moose hunt? Last year we hung fresh ones up in a tree with the meat still on them, and they got stolen. This year, I'm just trying to hang some dry ones up and hopes they'll be waiting for me next year.
Who do you think you're honest?
A couple of good tips. I think I like the use of the bison and scap you love better than hanging it up in the tree.
Uh, well, yeah, we don't know if the hanging up in the tree is gonna work.
Cow, this piece of dog hair has been on your hat all morning and it's really bargaining.
Life, that's true, and it didn't work last time. The only thing, too, that I don't necessarily like about hanging up in that, especially a small little tree like that, it's gonna see a lot of sun and uh, you know it's gonna become more brittle exactly, So, Steve, you'll lose, but you also won. Hey, good job, Steve.
Yeah, loaded the deck, so to speak.
Joining us U. Next right now on the line is logger white Seep who owns Old Northwest Timber and Habitat. He's calling us from my deer hunting property in Wisconsin where he's on day three of logging it. Let me tell you for me, it is like Christmas. I was introduced to Wyatt through Doug Dirt about two years ago when I acquired the property and needed a logger due to our managed forest law plan which required to cut.
Due to the smaller size of the property and my custom needs around the project, finding a logger was difficult. Most logging companies are interested in only logging, not building wildlife openings, access roads, fire brakes, flash file explosures, et cetera. Old Northwest Timber and Habitat specializes in exactly this. Now that the work has finally commenced, I am beyond ecstatic. Like if you've never been in this position, it's just hard to relate. But baby, oh my gosh, man, I'm
so fired up. So why welcome to the show, buddy.
Hey, what's up?
Guys? What's going on there right now? And don't say where you're exactly out. I'm trying to keep my little located there is as private as possible. But in central Wisconsin, what's going on?
Yeah, I got you going down.
Right now.
Kind of like you said, we kind of do everything right from we can utilize you know, all tools right down from a backpack sprayer to this harvester that I'm sitting in right now, and uh, in a minute, I'm gonna show you what exactly is a timber harvester and how we're using it.
Cool. You want to start with that or you want to get in on that. Although loopold quote quote, you were telling me that you thought might kind of sway Steven Ranella to being a little bit more pro my project.
All right, I can start off with that, okay. So yeah, due to the seventy fifth anniversary of the Saint County Almanac, I was reading it a little bit earlier and I thought this would pertain to your situation with Steve a little bit out of Chapter thirteen of the Sand County Almanac. Although Leopold says, I have read many definitions of what is a conservationist and written not a few myself, but I suspect that the best one is written out with
a pen, but with an axe. It is a matter of what a man thinks about while chopping or deciding what the chop. A conservationist is one that is humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land. Signatures, of course, differ whether written with an axe or pen, and this is as it should be.
I love it. I love it. That makes me feel really good about what I'm doing. I'm hoping, see Steve's listening.
Forestry in general is real situationally specific. You know, sometimes it can be nice and cute and other times it can be really messy. But the important thing is that you've got a really solid plan going into it.
Yep.
And like you were showing me yes yesterday, Wyatt sent me a little video of he was just walking through the woods and showing me just not quite a carpet but kind of a loose carpet of two foot tall oak seed links. And so I've got my regeneration already started. And so when he cuts now, it's just gonna release those suckers and they're gonna go straight to the sky. All right, let's see what the what the harvester does.
All right, guys, I'm gonna turn you around.
Hopefully I can get this in in the film here.
You know what I'm real interesting, man. Is a side by side comparison of who gets to run the backpack sprayer versus who gets to run the harvester. That looks like a pretty fancy machine.
Oh my god, it's like something out of Mad Max. So we're looking at two wheels of this machine. I can tell you because I've seen the whole thing. There's six giant tires. And then this must be the head that just came off the ground. Okay, that's cutting head.
It can open up.
I've got rullers here that moves the tree back and forth so I can cut it.
It also takes log.
Measurements, and then it's got a hydraulically saw right there, and that's what can cut the tree in bucket plans. So I'm gonna cut a jack line right now.
Oh not that one. I want to save that one. Yeah, just kidding, just kidding, cut all right.
So now that we've caught it, this thing has a computer in it that measures log lines. I'm making pulp wood right now, which is one hundred inches.
Holy moly. Yeah, it's like wow, measuring it, stripping all the bark and the limbs off of it, and then cutting it at one hundred inches and holy count you just made like five or six hundred inch logs in less than thirty seconds. Nope, go for number two. I pick these two grads are at the bottom, cuts it off and then just starts working up at one hundred inch increments. I love it. It's gonna be messy, man, and a lot of people are gonna come and look at it the first two three maybe in five years
and gonna go, oh, you destroyed this place. But man, I have total faith at five years from now, they're gonna go, dude, can I come hunt and sit there? Uh, because there's just deer all over the place, you know why, real quea and just.
To put a little plug into you know, as far as young forest goes, oftentimes it's ugly, especially at first, it can be pretty ugly. But there's a lot of wildlife species other than deer that are you know, that need it, the rough grouse being one of them. Like you alluded to, we're in the central third of the state. There's still some rough grouse up here. Due to uh, poor soil quality. There's not quite as much farmland. A
lot of that's being managed for timber. But when you get down to the where Doug and I come from. There's really not much grouse to speak of where there used to be, you know, and that there's a lot of different reasons for that. But you know, having old trees is really important, but having young trees is really important too.
Yeah, and we're leaving some of the old ones. So hey, man, thank you, thank you for taking the time and showing us around a little bit. This is mostly just for me. I hope you guys enjoyed it too, but I'd drive Wyat crazy because I would just be checking in with him every ten minutes to see what he's cutting and what you got going on. So thank you for that. We'll let you get back to it. Man, have a great day.
You too. Man, it was great chatting with you guys.
All right, thanks Wytt.
You didn't talk about the fact that you really got to knock the piss out of those white tailed deer if you want those oaks to grow up?
Oh dude.
Yeah, we again, very tight schedule in this show. We can talk about that sometime. We have a why and I kind of throw Silver Culture podcasts back and forth with each other with each other, which is again something I thought i'd never listened to is a silver culture podcast, but I just listened to one. We have a big issue with a lot of this stuff in the southern half of that property is what they call unmerchantable timber. It's just too small, too skinny. But I don't want
it growing there anymore. I need to get it done. So we kind of landed on how to deal with it. Was just going to be built huge slash piles, like literally the size of a house, and then this winter burn them, okay, and just get rid of it. But it costs money to make the pile. It costs a time of money to go there and burn them. Just listen to one where they're doing these basically deer exclusions using the slash. So they build a wall twenty feet wide ten feet tall, and you make the exclusion how
big you want. It could be all forty acres, it could be five acres. The smaller you get, you're sort of taking up almost too much space by the wall itself and not getting the center big enough to make it work. Diminishing return, yeah, yeah, but compared to because some places like Pennsylvania a very popular thing to do. And again this is going towards oak regeneration and preventing deer from eating seedlings is they actually go in there and put up fences to keep deer out so they
can get these oaks going. And so this is sort of a natural way to do it. You put up basically a big giant slash pile. Everything on the inside can't get touched by the deer. And I think they said, like a fence can be like five six bucks a foot and doing this slash exclusion pile you can get it down to like a dollar dollar fifty a foot. Wow, and then it just disappears. Every year it goes down by ten percent and like ten twelve years into it,
like it's almost non existent. Inside you've got you know, these growth hopefully that you've been looking for itself.
I'm sure service as wildlife habitat for little critters.
Oh yeah. What they said was amazing is that the only thing that that really keeps out is the deer. Everything else, turkeys, raccoons, possums, and grouse they just fly right over and get in there and use it.
It is like a funny like you know, like down to lodge pole, lots of just down timber areas, like if you have a zone that you like to hunt because those are good refuge areas because they're they're hard, Like, not a lot of people go there to hunt.
But I have a.
Couple of spots where it's like you catch yourself thinking, like, boy, this used to be a lot harder, and it's not just an old man thing of like, oh I walked to school uphill both ways.
It actually did it was worse. Oh yeah, right because increasing in heighth Yeah, because that timber breaks down and gets closer and closer and closer to the ground.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's nice to have your finger on that pulse man to do that, because yeah, and those when those things first get started, like after a burn, it sucks. Oh I did some log hop in this weekend. Worn out? All right, thanks for everybody for what's the word when you're like not that into it, but like you give somebody else, uh suffering through no.
No following along?
Yeah, that's not either of the indulging me. Yeah, thank you, thank you for indulging me and my timberwork over there in Wisconsin. Next, this is the news segment, I think. Uh Phil's Trivia.
Welcome to Phil's Trivia, the only game show where I always win. I'm your host, Phil the Engineer, and today we are joined by Jannis Putellis, Ryan Callahan and Brody Henderson. This is a three round quiz show with questions that have little or nothing to do with meat eaters, four verticals, and instead of being senator or instead will be center around pop culture, entertainment or whatever the hell I feel
like asking Frankly, and there's definitely not a prize. And for the stat of the week this week, today, September twenty sixth, marks the release of a new Legend of Zelda game, the Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, which is the twenty first mainline entry in the franchise. I already have it downloaded onto my switch and we'll be
diving in later tonight. And hey, if you're interested in watching me live stream any games and hanging out in the chat, whether in my personal time or on the company's dime, please write into radio at the meateater dot com. If we get three or more emails asking for a certain type of project or a pitch for an idea, we legally have to do it. That's just company policy. And for this week's housekeeping, I just want to call some anxiety in the room about questions that I will
be asking. It would be no fun for me to just roll in here and ask you guys a bunch of questions that I know you wouldn't know the answer to. So rather than ask you to recite the recipe of a nineteen forty four trader vix my tie to the quarter ounce, I have prepared three questions that I believe are very accessible, and I think there's a solid chance that one of you goes three for three?
Could you recite this?
My Thai rest Phil? The original My tie is actually very simple. I learned this from Phil.
Wow.
Crazy, It's like I just won't shut up about the same things all the time. Uh, Joannis, No, I could not. Actually I can tell you the ingredients, but not not the recipe to the quarter ounds. But you know, I think I think Brody, you frankly surprise me. We'll talk about movies sometimes and you bring up something that you've watched. You seem like you're kind of a pretty religious watcher of things, like whether it's like HBO shows or come out.
It all depends, Phil, like some stuff sure, like thirty year old Jim Carrey movies. No, oh yeah, but yeah, you know, I like I like to watch a movie now and then.
Yeah right, well, I wish you all good luck today. Let's see where are we in the script man Spener, this is hard. The Adrian index this week is one point five, meaning our winner should get I don't really have any idea actually, and with that, we're onto the game of trivia.
Play the drop me power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick, a shadow.
On the wall.
I'm very engaged game now, and the great games terrifying.
Okay, let's see. It's the first time I've ever done trivia this way. Let's see here.
I'm entertaining that are we doing this?
Are we like as far as answering, Phil, that we got a question one?
Oh yeah, we don't have any whiteboards, you know what? Just tell me, yeah you want to grab some white boards? Career really quick. I'll go ahead and ask the question first question number one. The topic is not quite public lands.
Here's one for you.
Musician Jackson Brown wrote in nineteen seventy two about quote standing on a corner in this Southwestern American city.
Oh got this one, Phil, I think.
Ready everybody's writing everyone's ready. Yeah, Yeah, that's what I like to hear. Okay, go ahead and reveal your answers. We have Giannis saying Winslow Arizona, cow and Brody both saying Winslow Arizona. Holy crap, everyone got it right, but not from Jackson Brown. Well here's my uh follow up facto at time.
Brody.
Despite being made famous by the Eagles in the same year, the song take It Easy was initially written by Jackson Brown with the intention of it being part of his debut album. After hitting a wall and finishing the song that was only partially written, he played a rough version for his neighbor and Eagles guitarist Glenn Frye quote, I showed him the beginnings of that song and he asked if I was going to put it on my record, and I said it wouldn't be ready in time. He said, well,
we'll put it on. We'll do it because he liked it for fry put the finishing touches on the song, and it went on to be the first track of the Eagles debut album, and was later recorded by Brown himself and released as a part of his second album, For every Man. That's good trivia, Phil, that is thanks. That's beat And see how you guys feel about that beast. The next question, question number two. The topic is woodsmanship.
Bat guano and sulfur are the two components needed to cast the fireball spell in this role playing game that is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year.
Oh, Brodie's having to think a little bit.
I listened to the question, but I didn't read it.
The only reason I'm knowing I'm gonna know this one is because of the fiftieth anniversary and it's been on the radio a little bit.
Yeah.
I tried to provide some context clues. It's part of it, you know, making it accessible. How are we doing?
Everyone's ready?
All right, go ahead and reveal your answers. We have Yannis saying D and D, Cal saying D and D. Brody saying D and D. Everyone's got a perfect game. The answer is Dungeons and Dragons.
I was like, when did computer games start?
First published in nineteen seventy four, Dungeons and Dragons was developed by Dave Arnison and Gary Guy Gaxon was a notable departure from existing tabletop games of the era, which were largely centered around military units and conquest as opposed
to individual characters on a quest. The game's mechanics, which are based around four to twenty cited dice rolls to determine the outcome of a character's actions, went on to be the blueprint for Japanese role playing video games that would in turn inspire role playing game design the world over.
Actual play streaming shows such as Critical Role and Dimension twenty featured plotlines on shows like Stranger Things and Freaks and Geeks, as well as admitted celebrity players have made Dungeons and Dragons more popular than ever in recent years, with over one hundred and fifty hours million hours of D and D gameplay being viewed on Twitch and YouTube in twenty twenty alone.
All Vince Vaughn's big D and D guys.
That's right.
Yeah, there's kind of a secret Hollywood D and D club. Yeah, and he's a part of it. Tom Morello from Rage Against the Chim Yeah, yeah, Stephen Colbert is.
A big player.
Well, you guys are doing are doing great. I wanted to make you feel good. We'll see how this last question goes. I do have a tie breaker, so I think and I think we might need it. Question number three, The topic is cooking. In the two thousand and four film Sideways, Paul Giamatti famously declares that he is not drinking any fing blank, a popular grape variety. Callok's confident, Jannis looks confident, Brody looks confident. Holy col go ahead
and reveal your answers. He's not drink drinking anyfing Murlau. That is correct way to go gang. Because of its use as a standalone variety as well as a popular grape and blended wines, Merleau is the most widely grown grape in the Bordeaux Bordeaux wine regions of France. After the release of the film Sideways, the Western United States saw two percent decline in Merlau's sales that resulted in
a noticeable fall of its price. However, the most significant ripple effect of the film was its effect on pino noir sales. Gmad's characters character Miles favorite wine, which jumped by sixteen percent in the Western US in the following years.
A study in the Journal of Wine Economics, co authored by eight staff members from UC Davis, argued that the spike in demand of pino noir caused wine makers to plant the grape in less than suitable climates, causing a long term negative effect on the quality of pino noir in the country.
Wow.
I was talking to somebody recently, and some wine person. They were saying that Merlow still hasn't recovered the sales in that movie.
And I played a clip from the Project Grizzly, just like a video clip in the background, and we got dinged for it. I don't have a video clip, but I do have an audio clip of this quote.
Let's go ahead and hear that.
Do not sabotage me.
If you want to be a lightweight, that's your call, but do not sabotage me.
Oh my, I cap you got it.
And if they want to drink Merlow, we're drinking Merlow.
Now.
If anybody orders Melow, I'm leaving. I am not drinking any Marlow.
Kay, Okay, relax, Miles, Jesus no mere Low.
Did you bring your xanax.
Love that movie?
Well, here's the thing, gang, we're going to a tiebreaker. I don't have a special sound up or anything. I'm just gonna ask the question. And I asked my wife the lovely Adrian Taylor to come up with my tiebreaker question. So it is a numerical question, and here it is. According to a study in an article published on puzzlehobby dot com, what is the average amount of puzzle pieces that are actually in the box of a jigsaw puzzle
advertised to have one thousand pieces? What the answer is not one thousand?
Hm?
Oh yeah, and really quick, guys, because of the sound effects I'm playing on the computer, I had to change them settings on my soundboard. So I apologize that you all just heard that more low quote, probably twice in a weird echo situation on the live stream.
I'll fix that in the podcast.
There's more bang for their bucky thank you.
That's that's the framing I'm looking for. Does everyone have an answer? Yeah, all right, I'm happy go ahead and reveal your answers. We have Giannis saying one thousand and two pieces, cal saying one thousand and five, Brody saying nine hundred and ninety. The correct answer is one thy twenty six pieces, making Ryan Callahan our winner.
Good job.
Hell and anyway, I don't have like like a cool fun outro or anything. I just want to thank you in the bottom of I wrote a little victory speech Phil's trivia.
That's great, Phil, thank you, Oh of course, my pleasure. Yeah, I appreciate you guys. You're making us feel, you know, like we actually know something about pop culture. Yeah, real hill. Yeah, even though that one question was from before I was born. Listener Feedback, we're gonna wrap it up.
Here, Phil Listener feed We got some great questions that came in today really quick. I just want to say someone asked for tips about getting his daughter excited about the outdoors, and we had a ton of people just respond to him in the live chat, giving him tips, things to do, ways to frame things. So thanks guys in the live chat. But first one is for cal How do lamas stack up to other pack animals.
Well, they carry less weight and they move slower. Would be like the two broad negatives. If they step on you, you're probably not gonna break a toe. So they're they're a gentler beast to be around. They're not in it for affection. Don't get thinking that they're gonna end up loving you after a week. They can definitely hold their footing on some steeper terrain than conventional stock.
Uh, and I've got you know for either, do.
You well, that's a little bit of a miss.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, they they are a browser there. The more you look at them, the more time you spend with them, you're like, that's a dinosaur. So they can find They'll eat tree bark, they'll eat pine needles, They'll they'll eat a bunch of things. But just like any animal out there, they go for the good stuff first and then they'll they'll go get get the other stuff. So yeah, they're definitely like a little heartier here and there,
but definitely something to consider real easy. I've known bo Baity at Wilderness Ridge pack lamas or trail lamas for i mean more than a decade and this is the first time I've ever actually rented any lamas from them, and they were awesome. They're they're great.
I'm not going to have a life threatening wreck on a steep trail with them either, like you could with.
You're not you know, we we had like a couple of blow ups that would never be considered a blow up in the horse mule community, right. But yeah, so they're definitely like more family friendly. There's fewer dangers out there. And then the babies there at w r L will w rt L. They have an online course these days that will get you up to snuff and the answers a ton of questions and and it really is valuable, so uh yeah, check them out.
Right on, Brody m M. Did your Alaska hunt live up to expectations? And what was the best part?
Oh, it exceeded expectations for sure. Like, I know this is gonna sound hokey, but the best part was like me and Matt and Steve had like a lot of laughs, Like like getting the moose was like, yeah, I'd have been bombed if I didn't get one. Probably like everyone's like, oh, I'm innute for the experience. I don't care about getting an animal. I wanted to get a bowl bad. But the laughs that we had, like constantly over the course of more than a week were super cool.
Right on.
I'm just kind of a big question, cal You can tackle as much of it as you want. But last question, in your opinion, how do you feel about the Montana block management system in comparison to other states. It's a question from Adam.
Oh, I think block management is awesome. You know, none of these systems doesn't matter if it's like wehaw so sorry. Block Management is a private land public access program completely voluntary. Landowners can can sign up with the state and then they get compensated by use. Basically, the more people who
show up, the more money that they get. Every one of these programs, Montana's is thirty years old, started in one place and now it's at a different place because you know, it's got to change with the time so that you can make more money in block management than you used to be able to make. But it's a system that will will never be perfect. But I'll tell you right now, the opportunities that you get on these private land public access programs are are absolutely fantastic, and
it weighs on every single hunter who participates. So you have got to sign up where you're supposed to sign up, pick up other people's trash, be respectful, don't drive on wet roads. And one thing that I don't think a lot of people consider. When a lot of these areas are only open to foot traffic, you can't drive in there. That's not because they want people to have a harder time. That's because they're really nervous about fire and invasive weeds, grasses,
stuff like that. So they're trying to increase their bottom line on that family property. This is another opportunity for them to do so, but they're they're trying to maintain that healthy forage for their livestock.
So, like i'd jump in and say, as far as the examples that I'm familiar with, like the block Management program is like the star, like the scale of it, the ease of using it compared to some other states like Colorado, for example, ranching for wildlife, Like you've got to apply to hunt there. There's not a lot of places enrolled in it. It's very hard to get on it. Like block Management in Montana is like a prime example of you know, private land access.
Yeah, and then WEEHAW in Kansas would be another, like very very good program. So yeah, yeah, yeah, right.
On, thanks guys, thank you jump.
In for a second. There are a ton of people shouting out pill tons of D and D fans in the chat as well, and a lot of people saying that they want you Phil to host an upcoming episode of trivia, So maybe maybe that'll happen.
Bring will bring the fastballs for that one ten questions. Yeah, I'm sorry about that echo, guys. I feel like a real a real schmuck is amateur hour. But yeah, uh, thanks for thanks for putting up with it.
All good you got you got a lot of leeway there, Bud.
Thanks yea? Yeah, all make mistakes film all right? Two final notes. Next week is white Tail Week a meat Eater, meaning we'll be bringing you our best white tael content as well as some great deals on whitetail gear. The white tail specific articles, podcast videos, and shopping start on Monday at the meeteater dot com. Also in honor of Whitetail Week, the crew for next week's live show will be reviewing Escanaba in the Moonlight for the Meat Eater
Movie Club. If you want to join in on the discussion, you can stream that Jeff Daniels classic on Amazon Prime, tob or Roku TV go root for the Buckless uper Have you watched that one yet?
No?
Yeah, I don't need to.
You don't know when?
Ye?
Well, because it sounds like I need to do some drugs in order to watch it.
Oh who said that?
Everybody I've talked to? H? Can I throw in one one more thing here?
Yeah?
Yeah?
Okay, Hey, just to touch back on this Utah public Land situation, it is so bizarre to me that people are like, oh, the Feds. The reality is is we are the Feds. This is America. It is a government for the people, by the people. If you aren't participating, you have chosen to put your head in the sand or you know, between your butt cheeks and an orifice. Right, you have the ability to weigh in on this stuff. We always change the federal government changes. You need to
weigh in and be active. That's why groups like backcountry hunters and angry exist. If you're a part of any other group, you should tell them that they need to weigh in on this situation. Right, these giant public lands, we talked about two public land experiences that Brody and I just had. We're going to be out on public land a bunch more. This stuff needs to stick around, and it's really up to us whether it does or not. So weigh in. Start at the state level. State representatives.
Talk to your legislators. You can call any government office, okay, And it doesn't matter if you have some sort of degree in politics or policy. If you're turning a wrench or doing anything, you're spending money on public lands, that is your voice. You say, hey, my name's this. My family does this every year. This stuff is super important to me. That stuff needs to stick around. Your voice does matter. You gotta way if you choose not to,
I don't want to hear you, bitch. Thanks Gil, Call to action.
There you go.
Oh and speaking of a Call to action, Spencer would like to remind you that you're on next week's episode, so you have to watch Escanaba in the Moonlight.
Thanks for watching, everybody, We'll see you next week.