The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 356: Flipping Rocks and Wrangling Giants

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

Steven Rinella talks with his kids,  Brody Henderson, Kelsey Morris, Seth Morris, Phil Taylor, and Corinne Schneider. Topics discussed: Outdoor Kids in an Inside World and flipping rocks to uncover sculpin; when siblings disagree; a preference for salmon fishing; not changing your clothes for two weeks; Jimmy's hot tip on getting ready fast; Seth and Kelsey's rotting A-frame; shack ownership; go download our new audiobook, Narrow Misses and More Close Calls; lots of lessons learned at the Fish Shack; Sabertooth, Kevin Gillespie's new culinary show, is out!; Kevin's giveaway; please donate to the WY corner crossing fund to help public access; AK's fires burn larger than the state of CT; when your plane crashes and then you're eaten by a griz; when bears are euthanized; moral and legal issues colliding; shooting wounded animals; one deer, two deer and  linguistics; our Turkey Letter T-Shirt is live in The MeatEater store, inspired by Ep. 338 of The MeatEater Podcast: "The Biggest Buck in the USA"; Kelsey going full time artist; when decks fall; how Steve's gotten worse over time at black cod fishing; getting the biggest halibut out of the dinky Sears boat; and more.  Connect with Steve and MeatEater Steve on Instagram and Twitter MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop MeatEater MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. You might not be able to join our raffles and sweepstakes and all that because of raffle and sweepstakes law, but hear this. OnX Hunt is now in Canada. It is now at your fingertips, you Canadians. The great features that you love in OnX are available for your hunts this season. Now the Hunt app is a fully functioning GPS with hunting maps that include public and crown land, hunting zones, aerial imagery, 24K topo maps, waypoints and tracking. You can even use offline maps to see where you are

without cell phone service as a special offer. You can get a free three months to try out OnX if you visit onxmaps.com slash meet. This is the Meat Eater Podcast coming at you shirtless, severely bug-bitten, and in my case, underwearless. Welcome to the Meat Eater Podcast coming at you shirtless, severely bug-bitten, and in my case, underwearless. Meat Eater Podcast. You can't predict anything. Presented by First Light, creating proven, versatile hunting apparel from merino base layers to technical outerwear for every hunt.

First Light, go go farther stay longer okay rosemary tell me where where did we just spend the last two weeks alaska okay what were we doing we were fishing uh did you know that in um did you know that in the book like the the book i most recently had come out, which is called Outdoor Kids and the Inside World, I write a lot about how you kids like to spend a lot of time flipping rocks over. Can you, in your own words, would you mind explaining to me why it is you like to spend so many hours flipping rocks over on the shoreline? Because there's sculpin under some rocks and then after you see the sculpin, you hit them with rocks. And then what do you guys like to do with those? Tell some of your favorite ways. First off, how big is a Sculpin?

I don't know. The average size is like two inches, but they get pretty big. Like about as long as your finger? Yeah, like bigger than that. Bigger than your finger? Yeah. And then when you cook them up,

how do you like to cook them up? Over a fire. And then why, you guys, you smash them with rocks. What's that about? To kill them. To put them out, yeah. Are there things you find that you don't, that you just find and then look at and let go? What do you mean?

Like the crabs, for instance, that you find. Yeah. What's the most surprising thing you ever found under a rock you flipped over? Probably a sculpin that was all white that had, like, this really long nose. Oh, and then we came and showed him to me, like, you thought something was maybe wrong with him. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Did you find many of those little eels, those gunwale fish this year? Yeah. How many years have you been flipping rocks over at that place? Well, when's the first time that I ever came here? How old was I? Like a little baby, like a little kid. Then like six years, maybe. And have you noticed any trends over time?

Does it feel like it's the same? Or does it feel like over time it's changed with what you find under those rocks? Like is it one year real good for sculpins and the next year it's real good for crabs? Or is it pretty much like those rocks never change? Those rocks never change. You feel it's pretty consistent? Yeah. All right.

Now I'm going to ask your brother something. Jimmy, to what degree would you go with Rosie on that? I would say that the amount of sculpin and crab, the Dungeness, that you find out in the deeper water right offshore at uh super low tide definitely varies from year to year some years you'll find uh some years it'll be really really good for big sculpin they'll be in it's kind of just the two different streams and hold on was that like were you disagreeing with that, Rose? Yes.

Okay. You don't buy it? Yeah. Do you think it's consistent? Yeah. Go on, Jim. You're not even going to take the bait, are you? No.

She's wrong. Okay. Go on. The big scoping are either in, since there's two streams, they're either in one of the streams. We found some, there's never really, really big ones like seven inches long in the farthest right stream. They're always in the left stream. Is that right? It always seems to be where we find the big ones.

Because it's underneath a lot of kelp. It is a lot of kelp. It's more for the area for the bigger ones to hide. It's a lot slower moving water. I think they like that more too. The other one is rocky, very shallow water. I think the big ones like to be in a little more

wider area. I think that's ones like to be in a little more wider area. And I think that's why. If you had to pick between salmon fishing and flipping rocks and picking up sculpins, what would you pick? I'd say salmon fishing. And I'd say the reason I like salmon fishing so much is because you kind of like, you know, you're, if you go to the. Nope.

We'll bleep it out. We'll bleep it out. Go on. If you go to the fun salmon fishing place. When you go to the, when you go to the salmon spot, um, you either like you're dedicated to fishing salmon or catching flounder. If you drop your jig down and try to hit the bottom your little spoon but what's i also think is fun about that is seeing the um sea lions seals

all those other creatures and uh knowing that there could be anything down there in the deeper water yo do you want do you mind sharing with people what you got in trouble with what you got in trouble about yesterday it actually happened earlier while you were gone but you got in trouble about it yesterday oh um so i was so like absent-minded about changing my clothes for, like, two weeks. That when his mother unpacked his clothing, she was quite shocked to find that all of the socks and underwear were still in the socks and underwear bag. That's impressive. Two weeks.

That is impressive. The only time i changed my clothes is when because my mom uh took this oh what are they called oh it took a vacuum sealer put um my clothes in a vacuum sealer with like some clean clothes and just vacuum seal it up and that was for the flight home for the flight. That's the only times I changed my clothes. You discovered kind of a hot tip while you were up there about how to prepare for an early morning wake-up call. Can you explain that hot tip to people? You just sleep in your clothes, keep your rain jacket and rain pants

hanging up outside with your hat. And you just step out? And you're ready to go. You're already dressed? Yeah. That's a good idea yeah the comedian hitch hit Mitch Hedberg had an idea that he was gonna get his clothes made out of blankets so when he laid down at night he's already there you go for bed Rosemary miss my

last question for you buddy ready if you had to what's your favorite thing about the fish shack and what's one area that you could see for improvement at the fish shack my favorite thing about it is here come up here and say it yes just like you're eating ice cream cone okay my favorite thing about it is you eat ice cream cones that far away okay my favorite thing about it is um salmon fishing okay and what's the area that you think could be a lot better about the fish shack maybe get a new little like outhouse like house thing so there's not so there's not so many spiders oh spiders in the outhouse. Okay.

And Jimmy, I got one more question for you. Seth's A-frame there, Seth Kelsey's A-frame. What's your take on that place? How would you rate the amount of work they did on that place? I would say they did 9 out of 10 on getting everything ready. I'd say that when they got there, it looked like a grizzly bear took her two cubs and destroyed everything in that house. And then it hadn't been touched for five years, which is... Grizzly bear part didn't happen, but the other part did. That's what it looked like

and they got it whipped into shape they made it look really good alright guys I appreciate you guys coming and giving us a download one last thing and then I'm all done you guys can go about your business you came in here and sat right in that seat

and you and me told a story about a thing that happened to us where we had a real close call. What did you think of that? Do you think people should check that out? Yeah. A lot of love went into that podcast. All right, you guys can run along.

You guys are great. Dad, why didn't I get to tell my turkey story? You said I would. Why didn't you get to what? Tell my turkey story. You guys are great. Why didn't I get to tell my turkey story? You said I would. Tell my turkey story. You said I would. Oh, you want to tell a turkey story? Yeah. Rosie, also, you were eager to tell

a story about something that happened to you. Yeah. Let her rip. Let's hear it. I want to hear it. So we were in a turkey hunting stand because we were turkey hunting in texas at my dad's friend's place and um uh there was like a bunch of turkeys that came along and my dad was like oh that's a bearded hen and i was like cool so then um my brother was like oh i want to shoot it i want to shoot it and brother was like, oh, I want to shoot it. I want to shoot it.

And I was like, well, I want to shoot it because you got first turn on wild pigs. And I got first shot on turkeys. So I took a very long time to aim. But then I shot it. It was bearded hen. Yeah. What's mommy's new nickname? Bearded hen.

Oh, no. All right, buddy. You ready to go? Yeah. That was a good story, Rosie. See you, Rosie. Bye, Rosie. All right, we are not in Alaska.

I point that out only because we were supposed to be in Alaska. Yeah, but why didn't we record in Alaska? We're sadly not in Alaska. Do you really want to know why we're not in Alaska? Because we had to come back and record a podcast? You guys are having too much fun. Because Seth left a day early, and when i went looking for him i couldn't find him so we're recording back in our studio is that a true story it's seth's fault i i was there for

like 14 days and he knew no listen i when i got there i said just so you know, I have the podcast kit. And he was like, yep, we'll get to it. While I was waiting to build up experiences. I took that as he will come find me when it's time. And then you let the clock tick out and then left the day early. Steve decided that it was time to record after

you were gone. Well, we were out of time. I went looking for them. Couldn't find them. Listen, it's tough to find the time for that kind of stuff up there, Corinne. Long days. There's a lot of stuff that needs no downtime. Seth and Kelsey and then Kelsey's brother Kelsey's here Seth's now wife

That's a great wedding isn't it When I got up and did the wedding Yeah you did a good job A lot of people still talking about it These two are married now They bought a shack Next to our shack And what I think is endlessly funny

Is that When I was up there bought a shack next to our shack. And what I think is endlessly funny is that, uh, when I was up there this June, I looked up and something seemed different. And I realized that the entire front porch had fallen off of the house. Yep. And crumbled into the yard. It's funny because when we bought the thing,

we had made all these jokes about how it would be great even if it fell over. Oh, ha, ha, ha, even if it falls over, it's a good idea. And it actually kind of fell over. Yeah. It's rough, man. I do want to talk to you guys a little bit about shack ownership. Yeah.

Which I want to get into in a little bit. A couple things to get in up top. Then we've got a whole bunch of stuff we're going to cover. Brody, you got a grizzly report and a wolf report? Yeah, I can do both. You got a doll sheep report? I crossed out the wolf report. That's alright.

Lots of news to cover off on. First though, up top. Corinne, have we already dropped the story, right? Mm-hmm. Cam Kirk Connell's on last week's episode. Yeah. That's my understanding. Mm-hmm.

But to reiterate, Campfire Stories 2. So we did, if you remember back, you faithful listeners, if you remember back, you'll remember we did an episode where we closed the episode with a story by Sam Laurie where it was called The Mud Puddle about a game warden in pursuit of a sociopathic elk poacher. And that was Meat Eaters Campfire Stories Close Calls. Well, the follow-up to that collection is out now, which is called Meat Eaters Campfire Stories Narrow Misses and More Close Calls. Well, the follow-up to that collection is out now, which is called Meat Eaters, Campfire Stories, Narrow Misses, and More Close Calls. And it includes lots of good stuff. So we got, I mean, you'll hear from the people involved, a couple guys stranded on an ice cake in the Arctic Ocean with a polar bear, a guy who had to shoot at his own friend to save his life a guy whose life was saved by his dog after he blew himself in the leg duck hunting

oh goes on and on geez it's got more blood in it than it's like a quentin tarantino movie the amount of bloodshed i have not listened to it yet and that's making me just what you said there is making me excited to oh the bloodshed isn't it it's like it's great it's like a lot of it but see here's the thing i like to point out it's called narrow misses and more close calls so it they all have happy endings yeah if it was if they had all died, I point out that it'd be hard to make the recording with them.

Indeed. Very hard. The other day, the kids like to, I don't know if you were there, the kids like to shoot 22s at the shack and they're supposed to

always verify that no one's in the outhouse. Not that the outhouse is down range, but it's like off to the side. Yeah. And Jimmy shot and someone yelled from the outhouse, hey!

And then he got in trouble. But then the person came out and said, if you kill me, I'll never talk to you again. What did Jimmy say? There was a near miss with starting a fire there. Oh, yeah. Jimmy's cousin singed all of his hairs. I watched that. It was harrowing.

The hair on his head? Or his... Basically was engulfed in flame. They were trying to use an accelerant to get a fire going. A lot of lessons were learned at the shack. People get in trouble. People get in trouble for various things.

I don't know. I'd be lying if I said people didn't get in trouble up there for various things. It's a safe space to learn life lessons. It looked like a special effect at a concert. So a lot of bloodshed, but happy endings. It's a riveting collection of stories. So we go out and we comb. We use our listener network and other places to find collections stories. So we go out and we comb, we use our listener network and other places to find

great stories. And one of the things we talk about in the collection is how many stories come to us from people's kids. People write in and be like, you have to try to get my dad to tell X story. And it's out now. It's called Meat Eaters Campfire Stories.

Narrow misses and more close calls. I don't know how many hours is it? It's a lot ofers Campfire Stories. Narrow misses and more close calls. I don't know how many hours is it? It's a lot of hours. What is it? Like six, five, six plus. Six hours of listening. It's a Penguin Random House audio original. The last one debuted on the bestseller list for audio.

This one is riveting. I think you'll love it, and I hope everybody goes and checks it out. I don't think we have immediate plans to drop another episode, to drop another story on this show, but refer back. If you're titillated,

go back to last week's episode, or whatever the hell. Go back to what was the episode called? Go back to if there's lead in the air, there's hope in the heart, and scroll to the end, or listen to the whole damn thing, whatever suits you. And listen to the story, the best shot of my life to give you an idea of what you will find in this audio collection. But you got a road trip, drive to work, whatever this thing is. It's like we kind of sweat it out over, you know, like a podcast, a little bit free form. This is it's like we sweat it sweat it out over you know like a podcast a little bit free form

this is it's like we sweat it out over every second of this thing it is very very carefully crafted um i'm sure you will love it if you go and check it out and give it a listen um also first episode of our new culinary show on youtube uh Kevin Gillespie, who a lot of people know from Top Chef. It's called Sabertooth. It's out now on our website and on our YouTube channel. In the first episode, Kevin hunts oryx in Texas with Jesse Griffiths. They do a big butcher project on the animal. They hook up with Danielle Pruitt to prepare meals from the oryx.

Following episodes will drop later in the year. The next one will include our beloved Clay Newcomb from Bear Grease and Bear Meat. And also, this series coming out coincides with a culinary giveaway. This giveaway runs to August 31st. So if you want to enter the culinary giveaway, go to themeateater.com. You can enter to win. It's a $3,500 value.

You can get a processing, so a meat processing and kitchen gear package that is curated and selected for you by Kevin Gillespie himself based on your cooking preferences and style. So this will include some assortment, agreed upon assortment of uh lem product lodge stob a cutting board a kudu grill etc so you go enter at the meat eater.com and the package has a 3500 value it's just it's a giveaway okay what it is though so you'll get on the phone with kevin gillespie, and he'll talk through your cooking preferences,

what kind of meat you got in the freezer and whatnot, and then he will pull together a meat processing and kitchen gear package curated for you. The package will include LEM product, Lodge product, Staub product, you get a cutting board, you get a Kudu grill that suits your needs, etc. Then, on top of that, you will get a one-hour long private cooking class held digitally. So it's like a remote cooking class, a virtual cooking class with Kevin Gillespie. Kevin will develop a recipe specific to the winner and what that winner has in their freezer. Cool package.

$3,500 value at TheMeatEater.com, and that is to celebrate the release of Sabertooth, our new YouTube series hosted by Kevin Gillespie, which is launching right now. All right, so we're going to move on now to something we've talked about a whole shitload on this show, and that is the now infamous, the famous Wyoming Corner Crossing case, where some hunters went from public land to public land and stepped over a section corner and got in trouble for having their shoulders having

passed through the air above someone's private property. And we followed this case exhaustively. So an episode, the most recent one, we touched on it a while ago and we had an episode called All Up In Your Air Space. More recently, episode 342, we had an episode called Getting Busted for Touching Air. In it, through our advocacy of these hunters who are fighting these civil and criminal cases against themselves, we've helped drive a lot of people to go to a GoFundMe site, which is a legal defense fund for these hunters. Okay.

As we covered when we had them on, so these guys are from Missouri. We had the Missouri guys out here in the podcast studio and did this episode with them. At the time they had finished up their criminal case. They were not guilty in their criminal case, but they have a civil case now brought up against them. And the civil case is going to get, the civil case could really help set the precedent for this. Because if these guys cross a corner, again, never stepping on private land, they're placing one foot in public land on one section. And they're placing the other foot in public land on the other section. In these guys' case, they actually used a ladder. One side of the other foot in public land on the other section in these guys case they actually used a ladder one side of the ladder was on public land the other side of the

ladder was on public land in the act of climbing over their ladder their body passed through some like corners of private airspace and that was criminal um of course what's at stake here is the landowner is very much wanting to have that landlocked public land all to themselves they don't want public they don't want the public on the public land because they can control access to it but what they're pretending is they're pretending that they're worried about this little piece of airspace for a half second that someone passes through it. For the civil case, the guys need and if you listen regularly to the podcast, we follow this and follow this. For the civil case, the guys need

get this, it's a big ask for everybody. We will go in and I feel like we'll probably take money out of our land access initiative. We should talk to Callahan about this. take money out of our land access initiative. We should talk to Callahan about this. Take money out of our land access initiative fund and kick in so we're putting our money where our mouth is and we'll do that.

These guys need another $35,000. They need $25,000 up quick, and they're going to need another $10,000 down the road. A friend of ours in Wyoming, Jared Oakley, who's helped keep the prize of the whole thing, has even offered up, like, they got some ideas. We've talked about maybe auctioning off the ladder. What's funny is one of these guys is a fence builder.

It's my favorite detail. He's a fencing builder. He's great, yeah. So him being intimate with fences made a ladder to get over the fence. We talked about making shirts, corner crossing ain't a crime, whatever. Doing a book signing event. He's throwing these things out. I suppose that would be me doing a book signing event in Jackson Hole.

Whatever it is, we got to raise money for these guys. It's an easier URL at the GoFundMe now, though. Yocorner.com. So Y, no, sorry, from the top. W-Y-O Corner. So W-Y-O-C-O-R-N-E-R.com. And that's where you can go find the GoFundMe site to help fund these guys' legal defense.

Now, what's at stake? What's at stake is this. There are multiple Western states that are pretty hazy about whether or not corner crossing is legal or illegal. In Montana, for instance, they recommend against it, right? And it's generally been widely understood to be not allowable. But the tide is turning and people are getting educated about this issue. It would open up millions of acres of public land.

Whatever happens to these dudes in court, okay, in this civil case, and they get fined or whatever, like whatever happens to these guys isn't going to change the law, okay? But it's going to, if they can prevail, it's going to really make people question trying to prosecute people for the practice. So this isn't like a U.S. Supreme court case is going to once and for all decide the fate of legal of corner crossing. But if they can throw the book at these dudes the way they have and put the energy and money into trying to prosecute these guys for crossing over a little teensy weensy bit of private property airspace while hunting public

land, the next guy is going to be like, I'm not going near that shit with a 10 foot pole because we already saw what will happen. It's like, these guys can probably pull it with the right legal defense. These guys can pull it together and beat the civil case. And it's like, it's like, it's, it's a, it's a slow battle that needs to be waged. This is a, it's a slow war that needs to be waged. It's a slow war that needs to be waged.

This is a battle in the war is getting these guys off of these charges that they're facing. It doesn't end it, but it goes a long way toward helping it. The next real big battle I want to pick up, and this is a big one, is I want to pick up taking on in my home state of Michigan. First, getting Sandhill Crane. Let me guess. Doves? That's the white whale. It's so stupid. First, step one

is getting a Sandhill Crane season for Michigan. Step two is the white whale, which is a Michigan dove dove season but first the corner crossing problem has to be addressed then fourth is getting wildlife management in yellowstone national park handed to the states of wyoming and montana and turning it into a wilderness area let's take care of all sunday hunting yeah i was gonna say let's let's tackle sunday hunting too and then a universal orange hat law used to be very anti-orange.

I think it should be a national, like, it's like an orange hat. An orange hat. That's what Wyoming does. Orange hat. Yeah. I'd be fine with that. Orange hat. During big game rifle seasons.

Big game rifle orange hat. I'm down with it. And I don't want to have the feds, like, I don't want to have the feds. That's a big government if it's a fed. I don't want to take that approach. What I want to do is come up with a case so compelling that the states willfully adopt it because they're like, no, there's an idea. Yeah, it'd be a hard experiment to run. I talked about this, but my kid got accosted ice fishing by a guy

who was mad at him because his dad thinks you should be able to hunt yellowstone i'd like to find that guy beat as well as little took us so if that's you let me know um in the end it'll be of the wyoming corner crossers it will have required it doesn't sound that it's like depends on how you look at it, it doesn't sound that bad. In the end, it'll be that it costs, so the three Wyoming corner crossers, their legal defense will have been about $26,500 per hunter. Yeah. have been about 26 and a half thousand per hunter yeah meanwhile the taxpayers of carbon county wyoming have footed the other side of the bill over something that they probably aren't that worked up about four on behalf of a out-of-state landowner you know what you should do you know

that show law and order we should have a media produced version of Law and Order. This would make a good movie. That's a good idea, Brody. You could do poaching cases. Do those usually end with shootouts? Isn't that the song? No, it's like courtroom drama. Oh, it's courtroom drama.

Yeah. That was great. Phil will just take that recording and make the yeah we've already got our theme song so big big heads up on that man

as much as people can do and like I said I'm gonna like did you make a note to go tell Cal that we got to, you know? I actually already just emailed the both of you. What did Cal say? Not yet.

I mean, I literally sent it one minute after you first said it or less. I'll put a bug in his ear tomorrow. And it's been two minutes since. Oh, he responded. Do we read this out loud? Well, read it first, then read it out loud if you like it. If he says, hell no. From his iPhone.

I'm not opposed to that. Would be well worth it to get the ball rolling. Oh, there you go. See? Good job, Corinne. Some great producing. Live on the air. Hey, folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. And, boy, my goodness do we hear from the Canadians whenever we do a raffle or a sweepstakes.

And our raffle and sweepstakes law makes it that they can't join. Whew. Our northern brothers. You're irritated. Well, if you're sick of, you know, sucking high and titty there, OnX is now in Canada. The great features that you love in OnX are available for your hunts this season. The Hunt app is a fully functioning GPS with hunting maps that include public and crown land, hunting zones, aerial imagery,

24K topo maps, waypoints, and tracking. That's right. We're always talking about OnX here on the Meat Eater Podcast. Now you guys in the Great White North can be part of it, be part of the excitement. You can even use offline maps to see where you are without cell phone service. That's a sweet function. As part of your membership, you'll gain access to exclusive pricing on products and services handpicked by the OnX Hunt team.

Some of our favorites are First Light, Schnee's, Vortex Federal, and more. As a special offer, you can get a free three months to try OnX out if you visit onxmaps.com meet. onxmaps.com meet. Welcome to the OnX Club, y'all.

Wildfire season just starting now. Holy cow, man. I just want to discuss the the two bits of alaska news um three million acres in alaska you know when you're trying to describe how big something is you always like you always talk about how it compares to connecticut or rhode island or something i get a little bit burned out on that. But they've burned an area the size of Connecticut. If you look at a map of everything in Alaska that's on fire, they have fires from everywhere from the,

if you imagine the Brooks Range line, from west to east and down, the whole state is dotted with fires, even one out in the Aleutians a ways. Southeast Alaska full of fires. Oh, my goodness. That little island. Holy shit. 530 of them.

530 fires cranking. There's probably more. This was like a couple days ago. A couple days ago. Yeah, there's probably more. Massive. My bro Danny was going, taking his boat to go mushroom hunting at a different fire and had to cancel because of new fires.

New fires were keeping him from getting to the old fire. Just cranking. That's crazy. I never like picture alaska burning that much i was one time hunting um on the north slope of the brooks range and we were hunting caribou and way off you could see this tundra fire oh really you know and it was cold as shit it was october snow ice and one day we walked over and you could just stand next to this slowly moving tundra fire.

It won't go out till the snow puts it out. You know, you can stand there and warm up real good, but you had to walk a mile and a half to get there, but you can walk a mile and a half over there away from camp, away from the river and go get warmed up as you wanted to be at the tundra fire and then come back to where we were camped on a gravel bar and freeze your ass. Wow. So it's like a mile and a half, half you know mile and a half to walk over there and get your hands warmed up yeah every time i'm up there it's just like raining so it's kind of hard to picture one of the things that's driving a lot of that fire is the the the beetle kill oh yeah right so they

had like the whole like you know the kenai peninsula was almost like denuded of of spruce right and so in a lot of places the fires are that beetle kill cooking off yeah that's what led to a lot of did you notice bad fires in colorado too did you notice going into catch can um a lot of their hillsides are turning brown nope i asked vance what he thought it was he wasn't sure he said it might be from light snowpack the uh oh really yeah apparently the cold temps will um freeze the roots got. I guess the snowpack prevents that. Yeah. I don't know. That's just, I don't know for sure, but.

In all fairness, Alaska burned. So here's the other years that Alaska on record has burned 3 million acre, like it had a 3 million acre fire season. Now the weird thing is fire season is just getting going. Right. So they're already at 3 million. They burned 3 million in 2005. They burned 3 million in 2004. season's just getting going right so they're already at three million they burned three million in 2005 they burned three million in 2004 they burned three million in 1990 1969 1957

in 1950 and that's when accurate counting of acres began so it's not like unprecedented it's not unknown but things are just getting started. A lot of fire burning. Oh, here's a good transition, Corinne. You didn't even build this in. The size of Connecticut has burned. The other day we were talking about Connecticut and we were saying, what do they call themselves? I just wrote that in the script.

You didn't say, oh, here's a cool transition. It says, speaking of Connecticut. Oh. Maybe we're on the same wavelength. The word is slightly different. I get that idea. I missed that part. So a few episodes ago, we covered off on mountain lions in Connecticut,

and someone wrote in about truthers and deniers. And we were talking about Connecticuters or whatever they call them. Two people wrote in. Was it Connecticutans? Was that what it said? Yeah, that was so good. Two people wrote in to say that what they're called is nutmakers.

That settles it. Apparently, there was a problem in Connecticut once upon a time where you take a little chunk of wood and carve yourself a fake nutmeg. For what reason? To then pawn it off on some unsuspecting person. And they actually had to ban the practice of whittling fake nutmegs to sell to people.

And they're called nutmeggers. My old man, here's a hot tip for you. My old man in World War II, he was, for a while, he was stationed in North Africa, and he said they made a lot of money. Smuggling? Nope. You get a carton of smokes. Oh, okay.

Did I tell you this story? No, no. You get a carton of smokes. The locals were dying for American cigarettes, loved American cigarettes. So my dad would say you'd get a carton of smokes and you'd pack it full of sawdust. And then you'd put two real packs on the end. And then when you stopped on the trains and they're being transported, you'd hold the carton out the window and haggle over the price.

And you'd haggle over the price of the carton of cigarettes until the train was ready to start moving, at which point in time the deal would be finalized. You would then hand them the sawdust-packed carton of smokes and take the money. And then you were like a bad person. You became a swindler. A swindler. Yeah. But he, I don't know how he justified it,

but he would tell that story like he's quite proud of himself. Well, just a swindler. Uh, yeah. Nutmeggers. Um, which is also apparently a soccer move.

What's the move? Hold on one second. You're asking Steve? Yeah, if he knows. If he knows that it's a... Or is that from the email? He goes on to say, I would note that nutmeg

not only refers to the aromatic spice but can refer to the act of passing a soccer ball between an opponent's legs to a teammate or oneself. Just found out my kid's going to play soccer in the fall. A little bummed. My condolences. Your fall's over. You know the Cam, how do you pronounce that peninsula?

I've never been there. I'd like to go there. Cam-chaca? Cam-chaca? I think it's that. Yeah, Cam-chaca. Cam-chaca? There's a vodka called that. Kamchatka I think it's that Yeah Kamchatka Kamchaka There's a vodka called that Russia's Alaska

It's a peninsula the size of California It has like steelhead runs I know that They got steelhead runs They got like grey hunting, moose hunting, brown bear hunting A helicopter This this was interesting, this was interesting because we just had it, we recently did an episode with a biathlete.

A helicopter being flown by a well-known Russian biathlete, Igor Malinovsky. Igor. You think it's Igor? Gotta be Igor. It's always Igor. Igor, listen, I like speaking ill of dead. Igor Malinovsky

was flying with a couple businessmen, one named Zoya and one named Sergei. July 16th. Sergei? How do you say it? Sergei. Sergei? Sergei and Igor.

Did you ask him? No that's how you pronounce those names Tell me again how it is Sergei and Igor Helicopter crash And then they found This is the crazy part They found the bodies way far away Consumed by bears

The bears Drug the bodies out of the helicopter mauled them and consumed them far away do we know that they were alive when the bears found that's my question it says it was seen to be a fiery crash it is here's this is a quote it is believed the corpses were dragged away mauled and eaten by wild bears that populate the region. One of the highest densities of brown bears on earth on that peninsula. An estimated 10,000 to 14,000 bears live in the peninsula. So that's about the population estimate for brown bears and grizzly bears in all of Alaska.

And they're placing that on a California-sized chunk of ground. Whoa, that's crazy. Way more than Western United States. That's nuts. Yeah. That'd suck to survive that crash and then get mauled by bears. Yeah, it would. Be stuck there immobile while they drag you out of the helicopter.

You're like, whew, survived that one. Then a big bear comes and kills you. That's the kind of story I wouldn't put in close calls. Yeah, you couldn't. You couldn't do it. Nope. I asked Paul Schomer, our guest, and he was on episode 327, a gold medal podcast, if he knew Igor.

And he said he didn't know him personally. He definitely knew of him. And then he said that the situation is classic Russia. You can't just be a helicopter crash. You had to involve a bear as well. So it's like a pretty dark ending. Only thing that would make it even more classic is involve a bottle of vodka. Yeah, maybe.

We're not sure if a bottle was recovered from the scene or not. Okay, Brody, hit us with the latest grizzly report. The latest This Was Bound to Happen report? Yep, Bound to Happen grizzly report. If you're not familiar, there's a very famous grizzly bear in the Jackson, Wyoming area, Grand Teton National Park area. Bear 399. Books written about it. Who's that photographer that made her famous?

Mangelson? Don't know. He's one of the guys that applied for it. Remember, they had to draw for grizzly bear tags. He drew and then wasn't going to use his tag. Oh, he was trying to draw it and then throw it in the garbage, if you want. Anyway, he was real worried about this bear getting shot. These bears are constantly in contact with humans in the Jackson area.

Roads get closed down for them when they're in neighborhoods, things like that. And what date did this take place on? Just a couple of weeks ago, it looks like. So mid-July. She had four cubs that she, basically they're raised to adulthood. They would be adults. She's going to get rid of them this year. So two years old, I'm guessing. And one of the cubs, a male, was killed by Fish and Game officials for 13 recorded conflicts, human-bear conflicts. And they finally had to kill that bear to keep people safe, basically. Are people having a total conniption about it um it's incredibly unfortunate photographer author and bear advocate tom mengelson said the latest incident um i'm sure down there but but that's the reality like i think a lot of people don't realize

how many grizzlies across the western united states end up being, you know, they like to say euthanized by Fish and Game officials. I mean, it's probably, I have no idea, dozens and dozens of bears end up getting shot by Fish and Game officials. So I'm sure people are working. Over a course of time, yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. But yeah, a bunch a year. Yep. Yep. So, and this one seems like it was just bound to happen. Fish and game officials, fish and wildlife service officials say they continue to ask for the help of residents and visitors to secure attractants around homes, rental properties, and businesses. The actions of those living and visiting bear, visiting grizzly bear country remain vital. So it's like, you know, typical stuff.

It's a, a fed bear is a dead bear kind of thing. Uh, moving on down to a, uh, someone wrote in needing advice on an ethics issue. This is, this is the thorn. This is a thorny one. Because it becomes like, it's like one of those places where legal and more, like legality and morality collide. Do you feel like it's not an easy answer for you? No, it's not an easy answer.

When I read this, I thought maybe for some people it would be. Well, like I said, it's morality and legality. And I'll get into it a little bit. This guy says, I have a question for the consideration of the podcast Brain Trust. In short, if you encounter a wounded animal of your target species, so that's important, a wounded animal of your target species while hunting, what would you do? Harvest it or let it walk away and wait for a healthier alternative i'll tell you uh i've done every variation um in the in the not so distant past

i have and i wouldn't now because i'm just more i i when i felt there was a moral issue that collided with a legal issue, I would go on the moral issue side. That's what I would generally have done in the past. I have in my day killed two mangled up deer while deer hunting that I did not tag. Mangled up meaning shot by hunters and wounded. One had been shot and lost and one had been hamstrung by coyotes and somehow made probably maybe in the water, right. Made it out to a little teeny Island.

And I found it on this little teeny Island, mostly dead, but not all the way dead, mostly dead. So my thinking was, um, it's going to die. It it's gonna be here dead uh and i shot it left it another time i was sitting there and i'm sitting in this bottom of this coulee like a more like a like a tight little box can you, and down comes a deer with her back ham shot out.

A lot of exposed meat, exposed bone, all packed with dirt. It didn't happen just like minutes. It was days, days old. Also, no way, shape, or form was it going to live. I shot that deer. So I didn't tag the first one i just shot and left it i shot that deer and crossed the line because i ate a backstrap off it but did not tag it we ate a backstrap that night i shot a wounded mule deer buck once and tagged it you did i did and i and i've done that we even did an episode i was hunting coos deer one time and shot a wounded mule deer buck once and tagged it. You did? I did. And I've done that.

We even did an episode. I was hunting coos deer one time and shot a wounded coos deer buck and then met the guy that had shot it. Yeah. He was still up looking for it. But he was just glad that I got it and I kept it. I tagged it because he had shot it three days prior. I think a lot of people take this stance that morally they're obligated to do it because they assume the animal is going to die this horrible death. But deer can survive some pretty brutal stuff.

Like back when I lived in Pennsylvania, there was a doe that was all had been shot on one of her front legs. And for years and years, she was in the same field same field you know across the street from my friend's house they called her of course tripod but like that deer got shot in the leg and lived for years and you know i think people just assume they're gonna die this horrible death yeah you know and the the incidences i'm talking about maybe there's more i'm not thinking of it wasn't gonna live right now i did it and it's like i i did that you can't do that if yeah you could kill it and tag it if you have a valid tag but you can't do it now my thinking evolved on it for like if i was in a similar situation right situation right now here's why i wouldn't i wouldn't because one like i might not totally agree with the law but i understand why it's there and i don't want to sort of like

take on i don't want to sort of like challenge the whole foundation of the regulatory structure by saying if you don't agree with it it doesn't matter yeah the second thing is is you'd be like if you see one has been shot by a gun you'd be like, if you see one that's been shot by a gun, you'd be like, well, that's not natural. Right. Or like humans did that.

Humans should finish the job. But then you're sort of saying that like, like hunting the, the hunting, the species is unnatural. Right. Just as coyotes might chew it up and it gets away. A hunter might shoot and it gets away. So now I wouldn't, but't but but but to be clear the

primary reason i wouldn't i wouldn't want to i don't want to like get fined and get in all kinds of trouble for doing it yeah just keep it and it's just like not it's like not it's not worth it enough to me and i get why they have it because it's like you're trying to limit um you know there's not a ton of room in that when it comes to like the tagging process and the regulatory structures and tag allocations there's not a it's not built in for a lot of like personal decision making yeah it's i mean you got to follow some pretty clear cut rules that are already confused. I mean, they're clear cut, but they can be confusing as to what you're allowed and what

you're not allowed to do. And if you don't shoot one, you know, you're not going to get in trouble for anything. You can always call your state game agency. If you have a cell signal. If you have a cell signal. I've heard stories of guys calling game Morton's about that kind of stuff. And they say, you can dispatch it.

I'll be there. Right. Make sure you're there when I get there. But like sometimes they'll give you permission to do that. That'll happen a lot with roadkill to our, you know, deer that are injured by car. Someone will give you permission to put it down. Yeah. The one that I've, so I've accidentally shot wounded stuff where i didn't know i was wounded and later found out i was wounded you killed a bear that had been wounded you didn't know i was

wounded the deer i shot i knew was wounded but i knew it wasn't wounded that bad like that deer would have survived they had been hit in the ankle bone and shattered its ankle bone but he was getting around pretty good i could see he had a weird little limp right and i and i got him like like realistically i probably wouldn't have got him if he hadn't been injured because he's just kind of doing a weird thing he's like crossing a hillside at a weird time everything about it just seemed like a little off like why he was where he was when he was you know yeah just seemed off but i could see that he had a little limp i didn't know what it was i got there i was like oh he'd been shot and then

not long after i butchered it here's a guy on a hill coming down my way and he's had spent days looking for it to his credit and he didn't try to contest my putting my tag on it he was happy as hell he just wanted to know it and finally put it put it to rest but that deer was totally fine like ate the whole deer no problem one of the things you get into like these other deer i'm talking about there's no way i would have like i ate a backstrap off one if i had to do it and then just put my tag on it i wouldn't have done it because i wouldn't have wanted all that compromised i wouldn't want all that compromised meat in exchange for what I could get, which would have been something better. Yeah.

And I'll point out, both the ones I'm talking about were does. But I was in a legal doe area anyways. Yeah, I think it just comes down to personal decision. There's no right or wrong, right? If you want to burn your tag on it, go for it. If you don't, you're not obligated to. Oh, here's another one of these narratives, little stories. I was sitting there with Yanni one time in Colorado.

You remember this? And I catch a glimpse of a buck coming. And all I see is he's got antlers hanging down around his jaw as i'm looking through the brush he's way off but here's a deer and i look and i can see antlers around his jaw and i'm thinking if he's got that many antlers around his jaw imagine how many he's got on top of his head so i said holy shit buck of a lifetime only to realize it was a little dinky buck who just got hit by a car. Got his headgear knocked off his head. And his skull cracked and his antler was hanging down around his jaw

and he had nothing up top. Yanni still teases me about me declaring him a buck of a lifetime. But we tried to go after him, but he gave us a slip. Yep. But he, I don't know what was going to happen to him. A lot of times those type of injuries, they survive. Mm-hmm. That's, yeah, that's the final bit for this listener that's writing in is like,

the final bit to consider is they can live through some crazy, crazy stuff. They can live through stuff you would never live through. I remember going to a deer process when I was a kid in Baldwin, Michigan, and this guy had not a coffee can. He had coffee cans full of broadheads that he'd pulled out of deer. Yeah. I shot a bull one time that had a bullet lodged in it, like in his back strap right next to the spine.

And I mean, it had to have been years ago. Yeah. I had that elk vertebra that's healed around a broadhead. There's no way that that elk wasn't limping for some period of time after that happened. Right. And some guy could have been like, I should put them under.

Well, that bull went on to live. Mm-hmm. So I'd put it this way. You remember a long time ago when we covered this thing where Florida was doing a mortality study on deer? and they were trying to advise hunters how to how to they're they're advising hunters on how to behave toward deer that are wearing a gps collar and they're saying don't shoot it because it has a g this they're like this is a mortality study we're trying to study what kills deer including hunters and they're saying to people don't shoot it because it has a gps collar but then don't not shoot it because it has a gps collar they're like

try if you can to do what you would normally do when you see a deer with a gps collar because we're trying to find out like what actually kills deer yeah so my advice on wounded stuff would probably be if it's like you really want it and it's wounded go for it but don't feel obligated to do it here's another one ready for another one says i sure could use your help in solving a marital issue my wife thinks i'm dumb i don't know she's right i need more information he goes on oh this is good for you, Pennsylvania boys. Growing up hunting in central Pennsylvania, I've grown accustomed to referring to animals with the same singular and plural name.

Sure. Because in many cases you should. One deer, two deer. Right? That deer, those deer. Yeah. One bear. Two bears.

Two bear. A lot of bear in those woods. He says, really? So he says, he goes, he says this. One deer, two deer, one bear, two bear, one dove, many dove, et cetera. I like to think that I'm consistent squirrel rabbit turkey fish you name it he goes to the same program in my opinion if it's multiple animals of one species the logical thing to do is to refer to them with the same singular and plural word

now he goes on my wife wholeheartedly disagrees with me and has taken to polling friends and family alike on this particular issue. The bear versus bears conundrum has become somewhat of a de facto party game at this point. In our ever-expanding sample size, one thing seems clear. No one has the answer and everyone's usage is different so in your expert opinions what is correct please tell my wife i'm not dumb thanks dan i'm with your wife i don't think it's like it's like it's not one thing or another well no it there's no consistency exactly i think it's a usage thing. I would never say, I know guys growing up,

they'd say I saw a two buck. Totally. Yeah. It's like a- I was going to say that. Very much like a, I don't know if it's regional or time oriented, but yeah, it's like a way people talk.

Yeah, and this fellow, Dan, and I grew up in the same county, probably. How do you know that? Well, he says central Pennsylvania. Well, and this fella Dan and I grew up in the same county. Probably. How do you know that? Well, he says central Pennsylvania. What the hell of a county? Center county. Center county. Oh, says two Pennsylvanians. That's about as central

as it gets. Everyone talks like he does. Yeah. I saw a two buck. I don't think that's right. I know people do it But I think it would be I would never say I saw two deers Right

From a grammar teacher's perspective It ain't right I saw one deer I saw a couple Deer I would say that I saw two deer I saw a couple deer. I would say that. I saw two deer. I saw two deers?

Yeah. I would say I saw one deer. I saw two deer. I saw a couple deer. I would then go on to say I saw one bear. I saw a couple of bears. I saw two bears.

I saw two bucks. I saw two does. But I only saw one deer. I saw two bears. I saw two bucks. I saw two does, but I only saw one deer. I saw three deer. Two of them were does. Or you caught one perch or you caught a mess of perch, not perches. Right. We used to joke about that. I'd like to return this purchase.

When you caught a perch you didn't want um yeah i in in central pennsylvania it's common to be like saw saw a few buck today a couple does is there actually an answer i think it's just like like i said it's it's grammatically yeah i think there is but regionally they'd be like, go to hell. This is how we talk. Yeah. I wish I could give the rule. I think that if you went to like Harold Bloom. Is he dead?

Not sure. Okay, you went to Noam Chomsky, who's actually trained as a linguist before he became an activist. You went to Harold Bloom and Noam Chomsky, who are both dead. No. Did Noam Chomsky pass away? Either way, you go to a linguist. He's hanging on. You go to a linguist.

I prefer Harold Bloom over Noam Chomsky. Noam Chomsky is a conspiracy theorist. Did you know that? He's still alive. He's a big critic of american exceptionalism and all that yeah uh that's different from i'm not gonna go to him i'll go to harold bloom uh and when you ask them i think they're gonna tell you that it's that it's it's that you saw one deer you saw two deer you saw one deer, you saw two deer, you saw one bear, you saw two bears. I agree.

But then again, there's a picture of, you know, a bunch of crabs on the wall and you could say, there's a bunch of crab in that bucket. That's a lot of crab. No, you can say that. You can definitely say that's a lot of crab. Yeah. See, it's not so black and white. You wouldn't say that's a lot of shrim. See, it's not so black and white. You wouldn't say that's a lot of shrimps. No, you wouldn't.

No. Forrest Gump might. You know what? Can you contact a linguist at some local university or something to find out? Yeah. Record them giving the answer? Yeah. Contact someone from Penn State university since central pennsylvania

do that if you can contact a linguist or a handful of them and record them saying what they think why what i'm saying is true is true guess who was born in pennsylvania noam chomsky oh he was uh one of my favorite quotes from my friend Matt Is I'm giving this for listeners so they can use it too Someone explained something to my friend Matt And he said I don't know why that's not true But that's not true Which I use all the time

Cause it feels a certain way There's no way that's true I haven't looked it up or anything but there's no way that's true. I haven't looked it up or anything, but there's no way that's true. So we could probably say this guy is not dumb, but he's not right either. Debbie don't think he's dumb. Okay.

We got to give him an answer. As far as I know, his wife's dumb. He's the one that wrote in, and he wrote a well-worded thing. I just don't think it's a matter of dumbness. I think it's a matter of rightness. His wife? She might be dumber than a stump. I don't know think it's a matter of dumbness. I think it's a matter of rightness. She might be dumber than a stump. I don't know.

She has a written letter in. You're going to get one after that. Hey folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. And boy, my goodness do we hear from the Canadians whenever we do a raffle or a sweepstakes. And our raffle and sweepstakes law makes it that they can't join our northern brothers. You're irritated.

Well, if you're sick of, you know, sucking high and titty there, OnX is now in Canada. The great features that you love in OnX are available for your hunts this season the hunt app is a fully functioning GPS with hunting maps that include public and crown land hunting zones, aerial imagery

24k topo maps waypoints and tracking that's right we're always talking about OnX here on the MeatEater Podcast. Now you, you guys in the Great White North can be part of it. Be part of the excitement. You can even use offline maps to see

where you are without cell phone service. That's a sweet function. As part of your membership, you'll gain access to exclusive pricing on products and services hand picked by the OnX Hunt team. Some of our favorites are First Light, Schnee's, Vortex Federal, and more. As a special offer, you can get a free three months to try OnX out if you visit onxmaps.com slash meet.

onxmaps.com slash meet. OnXMaps.com slash meet. Welcome to the OnX Club, y'all. Oh, speaking of grammar. Hot off the... I haven't seen one yet. Like, literally, Sam James just told me they're live.

Like, they hit today. Do you guys remember when a guy wrote in and we had a good laugh because he wrote in a letter about, it was like basically like sexual violence among turkeys. And it was a long letter that was all one sentence. Oh, yeah. That was great. Mark Kenyon was here.

And Mark Kenyon said, Mark Kenyon was in the studio. And Mark said, you ought to put that on a shirt. And that's what we did. My new favorite shirt. Inspired by episode 338, the biggest block in the USA. That story slash sentence gets a little dark, doesn't it? Oh, it gets real dark. It's violent.

All right. It's dark and violent. It's a one-sentence story. Get them while they're still in stock. It's one never-ending sentence about sexual violence among turkeys. It may be the best one-sentence story ever written. It involves necrophilia. Do you send that fella a free shirt?

A little bit of a gangbang. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're going to sign it. So we published his. It's everything you don't want your kids to get involved in when they grow up. All on one t-shirt. We published like the whole, his whole letter in a very small script on a shirt.

Which is called the Turkey Letter T-shirt. It's the Turkey Letter T-shirt. And it's like the most kind of horrifying letter we've ever gotten published on a t-shirt in very small letters but if you look carefully whether if you get a little reading glass or like a little magnifier or get real close to it you'll be able to read a story that is will curl your hair um yeah if you go on the website you can zoom into it and see it. Can you read the story if you zoom in? On the website, you can. This is just like a screen grab.

Yeah. Dude, I'm going to live in that shirt. Now, is there a picture on it? There's nothing better than having a shirt with a lot of writing that no one will ever know what it is. Literally no picture. Stephen and I had this argument. Because Hunter drew this really awesome little like small turkey cartoon

with the eyes X'd out. I think just the text is better. Steve wanted just the text, but I really But it'd be cool if it was on the front and the back because then someone behind you on the plane could read the story. I don't want them doing that. Because then they're going to think you're some kind of weird sicko.

You want to limit who actually gets to read the shirt. And when it's up front, you can monitor what's going on. Will you please stand still for five minutes so I can read your shirt? But if you're just blasting through the grocery store, people are going to be like, my God, I just caught a sentence and holy cow. I'm reading it right now. It's alarming.

Great t-shirt. The turkey letter t-shirt oh yeah available now right you can at the meat eater.com oh you can read the whole did you grab me one yeah where's they're not they're not we got it we got they're at the place that ships yeah yeah yeah dude i'm gonna live in that shirt but seriously everyone can read that passage if they just put their little mouse over the paragraph. They can read the whole thing. Wow. It should sell magnifying glass. It comes with a jeweler's lens.

And it comes with a stick so you can beat off people trying to read your t-shirt. Oh, Kelsey, here's the thing I got to ask you about before we get into your um your alaska experiences um heffelfinger wrote us a letter you donated just tell you tell the story um jim actually i had no idea that this was a thing until he uh pitched it to me but the western association of fish and wildlife, I think they have a... I think I spoke to that org one time. Did you? Mm-hmm. They have a yearly get-together, I think.

I think I spoke at that. Oklahoma City? No. No, I don't remember where it was. Well, maybe it moves every year. I think it moves. I'm not sure. But this year it was in Oklahoma City, and they had an art show as part of the event and it was a juried art show where people would send in

their pieces and it would be judged and then the pieces would be auctioned off to benefit the organization so he put that on my radar and i sent in three prints to the show and they sold for a bunch of money yeah they sold and um I actually won best show for, with one of my pieces, which is cool. It's a nice little resume builder. So yeah, all around great experience and I wouldn't have known about it if not for him. So. That's great. Thanks, Jim.

And he'll be on the show soon. Oh, we're having a helpful thing around pretty soon. Yeah. Yeah. I've never met him. Sounds like such a great guy. One of the smartest dudes on the planet, man. Yeah.

He was awesome. He was updating me on the event like every couple hours, sending me an email. Tell people about your gallery in Three Forks. Unless you don't want to tell them about it. No, I would love to. I like it that someone came in and asked if you were married to me. Yeah. No, but I married her.

Is that what you said? I was like, no. Thinking of somebody else. I get people in all the time asking about me neither. Like podcast fans and stuff? Yeah, yeah. The neighbor. Do they ever buy anything?

Yeah, all the time. Oh, okay. Well, plug it then. Yeah. It's funny because i actually i went full-time and as an artist after our alaska trip last year i had decided i had i set it up like this was real sweet i had decided that i was going to put in my two weeks at my job before we went yeah from ag from ag to artist that's what i called Yeah. But I hadn't told them.

So I went on the trip like just in the best mood knowing I had that in my back pocket. But anyway, I went full time last year and then in November we moved to Three Forks, the town of Three Forks, Montana. And in January I opened up my own studio and gallery there right off Main Street. So, and it's been great it's an awesome space and do people so people just come in and buy stuff yeah so do most days you make a sale yeah yeah i would say it's pretty consistent at least one every day it's nice because i don't i used to work from home um which i never realized how distracted you can get working at home so

everybody always asks me like is it distracting having people come in? Because I'm painting or drawing the entire eight hours a day that I'm open, but people can come in. It's actually less distracting to have people come in than it would be to just, like, work at home and, you know, go do the laundry or take the dog for a walk. It's go time when I'm there, regardless of whether people are in or not. Give people your Instagram handle so you can go look at it so they can see your art. Her stuff is mind blowing.

Thank you. It's K underscore Ray Artworks and Ray is R-A-E. Why did you come up with something so hard to remember? I don't think that's hard to remember. I couldn't use my last name. I was anticipating getting married at some point when I started my business. So raise my middle name. Made that happen.

Check. Seth said, yeah. He's like, if you didn't want to change your name, he's like, well, then let's just stay boyfriend, girlfriend. All right. That was never said during the time that I was deciding whether to change my name or not. That was only brought up after. Where he's like, well, I'll tell you what I would have done. Yeah.

He would have had it be Mrs. Seth Morris's art gallery. Catchy. So you're down there painting away. If they come down there, you're in there painting away. Yeah. It's cool because you walk in. It's two rooms. The first room is my studio so you walk in and the first thing you see is like me and whatever i'm working on and usually i chat with everybody that comes in and then they you

kind of continue on to the second room which is a gallery and that's where all the art is hanging i have originals and then there's a whole wall of frame prints and just prints. So it's a range of prices and stuff for sale. But you can kind of come in and chat with me and then you can kind of have your own little time in the gallery where I'm not like, you know, there looking over your shoulder. It's a nice flow. And you sell originals and prints. Yep. And I still do a lot of my sales online. I still have everything available there and I ship quite a bit across the country, but

it's nice to have the space where people coming through Montana can come in and come see the work and come see the work in progress. That's been a cool part of it. How many hours a day is someone yakking at you down there? It depends. It really depends. Like it's not even. I thought it would be more on weekends.

But it's just variable. I can't like say on average. I have a few frequent visitors. Is there typically someone in there or typically not someone in there? Typically not. Okay. Yeah. It's a nice mix.

It's enough for me. That kind of makes the day Typically not. Okay. Yeah. It's a nice mix. It's enough for me. That kind of makes the day go faster for me. Yeah. Do you keep regular hours? Yeah. Tuesday to Saturday, 10 to 6. Like a banker. Yeah.

It's like I have my morning routine and then I go in there and I'm open for an hour after people typically get off work. So that kind of allows. Do you have a gone fishing or a gone hunting sign that you hang on the doorstep? I just, when we went to Alaska, I said gone fishing. Close to like a second. Yeah. So tell people about the shack you guys bought. Seth?

So. The A-frame. The A-frame. A-frame Adventures LLC. So I'll go back a little bit. When I first went up to your place, um, that place was for sale and I came home and was like, Hey, Kelsey, there's this, like I told her about the whole trip, how awesome it was. I like instantly fell in love with that area.

And I was like, like uh there's this place right next to steve's it's for sale we should like check it out and she was like yeah whatever um really yeah i mean he showed me a picture of no connection to the area what you know and then i came up so and then last year she came up and got to actually experience the area. And she too fell in love with the area. So we came home. And it was actually her who was like, we should seriously start looking into this. And see if we can buy it.

So we couldn't do it just ourselves. Um, we couldn't afford it just ourselves. So we got a couple, um, buddies involved, one being her brother, Bob and our, our other buddy, Ben Levy. And, uh, they were like, we, we mentioned the, the idea to them that, you know, we're looking at this place in Southeast Alaska and it's not easy to get to and a lot of things about it. It's a pain in the ass. But once you're there, it's the best time you'll ever have. Those guys have never been up there, but they've watched the show and

seen what goes on up there. It it like took no convincing at all. They were like a hundred percent in. That's the kind of people you need. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why we thought of them. We had, they had been out to Montana for a turkey hunt the year before. So we had experienced like a camp setting with them and a hunting experience with them.

So we knew what we were getting into with that dynamic and it was great. They're like enthusiastic, willing to come up and do the work. We work well together. So it was kind of a no brainer. And we had tried to pitch it to a few other friends, at least one or two to, you know, spread out the cost, but it ended up being us four that were really in for it. And it's a great dynamic. how do you deal with the fact that like everything's rotten and kind of ruined and you'll never get it right you just have that's just oh there's a level of that i feel i mean let me know if this is right or wrong that you're just never gonna conquer right there's structural issues as far as like the rotting things go that we are fixing right away

um but it's the fish shack in a corrosive environment where you're not there all year to control so most things that we bought in our life up to this point have been in some sort of way so it's like wasn't a big shocker it's like oh yeah just something else we got to fix up we approach it like like the goal for me the goal would be that you had a place as tidy and durable and clean and neat as a coast guard station but that's never going to happen and like every year would be like the thing for me to, to enjoy the rest of my year, every year I have to know that our shack is a little better than it was last year. And I can honestly with a straight face say, as long as we've owned our place, every year we leave it in all ways. We leave it in better shape than it was the year before.

Like we've built on a little bit. We overhauled engines, like worked on this dock project, changed the plumbing. Like it's always a little bit better. I think you'll never get it right, but it's always a little better. The system you guys have is super cool and it works well because if you go to that place over time, you're able to appreciate the shit that was done three years ago or five you know what i mean like it's like there's it's always improving like you say and you know even as a visitor you learn to appreciate those over time yeah it's super cool going into it for me like there's only so many pieces of property up there right so my mindset was i don't care if this place falls down tomorrow it kind of did fall down a little bit in a little way it fell down but i will i didn't care if it

fell down tomorrow i just wanted to be able to lock down that area to eventually because i knew someday like i said even if it fell down tomorrow someday i'd be able, or like we'd be able to put a new cabin on that place. Yeah. So. Get your foot in the door. And I, I like, I like that aspect of it, that it's always something to be working on because it's, it's kind of like a project and I like

projects and we have already done in the one time that we were there altogether altogether so much work and such an improvement over when we first pulled up so like it's exciting to think about um over the years what it's gonna accumulate to it's interesting that you guys went out doing like the four owners and we did four owners and i think a lot of people look at that and think like man that's not a good idea for four people to pitch in and buy like a permanent thing like property yeah yeah but we have we just like haven't run into a problem with it and and the thing is we would never have done it if we couldn't have done it that way because there's a difference between

everybody coming up with 20 grand or like someone coming up with 80 grand at that time. Right. And no one was going to come up with 80 grand. Right. Yeah. I'm curious how, like, if you have any thing that has been a manage, from a management standpoint, how you do that, like from a group. Nothing ever. For us. So.

I was going to say for us, like the four of us have very different strengths that we bring to the table that are all necessary for this purchase. So I think it's going to, you know, be that moving forward, that dynamic between the four of us beneficial. Like there's really no overlap. We need each other to make this work. For sure. People get different areas. I think it's a great strategy people buying like hunting properties recreational properties whatever and we do it like someone's always working on a project like someone's always spearheading a thing

and you generally do it where you get everyone's like yeah that sounds like a reasonable idea um we this year we got like a whole new like stainless steel counter in our kitchen right which is sweet by the way and we had all bitched about the ply the rotten plywood one i was like i'm gonna find one so i found this dude who's welding and fabrication and catch can commissioned him to do it no i never shared the plans that anyone. Right. I arranged to have it delivered. No one would ever be like, that's not what I would have done. Like, everyone's like, great. Yeah.

And then we share the cost. And we have a lot of visitors, but the way we run it is like visitors, like gas pay for maintenance, like, like boat issues, maintenance issues, anything like semi-permanent or permanent, like we just share the expense. That's how we did it this year. We had three friends come up. It just makes sense.

That's a natural way of running that. Yep. Um, and what's nice about that is it's very obvious when you're up there, what the weakest link in the property is. So like that naturally becomes the next project. Um, you know, I, I don't foresee a scenario with our place in the next 10 years where it'll be like him and Han on what needs to be done. Exactly.

Yeah. That's one of the things I'm glad we've never run into the problem of is we've never had somehow magically or not. Maybe it's just the way it should go and does go. Or maybe we've got lucky. We've never had a person not be supportive of what the other people were supportive of. Everybody's always been like, yep, sounds good. Yeah. Our problem right now.

For a long time. Yeah. Yeah, our problem right now is we want to do so much, and we're just so gung-ho and enthusiastic about it that our list of things we want to do next year is a million things long. So we need to prioritize those. Because you bought up against the financial realities. Yeah, for sure. And the time limit. I mean, we're only able to be up there for a certain amount of time. So we did our whole shack this year.

We did a new counter, did everything in packs. Right? Next year, like the one thing I know is we're going to replace our on-demand hot water heater. But we didn't want to do that until we did everything in packs. Yeah. So now the next step, on-demand hot water heater, and then, you know, whatever else down the line.

Mm-hmm. Here's a question. How do you prioritize, like you're up there and you have all these things that you want to get done on the house work-wise, but then you also want to enjoy being there and go fishing and exploring and time with your family. Like, do you, does that just kind of fall into place naturally? It falls into place naturally, but we'll go into a summer knowing like we need to dig a new privy hole. Yeah. So dig a new privy hole. Yeah. So dig a new privy hole, move the owl house.

We're like, we definitely need to do this, whatever. And every year we get more done than we thought we would. Yeah. Do you ever leave wishing you would have just relaxed and fished more, had more of like less work, more fun? Yeah. No, we got the perfect balance. I would engage, I would jump into the exact same thing somewhere else. Like I want to do the same thing down in like Grand Isle, Louisiana, which is like the Alaska of the South.

Like I want to do the same thing down there. I would do the same thing anywhere. Not anywhere, but I'd do the same thing in really rich fishing environments. I would buy another shack with a bunch of people and just use, I should write a little pamphlet on like how to do that. Yeah. Or how we've done it with success. Yeah. Part of that pamphlet would be, you better plan on doing a lot of work. Yep.

Because. That's so much work. You tell people you're going up to your place for whatever a week. Oh, going fishing to Alaska. They're like, oh, that must be so nice. You're like, well, you know, it is. But like you're working nonstop. It's like not a relaxing fishing location.

It's not for everyone. We went to the bookstore in Ketchikan and we were asking about any literature that would be tied to Prince of Wales and she pointed out one author who wrote a book titled A Miserable Paradise I was like that sounds pretty good that's great yeah yeah it was uh the first year up there was awesome the so we've talked about in the past, but the porch fell off the place this winter. And that was like, that was like the first thing we did. Like even before we even walked into

the place, like we had four people just like pulling those boards apart and stuff. Was that the bonfire, big bonfire you had that one? No, that was the couch. That was the couch.

And the mattresses. And the mattresses. And the mattresses. And their bins of moldy clothes. Yeah. But yeah, my priority is get the place so it's not going to fall over and not just rot away. And get the boats running to a point where we can like depend on them you know and like after that it's just like kind of what you said pick a project every year and get it done but like yeah this and like this is remote and off the grid so you can't

go to the hardware store which is very frustrating oh so frustrating when you need something you're like dude i am one spark plug away from being set and i can't get the spark and we were oh yeah oh it's man and and like i'll point out that if we didn't have you guys there like we would have been screwed with a lot of shit just because like if i didn't have the right tool or whatever i just walked over to your place and grabbed it and made sure i put it back in the right spot. But yeah, there's like so many things that we were working on that was like, we just didn't have the right stuff to get it done. Yeah. And it's very helpful having you there that, you know, you guys have been established there for what, 20 some years?

Yeah, almost 20. But apparently you don't need the right stuff to catch 100-pound halibut, right? No. Oh, man. Yeah, we got lucky. My one frustration is the only thing in my life where the more I do it, the worse I get at it would be black cod fishing. Oh, you think you're getting worse at it yeah didn't you bring in a few i got one this year you've gone all in on that too i'm all in and every year it gets worse and worse and worse the first time i ever dropped down within like five minutes i had

a black cod caught a few that day then went out that summer and did real good. And it's just gotten worse and worse and worse and worse. What was going through your head when you pulled that one black cod up and took a good look at it this year? Oh, this year? Yeah. I was ecstatic. Okay. Because I like how cold they are when they're coming up out of 1,300 feet of water.

Didn't you say something about maybe it could be like a migratory issue? No, I just got worse at it, man. It's personal. I don't know though. I mean, the halibut fishing this year seemed way slower than normal. Way off. It was way off. Every year there's things that are good and there's things that are bad.

Yeah, I was going to ask you, did it pick up when it got warm after we left? No. No? No. Salmon fishing was lights out. Yeah, that was fun. The you, did it pick up when it got warm after we left? No. No? No. Salmon fishing was lights out. Yeah, that was fun. The halibut fishing was dead. Scallop diving, never been better.

Yeah. I mean, not that they've always been there, but. Shrimping seemed a little dead. Yeah, never been better on scallops. Crabbing was good. Black cod was miserable. Every year something's good, something sucks. Boy, it sucks letting those yellow eye go, man.

Yeah. Cut a lot of those. Can we tell the story, the hilarious story about the two giant halibut from our camp? You can close it out, but I'm afraid

you'd be giving away your little spot. No, no, no. No, I'm, I'm going to talk more about the people and the dynamic and our little dinghy

that we had. Go ahead. We'll close out with that. It's a close call story. It easily could have been. Seth, you were there, so I'll let you finish up. We were having...

When we bought this place, it came with three skiffs and three motors. One's a Honda 30 horse. One was a Mercury 40 horse. And one was a Suzuki four horse. Medley.

And that's the thing about these types of deals. When you buy something and you're not there to inspect, there's no inspection. There's no formal process. So you get the list of things that are on. Oh, they don't move out either right it is walk away you get all the shit and you don't know whether it works or not yeah so we went in i went into this being like if we can get at least one motor running and boat running to go fish i'll be ecstatic so we're going through our motors we find out that um the mercury wasn't gonna i mean it's it

was running and then it wasn't running we couldn't figure out what's going on so we determined that that thing wasn't gonna work for the summer and then we had uh honda 30 which fired right up and was running like a champ but the um there was a seal on the hydraulic cylinder that was leaking. And we leaked all of our hydraulic fluid out of the electronic tilt. So, um, we couldn't tilt our motor up, which you need to be able to do that. So that one was out and all we had left was our little Suzuki kicker four horse. And we put that on a, it was a Sears boat, a 16 foot Sears boat. Yeah, genuine Sears boat.

I have no clue what time. It'll sign out, it says Sears. Yeah. It looks like it's been through the wringer. No clue what year it was built. Oh, that is an old ass boat. Yeah. Moss hanging off it.

Yeah, it looks like shit. So we couldn't go too far in it. So we would pack four people in the evenings and go out to this one hole um and fish halibut and i think it was the first night we were out there yeah it was yeah yeah the first night we were out there halibut fishing um our we had uh our one buddy sam and his becca or his girlfriend becca were up there with us and we were catching like quill backs and stuff and i was teaching him how to use like the deep release and whatnot and um she like and i was very adamant and like you are like when you're running these

circle hooks because we were we were just just running some circle hooks and cut bait. And I was like, when you get a fish, it's not like normal fishing where you set the hook. You just got to reel into them. So she, at one point in time, starts getting this hit. And I'm sitting there watching her rod. and she's like, what do I do? And I just, it got to the point where I was like, real. So she, she starts real and, and you never think it's going to be some big ass fish. You know, there's always the, the opportunity for that to happen, but she starts real on and you can tell very quickly that it's not just your average little halibut or rockfish or yellow eye,

you know, whatever. Um, and yeah, she fought it for a while and it got to the point where she was like, couldn't fight it anymore. So she handled the boat all over, pulling the boat all over.

Yeah. We didn't have an anchor. There's four people in this little Sears boat. We didn't have an anchor. So it was pulling the, the boat all over the place. And finally get it up to the surface. And we didn't have a harpoon or anything.

We had a gaff and a rope. And my buddy Casey gaffed it. And as it was coming up, I was telling Casey, I'm like, when that thing gets to the surface, you're going to have to gaff it. And I said, when you gaff it, just fricking hold on. Cause it's going to go nuts. And I have this video of him doing it. Then comes to the surface. We're all like, holy shit. Like we were not expecting this huge halibut. He gaffed it. Thing goes nuts. Um, he ends up, it ends up coming on gaffed several times. Uh, luckily kept it on the hook. Um, we were able to get a rope around its tail and we, um, you know, when it finally

settled down, I bled it out. So it died before we brought it in the boat. Cause I was telling him like, do not bring that big of a fish in the boat still alive. Cause everything in the boat is going to be out of the boat. You if that's things in here flopping around you're going to break an arm or whatever this sounds very calm there's a video it is complete and total chaos yeah um so yeah finally got it uh you know we killed it in the water and brought it in the boat and putted our way back to the cabin and we're we were like so excited to get back and show you guys that night because no one was expecting it. That was 117?

That one was 113. And then the next night. It was the next night, I think. I wasn't there for the next night, but those guys went back out and caught a 133 in the same spot so amazing so awesome two biggest fish of the whole trip oh my god a lot of people pounded a lot of water two biggest fish of the whole trip they they were just beyond ecstatic they left and she was like becca she was like i need to do this every year you need to invite me every year. Do you guys remember the first night when you brought that big one back, what Steve said?

It'll never happen again. Yeah, but also a lot of people were saying that the big one's coming twos. Yeah, I said, I cited five times where we've caught two giants in the same spot. You were right on that. That's hilarious, Brody. Well, you were right and wrong then. All right, guys, go, what's the name of your gallery?

I call it the Studio Gallery, but you can find it on my Instagram, which is krayartworks, and my website is krayartworks.com. Kray, so K-R-A-E, Artworks. Go check out the work. Get your turkey t-shirt. And listen to Cole's calls. And then donate some money to the

Wyoming Corner Cross. It's getting expensive around here. Yeah. Donate some money to the Wyoming Corner Cross. Buy a shack in Alaska. Find some people and buy a rotten shack in Alaska. I don't know. All right, dude. Buy a shack in Alaska. Find some people and buy a rotten shack in Alaska.

I don't know. All right, everybody. Thanks for joining me. Hey folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. You might not be able to join our raffles and sweepstakes and all that because of raffle and sweepstakes law, but hear this. On-axe hunt is now in canada it is now at your fingertips you canadians the great features that you love and on x are available for your hunts this season now the hunt app is a fully functioning gps with hunting maps that include public and crown land, hunting zones, aerial imagery, 24K topo maps, waypoints and tracking.

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