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6 Ranch Podcast
6 Ranch Podcast
The Art and Ethics of Outdoor Living
Laura and Jase are no nonsense people who care about their way of life and sharing it with others. In this episode we talk trapping, a blueprint for families who hunt together, and some epic stories of overcoming challenging hunting situations in the woods. If you haven’t heard of these folks before, it’s my pleasure to introduce them to you. Recorded from the heart of Idaho.
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There's a difference between an outdoorsman, as you're a participant instead of an observer, and I just think that there's something very fulfilling in being a part of what's going out there, no matter what you choose to do.
Speaker 3:These are stories of outdoor adventure and expert advice from folks with calloused hands. I'm James Nash and this is the Six Ranch Podcast. For those of you out there that are truck guys like me. I want to talk to you about one of our newest sponsors, dect. If you don't know DECT?
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Speaker 3:This is a really nostalgic town for me because we used to come over here and wrestle in high school. So we'd wrestle in Kamiyia, we'd wrestle in Orfino and we oftentimes had host families when we came over here and we oftentimes had host families when we came over here. So we got to experience like Northern Idaho hospitality and they're great tournaments. It's really fun. And then this is also the highway that I used to take to get back and forth to college between Montana and Oregon was Highway 12, which cuts through Idaho along the Clearwater and the intersection of the is it the Locksaw and the Selway, and then on up the Locksaw and over Lolo Pass Such cool history throughout this area too.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, it's nestled in, I think, one of the best areas in Idaho for the opportunities fishing, hunting. Oh, it's incredible. Yeah, I mean I'm not trying to invite anybody over here, you know it actually incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I'm not trying to invite anybody over here, you know it actually sucks, but Well, they can come try, you know because it's similar to where I'm from on, you know, on the Oregon side, you can come in the summertime and think, wow, this is incredible, and then, if you're still thinking, that in February maybe you've got what it takes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the winters are tough. Oh, it's pretty brutal over there, yeah, um, if, if the grocery stores shut down here and you were no longer able to buy food commercial food how do you think that would affect the two of you?
Speaker 2:I think we'd have a lot of people coming over to our house. Yeah, I just finally got set up with a generator. Okay, um, you know, obviously you can only run so long with a generator gas and you can't get gas and supplies, but, um, I think we'd be doing pretty good. We don't have a lot of dry goods, but, uh, I think we'd make it all right and if we had to, we'd go out and get fresh meat every single day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fish. And there's a lot of resources around here as well that don't involve the meat side of things. There's a lot of wild fruit that grows right outside our house we have wild cherry trees and blackberries or numerous plums and wild onion and there's a lot of resources in the land itself that can be taken advantage of without any prep work something that I appreciate about you too, jason laura, is that you're actively in the outdoors all year long.
Speaker 3:You're not you're not specialists, you're not working some kind of little niche. You're not like mule deer people or elk people or steelheaders, whatever's happening, which there's always something happening here. You're right in the middle of it, oh yeah, and when I was driving down, I'll I'll tell you when we're off air. Um, a little bit more precisely, where I saw a beaver the size of a bear sitting on a rock in the middle of the river on the way down I can tell you where.
Speaker 3:I can tell you where, but but talk to me about your journey into trapping.
Speaker 1:So I've always like romanticized the idea of trapping, like my favorite movie to this day. I watched it when I was four years old. I remember it was Jeremiah Johnson. The trapping part of that movie is so small but like I just loved the idea of like the mountain man life and it still is one of the most fascinating things to me now. Like I could care less about Greek mythology and all that Roman Empire stuff. Like I want to know about the mountain men and like how they survived and it's just really amazing when you think about people now today. Like you break your ankle or roll your ankle like five miles in people today will just die out there, but like the mountain men survived all year round in like the harshest conditions and so I just always loved that part of it and trapping rooms and why they were there.
Speaker 1:And I grew up in Washington where the trapping regs just make it impossible. I didn't know anyone who trapped or nothing, maybe like the raccoon that got into the dog food all the time. Like you put a live trap out and get that thing, but something I always want to do, just never had the opportunity or like the influence to try it and it's kind of one of those things that's really intimidating to just go into it completely blindly if you don't have a little help or at least kind of know someone. And when I met Jace, he was trapping and he asked, like one of the times we were spending time together, if I wanted to come help him set some traps. I was like oh yeah, I want to go. He was like heck yeah, and so I watched him go out.
Speaker 2:Is that when you knew? Oh, I knew way before then.
Speaker 1:We met in May and then trapping rolled around in the winter. So yeah, yeah, when I was always game to do literally anything outdoors.
Speaker 3:He was like, well, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm gonna keep hold this one, yeah so I tagged along with him a few times where he was like setting and what kind of trap line were you running then?
Speaker 2:uh, just beaver and otter, mainly um a few mink sets.
Speaker 3:But water sets. Yeah, cold weather stuff buddy oh yeah, yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 2:It's challenging here with the rising water, the water dropping, and you know, when we don't get any rain, you're just constantly having to move your sets.
Speaker 3:It's a pain in the neck and getting in and out of icy rivers all winter long. That's scary stuff. Like you fall in a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah rocks are slippery.
Speaker 3:I'd rarely come home with dry feet, yeah I think it's impossible to trap beavers without falling in I, I have fallen quite a bit, but I've I've luckily never fallen all the way in yeah to be fortunate or that would be not a fun day yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't really start trapping until I think it was a year prior to meeting Laura out here. So I still wasn't. I was still a beginner. You know what I mean. It took me a while to get my first otter and I had kind of the basics down that I kind of showed Laura. But she's taken it and run with it. She's a better trapper than I am.
Speaker 1:To be fair, I have more time to do it Because, like, since I work for myself, I can manage my schedule the way I want, like, if I want to go out for four hours, during the daylight.
Speaker 3:You didn't disagree with him Like you believe, you're a better trapper. No, I don't To you're a better trapper.
Speaker 1:No, I don't.
Speaker 2:To be fair, I'm better because A lot of it is time you know, and I can make time, but especially in the winter this time of year you're waking up at dark and getting home at dark from work and I just don't have the energy to put into it. Yeah, so when Laura can go check her traps during the day, it makes it a lot easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I don't know how motivated I would be or how hard I could trap if I was having to go after the kids were home from school and when Jace came home from work and it's dark and I'm going, leaving the house at 6.30 and then coming home at 8 at night. It takes away from the family time, but since I can manage my own time, that's the only reason I've been able to get out more. Not that I'm a better trapper, but unfortunately I do feel bad because I know he loves it, but it's hard with the schedule because he's where most people are. You've got to like pick and choose. Are you going to like take time away from your family and go do this thing that you want to go do, or are you going to like balance it and go home?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And try to like balance it and go home, yeah. And try to like figure out how you can best of both worlds without getting off balance. Even if I was to get back into it, she took all my spots and shut up. I felt bad, so I left his alone.
Speaker 1:I'm like there might be something that'll come back to this crappy little spot, so I'll go find something better.
Speaker 2:There's only one problem with marrying someone that's just like you is. You're out there taking all your damn spots. Yeah, competition, no, to be fair, I don't do that.
Speaker 3:I know no.
Speaker 1:I actually, when the first year I got into trapping, I only messed around with raccoons because there's a pile of them around here and they're really, really hard on all the bird population and we have a ton of turkeys, pheasants, quail around here and even waterfowl down by the river and it's like doing your part by managing that. Um, but he was like he was telling me, like if you want to trap a beaver, like you go down to this spot. I'm like no, I don't want to go to your spot. Like here you go, you can go trap here if you want to get a beaver. And I'm like no, and so I didn't even go for any like otters or beavers that first year.
Speaker 1:But I do spend an insane amount of time on the river fishing and there was one time I was out bass fishing during trapping season and I was moving across these like really big boulders, that's all. It is just like this bouldery edge, and all of a sudden something underneath me like moved and then went in the water and scared me pretty bad and I looked down and there was a beaver swimming off. I was like, oh, there's a beaver right there and I crawled under it.
Speaker 3:They look crazy underwater, don't they?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, they're pretty cool and I was like, oh, I found a beaver den Like I found this. Jace doesn't know this is here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to touch on something here. It's different here compared to you know. Where I grew up back east it was easy to see beaver sign. Like you would see huts Around here. Their dens are buried in rocks so you really have to get down and walk the shoreline Every inch and you spend a lot of time on the river looking for those dens.
Speaker 3:So it's a lot harder here, for sure, and sometimes, like in my country, they can be back up in the cliffs, away from the river too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, in like the most random spots. You wouldn't think that they'd be there. So this old mud puddle like two miles from the rivers, what are we?
Speaker 3:doing in here, right yeah but yeah, it's really fun.
Speaker 1:I really the part I love the most about trapping is just like the process of like going and walking and finding the sign and then, once you find the sign and you find where they're at, like figuring out all right, like what are they doing here, how what set is going to work best here, and like it's just like sounds weird, but it's like almost therapeutic to like go through the steps and the satisfaction of like figuring it out and making your set perfect and then leaving and you come back and check out your next trap, check and it works. It's like it's such an awesome way to go outside and experience like going after to harvest an animal in such a different way than when you're hunting.
Speaker 3:It's like every little tiny detail matters it matters incredibly, and I I think of trapping, similar to calling right, whether you're calling turkeys or ducks or coyotes or elk or whatever, most of that stuff, we only have to call them within the effective like range of our, of our weapons right which can be a pretty large area depending on what you're using when you are trapping.
Speaker 3:You are calling an animal into an area the size of its foot, like you're predicting its movement closely enough that you're saying, okay, within a square inch it's going to step right here, and you're not necessarily calling with sound, You're doing it with scent or or with with the terrain, but you're you're thinking about the animal's movements in such a precise way and you have to defeat all kinds of its senses. Right, Its sense of touch. Right, it's sense of touch, it's vision, it's sense of smell, depending on the animal. You have to be incredibly precise with all that, and I think that trappers develop a more intimate knowledge of the animals that they're pursuing than any other hunter out there. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I totally agree.
Speaker 2:A good trapper usually makes a dang good hunter, yes, so yeah, I agree with that a hundred percent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so what do you do with the animals that you catch?
Speaker 1:so I don't sell anything that I catch at this point, at least my otters. I'm saving all of them to make a coat for myself, because one thing that's really important to me laura, you're only little, that's like two otters. I know when I got the quote and they're like we need 16 to 17 otters. I'm like I'm 5'1", I'm the size of an eight-year-old.
Speaker 2:Can I get a re-quote please?
Speaker 1:Oh, three otters is good, but no. So I'm saving my otters for a coat, because one thing that's really important to me, which is my history, I want to pass on to my family. I have my great grandmother's yes, my great grandmother's mink shawl and it was her most prized possession.
Speaker 1:It was one that was bought for her by my great grandpa. But I got it and it's something that I treasure and something that I will pass on to my kids and I just think it'd be really awesome to have, like a fur coat made by the otters that great grandma Laura caught and now it's being passed on down to my future great great grandchildren or whatever. Something that has like history to it. That's something that's important to me especially or something I was so passionate about. So the otters are going towards a coat and then my beavers.
Speaker 1:I want to make displays out of them. I would love to make things out of them, whether they're for myself or for my family or friends or something, and seeing what they make and everything. And like the, the raccoons, I don't really save their hides at this point because one they're not worth the effort for me at the moment with all the other furs I have. And that's just a management side of things for my area because I care about like you said earlier, we do everything like I care about the waterfowl population, like upland birds and stuff, and keeping the raccoon population in check helps that yeah, quite a bit.
Speaker 3:And raccoons are a great place to start. We talked about how to get into trapping, which can be a little bit intimidating, especially if you don't have a mentor, but with access to information, like we do today with youtube and various books and other things, like you could start with nothing other than the interest and the desire and you could go do it. And raccoons are a great place to start. Muskrat and mink are another great place to kind of work your way into with those water sets.
Speaker 1:I think that the pinnacle of trapping would be the canines yeah, they're definitely the hardest yeah you have to literally cross everything, not every eye, because water trapping is it can be very forgiving because you don't have to worry about scent. Like I handle all my traps with my bare hands. Um, I'm not being scent cautious when I'm walking around and like I'll kneel down next to my sets and I like do if I'm walking in the sand, I'll like kind of wipe my tracks away from. Like, if I'm making a slide for otters or for beavers, I'll not leave my boot prints in the in the slide itself. But like, yeah, with canines, you have to make sure you do not have any scent on your trap, around your trap, and make sure it's completely hidden, like invisible to where they could detect any little tiny thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's, it's another level and it's definitely the pinnacle of trapping success yeah, yeahoyotes have made me feel like such a dummy so many times because if you have left any scent on that trap, which could be as simple as you touching it or getting it contaminated by, like, say you, you boiled it, um, you dipped it in wax, you let it hang out, and then you know from that sterile environment, something in your shop or whatever got on it, like they're going to continue to smell that even when it's buried under the ground. And I've had coyotes come in and excavate around my traps and dig all the dirt away, like they're some kind of archaeology student and it's like how, how could you do this? You know, if I tried to do that with my hands, with my human knowledge of what?
Speaker 3:a trap is where it is how it works. I would catch myself.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 3:I catch myself all the time. And I think that's another thing people don't understand about traps. They think that they're very cruel, that they're breaking bones in animals, that they're cutting limbs off, stuff like that. Animals that they're cutting limbs off, stuff like that Folks I catch myself in my own traps all the time have not broken a bone, have not lost any fingers. That's just not how it works. It's like a spring-powered handcuff.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:And then, with some of these water sets, you use conterbears at all.
Speaker 1:I do. I use only 330s for my beakers and otters and I choose to use those because those are like they kill them instantly and whenever I'm trapping something like the water, the animals, I want them to just be instantly dispatched. Yeah, and on the conner bears, I choose to use those because I want them to be dispatched, like immediately yeah and it does kill them instantly.
Speaker 1:It doesn't take much to learn how to set your triggers to where when they hit it it catches them perfect. I haven't dabbled in drown sets yet, just because I haven't found where I have to have a drown set. I will say that there are definitely certain situations where those are better for maybe, the terrain you're trying to work, but for me I've been fortunate. I just make the conibears work.
Speaker 3:I think if you have like a beaver dam and a beaver pond in its deep water, that works pretty well, but in these rocky rivers it's probably not ideal. I've always found it interesting that trappers are so cautious with their language, like they use the word dispatch instead of kill.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And they're very much. Trappers, are very targeted, and there's a bill being run in Oregon this year by a Republican Congress not Congressman, but a state representative that is aimed at trying to stop beaver trapping on federal land, and that is it's interesting because this isn't somebody who opposes trapping right, but he wants to do it for water issues or whatever. A lot of people think that beavers are just the absolute messiah that they're going to solve global warming. They're the single thing that's going to make the difference in salmon and steelhead recovery and I think it's interesting that they've developed this really charismatic persona or reputation when beaver trapping has occurred commercially in this area, as far as I know, at least since 1810. And there's still beavers here saw one today. Right, the beaver population is healthy and under controlled harvest, which it is very controlled. We will continue to have beavers and beaver trapping in perpetuity.
Speaker 3:And your, your steelhead fishery and your salmon fishery is better here than it is in my part of the country, right, where they're trying to restrict all that stuff um with with the beaver trapping, and it's essentially the same fish. Right, yours are just taking a left instead of a right, so I don't know. I think it's frustrating, but there's definitely a lot of people who are out to get trappers for sure, because they don't understand it, and I think it's very unfortunate and because of that, a lot of trappers don't want to talk about what they're doing. They're very careful with their language and I think that the shame of that is that the skills are being lost.
Speaker 1:They are definitely. And it's crazy that sorry, did I tell you.
Speaker 2:No go ahead.
Speaker 1:It's crazy to see that, like when I started to trap and share my success, like on my social media, because, like, I share the things I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just literally share my life because I'm happy and I'm proud about it and I that's how I connect with people. That's how I found someone like my favorite people is through shared experiences, shared minds, by social media. Um, I was really, really shocked to see how much hate I got from like other outdoorsmen who are shaming me and calling me cowardly for trapping and I was just like other hunters and everything like bashing me for trapping and it just blew my mind. I think that I think people get easily get their mindset on idolizing an animal in a certain light and they think that the justification to harvest it is not right. And then there's a lot of misunderstanding and stereotyping about trapping. Like you were saying earlier, the footholds are meant to hold. It's really just like holding their foot there doesn't break, bone, cut or anything.
Speaker 1:The regulations are so, so strict on what you can and cannot do to make sure it's done as ethically as possible and it's just misinformation. And the reason why trappers are so cautious with how we talk about things is because we're so misunderstood and anyone who traps cares about it because it's so much, so much work to go out and trap. You are dedicating a lot of your time, energy and money to go out there and try to be successful, and the last thing you want is for it to be misunderstood. I always encourage people who have questions. I always want to help them to be successful and go out and try it for themselves, because I know how much I enjoy it. And it's definitely getting lost because no one's talking about it, no one's sharing about it, because they're worried about the hate and misunderstanding that comes with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I can tell you that trappers are, I think, the biggest conservationists there are. Trappers care about every animal. You know we trap raccoons because, like Laura said, we care about the bird population. We trap predators. We trap everything you know to keep everything in check. People that deer and elk hunt every year. You know they complain about the deer populations down or the elk populations down, but they don't want to go harvest bears or mountain lions or even put forth the effort to go do it. You know it's, I don't know. There's a balance to be maintained.
Speaker 1:And yeah, like, every animal is good, but any animal out of balance, where it's overabundant, has a negative effect on everything else.
Speaker 2:Laura is very cautious where she traps every year. She'll usually change spots every other year to make sure she doesn't catch more than what we need, you know, to pull out of there, to make sure she doesn't catch more than what we need to pull out of there. So she'll catch one or two beavers in a den and then moves to the next spot and leave one or two in that den for the next year. You don't want to trap everything out of that whole area.
Speaker 3:And it's a renewable resource.
Speaker 3:Like these beavers, these otters, all this stuff, they can continue to repopulate and you can create a garment from that that will last generations yeah like what you already have yeah now you compare that to somebody who's going to wear like a polyester faux fur made out of a petroleum byproduct thing, like that's not even going to last a couple of years and then it's going to be forever in a landfill. When you're done with this garment, for whatever reason, it's just going to dissolve back into the earth right from the place that it came from, right, and it doesn't hurt a thing throughout that process. It's pretty special and I just think it's so misunderstood. It's so misunderstood Something I wanted to ask you two about.
Speaker 3:You've got a great family and you work together, but you also work independently, and I think that's something that makes you unique within this outdoor space. Right, I see a lot of husband and wives who hunt together. Right, I see a lot of husband and wives who hunt together. I see some some gals that act like they're hunting by themselves, but they're not, um, and I see you two going out and working together. Sometimes I see you going out and hunting by yourself. Sometimes you're like jace, this morning you took your daughter out, is that right? Yeah, um, yeah, like, how cool is that? But also, how do you pull it off? Like, how do you manage this complicated family? You've got a pile of kids, you've got jobs, you've got obligations. How do you pull it off? I think a lot of people would look at your lives and be like I would love to be able to live like that, but I don't know how to do it.
Speaker 2:Well, it's craziness in our house. I'm going to be honest. We have four kids, four dogs and that's half the reason why we end up having to do independent hunting missions. You know, I'm usually the one that gets the most time to go out. Laura's very fortunate, I'm very fortunate that Laura lets me go out and do all this stuff. But if we had our choice, we'd hunt together, fish together every chance we could. But it's just not realistic with kids and dogs that need taking care of. But yeah, I I think the reason.
Speaker 1:It's a good balance, yeah Well the reason why I think it works so well for both of us is because we are both so equally passionate yeah about everything in the outdoors. Like we are both equally love fishing just as much trapping and hunting. And like we are, we literally never have an argument like for us. The one thing that's really interesting there's no compromising like yeah we always want to be doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:It's not like the your standard, like marriage, where it's like, oh well, this weekend we can go fishing and the next weekend we're gonna go on a trip to wherever. And like visit family or something, or like go on vacation, like we literally only want to spend our time in the outdoors doing the same thing. And since like it matters just as much to me as it matters to him, like if I can't go, like I want him to go because I know what it means to him, because it means the same to me and he gives me the same grace as well. So we just make sure we're always helping each other get the time and the memories out there yep, you did get to deer hunt together this year.
Speaker 3:Yes, we did.
Speaker 1:We had an awesome. It was like a week. It was a week long deal yeah.
Speaker 2:We brought the dogs to the kennel and had her dad watch the kids for us.
Speaker 3:It was nice I might have went the other way around on that.
Speaker 1:Dad gives the kennel, they probably had fun. They're pretty feral, I'm kidding but no, that was super special because, like we haven't- we haven't done something like that a long time yeah, we haven't gone and, like I never get the opportunity to go, like on an overnight hunt, but I owe like 98% of the time I'm day hunting.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's just what I have and I'm very, very grateful. I am very blessed I still spend probably more time in the woods just with that than I do. Most people who get to go out, like on weekends or something, and stay out, um, but yeah, we haven't done like a weekend hunt trip and I can't even remember Spent like maybe, like maybe one other time or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in the five years yeah in five years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was pretty special to go over to Oregon and it was very challenging, but it was such a good, it was such a good time and he got his buck. And then we came back and we fished and then opening day here and we went out opening morning with a plan and turned out way better than we even expected and we doubled up and then I hated my life hiking. I was freaking out.
Speaker 2:Let me be honest well, she shot the bigger buck, so I'm gonna let her, you know, pack the heaviest load, you know so she she was in full out. She was in full out, psycho mode coming off that hill.
Speaker 1:No, it's like I packed out whole deer. I packed out whole white tails before, Like it's a heavy load but whatever, it's definitely manageable. My the body on my mule deer was like the size of a small elk. Yeah, when I got up to it, I was like, oh, I'm like I'm a little nervous and, honestly, if it, if we would have been able to walk out this four-wheel road, that would have taken us four times mile-wise as long as just going straight down the canyon.
Speaker 1:I could have packed the weight, but we were going straight down the canyon where it's just that lava rock with cheatgrass that lays over it and you don't have a single solid footing. I was mad.
Speaker 2:I was just frustrated. I looked over at her one time.
Speaker 3:She's like don't even look at me.
Speaker 2:I just beat feet to the truck and my legs were clapping by the time I got down to the truck, but I came back up and helped her shuffle the last load.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I started shuffling it because there's nothing I hate more than doing more than one trip.
Speaker 2:I was like I literally have to. Yeah, we're the type to bring 20 bags of groceries in the house in one trip.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, it doesn't matter if it's 10 feet out the door yeah, I'm not going back, yeah yeah, but no, it was that that was a pretty epic epic hunt I bet you didn't one trip your bowl. Nope, no honestly, though, the packet wasn't bad, because for one he helped me, but I cut it up, so I got it, went out that morning and like I found him and I got him by myself and that was a pretty amazing tell me, tell me the story okay, so I'll tell it in my way which is a lot of unnecessary added stuff.
Speaker 1:So I woke up that week I've been pretty anxious to go out and try these areas that I'd pinned and I got a new tag. I usually hunt the same area, Jace does the same unit and it was just so depressing. Last year I wasn't even going to go elk hunting this year because I was like I'm not even excited. It was just really unfortunate. There was a lot of poaching and going on and stuff.
Speaker 2:I hunted 24 days to get an elk last year. After work on the weekends I was grinding out, sleeping in the tent, waking up next day, going to the, going to work, smelling like elk piss.
Speaker 3:So yeah, um, I mean it's.
Speaker 2:It's a grind to get an elk, um any elk, in that unit.
Speaker 1:So yeah that's why she chose this tag, yeah I got a different tag and I went for rifle and um at a girl yeah, well, my right, my bow setup is also not the most ideal, like if I get a shot at an elk, especially if it was a bull, it'd have to be super close, yeah, to be efficient. So I was like you know what I told jace? It was like come around, like I'm gonna get this tag, I'm gonna go for rifle. He's like why are you getting that tag?
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I was like I don't know, Like it's not like any better than this one, but it's new and I do spend time up there doing other things and I'm like I don't know. It just feels exciting to go up there and like I feel like they're in the spring, when are they going to be out in the fall, and all this stuff, and so we had just shot our deer opening day.
Speaker 1:And then it was exactly a week later. I got my bull. So like the few days before the weather was like it started dumping rain and then I was watching the weather and on that Thursday it was going to break and I was like Ooh. I was like I bet this morning will be killer.
Speaker 1:Cause, it's just been dumping, dumping, dumping, good, and I'm like I'm going to go out Thursday morning and, um, I'm going to load up the e-bike into the mess mobile which my beaten up Dodge Caravan I was like duct tape, taillights. It's rough. I took the bench seats out, covered them with the tarp, threw the e-bike in there and I was like I'm just going to go up there, woke up early, took us like two hour drive up there and on the way up the logging trucks were coming down and I about like poop my pants every time I go around the corner because they do not get over for you. I thought I was gonna get killed going down the mountain, but yeah, it's their second trip of the day.
Speaker 3:You know they're heading for the mill yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it was scary, but I got up there, parked, unloaded my e-bike and I started cruising down there. As I'm getting down, like I'm halfway, it's a five miles into the first glassing point I wanted to go to and I passed, like not far in, I ever come up on a guy who's coming out on a side-by-side. I'm like, oh, fantastic love these e-bikes.
Speaker 1:I know fantastic. So I uh tell him. I tell I like stop and talk to him for just a minute. And he's with his dad and his dad's probably in his 80s or so and I was like, oh, hi. And he's like I was like you guys out hunting. He's like, well, yeah, we're looking for a bull for my dad. He's like I shot a five point in here last night. I'm like, oh great, the only elk that's back here is dead. And so I'm like, all right, well, good luck. And I drive by and I keep going down and I run into another guy on his way out, on a side by side. I'm like there's a lot of people in here. I'm like, wonderful, this is being all great. And then I I didn't even talk to him. He just asked I was stopped because I heard him coming. I was gonna let him go by. And he's like, is there anyone behind you? I was like, nope, just me. And he kind of gave me a weird look and left right I do.
Speaker 1:I do think people get surprised when they see me out by myself sometimes, and so I go down a little bit further and I finally get to the first glass and point I stop. I'm like you can see this big open bottom and then up the other side of the canyon, and first thing I do is I look up and I see two dudes down on the bottom road, like older gentlemen walking with their rifles in their hands using their scopes as like binoculars looking down.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh my gosh, I can't shake these guys and I'm like whatever I'm like I'm here, I'm just gonna sit here and look and I'm like literally the next part. I pick my binoculars up and look, I'm like that's an elk way across on the other side. I'm like that is definitely an elk just standing there on the ridge coming on to my side of the other side of the canyon and this is like this is like 1800 yards away, it's like far, and I was like, oh dang, so I it's so far. I can't tell what it is in my binoculars. So I get my rifle out of my pack and I'm like I'm just going to look through my rifle scope and zoom way in because I can tell, oh, tell, if it was a cow or bull. And I get it out and laid out and I go to look and it's must have gone behind some trees. I can't see anything.
Speaker 1:So I look around a little bit longer and I keep looking over there on and off to see if I can pick it back up and I see the elk. So I look through my scope. I'm like, oh yeah, that's a cow right there. And I happened to like scan a little bit. I'm like, oh, there's more elk over there. And I'm looking and I'm like that's a bull. Like that is a bull. I'm like, clearly I. I don't. I had low standards because I've never I've. The biggest elk I've shot is a spike.
Speaker 3:And Spike supremacy, man I love spikes.
Speaker 1:I was like no way. I was like I cannot believe.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at a bull right now and I text Chase with all these people all around oh yeah, all over, and I'm like and they're just in this spot like this little drainage that doesn't have a road going by it, pretty much, or into it. And I mess voice message Jason, like I found a bull, like I think it's like a five, four, like a four or five point, and he's like we'll go get it quit talking to me and I'm like I am like I am going, I'm like I'm literally getting my stuff together and I'm like I look at it and I'm like gosh, dang it.
Speaker 2:Put your phone away, get on your e-bike.
Speaker 1:I was just letting him know, I was like it's the last time I tell you anything and so I like I blowed up my stuff again and I'm like when I'm looking, when I'm looking across there, there is like kind of road, old road systems going on. I'm like I don't think that those roads will take me over there.
Speaker 1:So I'm like I got to go all the way back out to the car, drive a couple few miles closer, get back in, ride my bike in and hike in, I'm like whatever. So I dropped a pin where I thought they were and I I will say, this is something I do every time and I'm so grateful, especially in this situation. I always, if I spot something from a really, really far, like a long ways away, I always take a video from my point there and like scan it for the wide area, then I zoom in because it looks very different once you get there totally different, different.
Speaker 1:I'm like this is the ridge right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Fish and games are going to listen to this and say, oh, I guess there's no more cell phones in the woods. That's cheating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2:They have a meeting about that we should talk about. After this, we should Go ahead continue.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But so I the car, and I very angrily chuck my bike into the back of the meth mobile, hop in, ride down park. And so this is kind of funny when I had to park, there was this big camp right there, like at the start of the road that was going to go down, and there was this older gentleman in camp with his dog. So I like pulled up and parked, I'm like excuse me, and I was like, are you going down here hunting? And he was like, oh, I was gonna head down there a little bit. I'm like, do you mind if I just park here and I'm gonna ride down, I'm just gonna go class down there, because I'll be like, oh, there's a bull down there, I'm gonna go get it and tell him and him be like I not that he could tell me, no, because it's all public.
Speaker 1:But and he's like oh yeah, you can't see much from over here. But yeah, you can. You won't bother, doesn't? I'm like, okay, thank you. Bye, just some dumb woman. See you later.
Speaker 3:So I get my e-bike out and I'm like I hope that dude listens to this.
Speaker 1:I try to pull the dumb girl card a lot but and it's pretty easy to do because I am kind of dumb but I like I ride down in there and I stop.
Speaker 1:It honestly took me a little while to make sure. I was like on the right bridge and I got there and I like, okay, I, this is where I go and I I see the ridge. I needed to go down because when I looked across the, the group was working towards and this is a group of like five cows in the one bowl, so it's not like a big group. You don't see big groups up here anyways, um, and I'm like there's the ridge right there. Where's the trail to get down? And there was not, like really any game trail. We kind of halfway found it the day we packed out all the meat. I'm like I'm just gonna dive down in here. Kind of looked like trail. Uh no, I was just fighting for my life through the brush, making a lot of noise. I'm like this is great.
Speaker 1:So I added my cow call with me, though, like my little calf call, and while I'm making so much dang noise, I just do a couple cow calls like oh, I'm just an idiot cow in the bushes, like don't be scared. And I come out finally on the ridge, and it's pretty open on where I'm at, and I walk down and I look and I'm like, oh, oh, shocker, no elk, they're gone. Took me like two hours, two and a half hours to get over there. And I tell Jace, I voice message him and this is also like kind of a treat, because usually 90% of the time I don't have service where I'm at, but I had service here. So I sent him a voice message and I'm like, shocker, they're gone. Took me too long to get over here. And I'm like it's raining now and I just go sit underneath a pine tree like Eeyore.
Speaker 2:Meanwhile I'm at work. She shouldn't have even called me and told me she saw a bull.
Speaker 1:She wasted five minutes.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that five minutes really made a difference.
Speaker 1:It literally took two minutes. I sent you voice messages but I was sitting under under the tree and I'm like sitting there looking for maybe like 10 minutes or so. It's pretty open, but there's a group of little pine trees right across from me like 100 yards, and I look at the clock it's like 1135. I'm like, well, it's going to take me like 45 minutes, maybe an hour, to get back to the car. I got to drive two and a half hours to get back home. I gotta get the kids from school, I gotta take them to their dad's house. I'm like I should probably leave.
Speaker 1:So I kind of like get up, pick up my pack and put one on like strap on my shoulder, all like mopey that I and I'm trying to be grateful because I was like I even told myself like if I even see a bull during the season, I was like that's gonna be a win, because I was going in pretty much blind and with very low expectations, which I find to be very good. If you set your like your expectations really low, you are always nicely surprised or you don't get disappointed because you didn't expect anything anyways. But uh, I stand up and I just see something like move on the ridge cross. For me just a flash, and this may sound dumb, but my first thought was what's a mountain lion? Because I really want to kill one so bad. And we'd had two friends that, like a few days before, while they're out hunting, saw mountain lions at like 40 yards in totally different scenarios, and I was like why can't that be me when I see one in front of me, not behind me, because that happened last year. But, um, I like scoot over where I can see and I look and it's a cow. Oh, they're right there. They were just in these little pine trees. They must have just been like in this group of like 12 little pine trees bedded down or standing in it All of them.
Speaker 1:And I go from zero to like 100 on the I better make this work kind of situation, throw my rifle in my pack really quick. I look, I see the bull and I just whistle to stop him because he was moving around quite a bit and I took a corkering, two shot and drilled him and he goes barreling down and I throw another one at him because I just I will shoot until they're like dead dead, because I've seen animals get away that shouldn't have never got away. And of course my second shot goes right through his antler and I like center punched it. Luckily didn't break it off or anything, there's just a perfect hole and he goes down the bottom.
Speaker 1:I get up and go running down, leave my pack like an idiot running down and I got jace on the phone. I'm like calling him and I'm like, oh, he's dead. Like he just like rolled into this little drainage in the bottom. I'm like I got the ball, because last thing he heard like two minutes ago was, oh, I don't see anything I'm leaving, which is classic laura, just like eyes and lows.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, it's like what the heck is going on jason's getting his haircut.
Speaker 1:He's like what are you doing? And uh, I get down there, I'm on the phone, I'm telling him and I'm like all shaken up. There's this little rock bluff that's right above the bottom of the drain and I walk up on it on the phone and the bull is right there and he's sitting and he pops up and he kind of stands up. But he stood there and I shot him again at like 10 feet and he's still on the phone. I think he said hold on and I put the phone down and I shot him and then he ran up like 30 yards and I made a rookie move for one. I did not have bullets in my pocket I had them in my ammo pouch in my backpack.
Speaker 1:150 yards up the hill I just ran down and the week before two rounds had been shot out of my rifle, one at my deer and then Jace had used it on his after, and so my rifle holds five.
Speaker 3:So you're out of gas. And then I had three.
Speaker 1:And then I like brain fart did not have any more rounds, and he's standing there at 30 yards, just standing there like looking and I can see my shots are good. And I'm like, ah, like just like he, I was in the open, like I didn't want to move and I forget. At that moment, like two seconds after you stand there, I'm like, oh, jesus on the phone, so I pick up my phone. I'm like I'll call you back and he's like, what's going on?
Speaker 1:I'm gonna hang up on him and and he stood there for like a couple minutes, took like like one step and he bedded down. I'm like, okay, good, and like his head kind of was below the rise, but I see his antlers, so I just sneak back up the hill, grab my pack, reload my rifle, come back down. Come back down and he's dead. Yeah, and I was like, oh, thank goodness.
Speaker 2:It's amazing how elk can just take bullets. But, you hit them with an arrow and they're dead in 30 yards. It's just amazing to me yeah, you know it is.
Speaker 3:It is super interesting, I. What I tell people all the time is that they're weak to a strong shot and strong to a weak shot. Yeah, and if you, if you hurt them with a first shot, whether that's with an arrow or a muzzleloader, bullet, bullet or you know, whatever doesn't, doesn't matter they're a lot tougher to everything that's going to happen after that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but yeah, if you don't do it right, man, they can really soak it up. The mule deer that I just shot this week in Montana. I shot him in the middle of the heart with a 6mm Creedmoor 95 grain ballistic tip. I've never seen a heart this completely exploded. This damage right yeah um, and that that buck still went 30 yards.
Speaker 3:Oh my god, absolutely incredible they're insanely tough animals are yep, and you know you compare that to, say, the the water buffalo that I just shot with an arrow in australia, um, was also a heart shot and he was dead in 15 yards, right, um, probably a little bit more time, like maybe a few more seconds, with the water buffalo, uh, but yeah, I think the bottom line is that a good shot kills them very quickly and uh, but I'll also say that that mediocre shot, you're much better off with a rifle than you are with yeah, with an arrow, for sure yeah, but you got your bull now he's now.
Speaker 3:He's dead on the hillside yeah, by yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I called, called jace, told me he's dead and he was super pumped and like so grateful because not only did he come out the next day and he helped me pack it out, but he did get all the kids from school because I was like I'm not going to be there to get them, picked them all up for me and I just stayed out there and I quartered them all up, hung them in game bags from a tree and then hiked out of there, got home that night.
Speaker 2:Mind you guys, this is a five foot one woman cornering out an elk on a hillside by herself I've caught fish bigger than you. Yeah yeah, I'm little, I'm like a midget, it's impressive though, because, yeah, I mean, just for a grown man to do it is hard enough oh, you know, yeah, backbreaking work, yeah, by yourself, yeah I was pretty tired.
Speaker 1:I didn't eat anything that day either, which is classic scenario to me when I'm hunting or fishing.
Speaker 3:I'm like I'm on the hunting fishing diet, where I just do not eat or drink water all day, so I'm like I don't feel very good but you know, during that whole process of like going out to one spot, finding the bull, going back around, all the chaos, and then you know all the cutting and stuff like that afterwards did you ever think to yourself, like what was me? I'm just a little little woman out here doing this by myself. No, I love it, I just do it right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just part of it. That's something I always talk about. I talk about this a lot with my best friend, kate Small too, because we are both like mentality-wise the same. We just like I don't want to pat on my back because I'm a woman out there doing things, but I just want to be treated like anybody else, like I don't need to pat on my back and like I don't need like a oh you poor little thing out there. You're fragile. I'm like, just treat me like a dude.
Speaker 2:What do you treat your body like? This is a stereotype. Unfortunately, that's been portrayed over the years, you know but understandably so.
Speaker 3:In most circumstances I can get it well, I, I think that you, you do deserve a pat on the back, though, because you don't have the same. You don't have the same social advantages that I do. You just don't have the same social advantages that I do. You just don't, and you get discredited more than you deserve, not just because you're a woman, but also and you know, I I mean this, not not in a weird way at all You're. You're attractive too, right. So a lot of women in the outdoor space use that as as a lever lever to pull to get themselves opportunities. They're not doing it to like, despite that, which I think is, is your situation right, like you're going out there and getting the job done just because you're a person who's interested in this lifestyle yeah, I think it's badass.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I very much like there's nothing that brings me more fulfillment than being out there hunting and fishing, especially with my children Like, absolutely, my kids hunts. Those are my absolute favorite memories. But there's just something I like I heard this quote and I've said a couple of times where it's like there's a difference between an outdoorsman, as you're a participant instead of an observer, and I just think that there's something very fulfilling in being a part of what's going out there, no matter what you choose to do.
Speaker 3:It's how we're designed that's how we're supposed to be living. Yeah, it's not just as a tourist like we're. We are a part of it and we've been so successful at trapping, at hunting, at fishing that we were able to leverage that success into building a society where not everybody is relying on that anymore and we've lost that connection. So now, when we get to dip back into it, you get all those old feelings like oh, this is what I'm built for. Like this is what I'm built for, like this is what I'm supposed to be doing yeah this is where I'm supposed to be right now, and it feels so right and so refreshing.
Speaker 3:It's like having a drink of water when you're dying of thirst. Yeah, and you didn't realize you were thirsty until you tried it? Until you have it and it's like, oh no, I needed this yeah yeah, yeah, I couldn't imagine life without it.
Speaker 2:Honestly, yeah, I don't know what would we even do?
Speaker 3:I literally don't even know yeah yeah, yeah, it's glue beads to skulls or something that's the name no, I do want to get into that a little bit too, though.
Speaker 1:Um talk to me about wildlife art uh, so I've always loved wildlife art in general, like in all kinds of aspects, like I grew up, drawing.
Speaker 1:There's just something I always loved to do is like pencil drawing. And then I went to charcoal, like wildlife drawing, and I always wanted to be like the realism artist and I wasn't bad. I had some of my pieces I really liked, but I just couldn't get it. After every time I was done with a drawing I'm like, oh, thank God, that's done, I'm over drawing, I want to take a break, and so I've always had the need to create art, and especially in the outdoor kind of realm of things or the wildlife realm of things. And it was the most random, random time I was housing for my parents who were hiking the PCT, so they were gone for six months and it was just in the house I grew up in, so it's nothing new and I was cleaning and I was organizing the bookshelf and on top of the bookshelf they had like a bunch of coyote skulls, a javelina skull, bear skulls, and above that on top of the wall there's white-tailed euros. There's a bunch of skulls on top.
Speaker 3:So when you look, you just see a bunch of skulls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I don't know why. But one day I was looking at them and maybe I think I was comparing the javelina skull to the bear skull, because, if you have not seen, javelina skulls are pretty crazy in size. To a bear or black bear they're the same, but a javelin was like a tiny little animal compared to a black bear and I just was thinking to myself.
Speaker 1:I was like, would it be really cool to do something where they looked more individual? Because right now, looking up, I just see a few bear skulls, I see a bunch of coyote skulls and I kind of just look like a bunch of skulls rather than individual animals in a sense. And I thought, well, I can't paint at all Like I suck at painting, so I'm not gonna paint. And I thought, well, like maybe I can create like some sort of piece with beads, like a picture with beads. And so I text my dad on his inreach because he's backpacking and I'm like, hey, dad, can I, can I beat a coyote skull of yours? And he was like, yeah, sure you can do that. So literally that night I went to Michael's, bought a case of assorted colored, crappy, cheap seed beads and some random glue and I just went for it that night and over the couple of days I beaded this coyote skull. I still have it. It looks awful. And when I was done with that I was like, oh, like this is cool. I kind of figured out a little bit throughout. You can, when you look at the skull you see like where I started, cause. That looked awful and I kind of was figuring out how to make them lay as I went on and then I was just after I did that I want to do another one, I want to do another one, and it just went on from there and then I got.
Speaker 1:I was just sharing them on my Facebook and a guy reached out to me and said, hey, I have a bull elk skull. I'd love to have something done with it. Got set in the shed like something chewed off like a brow tine. Could you repair that as well? And I was like you pay me to do this? Like heck, yeah, like I would love that. And I got my first commission piece and did that bowl and it's been going ever since. I just never get tired of it and I have like a million ideas in my mind and I really do love the idea of creating something that kind of goes back to this whole, why I want to make my fur coat. It's just a sentimental piece that's not only a sentimental hunt but something to be passed on to their family. That's really going to stand out, yeah.
Speaker 3:I love the art. I love skulls. I look at a skull as the last track that an animal ever makes. And when I find a skull in the woods. I think that it's so special, and it makes me wonder about that animal's entire life and everything that's happened with it, and, yeah, it's really cool. What I also love, though, are the videos that you post of the process. The intensity on your face when you're working on these things. It's like it's a level of focus that is just burning. It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I usually stay up till like one in the morning working on my skulls. When the kids are in school during the year I can work during the day. I usually do my antler jewelry during the day because it's like loud, it's outside and everything, and then I stay up late at night once everyone goes to bed and I work on the skulls where it's just my time to just focus and get stuff done. But I really love it. It's like therapeutic for me too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I first met her I was like, oh, I'm going to join her, I'll do a couple of my own skulls, you know they turn out okay. But yeah, I don't have the patience for that.
Speaker 1:No way, it's funny because when he did do it, he was like and I would call him what are you doing? He's like oh, I'm working on my skull.
Speaker 3:He's trying to impress her, you know.
Speaker 2:No, he liked it, he did like it.
Speaker 1:He was up for quite a bit. He would get started on his skull, but he would just go and go and go until he got it done. He'd be like I'm I just stopped, yeah, every school I do. He's like I'm like, oh, look at here. Like I'm like, oh, this is what I'm doing. He's like, oh, that's good, but I probably do like this a little different every time.
Speaker 3:That's the running joke.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't have done that but yeah, no, I really truly love it and I'm always honored when someone like contacts me and they want to send me something that they've harvested, because it's a lot of like, it's an honor, it's a lot of trust to have give hand over something to have them make into something special for you, something that's already so special.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm like an extra sentimental person. So for me, like if I gave my like animal to somebody, I'd be like.
Speaker 3:I'm trusting you with this very precious thing, this memory and physical form, for you to make it into something nice well, and for all the folks out there who do do live in relationships where compromise is, the is the flavor of the day. Fellas, I hope you're listening, because these things are gorgeous, and if you want to hang something up in your house and your old lady isn't that into it, this might be the way I've helped many men get their animals out of the garage in the house this might be the way yeah jace, you two have had a lot of opportunities for hunting, fishing, trapping, outdoor recreation, and it's not necessarily opportunities that have been given to you.
Speaker 3:It's stuff that you work really hard. I think a lot of people get those opportunities and they just want more for themselves. What I've seen with you is that you're realizing the importance of the opportunities that you've had and you're trying to give those opportunities to other people. Talk to me about that a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, talk to me about that a little bit. Yeah, laura and I started a charity hunt here and we wanted to do something special for someone with terminal disease or terminal disability and just try to give back to the hunting community a little bit. And we got a deal going. Right now it's called Hunt for Silas. Silas was the lucky winner. We had about a dozen applications reach out to us and we read them all and we just decided that we weren't going to be able to actually pick one, just because they were so heartfelt and, yeah, just make a grown man cry reading them. But we just did a random, random uh number generator and he won. He's 11 year old that was diagnosed with melanoma and the cancer went to his lymph nodes, thank you.
Speaker 2:So he's going through a lot right now his family, the medical bills, and we just we wanted to do something special for him, so we're taking them on a bull elk hunt of Lifetime. When is that hunt? That's going to be next October 16th through the 19th.
Speaker 3:What type of support do you need to make it happen?
Speaker 2:Well, we're raising money right now. The outfitter gave us a pretty good deal on it, but we're trying to raise around 10,000. That'll pay for the hunt, um, travel and professional videographer, so um, but yeah, we're we're looking for donations to do an online raffle or online auction, and uh also have a GoFundMe set up too, which has raised about a thousand dollars so far, but we're going to be doing the online auctions to uh up with that and I feel very confident that we'll have it in no time. So good, a lot of people reaching out, a lot of great people. So it's pretty awesome to see the hunting community come together when we need to we're good at that yeah, we are, yeah well, we're so divided, but when it comes to stuff like this, everybody helps out.
Speaker 2:You know you know, sure, I mean we're not divided, but everyone has something to say about something. Yeah, we're siblings.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fight about the petty things.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know we don't touch base on the opportunity stuff a little bit. We don't. I can't ever think of any opportunity that we've actually been given. Um, all of our no, all of our opportunities are, um, what we make. You know, we make our opportunities and it's mostly on public land. You know, it's just we have, we live in a place where we can do all this stuff. We're so fortunate that we have everything within an hour of where we live. It's pretty amazing. You know we're not out shooting trophy animals.
Speaker 1:Well, laura did this year, but I was going to shoot something half that size and be just as happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That was just a blessing.
Speaker 2:But we're not out looking for inches, we're out looking to make memories. That's what hunting is about, and a lot of people have lost that meaning of what hunting is, you know, yeah, so yeah, my scoring system is everything's a zero or a one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's either a shooter or it's not. Yeah, it makes you happy. Yeah.
Speaker 2:If it makes you excited and happy, like that's the animal that you should take, you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Also like if you make a good shot, that counts for a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure that counts for a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you're able to handle that meat well and get it out and process it well and then feed your family and share it with friends and other families.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like where's that land in the Boone and Crockett system? Right? Like it's not even considered and it's so important and it's so awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a huge part of why you're out there.
Speaker 3:That's the most fulfilling thing and you can't place a number on it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I've always said, man, if you're laying on your deathbed, you're looking up at your mounts on your wall and you're going to remember what they score. You're going to remember the memories made with those animals, with the family and friends you should.
Speaker 3:The folks who are super focused on scores, though they let that number become the quantifier of the whole hunt.
Speaker 1:They do yeah.
Speaker 3:And they'll say, oh, that that was 192 inch deer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like sweet what what can you tell me about the hunt? Yeah, well, he scored 192. Yeah, like, oh, that's an awesome story. Man, I feel bad. I feel bad for those people honestly, because they're missing out on way much more than that yeah, and, and they're, they're allowing themselves to be fulfilled by a standard developed by other people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we have this opportunity of hunting and recreating and getting our food from nature, where we can define success for ourselves. And how incredible is that? Yep, right, you don't have to play by somebody else's metrics. You don't have to go by a scoring system that was developed by a bunch of old white dudes in the 1890s. Who cares, who cares? Define success for yourself and get after it Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. It's like that buck that Laura killed this year. We knew it was a big deer, but we didn't imagine it was that big when we got up to it.
Speaker 1:but that's just icing on the cake, though I mean, it could have been, it could have been half the size and we were together yeah on that hunt, which means everything yeah, that's not.
Speaker 1:Something happens very often and like it's awesome, it's very special to go out and make a memory by yourself. I think like we both feel that way everybody needs alone time in the woods yeah, and like to have success all by yourself. There's something very special in that, but having made the memory and success together like that means more than the size of the animal to me yeah, laura, one of your favorite hobbies, as far as I can tell, is trash talking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how'd spearfishing go this summer?
Speaker 1:Oh, it was nice, I lost some weight swimming.
Speaker 2:Remember when she texted you and said that she was going to beat the record for you? I do. I do remember that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, be ready for me to beat your record in two days. Yeah, I was, was like god's like.
Speaker 2:oh really I might drown you and she said she hit three over 28 inches, but I never saw anything I actually did spearfish.
Speaker 1:It was dead already, but it counts okay, all, right, okay no, okay. So I have to say something funny, and I don't know if I even brought it up to you later, but one of the sections that I spearfished I think I went through it three passes because I kept seeing these big suckers near the tail end of it and this is when I had the Hawaiian spear. Just for everyone who's listening, I had the Hawaiian sling.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like a three-prong Five and a half feet, which is not as long I learned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, about five and a half feet which is not as long I learned, and then I ended up getting an actual 38 inch spirit gun. I can't remember the name of the brand, but I got a gun right when the water got murky and I couldn't see anything.
Speaker 1:So I made this pass through this section three times and I went out a day by myself I had to drive up to, so I had to drop my shoes off, my water shoes off where I was going to get out. And then I drove up like I don't know it was probably like a quarter mile Got out, got in the water and just floated down like a log on the water and this is also a section of the river that I trap otters and beavers in.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I don't know why. It's a rational fear. I was just floating through there and you'll get into some deeper pools where you can't see, and then all of a sudden you'll just be able to see and I noticed on the rocks there was a lot of tracks from the otters that were digging for the mussels and stuff. I'm like, oh man, they're in here right now. And he was like don't splash, don't make noises, because I just I don't know why I had just this weird fear of like the family coming out and the last thing I want is to be in the water like a sitting duck with a family of otters swimming around me. People may think, oh, that'd be so cool, but they are they are water wolves.
Speaker 3:That lady in Montana got jacked up.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and I had another gal.
Speaker 3:They're like wet mountain lions, they are.
Speaker 1:I always call them wolves of the water, because they really act like it. They're very, very, very territorial. They'll go kill beavers and kick them out of their dens. They'll kill each other as well, and they are insanely strong. I'll say too, I never realized how big otters were until when I was dating jace and he had trapped one. They're so much bigger than you think.
Speaker 1:Especially a big male like this is big as me like long length, wise right and they're literally just a giant muscle and they're incredibly flexible, so it's not gonna be able to grab them and then not just fold themselves in half and still get you so, and they're related to honey badgers and wolverines.
Speaker 3:Like they're a real deal. Weasels are vicious yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was swimming through there and I'm like, oh man, I'm just waiting to like look up in an honor and be like, ah, right in my face. I'm like how embarrassing I'm going to have to be like text James, be like, so I was trying to get that record and anaudible my face, but no, I did. It was really fun, though honestly, it was such a different way. I mean, this goes back to what you're saying like I just like we both are the same, but like I love everything, everything there is to do outdoors period, on the water, on the land, wherever, like I just I'm gonna get into it next year I think, but it's.
Speaker 2:It would be way easier with actual gear.
Speaker 3:Yeah that we can get down low.
Speaker 2:Stay down low, because a lot of these spots where the suckers are is five to six feet. So by the time you take a breath of air, go down there and you're like pedaling against the current, you know, yeah, you got to come back up and get a gas air.
Speaker 1:So it's yeah, it is hard with the gun it's forgiving because you got a little bit longer shot but like my, my $32 fin and goggle kit I need better. Yeah, the goggles kept fogging. That's such a pain and then the flippers were making my toes Charlie Orson stuff and you can't go as fast with those little two-inch flippers on. But it was really fun. It was super cool. I did go and dove into a couple holes that we salmon and steelhead fish in and it was also really awesome to see what the bottom of the river looks like in those places that we fish.
Speaker 3:You learn a lot, don't you? It was crazy.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was just man. It's so cool. That's honestly another thing.
Speaker 2:That's what I keep getting snagged up on every year.
Speaker 1:Oh, that, that's what I keep getting snagged up on every year.
Speaker 3:I'm not even kidding you, I did see a rock. I'm like I set the hook on that thing five times. I could have swore it was a big fish there's like five of my lures down there.
Speaker 1:But I mean, the thing that's so awesome about anything outdoors is like you could go do this every day for your entire life and you will never stop learning you will never stop exploring and it's so fulfilling and I just love it.
Speaker 1:I always joke that I'm five at heart, because I get really excited about everything. But what a blessing because, like, how cool is it to go out and be excited about just like. Oh, I went out and I dove in this hole and I saw, like I saw his pocket where that's. That's why we get either snagged or like this is where the fish will lay down in and like hide when the current's going or whatever. Also, another thing too when we were, we went through and snorkeled because we were looking for lead and gear from all the millions that we've lost during steel season and we saw smallmouth bass in those spots and I was like I had no idea there was bass yeah, up in this spot it's truly amazing.
Speaker 2:You stand on the bank, you look in the water and it doesn't look like much and you go underneath there and you start exploring. It's. It's just crazy. It's a whole different world. Once you go underwater I can see how it's addicting.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, you said that before. It's just like being on another planet and it really is. It's so funny on such a like, especially when you're on water that you're so familiar with from the land version, and you get in and it's just it's so cool you think you know it from the air. But you don't, not at all.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Not at all.
Speaker 3:Last question what advice do you have for other couples and families out there who maybe are wanting to spend more time outside and doing the thing? What advice do you have to offer them?
Speaker 1:I would say finding things outdoors that you all enjoy. There's so many things to do, whether it's even backpacking or hiking. Hiking, wildlife photography, fishing, foraging. I know a lot of people that love going mushroom hunting in the spring, uh, shed hunting, I mean there's just. There are endless things to go do out there and there's a lot of very kid-friendly activities. Go out as well. Um, like I, even on the harder side of things, like we, we even take our three of our four kids are hunting now and they go out hunting with us bird hunting, big game hunting and then I even take my kids out water trapping as well. I think it's really easy for parents to be like, oh well, I'd rather not bring the kids because it's going to be hard, or whatever. Bring your kids. It's so much. It may be challenging at first, but it ends up being so rewarding, so good.
Speaker 1:I can't stress how healthy it is to spend time in the outdoors mentally, for everyone yep, get those kids off the tablets and the cell phones.
Speaker 2:Get them out fresh air. Like laura said, the mushroom hunting, I mean that that's. That's really fun. Yeah especially the kids yeah, the kids love it. It's a big thing they find one. They just they want to find the next one. It's. It's something fun to do as a family, so that would be a great place to start if you're not into the outdoors yeah even if you're a couple and say, like your wife isn't, like doesn't want to hunt, but she's she doesn't mind hunting.
Speaker 1:Because I actually do have a friend of mine who she can never pull the trigger on an animal. There's just no way. And I've known her since I was 11. And her husband's a big hunter, trapper, and they've got four girls. But like they could also go out as a family and the girls like they can glass and they can be part of it some way, I think it's really important to put the effort to be a part of that kind of like, like an outdoor activity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Laura's taking the kids out before they even could buy a trapping license. She'd take them out and check her traps, just get them into it.
Speaker 1:Tell them to look for a sign.
Speaker 2:Feel them out and see if they're interested in doing that too. Don't just push your kids into something because you want them to Kind of feel them out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, encourage it. Like I said, as simple as it sounds, just get outside, no matter what you're doing, yeah, and spend time together.
Speaker 3:Yep, great advice. Thank you, guys so much. Both Keep setting a good example. I think you're doing a wonderful job of that. You're raising an incredible family and I'm going to make it a priority to come out next summer and we'll do a little bit of spearfishing. Uh, do we want to talk about what else you have going on next summer yet?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, we can yeah our website quick, quick, little teaser on it yeah, our website's in the process of being built.
Speaker 1:It'll be up like any day now.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we're like what we've talked about, we enjoy the outdoors so much and kind of what you talked like touch base on me with my trapping, like I never got into it because I never had the right, like I never had help, I didn't have the right person to kind of teach me a little bit or at least give that little push.
Speaker 1:And I think it's really a lot of other people the same way and, like with Jace, he loves to get people out on their first experiences. We invite friends up, strangers up, to come experience like fishing and hunting, like takes people seal head fishing, turkey hunting. Just come join us, come experience it, because you know it's like what it does for us. We want to share that joy with other people and see them have it, and so we we decided we wanted to do something to give back to the people who want to learn how to experience all the fun things, all amazing things there's doing outdoors. So we're gonna host our own outdoor retreat where we help give knowledge on a wide variety of things, with hunting, trapping, fur handling, wild game, cooking, which you will be instructing, and all kinds of weapon handling archery, shotgun, pistol, rifle.
Speaker 2:Years and years of knowledge that you can learn in a week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just something that will help you Become a well-rounded outdoorsman and go out and enjoy things confidently and successfully. We also One of the I feel like one of our really important classes Is survival 101. It's going to be taught by Caleb Gamashi, our green beret, and I just feel like that's really that's something everyone should know Well. Or your basic survival 101 skills, and I just feel like that's really that's something everyone should know well. Or your basic survival 1-1 skills when you go out there, because I mean, I have a friend who she helps with the 9-1-1 dispatch in our area. Every fall they get calls from people who are lost or injured or whatever and they didn't know what to do in the situation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, even if you think you're experienced in that field, I think it's a good idea to take it, because you might pick up one thing that might save your life, you know. Oh yeah, I should take it honestly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd be happy to go sit on it as well. I think that there's like we said earlier, this is going out and enjoying all these things outdoors. This is something you can never learn enough of.
Speaker 3:Well, I can't wait for it. I'm excited, I'm excited. I'm excited to be able to instruct, because I love teaching, but I'm also going to learn so much and, yeah, I'll be loading up the cast iron and heading this way next summer.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yep, It'll be a good time. And another great thing be a way for everyone to connect and make good relationships that can last forever. Yeah, yep.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Well, thank you guys, both very much for your time. Thank you, and yeah, it's just great to see you again.
Speaker 1:Thanks, James.
Speaker 3:It's nice to not have, like all the hustle and bustle of a trade show.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Sit in a coffee shop and talk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, bye, everybody, bye. The Six Ranch Podcast is brought to you by Nick's Handmade Boots, a family-owned company in Spokane, washington. For many of my listeners, you've waited and prepared all year for this. Whether your pursuit is with a rifle or a bow, early or late season, big game or birds, another hunting season is finally upon us. Nick's Boots and the Six Ranch want to wish you luck as you head out into the field.
Speaker 3:This season, I'm wearing the Knicks boots Game Breakers, beginning with the archery elk season, having worn this boot throughout the supportive, durable, comfortable and, most importantly, quieter than most synthetic hunting boots. For 60 years, nix has been building work boots for wildland firefighters, tradespeople, hunters and ranchers, as well as heritage styles for anyone who values quality footwear made in America. Visit nicksbootscom today to find your next pair of high-quality American-made work boots. Add a pair of boots and a work belt to your cart and use the code 6RANCH that's the number 6 and the word RANCH to receive the belt for free.
Speaker 3:I just want to take a second and thank everyone who's written a review, who has sent mail, who's sent emails, who's sent messages. Your support is incredible and I also love running into you at trade shows and events and just out on the hillside when we're hunting. I think that that's fantastic. I hope you guys keep adventuring as hard and as often as you can. Art for the Six Ranch Podcast was created by John Chatelain and was digitized by Celia Harlander. Original music was written and performed by Justin Hay, and the Six Ranch Podcast is now produced by Six Ranch Media. Thank you all so much for your continued support of the show and I look forward to next week when we can bring you a brand new episode.