The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 397: Don't Nočakarēt Christmas

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

Steven Rinella talks with Janis Putelis, Brody Henderson, Seth Morris, Chester Floyd, Hunter Spencer, Hayden Sammak, Phil Taylor, and Corinne Schneider.   Topics include: Drinking with your parents when you're underage; which states drink the most?; MeatEater's Fancy Pants Christmas Cocktail, featuring Desert Door sotol; reinterpreting, "Baby It's Cold Outside"; Song and Dance Phil performs "It's The Most Wonderful Time to Kill Deer"; Phil and Hayden's duet; how not to be a surface shitter when the ground is frozen; how to deal with popping while ice fishing; the final authority; a Hot Tip on no TP: psyllium fiber; Jani practicing his Latvian; Diana, Goddess of the Hunt; pursing the raccoon dog; how everyone's using thermal vision in Latvia; don't shoot the shovel; when Jani nočakarēt-ed big time; beware the through wind; super broth measured in units of love; and more.  MeatEater's Fancy Pants Cocktail recipe by Kevin Gillespie: 2oz Sotol Blanco (get your Desert Door sotol here) .75 oz Sercial Madeira .75 oz fresh lemon juice .75 oz Hibiscus Syrup 3 dashes Orange bitters  Shake all ingredients together with ice, strain and serve up (martini style) garnished with an orange peel and a sprig of rosemary.  Hibiscus Syrup 1 cup sugar  3/4 Cup water 1 Cup hibiscus flowers 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half 1 whole star anise pod 3 whole cloves Peel of one lemon  Bring all to a boil and then allow to steep hot for 30 mins before straining and cooling. Connect with Steve and MeatEater Steve on Instagram and Twitter MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop MeatEater Merch See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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. You'd be eight years old right now. And as long as your parents... Put this in the podcast, Phil. Start over.

Start over. Everybody, Chester, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody. Everybody, Chester, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody. Chester. Everybody's here. Chester was just starting to tell something, and I thought it was so interesting sounding that I thought that everyone should hear.

Yeah, so Wisconsin is like the state for a lot of drinking, a lot of drinking going on. But as a kid- Are you sure? I'm sure about that. When I was in Wisconsin- Is there a lot of drinking going on in but as a kid... Are you sure? I'm sure about that. When I was in Wisconsin... Is there a lot of drinking going on in Wisconsin? No, I'm going to do states with highest alcohol. The truth about

Wisconsin drinking. I heard when I was in Wisconsin this year for rifle season, I heard that there's more brandy consumed in one county of Wisconsin than in the rest of the country. One county. I wouldn't put it past them because they like throwing it in an old-fashioned.

Like a brandy old-fashioned sweet is a popular one. Chester, you're right and you're wrong. Okay. Number eight. Number eight. There's 50 states. What's number one? New Hampshire.

Really? Really. Live free or die. 4.67 gallons per person. Delaware, 3.52 gallons per person. A year? Small states. Nevada, number three.

That makes sense. 3.42 gallons. Montana's number five. So you would have to start your story by saying something like, Wisconsin What did I say? With less drinking than where we're sitting now. What did I say? But still quite a bit.

Still more than 40 other states. Yeah, eight out of 50 ain't bad. I guess what I mean is people like to drink. Eight out of 50 ain't bad. No. Go on. People like to drink there and i don't i think this is legal don't quote me on this but it happens all the time when but you're quoting

yourself because this is this is recorded this will exist until the internet stops. Yeah. Well. Go on. Right? Don't screw it up. Right now, if you're like, if it's okay with the bar and the bartenders, if you're in a bar with your parents, let's say you're eight years old and they let you have a beer. And as long as it's okay with your parents and you're with your parents and the bartender's like yep give them miller you can drink hmm here's the problem with story like that is that it can't be true usually you just say you don't say no it's like it's so easy to find out if that's true or not it'll just take a second yeah google it but i think that it was illegal but i think that's

just how you were brought up. No, it is true, and I know why. There's no drinking age if you're with your parents. Because Kyle Rittenhouse, the dude in the Kenosha thing, there was a big story that he was seen in a bar with his parents drinking beer despite being underage. So that makes it. Because his folks were around.

How does that make it true because it was observed yeah but i could observe you stealing my shit and that wouldn't make it no no no it wasn't like he was observed doing something like illegal it was like this is a thing that happened and then the story i believe had an amendment amend them addendum it saying, you can do that in Wisconsin. Hmm. Hmm. Again, love it. Who's on Google?

It's just so easily solvable. Yeah. I'm trying to get there. Brody's good at researching. No shit. Yes. Persons under age 21 may possess and consume alcoholic beverages if they're with their parents. Hell yes.

That's a great law. I look like a schmuck. Chester, you were right all along. Yeah, wow. I figured I was, but I am saying stuff online where it'll be around forever, you know, just like you said. So with Kyle Rittenhouse, someone pointed out like, well, here's what I'll tell you, and they somehow made it pertinent.

I don't understand what nothing merry christmas what uh so that was just i i can't remember what we're talking about chester well we were just talking about drinking oh and uh what are you making there crin crn's making a not Christmas drink. It's a very It's pretty Christmassy. It's a Kevin's Meat Eater Fancy Pants Cocktail. It's got hibiscus syrup in it, which

hibiscus is a flower that folks from the Caribbean make a beverage out of with cloves and cinnamon called Sorel. I've had that. So it's make a beverage out of with cloves and cinnamon called Sorel. I've had that. So it's like a Sorel syrup with lemon juice, Madeira Circial, which is a port fortified, like dry port wine from Portugal.

And the main ingredient is satol from Desert Door, which is a distillery in Driftwood, Texas. We went there. We went there, yep. And the beverage's name is satol, which is the same name of the plant. Satol. Satol, which is the same name as the plant.

It looks kind of like... Looks like agave. Agave, yep. These dudes, can I say a quick word about these guys? No, take it away So Their satole is from wild satole It's not like

They don't grow it in an agave Farm or plantation They go out to big ranches They'll go out and strike a deal with a rancher And clear like some percentage Of the Satole on a place. That's cool. And then they ferment that shit and make that Satole. Oh, it's good, man.

You like it? Oh, yeah. I loved it. It's real good. That was fun. Remember they made us all that food? Oh, it was great. So, yeah, Jesse Griffiths

Was associated He's got some of his Food That was the day I snuggled baby orcs Yeah, right, that was a big day We did a lot of things Saw the Satole place We did a lot of things

We had like an adventure day Texas tour It's kind of like that when you go down there with Jesse We did a lot of things. It was like a, we had like an adventure day. Texas tour. It's kind of like that when you go down there with Jesse. Yeah. He wasn't with us though. Oh, he wasn't? No, not.

Yeah. We like just missed him. But so Kevin created the recipe for this cocktail. I'll put it in the show notes. And if you guys want to try it, you'll have all the info there. And, uh, Desert Door actually just, uh, made their web shop live. So it's basically just shopdesertdoor.com and they're a really cool distillery. They're really interested in conservation. They have a nonprofit wing called Wild Spirit Wild Places.

Since the Cital is wild harvested, they really, you know, it's important to them to keep the landscape healthy so this wild plant continues to grow. Great. Delicious cocktail, Kevin. Guess what state drinks the least?

The more you think about it, the more you'll get the answer right. It's got to be someplace with dry counties, right? Utah. Yeah. Good work, bro. Listen, you know what? Trivia channel. Those guys stick to their guns.

And he's smart. Remember when I was naming all the drinking amounts? Okay, so 1.35 gallons of alcohol consumption per capita. That's 1.35 gallons of alcohol consumption per capita. That's 1.35. As opposed to the winner at 4.67. Five times as drunk in that state. Where's Pennsylvania sit on the list? I'm curious.

Somewhere in the vast middle, man. Because this goes to number 10, which is South Dakota. And it has a little tidbit they throw in the least. Yeah, that's because it's hard to buy beer at gas stations in Pennsylvania. Oh, Chester, this will help your story, buddy. What city drinks the most alcohol? Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Vegas. Nope, Wisconsin. Vegas.

Nope, nope. Madison. Kenosha. Green Bay. Green Bay. Wow. 26.5% of the drink of adults in that place, by definition, drink excessively. Most of it happens on the ice or on the water.

Or a Lambeau Field water Or a Lambeau field Or a Lambeau field, yeah Well guess what state drinks the most beer? Mississippi In New Hampshire Really? They're drinking 41.5 gallons of beer per person Per year?

And the king of beers is their favorite beer. I thought it'd be a warm state. Oh, this is surprising. The Christmas podcast gone out. No. Here's one you'll never guess.

There's a lot of people that are drinking right now listening to this. No one in this room will guess this. No one in this room will guess this. No one in this room will guess this. Come on, try us. Bring it on. What state drinks the most wine? No one will get this.

It's not going to be California. I gave it away. You're right. I should have said everyone will get it. California? Are you serious? It's not California. No one's going to get it.

Indiana. Delaware. Okay, hold on. Yanni? I'm going to go to the wrong room. Yanni? Washington, D.C. Seth?

That's not a state. Oh. New Jersey. I don't know. Hunter? Virginia. Corinne? Washington State.

Phil? I'm going to say Florida. That sounds like a weird choice. Oh, no. That's a great choice. A lot of old people. Yeah. Old wine drinkers. Oh, yeah. That is like a weird choice. Oh no, that's a great choice. A lot of old people. Old wine drinkers. Oh yeah.

That is good, Phil. Minnesota. Aiden. Connecticut. Brody. Nevada. People with wine cellars in Connecticut. High dollar. Idaho. Nowhere to go there.

Nope. Listen to how low it is. It's surprising. So Idaho drinks the most wine per capita, but they're only drinking 1.21 gallons. They're only drinking 1.2 gallons of wine per person in Idaho. A year. But in New Hampshire, they're doing 4.67 gallons of beer per person. I guess it makes sense because it's three times stronger

everyone in new hampshire yeah i'm like uh every like every single person in new hampshire no per night that's an average it's like how many bush lights do seth and i have on a weekly basis when we're working in the garage no Here I want to play something for people. I'm probably the only one that remembers this. I'm the only one that's old enough. You know the guy sitting to your left you're constantly calling old.

Oh. No, he's off the ageism thing. Oh, that's right. I forgot. Sorry. I got to call him HR. HR came out. I forgot. Sorry. I got a call from HR. HR came knocking. I was like, Brody, it sounds like you. Nope, this is HR. Lay off, Brody. It's Christine. I just got a cold.

Brody thinks it's funny, but everybody else has had enough. He's a good sport about it. But other people are really getting upset. Crying themselves to sleep at night. Okay, who remembers this? It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Nothing brings back warm holiday memories like the songs and carols you love. And only Time Life's Treasury of Christmas brings you all your favorite holiday songs in one collection.

Dude, I watched that thousands of times on accident when I was a kid. Do you remember that? You watched the commercial? The Time Life. Okay, it's a long story. Do you know that? You watched the commercial? The time-lifed... Okay, it's a long story. Do you know about this? I mean, I feel like I remember what you just played from my youth. Okay.

Okay, Hayden has single-handedly... Have you done all the lyrics? Dude, I've created a monster. Yeah, I did. Hayden has single-handedly rewritten every Christmas song to have a hunting and fishing theme. Oh. Every one. Every one in the canon.

So many. Broad strokes. That we're, that we're, so many that we're making one of these commercials with, we're making one of these commercials. We're making a time life, two CDs or two, whatever, cassettes of all the rewritten holiday songs.

Oh, that's great. It's distressing to me. You haven't heard any of this yet? Briefly, but I didn't know you guys were going that far into it. If there are any listeners to the Wired to Hunt podcast, you've definitely heard it. Maybe too many times. I'm not. No, I'm not going to do it. I'm just a cheerleader. All I did

in it was I told him that he has to get some female vocalists because it can't just be the same two people singing all the songs. That was my input. Because my favorite one is, you guys still didn't take my advice on it. You're going to do it? Maybe it's cold outside. Yeah, and it's a risque song.

It is. I don't know how it's still in the holiday canon. Well, it's been. It's been canceled. No, it hasn't been canceled. They're trying real hard. Like, Michael Bublé and John Legend have re-recorded it with unproblematic lyrics. And it's not...

I mean, it's really bad. Oh, thank God. But, like... Because there's a guy. It's a Christmas song. There's a guy. He has a female guest. She would really like to leave.

He's discouraging her from leaving and saying, just have some more drinks. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely skeevy. But I think we can let the song exist and acknowledge that it's skeevy without recording eight new versions that are terrible. I'm not looking to cancel that song. We just need one new version that's hunting related. I'm not looking to cancel that song. We just need one new version that's hunting related. I'm not looking to cancel that song. However, it was brought up when we talked about

doing it. It was brought up that I was like, okay, someone brought up like, but you're kind of like goofing on, what are you guys having a side deal about? We're working on, we're going to add to this conversation. Okay.

Okay? It's going to be okay. It was brought up how the song has become like kind of a joke, right? It's like a, it's a, you know, this guy's trying to,

this lady's trying to leave and he's like, no, you know, it's very cold outside. Stay and have some more drinks. You know? That happens in Wisconsin all the time,

but there's no malicious intent. Just 13 and 14 year olds? No, no, they're like, no. It's the third most state where that happens. There's no malicious intent. It's like, no, no, have another old fashioned, please, let me make you another one. And they're like, no, but I gotta go.

You're like, it's cold. They're like, okay, I'll have one more. It sounds so charming when you use that accent. They're like, it's snow and wait're like, okay, I'll have one more. It sounds so charming when you use that accent. They're like, it's snow and wait for the plows come to clear the road. There's no malicious intent at all. Oh, I got one for you. Do you know what? You know, I know we're in the middle of a story, but I remember reading states that have the most hypothermia.

And there's a surprise in there. Like Arizona? It's like, it goes like Alaska, New Mexico, Montana, or something like that. Was that a trivia question? No, but I have a theory about it. Well, I don't want to get into my theory about it. Anyhow, so

after we're done, I'll do it. When Phil turns the machine off. So, so the Cold outside song Someone He redid it Hayden rewrote it Where it's someone wants to go home

From hunting But someone's Forcing them to stay And I was like well it should be like a well, it should be like a, you know, it should be like a guy wants to stay hunting, but his wife wants to go home. And everyone's like, yeah, sex it. So I'm like, whatever.

So now you guys are going to do it. Okay, well, I'm going to do a quick pause. This is how cutting edges show us. We have a same-sex couple. We did, in fact, have Austin from Accounting. Serious break aside from the podcast. Austin from Accounting did come in and sing the song. Oh.

She's not here right now. Can I hear a little taste, a little teaser? I just have the raw files. I haven't put them to music yet. Okay. She's a really nice singer. So we can either play. Well, you know what i said to

my credit to my credit i said okay have it be the woman wants to stay and the guy wants to go home which is isn't that what we did hayden no oh okay i was just saying i don't care how you do it i don't care what the dynamic is i just thought like a duet should be a man and a woman oh so you're more like on like the the ethos of a duet less the ethos of the content of this song i just feel that when i'm listening to a duet it should be a man and a woman of this nature yes yeah i don't care who's on what side a little johnny and june carter sure yeah i don't care who's on what side if it's two guys singing i don't count it as a duet no it's kind of a harmony at that point.

Two dudes can't do a duet. Yeah. Yeah. You got the most wonderful time to kill deer queued up? I can. Okay, so they did the whole, how long is it going to take you to find it? No, we're going to do it. We're going to ease into it.

For instance, the most wonderful. Okay. We're going to ease into it. For instance, the most wonderful... Okay. For instance. For instance. What's that Christmas carol? The Most Wonderful Time of Year? Yeah, something like that. What is the name of the song?

Alternative title. Wonderful time of the year. Yeah. Classic. Well, Hayden rewrote it as the most wonderful time to kill deer. Play a snippet. Boys, Hayden rewrote it as the most wonderful time to kill deer. Play a snippet. Boys, good to see you. Hayden, it's been a while.

Hey, sorry I'm late. I crashed my Pontiac Aztec into a light pole and had to walk the rest of the way, but I'm here now. That's what matters. Give me a glass of scotch, please, Hayden. Just two rocks in there. I don't like ice. We're starting already.

This is happening. Okay, give me the glass. Thank you. Okay, here we go. We're starting already This is happening Give me the glass, thank you It's the most wonderful time To kill deer With the rut now just starting And dashing and dotting And veins cut and cleared It's the most

Wonderful time To kill deer There's far too much ice in this glass It's the most wonderful time to kill deer. There's far too much ice in this glass. It's the half-happiest season. All right, so there's that one. Oh, no, no, right. Stop now. There's got to be at least 12.

Well, I want to go through the whole catalog. Weeding and cold fronts and sleeting the last weeks of fall. It's the half-happiest season of all There'll be pictures of us Stinging and bragging and boasting In truck beds with big bucks in tow There'll be narrow mist stories And tales of near glories

Of Booner bucks missed with our bows It's the most wonderful time to kill deer. Not just one, maybe two. There'll be no dose of blowing and luminox glowing and blood trails so clear. It's the most wonderful time to kill deer. Hey, excuse me. Can I have a napkin, please? I just spilled some scotch on my loafers. I can't have dirty loafers in the studio.

Thank you. Tailgate beers for drinking and big bucks for slinking and chasing and scent-checking does. They'll be fighting and scraping and no more escaping An arrow shot through hitting home Key change? What? No one told me that! It's the most wonderful time to kill deer I was very unprepared for this There'll be much mourning sitting in cold fronts

A-hitting the dawn crisp and clear It's the most wonderful time Oh, the most wonderful time Yes, the most wonderful time To kill deer guilty There's too much ice in the glass Two rocks! Woohoo! Woohoo!

Way to go, Phil. That's amazing, Phil. I've got a lot of questions and comments. It's called Treasury of Christmas. I'm really in the spirit now. I'm like, I'll kill it. I'm fired up. But my question is, is the character

that you're playing that's singing that, is that Sinatra? I was going for a Rat Pack thing. Yeah. There was no one specific. Okay. Okay. More drinks are being poured. Everybody likes the drink. That's the unfold picture.

All right, hit me with the other songs. What else is on there? So we're going to do... That's the only one that's completed. All the other ones, Hayden and I have recorded a couple and we're recording more either today or tomorrow. Okay, do the duet. So is this going to be like a legit CD?

It's going to be a joke commercial. It's going to be an ad for a CD. But you can't actually buy the product. That was great. Will the full song be available at least to listen to on Instagram? Yeah, for sure. I know you don't like things that go viral,

but that's going to go viral. So when people hear the commercial and they hear all the songs... I mean I know you don't like things that go viral But that's gonna go viral So how you guys gonna So when people hear the commercial and they hear all the songs Yeah Hayden wrote out He didn't write a so he wrote a full version For Most Wonderful Time to Kill Deer And then for the rest of the songs he just wrote kind of like 30 second snippets that you would hear in a time life

Commercial you know it just kind of does the montage thing So we're not gonna have full songs Of everything. But who's got the damn list? Who's got the list? I mean Hayden wrote the list I've got the list in front of my face. Hit me with a couple. We've got OK, We'll Go in 5. That's what we're going to do right now.

OK, we'll go in 5. That's one of the ones that's not done. You guys are going to do it together right now. We're doing it live! Which of you guys is playing the um Who's playing the person that wants to go? Phil is. Phil wants to go.

Is that the first person? Yeah, you're the first person. I'm in the parentheses here. Phil's the guy that already killed. So he's like, I go out with Hayden. I'm a way better hunter. That is true. So yeah, I already notched my tag.

Okay, so this is playing off of... Play a snippet of the song, Phil, just to remind people what it is. Didn't have that queued up. I'll play it. I think it's got it right here. Here we go. I really can't stay But baby it's cold outside I'm about to go away

But baby it's cold outside This evening has been Been hoping that you'd drop in So very nice I'll hold your hands They're just like ice The buzzer will start to ring Beautiful

We probably shouldn't play this much copyrighted music on this. Fade that out. Yeah, we're talking about it. We probably shouldn't play this much copyrighted music. Fade that out. Yeah, we're talking about it. It's cultural commentary. Yeah, commentary, review. So there's that famous Christmas song, which has become less famous by the second.

Okay, now do you guys' version. Okay, so Hayden, I'm going to come in at a weird time. So I'm going to play the song. You know, that song, though, I just realized she comes by his house. Yeah, man, this is a great look. What's that? So it's a great look. Keep going. Well, no, imagine that he showed up at her house. Yeah, that'd be

weirder. She'd be like, you really can't come in here, man. No, I know, but I mean, it'd be even weirder. Foot in the door, yeah. I'm not saying it's good that he's doing that, but I'm saying I just never caught, I'm pointing out, I never caught that she had come by his house.

That's right. I want to make a joke and I won't. Okay, Hayden, you ready? Yeah, sure. So what are you doing for musical accompaniment? You're just playing off

a karaoke machine? He's going to home. So what are you doing for musical accompaniment? You're just playing off a karaoke machine? Brody's gonna hum. Yeah. Go. I really can't stay. Okay, we'll go in five. I'm done for today. Okay, we'll go in five. This whole time I've been.

We just need some wind. Just cold as fuck. Just five more minutes. I think I hear a duck You said ten o'clock But it's almost noon They'll come back To water soon I'm hungry

And I'm cold And I'm bored Baby just five minutes more I'm done for today But okay we'll go In five Okay, we'll go in five. Way too high. There's got to be more to it than that.

Well, it's only for the... Yeah, imagine these all stringed together for the commercial. That's all that's along. Oh, you guys didn't write any more than that? No. That's all you've been doing. Maximizing efficiency. That was great. So is it out now?

Even though like Because there's a weird time travel thing happening here Yeah it should be out now If it's not I'll cut this out You guys are filming the final parts tomorrow Thursday You're filming the final parts on Thursday Whatever it is go to my

We'll have it all around It'll be at my Instagram At Steve in Rinella Time like treasury of music go to my it'll probably be we'll have it all around it'll be at my instagram at steve in ranella time like treasury music speaking of christmas uh in a lot of places it's cold at christmas and the guy wrote in um pointed had an interesting thing to point out and i thought about this the other day uh in the winter time and how to not be a surface shitter in the winter i was thinking about this recently but then where i dug down i went up kicking down a hole through the snow and dug down and i was down into pine duff which is totally fine in the winter

but not everybody has that luxury ground is frozen how do you not be a surface shooter? Find a rock. Rock's frozen in. Not all of them. Okay. Check around. Fight it off for a few hours.

Yeah. Try to hold her off. That's not a real answer. Come on. What do you guys think about on the ice, though, when you're ice fishing? Hold her off. That's not a real answer. Come on. What do you guys think about on the ice, though, when you're ice fishing? Well, I see all the time where people try to drill a hole, lay a deuce in there, but they can't get it.

It just is in the hole. Then it just freezes in the surface of the hole because you've got to figure out how you're going to get it over, down, and over. That's a shitty fishing spot. It's kind of like because you got to figure out how you're going to get it over down and over that's a shitty fishing spot it's kind of like you got to sink the cake like you do when you're cutting a yeah but it's not easy to do no it kind of goes against the the spirit of not polluting water sources too even if even if you do get it because you're not even talking about going by a lake you're talking about like going in the lake. I'll point out, I have never actually done that. I have. I always go up towards shore.

I've had to. Not towards shore, on shore. When you're out on like Lake Winnebago or something, way out there. You guys go into the hole. You just have to. Well, I drill a hole halfway through. Oh, make a little bucket. And just get a little bit of water coming up so it'll freeze.

Because you can poke the bottom of your auger so there's still slush. And then it freezes over. It still kind of sucks. Because once you get a lot of people out there, think about all the people pooping on the surface of the ice. Well, then wouldn't you use like... Yeah, then you're drilling holes into someone's frozen turd. Yeah, wouldn't you use like... Well, no one's going to re-tap your hole. I'm never going swimming in Lake Winnebago.

But then what about... You know what? Lake Winneceptic. What about Steve's technique, like pooping from the video, like pooping in the Ziploc bag, and then if you're in an ice shanty, like and it's cold,

it might freeze. But that's the... You know what the problem with that advice is? What? It's great advice, but people aren't going to do that. Why not? They're not going to carry poop around.

It's like the same way when you go to an area where certain river stretches, monument stretches, you're supposed to bring your poop out. And you go there, and it's just bombed with poop. A lot of people aren't going to do it. It's great advice, but you also, it's like a little bit, I have to look at like, what are people really going to do it. It's great advice, but you also it's like a little bit, I have to look at like, what are people really going to do? And I think that for most ice fishermen, for you to suggest that most ice fishermen bag

it and haul it out, is I feel it's great, but I think it's unrealistic. Well, they carry coolers out there. You can just have a shitload of coolers. You could bring one of those bucket shitters that they use on river trips. You know, I didn't

know, but I personally have a very close friend who just has one in his truck because he'd rather go that route than pull off the side of the road and run into the woods and deal with digging a hole or flipping a rock. He's like, yeah, I just got a bucket bag here, shit

in this bag, and the next time I stop by to see a dumpster, there it goes. And so I hear what you're saying. I feel that he has a control problem. He is, I think like a lot of people, a person that certainly defecates more than once or twice a day, especially, it's just, it's a thing. I think it's pretty normal these days in the United States.

But I'm shaken up by how genius chester's idea i'd call it vaulting one yeah what picture you got 18 inches ice yeah but you're thrilled no hear me out you got 18 inches ice gross hear me out listening you're not giving me time because this this is gonna i'm to verge into microbiology here. Okay. And perhaps a microbiologist can write us in. You got 18 inches ice. You tap down 15 inches and make a vault. Okay. Get all that shavings out of there.

Okay. Defecate. That means, you know, if you guys know that word defecate down in there then pack the shavings back down on her you vault it because i feel as though in that extreme scenario the microbes won't last it's a death sentence maybe so but we need to confirm with a bona fide what is that stuff they put on solo in carbonite carbonite yeah or get a block of carbonite i still think a bucket's a better option than dropping shits into a lake yeah but i hadn't thought of that just something about it seems so tidy like like if you did what

if you did a hole and then and then ice caked it you'd kind of be thinking about uh an under view looking up and it's like later that night laying in bed you'd be thinking about what you did if you vaulted one, like I'm talking about with this half hole situation, laying in bed at night, you'd feel that that was a tidy little remedy. Okay. But let's say you do that.

Let's say you do that. You're like, no one's going to find it. Let's say you do that March 1st and the ice starts to rot the third week of March, but you know, it's still fishable and you're out there and. I'd have to hear from microbiologists. no, but I'm saying like that stuff would slowly start becoming exposed And there's three Rinelli kids running around

And they're like no they always somehow end up in a hole No, I think I think there is But I Think there is a better option with like a bucket. How did you get mud out here on this lake? I think there is a better option with a bucket or something, but sometimes like you just got to go. And the last thing that you should do is go on top of the ice because then your teepee is blowing over, which you see on Lake Winnebago.

You'll see teepee flying across the ice all the time. Jeez. Because there's that many people out there. But I think it'd be hard-pressed to get somebody to do the Ziploc or the bucket. A lot of times when you're dealing with ethics questions, it comes out to, it's like, I love them, but it's like, what should you do? Yes, you should have a bucket with the bags. You can go down to Sportsman's Warehouse, any sporting goods store, and who even makes that bucket?

Oh, you can buy them any. It's just a snap-on toilet lid on any five-gallon bucket. It's a five-gallon bucket with a little snap-on toilet lid, and you get these little baggies. It's like a gray heavy duty garbage bag Ziploc. And it's got a magical powder in it. Yep. And look, like, yeah, it's inconvenient, but it's worth being inconvenient.

Like, I don't think we should be making excuses because like, oh, well, you know, it's hard to poop in a bucket. Like, fuck it. Bring a bucket. Oh, that's a great slogan. That's a t-shirt. I know. That's a t-shirt in a bucket like fuck it bring a bucket oh that's a great slogan i don't think we should be giving people an out flipping jigs flipping j Jigs at Doc's Slip on her pist, he says we're catching his fish It's public water, it's for everyone Go ahead and call the game warden up Flippin' Jigs, Flippin' Jigs, Flip Jigs at Doc's

With large mouth they hide and the bait fish swim by Lunkers in shadows suspended on logs fill the live well with hogs 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 orstakes, and our raffle and sweepstakes law makes it that they can't join. Whew. Our northern brothers get 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 on X 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 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. onxmaps.com. Welcome to the OnX Club, y'all. What kind of fish will barely fight? Wally are the fish that will barely fight. What kind of fish are overhyped? Wally are the fish that are overhyped.

Overhyped, barely fight. Must be walleye. Must be walleye. Must be walleye. Brody, when you go ice fishing though, right now, you probably don't bring a bucket. No, we go to shore. We go to shore. Small enough lakes. Well, big lakes we go to shore. Yeah. But I mean, I'm carrying a bunch of other stuff, carrying a bucket.

I'd say, I bet 90% of ice fishermen have a bucket. Chester, I was an ice fisherman when you were glinting your mama's eye. And let me tell you something. Never shat on the ice. That's impressive. Ever. But you're thinking about shitting in it. I mean.

Now that Chester turned me on to that idea, I'm intrigued. I don't like going on the ice, but there's been a couple occasions when you just got to go. So grab the auger rather than going on top and do that. Yeah, like let's say you put it like this. Let's say someone came, let's say a godlike figure came down and said i'm gonna you better go you better defecate on the ice right now i'm gonna kill you in that situation i think vaulting it is better than surfacing definitely you'd be like let me get this clear on the ice or in the ice that's my favorite story from the old testament it's like it goes from the Old Testament. It's the ghost of Christmas back.

We're just trying to encourage large-scale good outdoor pooping habits. Do you guys know? Okay, we've... You know what's appropriate? Okay, it's weird. I was going to make a joke I shouldn't have made. Deuteronomy. Okay, we've covered this on the podcast before, but I'm going to re-cover it.

Deuteronomy 23, 12 to 14, from the good book. This is not a joke. Deuteronomy 23, 12 to 14, in the good book. You shall also, I'm quoting from the Bible, you shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there, and you shall have a spade among your tools. And it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn to cover up your excrement. Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you,

therefore your camp must be holy, and he must not see anything inde enemies before you. Therefore, your camp must be holy and he must not see anything indecent among you or he will turn away from you. Final word. Huh? It gives me all kind of... It gives you the chills. No, it doesn't give me the chills.

Okay, what's't give me the chills. Okay. What's it give you then? Just. Come on. I don't know if it's time for this, but it just seems to me that like, man, that'd be a good thing for a dude to write in a book if he wanted to keep the masses clean and tidy with rules of all sorts of things. So not hitting. Oh, so you're saying one of the authors was like, you know what I'm just going to throw in here because it drives me crazy.

Well, yeah. Not only does it drive you crazy, but it kills a lot of people makes a lot of people sick in general these people are a bunch of you know dirty whatever yeah i don't know what are you saying no oh what i was adding to the notes a food additive. is a soluble fiber that comes in Metamucil. But if you actually buy like a whole container of raw psyllium fiber and you take much more than is necessary, your poop will come out kind of like halfway between Jell-O and like a sausage casing. Great.

And you will probably not need TP. That's. I encourage everyone to go try that. Lay that bad boy right outside of Brody's shade. I wonder everyone to go try that. I wonder what the side effects of that are. No side effects at all. It's just like a natural

soluble fiber and it absorbs water so it comes out. It really does case her up. For example, I've given it to my dog. He has diarrhea for example like i've given it to my dog uh like he has he has diarrhea for example right so he's like maybe no no no just like he you know let's say he had diarrhea and so it might like be coming out real watery if i give him a lot of psyllium fiber

and he like happens to have an accident inside the house it comes out like a soft gel encased sausage and i can just pick the whole thing up and discard that is that just like is that fiber is that what it is it's it's it's it's like i don't know how to describe it okay so chia seeds if you've ever had chia seeds soaking in water, they become gelatinous on the outside. So your poop will come out like that. So would you ever be so concerned? Like, would you ever do that to make your backwoods clean up?

I've totally done it. It's great. That's another thing that the masses aren't going to do. I'm not kidding. You're like, I need a dozen waxes. Psyllium fiber. I promise. I promise.

In a 12-pack of Mick Oldridge. The guy checking out says, go on ice fishing? Here, you're going to need these too. I promise. Go on ice fishing with Brody? It is life changing. It is life changing, guys.

You can just order it on Amazon or get it from your health food store. Tell me the name of it. Psyllium fiber. P-S-Y-L-I-U-M. name of it psyllium fiber p s p s y l i l i you get this psyllium fiber you just go you pick up put in your pocket no toilet paper is this like is this i feel like you can't right no i'm saying oh but when you go you just like pick it up and throw it on the dash. I put a bunch of tablespoons or kind of like a half cup or more in a little Ziploc bag. And it's kind of tasteless. You need to chug water or a beverage with it really quickly.

If you wait for, I don't know, a minute or two, that mix with the liquid will like jellify. So you want to get it down quickly or else it'll be difficult to like consume it. Is this like a thing like through hikers? Is it a thing, known thing people do? Not that I know of. I may have invented it. Corinne's just dropping hot tips. I'm serious.

We may have invented it. We should put like a medical disclaimer in here right now. One time I joked about how Doug Duren was the one that transferred COVID to deer through Buckman juice. And then we got a warning. We got like a COVID misinformation warning. That is funny yeah it's just like some some like ai thing was like oh covid deer pee yeah let's put the warning up i do want to say one thing that this whole conversation brought up to me though that i never thought about too much before was there

there's 12 000 people on the ice on lake winnebago for open for sturgeon spearing so that's like a serious thing like how much of an impact like i'd like to see the science dph dukes per hour yeah i mean what like let's say you take half of those You know it's multiple days Let's say half of those people Have to go out on the ice Not anywhere near that Let's talk about it like this You put 10 people on the ice

10 people go ice fishing So now you gotta figure They're not all doing a 12 hour jig Right Some are gonna be doing a 1 hour, they're not all doing a 12-hour jig. Right? Some are going to be doing a 1-hour jig, some are going to be doing a 12-hour jig. So, 10 people, and then you've got to average out that they're

all good for a 5-hour jig, let's say on average. How many of those people are going to drop a deuce that day? I think one. I think one. I think one. Because this conversation has me thinking about, since I don't go on the ice, I'm like,

have I spent my whole life holding it back on the ice? But I haven't. So it'd be like 2,000 poops a day on Lake Winnebago. PPDs? Yeah. 2,000 PVDs. Yeah, but a lot of those guys are in shacks, right? Yeah.

They probably have little toilets. They might. So remove the one of them that has a toilet in the shack. Well, if you think about it, those shacks, they have holes in the floor that are typically a majority of the hole in your floor is a big cutout in the ice. Do you think they're sinking the cake on them? Some of them are. I bet some are sinking the cake in the hole, but it's like,

I don't know, how thick is it? I bet it's hard to get a turd. I wonder if there's any fetishists that go down there with scuba. I bet it's hard to get a turd down under the ice sometimes. Yeah, it depends if you've got a floater or a sinker. Let's move on. You can adjust that with diet too, though. Let's move on. Yeah, it depends if you've got a floater or a sinker. Yeah. Okay. See, well, you can adjust that with diet, too, though. Let's move on. Yeah, that's...

So you get them chia seeds. I don't think ice fishermen are very diet conscientious, man. This is my favorite new dynamic is Steve being really curious about, like, fetish stuff and Yanni being very uncomfortable. Because, you know what? Oh, no, I'm bored. It might be like skunk smells are first Anyways, moving on It is a lot of

family friendly Christmas content It's a lot to unpack It's something to think about It's a lot to unpack If anybody blows their nose today just leave the Kleenex in the middle of the table I'll clean up. Wink, wink.

I got you. It's a lot to think about. Great question from a listener. If you got a question, write in. That was quite inconclusive, but sounds like everyone needs to get some of them bags. Come Brody bags. I was going to add, the reason I got to thinking about it and i mentioned it to corinne is because i was out the other day deer hunting in very cold conditions in the snow and i got to

the point i was saying man i'm just it's gonna have to happen and i did the same thing you did i went beneath the snow didn't find pine duff but found ground that was not frozen insulated by the snow and and it was pretty much like it could have been september and i was taking care of business no big deal that's great good job thanks yeah i'll share one little thing i no this is this is like uh this is like if you're at a deer camp or somewhere for an extended period of time. Dig a hole that is big enough for the whole week. Yeah, your own private hole. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I encourage people to do that. I dug down through the snow. It was like 10 below at night. It was cold. But I dug down through the snow, dug a hole for the week. Seth's little hole. I didn't have to worry about trying to dig holes, you know, in other places all throughout

the week. It just happened. Yeah, I've done that and then put a cap rock on top of it. Yeah. Well, the big plug I pulled out from my hole froze. It like froze and then I just set that back on top when I left. Sure. Holding it was actually one of the most convenient things I've done in a while.

We were hunting in eastern Montana. This is going to wrap her up. Yeah. Go ahead. Please. I held it for a day, went to stop at a campsite and used one of the toilets there. And there was a CWD check right there. So we got my girlfriend's deer tested while I went and used the bathroom.

That's great. Yeah, that was pretty good. Cold weather hot tip. All right, you ready to talk about Latvia? I think we got that covered. Don't say fuck it, grab a bucket. Yeah, I'm trying to find a segue to... Latvian plug.

Latvian plug. I got a segue. There's a thing called a Latvian plug latvian i got a segue there's a thing called a latvian plug it's a thing that will happen to latvians yanni's latvian as everyone knows and chester chester and latvians will find sometimes that when they're on the road traveling uh they'll they'll form a plug and it'll take him a couple days to get sorted out. It's called the Latvian plug, named in honor of Giannis. Giannis, as we've explored, Giannis is Latvian. He was taught to speak Latvian. He went to Latvian school.

He went to Latvian summer camp. The only thing he didn't do was go to Latvia. Until? Until he just went to Latvia. Of all things, hunting in Latvia. Until? Until he just went to Latvia. That's right. Of all things, hunting in Latvia. After I met Janus, to be honest with you,

if you had me list all the countries I could think of, I'd have gotten way down the page. I don't think I would have thought to put Latvia down before we met. And not long after we met, I'm looking at a newspaper and I see about a bunch of Latvian ice fishermen stranded out in the ocean because they were fishing in a bay and the whole bay is where the ice floated out into the ocean.

And I was like, oh, so it is a place. It is a country. I wouldn't be surprised if we've increased the world's not knowledge, just awareness of Latvia by a considerable percentage just through this podcast. Oh, I'm sure. Because still half the people I think I talked to, or if I said I went to Latvia, they're like, huh, where's that?

Seriously, never heard of the country. But now that they know the Latvian Eagle. Yeah, there's at least 10 more people. When you went to Latvia, did they know that you were the Latvian eagle. Yeah, there's at least 10 more people. When you went to Latvia, did they know that you were the Latvian eagle? Or they just think you're the eagle? And is there eagles in Latvia? Oh, I should know the answer to that. Probably golden eagles.

I don't know. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. They're a circumpolar species, aren't they? Like goldens? The other day. I don't know. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're a circumpolar species, aren't they? I don't know. Like goldens? The other day, I saw.

A couple people have. The other day I saw my first stuffed golden eagle. And I said, I don't know if you're supposed to have that. And he goes, trust me, listen, everybody brings

it up. It's very old. And here's. He'd heard all about it. So. Yeah. It's like you go to a sushi joint and you say, have you ever seen that movie,

Hero Dreams of Sushi? And they're like, dude, please. Six type of eagles in Latvia. Oh, thanks, Chester. Yeah, there's a golden. So, yeah, the way that my contact, my host there, Linda, she... How'd you find Linda? Come on now.

Linda found me, actually, through Meteor, watching Meteor on Netflix, and then I don't know if it was an episode that I might have been a guest on, or she saw my name in the credits. She's like, that's interesting. That name looks pretty Latvian you

know and she's that right and then she continued to watch and was like he's got to be and then she reached out and said what um just love the show and uh do you want to come on my podcast she has a podcast yeah the only uh hunting podcast in the Latvian language. Seriously? Yeah. So that wound up being, but you have family there and stuff. Yeah, like second cousin type family. Too distant. Yeah. Like distant enough that when I was there on my first trip to Latvia, I did not visit them.

I'll probably hear about it when I go back and do visit them. But, yeah, I was actually advised not to because not just my family in particular, but generally families. Oh, is that me? Oh. Generally people when they have foreigners that are family come over, they really want to show them a good time, really want to give them a tour of Latvia, and sound like they will schedule your whole trip

and you're not gonna have a lot of extra time and i couldn't really have that you know because we were really working for most of the time i was there what uh what did you find latvian hunting culture to be hmm latvian hunting culture let me think of another way of asking it. Focus that question a little bit more. Um, is it, is it fringe? Not well understood,

you know, a few people off in the boonies or is it, or is it like very well, is it very woven into the culture um i'd say it's probably similar percentage wise as to to here i think those are approximately 20 000 hunters in latvia and there's about a million um 600 000 inhabitants 20,000 inhabitants. 20,000 is to... Out of 1.6. 20,000 is to 1.6 million as X is to 100.

No, I could figure that shit off. I had like a pen and paper and a calculator. It's woven into the culture enough That there's some anti-hunting Is there an anti-hunting movement in Latvia? Yeah, a little bit You know They're Tell people where Latvia is, that's probably smart

That's a good place to start It's on the Baltic Sea Which is 1.80 It's 1.25 Yeah, 0.01 It's like 1.80 1.80 is 1.80 It's 1.25 Yeah, 0.01 It's like 1.80 1.80 is 1.25

Okay, so If your numbers are right It has the participation rate I think Better than New Jersey and California For hunting participation Okay, there you go As you'd expect in California for hunting participation. Okay. There you go. There you go.

Um, as you'd expect more so out in the country than in the city, when you're in the city, we had to drive out of the city to find a hunting store. My baggage got delayed big time, like three, four days. So I had, I needed some clothes to hunt in. So we went out to a hunting shop and a very well appointed hunting shop.

Like when you go in there, you're like, oh, I can get kitted out and go do whatever I needed to go do. You know, hiking boots, rubber boots. I mean, you know, they had a full wall of hunting boots and all kinds of nice guns and fancy tactics. They had a gun counter. Yeah, yeah. What's gun ownership like there? Tricky. Very, very tricky.

For one, you got to wait a lot longer age-wise to own one than you do here. I'm going to not have the numbers exactly right, but it's approximately like 18 years old only for smoothbore. Basically, you can own a shotgun at that point. Rifle, 21 years of age. So you can own one. I don't know if it's annual or maybe biannual psychological um testing by the police what yes interviews like go in sit down have an interview with a cop and they're like you're cool. You can still continue to own guns.

Hmm. Yeah. Lots more paperwork. Just a lot more waiting time. Processing. There's another federal agency that you have to go through as well. To have basically the license to own weapons. But you didn't have to do any of that interview stuff.

No, I basically, I had to have a sponsor that said that while he's using a weapon in Latvia, he'll be under my supervision. And then I also had to prove that I had, that I owned guns and that I used guns here in the States. So I came up with one of the forms that we all fill out at Schnee's to get our guns transferred over one of those, and then just a hunting license. And that was enough. Do they, do they all use suppressors out there? I heard that that was a big thing in your. Most. Yeah. Yeah. Like if here, it seems like it's one in 10 of us now have it where it was, you know, zero in 10, five years ago, there's the other way around. I think the only reason you wouldn't have one there is if you really can't afford it do they have like

an equally like rigorous process to getting a suppressor like similar to the gun or is it just like if you have a gun you can get a suppressor oh no i i think you can it's like the reverse like you're going to go into 7-eleven and buy a suppressor but it's going to take you a long time to get a to get a rifle what all what all are they hunting there uh what critters they hunt now when i kind of know the answer and i'm surprised because there's like a there's like analogies here like just like they're hunting stuff for a second like there's similar stuff here like first they got they they got, they hunt like a moose. It's not our moose,

but it's a moose. That's right. It's a moose, much smaller, much less paddled moose. Like a lot of their antlers would just be like five times kind of sticking out

in different directions on each side, like without a paddle whatsoever. The red deer, you might think, oh, it's a red stag, but I think it's actually a red deer. The male is a stag, the female is a you might think, oh, it's a red stag, but I think it's actually a red

deer. The male is a stag, female is a hind. In Latvia, they actually called them bulls and cows for some reason. They do. Yeah. What's the word for that? Bullis un matita. But matita is like saying mother, you know, or female.

Mm-hmm. Um. When you did the podcast, did you do it in Latvia? I did. Yeah. Was that hard? You know, it's interesting. Um, I got a lot of compliments when I was in Latvia because they would be amazed that number one, it took me 44 years to get over there for a visit. And then number two, that I had kept up the language so well, so well. So I got a lot of compliments on, on how good my language was, but it's always funny to me because I did a podcast,

did as best I could in the Latvian language, and then I called my dad, and the first thing he says is, hey, I listened to the podcast you did with Linda. You really need to work on your Latvian. The reason why you keep up on your Latvian is because you talk to your dad in Latvian a lot, right? Yeah. That's how you keep up with him.

That was the interesting thing about being in Latvia is that here I speak to my mom, my dad, used to be my grandmother. Is that every time you're on the phone with them? Yeah, all the time. My siblings, pretty limited. And then at Latvian Beer Camp for three days, I speak to all those guys in Latvian.

I can always tell what they're talking about when they're talking in Latvian when I'm listening in because there are certain totally American words that just don't work. And so you'll catch the words and you'll kind of know what's, you won't know what's going on, but you'll know what they're talking about.

You know? No, it's interesting in latvia that's even happened i would in my mind even more than it has here like you could ask joe and tyler and jason that were over there with me they would actually pick up like that on words too because like i call a gym a vingrotava which is like what the people in 1950 called that because, right, that's when my family left the country. And that sort of old Latvian was what I grew up on. Well, the, you know, million plus people in Latvia, it kept changing the language, right? So in Latvia, they call a gym fitness clubs. No joke. Like on the sign, it says fitness clubs. and you drive by, and you're like,

God, I wasn't mistaken. I bet I could go in there and work out. You're like, what are the chances they'd have that same word? Yeah. Yeah, like computer is dators is what I grew up with, and there they say computers. You know, just the way language changes. When I was in college, i had to take a class

called the structure of modern english and uh this we read this thing from some linguist that was saying had you gone had you gone along the mason dixon line at the end of the civil war and somehow eliminated contact between the north and the south at the end of the civil war and somehow eliminated contact between the North and the South at the end of the civil war, along the Mason Dixon line at this point, you would not be able to communicate. It doesn't take long. Just all because the drift, the normal drift, and then, and then the way you're constantly adding words to the vocabulary, cuz right, right, like that's pre automobile.

Right. Right. So you imagine all these areas where it would just be like you wouldn't know. So the fact that you guys sort of took a version of Latvia to the U.S. and then messed with it for 70 years without a ton of fresh input that your habits would drift as new terminology emerged. Tell everybody where Latvia is. Oh, yeah, we didn as new terminology emerged. It's probably where Latvia is. Oh, yeah, we didn't get on that. We got stuck on the percentage of hunters in Latvia.

It's on the Baltic Sea, which is, if you imagine Europe, it sort of sits in the northern part of Europe. On the Baltic Sea, you also have the southern tips of Norway and Sweden. And then you have the three Baltic countries on the east side of the Baltic Sea, you also have the southern tips of Norway and Sweden. And then you have the three Baltic countries on the east side of the Baltic Sea, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. And then to the south of Lithuania, you'd have Poland. And then that goes down into Germany and the main mass of Europe. And then so directly to our east is Russia. We share a border with Russia. And you guys mixed it up with Russia. Yeah.

I mean, we've tried over the years. Yeah. So yeah, you could say we've mixed it up. Are you close to- Russia's not been good. To Finland? Is Finland above you or- Yeah, to the north. To the north.

Yeah. And you hunted crazy moose. Yeah. So- Red deer. They're into moose. They're into red deer. Are red deer native?

Yes. Pigs are native. Pigs are native. Red deer native're into moose They're into red deer Are red deer native Yes Pigs are native Pigs are native Red deer are native Moose is native Moose is native And then the roe deer Is also native What's the non-natives

Over there The raccoon dog Seth Oh that is non-native Yeah In China right You got one of those right They say the Russians Brought them in

So I don't I don't know if it came from China. I read last night. But it was interesting because I talked a lot about the raccoon dog prior to going. I thought it was interesting. It was like an animal that we don't have here. And sure enough, that's the only animal I ended up shooting was a raccoon dog and the hunters there told me that was because the hunting goddess diana had said it was going to be so nothing you're gonna do about it nope and at first when they would bring up her mind about this before you showed up when they

would bring up diana at first i was like oh yeah, Diana, good luck to you too. Go hunting, you know? But then things would happen and they'd be like, oh yeah, see, Diana just said it wasn't meant to be today, you know? And we'd be like, okay, I guess we'll hunt, you know, red stag again tomorrow. And it just kept coming up. And finally I was like, man, you guys take this like Diana gal seriously. And they're like, it doesn't happen without her blessing. I was like, okay. Very, very serious about Diana being like, yeah, it's your day to kill a red stag. Like very much part of their hunting culture. That is like.

Totally. So Yanni was talking about another crazy thing. The death wind. No, that's Lou Wetzel. When you answer Seth's question, then talk about the wind so through through wind yeah don't forget diana like how like do they they don't go out knowing that day that like diana is gonna bless them no but they'll have they'll just have like like sayings like good luck and you know may diana be with you and okay you know but if things go to shit afterward now you know like well now we know that she wasn't

down yeah like and it's so funny how you can manifest this stuff right because with this raccoon dog i'm using a gun that's not mine because unfortunately yeah explain one of those a little bit how big was the one you got um i mean they literally are the size of a raccoon, just a lot fluffier. It's like a raccoon and a fox had a baby. They're a pest. They're non-native, kind of eat everything out. People really, it's kind of like the pig. If you're like, well, do you really want them gone? And they're like, no, we kind of like having a few raccoon dogs around.

They den in trees? I don't think they do. I don't think they climb trees. They are a canine species. So they've got feet like a fox. Got it. But we're actually sitting in the dark hunting pigs over bait in a blind

on an evening that was the kind of evening where you can hear twigs snap 200 yards away. I mean, just still as could be. So you couldn't really talk because it was so quiet. You know, because the pig bait's only like 50 yards away. And this is at night? Yeah, at night.

With a thermal? Thermals. What'd they have out for hog bait? I think it was a mix of corn and apples. That's what was out there. Tasty. Yeah. And I haven't done much night hunting.

I don't even know if I've done any night hunting. No, that's not true. I've night hunted with you. We did a little bit in Texas. I've night hunted with you in Florida. I've't even know if I've done any night hunting. No, that's not true. We did a little bit in Texas. I've night hunted with you in Florida. I've night hunted with you in Texas. And in the jungles. I've night hunted with you in the jungles.

And in Arkansas. All right, so I've done a bunch of night hunting. But not particularly like this using thermals. That's another thing we should get into. Caught him in a lie. Is how prevalent the thermal use is. I want to get to that too because that's pretty interesting. But they yeah, lying son of a bitch.

So I'm using a rifle that's not mine because my rifles didn't get there in time, unfortunately. It was like an eight month process and we did everything possible and we literally got the rifles while I was still in Latvia, but after we were done hunting. So I'm using Linda's rifle. It's like a seven mag, pretty big rifle for shooting a raccoon.

It's got a suppressor on it. We're in the stand. I don't know, maybe 20 feet, not quite 20 feet, 15 feet up in there. On what kind of property, John? Just a small little chunk of private. It was part of the hunting club that we had access to. You know, I should know this number for you. If you want to get into that very quickly, I can try to sum it up.

The way these hunting clubs work. Is it bigger or smaller than Doug Dern's? I don't actually know where one private property might have started and or one ended in the next one started there was so much land that there's i don't think you could walk at all in a week of walking to go through all the properties i got you different parcels here and there exactly and one hunting club has it's up to them to make leases or deals or handshake agreements with all of the private properties within their zone that they're given by the federal government to operate their hunting club in. Wow. Yeah. So like all the federal and state. So the government says like your hunting

club is Gallatin County. That's right. And then you got to go like, okay, sweet. Now I got to go talk to everybody in Gallatin County and get permission. The state and federal lands are pretty much automatically going to be part, and you play like a small lease to work on those. Everybody else, and what's interesting is you have to make it contiguous. So you can't have too many, you can't, I forget what the distance was, if it was 50 meters or 150 meters between two, but you couldn't just have like, well, we got a giant 400 acre one down here,

and then a mile up the road, we got another one. No, they got to be contiguous. So this one hunting club that I hunted with. And that's coming from the government. Yeah. I mean, no, they have a, they, the hunters complained a lot about how the government makes rules completely unknowingly, you know, for no reason, it doesn't do anything for them.

And the hunters, you know, are saying we should be trying to, they try to inform them, help them make better rules. And, you know, they're working on it. It's a work in progress. But yeah, this particular hunting club had 400 separate agreements with separate landowners. Yeah, but we did it. We did a drive

where I was walking for over an hour from one road to another. So giant tract of land. Ag land? Mixed. Like northern Wisconsin, northern Minnesota where it gets a little

bit more sprucey and birchy and swampy. You could pluck yourself out of Latvia and get dropped in those places or swap places and you wouldn't know the difference. Very much cut up like 50-50. A lot of forestry.

So a lot of like successional growth that you see around. They're cutting a lot. Drunk guys drinking old fashions? I didn't see too much of that. It's not like Wisconsin in that one. I was just trying to figure out how like Wisconsin.

Just the landscape. Landscape. As I grab another drink. Backstraps roasting on an open fire pack frame strapped with heavy loads mule deer bucks push down from much higher and folks in blaze orange heavy clothes everybody knows a cold

snap and some steady snow will make the mule deer hunting prime broke ass guys with their eyes all aglow hunting pride. Broke-ass guys with their eyes all aglow will dream of heavy tips tonight.

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 get irritated. Well, if you're sick of, you know, sucking high and titty there, OnX is now in Canada.

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Brush the blinds with boughs of holly. Fa la la la la la la la la. Geese come in in waves and volleys. Fa la la la la la la la Dawn we now first light apparel Fa la la la la la la la Cut them down with blasting barrels Fa la la la la la la la

Set the scene for me a little bit too. So you're on the parcel. You're in a timbered section. And they got an established bait? Or they just blind placed? Very established. This guy, Kaspars, who was my, like Linda's kind of right-hand man that hunted with me a lot for the red stag, he had basically carved out, I don't know, a 10-foot long log that was two foot in diameter and made a trough.

And literally had it placed up on posts on either end. So it's like an elevated trough that he could put the bait into. Wow. Yeah. If that was necessary, better than just having a pile. I don't know, but he had that and it was- Now they're using trail cams? Yep. They use trail cams. So they got pictures of hogs coming? Yep. Yep. Okay.

And he would just drive by the field. So basically behind us was a field and this was kind of into the brush and into the woods and there was a little clearing around the bait. And he would drive by the field at night, run the thermal. They do thermals like we do day scouting. Like still driving,

moving at night, 10 miles an hour, looking through a thermal on a field. No big deal. Everybody's doing it. Just like, yeah, there's critters there. There's not critters there. You know, just cruising along. They'll use it in the daytime. Like coming up on a place and you got like a block of forest ahead of you.

I mean, I don't know how far thermal works into the woods, but we'd be looking across a small clearing that was maybe 100 yards, 150 yards, and then there'd be woods. And he'd glass the trees and be like, nah, nothing here. Let's go. Right? To know if there's critters even in the area. And I was kind of like, come on, guys.

And I'd already told them our Fognac grizzly bear story. And they were like, well, what if you had had thermals in that situation? Wouldn't that have been nice to know that bear was in the area? And I was like, yeah, good point. Good point. Yeah. Sit and bait. Sit and bait.

You go out there right at dusk. Yeah, no, it was already after dark. We climbed in after dark. I think we had been hunting until dark for stags or something. And yeah, so I'm nodding off, super quiet. We're not talking. I'm nodding off. quiet we're not talking i'm nodding off every now and then we turn our thermal on look through it check the bait station nothing there turn it off then in the pitch black complete darkness i just hear linda say

i was like oh oh, shit. It's on. She said, Yanni, you're going to kill your first raccoon dog. Can you say that again? Oh, man. I wanted to go out for candlelight dinner with Yanni. I already said that, man. Yeah.

And so I turned on my thermal, there he is creeping around the bait pile, probably hunting the mice and whatever varmints and stuff that might've been around. He doesn't want the corn. Linda didn't think so. So different from a raccoon in that way too. Cause he's like, like I said,

it's a little canine. Yeah. Yeah. So he just sits down on his haunches right next to the bait, bait pile, you know? And I'm getting, it's complete darkness. So I'm feeling around on a gun that I'm not familiar with. And that gun's got a thermal scope.

Yeah. It's a Blaser. I don't know how much you've used a Blaser, but they got a safety that's, it's world renowned for how safe it is, but you really got to press and work it up. It's like a tang safety, you know, that you work with your thumb. Is it loud? The safety?

Yeah. Eh, I don't remember that. But I think I click it off. I go to shoot. Nothing, right? I haven't clicked it off enough. So a little flustered. Finally get it off.

You know, I'm getting, and like Linda's helping me, and finally we get the safety off, and then I get a scope on it. But before the scope's quite on it, I'm getting, and like Linda's helping me and finally we get the safety off and then I get a scope on it, but before the scope's quite on it, I'm like, gah! And like, totally, totally miss him. It's back up.

What happened? I basically had the scope on him and I'm putting my finger, like, into the trigger card, getting ready, you know, to get on it, and she's got a light trigger set up on that sucker and I touched off. Did you have a glove on? Nope.

No glove. Jeez, man. I know. So I miss him. Well, luckily- Ouch! Did she say that? Well, she had a big old suppressor on that thing.

And luckily, Diana was on my side that night, and that little sucker looks at the hole that I just made next to him, and he goes back to just sitting there. So I chambered another one. He's like, what? Sam, what was that? Yeah. And that didn't bother him a bit.

And so I shot him on the third time I pulled the trigger, second shot. Did you guys get any of this on footage? Like, did you guys have night vision? You know, my scope had it, and we ended up, because we were doing so much fumbling around, we have roughly a second of the raccoon dog in the thermal. So we'll see. And how many pounds do you weigh? I don't know, 10.

They're metric over there. Yeah. So you shot a 10-pound raccoon dog with a 7-millimeter REM mag. Yeah. Yeah, pretty big hole. Luckily, with the way he was- Because they weren't planning on raccoon dogs. They were planning on big Siberian hogs.

Yeah. And, you know, yeah, the hogs do have a little bit more of a husky appearance to them there. I only saw- I saw most of them at night in thermal. Didn't really hunt them, but the one I saw when we were sitting, waiting on a red stag to come into a meadow, one rolled out and he just had a real just rotund

husky kind of build to him. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I look at pictures of those things. Real wire hair, like Russian boar kind of. Yeah, like if you go online and look up, don't type in like Siberian, but like go online and search for you're looking at actual northern European wild hogs. They just got like more uniformity. Oh, for sure.

Yeah, so you're not like, oh, there's a white one or a black one or a green one. No, they all have that black gray look to them. They just look more like a woods creature, man. You know? Yeah. And they like the hides over there, interestingly. There was a lot of pig hides that had been, you know, done up and on the wall, draped over something. Even though it's bristly.

Yeah. Oh, speaking of that too, you were saying that it's real popular to put a beaver hide on your car seat. Mm-hmm. Both in winter and summer. Warms you in the winter, cools you in the summer. Swear by it. Yep.

Cooling on your buttocks, Seth. People had them in their houses just on a wooden chair. There'd be a beaver hide laying there on the couch. There might be two or three next to each other to sit down on. Are they prime beaver furs? Do you know what I mean?

Do they have that real thick undercoat? I'm not going to be able to answer that. How are they getting the beaver hides? Is it an item you'd buy for that purpose or is it you know someone that gives you one? No, no, they hunt them. They're into hunting them, not trapping them. Okay.

I would say they're the 90, more than 90% of beavers over there are hunted and killed and then less than 10% are trapped. You didn't go do that? Nope. Okay. Ran out of time. Did you try to eat the raccoon dog?

I offered it up. I mentioned it and, you know, it was like a one in Rome kind of thing. And they all, you know, spat on the ground and we're like, no. You know, in leaner times, yes, but we're not going to eat the raccoon dog. Did you freeze it and bring it back in the Yeti cooler for part of my plate? No, I did not. That would have been a good one.

What are you going to do with the raccoon dog hide? It is actually being tanned right now in Lithuania. My skull already got cleaned up, so it's in root, I think, from Latvia. I got my little trophy. Why in Lithuania, not Latvia? Actually, my grandfather was born in Lithuania. We're related.

Share a little blood? Yeah. I just think that that's because that's where the nearest tannery is. Latvia is a small place. I mean, we're talking like a state the size of Indiana. You can drive across the whole country in a day easily. And that's going east-west. If you go the short route, north-south,

you'd probably be done in five, six hours. Huh. Yeah, it's a small place. That's way smaller than I thought. I mean, 1.6 million people is not that much. We have cities way, way bigger than that. Sure, yeah. And more than half of them,

like almost a million live in Riga, the capital city. So once you get out to the countryside, it's pretty sparse. Well, what was the, tell us about another hunt you did there. So where someone got something or not you or whatever. Well, I got to first tell you about how I didn't get something. So it was the second morning. We're red deer hunting. That ended up being what we were going to focus on

and I was hunting with this guy Kaspars what's his name? Kaspars K-A-S-P-A-R-S he was the sort of the hunt leader he wasn't the club's president but he was the hunt leader so on the day that we did the driven hunt he

organized everything is all your hunting happening at your host's hunt club yes which is spread all over no no actually she's she i don't even know if she uh specifically belongs to a hunt club she floats around um she hunts a lot in internationally like for them to go over to hunt in sweden it's like for us going to hunt in Wyoming. It's just not a big deal. Yep. So I'm with Kaspar. It's the first evening. I think we hear three or four stags roaring.

Really? Which is an amazing sound. Like I hadn't Google searched it before I went over. I actually have. You've probably heard them. Well, I heard it in real life. I play it. I can't do it with you've probably heard them why I heard it in real life and play it but here's I heard here's Cosper's who's doing that me isn't that isn't that well he's playing it over here that sounds like metal yeah

that's more like a lion. Yeah, play that again. That's a great sound. It's a roar. Chester is pretty close. Yeah. That sounds like you guys after all these drinks. Yanni, has he got like a tube that he's just extending out?

Yeah, it's basically like a bugle he's just extending out? Yeah, yeah, it's basically like a bugle tube, but it, it's got three parts and yeah, it accordions in and out and they kind of work that as they're making the sounds.

That's a great sound, man. Yeah, no, I'm telling you, if you're just walking down a country road in Michigan and a red stag went off and you didn't know

that that creature lived in your neighborhood, it would freak you out. Mm-hmm. I mean. And you heard some ripping off in the woods. Oh, yeah, all the time. So, yeah, I got a lot of stories about the roar, but this particular one, well, getting to my missed opportunity, we get it, we see some the first evening, but it's like not the right size. They were,

they had a very select, an idea of selective hunting all based on antlers, which is one of the things that was very similar to some of the hunting that goes on here in the States, like one to five years old. Don't shoot because we don't know his potential yet. Uh, six to 10, if he's big and has but he has like good tops meaning like good crowns where there's like 3 or 4 or more points up top, don't shoot because we

want him to get over 10 to realize his full potential and shoot him at 12, 13 or 14. But the one you're looking for since you're a guest you can't shoot the big, big dog, but the one that would be perfect for you would be 6 to 10 years old, but he has a Y on one side or both sides.

And they think that that gene of that Y is in there, and they want all those Ys called out. No amount of talking to Heffelfinger is going to talk him out of that probably. I don't know. I did some chatting with him, and I was like, because in one sense they're very much like, we want to let nature do its thing, and it's all natural. And I'm like, but hold on.

This culling thing that you guys are injecting here is not necessarily nature doing her thing. So you're talking about it both sides of your mouth. So they're telling you, you can get a stag if he's over six and has a Y on one or both sides. But this is kind of, it's a rule for everybody. I see, yeah. Right?

They really just didn't want me to shoot. But not the actual law. No, not at all. This is like their, the way they do it at this particular level. And they would have it be that you came all the way back to America with no stag rather than violate that law. Well, listen, here's the deal. Now, I think I could roll in there, and they would gladly have me shoot whatever. But for Cosparis to get it approved, he had to go to the board of the club, eight members.

Four of them said no. We're going to basically come in and pay the dues. Like, we've often done other places, like, where that sort of is the setup, but we want to only go there and hunt for a week yeah like that deal for this the this the the seagate deer yeah that's right yeah we had to help pitch in with the guys you pitch in what it costs to be like an annual member even though you're only going to be there five days and try to make it as though you're not just being getting the special treatment right for half of the group was like, nope, don't eat any strangers. Don't eat any guests. Don't care who this guy is.

Don't eat him. But he's a Latvian eagle. He's got a power ring. Oh, so they twisted their arms. There's a board of eight and four are no? Yeah. Was that just awkward for you to be there then? Well, no, they didn't tell me this beforehand.

They didn't tell me. Right? So I just went in there as a guest. It was all good. Later, I found out in the evening of the driven hunt, when there was a fair amount of alcohol consumed, the four guys that talked my ear off and were attached to my hip, like we had a belt between the two of us with a four nose.

No way. And so I think by the end of the driven hunt there's so much to tell. Something else warmed up to you? We're going to get way too far ahead. Yes, big time. You know what they're after? No. They want to come hunt with you

here. You know, I offered it up and it wasn't, they weren't jumping on the invite. What were they after? I think they just realized that I was just an okay dude and everything was good. So they're like being protective and they're like, oh, he's not that bad after all. I think they had bad experiences with, you know, just guests. You know, some guy comes in with a bunch of money and is just like, well i just want to hunt and you know you they don't they take safety very seriously there and so you know you don't have a record on how you are with the you know how you operate you want them over by not being an idiot yeah the second morning of my red deer hunt we

get into a bull right at pretty much at daylight cos Kasparis is calling him. We sneak in. But what's getting into a bull mean? He's ripping off in the woods. Yeah. Kasparis kind of had been scouting. He knew some certain zones where bulls had been hanging out and roaring. And so he's like, we're going to go check this spot. We creep in there.

There's one roaring. We get closer. We get closer. Can't see him. Kasparis starts calling. He kind of walks out of the timber and pops out. Kostbar just gets a good look at him. He's like, no, that's one of those.

It's like nine or ten, but he's got the great big tops, and we need to let him go for another three, four years or whatever. Was it similar to Montana elk, like during the rut? Yeah, some of them had harems. I think talking to more people later, I think it's, and like it is with the bull elk with a harem, it's hard to call them away.

You're definitely calling them just to kind of keep them talking and try to get in close to them. Was there an equivalent to like cow calling or was it all roaring? All roaring, no cow calling. But you're hunting with a rifle, so it's not like.

Yeah, you didn't have to get too close. But surprisingly. When you didn't want to. And again, I mean, all my European hunting experience up to this point is Steve's stories from when he's been over there, you know? And how people like basically are like, it's so easy, you know? And it ain't real hunting over there in Europe. No.

I'm not saying that you say that. You just said I said that. That is a common. That is a common. Yeah. I'm not saying that you say that. You just said I said that. That is a common. That is a common. Yeah. No, I know what you're saying. You know. Come on, man.

No, I'm just saying that I didn't have any experience. You know, I've heard what your experience is. And yeah, I don't think that you felt like you had to like work your tail off when you, wasn't it Ireland? When I went to Scotland and hunted the red deer no yeah we walked it he knew i like to take big walks so we walked a weird route just take a big walk to get back to the same spot that sounds about right he's like i bet you could get over there if you went up that way and then over that way so let's do that he's a good guy or we just drive up and get him.

So we decided to check like a second spot that morning. And to set the stage and where my head's at, it's early in generally my trip to Latvia. I've been in the country for four days now. Two days in the country. Two days only in these woods. Not even a full day, really. It's like an evening hunt and this is the next morning. So I'm new to the landscape, new in the country, two days only in these woods, not even a full day, really. It's like an evening hunt.

This is the next morning. So I'm new to the landscape, new to the habitat, new to the animals. And so far, it's like Diana is just like marching them in front of me, you know, and Cospers is like, nah, not quite the right one. You know, I'm like, well, this isn't going to be too hard. Right. So we come up on this clear cut. It's maybe like two or three years old.

We're standing there. Cospars calls, nothing answers. We're there for a while, long enough to where we almost start chit-chatting. And now look in the clear cut and all of a sudden there's just a bull feeding, stag. I'm like, oh, look, there he is. Cospars glasses him. He's like, dude, that's the one, like eight or nine years old, like nice crown on one side, Why on the other? Like, let's shoot him. Well, the day before we're talking shot placement. And he's like, if you can try not to shoot him right in the shoulder, which they, which is, they got a cool name for that. They call it the shovel.

Oh, that's good. Yeah. And he's like, don't shoot him in the shovel because we'll lose a lot of meat. And there's a good chance that we'll be selling some a lot of this animal which i'll tell you why later so if you can just try to shoot him behind the shoulder this bull is just standing there 150 yards or so but feeding but quartering too hard if i was hunting bull elk here in public montana i would have shot him in five seconds it would just been like get on him and touch off and done deal. So I'm waiting and I'm waiting and he's just feeding, like not a care

in the world. Wind's good, waiting, waiting. Five minutes goes by at least and he's just kind of feeding but not giving me broadside shot, you know. Long enough to where I lose my focus and I'm on these like shooting sticks where it supports

the front and the back but it's one pivot point underneath. And I'm on these like shooting sticks where it supports the front and the back, but it's one pivot point underneath. Yep. And I look over my shoulder to say something to Kaspar. It's like, oh, isn't that like just how it would be that this animal is like right here for us, but it's not going to offer up a broad shot. And the time it takes me to say that. How do you say that?

My test now called us. Kevin, she was Ned was Shavi and Pionik San is something like that. Yeah. you say that? Vajtas naukalkas kevinshmus nedos shavian pionig zanisk. Something like that. I'm tracking. It gave you a little bit more time. Not long. You're going to get to learn another Latvian word right now.

I look back and the bull's gone. The stag is gone. Seriously? Gone. Disappeared. And I hear behind me,

Yane tu no chakere. And I'm like, I've never heard this word in my life. No chakere. And I look over, and Kaspars, who I've also known for roughly 24 hours at this point, pretty jovial guy guy like we would all very much get along with them hell of a fisherman catches pike and walleye like they're going out of style oh nice he's the blood has dropped out of his face he's like pale and he's as deadpan serious as i've seen this guy that i've known for a day and he's like to know chuck today and i'm

like what i'm like no no i'm like he's gonna still be there likeakaday. And I'm like, what? I'm like, no, no. I'm like, he's going to still be there. Like, we've just been watching him for 10 minutes or more, you know? And so I'm, like, looking around, and Kasparis has, like, left the building. He's not glassing. He's just standing there, like, kind of drooped over, just like, dude. And basically, Noachakaday is, you fucked up.

Not really. Yeah. Like, you fucked up like you fucked up as in like you had the opportunity right there and you just let it just slip right out of your hands like a like a muff

to the nth degree like you just muffed it bad like there it was he gave you this because he was watching binoculars

so as I turned to say something oh it turned the bull turns we didn't know there was a cow there or a hind and he pushed the hind and they both went in behind this little copse

of trees, never to be seen again. And so we hunt there for like, I'm trying to like stay in the game. And so we stay there for another 10-15 minutes. They're just, they're gone. They're gone. He can't find them on the thermal.

They just, they disappeared. Can you say that word one more time? No chakere. And what's interesting, there is other versions of that. There's like sa chakere, which would be like something like you could even tell your kids. Like, ah, ne sa chakere. Which just means like, ah, you kind of like messed it up. But no chakere is like, yeah, you kind of like messed it up. But Noor Chakarit is like,

yeah, you just really, really fucked up. And we hunted that same spot that night because it was like the type of bull that was perfect for me to kill. So we hunted that spot that night. I think we were even there the next morning. We built, Kasparov is just like, he goes and to get more advantage,

he goes and grabs a chainsaw and in like an hour has basically built us a tree stand out of, um, I don't know, it was probably like a lodgepole pine or whatever is similar to that. It grows in Latvia. And, uh, so we sat up in this, you know, homemade deer stand for at least two hunts and that bull never, never appeared again. And we hunted for three more days and I never got another opportunity. And what was interesting Is there any other bulls though? Yeah, we saw a couple others, but it got a lot harder.

Like we'd hear them roaring and whatever, but they just wouldn't come out of the woods. They wouldn't come into the fields, you know. Like we'd be watching one field and you'd hear the bull kind of just working out towards a different field. Nor Chuck Array, man. Like it's just not part of their hunting tactics to like creep in there into the woods after him you know it is but he felt like with

you know us two multiple people yeah two photographers it was gonna be tough he used a chainsaw well we left the woods and did that in different location and then carried it into the spot i got you yeah we carried like a homemade wooden tree stand um i don't know like a half a mile it was it was not easy got a little working in the afternoon um so cuspids doesn't let it go the guys really love tyler and joe and jason that were with me they really love this new word that they've learned no check today and every everything like there was no more nimming which stands for not movie and Joe and Jason that were with me, they really love this new word that they've learned, no chakere, and everything. Like there was no more nimbing,

which stands for not in movie, which is what the guys like to say when they get a shot, when they take a shot, but it's not going to be used in an episode. It's called a nim, not in movie. But nim got thrown out. It was like, don't no chakere, or you no chakere that all week.

And cosplayers would correct them and be like, eh, that was like a little baby Noichakare. What Giannis did the other day, big Noichakare. Like just grilling me. I'm like, bro, you don't know me. We've only been hanging out for like 36 hours and you're just like just hammering me. All right.

But it's a great segue to the driven hunt. So at the end of four days of red stag hunting on the soonest burning up your trip on this. That was kind of the plan anyways. We did like I had a pig come out in front of me but we're waiting on a red stag and Cosmo's is like you want to shoot the pig?

I think you should do pig. I'm like, yeah, I don't know. Should I shoot the pig? Like we're here red stag hunting and I'm like, yeah, I think I should shoot the pig and like I put the gun up and right as I'm putting the gun up, that little pig stops. You can see his nose twitch one way and the other, and he turns 90 and runs off. And Cosworth is like, eh, Diane, it wasn't Diane that says no on the pig. I'm like, ah, dang it. No pigs. So the driven hunt day, we meet at the clubhouse. Like 40 people, roughly.

Big group. Does this look like, you can picture it looks like beer steins and No, no, no. Like counts and stuff. So they do like alcohol there. Yeah. Just as much as they like it in Wisconsin.

But you do not mix alcohol. Not as much as New Hampshire. You do not mix alcohol in guns. Wine in Idaho, I guess. At all. Yeah, they're drinking wine like Idaho. Like you can't have, as a gun owner, if we had a designated driver that was

completely sober, and you and I had had some drinks, but we had a DD that was driving us to the house. I'm back up. Oh, because I asked you about beer steins and stuff. Yeah. I lost track. Back on to alcohol. Okay, go ahead. If basically, if the

person was pulled over for speeding, even though they were sober as a ghost, but you and I had a couple beers in us and our rifles were in the car with us, that'd be the end of your rifle privileges. Done. Like, you cannot be drunk in presence of your gun. You can't be like in easy possession. they have a huge locked vault in this for anybody that's going to do some serious drinking and then hang out and possibly sleep in the bunkhouse or whatever. There's a gun safe vault that everybody

puts their guns in there. If you're going to do any kind of drinking at all and it's locked and you don't know where the keys are. No shit. So if the cops roll in, you're like, yep, my guns in there. Don't know where the keys are. I cannot get to it. Otherwise, you better take your gun home and then come back and put it in the safe at home

and have it locked up there. Can't be drunk around your gun. No, it is serious. That sounds pretty responsible. So 40 people get together. The president gives a kind of an overall speech, a rah, rah, rah. We've got

a great club together. We're all great people. Let's be great hunters. Let's do this as respectfully as we can. Do they acknowledge you being there? If you haven't paid your dues, pay your dues. I don't think he did. I think Kaspar then did when he got,

he basically was like, here's the guy I was telling you about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy that's been fucking up all week. I want to say about that, I think had that happened the third morning and having some highs and lows and some experiences with the animals and the landscapes,

I wouldn't have had it. I would have had that laser focus of someone that's ready to kill in predator mode but that first morning i was just like this is great you know look at the fog across the clear cut doesn't feel right yet doesn't feel totally right yet yeah yeah i wasn't i wasn't ready um so yeah costper said hey we got a film crew here you know he explained the whole thing what's going to be happening. If anybody doesn't want to get filmed, you know, let us know, et cetera, et cetera.

And he basically rolls out what's going to happen. So everybody lines up in a row that's going to be hunting. There's a group of the drivers someplace in Europe. They call them beaters. What do you guys call them, Seth? Chasers and watchers. Chasers are the ones that are chasing the animals. Sounds like D&D or something.

Chasers and watchers. Drivers and sitters. Drivers and posters. Drivers and standers. Pushers and drivers. No, sorry. Pushers and sitters. It all means the same thing.

Yeah. In Latvian, it's a dzinese. It would be a single driver. I think the closest translation would be a driver, someone driving. And what's a sitter there? Well, they don't say sitter. That would just be like a

sage. What do they call it? A mednex. It would be a hunter. You're just a hunter. So the differentiation is like hunters and pushers. Yeah. Got it. Exactly.

So the pushers aren't armed. Nope. They're not armed. They already know who they're going to be. It's a much smaller group than I thought it was going to be. How do they know who they're going to be? Well, here's the deal. You don't get to be a hunter until after you've done three years of pushing.

No matter your age, no matter. And now this, this is a club rule. This isn't a federal rule. This is a club rule. So if you want to like, and what's interesting is that like, if it was the day before and you were just going on a spot and stalk hunt, you can take your gun and go and do your hunt. But when it's like the driven hunt,

there you got to beat the bush for three years and then you get to be a hunter. And they're holding you to this. They weren't going to. I held myself to it. Thinking that I'd get opportunities because we're going to do at least a couple of drives. And then maybe at the end, I'd be like, all right, I'll be a shooter. Is part of that safety because of safety, like picking your shot? or is it just like making the new guy put his time in? I think both.

Yeah. 100%. So the drivers aren't carrying guns? Nope. Really? The drivers do have a lot of dogs. Oh, man. They love their dogs.

Some of the hunters even had dogs, and they'd be like, they would just walk up to me and be like, here, take these three. And you'd be like, they would just walk up to me and be like, here, take these three. And you'd have three. And then I would, you know, walk them or drive to wherever, what road we were starting on and then walk them into the woods with me, 10 yards. Turn them loose? Cut them loose. Yeah. What kind of dogs did they have?

There was a bunch of Siberian Laikas was one. And it looks like a small, they were different colors. Some of them were white or gray and then some of them were black, but they look like the same kind of shape and fur of, I'd say just like a husky. Yeah. Like a Norwegian elk hound. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Have you ever seen a, we had a Norwegian elk hound. It was like a small, pretty burly husky. Yeah. Yeah. I met another guy that uses that, those dogs for moose that they bay moose up with dogs and

then they sneak in and shoot the moose um so everybody gets in a row and they a guy with a hat comes by and there's tiles in there with the numbers 1 through 30 or whatever was on there everybody picks a number out of there then they would reorganize 1 through 30 and then the first six would go with so-and-so. The next six would go with so-and-so. And that was way to break up the group. And so as not to play favorites with spots. Right?

So that way, the guy that's like, I always get the shitty spot where nothing runs by me. You'd be like, dude. Yeah. We mix it up by numbers. You know, you had a leader that took you to a spot. And is it one mega drive or is it a bunch of little drives? We ended up doing three mega drives.

Okay. And is it like, are they standing in like tower blinds or is there like specific spots they got to be? Or is it just kind of like go here? I mean, they've driven the same country over and over, you know, for years and years and years. So there's definitely like, just like you would back home if you've driven the same, like it was for us in Michigan, you know, Doe Hill is where you need to stand because the does are going to come running across Doe Hill, you know? But very strict rules.

When the dude places you, so Cosper has had like five sub generals or sergeants that would take the smaller, like take five each and go down one line. And then that guy would set five people in a row. And then the other guy would set five people over here, whatever. And when they set you there, they're like, you can take two steps in any direction. And that's it. You stay in that circle until the drive is over and you're picked up by me. That's it. And it actually, it made sense because I literally was three steps out and I had to turn back on a stag. So I'm sitting as a hunter, as a shooter.

I can hear the dog coming, pretty excited. And then I can hear the hoof beats in the woods. And they've actually crossed like a little meadow and they're on this wooded ridge. And the ridge is pointing right towards me so that I know that I'm feeling like this stag or this animal is going to run off this point. And you got to judge them because you still can't shoot them. Yeah. Well,

Linda's standing next to me and she's going to help me. Wait, I thought you weren't. So this was the third drive. So I worked as a beater for two, as a driver for two. And then I was going to do be another. And they were like, please, please, please. I was like, dude, I'm a born driver. Like I'm all good. Like I like walking the woods.

Diana says it. So Diana says it. So you need to, that's right. That's right. But they were basically like, no, no, no. Like you've proven your worth. What I did too on this, I can't remember, I think it was the second drive. I showed up and there's a couple moose down and I offered to gut one of the moose and rolled up my sleeves, gutted it and pulled it out. And that gave me huge props that like, I just jumped in and got the work done, you know, and didn't, the hunter didn't have to do it. And so they were like, no, no, no, no, you hunt, you hunt. They could have told me a little bit earlier that like, go ahead and shoot any stag that runs out later. They're like, ah, you should have They could have told me a little bit earlier that go ahead and shoot any stag that runs out.

Later, they're like, ah, you should have shot. Because I actually had two run by me. But for days. Yeah, I know. Did you ever point out that seemed to be at odds with the whole Diana says it so? No, because that's what Diana sent him. Because he's telling you not to shoot. And Diana's putting these deer in front of you.

Or he stags. That stag that's coming down the wooded ridge pops out into the meadow. But off to my right, I've got a little roll. And so he runs below the roll. If we were hunting again here, and that happened to you, I had to run 10 or 15 yards, and I would have been able to peek over the horizon.

And it turns out another shooter that was down from me could see him standing there, but he couldn't shoot at it because it would have been too close to me, basically, his bullet. But I could have run over there and easily killed it. And so I had taken three steps, and Linda was like, ah, ah, ah. And I was like, oh, right. Like even when it comes down to getting something, they don't want you to move. Totally. Because basically as soon as you move out of your spot,

the dudes on either side of you are, like, expecting you to be in a spot. And so if something comes out for them and they go to swing and you're not in your spot... You dumb American asses. Yeah, they're serious about your safety. Very,'re serious on your safety. Very, very serious about safety.

Well, the H-class here is frightful. If it's brown, it's down and rifle. I'm sick of just spikes and does. Let them grow, let them grow, let them grow. It doesn't show signs of stopping and no bucks seem safe from dropping just six points and below let them grow let them grow let them grow 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.

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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.

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Here comes Grizzly Claus. Here comes Grizzly Claus. Tracking me through the range. If he comes around, we'll squeeze off a round and hope he won't be back again. He's a-running, won't stop coming, let off a warning shot. Empty your clip and say your prayers, cause Grizzly Claws ain't gonna stop. No. So we ended up getting, I think,

three moose and two red deer hinds that day. What else? Hogs? No hogs that day. No hogs were seen. The drives are, I don't want to say free for all, but it's like whatever comes through is fair game. Yeah, they did say with the roe deer, they prefer not to shoot them

on the drive because they're so small and they're moving pretty quickly. There's a good chance when you shoot them, you don't know where you're going to hit them. It's just not a big enough target and you're going to lose a lot of meat. That evening, so they decided on how much meat they were going to

keep and split amongst the group. I forget how many animals it was, two or three. They might've done the two young moose and then maybe one of the hinds. All of it butchered on site. They had a separate building from the clubhouse, which was called the Veidnatava, which basically, the literal translation would be the gutting house. Veidnat means means vash is wind you can come back to that but to vedanat means to like open something up to let you know air flow through it and uh so everybody just chips in and the next thing you know you got three giant animals

they had these like plastic line shelves i don't't know, pretty long, 10, 12 feet long and three or four of them on one wall. And then they were plastic lines so you could clean them. And there was, or whatever, how many people were there? 39, 40 piles of meat. Shanks, ribs, backstraps, just piles. For everybody. For everybody, piles. So again, not-

How big is each pile? Like if you had one of those like four inch meat lugs, you know, that we like to use, it'd probably fill up two thirds of it, you know? Like multiple meals. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Like nice, nice amount of meat. And now we just did one driven hunt. They'll do that every Saturday and maybe a Saturday and a Sunday until they're sick of hunting.

Got it. So that was just the day's take. And they're like, okay, well just take as much as we all need for the day. And then they're going to sell it for what? They'll just sell the rest and they use the funds for the club. And who do they go and

sell it to? The local butcher meat shop. Butchered already? I mean, they're bringing tons of meat. No, no, no. So they butchered, say, three out of the five for themselves, and then they probably brought two whole animals to the processor. So whatever

they cut, they keep and then sell it basically on the hoof. Gutted, but on the hoof. What's the market like? Are they getting a pretty penny for these? I never... I meant to... We were going to try to make it to a market where they sold wild game, but we didn't.

So I can't tell you. So is there a deal that like... But it is highly regarded. People like wild game. Is there a deal with selling it, though? Is it like, of course we're going to sell some. Or is it that everyone's like, well, I don't really want that much. I guess we'll sell some.

With that many animals down, it's of course we're going to sell some. Okay. Yeah. So they're not trying to fill giant chest freezers and stuff. No, and they actually don't do too much freezing there. They do a lot of preserving of their meat. Like everybody was busting out cans, like actual, um, pop top cans, you know.

They got their own steel canners. Yeah. So they're making like potted meat in a homemade steel can. Totally. And they would mix a lot of, uh, like they would do like 25% boar so that it would have the fat of the, of the pig you know in with their

stag and moose meat a lot of sausages get made up you know but I don't think having a freezer is common practice like it is here but so as not to play favorites with the meat and the stacks of meat because you could just eyeball it right and be

like I see a huge chunk of backstrap over there. That's all rib meat. I had this little stick and I'd walk around and I'd point at a pile of meat. And then a dude that wasn't looking at me was just going down the list of names. Be like, Steven Rinella, you'd come up with your meat lug. You'd come up to the pile that I was pointing the stick at and swipe it off the off the shelf and put it in and walk out I'd go to another pile pointing the stick Brody Henderson you'd come over there get your pile so would the heart get cut in half or is the heart just the heart ah glad you asked this is one of those like interesting like some of the similarities

you know that there's a lot of things that the hunters there considered important to them and not important and it might have been completely different than for us. There was a lot of things that were just like the same old pervasive wives tales just go on. One being like organ meat,

heart and liver. Actually, we ate some liver that night and it was good. But the heart, I see one guy, he walks up to get his meat, and he's got three hearts in his tub already. I'm like, how'd you get all of those? He's like, nobody else wanted them. I'm like, you're telling me, out of 40 people here,

you're the only guy that wanted the hearts. And he's like, yeah, don't tell anybody about how good they are. I'm like, yeah, wow. How about tongues? that won the hearts. And he's like, yeah, don't tell anybody about how good they are. I'm like, yeah, wow. Huh. How about tongues? You know, I didn't catch where the tongues went.

But they did come out of the animal. Yeah. One guy though, this old guy comes up and he comes up to his pile and he's like,

ah, nothing but bones, nothing but bones. You know, he's yelling at me. And I'm like, no, these are shanks.

Like, you can do some awesome stuff with these things and they're already like they had a bandsaw in the shop so they're already like pre-cut beautiful ossobuco chunks and i'm like no no i'm like i'll email your recipe like that's good stuff right there you just got to know what to do with it um another thing was while i was spot and stock hunting the red deer early in the week another hunter got one so we went to go see

it go help him pull out of the woods load it up in the trailer old guy and uh i was asking about what he's gonna do with it how he's gonna preserve it whatever and he's like oh can't can't eat these stags in the rut i'm like really i kind of look around the group you know and every single like local Latvian dude is like oh no no no yeah the meat is just rut, stank, just can't eat them. But they sell it I bet. Oh yeah exactly. He's like no

this thing is going to go get sold. For others. But it's just funny. I mean how many times have you, it's no different than people here that are like, oh yeah, stinky ruck buck, face like shit. The other day, someone was telling my kid, the reason whitetails are better than mule deer is because you know what they've been eating.

Right. I was just like, what have they been eating? What are mule deer eating? For people that aren't familiar, like red deer, very similar to elk, but like what, like a bull compared to a stag, like size wise. Uh, the stags are definitely a little bit smaller. Uh, not by much. I don't know, maybe 25%, 30% smaller.

If, I mean, if one ran across the road in front of you, and if it was just like a regular old six, seven-year-old stag, you'd just think it was a bull elk. Yeah. A couple of extra points, but yeah, it'd be hard to tell. They got a brown mane. They might be a little bit reddish, more hued. But it's still got that yellow rump and stuff, don't they?

Very elk-like. Yeah. Tell about the Death Wind. The Death Wind, yeah. Saud of Aish. That's what that's called. Wasn't there a... Isn't there a guy?

Louis Wetzel. Louis Wetzel is the Death Wind. It's not the Death Wind. I'm mixing it up. It's called the something. So this has nothing to do with hunters. The hunters believe in it too, but it's just a general Latvian superstition.

This is the first thing Yanni told me when we got home. Called a through wind. Yeah, through wind. Through wind. And it basically means it's like a breeze, right? But a through wind doesn't necessarily means it's like a breeze, right? But a through wind doesn't necessarily have to be like a breeze outside. Like if you

have two windows open in a house and you have that breeze that's created, that could be the through wind. Or a window on a door. Or let's just say you're even just in your yard outside and two gates were opened and a breeze was blowing through.

Not blowing over the fence, but through the gates. Dude, and I'm recently talking more about this. Like when I was at Latvian deer camp this year in Wisconsin, I was talking about this story and they're like, like literally trained,

doctors trained in the United States of America that practice in Latvia will tell sometimes their patients that the cause of whatever said illness might be high likelihood through wind, like especially around little kids, like around here, a lot of grannies and, and,

and you know, overprotective moms like to want to make sure they always got shoes on or you don't go outside if your hair is wet because you're going to get a cold. But like there, it's the through end. To the point where I walked into someone's house once while I was there on this trip. And there's like the mother-in-law, mom, and toddler, maybe three years of age or so. And I'm like the last one coming through the door hand on the door and i'm closing it behind me i mean it was going to take another second and the the mother-in-law was like please please please close the door you don't want the through wind

we've got a kid we've got a toddler here in the room i'm like but i'm like literally closing the door already you know you're creating more through it but yeah like it can cause serious serious like to the point where on the buses on the public transportation you can only open one side of the windows on the buses okay let's say i went to a let's say i went to a learned individual uh-huh i said perhaps a meteorologist or someone like that. Let's say there was a meteorologist who then went to medical school. I said

to him, explain to me like I'm 10. What is the through wind doing to everybody? What would they say? Or is there no answer? It's afflicting you. It is causing your problems.

Stay out of the through wind. You have a headache right now, Steve? It's not because you haven't drank water for four days. That's what it is in America. It's because you. Dehydration is America's through wind. Because you open both windows in your truck. But do they line it up?

Like, you know when you're talking about the bus windows? Let's say there's a guy in the front of the bus, and he's got the left window open, and the guy in the back of the bus, the right window. That's not a through wind. Doesn't work that way. It's got to be more lined up. Yeah, if it's going, like, across anything,

across the room, across the yard, across through the house. It seems like it would affect how they would build houses, for instance. Probably does. There'd only be one door and no windows. I guess here's my question. They're just in to keep them tight. Let me re-ask my question. I'm going to re-change my question.

Okay. It's not that the through wind is carrying something. It's that the through wind is the thing. Oh, yeah. No, no. That's what's causing your problem. It's not that COVID's coming on the through wind. It's like the wind is of itself problematic.

Yeah. And I wasn't going to sit down and argue. Of course not. He argued his way from one end to the other. You guys are full of shit. I'll show you through it. How was your general experience, though? Did people, like, welcome you?

Like, were people stoked? Were people, like, would you be welcomed back, like, with all the filming? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure. I mean, we tend to, you know, tend to you know have a there's no chance all those people back there are like he bought the through wind they're into it um do they think did they what is what is their opinion of a latvian whose family split?

Are you, um, uh, are you guys like honorary Latvians? Are you like, sort of like the furthest thing from a Latvian because you split? No, they,

uh, no, they, they understand that, you know, our, you know, my grandparents did what they had to do in those times and had to leave the country.

I don't think they hold any grudge. We're certainly different. But is it generally considered that if you left, you were pushed out? Oh, yeah. Okay. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. that that that if you left you were pushed out oh yeah okay 100 yeah yeah so it's like it's like cubans that came into florida post-revolution it's sort of like you just it's taken to be that you you left outside of you know you know you you were forced out, pushed out, fleeing. 100%. They did think it was, because I got there, like I was saying earlier, I talked to Latvian mostly now in the last 10 years with 20 or less people on a regular basis. When I was younger and I spent more time in the Latvian camp, it might be in the hundreds, but even then, if I didn't know you, I knew somebody that knew you, right?

Everybody's kind of friendly. But to be in a place where just all of a sudden, everybody, all these strangers around you are speaking this language that you've always spoken with friends, it was interesting. It felt cool. I wanted to go up to everybody and be like,

oh my God, I can't believe you speak Latvian too. This is awesome. And they're like, yeah, dude, everybody here does, mostly. Do a lot of them speak English? Yeah, like my bags are lost, and the lady at the complaint counter or the lost baggage counter usually deals with irate people. And I'm like, so awesome that we can have this conversation. You're like the first person that I'm talking to in Latvia.

And she's like, oh, bro, dude, take it easy. Like, no, you don't understand so they thought that was a little funny that I was so excited about that but it also gave me the opportunity to look at um just to have like a like a more worldly you know view because you got to thinking like there's a lot of like I like to go to Latvia because it was exotic to me in this place that everybody speaks Latvian which like i like to go to latvia because it was exotic to me in this place that everybody speaks latvian which i had to go to like special school on saturdays to speak latvian you know or go to latvian church or camp or whatever and they're like it's just latvia bro

a lot of people leave here to go get make more money living in england or ireland or are trying to get to the States. Why would you, why? Yeah, you were saying people are like broke as a joke there. Yeah. Like a lot, a lot of people make a thousand bucks a month there and live off that. Um, my friends that, you know, were educated here and now live there, you know, they've figured out a way and, and, and do much better. They live, you know, not too dissimilar life

from us, you know, go out to fun restaurants and, you know, have a good time in the capital city, have little places out on the beach, you know, but it's not the average Latvians living, you know. Do you want to go back? Oh, yeah. He's going back.

Yeah. We're going in June. I'm bringing the whole crew. Now his daughters don't understand why he makes them speak Latvian. Yeah, we've been working harder at that since I got back. That probably lights a fire under their ass, don't it? Or don't they get it? It lit a fire under my ass to get to do more of that, but yeah.

To get that with them. Yeah. Are they like, man, what's that again in Latvian? Because I'm going to Latvia? Or don't they kind of made all that connection? No, they are. You got to catch them in the right mood when they're interested to learn. Like with anything.

And when you guys go back, you'll see those distant relatives. Yes. Yes. And you'll not go revisit the friends you made on this trip. No, I definitely will. Oh, you will? Oh, yeah. No, I'm going to hunt a roe deer when I go back.

Because when you go back in June, you know, Latvia is at the same latitude as Southern Alaska. And so you got, you know, a 20 hour day in June. And they say one of the most beautiful things to do as far as hunting goes in Latvia is to go hunt the roe deer in the middle of summer when you can literally hunt them almost all night long and uh you know it's still daylight or you don't need to bring your own guns and all that though no I'll just do it the same thing I did this time and

just get um you know get those get the email that says as long as you're with so-and-so, you can use that. So you go, your wife, your daughters, you'll see family, you'll see the cotspits. Mm-hmm. You know, Latvia sits on the Baltic Sea, and I didn't go see the Baltic Sea, so that's definitely on my list of things to do. And go beachcombing for amber. Amber's one of the – Ambergris. Ambergris?

You're talking about – I'm talking about amber Like when When pine pitch falls Oh not Not the stuff The whales vomit out Oh okay No

That is one of the world's Largest producers Yeah it's From them It's the squid It's Sperm whale Something they form

Around squid beaks I want to tell you To wrap it all up I want to tell you, to wrap it all up, I want to tell you how Noichukade came full circle. Please. We're on the last driven hunt, and Tyler Emmett was filming Kaspars because that's where all the action was, right? He was directing traffic all day long.

He was also a hunter. What's interesting, too, about the hunters, once they become hunters, don't expect them to drive another foot of ground ever in their lives. Like, out of those 40 people, like I said, I'm like, hold on, there's only six of us driving?

Oh, because they all graduated? Yeah. Totally. We'd be doing a lot better if we could get a couple recruits on this team. I know we got dogs. We're a lot of the drivers young. Yeah, there was a couple of dudes that were older that were kind of lifers. So I didn't ask questions, but you just got to wonder,

maybe they didn't have the right or the ability to own or use a firearm anymore because of past decisions maybe they just didn't want to put the time and effort into going you know maybe they screwed up once getting the paperwork i don't know but yes i there was definitely some you know 11 12 year olds with me at it which was cool i actually have all those people i think there was like four or five female participants and they were a couple. I think there was only one that was actually hunting. The rest of them were doing the driving with me. Cause it was cool to see that, that over there where you might think that, you know.

Yeah. Cause you were saying it's real hard to get youngsters involved in hunting there just simply because they got to wait so long to do it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Then you do all do all that you gotta do your three years i mean i wouldn't mind the pushing but it's really funny that they could wind up in a worse situation they could wind up where they got 30 some hunters they're down to two pushers totally i don't know if it's the same with like seth brody and anyone that's done deer drives in the, you know, as you were younger, I remember having to be in the thick of it. Oh, yeah.

When I started, they were like, Chet, you go out and walk in the thick of the cattails. And it seemed like that's all I was doing, and I just wanted to. We'd always switch off, man. Yeah, we always switched. You push, you sit. You push, you sit. I like pushing because a lot of times that's when you got shot. Like stuff would run back through the drive.

Yeah, a good pusher. A good pusher. Smart buck. A good pusher gets them shooting for sure. Yeah. We used to have some rabbit drives, dude. God, it was exciting, man. We need to do that out here, man.

We had this rabbit drive spot. I'm done. Yeah. There was this one stump. Whoever got that stump. Rabbit stump. Whoever got that stump. It was like a stump that stood about six,

seven feet off the ground on a hillside. If you got that stump, you were going to get shoot. Yeah. God, it felt good being on that stump. So Tyler's filming Kaspars. Kaspars hasn't shot anything yet. And all of a sudden, Tyler's like, or Kaspars says, I can hear him coming.

Kaspars says, yeah. Or Tyler's like, yeah, I got him. I can see him. He actually points to this cow and calf moose coming. He gets them on camera. They pop right up in front, like 50 yards in front of Kaspars. Pulls the rifle up. Nothing.

No click, nothing. front of cuspars pulls the rifle up nothing no click nothing and then the two animals just disappear in into the woods and cosmos turns around and before he can ever even say anything tyler says to no chuck today and uh the blood left his face again and he just smiled and laughed and like it's gonna make for some great television. So what happened? He didn't want to separate the mom and the calf? No. He had an old Mauser style and the safe old Mauser style rifle

and it's a very long throw on those safeties and he just hadn't thrown his safety all the way and so he didn't fire his rifle. And Tyler saying that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It was great. Oh, yeah. It was great. We had plenty of meat, so we didn't need to have

another moose on the ground. I got one last one for you. It's hard to answer this, but what's the most normal thing you're going to make with a moose in lab? What's a normal preparation someone's going to make for you?

Not counting canned. Outside of canned, I'd say probably something like a pot roast. Okay. Yeah. Very simple cooking over there. Just across the board. Across the board. Yeah.

I mean, you can go to, you know, they have these fancy market types, like a fancy market that we went to. And it's like you walk in there, you might as well be in Bozeman, Montana. There's like a pizza place and a hero place. And then there's a bar at the end. It's got all these different micro brews. A canned therapist. There's Edison bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Some Barton fabrication metal work

with some wood floors. I mean, you know, the world's become smaller, you know what I mean? Because you just know what the hip stuff is everywhere. But the simple cooking. Give me a couple more examples. When you

say simple cooking, because you make Latvian dishes, I don't think they're that simple. They're just like a lot of root vegetables. They're pretty simple. I mean, those little bacon rolls that we cook, it's like bacon and onion inside of a little bit of bread. You did a big hunter's stew at the hunt, right? Yeah, we did a big hunter's stew.

Might have had a lot of ingredients because it had like some sausage and some meat and onions, potatoes. And then they actually garnished it with olives and sour cream, which was, it kind of sounds like, but when you do it, it was good. But again, when I say simple,

there's no spice. You're not going to ever eat anything in there where you go, there's none of that in Latvia. You got to go a long ways to find a jalapeno in that country. Are there like repeated herbs, like, I don't know, parsley or dill? Yeah, for sure. Parsley, dill, caraway is a big one.

A lot of cold weather stuff. Are they like searing steaks on a grill? Yes, but you're not going to get it medium rare. Oh. No. They cook it hard. Yeah you're not going to get it medium rare. Oh. No. They cook it hard. Yeah, it's going to be medium at minimum, and it might go a little farther.

Did I tell you what I made for Thanksgiving? I think I made, I don't know if I've ever made it for you. I made a blito misto, the Italian mixed boil. Oh, you never made it for me, but I know you've made it in the past. Oh, it's so good. What's in it? So I'll tell you I made garlic sausages So fresh garlic sausages

I took a bunch of antelope shoulders And corned it I had a beef tongue That I had smoked My Kids buddy Raises chickens I had one of his chickens then i realized it probably wasn't enough chicken so i bought a chicken and i had wild oh shoulder of a wild hog

you got all this into one pot well here's what i did that's what you're supposed to do but i did it where like right when i woke up in the morning I put my shanks game shanks I put them in my oven 275 degrees right when I woke up in the morning and then my tongue was already done then I put my corn stuff in my slow cooker and then I made it then I made a super broth and in the end I had a lot of stuff pre-cooked but in the end everything went into that super broth what's super broth and in the end i had a lot of stuff pre-cooked but in the end everything went into that super broth what super broth like super foods no like game stock no yeah but i mean like when is it super is it like more than three just how much different animals got it super good three animals then you dump all that you don. And it's got all kinds of carrots, rutabagas, turnips, beets, taters.

And I bought these two huge platters that my wife hates. They got like little turkeys and stuff on them. Oh, nice. And you just dump all that shit on them big platters. And then you got toppings. So horseradish, a red salsa, a green salsa, a mustarda, like the fruit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just dig in, man. When you say you dump it on

there, is it like... Big heap and pile of steaming boiled meat. Is it like a stew? Boiled meat. No, you drain the liquid off. Kind of like you would do a seafood boil. Picture a seafood boil, but it's just all this crazy boiled chicken and pork shoulder and corn meat and sausages

and a pig cow's tongue and a big mound. I made two matching mounds. Nice. Is this something that's like prescribed or is it like, oh, we're going to throw this and we're going to throw that and we're going to throw that? Well, if you go and read Bolito Misto, you'll find all kinds of lame-o lightweight versions and then you'll find heavy duty versions yeah like throw my buddy had a restaurant turned me on to it he used to offer it

you could like you a big party could call his restaurant and he would do that but you had to call ahead and it had to be a certain number like it had to be like a minimum of 12 on blank night and he would prepare this for you. Cool. And he would just line like Yanni's wild hog feed trough. Mm. He'd like lay that

trough off and it'd be just boiled vegetables and boiled meat one end to the other with all kinds of dipping sauces. Awful cool.

It's way caveman but it's beautiful. It's awesome. I love shit like that. We need to do that next year Brody because I think we had a lot of complaints

even though I feel like I've made the best turkey of my life i wasn't i didn't agree with the complaints on your turkey but you want to talk about i'll tell you something that happened at my at the ranella household no please uh my wife had her folks in town so she wasn't too keen on not she wasn't down on the belito me still but she just knew there would be right. Breaking tradition. They'd be like, she just knew. She just knew. So the second night eating leftovers, she said, it really is

better than the traditional Thanksgiving meal. She had your back. Right in front of her mom. She had your back. Yeah, we had a traditional. No, I don't think she did it like that. I think she came to see that it's a better tradition. And I pointed out to everybody, the pilgrims didn't eat turkeys. They didn't eat an antelope ham, though, either.

No. It was damn good. My kids were bitching. I told them this. I said, listen, here's one thing I can tell you about the pilgrims. They made the best thing they could make. And that's what I'm doing. Huh?

Sound logic. Merry Christmas. Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas, everyone. We got gifts, though. Oh, yeah, in the spirit of giving. Hayden's been very generous. What's in the little jars, Hayden?

Put those in your bolito misto. Yeah. They'll get lost. They'll get lost in there but i might throw them in there yeah those are uh those are morels for montana uh well i guess kind of obviously cute yeah um you know i was driving with uh hunter spencer over here the other day and we were talking a little bit about um you know it work there are always like difficulties and stuff like that, you know. And a lot of times you get like frustrated or whatever.

But, you know, we're driving through this canyon. And I made the comment that like, you know, I feel like Meat Eater gave me all this. And so I wanted to bring a little present. Or there were just a bunch of morels hanging out behind my desk and I needed to get rid of a bunch. I like the first one. Second one's better. Thank you very much. Maybe like a risotto with them because it's a pretty small

portion of morels. You sticking your nose in there though? That smells like the planet. I'm going to make two omelets out of these. One for Danielle and one for myself. There you go, man. Oh, bury your nose in there. That's good stuff.

Real woody. Thank you. Merry Christmas, Hayden. Thank you very much. Thanks, Hayden. Merry Christmas. You even put a little dry thing in there. Oh, yeah.

I got a huge packet of them off Amazon. Sometimes if you don't do it, it gets kind of funky. Hayden's getting buried in bows right now. You'll smell them, and they'll have a funk to it. You're like, I'm not sure I want to use that. A little mold. Yeah, but if you do that, they stick good kind of indefinitely. That's a good idea.

Well, Yanni, thanks for the Latvian report, man. You're welcome. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. That was wonderful. No, thanks, Phil. Were you listening? Of course. How do you say

Merry Christmas in Latvia? Now and then Phil likes an episode, I think he liked this episode. Oh, I forgot to ask. He liked the Coronado expert. Top 50 at least, yeah. Yeah, he liked

the Coronado expert. What else did Phil like? You liked that one. Yeah, I liked your last Buffer Zone Elk one. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was a great one. Yeah, I liked your last, your buffer zone elk one. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was a great one. That wouldn't seem like one you'd like.

I loved it. Because you're like a guest. Well, just you kind of reflecting on the, a word you like, ephemeral? Yeah. Seems to slip away as soon as you shoot that elk. That was really moving to me. Those capercails, are those in Latvia?

They're too far south. Yeah, but you can't hunt them right now. They're numbers are down. They don't seem to have enough population. Which brings up another thing. The tag allocations there, they couldn't believe that we would only get like one or

maybe two elk tags to hunt here in our state because there the club gets say 200 stag tags and then 100 moose tags. So the one guy that only hunts one or two driven hunts, he's probably never going to pull the trigger, never going to shoot. But if you're a guy that gets after it, you can shoot- Endless tags.

Pretty much. Because you shoot one, you call up your local dude. You're like, hey, I got one down. He drives over, puts a tag on it. You're on your merry way. Totally legal. The next day, well, no, that is how you do it. Yeah. Yeah, the next day. Oh, your tag guy meaning the guy with the pocket full of tags. Yeah, exactly.

That's like the hunt leader, you know? And then the next day, you're back at it hunting again if you want to. Is the hunt leader ever like, hey, how about you cool it a little bit? I mean, he had killed a nice, like his biggest ever bull moose earlier in the year before I got there. And he was like, yeah, I'm not shooting any more trophy animals this year. He was chilled out. Yeah. He's like, I'll shoot cows and hinds.

But like, you know, I got, someone else needs to shoot the trophy. He didn't want to wear his welcome out. Yeah. He didn't do any lead tossing in the bucket. We did not. Wrong time of year. What's Merry Christmas in Latvian?

Prijatsigos ziam svatkos. Jeez, real mouthful. Say that again. Prijatsigos ziam svatkos. It's a lot easier to say you fucked up. Is it? No, it's a joke. Hey, Yanni. Prijatsigos ziam svatkos.

That sounds like a phenomenal trip trip i'm glad you guys are going back i'll bring you another report in uh july glad you're going back yeah should be good thank you man the international latvian song and dance festival is going on it's every five years and it's going on this this upcoming you're gonna make it yeah we'll be there for part of it people say it's weird because like that camp I used to hang out with in Michigan called Gatazares, where there's 2,000 Latvians some weekends all hanging out. When you go to the International Song and Dance Festival and you're in Riga, Latvia, you might as well be at this camp in Michigan

because you're like, hey, it's Steve. Hey, it's Brody. You know everybody that's just walking down the streets because everybody goes to it. I've never been, but yeah. Are you going to participate? You know, I decided not to because I think it would just take too much time.

There's a lot of practice involved. You've got to be there for days ahead of time if you want to participate in the 30,000-person choir. Wow. Jeez. What's that sound like? I've heard it's amazing.

I'll hear that from the moon Yeah Check it out on YouTube There's plenty of videos of it I got a trivia question for you Okay What was the loudest sound Ever heard by man?

My brother walking behind me Deer hunting Good one Hayden Good one Loudest sound ever heard by man They think it was the eruption of Krakatoa Loudest sound ever heard by man Is that why my ears are ringing right now?

Turn it off Phil Let's end on that I'm dreaming of some dark limits Like in the spots I used to know Where blue wings whistle through spreads like missiles and mallards came in with the snow. 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.

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